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Originally Posted by Gary Gibson
Good call on trying linear progression, especially if you're going to be eating yourself to man-dom.
When I first attempted "SS" it was a couple years ago, before I even had the book and I screwed up plenty of things as most noobs do. I took my squat from 225 3x5 to (IIRC) 375 3x5. DL went from 225 1x5 to 385 1x5. This was with gaining less than 5lbs overall mass, though I was a chubby fella at around 6'1", 240. Bench sets went from 185 3x5 to 230-235 before I finally started missing reps (every set was hard, but the reps kept coming - note that I also did 2 sets of dips after bench...). Press went from like nothing (95?) to about 140-145 3x5. The only reason I stopped was a wakeboarding injury to my shoulder that required surgery. Otherwise I feel like low to mid 400's in the squat/dead would have been easy, and like I said, I didn't even really know what I was doing at the time. Nor was I naturally strong, recovering lost strength, etc.
I've used linear progression several times since after injuries, etc, though my true noob gains are pretty much over. Had I done it correctly, I really think I would have squatted/DL'd 500 at least a year earlier than I did - possibly within a year of starting to lift at all.
I will also say that I think doing 20lb jumps at all is a poor idea for anyone with any experience. Only a noob starting to DL with the bar is in that realm. Slow progress is key. Don't get greedy and don't hesitate to start taking smaller jumps. Kittensmash started doing 2.5lb jumps on his squat (still 3x/wk!) and got up to 410 3x5 (IIRC) before getting injured outside of the gym. Smaller jumps may take a couple more weeks to get where you want, but in the big picture, what's a couple weeks?
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