Josh_C

140 for 3x3! Final set didn't feel super hard at all. Rawwwwwwr

Good motivation as always :-). I just posted a form check. Girlfriend moves her stuff in today...

My self-critique is that it looks like I'm not quite hitting parallel. Any other thoughts? This was my second set of 135 for three reps.

The movers get here in 8 hours. I'm still packing, but of course I wanted to procrastinate with a quick forum update :-). Friday was one hell of a workout. Lost my balance for the first time ever while squatting. Tossed the weight off my back as I was falling. Still somehow managed to hit my head on the bar on the way down. But I'm totally fine. Lost my motivation for the rest of the workout. But here is the bad part: like an idiot, and for one of the first times ever, I had my iPhone sitting on the safety bars. And where do you think the bar fell? Surprisingly, my Otter Box survived 100% intact, but the iPhone was cracked and bent at an angle. So I had to drop $50 for a new iPhone. As far as the lifting goes, I was back up to 135 on Monday. I did 3x3. I'm going to move my workouts to Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. Mondays are just too rough to get up early for, and Thursday nights I'm often out late. Both problems solved. Not sure how my goal of 150 for 5x5 is gonna go, but I'm gonna keep on lifting!

Took a full week off. Got back to it today. Oy my poor hips!! Really need to figure out a good mobility routine for the evenings. Also, I'm thinking of just switching to three sets of 5 on the squat as opposed to 5x5. Even though the weight is "low" for my body weight, it's still taking a nice roll on me each set. So I end up resting a lot between sets which makes the whole workout take longer. Any thoughts on this? Mehdi recommends doing 5x5 until you fail three times. Then deload. Did that. Now I'm working back up. He recommends switching to 3x3 as opposed to 3x5 after the second deload. But I know Rip's program is 3x5 from the beginning. So am I making too much of a small difference? That being said, after a week off (and keeping my carbs very low) I was only doing 130 for 3x3. But I'm gonna bang out 3x5 on that on Friday. Hopefully no problem, eh? I was about to brag about smashing my previous 5RM of 125 by doing it for 5 sets. Then I realized I only had 115 on the bar for five sets. So I banged out another three sets at 125 and felt like a beast.

Thanks! Tried this. Couldn't get a pop or anything. I took Friday off from the gym. My original plan was to go back today. But I did half a dozen BW squats this morning and could feel it in my lower back a bit, so I'm gonna hold off until Wednesday. BLAH. It probably didn't help that I spent all weekend packing and stacking boxes.

Is this thing good for more than just a pedometer? Does it actually do much for monitoring sleep etc.?

Anyone else having issues with the link?

Oh man. What a morning. Walked into the gym feeling great. Signed some new clients this week which is terrific. Warmed up forever on squats and hit 125 for 5x5. It was harder than it should have been, possibly due to the lack of carbs? I have not only been eating paleo but very low carb. Definitely under 50g on average. Will be starting to increase carb intake on lifting days. I had to deload on my OHP and nailed 70lb for 5x5. Yesterday I spent a ton of time watching deadlift videos. Went in and did my warmup sets. Things were feeling great. Last week I put the bar on risers that raise it about 1.5 or 2 inches. It made getting my back straight much easier, but felt like cheating since I wasn't really hitting a full ROM. So today I just put a plate under each end. (Side note: I'm convinced these plates are smaller than they should be, which doesn't help). Anyway, loaded 135lb and did 5 reps. I was focusing on keeping my back straight and driving with the hips. Felt great. Did a set of 5 at 155. Still feeling great. Not sure what I did for my work set of 185, but after three reps felt a slight twinge in my lower back. Now I can barely bend over. I was FURIOUS when leaving the gym. Blah.

Glad to hear I'm not as comparatively inflexible as I thought!

Thanks! And thanks for reminding me to update :-) Pretty good first week. Diet was pretty much perfect. I'm not as strict as some, so for instance I'll eat any bacon someone puts in front of me. I also eat whey. Speaking of which: bodybuilding.com cookies & cream whey + coffee + almond milk = amazing. Squats I had deloaded right at the start of this challenge, so I was down to 110. Friday I did 115 for 5x5. I've discovered a few form things I wasn't doing (keeping elbows up, wider stance) so that's helped. I've also discovered I need to do a LOT of warmup. Like three sets with just the bar before I'm even limber enough to hit parallel. It means the workouts take longer, but not that much longer. Deadlift I'm still having trouble with form. I have problems getting low enough. So I've been putting the bar on risers. I end up losing out on an inch or two from my full ROM, but I'm OK with it.

Bummer! I usually ask someone else working out to film me. But I'm guessing you couldn't do that either.

These sound like great goals. Have you done any form check videos for your SL lifts? I'm 8 weeks in and realized my squat form is far from perfect. The program is great though. Although I hate rows.

Great goals! Why would you want to be able to squat with poor form more weight than proper form?

Looking forward to all this! I quit my job 7 months ago. Always happy to help if you have one of those holy-shit-I-cant-believe-I-don't-get-a-paycheck-and-only-eat-what-I-kill moments. I had them a lot in the beginning. Now it's just...once a week.

Congrats!! Yay for babies that aren't mine!! Also yay for squats :-)

Gonna keep this short and sweet because I'm exhausted tonight: Goals: Squat to 150 for 5x5 (currently at 5 sets of anywhere between 1 and 5 at 135lb) Deadlift to 200 for 1x5 (currently at 170) Eat paleo (one bi-weekly cheat day allowed)Life goal: Survive moving in with my girlfriend. How's that for short and sweet, eh?

Got a call from my stepmom last night. She said there was some guy on the Today Show talking about "the 8 hour diet" where you only eat for 8 hours out of the day. He also said you could do it just 3 days a week and exercise just 10 minutes a day to see results.

Anyone else on the Stronglifts inner circle? Would love to follow some fellow Nerds!

Mehdi suggests starting with just the bar for Stronglifts, then add 5 pounds each time. Except for deadlift where you add 10 pounds.

My schedule got all messed up today and I had to eat lunch at 12:30. I are my normal 12 ounces of chicken for a workout day thinking it wouldn't bother me to work out in the evening (I usually go in the morning) since I would have about 4.5-5 hours to digest. Incorrect. Went down on a squat with just the bar and felt gross. Lesson learned!

Ok fellow nerds, here is my situation. I'm in the process of moving. In hopes of downsizing, I'm ripping most of my movies to my computer(s). Here is the hardware I have: One 61 inch LCD tv with HDMI in One Dell computer with 4gb RAM and HDMI out (i forget the exact specs, about 2 years old) Xbox 360 PS3 iMac (my main computer) Right now I have the Dell hooked up to the TV. I rip everything using Handbrake on the Mac, then drag it over to the Dell via my network. I then stream it to the Xbox. The xbox is convenient because of the remote. But streaming direct from the Mac has been annoying. Plus I'd like to use the Dell's ~400gb storage instead of taking up space on the Mac. I've tried playing around with XBMC and I'm willing to give it another try. Any thoughts/input on any of this?

Definitely one hell of a year Surge! Welcome. I hope you'll find that this is a very supportive/understanding community here to help our fellow rebels in any way possible. What kind of dog do you have?

Ok, I think I'm making some progress on the DL. I'm not moving from 135 until the form checks out. In this video, I think that if I pulled my shoulders back just a bit more, my back would be looking good. Thoughts?

To me the coconut oil just made it taste greasy? I will try the butter next.