Hi guys , I’d appreciate your thoughts and input on where I should go next with my training .
I started strength training for the first time last year with the Stronglifts 5x5 program after getting no real results with the usual chest day arm day type stuff in the gym .
I’ll put my hand up straight away and admit I didn’t give any real thought to nutrition and made a mess of that , ultimately gaining a lot more fat than I would like and a lot less muscle . Despite this I made what I thought at first was steady progress, increasing lifts each time . I started on an empty bar for every exercise except deadlifts which were 60kg and never having done any of the exercises that way before and never having done any sort of weighted squat .
I built the squat up to 100kg over the first 9 weeks before realising that as the weight had been going up my form had been going down and I ended up taking the weight back on almost everything . I dropped the squat to 60kg after working backwards and filming what I was doing until i was at least hitting depth .
Since then I’ve struggled to keep adding weight each workout and maintain form but have managed a 1rm of 105 kg on my squat and 145kg on my deadlift .
I’ve just started back in the gym after 3 months off for various reasons and building back up again , currently 80kg squats 3x5 and I’m determined to get it right his time .
I’ll be on a mild calorie deficit to take down my body fat and after chatting with Jordan I’ll be increasing my protein and fibre intake .
My plan is now to re start a novice lp program and adding weight weekly rather than per workout so I can maintain form and give myself a chance to build up more slowly.
Does this sound like a sensible course of action ?
Any feedback you have for me is appreciated, thanks , J
If someone doesn’t beat me to this as I type this, you want to start with good form (as close to perfect as you can get) even if it means severely dropping the weight. If you can get to a SSC, do that and have them set you straight. If not, there is a Facebook group and SS forums that regularly do form checks (I don’t think BBM has the personnel just yet to tackle form checks and it doesn’t matter as the form for the exercises is the same). Once your form is worked out you can start adding weight to each workout. With your previous training and caloric restriction, your LP could be shorter than others but that is where the Bridge 1.0 comes in.
My SSC once told me that people worry too much about programming, including their LP, when they should focus on other things first. He told me: get your form as close to perfect as you can, make sure your diet is right for your goals and keep at it, recover properly (getting enough sleep and all that), and then worry about the programming. All the programming is designed with the other things being taken care of first.
Thank you , that’s good advice and it’s where I’ve gone wrong in the past . I was more interested in getting weight on the bar than keeping an eye on my form and getting it right and it bit me on the ass when I did check what I was doing .
Uploading a form check vid is a great idea and I will as soon as I get a decent one sorted .