While most workout routines go up in difficulty, this program is a bit different because the first two weeks deal with muscular hypertrophy. That means that the first two weeks have you lifting with lower weights and higher reps until your body is completely broken down. This is done to gain muscle mass, which as I mentioned in the last post, is needed to lift more weight.
You don't reach hypertrophy on a 5x5 program.
My leg muscles finally cracked under the pressure and I got a really painful muscle sprain in my inner thigh that kept me bedridden for most of yesterday. It was hurting so bad that I couldn't walk or bend my knees. I'm feeling better now that I spent a day icing the injury, dumping Ibuprofens down my throat, and making sure to keep my knee above my waist. I'm feeling much better today; however, today is also another leg day. If I don't feel at 100% by the time I get to the gym, I'll just work the upper body today and put off leg day until tomorrow.
Week two is supposed to be more brutal, at least as far as the legs go. If my legs are up for it, I'm supposed to squat 190 pounds 10 times, followed by 5x3 sets of 195 today.
With the upper body, ever since I started just going parallel with my arms on the bench press to avoid flaring up the calcium deposit in my shoulder, I'm getting much stronger very fast. I've also set a personal record on the dumbbell overhead press, finally breaking triple digits after lifting weights for years. So, I have that going for me.
If I manage to survive week two, it gets much easier. The last few weeks are high weights with low reps. So long as I warm up first, I won't walk away limping.
There's been a few other things that went on this week that I plan on writing about in separate posts, including changes in my diet and a post on aging.
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