Squat late novice, early intermediate, what to try

[Justin Shive]

Trying to figure out how best to finish my novice to intermediate for the squat. I've referenced the gray book a bunch but not sure beat option here...

I'm 41, been lifting consistently for 9 months. My upper body lifts are still progressing linearly and I'm deadlifting once a week. My deadlift is about 75# ahead of my squat and still progressing nicely.

After my squat NLP I added the light day, that drove a good bit of progress. I hit a wall and then reluctantly went to top sets twice a week with 2 90% drop sets, light squat in-between on Wednesday. That let me add another 20# to the bar. I'm now at 320# and have hit another plateau missing the final rep 3 straight workouts (same weight). Nothing negative has changed for rest, food, sickness, etc.

I really hoped to get to a heavier weight before making another change but here I am... I think I need to make another change after 3 straight failures. Bar speed is definitely down too.

Nick D., in the podcast about novice to intermediate, talks about once the top set of 5 twice a week no longer works going to only 1 top set of 5, followed by 2 at 90% for Monday, light day Wednesday, 3 sets of 5 on Friday at 90%. He says this doesn't work long, couple weeks tops, and knowing how I seem to react to changes, I'm not sure it'll work at all... I was also wondering about going to 3 triples on my heavy day instead of the top set of 5, then doing the remainder. Or alternatively, like the gray book discusses, as an alternative to the top sets doing triples twice a week with the light day in the middle while I can still add weight then going to one heavy day later... So deciding between:

M - 5x1/5x2@90%
W - 5x3 @80%
F - 5x3 @90%

or

M - 3x3
W/F same as above

or

M - 3x3
W - 3x3 @80%
F - 3x3

Unless someone more experienced has a better idea.

Anyway, trying to not overthink this but also trying to squeeze as much out of the squat as I can while my other lifts are still solidly NLP.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Post a video of a set of 5.

[Justin Shive]

Post a video of a set of 5.

Top set of 5 at 315

Video from a couple weeks ago, last full set of 5 I got.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Nothing wrong enough here to explain a stuck squat. But what is your height and bodyweight?

[Justin Shive]

5'7", 185