Strength / Weight Training

How do you guys warm up for your Stronglifts sessions?

And do you add on any accessory exercises at the end?

Planks, crunches, leg raises. Get your core warmed up before compound lifts.

10 min row or spin that ramps up then light power band or hop on to the pulley for warming up back and shoulders, then on to an empty bar. I probably should do some more mobility work than I do though.

My accessories are normally vanity related shoulder / arm stuff.

the pulley

?

Soz, a dual adjustable pulley in the gym at work...

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Here’s my warmup in a session where I’ll squat and bench:

• Hang from a pull-up bar for a minute or so and do scapular retractions (think pull-up motion but with straight arms).
  
• Lunges
  
• 1-leg RDL
  
• Cossack squats
  
• Planks (front and side)
  
• Kettlebell swings
  
  

Everything apart from kettlebells is done with bodyweight and in a controlled manner, 20ish reps each, thinking about what I want working/activating. If I can’t get it feeling right I come back to it after the next movement. No rest between them but not rushing either, takes about 10mins. Then I’ll start squatting with the bar and do some banded shoulder stretches/facepulls off the rack if I feel like I need to. Plate progression is really quick after that.

If I’ve been locking my upper back in properly for squats all I’ll need to do before benching is stretch my hip flexors and then straight in to 10 reps with the bar.

No idea how you'd do both squat and bench in a session.

Personally, I don’t warm up. Stronglifts begins with an empty bar and works up so it warms you up by following the programme.
Others may warm up, personal preference.
I haven’t done the additional exercises as part of SL either. On occasion I do other exercises but not on a SL day. As the weights get heavier, I find that I am happy enough to get SL done and I’m not fit for anything else!

Haha, there’s an easy joke here but, honestly, I can’t remember the last time I went to a gym and didn’t do a squat followed by a press. It just makes sense to me.

I’ve really enjoyed using strong lifts. It’s kept me focussed and got my lifts back to a reasonable amount.
I’m stopping it for a bit and going to split upper and lower body training for a few weeks whilst I’m increasing my riding and running.
For anyone looking for a simple program to follow while you get back into lifting or to give your lifts some impetus I 100% recommend it.

Day 2 of a new program today and I flat out ran out of time in the middle of the second exercise.

Exercise 1 was back squats, 12/10/8/6/6 lifts with 20/30/40/50/60kg load (including bar), for 5 reps. Just took ages.

Exercise 2 was hamstring curls, again 12/10/8/6/6, with 23/32/41/50/59, again for 5 reps - I completed two before I had to leave.

I'm going to have to a) speed these up a lot and b) dial in the weight, it's too low at the moment but I was conservative given the number of reps.

Anyway, first time I've run out of minutes rather than muscle.

That's a bonkers amount of volume to lift.

After the first set, what is the point of the 12 x 20kg (even the 10 x 30kg)?

At that weight, they feel more like warm up lifts (or finishing lifts to get a big pump).

Good questions. The suggestion from the chap who set the schedule is to move the weights to the following:

"So next session should be 30,40,50,60,70.
Then 45,55,65,67.5, 70kgs.
50,55,60,65,70. Or something like that. Goal is to hit 80kgs back squat for 6-8 reps"

So far my maximum back-squat (for 10 reps) is 70kg. I feel like I could probably hit the 6 at 80kg today, but 8 might be a bit enthusiastic. Depends on what I'd done before, to an extent.

Everything seems to be variation of Stronglifts to some extent. Warm up as weight increases to working weight. Complete. Next day go a bit heavier. Continue until failure and drop the weight slightly until you continue to higher weights.

My ‘squat every day’ got interrupted by COVID (despite being double-jabbed), I lost 5 kilos bodyweight in a week and now work is kicking my ass. It was glorious whilst it lasted though. Highly recommended if you’ve got the time.

What was the programme @Ptown?

I am always keen to try things but currently on a three week stretch at work without any days off so my time is limited to work, house with family for an hour and sleep. Not very conducive to anything!
On the upside my knee is ok now!

Loosely based on something called Simple Jack’d 2.

I use a long loop band to hit shoulders and glutes before starting, takes 5 mins. I'm at the point now where the main lifts are starting to kick my arse so I cba spending any longer in the gym than I need to.

The over head press is especially kicking my arse at 42.5kg (fail on last rep a few times now) but I'm probably not eating enough.

OHP is a nightmare. It’s just HARD! Persist and you will win but it’s a slow victory!

What fucks up my OHPs is that very slight backwards jerk of my head I instinctively do when the bar is near my nose. Not doing so takes a lot of concentration, meaning I must dial down the weights to average grannie level to be able to focus on both the lift and my posture.

It might be worth watching a few Rippetoe guides on youtube on OHPs

This one shows how you do need to be keeping our nose away from the bar, and demonstrates that you aren't static

https://youtu.be/8dacy5hjaE8?t=83

Btw, someone further up the thread suggested rowing for warm ups. Very good forum recommendation.
I now row for 5+ mins, just enough to break a sweat, and I've never had any issues since.
I probably should include some plank and downward/upward dog, but CBA.

Moving the nose is a lesson hard learnt! I still remember when mine got caught by the bar on the way up! Ouch does not come remotely close.