So I’ll forego the laundry list of excuses, but I haven’t been keeping up with the Stronglifts routine like I should have. In 3 weeks, I should have performed 9 workouts, but in actuality I’ve performed 4. I still love this routine though, and I’m going to set my daily life routine to accommodate the simple 3x/week program.

I’ve been a firm believer in exercise, fitness, and nutrition for the past 11-12 years.  Over those years I’ve gone through countless workout routines.  Most have been a bodybuilding based routine where you focus on one or two body parts per workout, and you don’t work that group for at least 5-7 days for recovery. While I did make gains with those routines, I don’t think I’ve ever really achieved my goals until I began a strength training program.  I gained an enormous amount of strength and a good 10-12 pounds of muscle.

The strength program introduced me to Olympic style lifts such as the squat and deadlift.  I consumed myself with squatting and deadlifting to the point where none of my pants fit me b/c of the massive lower body muscle gains.  After suffering a knee injury, I just never got back into the strength program for fear of re-injury. Continuing to exercise lightly a few times a week, I focused again on the traditional bodybuilding routines.  I also tried out some home exercise programs such as P90X.  P90X worked and worked well while I was on it.  But again something happened which prompted me to stop….until last week.

I stumbled upon Stronglifts 5×5 program online, and I decided to give the strength program another shot.  It only made sense, since I made the best gains while on this type of program.  It is also very simple to follow.   The routine is done three times a week and takes about 45 minutes to complete per session.