Strength / Weight Training

Mine had totally prolapsed rather than being just bulging. I had surgery to have it removed and a cage and bone graft inserted in its place. Recovery was pretty fast and pretty easy.

All better now, with no long term issues. Lifting weights with no problems, though it did take quite a while to build my back strength and mobility up.

Never heard of him before. Just looked online and it looks like the options are (a) book, (b) app, (c) website subscription. I’d be inclined to pay £5 for the app but do you have any thoughts? Also because I’m stingy, are there any free options?

The book! Not free but worth the minimal investment. Check Amazon for it. They used to show some pages.

There are also some free apps but you would need to research what you want. Eg. 30 day squats, 30 day press-up , 30 day core. That’s what started me on Mark Lauren and then I moved to StrongLifts.

Glad you’ve got it sorted. Don’t know if I’d lift weights again after going through that. I hope I can sort mine without surgery

Tbh, surgery was the best thing that happened . Not sure anything else would have fixed it in my case. I'm much stronger now than I was before popping my disc.

As I said in my first post, I'm not saying you have an issue with a disc. But that the symptoms you've had could indicate one, and as such to be sure before you return to training.

Whatever the issue is I hope you get it sorted soon, back pain really does suck. Disc based or not I'm sure you'll get back to full health

Is anyone else doing the Starting Strength barbell training?

As an ultra runner, I was fit enough, but weighed sod all* and could lift sod all. So in May I started training with a local gym (Capricorn Fitness).

The first few sessions were relatively heavy weight, but manageable enough to get good form for the lift and establishing a starting point for the Novice Linear Progression. Then continuing to add a bit of weight each session.

I've sabotaged progress with a couple of ultras, which required a deload afterwards and I've reached my limit for simply adding weight each session. So we've changed my program to have intensity days and volume days, as well as recently including the Bench Press to keep progressing upper body lifts as OHP had stalled.

Currently:-
Squats 83.5kg 3x3
OHP 50.5kg 3x3
Bench 65kg 3x5
Deadlift 122kg x5

*2017 race weight 65-67kg with 9 to 11%fat.
May 2018 weight 70kg 13%fat.
Currently 75kg with 12%fat

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I have the book and the app but haven’t started it as I’m rather unsure about one of the lifts. I’m limited for space in my garage and the pw clean my be dangerous in the garage.
I have used StrongLifts and plan to resume it once I have got over my current cold. Might be worth giving it a look. They are broadly very similar plans.

Stronglifts and SS are very similar, and you can definitely change between the two. Worth a listen..
https://barbell-logic.com/41-transitioning-stronglifts-starting-strength/

I haven't tried the Power Clean. I'm only training twice a week, so Squat, OHP/Bench, Deadlift have been enough. Now adding chins as a substitute to a DL session, to allow a longer rest period before heavy deadlifts

StrongLifts accounts for this - only 5 reps every other session. The deadlift does get heavier quicker than the other lifts but it has never caused me an issue.

Still plugging away, have been doing lots of upper body work as it is not as draining as deadlifts / squat variations.

Suprise 90 kg bench came out two weeks ago so all the rowing / pullsdowns did work!

Huh, what? Yes a weak bench can be caused by a weak upper back.

Happy New Year Ms J. Planning any competitive lifting in 2019?

I just want the motivation to get back at it, I’m currently keen but not well enough. I hope to be better within a week.

But the sessions with 5 sets will cause more stress (than 3 sets) on your body which will take longer to recover from.
So your probably not rested enough to maximise the days with a single set... Or if you try adding extra weight then you won't be able to keep that for 5 sets.

Considering 3x5 Linear Progression and 5x5 with 1x5.
Over two sessions, they would both contain 6 sets and at the same weight would give the same tonnage.

100kg 5x5 2500kg
100kg 1x5 500kg
3000kg total

100kg 3x5 1500kg
100kg 3x5 150kg
3000kg total

But if 100kg is all you can manage for the last rep of your fifth set and 2500kg is the maximum your capable of recovering from, your adaptation will stall as your not fully recovered for the single set and 100kg becomes your ceiling.

If you were only doing 3 sets, you could probably do 110kg and should still be able to add a kg each workout for a while as you can fully recover from the lower stress of 3 sets.

Cue 15 weeks later
Tuesday 140kg 3x5 2100kg
Friday 141kg 3x5 2115kg...

Do you need that 5th (or 4th) set? Or could you use that time and effort recovering a bit better and add a little bit more weight next time?

Im 48, not particularly athletic and don't need the explosive force, plus the amount I could Power Clean isn't worth while
https://barbell-logic.com/5-linear-progression/

I was 51 yesterday! I’m not sure I understand your point. More sets means more weight - obviously. This all presumes that, as you lift heavier, you can actually lift it. Failure is part of the process. Fail three times and the weight drops by 10%.
I think (don’t quote me) that if you plateau on StrongLifts you move to a 3x5 plan.
I’ve been doing it on and off for about three years and haven’t properly plateaued. Due to injury, work, holidays etc i had to stop. Depending when you can start back, the weight will drop - either back to the beginning or a substantial drop from where you left off.
I think you can set the StrongLifts app for 3x5.
The last point is - why are you doing it?
StrongLifts and Starting Strength are for strength training. There will be other plans for other goals. My friend, who is younger, stronger and fitter then me does weights to maintain strength and improve conditioning. He does more reps at lighter weights for this although his ‘lighter weights’ are close to my maximum!

Internet resources which may be useful -
Greg Nuckols -
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/category/articles/
Mike Matthews - https://www.muscleforlife.com/articles/
Mark Rippetoe-
https://startingstrength.com/about
And Stronglifts.

I stick to these resources as they seem to be tried and tested. Greg Nuckols site is very in-depth and mostly beyond me though.

I was 51 yesterday!

Happy belated birthday ☺

I’m not sure I understand your point. More sets means more weight - obviously. This all presumes that, as you lift heavier, you can actually lift it. Failure is part of the process. Fail three times and the weight drops by 10%.

If strength if being able to produce a force against a load, your 1RM. For the same amount of gym time/suffering, your probably going to be stronger from higher intensity (weight) and lower volume(total reps). I used to do 6x25 bodyweight squats most mornings but that didn't make me strong. Strong Lifts puts more emphasis on volume compared to higher intensity with Starting Strength

The last point is - why are you doing it?

I started repairing windows and doors for a living. One of my first jobs was for a tripple glazed patio door, which was close to impossibly heavy.

I've had back pain regularly for the past 20 years and was always careful/worried when lifting something. Or sneezing wrong.

Being way stronger than previously, it aso helped blag and enjoy a 37 mile and 44 mile hilly ultra with a stupidly low amount of training miles.

StrongLifts and Starting Strength are for strength training. There will be other plans for other goals. My friend, who is younger, stronger and fitter then me does weights to maintain strength and improve conditioning. He does more reps at lighter weights for this although his ‘lighter weights’ are close to my maximum!

If your not strong, you can't do light weights for conditioning, because they are actually heavy 😃

90kg bench? Good going lass! Impressed!

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

I just had a quick look at the Starting Strength app. It looks to me 5x5 is the start. Same as Stronglifts. Obviously with the different lift.
I’m not sure I see a difference between the two barring the power clean.
At the end of the day, it’s what you are happy doing. For proven info in relation to this, search Greg Nuckols website. The answer will be there. Mike Matthews bases a lot of his plans on Nuckols research so there may be an answer on his site (and it will be easier to understand).

Re. My mate - he did twenty 100 kg squats in brogues and a dress shirt to show me issues I had with form in my squat. I was impressed and distressed at the same time!

Pants though yeah?

I was waiting for that. Dressy trousers. 😁

Starting back on something. Lifting some heavy things. Gym at work is 75 per year.
Bench and bars but no rack. Just a Smith machine (well was last time I looked).

One legged split squats here I come.

SS and SL5x5 are fairly simillar but I beleive SS aims for maximum strength whilst 5x5 sacrifices some outright strength for a simple to use app and ending up being Cross Fit fit.

I just had a quick look at the Starting Strength app. It looks to me 5x5 is the start

Ive only previewed the Starting Strength app, as I have a coach and log book. The first sets of 5 shown in the app are probably warmup sets. But I think you can program what you want to allow intermediate and advanced program flexibility...
3x5 is the goto volume and the norm untill Linear Progression stalls
5x3 allows the intensity to keep going up at more challenging weights whilst keeping the same volume.
Or 1x5 plus 2x5 @85%

3x3 allows moderate stress at high intensity for ladies and me being as my revovery is crap from high stress 😂
But thats coupled with volume days of 3x5 @85%

Simple Hard Effective-
Simple. A few lifts that use the most muscles over the greatest range of motion
Hard. You always add intensity to each max lift as you adapt.
Effective. Minimise the gym time/work by focusing on form and intensity

I've just started to outlift the ladies, so yeah the stronger lads weights are rather frightening.
155kg squats for 3x5 looked to be emotional 😣

Starting back on something. Lifting some heavy things. Gym at work is 75 per year. Bench and bars but no rack. Just a Smith machine (well was last time I looked).

One legged split squats here I come.

Stronglifts is progressive linear training. It’s really nothing other than that.

If you think 3x5 works, fair enough.

Ive just downloaded the Stronglifts app for a look.
Thats a big deload if I was to start now and training twice a week it looks to be the end of March before getting back to 100kg deadlift for 1x5... my current program has moderate stress at 122kg for 1x5 ( increasing by 2kg every 1.5 weeks), high stress of 103.5 for 3x5.

Im sure SL 5x5 fits many people who don't want to look into programming, and just want to open the app and do as required. But for me, it looks like it would be 3 months of wasted diesel, money and time.

My bench is still Novice Linear Progression for now, but the other lifts have swapped to intermediate programmes.

I think you can set the starting weight.