What phase are you in on the program? Phase 2? I am and have introduced a light squat day but am about to introduce chin ups. I’m currently adding 5lb Monday and Friday and doing light squat Wednesday.
Hey all,
I have a great home gym set up so I decided to get serious about it using it. I've read the blue book and a big chunk of practical programming and I've watched a ton of video tutorials on the lifts. The first thing I did was to seek out form checks for the squat, which is a good idea because my form was waaay off.
In early May of this year, after I got my shit together with my form, I began SS. I have followed the program as closely as I can (man, I hope I can avoid a YNDTP). I started low, 120lbs on the squat, 150lbs on the deadlift, 50lbs on the press, and 100lbs on the bench. For the squat I added 10lbs for the first 6 workouts and then have been adding 5lbs every workout since. For the deadlift, I started with 15lb jumps for the first 6 workouts and then moved on to 5lb jumps. The book suggests that masters should consider smaller jumps on press and bench, so I chose 2.5lb jumps from the start and I'm still doing those. I incorporated the power clean when my deadlift was above bodyweight and 55lbs above my squat. That may have been a little early since my DL numbers are about the same as my squat numbers right now. In any case, I started with 105lbs on the PC and I'll be doing 145 on Monday. Oh, and my body weight started at 265 and I'm up to 282 now.
(I use the Starting Strength iOS app and I'm happy to share my training log if anyone thinks that's useful)
The press (and the bench) is super easy still and the DL goes up without much problem. The power clean is not hard except for the occasional bad form rep. As for the squat, I missed my training session on Monday and the previous Friday, so Wednesday was my first squat day in a week and 315 went up really well. Friday I completed 3x5 of 320lbs, but it was a lot harder and it took all my willpower to get all the reps completed. I do believe that since I have had the weekend to rest that 325 will go up pretty well, but I worry about 330 and 335 this week. I'm not sure if I'll have time to recover.
So the question is, for my squat, should I just keep at adding 5 lbs until miss reps in two workouts in a row, deload, build back up as though the fail never happened like a younger lifter is instructed to do? Or, since I'm a master, should I follow the advice in Practical Programming and go ahead and start doing the light day Wednesdays for the squat?
What phase are you in on the program? Phase 2? I am and have introduced a light squat day but am about to introduce chin ups. I’m currently adding 5lb Monday and Friday and doing light squat Wednesday.
I'm on phase 2. I think I have some linear progression to go yet on the DL, so I'm not quite ready to replace a DL workout with pull ups and back raises. I am leaning towards starting a light squat day like you're doing, but I guess I just wanted to see what the experts think about that.
Yes, light day.
Well, 325 went up well on Monday. It was hard, but not nearly as hard as 320 on Friday. I did 260 3x5 on Wednesday and then I just now got finished with 330 3x5 without too much difficulty just a few minutes ago. There isn't a lot of data there to go on, but it feels like a positive change. I'll be at 405 in 8 weeks with a light day (assuming all the usual caveats about eating and sleeping and doing the lifts), and that seems okay to me.