Deadlifts First Thing?

[AndrewLewis]

Yea I understand what you're saying. I've been thinking about this a lot. I always knew about "the first three questions" Rip wrote but upon reading it again I realize I just may not be eating enough. He made the statement no man ever got big and strong on 2500 calories. Well that's actually around what I'm eating right now.

Diet makes a huge difference in training progress. It can be the difference between ending LP squatting 225x5 and 355x5.

I was already mentally set against 3s until the way I've felt this weekend after I did that bench press. My triceps are a little sore and I swear they have a "pump" which is exactly opposite of what I thought 3s would do. Perhaps this forced growth whether they liked it or not, or whatever.

For linear progression, it's 5x3, not 3x3, but you're going to do 3s eventually anyway. At your age, it might be a good idea to try it sooner rather than later.

Anyway, thanks for helping. If I do find DLing first is the way to go as well, I decided that's what I'm going to do, but I'm going to experiment some more to find out what is up with all this.

You're welcome, and good luck. If you have other questions, feel free to post back here or email me if you want a more in-depth consult. It might be a good idea to visit Cameron Cox in Charleston depending on where you are in SC.

[David McClelland]

So this past week was very successful. I upped my carbs more and have had no problems with LP the whole week. I did bench press before deadlift on Wednesday with no problem. Bar went right up every time.

Deadlifts made my back so sore I didn't know if I'd be able to do squats Friday, and was contemplating going on a 1 on, 2 off thing and delay Friday's workout to Saturday, but my back recovered quickly enough that I decided to give it a shot, and am glad I did. Squats went up every time and were fine.

Next press will be 140.5 lbs and bench will be 200 lbs. Pretty proud of that given my size, structure (5'9" ectomorph who when young, was lucky to hit 145 lbs in high school), age and training experience.

My squats are behind because of all the resets and other issues and not proud of them, but I know they'll catch up now that I see the mistakes I made (calories, wasn't supposed to be doing resets at my age, anyway according to Barbell Prescription, have had a couple technique issues to work out).

I'll make sure calories are not the issue when I finally end LP on those, and have upped protein and fat a little more with the carbs.

So I don't know what was up with the pressing/deadlifting thing but whatever. I do know I had low energy and that wasn't rocket science to see why.

Thanks again for the help, anyway!

[Jovan Dragisic]

So I don't know what was up with the pressing/deadlifting thing but whatever. I do know I had low energy and that wasn't rocket science to see why.

I remember hitnog a wall on the press at the same weight as you. 135 is about the weight when you can no longer rely on brute force to push the bar up, but have to pay more attention to the proper bar path and keeping everything tight and so on. A missed press gasses you out for twenty minutes or so, more mentally than physically. Make sure you stay as tight as possible and aim the barbell at your nose.