Q&A, three part post: Lifting, lifestyles, nutrition, etc. **LONG**

[TxRedMan]

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Have you ever been on a routine where you did 3 sets of 5 OR 5 sets of 5? (not counting warm-ups) What kind of results did you get?

Question about the squat: I think since I've just recently been doing FULL squats (2 months or so), that all my muscles aren't balanced. My knees tend to move a bit, they want to adduct (come together). I currently do squats 3 times a week @ 3 sets of 5. It's very hard to perform the sets btw. What should I do to correct my knee movement? Should I back off on the weight a little, do assistance exercises, change stance?

I also recently hurt my muscle or connective tissue where the pec muscle connects to the arm/shoulder, probably because I started too fast. I know I have to leave bench press alone for awhile, but was wondering if you have any guidelines I should follow. Also, I am able to do standing overhead press without a hint of pain, and if I replaced flat bench with OHP in my program, I would be doing OHP 3 times a week @ 3 sets of 5. Is this sustainable or should I do something else to compensate for my injury?

I would appreciate anybody else's input as well.

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the only time i did 3x5 or 5x5 was when i was doing 15+ sets on bench, and i just so happened to do (x) sets of 5 reps.

5 sets on bench isn't enough for strength training. if you're serious about bench, you need to be doing 10+ sets, however, it's hard to count them all as 'set's as you'll be doing negatives in the routine.


per your squatting problem:

i would do less weight until it went away, or do only as much as i could do w/o that problem occuring.

focus on heavy leg presses if it doesnt go away and you want to train legs heavy.

per your pec problem: i've had the same thing happen to me, recently, actually.

do not do inlcine bench press!

if you can do OHP, try doing them seated. it's more controlled and you can lift heavier when seated.

i would take 4-8 weeks off from bench press, and test the waters very slowly when i came back.


also, take anti inflammatory's pre workout.