I think this is smart. Connective tissue takes a lot longer than muscles to return to form. You could probably move bench by 10lbs though until it at least feels heavy. Same with deadlift since that’s far behind squat. 10lbs shouldn’t overtax connective tissue.
I enjoy watching this progress. How often do you do each exercise? How many warmup sets do you do you? And how much rest between main sets?
I assume that CS is following the StrongLifts program.
In the rest times section:
Here’s what I recommend…
- 1min30 if you easily completed five reps on your last set
- 3min if you struggled to get five reps on your last set
- 5min if you failed to get five reps on your last set
weights 3x per week, alternating between A and B stronglifts workouts
I do pyramid warmups like 5xbar, 4x135, 3x185, 2x225, 1x250 for squat, for example, then I do something like 5x5 250 lb.
I rest 1 minute between sets. When maxing out, that time can increase to 3 minutes. Then I try to gradually reduce it back down to 1 to work on my recovery. I’ve been trying to do shorter rests so I can finish my workouts sooner at the expense of max strength.
Week 10 done yay
Squat: 250
Shoulder press: 110
Deadlift: 185
Weighted pull ups: 25
Bench: 115
Weighted dips: 27.5
Row: 115
Stalled this week on shoulder press, bench has overtaken it now. Just 2 more weeks until I get to benching 135 and confident enough to go back to the gym rather than my building’s basement.
how much is your body weight increasing?
dunno, I felt ashamed after eating a pint of ice cream 2 weeks ago and hadn’t been weighing myself
but up until then it’s stayed constant, lost fat gained muscle
What the hell does this mean?
You shouldn’t get sore WHILE working out.
Plus, soreness is not an indication of a good or bad workout.
If you can do weighted dips at BW + 27.5, then you can do way more than 115 on bench.
I certainly do get sore during some workouts, some muscles more than others. Like I can feel my chest getting sore as I do bench presses or cables. I don’t get sore after working out because I work out a lot, and I certainly don’t use soreness post workout as indication of anything.
I would have to do a lot of reps to get sore. I can’t really do any kind of training until failure because I’ll rip my tendons before I actually fail. I guess for some people they actually can’t do more reps before any kind of damage happens.
I rarely get sore working out. But then again, I rarely do more than 5 reps at most things.
Okay week 12 of my 12 week journey to get back to 135 on bench is done. I was planning on going back to the gym rather than working out in my building’s basement in shame but now with the delta thing going on I don’t know if I will return yet. Pretty much where I wanted to be, although I miscalculated by 1 day since I started with the bar only which counts as one day. So the next time I bench, I should be able to do 135.
Squat: 260 → 145 (deload)
Shoulder press: 110 → 95 (deload)
Deadlift: 215
Weighted pull ups: 32.5
Bench: 130
Weighted dips: 35
Row: 130
Clean & Jerk: 80
I was getting a sore back and long term fatigue in the legs, so I deloaded on squat and shoulder press. I was unhappy about needing to do it so soon since I am still a long ways off from my PRs, but I did feel fantastic the day after on my run. I am working on improving form and going deeper on the squats. I’m almost able to touch my hams to my calves now. I went down to 135 on the squat but am going back up at 10 lb per day. My back feels much better now.
Week 14…
Squat: 205
Shoulder press: 100
Deadlift: 235
Weighted pull ups: 40
Bench: 140
Weighted dips: 42.5
Row: 135
Clean & Jerk: 90
I felt pretty strong today, which was surprising because the last time I felt like I could barely bench 135, but after adding more weight it was pretty easy today. I can’t figure out why, I haven’t been resting or eating better really.
when was that?
Last time was Sunday
Never underestimate the value of a good calisthenics routine in lieu of equipment; there’s no exuse to quit lifting/exercising even when you dont have equipment available. It was my big epiphany last year that basically doing a lot of bodyweight exercises even for more reps does an amazing job for keeping up strength levels. In fact in a lot of ways I was stronger and able to put up decent PRs at least from the last few years.
That was enough time for you to recover and rebuild your muscle. If you could barely bench 135 last time your muscles were probably repairing, and now that they’re new and improved, it’s not surprising that you’re benching higher.
Sometimes I go to the gym and after my warm up I can’t even muster up enough energy to do one set of anything, so I basically just go home after 5 minutes of being there lol.
Haven’t worked out in August until yesterday.
Little sore today.
Haven’t worked out since June, and haven’t worked out semi-seriously since 2019, and have never worked out seriously in my life. Working out (weightlifting or bodyweight exercises) is something I don’t enjoy, even though I aspire to do it.
How do you all do it? Just become addicted to gains?
there’s a certain rush that flows through you when your muscles get pumped. and also, mirrors, but that part doesn’t become addictive if you don’t think you have enough muscles yet.
so yeah, there’s both a physical and visual addiction, and also a mental one I guess, since you do get a good dopamine release when you exercise.