I'm running ICF 5x5, and I've come to a point where it will always take me at least two workouts to progress on any given exercise.
My lifts are all very small right now, I'm very much a beginner. My workouts are taking over 2 hours due to the rest time. Is this supposed to happen? What do you suggest I do?
>>36599934
You're as tiny as I am. I just lift heavy things and eat food. Results are coming in. Im 5 weeks into lifting. 6 pounds of lean mass acquired. I weigh 142 now. Im also 21 if that matters.
>>36599934
Rest time will for sure decrease as you go to the gym consistently. I constantly had an issue with low blood sugar when I first started out. You may know the feeling, light headedness, slight nausea. My advice is to have a source of sugar with you like gatorade or juice or something.
>>36599934
I suggest you stop doing ICF.
ICF was my first routine and while I did grow on it, I stalled very quickly as you describe, simply put, the volume was too much to recover from, and I think that is the case for most guys.
Whatever your goals, drop the volume. Your goal at this stage of the game is to build a solid foundation. I would do sean10mm's Starting Strength (The one in the sticky, slight alteration of the original Rippetoe), I moved onto that and I very quickly hit 1/2/3/4pl8 goals pretty fast. There is direct arm work (curls,chins,dips,tri extensions etc) if you're worried about the T-Rex meme.
TL;DR Honestly, I do not rate ICF that highly. If you do insist on sticking with it however, once you completely stop progression drop the 5x5 movements to 3x5.
Also try eating more, you'd be surprised.
>>36600555
Should I fully switch to SS, or just drop the compounds to 3x5?
And I started eating more a couple months back, 3,020 calories a day. It helped, but I'm looking to cut in about a month because I don't like the fat I'm gaining.
>>36600915
Sorry I misread that. You're saying I should switch to the varient in the sticky, gotcha
Do Lollipop Fitness 6 x 9 instead
>>36600555
The program says it only has 6 movements. What were you thinking of when you said curls and dips and all that?
>>36599934
wished my gym had all of that equipment, what's the name of the facility that you lift at?
Switch to 3x5, when that fails switch to weekly progression, when that fails switch to periodic programming. Focus on your form, if your form is already shit on the third rep then don't progress even if you make all five
>>36601777
GoodLife Fitness, major chain in Canada
>>36601764
What? Are you confusing it with Strong Lifts? Ice Cream Fitness is basically Strong Lifts (which does only have six exercises) plus a bunch of accessories. It's got like seven movements per work out, much less entirely.
>>36600915
I too would recommend switching to SS, but I wouldn't bother with the sticky version. The additions are all good exercises, but I'd save them until you're done with Starting Strength (though by this point I'd guess that should only be another 6-8 weeks).
>>36601967
I mean the stickied version of SS only has 6. In the message I replied to, it said it had curls and dips and stuff
>>36601977
My lifts are still miserably little though
Bumping again so I have more opinions
>>36601995
Except it doesn't, the sticky'd version is this one: http://newbie-fitness.blogspotDOTcoDOTuk/2006/12/rippetoes-starting-strength.html
>>36604700
For those who don't get it, I had to remove .co.uk, because 4chan thought it was a spam post.
>>36599959
> Im 5 weeks into lifting. 6 pounds of lean mass acquired.
kek
