I will no longer be doing stronglifts. Too much shit is going on and cannot keep up.
1. Having massive trouble eating right now. Only getting around 2000 calories a day. Just don't feel like eating. I hate having to always force myself to eat and then feel bloated and tired. When that happens I never feel like doing anything.
2. Sleep. I normally get around 4-6 hours per night. Just exhausted and I've been steadily dosing caffeine just to get thru the day and work-outs.
3. Burnt out. Tired of the constant max efforts each and every work-out. Combined with 1 & 2, it just makes thing difficult, I no longer look forward to work-out day and it's more like "fuck man, I gotta work out tonight", then a big sigh and shake head.
4. I think stronglifts has made my left shoulder worse. Not specifically stronglifts, but constantly trying to up the weight and going heavy definitely hasn't helped when you have a bad shoulder to begin with.
5. Progress, this is where it gets iffy. The development of my legs/back have been fantastic. Problem is, squats and deadlifts are my only two good lifts. OH press & bench are suffering because of the shoulder and working in a higher rep range with lighter weight would be better. Going "Slow and steady" is really how I need to hit them. Then there's the pendlay rows, which I completely don't understand. The rows are pretty much a substitute for a power clean. So power clean is suppose to be an explosive movement, with the rows am I suppose to swing them up or slow & controlled. I really just didn't care for doing the rows anymore.
Recap of my of Stronglifts progress, 1 work-out short of 4 months.
Weight 154 > 162 (Highest I've gotten was about 165lbs, but things would always change. Some weeks I'd go for 3000-4000 calories a day, next few weeks I'd just go for maintain, weeks after I would do cardio/HIIT. You will size up if you do this program and eat. To sum it up, I went medium shirts to being a perfect fit, to shirts are getting pretty tight and look kinda short but I still too small for a large.
Squats 115 > 205
Bench 135 > 140
OH Press 80 > 100 (In this case, I am comparing it to seated dumbbell shoulder press since it the closest thing to oh press that I did previously, they were 40lbs dumbbells)
Deadlift 195 > 270
Rows 90 > 125 (Going from bent over rows to pendlay rows)
Now these gains aren't as great as they appear to be because most if the exercises I went from 8-10 reps down to 5 reps.
Noticeable areas of growth. thighs (quads and whatever the back side is called), glutes, back (upper, mid, lower, all over), lastly triceps. Not so much was the chest, I see a slight difference in the upper chest.
Thank you for coming on this journey with me and the support. Since I am ending prematurely, I won`t be doing Wendler's 5/3/1 BBB because I did not reach my target goals for amount of weight lifted and it's too soon to head into an intermediate program. So, I will be going for a full body hypertrophy routine. All-Pro's Beginner Routine. Will be doing 3 cycles, which is about 4 months and depending on progress and how shoulder feels, I may jump back on to a strength routine. (yes, I am already doing alot of shoulder/rotator cuff work to correct the issue)
Will report back Thursday or Friday with the #s I'll be starting out with since it'll be a testing day next work out.
Hi Deeq
ReplyDeleteI had the same problem with stronglifts so I decided to branch out and try different things. Since then I've made some great progress. Check out my blog for more details.
http://familyfitnesslife.blogspot.com
Chris
Hey Chris,
DeleteI always check your blog, it's a good read. Since I am a member, I get updates whenever you have a new post :). It's good to know someone has had a similar experience to my own as it makes me feel less like a quitter. It is definitely a good program.
Oh that's great! Thank you so much for reading and becoming a member.
DeleteEven after Stronglifts I spent a while trying different things, but more recently I've had great success with the rep range of 5-10. I use this range on 90% of my lifts and have never experienced progress like it before (especially with squats). It seems to be the happy medium between building strength and building muscle for me.