Bonkrs 5x5 log

Bonkrs

Welcome to my log

I'm 25 years old, 196 cm (6'5") and weigh about 100 kg. Today i started with stronglifts 5x5 program. I'll be keeping this log to keep track of my progress, maybe get some help/tips and mainly to keep me motivated.

I have never lifted a barbell in my life before today. The last few months i did quite some bodyweight/dumbell stuff at home with a personal trainer. I travelled a lot though and often we had two week breaks which stalled the progress quite some i guess. Still i made some nice progress, in januari I couldn't even do a single pushup (and it wasn't close either:)) and now i have at least some basic strength. Last friday i had the last session with my trainer and now i'm starting barbell training by myself.

My long term goals are to build some nice muscle and one day have 10% bodyfat. My shortterm goals for the coming 4 weeks are:

- Stick to the workout plan, don't miss a single workout
- Learn the proper technique for all the lifts
- Eat well (~2500 cals, 5 meals, mostly meat/fish+veggies/fruit, only extra carbs are oatmeal in the morning and PWO shake or banana)
- Not drink too much alcohol (only a few pints/week)

The biggest challenge will be a short holiday to Iceland from jul 9th-14th.

Wish me luck!

mrac

Hey, good luck with the log. Im using the same workout, its a solid workout. Stick with it and good luck

Bonkrs

Workout 1 - 23rd june

Squats 5x5x20kg
Bench Press 5x5x20kg
Barbell Rows 5x5x40kg
Dips with 50kg support 2 sets of 6 and one set of 4

15 mins on stationary bike

Awesome, the first workout. I read up quite a bit on the lifts. I have the ebook from stronglifts and starting strength. All the info and details in starting strength are a bit overwhelming but i'm starting out so light that i have more than enough time to get it all right. I did a lot of weighted squats with 2x20kg dumbells and even some single leg squats in the past. Still i decided to just start with only the 20kg bar to get the form right. I think i'll mess around by myself for the first week or so until i ask someone to check my form. The gym (Sanovitae health club in the Clarion Hotel IFSC) has some personal trainers but i'm a bit sceptical about them.

The Squats and Bench Press weren't very hard, which gave me good opportunity to focus on form, especially on the squat. I always had to keep my toes pointed forward from my trainer but now i did it according to SS with toes pointed outward a bit and a wider stance. I was planning to do the rows with 30 kg to start out, but i afterwards i found out i did it accidentally with 40kg. It got me quite tired actually:)

Then the dips... omg. I thought the dips were just a little supporting exercise, but these were by far the hardest of the four. I did a ton of dips with my trainer where i would place my hands on my coffee table and straighten my legs but rest my feet on the floor. I had no idea that was peanuts compared to a normal dip in between two bars. The first full bodyweight dip i tried must've given the other people in the gym a good laugh:) They have this machine though where you can put your knees on this little bench and get some weight to press you up. First i tried with 20kg....couldn't do a full dip. Then 30 kg... couldn't do a full dip. Then i tried 50 kg and i could squeeze out a few. I was exhausted after the 3 sets. I'm happy they have this machine though, wednesday i have to do chin-ups and there is no way i can do one of those without support.

The machine looks something like this btw:



I finished with 15 mins of cardio. Every week i'll be adding 2 mins to this until i hit 30 mins.

Bonkrs

This is what i ate today on a non training day, every meal is ~500 cals:

meal 1: bowl of oatmeal with semi skimmed milk, two boiled eggs and an orange
meal 2: 125 gr salmon and a two scoops (40 gr protein) whey/casein shake
meal 3: 300 gr chicken breast with parmesan and prosciutto, fine beans
meal 4: 300 gr leg of lamb with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, yoghurt and mint, fine beans
meal 5: 300 gr chicken breast with mozzarella and pesto melt, fine beans

Especially the lamb was delicious:)

My chest is pretty sore from yesterday.

Bonkrs

Workout 2 - 25th june

Squats 5x5x25kg
Overhead press 5x5x20kg
Deadlift 1x5x40kg
Pullups 3,2,1 with 50kg support

I got one of the trainers in the gym to check on my squat form. He said i should lean back more and don't let my knees get in front of my toes. When i try that i feel like i'm losing balance. Luckily the weight is still v easy so i can train some more on my form. Overhead press was easy enough. I read that in the bottom position i have to rest the bar on the meaty part of my shoulder... there is no meaty part to rest it on!
Deadlifts were ok i guess, first time i ever done them so i can't really judge tbh. I'm gonna have an assesment soon with one of the trainers to check the form on all my lifts. Pullups were horribly hard. I did it on the machine again with weight support. It doesn't have a proper bar parallel to my body, just two bars sticking out perpendicular to my body and two bars sticking out parallel but way too far apart to pull myself up using them. I used the perpendicular bars and i managed to pull up a few times the first set, but only once last set.

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Couple of things mate, firstly, what gym are you in? Always on the lookout for training buddies and could maybe swap some squat coaching for cash coaching!

More relevantly though, every physio/coach/doctor/powerlifter I've ever spoken to has had the same basic piece of advice: on any exercise/lift where your knees bend, make damn sure you don't let your knees go past your toes. You're asking for an absolute world of knee and hip trouble in later life if you do.

Go back to squatting the empty bar if you have to, hell, get a training partner to literally hold you to balance you if you need to, and make sure that as you lower into the squat your knees are going outwards if needs back to keep them behind your toes. Whether that's a case of kneeling outwards the whole way or kneeling forwards to a point then moving your knees outwards.

Stronglifts.com wrote:

Squatting Down. You have unracked the bar correctly. All muscles are tight & ready to Squat. Key to the low bar Squats are the hips.

* Hips Back. Think sitting on your toilet. Hips go back first, way back. If you can’t, you probably have tight hamstrings. Do the Squat Stretch.
* Knees Over Toes. Don’t let your knees travel forward in the bottom Squat position. Knees over the toes, not further.
* Knees Out. Never allow your knees to buckle in. It can cause knee injury. Push your knees out.
* Hit Parallel. Your hip joint must come lower than your knee joint. Ask someone to judge your depth or tape yourself. No Partial Squats.

So yeah, 5x5 is an excellent workout mate. I've made some fantastic gains on it and am about to start my second cycle of it!

Bonkrs

It's the Sanovitae Health Club in the IFSC Clarion Hotel.

Thanks for the tips, i sent you a pm.

Bonkrs

Workout 3 - 27nd june

Squats 5x5x30kg

Bench Press 5x5x25kg

Barbell Rows 5x5x34,5kg

Dips with 50kg support 6,5,4

With the squats i focused on hips back first and not putting my knees over my toes. I did two BW sets and two sets with only the bar. I think at two reps a lost my balance a little bit and had to take a step back, most reps were pretty decent though i think. I'll only do 2.5kg increases till i nail the form. Next wednesday i have an appointment with one of the trainers to look at it.
Bench Press was very easy. Rows i found out i was using a 12kg bar (look exactly like the olympic bar, the thick part is just a bit shorter). So i messed up the weights for rows on monday and deadlifts on wednesday (fixed now).
Dips were very hard again. Last wednesday my chest was still very sore from monday. We'll see what happens tommorow:)

Right after training i ate two bananas and when i got home i ate 200gr salmon and an orange. I used this PWO shake (Biotest Surge) in the past, but i really really hate it. It's just very nasty.

edit: i don't seem to be able to edit the old posts. Monday rows were 32kg and wednesday deadlifts 42kg.

Bonkrs

Workout 4 - June 30

Squats 5x5x32.5kg

Overhead Press 5x5x22.5kg

Deadlifts 1x5x52kg

Pull-ups with 50kg support 6,4,3

17 mins cardio

I weighed in this morning at 99.5 kg, so i lost a pound. I didn't stick to my diet the whole week. Friday i drank a lot of beer and had some burgers afterwards when i was drunk.... very bad. Saturday i ate some crisps instead of a normal meal. Sunday i went for a swim/sauna/steamroom, it was pretty awesome.

All the weights kicked my ass pretty hard. Especially right after the pullups i was very tired. Happy though about the increase in reps.

Bonkrs

Workout 5 - July 2

Squats 5x5x35kg

Bench Press 5x5x30kg

Barbell Rows 5x5x37kg

Dips with 50kg support 8,5,3


Had an assesment planned, but got cancelled. I rescheduled for next monday. Squats went fine, i'm gonna stick to 2.5kg increases for a while though. I'm starting to feel something on the Bench Press too so i'm gonna do 2.5kg increases there too. Dips started out good first set, but couldn't squeeze out more than 3 for the last one:( When i hit 10 reps on my first set i'm gonna decrease the support i think.

Bonkrs

Workout 6 - July 4

Squats 2x5x35kg, 3x5x37,5kg

Overhead Press 5x5x25kg

Deadlift 1x5x62kg

Pullups with 50kg support 6,4,2


Someone was using the squat rack so the first two sets i did with two 17.5kg dumbells on my shoulders while putting my elbows in front. This actually felt harder than the 37,5kg sets with the barbell.
I almost didn't get the weight up on the final rep of the overhead press. I lost form a bit and arched my lower back. Someone next to me actually noticed and told me a better way to do it is to sit down against an upright bench so you can't hurt your back.
Deadlifts were pretty hard, i'm gonna do 5kg jumps from now on.
I think before i didn't go high enough on my pullups. I did go all the way up now, did less reps than before though.

Had a friend cook for me yesterday so i had sort of a cheat meal. Not very bad though, it was white rice with peanutsauce/chicken/tofu/veggies. At night i had two beers.

NotMe

Bonkrs wrote: »

I lost form a bit and arched my lower back. Someone next to me actually noticed and told me a better way to do it is to sit down against an upright bench so you can't hurt your back.

Do you use a staggered stance? One foot a few inches behind the other and shoulder width apart. It really helps take some stress off your lower back.

Bonkrs

NotMe wrote: »

Do you use a staggered stance? One foot a few inches behind the other and shoulder width apart. It really helps take some stress off your lower back.

A little bit yeah, but i'll focus a little bit more on stance next time and see if it gets better.

Bonkrs

Workout 7 - July 7

Squats 5x5x40kg

Bench Press 5x5x32.5kg

Barbell Row 5x5x39.5kg

Dips with 50kg support 10,4,3

Has an assesment today with one of the instructors at my gym. After measuring some stuff (the electrical impedance machine measured me at 23.5% BF ) I had him look at my form on the lifts for today he told me that:

For squats i shouldn't point my knees outwards but forward and i should never let my hips go below my knees. For Bench Press he said that i shouldn't let the barbell touch my chest, but go about halfway cause i don't want to get my shoulders involved. For Rows, i shouldn't let the weight get down to the ground between reps cause then you get a pull on your muscles every rep which is bad.

Nice:)

Actually he did gave me some good advice on the squat about how i keep my head and he made a video with his cell. Can't upload it though, cause it's a weird format. I'll make a better one later though.

Workout was fine, i really had my mind set on 10 reps for the dips first set and hit it, but the sets after that i could barely do a few.

I weighed in this morning at 99.2kg, down 0.3 kg from last week. Not huge, but at least it's going in the right direction. Besides two cheat meals and 5 bottles of beers i stuck to my diet of 2500 cals/day, only nonfruit carbs morning and pwo.

mrac

Bonkrs wrote: »

Workout 7 - July 7



For squats i shouldn't point my knees outwards but forward and i should never let my hips go below my knees. For Bench Press he said that i shouldn't let the barbell touch my chest, but go about halfway cause i don't want to get my shoulders involved. For Rows, i shouldn't let the weight get down to the ground between reps cause then you get a pull on your muscles every rep which is bad.

Wow almost everything he said is pretty much the exact opposite of what i understand as good form, maybe someone more experienced on here could shed some light on this but as far as im aware thats pretty bad advice and quite bad coming from someone who should be in the know.

dave80

Bonkrs wrote: »

For squats i shouldn't point my knees outwards but forward and i should never let my hips go below my knees. WRONG

For Bench Press he said that i shouldn't let the barbell touch my chest, but go about halfway cause i don't want to get my shoulders involved.
WRONG its a compound exercise you want to get as many muscle groups involved as possible

For Rows, i shouldn't let the weight get down to the ground between reps cause then you get a pull on your muscles every rep which is bad.
Not sure what is meant by above do you mean there is a lot of movement of the upper body during the set? if so prob better put the upper body in a fixed position and row moving just the arms al a yates rows!

Bonkrs

Yep i know it's all awful advice and i'm gonna stick to what's in the stronglift pdf and starting strength book of course.

About the rows, when i do them the bar starts & ends on the floor on each rep. He told me i shouldn't let the bar touch the floor.

dave80

Bonkrs wrote: »

About the rows, when i do them the bar starts & ends on the floor on each rep. He told me i shouldn't let the bar touch the floor.

Ah pendley rows, he prob never seen or heard of them before!

celestial

How do these instructors get hired?? I mean, in any other job you'd simply just be sacked for incompetence!! When are they gonna come up with some monitoring body for these people?!

Bonkrs

Came back today from my holiday in Iceland. It was awesome, but i didn't eat very well and only managed to squeeze in one workout. I only had some dumbells available and the heaviest were 10kg, i did a few circuits of squats, pushups, overhead press, rows and single legged db deadlifts with em. Tommorow it's back to living healthy and doing 5x5 workouts again.

Bonkrs

Workout 8 - July 16

Squats 5x5x42.5kg

Press 5x5x27.5kg

Deadlifts 1x5x67kg

Chinups with 50kg support 3,2,2

19 mins cardio

Press wasn't easy again. I used a good staggered stance recommended earlier and it helped some. I don't think i lost form and arched my back, but i really had to squeeze out the final rep (which is good i guess). Deadlifts are starting to get pretty hard too. I found another machine for the chinups where i don't have to use the hammer grip but can do the normal chinup grip. It was a bit harder then before hence the low amount of reps.

simon333

Well done for keeping up the log. I've started the 5x5 thing this week. I'll see how it goes. A bit afraid of deadlifts and press etc, as have never done such lifting before. I could only manage 1/4 dips the first time i tried. What doed he mean by "3xF" for dips?

Bonkrs

simon333 wrote: »

Well done for keeping up the log. I've started the 5x5 thing this week. I'll see how it goes. A bit afraid of deadlifts and press etc, as have never done such lifting before. I could only manage 1/4 dips the first time i tried. What doed he mean by "3xF" for dips?

Well the instruction in the stronglift pdf is pretty good. I'd also recommend "Starting Strength" which goes into much more detail for all the movements. And if you just start out with low weights you can focus on form without worrying about getting injured or anything.

3xF means 3 sets till failure. I can't do a full bw dip or chinup yet BY FAR so i'm using a support machine.

simon333

And when you say three sets till failure is it, "do three dips, rest" and repeat that as many times as possible?

The 5x5 guys seems to have his own opinion about the support machines that they don't teach you how to balance. But then again, I can't do even half a dip without support.

Bonkrs

It's all in the Stronglift pdf:

3 x F. 3 sets until failure. Do as many reps as you can do with proper technique. Try to do
more reps the next workout. Once you can do 10 reps on the first set, switch to weighted
Pull-ups/Chin-ups/Dips doing 5×5 & adding 1.25kg every workout.

Sam here about the support machines. If i don't use them i can't do anything. Asking someone to help lift you up is just too impractical, I don't have access to resistance bands and i'm to weak to even do kipping/jumping pullups. Hell i can barely squeeze out a few with 50kg support from the machine, so i figure it can't hurt too much to use the machine for a while till i get stronger.

simon333

Sounds like we're pretty much in the same boat

I did read that, but I thought it would be "3 reps until failure" instead of "3 sets until failure". That confused me.

Bonkrs

Workout 9 - July 18

Squats 5x5x45kg

Bench Press 5x5x35kg

Rows 5x5x42kg

Dips with 50kg support 10,6,4

19 mins cardio

Legs were still pretty tired from wednesday and after all the weight stuff it was hard to get them moving on the crosstrainer:) I always get pretty lightheaded after the first set of Dips. Normal?

Bonkrs

Workout 10 - 21 July

Squats 5x5x47,5kg

Press 5x5x30kg

Deadlift 1x5x72kg

Chinups with 50kg support 6,5,4

21 mins cardio

It's always very busy monday, weekend guilt? I might switch to Tu/Th/Sa next week.

For Squats i added an extra warmup set besides the 2x5 empty bar. For Deadlifts i start with 5x42kg, then 3x57. For the workset i had to take an extra breath in between reps cause they were so hard.

This morning i weighed in at 100.4, up 1.1kg from two weeks ago. Holiday had more of an effect then i thought:( Last week i ordered digital calipers to start keeping track of bodyfat, should arrive soon.

My masseuse told me my legs are very tight and i should start doing some stretches. Right after that when i came home i had an e-mail from stronglift telling about "Magnificent Mobility", a dynamic stretch program. Nice coincendence. I started it yesterday, was fine and didn't take too long. I'll be doing it on my rest days.

I have a no alcolol bet with a buddy of mine. Till the end of august no drinks, if either one does drink its $1k/drink up to $5k. Should help with getting healthy too