Before I´m going to share my opinion and experience on Stronglifts 5x5 a few facts about me:
- I started to work out again in August 2017 after a two year break
( I had the break because I wanted to gain strength fast. The result of this behavior
were problems with my right shoulder and my knees (completely recoverd now)) - the reason for my restart is my moving from a bigger city to a small village with almost no sports to offer
- I work out in a homegym (got a half rack, an used bench from a gym, some dumbbells, a barbell and plenty of weights 😉)
- my goal for the first three months of training was to build a solid base for further training methods
- sorry in advance for some mistakes, but my english is not the best ^^ at least i´m trying :D
My opinion on Stronglifts 5x5:
I think that this routine is a very solid one for novice lifters or the returning one. Because of the high frequenzy of those basic movements like squats, bench and overhead presses and of course deadlifts this routine is a nice one for learning and saving those into your movement pattern. As everybody knows reagular repeating of a movement is the key to master it.
The amount of sets and reps is also enough to gain some size and of course strength. But this strengthgain is one of the facts that is limiting this routine to novice or weaker lifters. At some point you are not able to recover from three times squatting properly because the weight is to high. Another thing that comes with the growing weight is the growing amount of time that is needed to go through the workout. More weight equals to more rest (at the beginning you only need about 30 to 45 minutes).
So if you new to training or returning to the iron give Mehdis routine a try. You shouldn´t be disapointed and it is really easy to follow.
Take me as an example. I reached a solid squat of 140 kilos and i´m one step closer to my old weights i used to lift. But before i´m going to continue to reach those digits I will reduce some bodyfat and start to run again (it isn´t a good feeling when you know that you are not able to run 5 kilometers in a row :D). If you are interested in my journey please let me know and I will take up some pictures and info about the next steps.
Stay strong and brave
Sven
(a picture of me before going to run)
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