Hey all

I've meant to do stronglifts for months, and finally started 3 weeks ago.

Only thing is, I messed up my left shoulder a few days ago squatting (I think my shoulder was too inflexible, so holding the bar strained it too much). Now I can't move it back past a certain position without pain. I'm gonna rest it till it gets better, and see a doctor in a week if there's no change.

In the mean time, though, I don't wanna lose momentum. Can I just switch to front squats (they don't bother my shoulder) or machine leg presses? Is there any better substitute?

Hi guys, my friend and I have recently started working towards perfecting our squat form. Is there anything you guys see in the video that we can improve on?

Video: (Black Shirt):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck7DMlbqdXA (Red Shirt):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2OiEdy669w

I started SL at a gym without barbells so did everything with dumbbells.

I'm used to doing squats holding dumbbells up to my shoulders.

Now that I'm trying a barbell I'm finding it hard to get a strong grip on the barbell when it is on my shoulders. I end up with a weird 3 finger grip that isn't too secure.

What can I do to increase flexibility in my wrists, arms and shoulder so I can start gripping the barbell properly?

Thanks!

Have to admit. I was a little nervous going into the gym on my first day. I'm a big guy...325lbs...trying to lose a ton of weight and get into better shape. I thought a dude as big as me would look a little funny doing squats and benching with only the bar.

It took a little while to work up the "courage" or whatever to start the workout. Finally I dropped my ego and just started. Stopped caring about what people thought or would say.

Turns out...people won't say anything to you. It was fun. The workout was tough. I was surprised at how much effort I'd have to put into the squats with just the bar.

I think this is going to be fun. Already looking forward to the next workout.

Thanks for all the encouragement and hopefully soon i'll be posting more updates.

In the recent e-mail I had recieved from Mehdi, he recommended for those who seek an additional arm workout to do chin ups, with palms facing towards you. How would this go about? As in, how many reps? Am I to do sets?

Semi-new to SL5x5 and I'd like to work a tad more on arms (since the weight is still pretty easy, no difficulty yet)

I weigh 127kg and have put on lots weights over past 18 months I used to weigh 101kg which I was happy with. So my friend being doing 5x5 for ages and kept telling me start it. So I just got our of 4yr relationship and thought no better time to start being healthy. I have loved the first week of it got love the pain of muscles being sore again after workout.

Hi guys,

Relative newbie to SL, been on it for about a month and just hitting 55kg on the squat.

When I started, I had the basic idea that the barbell is meant to sit halfway down the trapezius muscle, so mid upper back above the shoulder blades.

I read the other day though that I should have my shoulders back and down during squats to create a shelf for the weight. I tried doing this on my last session and could sort of get it working but I felt like the barbell was much more prone to resting on my shoulder blades.

Where exactly should the barbell be sitting? Should I be moving my shoulders back and down? I'm a medicals student so feel free to use the anatomical terms/vertebral levels if this makes it easier.

Thanks guys!

Hey guys, just want to get a check up on my DL form. I feel like my back is rounding a little bit, but even at super low weight, I find it difficult to flex my lower back while deadlifting. This was my only set of 5 deadlifts, because that's what SL 5x5 tells me to. I showed a couple gym-bros this video, and they said my form was 'okay, but not great', so I just wanted a second opinion. Thanks!

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6tSyKJo0e0&feature=youtu.be

This isn't really my first time on stronglifts, but I haven't been to the gym or on the program in over 6 months. I was doing 185lb for squats and 185lb for deadlift before I stopped. Which I can understand because after the squats I didn't have enough energy to pull more on the deadlift. I knew I could pull more on deadlifts because when I tried them without squats I was able to do more weight, so I didn't worry about this too much. But on my first day back, I managed to hit 5x5 on squats with 155lb, but only 1x5 135 on deadlift. Is this normal? Is it because it's my first day back and my bodies not used to it?

TL;DR : First day back on stronglifts, 155lb on squat and only 135lb on deadlift, is this normal?

Hey guys, this is the first time I've recorded myself. Last year I started Stronglifts 5x5 and went from empty bar squats to a 5x5 PR of 235lb. I had a few fortnight / month long breaks (vacation / minor sprains / lack of motivation). After every break I deloaded down to 135lb and continued on the path. This time I'm at 155lb and I figured it'd be a good time to get some feedback from the community on my form. Since it's a lot lower than my PR, I find it easier to make form adjustments.

So here are the videos - https://carousel.dropbox.com/photos/cc/cNQKRVdMNA8k5Qj

Please take a look and let me know what I should be doing right.

I had previously been squatting through soreness and I am used to working out through it but today it felt as if something was about to tear or fail if in my quads if I continued.

It makes me so angry too because I am only doing 75 pounds but my quads just felt destroyed from previous workouts.

Finally back in the gym after a week or two of travelling, decided to record a form check video, sorry if the angle is a bit wonky, that's the best I could do on my own.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgH_wfwcpU4&feature=youtu.be

Mostly in the title, but I want to know if there are any ways to not waste time when the squat/power rack is occupied. The outline says the order of exercises is important, so moving onto bench press or overhead press is out of the question. For the sake of ths question, we are also assuming you are in the rare case that you are not allowed to work in for one reason or another. Any advice?

Edit: this may be a little late but thanks for the advice everyone! I've found that asking to work in is much easier than I thought it was before. :D

I can do the amount of weight I am currently at (80 lbs) but I feel pressure in my upper back and neck area.

Can you recommend some good form videos?

okay so the SL guide says that my arm width should be like 22-28 inches(?) apart for the bench, but I just use those smooth lines thingy on the barbell because it's easier to remember for my bench press, which is a bit wider than shoulder width for me, is it okay for that arm length for bench?

and then I am using the same arm length for pendaly row, is it ok?

I don't have bumper plates or extra plates to create a platform for Pendlay Rows to make it so the bar is high enough to keep a parallel back

Right now I'm doing 40kg(10kg plate each side) and the 10kg plates are small and I recorded myself and my back rounds downwards because the bar is too low on the floor and it looks really bad

not really sure what I should do

I started Strong lifts about 2 months ago and I've constantly had lower back pain. I always try to bend my knees and not my lower back when I'm picking up plates etc. How can I get rid of the pain?

Does anyone have experience with supplementing Stronglifts 5x5 with creatine? I did Stronglifts off and on during the last months of 2014. I am now on the program consistently since 2015 started and have the following numbers:

Age: 24

Height: 5'10"

Weight: 178

BF %: 17

Squat: 225 x 5

Bench: 155 x 5

Row: 115 x 5

Dips: 20 x 3 (3 sets of 5)

OH Press: 80 x 5

Deadlift: 215 x 5

Chinups: 8, 6, 2

I am still experiencing growth in my lifts, but I think adding creatine to supplement the program will accelerate my advancement. I am interested in running Stronglifts as long as possible to maximize strength gains before focusing on a hypertrophy program. I also want to lean out my BF % to sub-10%. I realize creatine causes a lot of water retention which contradicts this goal, but at least it will be water weight and not fat. Open to all opinions and perspectives, thanks!

So I've been at SL for a while now; and one thing I cannot seem to get past is pain in my hips as I gain weight on squatting. I'm actually back to squatting after over a month break. When I first started, I started feeling pain around 145lb or so. I thought I could fight through it and it would eventually go away, but instead it only got worse. I took off over a month from squatting because I thought I had strained my hip flexors, and did various other things, such as light-weight hip adductor work (to train the opposing muscle group). After 4-6 weeks, I got back into it, starting at a weight even lower than the original weight I had started at the first time. It took a while, but I no longer felt pain in my hips when I squatted. However, fast forward to a few weeks later - I'm now at 170 (right around where I was when I had to stop last time) and I'm feeling the same pain.

How do you guys get past this? Does anyone else have issues with hips? I've lifted higher weights before at lower reps and have never had hip issues until I started squatting three times a week.

On a side-note, anyone having joint issues? In general, I'm finding that as the weight starts becoming substantial, doing the same movements repeatedly throughout the week (as opposed to a 4-5 day split) is really wearing down on me.

I do my workout in the morning before work, so my time in the gym is somewhat limited, but usually the weight room is pretty empty at that time. However, this week for the first time both the squat racks were in use for the entirety of my workout, one by a group of three guys swapping out sets and the other by one of the gym trainers in a session with a client. I didn't have time to wait for them so I ended up doing leg presses at double my squat weight as an (admittedly poor) substitute.

What would be the best substitution exercise on days like this? I looked for a hack squat machine thinking that this would hit most of the same muscle groups, but my gym doesn't have one. Other options I considered were the smith machine, dumbbell squats or one-legged body-weight squats. What do you all think?

I'm stuck at 37,5 kg and i can't progress because i lose my strenght fast and can't do all the sets. Any tips?

I have a couple questions about some minor discrepancies using the phone app.

When I do chinups the app tells me to do 3x5, but the title bar for the workout says "Chin-ups 3x10". The rep counters are set to 5. I've been doing 5, but is there a reason I should be doing 10 or is this just a bug?

Also, this isn't a bug as far as I know but I just wonder why the warmups for most exercises go to 1x3 or even 1x2 on heavier weights, but the deadlift warmups are all 1x5. Whenever a new warmup weight gets added to the pile I seem to fail that day, for instance today I went up to 270. At 265 my last warmup was 5x225, but now after that I also have to do 5x245 before my work set. Is that intentional? I will probably manage it next week but I'm just wondering why the difference in warmup reps.

Finally, the warmup timer says to start your work set 3 minutes after your last workout set, but the alert pops up after 90 seconds telling you to start. I usually wait the 3 minutes but I'm just wondering which one is right.

Thanks!

Hey everyone. I'm a few weeks into the program and I'm running into an issue. My gym doesn't have freeweight barbells about 60 pounds. We have these barbell systems that are on a track, which work great for all the other lifts but I am stalled at 60 pounds on Overhead Press because I am too tall to do it with the track system. Would it be safe to perform the lift from horse stance or a half squat so that I can use the barbell system? Or should I sub in another way to do it? I tried replicating the lift with dumbells but I can't do it at the same weight as the barbells allow me to do.

Any advice welcome!

I took a week off of strong lifts to ski. Alot of leg energy was used so I'm just wondering if I should still deload after taking the time off?

So I have been doing stronglifts for about 6 weeks now. Lift Stats: Squat: 45 lbs -> 145 lbs OH Press: 45 lbs -> 85 lbs (Failed this week) Deadlift: 95lbs -> 175 lbs Bench: 45lbs -> 100 lbs Row: Actually I changed the row to dumbbell rows because my form just felt weird, so now I divided my row weight by 2 and just used dumbbells, now i'm at 45 lb dumbbells.

I do the arm assistance, so dips + chinups

I have been seeing really positive results: BW: 165lbs -> 179.4 lbs BF%: 16% -> 17.37%

Diet: I am trying to eat about 2800 calories but have not been tracking it very strictly lately. I work at a tech startup so there is a ton of free snacks and I get lunch and sometimes dinner here so it's harder to track my macros and calories. I do just eat healthier things and try to snack on greek yogurt, milk, cheese strings, nuts, etc.

Goal: My goal this year was to bulk to 185 by around June and then cut down to 180 and about 10-12% body fat. However my weight gain happened faster than I imagined, so I might bulk to a bit heavier than 185 and get stronger before cutting. My main goal is aesthetics and not strength so I haven't decided what would be the best course of action yet. Let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

Been really happy with my results so far, so let me know if you have any questions about starting, suggestions, etc.

Squats are killing me!!! :) But I love em! Im up to 125 KG on my squats and it sucked out my whole life energy last time I was at the gym. Im thinking of switching to 3x5 on squats only to focus on my other lifts. What do you guys think? Or prehaps I could just deload!

Hey guys, I just started my strong lifts regiment today and I'm excited to see my progress. I was confused however in terms of how much weight I should start with. Ive been lifting for a couple months so I dont know If i should start with just the bar or half of my max.

Bench: 105 lb Squats: 145 lb Never done deadlifts before Never done overhead press before

ALSO: is it okay to do cardio on the day off? I have some extra fat that needs shredding. How about abs?

Thanks guys, look forward to sharing my progress in a couple of weeks