New Lifter - Failed My First Lift - What Now?

[Eric17]

New Lifter doing LP for 8 weeks - 3 days a week

Age: 49 years 6 months
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 180 lbs
Eating: 3000 Calories a day

Current Lifts
Squat 230x5x3 (adding 5 pounds each time)
Deadlift 265x5x3 (adding 10 pounds each time) had taken a week off due straining my back with poor technique. Fixed that and continued on.
Bench 170x3x3 - 170x2x2 - 170x1x1 - FAILED (adding 2 pounds now)
Press 117x4x4 (adding 2 pounds now)

So I failed my first life yesterday on the Bench. I was able to push out the above set/reps (Total 14 reps) before I failed. Should I stay at 170 until I can push out 15 reps or should I shrug it off and add 2 pounds on Friday?

Thanks for any insight

[Mark Rippetoe]

Repeat the numbers next time you bench.

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

[Eric17]

Repeat the numbers next time you bench.

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

Thank you for information!

[Martin Shenfield]

Someone else will probably say this but why are you doing 3 sets of deadlifts?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Someone else will probably say this but why are you doing 3 sets of deadlifts?

Good question. I read too fast.

[Eric17]

Good question. I read too fast.

That was a typo on my part. I am doing 1 set of deadlifts for 5 reps

[Eric17]

Went to the gym this evening. Was feeling run down but was eager to train. However, it did not go to plan. I did weigh myself again and I'm at 186 lbs.

Squats were hard but doable at 235x5x3

Bench I pushed with all my might with proper form etc. 170x3x1, 170x2x1, 170x1x1 at this point I felt like I should do some work for the night and did 160x4x4. When failing like this should I just try to push out singles until I get to 15 reps? I probably could have at the expense of time.

I only added 5 lbs to the DL so eekd out 270x5x1

For rest, I get about 10 hours of physical rest and about 6 hours of sleep. 6 hours has been my natural amount for most of my life where I wake up automatically and I just rest until it's time to get going for the day. Starting the program doesn't seem to have affected my sleep duration. Sleep hygiene is good, no tv or phone, dark cool room, no distractions really.

Thank you for the help

[Maybach]

You want to keep volume the same as much as possible: otherwise you run the risk of digging yourself a "hole" if you fail repeatedly. If you can only do singles, you can probably reduce the weight until you can at least get triples.

Being unable to complete subsequent sets, especially after (presumably) 168 moved for 3x5, means it's a fuel issue. Eat a bigger breakfast. Sleep more, and eat more. Not "a lot" or "what has always been enough before", more than you are now

[Eric17]

Went to the gym this evening. Was feeling run down but was eager to train. However, it did not go to plan. I did weigh myself again and I'm at 186 lbs.

Squats were hard but doable at 235x5x3

Bench I pushed with all my might with proper form etc. 170x3x1, 170x2x1, 170x1x1 at this point I felt like I should do some work for the night and did 160x4x4. When failing like this should I just try to push out singles until I get to 15 reps? I probably could have at the expense of time.

I only added 5 lbs to the DL so eekd out 270x5x1

For rest, I get about 10 hours of physical rest and about 6 hours of sleep. 6 hours has been my natural amount for most of my life where I wake up automatically and I just rest until it's time to get going for the day. Starting the program doesn't seem to have affected my sleep duration. Sleep hygiene is good, no tv or phone, dark cool room, no distractions really.

Thank you for the help

Just watched Nick D's video on Press and Bench Press Programming. It seems like going down to 160 wasn't the way to go so on the next workout I will push out 15 reps of 170 lbs with whatever set/rep scheme I can.

[Eric17]

Our posts were both in the cue apparently, I will make sure to be better fueled. Two weeks ago a few hours before my session I ate a pound of 93% lean ground beef scrambled with some American cheese, so about 1000 calories and 100g of protein. I felt like a million bucks in the gym and my squats felt like I was attached to SpaceX Starship. I'll give that a try again as the past two weeks I've been focusing more on carbs before a session.