Programming suggestions for after LP

[kanethecitizen]

Hey everyone, this will be my first post here.

I've been following the Starting Strength LP for almost a year now (with a few layoffs), preceded by about a year of mostly messing around.

I started out the program on gomad at 6' tall, 170lbs, with a 225lb squat, 95lb press, and 315lb deadlift (working weights).

I'm now squatting 350 3x5, pressing 140 3x5, and deadlifting 410x5. I'm still 6' tall for some reason, but now I'm 200lbs. I'm 22 years old.

I feel like I've exhausted the LP program, and just had to take a week off because I was overtraining squatting heavy every session. Food didn't help, and I couldn't sleep well.

My question is this: given where I'm at now, where should I go from here? I want to keep getting stronger, but I don't want to keep feeling like sh*t all the time.

Thanks in advance.

[VikingCellist]

In Practical Programming for Strength Training, 3rd Edition by Rippetoe and Baker, an advanced novice program with a light day is written up. That may get you going again before you move to intermediate programming, which is also covered thouroughly in the same book.

[Charlie Davies]

Worth reading:
Short Guide To Intermediate Programming ? Andy Baker

[kanethecitizen]

In Practical Programming for Strength Training, 3rd Edition by Rippetoe and Baker, an advanced novice program with a light day is written up. That may get you going again before you move to intermediate programming, which is also covered thouroughly in the same book.

Thanks for the info, I'll have to pick a copy of that up. As far as the light day goes, I started doing that the last month or two with a lighter squat day on my deadlift day. The combination was too much to recover from otherwise.

What's your goal weight?

What did your last 5 sessions look like? How far apart were these sessions.

My goal bodyweight is around 210-220.
My last five squats were:
340x3x5, 345x5, 345x3x5, 350x5, 350x3x5
The single sets of five falling on my deadlift days. My days off were Tuesday Thursday Saturday Sunday.

By the end of that I felt like absolute sh*t 100% of the time. I wanted to sleep but my body wouldn't let me, and stuffing my face with food did nothing to help.

[Chebass88]

The first question is: What are your goals, and what would you like to accomplish in the next few months? Do you want a 405lb squat? Do you want a 500lb deadlift? A 200lb press?

How often do you want to train? 3X/week? 4X/week? There are some great programs with either 3 or 4 days of training per week.
Do you have any lifts you would like to concentrate on, such as OLY lifts, powerlifts, etc.
Are there any constraints on your training time (job / family / etc.)?


By asking yourself these questions, you can select a path forward that fits in your schedule, that helps you gain strength, and you can recover from.

Since you are at the beginning of "intermediate" programming, do yourself a favor and take very detailed notes on what you plan to do, what you did, and whether it works or not. Any program that you try, give it at least 4-6 weeks. Learn from the results of the 4-6 weeks, and use it to guide the next 4-6 weeks of training. Say, for example, a program worked REALLY well for squats, but your bench press or overhead press didn't go up too much, but you would really like them to - you could set up the next few weeks to focus a little more on pressing.

Taking detailed notes will help you learn the dosage of training necessary to progress. You might be able to get away with squatting only once per week, or even benching once per week.

Have fun, and don't be afraid to try something out. Learning something from your own experiences is a great way to learn, and will certainly help you a year or five from now.

[kanethecitizen]

Read Andy Baker's recent articles on HLM (posted in his forum or on his website) and start moving your lifts over to that format. You'll be moving to weekly gains, but your main stress event (H day) has 7 days to recover, and the M day will prime your body for the next H day event. Your life will improve. No bullshit.

I'll give those articles a read through for sure, thanks.

The first question is: What are your goals, and what would you like to accomplish in the next few months? Do you want a 405lb squat? Do you want a 500lb deadlift? A 200lb press?

How often do you want to train? 3X/week? 4X/week? There are some great programs with either 3 or 4 days of training per week.
Do you have any lifts you would like to concentrate on, such as OLY lifts, powerlifts, etc.
Are there any constraints on your training time (job / family / etc.)?


By asking yourself these questions, you can select a path forward that fits in your schedule, that helps you gain strength, and you can recover from.

Since you are at the beginning of "intermediate" programming, do yourself a favor and take very detailed notes on what you plan to do, what you did, and whether it works or not. Any program that you try, give it at least 4-6 weeks. Learn from the results of the 4-6 weeks, and use it to guide the next 4-6 weeks of training. Say, for example, a program worked REALLY well for squats, but your bench press or overhead press didn't go up too much, but you would really like them to - you could set up the next few weeks to focus a little more on pressing.

Taking detailed notes will help you learn the dosage of training necessary to progress. You might be able to get away with squatting only once per week, or even benching once per week.

Have fun, and don't be afraid to try something out. Learning something from your own experiences is a great way to learn, and will certainly help you a year or five from now.

Very good advice, thank you.

So I should definitely be moving to an intermediate program? My goals are to get strong, as strong as possible without killing myself or spending an insane amount of time in the gym. Ideally no more than three days a week in the gym. I've been thinking about doing something along the lines of a pretty minimal program, focused on strength. Do you have any general suggestions?

[Chebass88]

...
Very good advice, thank you.

So I should definitely be moving to an intermediate program? My goals are to get strong, as strong as possible without killing myself or spending an insane amount of time in the gym. Ideally no more than three days a week in the gym. I've been thinking about doing something along the lines of a pretty minimal program, focused on strength. Do you have any general suggestions?

You're welcome. An intermediate program isn't necessarily a bad thing. The guidance used around here is that you move to an intermediate program once it is no longer possible to progress on a per-session basis, and instead progress on a weekly basis.

There are lots of general suggestions, especially for a minimal program. For example, you could do 4-6 lifts in two sessions and be in and out of the gym in less than an hour each time, and still progress your lifts.

Speaking personally, I've made excellent progress training for about an hour each session, up to four times per week (one day each for squat / deadlift / bench / press). I took my squat to 535, deadlift to 635, bench to 365, and press to 235 training in this style. Personally, I gain the most strength while doing ~20-24 lifts at ~80% maximum (as doubles or triples), with 2-3 minutes between sets, each lift done once per week for adequate recovery. It took a while to learn exactly what worked and to discard what didn't, but detailed notes helped quite a bit.

I'm hesitant to offer specific recommendations, as one's training program should be tailored to your goals and lifestyle. For example, the Texas Method is 3X/week, but you could end up spending a significant time on "Volume Day" (up to 2-2.5 hours in one session), and in general, beats the hell out of you. One thing that might help is to read through the training logs on this site and see how other folks train and what they do. The only caveat is to recognize that other trainees might be at a different level of strength, and might require a slightly different approach.

[Luke S]

Also, you can start doing only one heavy set of five and then back off sets, instead of three sets across.