The Renaissance

The alarm on my phone goes off, it is 5.15am. A chilly Wednesday morning outside, but thankfully the mornings have been getting gradually brighter every week so it doesn’t feel as early as it actually is. I rise, get dressed and wearily make my way downstairs to have some protein Weetabix. After I gobble down my breakfast while trying to not fall asleep I head back upstairs and  brush my teeth, wash my face and pack my bag with the days essentials; lunch, bananas, water bottle, gym clothes and earphones. I make my way outside, feed our two cute fur babies and head for the gym. I have been playing around with the idea of properly getting back to the gym after far too long off. It has been just over a year since the wedding, and since then I have still been going to the gym but nowhere near enough as I used to. I’d usually go on a Saturday morning, do one of my upper or lower body routines half-heartedly and go home. As time went on I saw less and less of the gym, months would soon go by, I’d promise myself I’d get back in to it but would always let myself down.

Around the beginning of April 2016 I noticed I had lost a bit of weight, my newbie gains had almost vanished and what little strength I had was no more. I had recently started a new job in Leeds with an awkward start and finish time and I usually didn’t make it home until 7.30pm which meant no time for gym on a night. Even if I did have the energy to go to the gym, my routines usually lasted around an hour or so which meant I’d have no free time at home at all. I began to do some more research. Previously, when searching for a workout routine I came across Stronglifts 5x5, tried it for a week and gave up. Far too difficult for me. But now, every time I looked for a simple, quick, newbie friendly workout routine which also catered for tall skinny guys, Stronglifts 5x5 would come up. I decided to read more into this and give it a proper go.

In short, Stronglifts 5x5 focuses on the main compound lifts only. No isolation exercises, no high repetitions, no training to failure. It’s simply 5 sets, of 5 reps per session (except deadlifts).

Workout A	Workout B
Squat	Squat
Bench Press	Overhead Press
Bent Over Row	Deadlift ( 1x5)

When you begin on Stronglifts 5x5 you start with the empty barbell (except on deadlifts and bent over rows), which is usually 20kg, and if you hit 5 reps for 5 sets on a certain lift, the next time you do this lift you simply add 1.25kg each side of the barbell. Progressive overload is key. This was the one thing which I hadn’t been doing in my previous workouts, I just used to load up the barbell with a random weight, or pick a random set of dumbbells. I had finally found a smart yet simple and effective workout routine. In and out of the gym in 40 minutes. Perfect.

So back to my Wednesday morning, 13^th April.  I got to the gym for 5.55am, walked up the stairs and to my absolute delight the gym was almost empty, except for few old aged pensioners on the treadmills. After changing into my new gym shorts and my Boston t-shirt I walked up to one of the empty power racks. The great thing about this 5x5 routine is that it comes with a handy free app. This app is great for tracking your progress along with telling you exactly what weight you need to use for your workout. You start by selecting workout A, and for the squat and bench press you select 20kg which is the empty bar, and for the bent over row you select 30kg, which is the empty bar plus a 5kg plate each side. Then, you simply select how many reps you’ve managed to hit, and if you’ve hit all 5 reps for all 5 sets it will congratulate you, and tell you which weight to use next session. However if you fail, it will tell you to repeat this with the same weight next session until you managed to get all reps for all sets.

Now I had previously squatted before, the most weight I managed to squat was a meagre 30kg with bad form. Here I was starting with the empty barbell, but after not hitting lets for so long in the gym, 5x5 of the empty barbell ruined me! I managed to hit 5x5 on the squat and the app told me next time I’d be squatting 22.5kg. Next up was the bench press, again with the empty barbell. The most I had previously bench pressed was 30kg but again this was with incredibly bad form. The main point of Stronglifts 5x5 is to focus on correct form, adding weight when successfully completing a lift, and most of all staying safe. Last for me on this first workout was the bent over row, this was supposed to be done using a barbell which I had never attempted before. I had usually done single arm bent over rows with dumbbells, or cable rows or the machine rows. Stronglifts 5x5 wanted you to use the barbell which engages more muscles. As each rep of the barbell bent over row begins from the ground you can’t use the empty bar, therefore you start with 30kg for your first session. I failed. I only managed to hit 5 reps for my first 3 sets, then 3 reps on the fourth set and 2 on the fifth. Once I inputted this into my app it told me next time to try again with 30kg until I successfully complete all reps and sets.

On checking my watch I noticed it was only 6.35am, this mammoth workout session had only taken me 40 minutes or so and yet I felt like my entire body had a workout. I had enough time to slowly walk back towards the dressing room, change, and make my way to my bus stop all in time for my usual bus to town. This was great. I had been worried when I started my new job that I’d never have time for the gym but after realising that there is a one hour window of opportunity in the morning before I go to work which was being wasted sleeping. I’d usually wake around 5am anyway and toss and turn until my alarm would go off at 6.15am. If I could just wake myself up at 5.15am three times a week, I could get back into the gym lifestyle again, and still have a life outside and free time at home. This was great. This was my Renaissance.

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