I started the Stronglifts 5x5 program in February. Stronglifts is a beginner strength program with a ton of information available online.
Stronglifts overview
The program is five exercises split over two workout days. The exercises are squat, bench press, barbell row, overhead press, and deadlift. Each exercise is performed for five sets of five reps at the work weight, except for the deadlift which is only done for one set of five reps. With the sets and reps stable, progress is made by increasing the weight, however modestly, every workout. If you fail reps on an exercise for three workouts in a row, you decrease the weight for that workout and work back up.
How it went for me
Early on I also purchased Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. Stronglifts and Starting Strength are very similar, and I had some additional questions that I thought might be answered in that book. Towards the end of Starting Strength, Mark addresses several potential scenarios where a person isn’t progressing as expected with “YOU'RE NOT DOING THE PROGRAM!” If you’re not 18–35 years old, not eating more than 4500 calories/day, not sleeping enough, doing cardio, then YOU’RE NOT DOING THE PROGRAM! Stronglifts does not place the same consistent emphasis on eating and sleeping in its main explantion, but does address them in the section on overcoming failure.
Being over 40, not increasing my caloric intake, and prioritizing my running puts me squarely in NOT DOING THE PROGRAM.
Both Stronglifts and Starting Strength are about getting as strong as possible, while my goal is to get as strong as possible as a middle-aged runner. This is important because I feel I hit sticking spots earlier than most should if they’re eating enough and only doing the strength program.
Overhead press struggled first, which is expected, but I think quite early even so. I failed reps at 60 pounds, only four workouts in. And then again at 65 pounds. Mark advises its easier to prevent getting stuck than it is to get unstuck, so I went ahead and lowered the progression for overhead press from five pounds to two and a half pounds.
Later, as the warmup sets and rest periods increased and the overall workout time got longer and longer, I switched to top/back-off sets. This approach switches from five sets of the same working weight, to one set followed by four sets at 90%. It allows continued progress while reducing the time needed to recover between sets.
As recommended in Stronglifts, I started with the program with an empty bar. My numbers at the end of three months are:
- Bodyweight
- 163 lb (started at 165 lb, so obviously NOT DOING THE PROGRAM!)
- Squat
- 150 lb
- Bench
- 100 lb
- Barbell row
- 105 lb
- Overhead press
- 70 lb
- Deadlift
- 150 lb
My deadlift should be higher than my squat, but I kept to a more conservative 5 lb progression vs 10 lb, and squat increases every workout. I expect that to correct itself over time.
Stronglifts and running
I think it’s hard to say the overall effect the strength training has had on my running. I raced in March and increased my VDOT. That’s my best objective measure, and it showed improvement. I’ve been able to run without pain, so that feels like a big win. Subjectively, my hips and shoulders feel more stable. I have a tendency to hunch my shoulders when fatigued, and I think that happens less now. Day-to-day, my legs feel a heavier, and I feel more ragged, but I’m hitting my workout paces.
Long term I need to figure out how to work the strength training into a training cycle so that I peak according to plan. That may be as simple as pausing the weight increases, reducing the number of sets, or both. I’m still doing general fitness training cycles, so peaking for a goal race hasn’t become a factor yet.
Moving forward
The five working sets of Stronglifts has really begun to wear on me. Starting Strength calls for three working sets (though also leaves a lot more open to personal needs), so I’m going to go from the top/back-off sets to three working sets and see what kind of progress I can continue to make.
Starting Strength is also big on a low-bar squat position, which I played with some but never got comfortable. I’m going to try alternating my squats between high-bar/low-bar, starting the low-bar with just the bar and see if I can switch over. While the position on my shoulders never felt secure, I could tell that how it affected my hip position gave me more power.
I’ll give this modification another three months and reassess from there.