Barbarossa

More of each move: I do 5x70%, 5x80%, 5x90%, then the work sets.

Hello, I'm doing a warrior challenge this time. SL5x5 got me hooked on lifting heavy things. Fitness: Hit all SL5x5 workouts. Walk a minimum of twelve miles per week. Yoga at least 3 times per week. Track food intake at least 3 times per week. Focus on eating clean and sticking to an eight hour eating window. Life: Meditate at least 40 minutes per day (Twenty minutes, twice per day). Learn to let go of work after I walk out the door. Don't let any one activity take over my life. I'm not going to be doing the RPG thingy; I've found it just doesn't work for me. I need to focus on consistency in both physical and mental health--I know what I should be doing, but sticking to it is difficult.

I don't know if this should go in weight loss or diet/nutrition, but I'm picking here since I'm not losing weight. 1.) I don't think I'm a genetic freak. 2.) I'm eight weeks into my first SL5x5 cycle. 3.) I don't track anything, but whenver I spot check my nutrition I find I'm at 3-5000 calories depending on if it's a workout day or not, and I'm getting plenty of protein. That having been said,I started the program on 1 April at 30% BF and 248 pounds. Eight weeks later, I've dropped 5-7% BF depending on if I'm using the Army or Marine calculation, and gained ten pounds. According to these numbers, in eight weeks I've gone from 74 pounds of fat on my body to 64, and gained twenty pounds of muscle. I don't think this is accurate, but I've checked the math, I'm physically larger and denser, and my subcutaneous fat is rapidly disappearing. I still have the same waist and neck size, but everything else is moving in the directions that I want to see it go. Any thoughts on what's happening? Thanks, P

I'm at the gym at or before7.30 am on a normal day now (schedule change moved me from 9-10pm to morning). Generally speaking, I train semi-fasted (coffee with almond milk before) but have a protein bar of some sort for immediately after and I experience few ill-effects. One thing that I've found is that a little mobility work is important as a sort of "pre" warmup--wake up the muscles and whatnot before hitting the warmup sets for the day. I actually feel stronger training early and fasted than I did previously but with the caveat that I notice a smaller perceived rate of exertion between the light and heavy sets, all other things being equal. My suggestion--give your body time to adjust, make sure to keep the muscles limber, and have a small protein/carb meal to tide you over until you can get home and eat a larger meal. Also, multiple alarms, set to go off at one minute intervals, scattered about the house so that you actually have to get out of bed to turn them off--oftentimes that's that hardest part of the workout for me.

This guy is now my hero.

Warmup for squats (pre-workout): Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin - First scream at the beginning is signal to drop. Work sets for squats (first third of my workout): as much Eisbrecher or Rammstein as it takes to get through. Volume work/cool down/everything else: Lindsey Stirling.

Ha. I've got the singlet already--just have to gin up the courage to be seen in public wearing the damned thing. On the plus side, it gives me time to test out my 1rm's again and hopefully hit 800 before the meet.

Update: I'm going to have to wait until July to get my first meet in--the one in June would have been at least a six hour drive, plus registration, plus hotels. Our Prius (that we just paid off) decided to say "screw this inverter coolant pump" and now we get to replace things. So, saving money and all that. Oh well. I'm more excited about the USAPL meet anyway, and it gives me an extra month to get a few more pounds on.

Yeah. I think I'm still going to do the 5x5 format, but either split the lifts into Squat/Bench day and DL/OHP day and keep the BBB or give each lift its own day so I can get in and out in under two hours. I have DOMS today. That's the first time in almost a month.

I get that. By the end of the day I was (and am) seriously considering buying a few air-sick bags to stick in my gym bag. Still, It was a FANTASTIC workout--not pleasant at all.

As some of you may know, I'm doing SL5x5 right now, and am trying to refine my accessory work to make me into, hopefully, a consummate power lifter. Today, I tried attaching the "BBB" assistance program from Wendler to my workout. Oh my god. I thought to myself "oh, only 50% of the work weight? No big deal." I don't think I've ever been this deep in muscle hell.

Haha. I'll have to give myself a couple of days to recoup and try again. I really didn't intend to do a PR day, but I had the time and a LOT of gas left in the tank after the main workout. Sometimes I do stupid things.

Damned if I know. I was kind of confused about that too--all I can think of is that I have a fantastically weak back, or by the time that I got to the DL's (it was after a full SL 5x5 workout and working up to my maxes in squat and bench) I was just so shot that I didn't perform as well as I may have otherwise done. Either way, we'll know in a few weeks!

When I was cycling I did a TON of so-called "power" yoga to keep overall fitness up and maintain enough flexibility to get into tight aero tucks. The trick for me now is finding a style that's very, very easy and focused on flexibility for my recovery days rather than the more vigorous styles that seem to be in vogue. I'm absolutely certain that I can make a decent showing in December, but I really need to work on getting back to 100% as quickly as possible after a lifting session.

Thanks for all the help. I really do appreciate it. Update: As I've got four weeks before the first event I'm doing this year, I found a spotter (friendly neighborhood bodybuilder) and found my maxes today: Squat: 275 Bench: 260 DL: 245 Given that 1.) I'm not going to win anything with those lifts, 2.) I'm okay with that, and 3.) this is my first meet, how would I use that information to plan my attempts? Right now (since I'm going to continue training and hopefully make some small improvement on each of those before the meet) I'm thinking something like 85%, 100%, 102% for each event. That would give me: Squat: 235, 275, 280 Bench: 220, 260, 265 Dead: 210, 245, 250 I'm really sort of suspicious that my spotter for the bench was helping a bit on the way up as that was the biggest jump from my work sets today (+160), but he insisted that it was all me, and I'm a trusting sort (sort of). I think that in two weeks I'm going to try to hit each of these lifts again to verify that today wasn't a fluke, then taper down a bit so that I'm recovered and ready to go on the day of the event. Thoughts?