General
I keep having to have the realization, epiphany, or whatever you want to call it that I’m only in it for strength, not size / mass. The only thing I should care about during this 12 week MadCow 5×5 program are numbers, specifically the numbers in my spreadsheet that put me at an estimated 1000lbs+ total. It’s a hard coming off a 2 month bodybuilding program where I saw noticeable aesthetic gains and I didn’t even train that intense. Strength training on the other hand is very intense, the last 2 sets of the major lifts are always “Oh shit, here we go!” and I have to give it everything I have. Doing that for 3 big lifts leaves you with almost nothing in the tank. My original plan was to follow MadCow 5×5 proper (which I do) and follow up with 2 accessory exercises for hypertrophy. What I’ve found so far is I have almost no gas or time left to train more. I think I read somewhere “make the gym part of your life, not your whole life” and at the 1h 30m mark, it becomes too consuming with my schedule. I think with more discipline I should be able to get the main lifts done in about 50m instead of the 1h 15m it’s taking me now.
So far I’ve hit all my lifts without issue. I did skip one of the de-load squat sets (workout B, last set) because my shoulder was bothering me from playing with lowbar squat.