I’ve decided to put up a training log for my 5x5 intermediate program ( Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos ). I’m currently on week #5 of the program. See my profile for previous weeks’ info, etc.
My goals right now are to simply get bigger and stronger. I have a long, long way to go in both respects.
If anyone wants to post on here with suggestions, comments, etc. they are more than welcome. I’d appreciate any and all feedback.
Today was the middle workout of week #5, or “deadlift day.” Squats are still done, but it’s basically 4 warmup sets.
Just a few notes about exercise selection. If you click on the link above for the 5x5 program, you’ll see that it typically has you do flat bench on the 1st and 3rd workouts of the week, and either incline or military press on the 2nd workout of the week. Because vertical pressing strength is a weakness of mine, I elected to do that for the middle workout.
And because I’m doing dips, which hit my lower/middle chest pretty hard, I’ve elected to sub in incline press for flat bench to emphasize the upper chest. As of right now, this hasn’t placed too much stress on my shoulders, so I’m going to continue with it. Also of note is that all pressing movements, with the exception of military press, are with dumbbells, and the weight listed is for one dumbbell.
On to this morning’s workout:
Back Squat
130x5
150x5
170x5
170x5
Deadlift
180x5
205x5
230x5
255x5
Military Press
80x5
95x5
105x5
120x5
Face Pulls
70x10
70x10
70x10
Standing Calf Raise
145x8
145x7
145x6
Incline treadmill walking: 15 minutes
Everything felt good today with the exception of my knees. I have a bar league beach volleyball thing on Wednesday nights, and for whatever reason, it kills my knees. Squats were painful as a result, but I don’t think it affected my form at all. Plus, today was a light squatting day, so it’s not really a big deal.
Deadlifts felt pretty good. I’m still trying to find out the best starting position for me as far as hip height goes. I’ve tried to concentrate on starting with my hips nice and low, chest out, back arched, but if I take this to an extreme, it feels like I’m just squatting the weight up, if that makes any sense. Today I went with a slightly higher hip position and it felt much more natural and the weight went up easier than last week. I’ll try to get some video one of these days for some feedback regarding form.