Rabbit & Wife's Stronglifts 5x5 Journal

[RabidRabbit]

Back from the dead (almost literally!) and finally lifting again. I've really missed this site for the last year after my body decided to self-destruct (read below). I just couldn't handle reading bb sites when I was unable to work out. I'm a recuperating mess of a man now

My wife and I started this journey last week using the the stronglift's 5x5

Lil Bear:

25 year old female
5'1, 127lbs

Healthy, ex military. Currently rehabbing a slight shoulder injury (now undergoing ART therapy & rotater cuff exercises) which is preventing her from doing bench and shoulder press for another week or so. She's had shoulder problems for years from doing pushups in ROTC. Hyperflexible joints. 5 years of bodybuilding routines and regular cardio experience.


Rabbit:

33 year old male
6'0, 210lbs

Frail & sickly. Last August I became very ill and was hospitalized. After a bout of diarrhea, my joints in my lower body and spine became very swollen and immobile. Went to the hospital due to the fact I could not walk. While waiting in the emergency room, they ran some blood tests. My blood sugar was through the roof. Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (Insulin dependent). They kept me in the hospital for 11 days and also diagnosed me with Reiter's syndrome - a form of arthritis caused by salmonella poisoning. At the time nothing was done about the arthritis as they hoped it would clear up. October rolls around and I still cannot walk or bend my joints. See a rheumatologist and start aggressive treatment with remicade. Works on arthritis but I develop horribly painful neuropathy in the feet. Discontinue remicade, feet still in pain and arthritis returns with a vengeance. Long story short -immobile for most of August to June. Also diagnosed with osteoporosis in the left hip and spine. Also have an insufficency fracture in my T9 vertebrae which ends up requiring minor surgery (they filled me with cement!) to prevent further collapse. Finally get a good drug regimen that takes care of most of these problems and start rehab. Prior to all this crap happening I was doing Rippetoe's Starting Strength and making decent progress.


Week 1:

Wednesday July 9

LilBear:

Squat: 45lb 5x5
Bench: 75lb 5x5
Row: 45lb 5x5
Dips: 4, 3, 3

Rabbit:

Leg Press "Machine": 40"lbs" (Unable to do a single bodyweight squat)
Bench: 95lb 5x5
Row: 95lb 5x5
Dips: 4,3,4

Friday July 11th

LilBear:

Squat: 50lb 5x5
Press: 45lb 5x5
Dead: 85lb 1x5
Chins: 1, 1, 1

Rabbit:

Leg Press: 50lbs, 5x5
Press: 4, 5x5
Dead: 135, 1x5
Chins: 1,1,1

Did my first body weight squat on saturday, almost died but was very very happy

Monday, July 14

Lil Bear:

Squat: 55, 5x5
Bench: 80, 5x5 (this is where she "tweaked" her shoulder, weird as she was pressing 95, 2x per week for over a year)
Row: 55, 5x5
Dips: 4,4,4

Rabbit:

Leg Press: 60, 5x5
Dead Lift: 145, 1x5
Bench: 100, 5x5
Row: 100, 5x5
Dips: 5, 4, 4

Wednesday July 16

Lil Bear:

Squat: 60, 5x5
Deadlift: 90, 1x5

Rabbit:
Leg Press: 70, 5x5
Dead: 135, 1x5
Press: 50. 5x5
Pullups: 7 unassisted singles, and 3 assisted

Friday July 18

Lil Bear:

Squat: 65, 5x5
Row: 60, 5x5

Rabbit:

Leg Press: 80, 3x5 (my medication failed me a bit as I had taken too late in the day and my knees were dodgy)
Dead: 155, 1x5
Bench: 105, 5x5
Row: 105, 5x5
Dips: 7, 4, 5

Next week Lil Bear will be resetting to the bar on bench and working her way up from there as her shoulder rehabs (or so she says, we'll see how she feels). Rabbit will leave the leg press machine behind forever and stop doing deadlifts every day as he begins squatting 5x5 with a broom handle and then working up to the 45lb bar after that

Rabbit has gained approx 3" on each leg since starting the regime and can now get out of a chair without using his arms

July 21st, 2008

Both of us had solid workouts. Mondays are so nice after the two days off. Lil Bear's squats were most excellent!

Lil Bear:

Squat 70 5x5
Press 12 5x5 - just working on the movement and form. Shoulder still tender
Deadlift 95 1x5
Rotator Cuff Work

Rabbit:

Squat: Broomhandle 3x5, I'll be working on form & flexibility this week. Ugly.
Press: 55 5x5
Deadlift 165 1x5
Wide Grip Pullups: Singles - 2 unassisted, 6 assisted

July 23rd

Lil Bear:

Squat - 75 5x5, today was the first time she "felt" like there was a big heavy weight on her back.

Bench - 45lb bar 5x5, her shoulder still hurts but she wanted to play along and work on form

Row - 65 5x5

Dips - 4, 5, 3

Me:

Squat - Broom handle 4x5, Better. I have zero muscle strength out of the bottom. I think I'll be working body weight until I can do 5x10 (end of next week?). Atrophy is a mofo.

Bench - 110 5x5, focused on form and breathing. Hard to get away from the "in down, out up" habit. Worked hard on maintaining horizontal leg push and strong arch. Made these lifts *very* easy.

Row - 110 5x5, Still cake.

Dips: 8, 6, 7 - Need to start taking another 20-30 sec on the break between sets 1 & 2 as this has been a consistent pattern.

I built a "box" yesterday out of 2x4's and 1x3s 10" high to set the bar down on during our rows and Ang's deadlifts. Worked well as it gave us the standard 45lb plate height. Total cost was under $4 and labor < 1 hour.

[RabidRabbit]

Friday July 25

All weights in LBS

Lil Bear

Squat: 80 5x5
Press: 20 5x5
Dead: 100 1x5
Wide Grip Pulls: 6,4,5 w/ assistance band #2

Me

Squat: Broomhandle 5x5
Press 60 5x5
Dead: 175, 1x5
Wide Grip Pulls: 10, 4, 4 w/ assistance band #2
I was completely gassed after the first ten.

We had a lot of fun towards the end of this workout playing with the assistance bands. We looked like a bunch of morons trying to figure out how to use them properly and we probably could have done more pullups if we were not laughing so hard while we entertained the entire Gym

[RabidRabbit]

Another fun day in the gym. For the first time since my illness I squatted with a barbell. A whopping 20lb one, but a barbell none the less!

Lil Bear:

Squat: 85 5x5 STRONG!!!!
Bench: 55, 5x5 - She's back in the game, shoulder was fine
Row: 75, 5x5
Dips: 5, 3, 4 - not getting to parallel. Bad girl! :evil:

Me:

Squat: 20, 3x5. I am teh lift master! :mrgreen:
Bench: 115, 5x5 Easy as a breeze. I think I have form and breathing nice and tight.
Row: 115, 5x5 Still strong. Hitting the chest on every rep.
Dips: 4, 5, 2 - Form fix. Now elbows above shoulders on every grinding ****ty rep.

Afterward we introduced some aerobic work in the back yard - fun with sandbags.

2 minutes of log relay (running with logs) for warm up.
1 minute of sandbag shoulders (her 30lb bag, me 50lb bag)
1 minute of sandbag over head toss (both with 30lb)
2 minutes of sandbag relay (she did 2 trips with 30lb, 1 trip with 50lb, 1 trip with 70lb - EPIC lift, like a pocket sized strongman competitor doing an atlas stone. I did 2 trips with 30lb, 2 with 50lb and one with 70lb)
2 minutes of "Collapsed onto grass wheezing" as warm down.

We'll be doing this 3x per week after lifting - increasing by 30 seconds every time.

[RabidRabbit]

Long friggin day and a late workout. Lil Bear had some wisdom teeth yanked out in the am, and I found out I need to get an MRI of my brain to see if I have any "growths" lurking. Lil Bear also had a job interview. She was psyched to lift and I just wanted to sit my depressed arse on the couch and feel mopey. She dragged me off to a 9:00pm workout (we are usually early am'ers) and I am glad she did.

Lil Bear:

Squat - 90, 5x5
Press - 45, 5x5
Dead - 110, 1x5

Me:

Squat: 45, 3x5. Finally used the olympic bar
Press: 65, 5x5
Dead: 185, 1x5 (Warmups: 45, 135 x2x5, 175x1x5)

We did close grip chins with the middle rubber band but looking at the log we did not write them down apparently (I think she did 10, 7, 6 and I did 8, 6, 4)

[RabidRabbit]

We have not been lazy in the gym... I've just been lazy on the computer!

Things are going well, we've switched over to Rippetoe's starting strength (the pure form) from stronglift's 5x5.

Wife:

Squat: 115lbs 3x5 - getting heavy but she is doing great
Press: 60lb 3x5
Dead: 120lbs 1x5
Clean: 55 3x5
Bench: 80 3x5
Dips: Still cannot get to parallel, can do about 6 per set without going down all the way
Chins: Can do 12 with no 2 assistance band, going to lightest band next workout.

Me:

Squat: 75lbs 3x5
Press: 80lbs 3x5
Dead: 205lbs 1x5
Clean: 85lbs 3x5, hook grip is messing me up. need to practice.
Bench: 140lbs, 3x5
Dips: 5,5,4 I'm hitting parallel every time.
Chins: 10-12 on first set, hard decline after that (around 6) with no 2 band.

We are having a blast. I'll try to update more frequently!