Feel Good After the First Week of the Gym; What to Do When I Plateau in Stronglifts?

[ucimigrate]

Hello Everyone,

1. I feel good after getting back into the gym.

2. I notice the small things. I am still very overweight, out of shape, etc. But, I notice my shoulders are wider; there is more symmetry; small muscles are developing, too.


3. Perhaps the best thing was when I went walking down the street. I notice that my posterior chain is gaining back muscle, the perceived effort is less, etc.

4. Besides strength, my scale weight went up 2 kilograms. At this point, I do not care much, as I used to have at least 10 kilograms more muscle mass than I do now. Glycogen, muscle, etc. weighs a lot.

5. I am basically doing 5 x 5 Strong Lifts. I am even doing things more than 3x a week, closer to 4-5x a week, allowing myself to not do all the stuff all the time.

6. In the past, I dieted and under-ate. I plateaued very often. When do you guys plateau on Strong Lifts? What to do then? Is it simply a matter of pushing through weight, or changing workouts entirely?

 

[Jstrong20]

It will be different for everyone. Should take months even then a Deload might put you back on track. I've never used the strong lift program but with any training style eventually you have to change exercises. At only a week in is nothing. Come back when you actually hit a plateau. Could be months could be a year. Also one or two bad training sessions is not a plateau. Once newbie gains are gone even putting 5lbs on a lift in a month is good. You said you were bigger before so I'm sure you have experience and already know that. Just saying I've seen guys have one or two bad workouts and change everything way to early.

 

[ucimigrate]

Thanks. My problem has always been getting on track with the right programming:

1. My idiotic football trainer in high school speaks about needing to stick with a program for 10-14 weeks. But, even after no results, there were no changes. That is an example of how things should have been changed, but did not.

2. I did do BodyforLife for about 24 months. But, that is another example of how programming needed to be changed, but didn't.

3. As with many other people, I have program hopped so much in between. That is an example of how a pretty good plan exists, but I stopped executing.

4. In all of this, nothing beats results for continuing motivation. Whether on a diet, training program, etc. nothing beats seeing results, after even one session. Then, people keep coming back for more.