anyone try SL 5x5?

[panaxxIX]

this is my 3rd week into it and so far im not liking it. the book said to start low with the weights so ytou dont stall too quick but i feel like ive wasted 3 weeks of working out with bitch weights. plus only 3 exercises 3 times a week doesnt seem like enough. has anyone actually done the program and made good strength/size gains?

btw if you dont know what it is its kinda like SS. workout a is squats bench press, pendlay rows and workout b is squat, military press, deadlift. youre supposed to add 5 pounds every workout to each exercise and 10 to the dl.

[rdferguson]

I haven't done SL but I did do SS (with the addition of pull ups). On SS I went from squatting 5x65kg/3x67.5kg to squatting 3x5x92.5kg. I went from only being able to press the empty barbell to pressing 3x5x37.5kg (obviously not a huge end result, but it's still 17.5kg of progress). My deadlift was already fairly strong, but I went from a 100kg 1RM to lifting 110kg for 5 reps, if I recall correctly. The light starting weights are necessary. If you plan on milking the program for all it's worth, you'll be on it for several months. On SL, you should be at 5x5 on everything but deadlifts for probably the first 6 weeks before it gets too hard, then drop down to 3x5 for another 3-6 weeks, then get a few more weeks at 1x5. Had you started with just the empty barbell for squats, you should have gone from 5x5x45lb to 1-3x5x225lb at the end of 12 weeks, assuming no stalls or setbacks. I don't know about you, but if I'd achieved that in my first 12 weeks of squatting, I'd be pretty chuffed.

The first month or so of SL is fairly light-weight, largely just going through the motions, perfecting form and greasing the move. It will allow for more progress later on, because if you do all those 5x5's (plus warm ups) with good form, then you will be technically prepared for when the weights get heavier, and you will be able to push through the heavy weights instead of getting stuck under the load due to weak motor patterns. Going through all those light sets over and over again will make it a lot easier for you to keep on progressing once you get to the point where you have to drop down from 5x5 to 3x5, whereas if you just skipped straight to that point in the program, you'd probably only last a week before being unable to continue.