RipStone's 5x5-GFH journal

[RipStone]

In retrospect, I defintley could have gained a lot more strength if I would have ate more cals, but pure strength is only part of my goal....I want to look nice for the ladies too.

I might use the different rep/set scheme for squats as well. The past 2 weeks I have been doing two triples on friday and omitting the drop set and it has been was working pretty well. Plus, I could use some work with higher loads in order to strengthen more core/stability.

Its good to know that the way you are training is endorsed by one of the finest strength coaches in the world

 

[Cynical Simian]

Sorry I haven't chimed in with any advice, but I'm a bit reluctant to advise you on what to do when I'm still trying to find the best way to deal with my own very similar situation. Basically, I arrived at the same things you and AB did (triples, hope that higher loads would help with core, later progression to 5x5 then 8-rep programs) a couple weeks ago when drawing up a program. My 5x5 was a complete mess; I definitely made the opposite mistake from AB and took it too far after a slowdown was apparent. It's odd (or more likely just an effect of thinking about and applying this type of training theory) that we came up with such similar things independently.

Basically, like madcow, Glenn, and Mark Rippetoe have said, the most important thing is "being your own coach" and applying what you've learned from a cookie-cutter run of the 5x5. It seems like you have a very good idea how your body responds to training. Have more confidence in your ability to create and implement a program that's tailored to your needs and goals.

And, for what it's worth, your plan for squats sounds good. Like AB mentioned, you might want to give the rest of the lifts another week or two to determine if they're actually stalled or if you just had a couple of anomalously bad workouts.

 

[anotherbutters]

Its good to know that the way you are training is endorsed by one of the finest strength coaches in the world

It's the other way around actually - I'm doing it because he suggested it to someone and I quite liked the idea.

 

[RipStone]

cynical simian- thanks for the reply. dont be afraid is give your thoughts. believe me, most everything you guys say really helps.

i am hesistant to take another week or two to see if my lifts have really stalled cus i havent has much progress is 6 weeks actually! 1-2lbs here and there, but nothing like the first 8 weeks of the program.

and you are right on(and thanks for the kind words)....i should know by now how to become my own coach. its just helps tremedously getting advice from people who know more than myself or have been through what i am going through. i will write up something today, most likely, and post it for critque.

anotherbutters- its all the same

 

[djeclipse]

Sorry to hear about your current situation. Unfortunately I am in no postion to give advice, all I can say is we all have been there and will be there again. Everyone stalls at one point or another, keep a posative attitude, you will get over this hump if you keep at it. You have made some impressive strength gains in just over 2 month's, to be benching 190 for sets of 5 at your age and bodyweight is pretty decent if you ask me.

Aer you sure you weren't just tired and because of that you weren't into it mentally? I know it's tough once you start failing on your lifts but maybe some good sleep, enough food and a posative attitude (if you tell yourself you're not going to make the lift before you even start it, you have already failed) will be enough to get through this set back.

 

[Madcow2]

I think you need a break. Most of your lifts seem to be dropping or having trouble. Maybe you can get a bit more out of it but maybe not. If this continues for another workout or so, you will have to deload/reset. If you keep piling on fatigue you can really get yourself to a place that is hard to recover from and screws up your training.

If you want to continue, I'd do what I told someone else to do 3 sets of doubles with the weight increase rather than your top set of 5 (probably scale back on the warm ups a bit too). When this fails, drop to two sets of double (6 reps then 4 reps total). Just keep the weight and increases the same as you were doing with 5 reps. Probably not take a ton of time between these doubles if possible.

Either way though I think you are starting to overreach so fatigue alone is going to get to you and sort of self-regulate.

EDIT - I also want to stress that if all your lifts are dying, it's just better to reset. Don't try to milk it too much. If it's just a lift or two, try to keep the sync and buy yourself some time.

 

[RipStone]

djeclipse- thanks for the reply. let me clarify, i am motivated to lift, i want to lift and i probabaly think about lifting too much. its just that i cant get into the right mental state in order to have a good workout. i am doing the things you suggested....believe me bro

madcow- thanks for the reply. but now i am confussed, lol. anotherbutters was suggesting not to take a week off, but you are suggesting i do need a break. let me state that i am worried about piling on fatigue and that leading to a serious overtraining condition. so what should i do next? i am thinking that i will take a few days off....maybe not lift until next monday where i would start something new. then the question is what should i do when i do start something new? the route that anotherbutters was suggesting sounded like a good idea. that is, switch up the rep/set schemes and reset the loads at the same time.

BTW, here is a pic I took. The lighting is different, but I can see some progress in my shoulders and width of my back. The old pic(on the right) was taken on 10/16/05 and the new pic was taken today.

 

[Cynical Simian]

i should know by now how to become my own coach. its just helps tremedously getting advice from people who know more than myself or have been through what i am going through. i will write up something today, most likely, and post it for critque.

Just to clarify, the point of my post wasn't to criticize your request for help and say "do it yourself, dammit"; the whole point of this forum is to let people share information and advice. I was just trying to get you away from any remnants of the notion that the only way to approach training is to apply the exact thing someone else did. Ultimately, even though a lot can be gleaned from reading someone's journal, there's only so much that we can know about stuff like nuances of form or subjective impressions of how a set or workout felt that might affect what's best for you.

MC and AB are saying similar things, I think. The "break" wouldn't be a complete cessation of lifting, which is what AB was cautioning against, it'd be a deload.

Oh, and given that a lot of us are non-plat members, would you be able to throw the pic up on pufile or some other external host?

 

[djeclipse]

Can you possably post a pic on some free site so we can all see it?


www.photobucket.com is a good one and very easy to use.

 

[Madcow2]

but now i am confussed, lol. anotherbutters was suggesting not to take a week off, but you are suggesting i do need a break. let me state that i am worried about piling on fatigue and that leading to a serious overtraining condition.

Break in this case = period of lesser load to deal with fatigue, not a vacation. The one thing is that everybody has bad days, make sure it's really fatigue (which is sounds like even though you PR'd in the military). Play it out, use 3 sets of doubles in some lifts if need be to keep your weights scaling on the couple where you might get stick. If symptoms continue over the next few workouts then you take your break/reset/deload whatever.