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Thread: Am I past the novice phase?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2019
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    Default Am I past the novice phase?

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    I am just coming off of Mike Matthew’s Bigger Leaner Stronger program after a year and a half of running it. It is a “powerbuilding” program and it got me pretty strong with a good amount of muscle mass. I have just finished reading Starting Strength and I would like to move to purely strength training, but I’m not sure if I need to do SS Novice progression or if I should do an intermediate program. Here are my numbers.
    Bodyweight: 170
    Squat: 385 x1
    Deadlift: 425 x1
    Bench Press: 280 x1
    Press: 185 x1

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    You can do the lp if you want. It will be shorter than it would have been if you started from 0, but you will probably see some gains, even if small. I would start with the standard lp and asses your situation once that stops working.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
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    Nate has it. Assuming you're not really short, you should gain some weight while you do this, which will probably allow you to milk some LP that you didn't before due to caloric restriction. If it doesn't, move on, but it likely will. Give yourself a running start by planning your first 5 rep PRs in week 3 or so, and gain some weight - doing that, my guess is you'll get a couple months past that with advanced novice manipulations.

  4. #4
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    May 2019
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Wolf View Post
    Nate has it. Assuming you're not really short, you should gain some weight while you do this, which will probably allow you to milk some LP that you didn't before due to caloric restriction. If it doesn't, move on, but it likely will. Give yourself a running start by planning your first 5 rep PRs in week 3 or so, and gain some weight - doing that, my guess is you'll get a couple months past that with advanced novice manipulations.

    I actually am pretty short haha! I’m 5’6”. Before I started lifting I weighed 135. So I’ve put on 35 pounds while staying under 10% bf. I’m someone who doesn’t put on body fat very easily.
    Im not sure what you are suggesting in the second part of your post about planning the 5 rep PRs. I didn’t think the LP had any PR testing periods in it.
    Thanks for your guys help!

  5. #5
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    Apr 2010
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    If you're 5'6" and 170 at sub-10% bf, then you might finish up a properly run LP at 185-190 with 14-16% bf or so. Just guessing, no way to know for sure, but that seems like a reasonable ballpark. You'll still be reasonably lean, but a bunch stronger.

    You're correct that there's no RM testing before you do the LP, but I'm assuming you have actual training data, given that you've been lifting for 18 months. So, using your actual training data of relatively recently performed top set of 5, plan to hit that in week 3 or so, and then go up from there. An untrained novice, or one with no recent training data, just finds a moderately hard set of 5 on the first day, goes up 5-15 lbs the first few workouts, then goes up 5 lbs thereafter, as detailed in the books.

    You have actual training data, I'm assuming, so you'll still start the same way, but can plan your jumps based on actual data, since it exists unlike a rank novice, and the assumption that you'll be eating a lot more. The ramp-up gives you time to adjust to the program and get some caloric surplus in place, and then you crush it.

    If your best recent set of 5 is, say, 325, then you might do something like:

    Week 1
    Day 1: 245x5
    Day 2: 265x5x2
    Day 3: 280x5x3

    Week 2
    Day 1: 290x5x3
    Day 2: 300x5x3
    Day 3: 310x5x3

    Week 3
    Day 1: 320x5x3
    Day 2: 255x5x2 - implement advanced novice light day here
    Day 3: 325 or 330x5x3, and then go up in 5 lb increments from here, switching to top set + 2 back-offs later on when appropriate.
    Last edited by Michael Wolf; 05-29-2019 at 10:36 AM.

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