Taking NLP to the limits

[aschaul10]

Just for discussion, but would love to here everybody's experience with how far (starting load/ending load) they were able to take the big 4 lifts strictly of NLP without any other modifications, resets, etc.

I'm still in my NLP, but have made the following progress thus far.

Squat 145-305
DL 195-320
Bench 95-185
Press 65-120

[Mark Rippetoe]

I had a lifter several years ago take his squat to the mid-500s for sets of 5, and a bodyweight of 215, 5'9".

[TheChubbyViking]

I’m in a pretty similar boat. I started March 30th (I haven’t been as consistent as I would like due to work, so you probably started later than I did—maybe mid-April?)

Squat: 115-235 (I did a larger-than necessary reset)
DL: 135-310
Bench: 135-175
Press: 65-110
Weight: 185-211
Height: 6’2”

[GioFerrante]

You know Rip, I was wondering, what have you seen in the opposite direction? Like what is the lower end of the range of what you've seen in lifters who have to switch to intermediate program soonest?

For context, I'm approaching needing to change programming based on some recent stalling:

Squat 310x5x3 - may need to switch to 2 back-off sets soon
Deadlift 400x5 - but had some back rounding for the first time
Press - 152.5x5,4,4,2 basically doing 15 total reps any way I can get them per nick D's article
Bench - 225x5x3 - repeated the weight, previous workout I went 4, 3, 3, 3, 2 missing reps each set

[Mark Rippetoe]

There are always reasons for switching to weekly programming early, and they almost always involve age, bodyweight, testosterone status, and The First Three Questions.

[GioFerrante]

There are always reasons for switching to weekly programming early, and they almost always involve age, bodyweight, testosterone status, and The First Three Questions.

Based on this response it would seem you think there's more toothpaste left in the novice programming tube.

[dalan]

I had a lifter several years ago take his squat to the mid-500s for sets of 5, and a bodyweight of 215, 5'9".

Dang, that guy would be a monster if he continued his training over the next years. Do you know if he did?

[CommanderFun]

It's hard to really say where I began and where I ended, since I kinda attempted to LP three times, but I'd say only two really got me to new highs. The first time I didn't read the book fully, and just tried to skim to get the gist of what I was supposed to do so I could jump right in, and missed stuff. Important stuff. One of those was how to properly get your start weights for the lifts, so I was actually shooting for 5RMs on my first work sets. Surprisingly, this still got me some decent mileage, especially on my squat. I started off with a very weak squat, my first work weight I believe was 95 pounds. This was not a load selected with one or two left in the tank, this weight was actually hard for me at the time. Advancement petered out somewhere around 250 pounds, and I was pretty much grinding all the way and stumbling through learning the technique of the lift.