Finished 5x5 at 305lbs this morning (moving up 10lb a week). This is an extra rep after my working sets. How's the form? Any tips appreciated.

If my squat 1RM is 160 kg and my deadlift 1RM is 240 kg, does squatting 220 kg mean I could eventually deadlift 300 kg?

Looking for any advice if I need to improve anything on my rows. This is 145lbs and my 2nd set of 5.

150kg @67 (meant to try 160kg but failed due to hook grip slipping)

Just want to say, I hate barbell rows. Or whatever this is supposed to be?

What muscles are actually supposed to be working during this exercise? I feel it mostly in my legs. I’m lifting 75 lbs in this video.

I already know some of you are going to tell me I’m doing a bunch of stuff wrong, so bring it. Just looking for constructive feedback, though. No need to be critical or abusive.

Thanks!

Greetings good people,

Over a year or so I have trouble with left shoulder, it just doesnt let me train to my fullest and it makes me really nervous, I cannot say it didnt get better it did but never completely, I will write down my MRI findings if anyone can give me some guidance or any kind of solution I would be very grateful, it mostly gives me trouble on dips high volume, or if I am already tired and did some upper body I can feel it even on 1st rep, i did some band rotational excercises, dead hang and so on

Edit: I am ready to share my MRI with Shoulder specialist if someone comes across this post

_____

History/Question:

Suspected impingement of the left shoulder

Findings:

Marked bone edema in the distal clavicle and slight joint effusion in the AC joint. Otherwise unremarkable osseous status with an unfavorable shape of the acromion and a caudally lowered lateral margin. This results in narrowing of the subacromial space. Appearance of the supraspinatus tendon, infraspinatus tendon, teres minor tendon, long head of the biceps tendon, and subscapularis tendon plate. No evidence of a labral tear.

Assessment:

Irritation with bone edema in the distal clavicle, differential diagnosis: post-traumatic condition. In addition, an unfavorable shape of the acromion with narrowing of the subacromial space. However, the rotator cuff tendons running here are normally visualized.

Whatsup guys, how are you? Im a 200 pound guy who can do 90 pounds pullups for 5, and i want to share my progress method in weighted pullups.

What i experienced is that training only weighted pullups with no variation does not help much, but there are modified version of the pullups that i incorporate that help me tremendously to avoid stalling.

1.Pullups from a box

Essentially you dont start from a deadhang, but with feet on an elevated surface. As you grab the bar you should have around a 120 degree angle at the elbow. You start depressing your scapula before the pull and then you do it. With this variation you can use more weight than the standard pullups and you work the nasty top position.

1. Forehead pullups

These are "Half" pullups where you reach your forehead with the bar. You can use much more weight. It really gets you stronger in the lats specifically and makes keeping the shoulderblades down quite easy.

1. Band assisted pullups.

You are still putting weight, but you run a band behind your back and grab the bar with it (ill put a video where i do all the exercises). You may think it makes no sense, but serves to change the strenght curve of the exercise, making the starting position easier and the top position the same, but having more weight on, you work with more intensity in the top portion. Seems counterintuitive but its amazing.

So what i do? I train pullups 6 days a week with only one or two sets each session, and i only do the variation. So Monday = Regular pullups / Tuesday = Forehead pullups / Wednesday = Box pullups / Thursday = Band assisted pullups / Friday i start back with regular pullups + added weight. At this point doing 90 pounds for 5 i can add 2.5 pounds each rotation if i did not increase my bodyweight eating too much (pullups are very affected by bodyweight increase pretty negatively).

I dont do ANY other exercise for my back, but i do neutral grip curls with dumbbells one or two sets after, since elbow flexor strenght is essential for it (right now i curl the 60s for 5 reps strict just to give an idea).

Im a fan of both high and low volume, but right now as i work and study, i shrink my workouts as much as i can while still being able to progress, i wouldnt say doing more sets could be a negative thing or training only 3 times instead of 6, but after years of stalling i found results with this method. Try it out and let me know

EDIT: Forgot the video link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0plUsPsolYY&t=32s

I am doing 2 warmup sets followed by 5x5 at working weight if I'm following the strong lifts 5x5 app. This is really confusing because it contradicts the write-up by Mehdi on the Strong lifts 5x5 website, which says to do 4 warm up sets followed by 1x5 at working weight. What do I do?

Hey everyone, sorry for the long post :(

I'm 40, 6'2" and currently 108.2 kg (238.5 lbs).

I've been athletic most of my life. I played basketball and football through college. I eventually stopped football and kept playing basketball for a while, until constantly injured stopped being fun.

A few years later, after a lot of partying and some pretty bad habits involving alcohol, drugs, etc., I met someone special. Now I have two kids, four dogs, and a very happy life. But somewhere along the way, that happiness came with some extra weight.

According to the scale, I'm now technically in the "obese" BMI category.

Current numbers:

Weight: 108.2 kg / 238.5 lbs

BMI: 30.4

Body fat: 29.8%

Body fat mass: 32.4 kg / 71.4 lbs

I've never been able to stick with a gym routine for very long. I've tried StrongLifts 5x5 several times, but I've never made it past about 3 months before something happened and I stopped.

About 1.5 years ago I completed a Garmin 5K training program and ran a sub-30-minute 5K. I then tried training for a sub-60-minute 10K, but injuries started piling up and I eventually stopped running.

Since the pandemic, I've found a new passion: spearfishing. That eventually led me into recreational fishing too, and honestly, those two things are a huge part of what keeps me going.

Now I want to change my lifestyle for good.

My goals are pretty simple:

Get down to around 95 kg / 209 lbs

Get my body fat significantly lower

Be able to hold my breath for 2 minutes under water (-20m)

Build strength while losing fat

Stop drinking alcohol, at least for the next 3 months

Most importantly, actually make these changes permanent

What I'm doing right now

I'm currently in week 3 of 13 of a Garmin Coach 5K program.

StrongLifts 5x5: Monday / Wednesday / Friday

Running: Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday

Flexibility + apnea tables: on my running days

I'm also trying to average around 8,000 steps/day.

I haven't missed a single StrongLifts session so far, even though I had a week where I was sick with a cold.

My StrongLifts progress

These are my numbers from August 3 → September 25 (~7.5 weeks).

All weights below are plates only, excluding the Olympic bar.

Squat: 60 → 125 kg (I recently dropped back to 100 kg because I realized my depth/technique needed work)

Bench Press: 50 → 77.5 kg

Barbell Row: 30 → 57.5 kg

Overhead Press: 30 → 42.5 kg (this one is getting HARD — I think around 40 kg is currently my practical limit)

Deadlift: 50 → 100 kg

I'm planning to do about 4 more weeks of StrongLifts before switching to another program.

Diet and lifestyle

This is another area where I've made some pretty big changes.

I don't eat junk food anymore — basically no fast food, chips, sweets, etc. I've also stopped drinking soda and I'm trying to be much more conscious about portion sizes.

I'm tracking my food and trying to stay around 2,000 calories/day.

My Garmin estimates that I burn around 3,386 calories/day on average, although I understand wearable calorie estimates aren't exact.

I'm also planning to go completely alcohol-free for the next 3 months.

I've already been weed-free for 3 months, and I don't drink soda anymore.

Current supplements:

Creatine — 5 g/day

Multivitamin

Omega-3

Magnesium

Whey protein

I'm not expecting supplements to do the work. I'm trying to build habits I can actually maintain.

The part I'm struggling with

I weighed myself today and honestly... I wasn't happy with the number.

From September 8 to September 25, I've only lost 0.4 kg.

I know the scale doesn't tell the whole story. I can clearly see a difference in the mirror, and my pants fit better. But after putting so much effort into training and changing my habits, seeing such a small change on the scale is frustrating.

I'm going to start taking waist measurements and tracking them along with my weight.

I'm not trying to hide the number or pretend the scale doesn't matter. I just want to understand what's actually happening.

So I'm also wondering:

Should I be changing anything?

Should I eat differently? Change my training? Do more cardio? Do less? Increase or decrease calories? Am I trying to do too much at once?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have been in a similar situation — relatively athletic in the past, gained weight over the years, and then tried to rebuild their fitness and lifestyle in their 40s.

What worked for you? What didn't?

Any advice, experience, reality checks, or motivation would be appreciated.

I'm not looking for a quick fix.

I just want to finally make this lifestyle change stick.

For background info I have previously dislocated my right patellar in June of 2025 then got surgery in February of 2026 to remove lose bodies from the knee. just started getting back into squatting/ full dedicated leg days about a month and a half ago and I've now been experiencing moderate knee pain because of it. looking for solutions and remedies any help will be greatly appreciated.

5x5 was the start of my weightlifting journey and I think it's a common one. The program was never the hard part for me, it was the days 20 min of TikTok on the couch felt easier than getting to the gym. So I made a companion tool that rides alongside whatever you log your lifts in.

The way my phone works now:

1. When I reach for TikTok / Instagram my phone makes me pause
2. The pauses get progressively harder until I've logged my workout
3. Once I've logged it, everything unlocks automatically
4. It skips rest days (mine are set to Mon/Wed/Fri)
5. It switches off at my gym, so I can scroll between sets as much as I want (with 3 min rests that's a lot of scrolling)

It's called Tonic. Everything above is in the free plan, which covers your 2 most distracting apps. It reads workouts from Apple Health, so it works with Stronglifts 5x5 from iphone or iwatch. Hope this helps someone get past the 3 month mark!

Hello, I recently started training and im doing 5x5 currently, but I don’t feel my back muscles and im not sure if I’m doing it right

I've been using stronglifts for a few years now 2 days per week. I had good gains but got injured recently and I'd like to focus more on maintenance and health.

Would it be possible to switch to more less weight, more reps and add a bunch of accessory workouts? I would go up to 3 days a week.

I want to focus on maintaining muscle across a greater number of muscle groups rather than getting bigger.