John Watson

Rip, I've been following your methods since early 2014. I'm 61 now. My best lifts were about 5 years ago:

Squat 320x1
Deadlift 380x3
Bench 195x3
Press 135x1

I really grinded and worked my ass off for every ounce I ever added to the bar. When I first started I was motivated by the numbers. Just trying to get that 3 plate squat, or 4 plate deadlift.

My biggest problem, and the basis for my question, is inconsistency, gaps in my training, not attributable to anything specific. Poor motivation, or laziness, or physical/mental exhaustion, or depression, being a pussy, whatever it is, I constantly have weeks long gaps in my training. This has been a constant over the last 10 years. It's almost as though I have to let all the accumulated fatigue dissipate.

Have you ever experienced this, or seen it in any of your trainees?

Basically what I'n doing now after a gap is quickly run my squat up to 135, 185, 225, and my deadlift from 185, 225, 275, using a 4 day split, and then 5 lbs a session from there, and similar with the pressing movements. But I always hit a point where I hit a gap. Am I overtraining, should I lighten up the regimen with more light medium days?

I find listening to your podcast, and reading your forum posts helps keep me immersed and actively thinking of training, which helps. Am I just being a pussy? What else helps drive discipline or motivation, how can I improve?

Mark Rippetoe

In the past ~50 years, I haven't had more than a 2-week layoff. If I don't train -- at some level -- I just don't feel right. Guilt is stronger within me than laziness. Your approach is probably healthier.

John Watson

Thanks, I appreciate the perspective, that's a pretty good training record. I definitely feel better when I train, and I feel much better about myself too. The guilt is there when I don't, and I do always go back to it.

I might need to be more conscious about alternating deadlifts with a less stressful pulling movement earlier in my training, I tend to stubbornly stick with heavy deadlifts for every session, greedily pursuing gains, and while it hasn't caused missed reps, it's probably causing more fatigue than necessary, leading to missed sessions.

Barry Halls

I have newly forming stains on, oddly, the lower half of my 4 top front teeth. It almost seems like they are turning transparent, almost in a straight line across them all. I have good dental hygiene and have had all one cavity in my life.

The only consistent dietary change since this started was a drastic increase in milk consumption. That and meth.

Is it the milk??

Mark Rippetoe

Milk, being white, is probably not the problem.

BareSteel

Excess fluoride intake during childhood can cause dental fluorosis. Sometimes the teeth look completely normal until your mouth gets very dry - then the stains become more visible. If the "new" stains are only visible some of the time, this might be the case (in which case the stains were always there, you just didn't notice).

Mark Rippetoe

A better question: Is milk racist?