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Thread: New Geezer at 1-month in. Am I doing this right?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
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    Default New Geezer at 1-month in. Am I doing this right?

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    Hi folks. Glad to be here.

    So, I'm a Joe-average, 5'9, 190 lbs, pretty out of shape male just passing 45-ish. I live in the mountains out WEST in the USA.

    I lifted in high school and college, mostly because of Football. Exercise over the last 15 years for me has been simply that: "exercise."

    I realized that I have become weak, especially in my upper body. I have lingering shoulder injuries (old rotator cuff surgery) and my shoulders bother me more the weaker they are. They have been bothering me a lot lately.


    I Stumbled upon the "Barbell Prescription" book recommended in some newsletter or other, and here I am.

    I am loving getting back under the bar! I got the Starting Strength App (and have read SS) and am midway through Barbell Prescription (that's a big book!). I jumped into using the SS app right away.

    Is this progression shown for my first month OK for the over-40 crowd? I realized I had just left the app on all the default settings, and just am doing what it says . . . one problem I ran into right away was battling a groin pull on the squat.. I'm wondering when I should switch to 5-lb progressions? Thanks for listening!

    3/21 - 4/06
    Dead 185 - 225
    Squat 125 - 185
    Bench 135 - 150
    Press 95 - 105
    pclean 115 - 125

    Weight 190 - 192

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2010
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    Murphysboro, IL
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    Looks to me like you're doing OK. I am a little surprised you made bigger gains on your squat than your deadlift, but we all got our little quirks and variants on how we progress and on what.

    You switch to 5 lb. increments when you can't do 10 lb. increments. This will almost certainly happen on OHP's and benches before DL's and squats.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark E. Hurling View Post
    Looks to me like you're doing OK. I am a little surprised you made bigger gains on your squat than your deadlift, but we all got our little quirks and variants on how we progress and on what.
    Yeah, I think I can put that down to guessing at my starting weights -- I think I started pretty light with squats and then added 20 lbs or something on my second workout, which makes it a little off from the others.

    By switching to 5 lbs when you "can't do" 10, does that mean multiple failures, or just your first failure? For example if you get sets of say (5,5,3) one day and (5,5,4) the next time is that a fail? Or is the very first time you miss a set a signal that you hit the wall with 10-lb increments?
    Last edited by Masher; 04-10-2017 at 04:40 PM.

  4. #4
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    Opinions on this vary, but I'd say if you can't make all your reps in all your sets after 3 sessions, it's time to drop to 5 lb. increments.

  5. #5
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    I'm very much of the opinion that you drop the increment for the next session when you step out from under the bar after a successful Set 3 and can honestly say "there was NOT one more rep in there...".

    Let's say that happened at 185x5x3 on Friday and you ignored me and went up to 195x5x3 for the next session and got 5,5,3 on Monday. On Wednesday, you repeat this session and get 5,5,4. On Friday, you make one last go of it and succeed at 195x5x3. Convinced now that the 10lb jumps are over, you schedule Monday for 200x5x3.

    Let's say that happened at 185x5x3 on Friday and you decided 10lb jumps are over and scheduled 5lb increments henceforth. Monday is 190x5x3, Wednesday is 195x5x3, Friday is 200x5x3 and Monday is now scheduled for 205x5x3.

    So, you end up actually progressing faster and without any of the drama.

    The average Simian can figure out that it's a tie ballgame if you only fail to complete the session once, but succeed on the following session. Fail the same weight for 2 sessions, though and reducing the increment earlier would've put you ahead.

    Last thought: as we watch people careen around hither and fro attempting to negotiate the private Hell known as the Novice Linear Progression, we see that a nice, tidy single-session "stall" is a rare thing indeed. The "two-session" hiccup is pretty normal and it is about a 50/50 wager whether a novice trainee with only a few weeks experience to draw from is going to correct his programming, sleep, intraset rest, food intake, form errors and return to a nice smooth display of linear progress in strength development OR.......... if he'll get discouraged, allow mistakes or misunderstandings to overwhelm his progress and have the wheels come completely off the Gain Train. I submit that failing reps and therefore messing up the designed progress of the program is a much bigger and much more likely fatal error for a rank novice than it is for most of the guys whose LPs are distant memories.

    Reduce the increment. Do not threaten to stop your progress when you could be accepting steady-but-slower progress.

  6. #6
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    Mar 2017
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    If you hit the point where 5lb increments aren't happening (press or bench press, most likely), get some warm-up bat weights. These come in a variety of weights, and are just the right size to slip onto a standard barbell.

    I keep 4 1lb weights in my gym bag and bring them out to get smaller increments on the upper body lifts, helps with motivation because I can keep making progress when I'd probably stall if I were making 5lb jumps.

  7. #7
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    Bill Been's advice matches my experience. I do better if I drop to smaller increments before actually failing.

  8. #8
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    starting strength coach development program
    Thanks for the reply Bill (and everyone else). I'm taking the advice to not "get greedy" to heart.

    It has been a bit surprising thus far -- I feel like I'm close to hitting a wall with a couple of lifts, but then I pack on a pound or two and then the weight seems "light" again, which to me is a sign that adaption is going as planned. Pretty cool.

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