For experienced lifters: How long should I continue doing 5x5 stronglifts?

ForteStrength · 2019-04-20T00:20:50+00:00

To answer your question: 5x5 until you stall with a linear progression (usually for lifters after achieving novice standards (sometime intermediate depending on your strongest lift in regards to your body i.e tall lifters with long arms can pull better #'s sooner)

check it out here: https://symmetricstrength.com/standards#/

If your intermediate+, you can then transition to a intermediate program that will start incorporating periodization, ect such as: Madcow, Westside, 5/3/1, ect depending on your goals.

My advice: So you kickbox...trying to be a jack of all trades and master of none huh. The more athletic disciplines you participate in, it will end up getting harder and take ALOT longer to actually become great/continue progressing in this said discipline(s).

Imo, focus on kickboxing or focus on strength/muscle gains via lifting. "Person who chases two rabbits chases neither".

And you're doing a trade on top of it? This is a recipe for disaster lol

Diabolo_Advocato · 2019-04-20T03:27:59+00:00

Fucking hell, we are nearly identical, but I’m 31.

Deadlift: 235

Squat: 235

Bench:135

Row: 135

Military press: 85

185lbs/ 5’10”

I literally just swapped over to a more focused and isometric lift routine:

4 exercises targeting a major muscle group, 2 core/abs; most were done with a 3x5-10 reps. Like today was chest, I did:

Captain chair leg raise, Barbell Bench press, dumbbell bench press (overhand grip), weighted side bends, machine flys, and machine dips.

Plenty of auxiliary muscles hit but mostly focused on the chest. I have other routines that are similar, but after about 2 months I’ll go back to 5x5 and see if my isometrics can help up my game with compounds.

TheFredP1ll · 2019-04-20T03:37:31+00:00

Until you stop progressing. Not earlier

nu121x · 2019-04-20T00:45:00+00:00

Honestly? Stop doing it altogether. It's a really shitty meme program for the purpose that most TRP'ers get into lifting.

Let's break it down.

There two main reasons TRP tells you to lift. First, you will become more attractive to women because you will be more physically attractive. This in turn will create a positive feedback loop where you will gain more confidence as a result of both looking good and getting more attention from women. This newfound confidence and based body should add 2 points to your SMV.

There's this one famous study that supports the idea that "Cues of upper body strength account for most of the variance in men's bodily attractiveness"

The study is available here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29237852

Now, if our goal is to increase our cues of upper body strength, this means our program should be at the very least balanced when it comes to upper and lower body volume, or it should have more upper body volume. StrongLifts is the opposite. Its major focus is squats and very little upper body work. Look at the progress pictures of SL participants. They all look like T-rex.

This is absolutely not the right approach for our purposes! We want to have great pecs, back, shoulders, arms. This is what attracts women! Not tiny arms and huge legs.

"B-b-but it's the perfect program to get into weight training!"

No, it's actually not. It has been meme'd by Reddit for God knows what reason and if I could back in time I would skip all that and get into something that at the very least has more hypertrophy for upper body work.

You are wasting your time if you still do SL. You want to be attractive to women. Women like upper body strength. Find a program that will have you growing your upper body.

I had very good results on PHUL and regretted doing SL ever once I saw what kind of results I could get on a power/hypertrophy program. I've bulked up and I've switched back to strength through nSuns and it's working out well for me.

boy_named_su · 2019-04-20T00:58:06+00:00

until no matter how much you eat, nap, lift, reset, you plateau. Then you switch to Mad Cow

coloredzebra · 2019-04-20T05:26:47+00:00

I can relate here:

Just started BJJ 5 times a week, and lifted ICF 5x5 three times a week. Technically, I was working out 7 days a week+double days, and I burnt out, FAST. So much so that like you, my lifts were severely impacted.

Solution: Drop to 3x5

If possible, workout in the morning, which allows for your training at night
Lift before MMA training
Get Adequate calories to compensate your job+training
Try to get naps in, if you can't get 8 hours

If 3x5 becomes an issue with increased progression later, you could modify your reps/sets further, or just jump on 5/3/1.

TL:DR: Drop to 3x5, try to take naps, workout in the morning, and recalculate your caloric expenditure. GL!

HurricaneHugues · 2019-04-20T00:38:31+00:00

I'm still running tbe Reg Park Beginner 5x5 and it's been 4 years since I started. I added stuff to it and changed the final working sets on some exercises, but it's pretty much the same program.

The secret to progression isn't in the program. It's in how much you eat and how hard you're willing to train. Stick to the program, eat more if u have to. And when all that stops working, start adding accessory exercises to work on your weak points.

A program is a generic template. After a while you're supposed to customize it to fit your needs. Don't program hop.

Project_Zero_Betas · 2019-04-20T00:15:00+00:00

Those are weak numbers given your size. I'd continue SL until they improve much more.

Title	For experienced lifters: How long should I continue doing 5x5 stronglifts?
Author	misls
Upvotes	11
Comments	31
Date	April 19, 2019 11:07 PM UTC (7 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/bf5ly9/for_experienced_lifters_how_long_should_i/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/for-experienced-lifters-how-long-should-i-continue.231816 https://theredarchive.com/post/231816

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