Sean's SL 5X5 training log

[Sean Steele]

I did a little reading on the SL sight and modified how I am doing the Squats and the Rows. I was doing the squats with my feet prety close together. I set them a little wider with the toes pointed out as described on the site. I was doing the rows with my back at about 45 degrees to the floor and using more of my arms to lift the weight. I switched to the Pendlay row described on the site and used my back more than my arms. It felt good.

On to the lifts for the day.
Squats - 110x5x5
Bench - 75x5x5
Row - 80x3x5, 80x2x10

I did my 17 pushups for the day as part of my warmup. I then did 5 jump squats then 10 squats with them empty bar before doing my working sets. Before the bench presses I did 10 reps with the empty bar. I used this time to change my grip width a little bit to get my fore arms a little more square to the floor in the lowered position. No warmups on the rows, I just added the 5 to the bar from the presses and went for it. I finished up with 5 minutes on the rowing machine and 25 on the stair machine.

[Deviation]

Form is everything. And I agree on rows. I prefer the pendlay style.

[Sean Steele]

Ran out of time to log yesterday but I did lift.
Warmed up on the rowing machine then did 5 of my push ups.

Squat-
Warm up 45X5
Working sets - 115 4 sets of 5 and one set of 10
I did my push ups in sets of 5 between sets on the squats. I think I ended up doing 25 push ups instead of my 19 for the day.

OHP-
Warm up 45x5
Working sets - 75 4 sets of 5 and one set of 10.
I did two sets of bench dips between the first 3 sets of OHP. the dips were making the OHP hard so I went to tricep pull downs for between the last two sets. So, 2x5 dips and 3x5 pull down.

Dead lift-
Warm up 75x5
Working set - 135 one set of 10.

I finished off with 35 minutes on the treadmill alternating between 3.5 and 5 every 5 minutes.

[Sean Steele]

I have noticed that my recovery is suffering a little bit. I think it is because of the amount of cardio that I am doing at the same time. I am going to eliminate the cardio that I have been doing after my lifting. I was also doing 1 hour of cardio 2 days a week. I will be cutting that down to 30-35 minutes. I have a goal of being able to do an 8 minute mile by summer. I still think I can manage that doing the reduced cardio. I actually think I may progress faster since I won't be completely worn out every day.

On to the lifts for yesterday.

Warmed up with 5 minutes on the rowing machine. Nice moderate pace focusing on squeezing my back muscles in prep for the rows.

Squat-
Warm up - 45x5, 95x5
Working sets - 120 5x5

Bench Press-
Warm up - 45x5, 65x5
Working sets - 80 4x5, 1x10

Pendlay Row-
Warm up - 65x5
Working sets - 85 4x5, 1x10

Additional work-
Tricep pulldowns - 60 5x5

[irkie500]

Hey Sean great work so far with the SL program, keep up the hard work buddy! I have one suggestion, if you can swap out the Tricep Pulldowns with Dips. Dips are a more compound exercise hitting the front shoulder and chest area.

[Sean Steele]

I did some bench dips between sets of my ohp on Thursday. It may have been a bad combo since it prety much toasted my sholders by the end of my ohp sets. I think I will do the dips at the end of workout A.

I know my triceps need work and I want to get them up to par with the rest of my upper body before it starts effecting my bench press.

[irkie500]

Dips can really get the front of the shoulder working pretty hard sometimes. Keep an eye on how far you drop down, sometimes if I go to quickly I end up dropping way to low causing me to pull a muscle. Form really is everything when it comes to lifting weights. I constantly see guys who try to curl 65-70 pound dumbbells and their form is so bad it makes me want chuckle sometimes.

[Sean Steele]

Good thing about bench dips is that I can only go as low as the floor. My upper arms are parallel to the floor. When I get to where I can do full body weight dips I will remember to control the negative move and keep my upper arms parallel.

[Sean Steele]

First day of week 4 wow this is going fast. The OHP is starting to get heavy. Everything else, I think will get there in the next couple weeks. Hit a PR for squat today but that isn't saying much since I didn't really squat before this. Lots of warm up exercises today, felt good.

Warmed up with 5 minutes on the rowing machine. I have the resistance maxed out and it is starting to get easier. I do about 30 strokes er minute, I guess I can dial that up a bit. It is still doing the job of getting the heart pumping.

Squat-
Warm up - 45x5, 95x5
Working sets - 125 4x5, 1x10. A little pause before the 10th rep. Not sure why I paused but I did.

Over Head Press-
Warm up - 45x5, 65x5
Working sets - 80 4x5, 1x10. These started to get heavy but I made all of my reps.

Dead Lift-
Warm up - 80x5, 115x5
Working Sets - 145x10

Overall, a really good workout. I picked up some Creatine to take this week. I started on Sunday and have a 10 day supply. I will give it a go but I doubt I will take it long term.

[Deviation]

Overall, a really good workout. I picked up some Creatine to take this week. I started on Sunday and have a 10 day supply. I will give it a go but I doubt I will take it long term.

Drink plenty of water.