Stalling ridiculously early

[oldpuck]

I recognize the cliche idiocy of having the first post to this forum be "stall plz help", yet here I am. Some context.

I started the SS beginner program in late January. 35 years old, 5'9", 170 pounds. I found myself losing weight and rapidly stalling out. A concerted effort to consume as much as I could choke down - ~4k calories a day, 150 grams of protein minimum - and a willingness to reset embarrassingly early made a little progress. At the end of March

Squat: 180lb 3X5
Press: 67.5 3X5
Bench: 110 3X5
Deadlift: 200 1X5

At this point I stalled again - it should be noted that if I stalled out on the squat, I was usually going to stall out on everything, and this was no different. I sought advice in a few other forums, as well as via a friend who is a personal trainer and strong man competitor who turned me onto Starting Strength in the first place. I decided to begin the program again, starting this time with a completely empty bar on all exercises to eliminate any possibility of foolish greediness, and to increase my food intake. Over the last 10 weeks I have put on 12 pounds. 5 weeks ago I began stalled out on both the Squat and the Press. I've reset twice and stalled out at the same place on both exercises. I missed reps on the deadlift for the first time that same day. I haven't missed reps on the bench yet, but I would be very unsurprised if that happens in tomorrow's workout. Note that the numbers are very similar to where they were in March - in fact, squat is identical.

35 years old, 5'9", 182 pounds.
Squat: 180lb 3X5
Press: 87.5 3X5
Bench: 125 3X5
Deadlift: 225 1X5

A few additional pieces of info.

My gut is getting bigger. I have no attachment to abs I never had, and don't object to gaining weight, but my career is as an actor. I currently can't fit in costumes that were cut to my size a month ago, due to 2 inches of growth in my stomach. This is not just embarrassing, it also affects my ability to get work. 12 pounds of weight gain, with an increasing belly size and no increase in squat or press strength is... demoralizing.

Eating more food is hard. Not just because the sheer quantity of food I'm currently eating leaves me perpetually nauseated, but because I don't have money for much more food. Life of a poor artist, I suppose. If eating is the barrier, then I'll figure something out, but 100% of my income goes to rent and food at this point.

My sleep is generally pretty good but I've suffered from intermittent insomnia my whole life. Every few weeks we'll have a night with 2-3 hours of sleep. It's irregular, and my schedule has allowed some shifting of workout days so I'm always working out rested - MWF schedule has shifted to TTS and back a couple times over the last 6 months, but I've managed to not miss workouts but twice.

I've read Starting Strength, Practical Programming multiple times each, and Mean Ol' Mister Gravity once. I'm sure there are pieces of information that I've failed to retain there, but it looks like the responses to such early stalls are limited to "eat more, sleep more, take smaller jumps." It seems beyond the realm of plausibility that I would need to, say, microload the squat at this point in my career, and while I'm not gaining huge amounts of weight, I'm not a skinny guy in his 20s either, and weight gain is above the "pound a week" guideline.

I'm at a loss.

[Charlie Davies]

I'm assuming you are male, your numbers would be pretty good if female.

Your story is similar to mine, except that I started older (45).
I've noticed that people who start SS already heavy, or who were athletes in their teens, hit bigger numbers than people who stayed skinny/weak past their youth.

You might get your testosterone checked.
And you might have to just switch to intermediate programming and resign yourself to growing muscle slowly.

Beware trying to gain a pound per week when you are stalled.
If your lifts aren't going up, likely that pound is pure fat, and not helpful.
Particularly if your long-term goal is looking good on-stage.

[oldpuck]

Yes, should have said. Male.

[Leanne M. Lloyd]

How much rest are you getting between work sets?

How big of jumps are you taking for each of the lifts?

Also, have you ever had an SSC look at your form on the lifts? Or done a form check on the forums/facebook group? From a technical aspect, I think that the bench is probably the easiest to not fail due to technique.

[Jeff Illingworth]

Post some form videos and a couple weeks of training logs. That'll help us help you.

[oldpuck]

Rest between sets: For squats, and presses (which are the workouts I'm primarily concerned about) 5-8 minutes, depending. Usually about 5 minutes is enough for heart rate to drop and for any wobble/stiffness from the previous set to go.

Jumps: 5 pounds for squats, deadlifts and bench, 2.5 pounds for the press, though I made some bigger jumps for the deadlift early on. I was waiting for the bench to miss reps before pulling the jumps back to 2.5 - every workout I think this will be the one, and it's not, but it'll be in the next one or two.

I've had my form checked by trainers in person - the guy who got me turned onto SS was my personal trainer for a while and gave me the basics, plus periodic checks since. I'll see what I can do about training videos. I don't have a stand I can set the phone in, and the layout of the gym makes it hard to freehand it, so the angle might be weird.

Below are training logs, hopefully with no mistakes transposing from notes on my phone to the computer

6/16 6/19 6/21 6/23
Squat 180X5/4/3 145x3x5 150x3x5 155x3x5
Press 85x4/4/2 n/a 85x4/5/4 n/a
Bench n/a 120x5/1/1 n/a 105x3x5
Dead 215x1x5 n/a 220x1x5 n/a

6/26 6/28 6/30
Squat 160x3x5 165x3x5 170x3x5
Press 85x3x5 n/a 87.5x5/5/3
Bench n/a 110x3x5 n/a
Dead 225x1x5 n/a 230x1x5

7/3 7/5 7/7 7/10
Squat 175x3x5 180x3x3 180x3x3 180x3/3/2
Press n/a 87.5x5/5/4 n/a 87.5x4/4/3
Bench 115x3x5 n/a 120x3x5 n/a
Dead n/a 235x1x3 n/a 235x1x3

[Leanne M. Lloyd]

150 grams of protein seems a bit low; can you get 175g a day?

At this point, there's little advice to give without seeing your squat/press/deadlift. Since you haven't had a certified SSC review your lifts, I would post some form checks in the SSC Q&A forum, or even in the SS facebook group. My guess is that something isn't quite right with your technique.

Also, just out of curiosity... did you fail 180 on 07.05.17 & 07.07.17? Or did you decide to only do three? Just curious since I can't tell for sure from above.

[oldpuck]

re: moar protein.

I'm doubtful? It was an enormous amount of work to get up to 150 - both in terms of stomaching it at all, and budgeting to afford it. Frankly the dietary situation is already pretty unpleasant - meals made mostly of meat I don't want and can't afford, and pooping a dream deferred. But I'll see what I can do when the next paycheck comes in.

I presume by SSC you mean the starting strength coach forums here? I'll try to see what I can get at tomorrow's workout. A few workouts trying to break 180, and my form gets worse every time just from being worn out. Should I back off a little for a formcheck video?

Yes, those 180s were all failures.

[Charlie Davies]

For a form check video, use a weight that's challenging but not crushing you.

There's a sticky in the SSC forum about how to make a video useful for coaching. Angle, lighting, cropping, etc. Don't make a useless video, it just wastes time.

[Jr_Geezer]

Rest between sets: For squats, and presses (which are the workouts I'm primarily concerned about) 5-8 minutes, depending. Usually about 5 minutes is enough for heart rate to drop and for any wobble/stiffness from the previous set to go.

Jumps: 5 pounds for squats, deadlifts and bench, 2.5 pounds for the press, though I made some bigger jumps for the deadlift early on. I was waiting for the bench to miss reps before pulling the jumps back to 2.5 - every workout I think this will be the one, and it's not, but it'll be in the next one or two.

I've had my form checked by trainers in person - the guy who got me turned onto SS was my personal trainer for a while and gave me the basics, plus periodic checks since. I'll see what I can do about training videos. I don't have a stand I can set the phone in, and the layout of the gym makes it hard to freehand it, so the angle might be weird.

Below are training logs, hopefully with no mistakes transposing from notes on my phone to the computer

6/16 6/19 6/21 6/23
Squat 180X5/4/3 145x3x5 150x3x5 155x3x5
Press 85x4/4/2 n/a 85x4/5/4 n/a
Bench n/a 120x5/1/1 n/a 105x3x5
Dead 215x1x5 n/a 220x1x5 n/a

6/26 6/28 6/30
Squat 160x3x5 165x3x5 170x3x5
Press 85x3x5 n/a 87.5x5/5/3
Bench n/a 110x3x5 n/a
Dead 225x1x5 n/a 230x1x5

7/3 7/5 7/7 7/10
Squat 175x3x5 180x3x3 180x3x3 180x3/3/2
Press n/a 87.5x5/5/4 n/a 87.5x4/4/3
Bench 115x3x5 n/a 120x3x5 n/a
Dead n/a 235x1x3 n/a 235x1x3

What are you doing for warm-up sets?