If after 1st or 2nd set I am not lifiting more than last time should I end workout?

[ScottLush]

Mark,

I've purchased and shared with friends both Starting Strength and the Barbell Prescription.

On any given day if by the first or second set I am not able to squat MORE weight than I did last time, should I end my workout early, go home and focus on recovering fully first?

If all I can do is lift the same weight as I did last time, even lift LESS due to inadequate recovery, is there any strength benefit in continuing on that day?

I assume that unless I can lift more weight than I did last time, I gain no strength by repeating a prior weight.

And that I should go home and focus on recovery: eat, sleep, drink, rest.

If this is asked elsewhere I apologize. I did not see it.

Scott

[Mark Rippetoe]

If you do the program precisely as it is written in SS:BBT3, these problems will not occur.

[ScottLush]

I agree that if I follow the program precisely I will not have this problem.

But an adult life of family and responsibilities prevent me from eating, sleeping and recuperating perfectly. Sometimes I deal with a snoring dog, a sick kid, late nights of work, a delayed flight or crappy food. I accept that I'll get substandard results in SS. The only variable I control is that I show up 2-3x a week and follow SS.

Therefore I do get under the bar 3 or 4 days later and can sometimes only lift as much in the Back Squat or Deadlift as I could the workout prior.

In such cases I assume that my best step is to quit that day's workout and return another day when fully recuperated.

Is that your experience?

Scott

[MikeTH]

I agree that if I follow the program precisely I will not have this problem.

But an adult life of family and responsibilities prevent me from eating, sleeping and recuperating perfectly. Sometimes I deal with a snoring dog, a sick kid, late nights of work, a delayed flight or crappy food. I accept that I'll get substandard results in SS. The only variable I control is that I show up 2-3x a week and follow SS.

Therefore I do get under the bar 3 or 4 days later and can sometimes only lift as much in the Back Squat or Deadlift as I could the workout prior.

In such cases I assume that my best step is to quit that day's workout and return another day when fully recuperated.

Is that your experience?

Scott

I've never felt the need to post before because there is nothing that I could share that would increase one person's knowledge about strength training on this site. Heck, the only reason I made an account was so that I could follow links. What I have done is read every single post (as of yesterday) on this site and I bought, read, and applied the knowledge shared in Mark's books. After all that reading, I can assure you that Mark would never recommend nor would he give you permission to quit because "life."

Although I've always been a non-drinker and have no other risk factors, on my 49th birthday (2 years ago) I was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma that has spread to my lungs. I felt great but one morning I woke up coughing blood but had no other symptoms. I have 2 dogs, 3 kids under 16, a wife that needs assistance because of a car accident, a job that requires travel, and a butt load of medical appointments. I've missed 0 workouts in all that time. But yeah, if your dog is snoring, I suggest you quit, rest, and wait for the perfect day to train.

For what it's worth, like Mark has said, I'm not dying of cancer because I'm not losing weight and my strength is still very slowly increasing.

[TommyGun]

Scott, there will be days, many days like that. That is part of the grand bargain we make when we commit to getting strong. Or at least stronger.

Get your reps in. Even if the planned sets of 5 become triplesget the work in. Do five sets of three if necessary but you should get the work in at the planned weight to adequately stress the body. This the adaptation and increased strength.

And yes, Rip is impatient when he here’s people talk about life getting in the way. I am 52 with two thirteen year olds and a wife who works nights. And two parents in hospice, more dead than alive. That could be construed as life getting in the way of my consistent training. So what. Train anyway. Train imperfectly. But train. Life has a tendency to smooth itself out.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I agree that if I follow the program precisely I will not have this problem.

But an adult life of family and responsibilities prevent me from eating, sleeping and recuperating perfectly. Sometimes I deal with a snoring dog, a sick kid, late nights of work, a delayed flight or crappy food. I accept that I'll get substandard results in SS. The only variable I control is that I show up 2-3x a week and follow SS.

Therefore I do get under the bar 3 or 4 days later and can sometimes only lift as much in the Back Squat or Deadlift as I could the workout prior.

This is what I'm talking about. Until you put 5 or 3 or 2 more pounds on the bar and take the assigned work sets out of the rack, you have absolutely no idea that you can't, and the assumption that you can only lift as much as you could the previous workout leads to not doing the program. The program calls for increases every workout, you have not tried this, therefore you are not doing the program. Doesn't matter that you've got a sad story. We all do, as you have heard. The parts of the program that are critical are the programmed PRs and the best frequency you can manage. Try harder to do the actual program.

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

[Alchemist]

I want to state slightly differently what Rip just said. I see no reason you should be attempting what you lifted last time. That is NOT part of the program. Your warm up should be less than last time's weights. If you squatted 225 lb last time, you should be warming up with something like 45, 135, 185, maybe 200 and then going to 230 lb. Trying 225 lb is NDTFP. Stop that and DO THE PROGRAM.

[Brodie Butland]

This is what I'm talking about. Until you put 5 or 3 or 2 more pounds on the bar and take the assigned work sets out of the rack, you have absolutely no idea that you can't, and the assumption that you can only lift as much as you could the previous workout leads to not doing the program. The program calls for increases every workout, you have not tried this, therefore you are not doing the program. Doesn't matter that you've got a sad story. We all do, as you have heard. The parts of the program that are critical are the programmed PRs and the best frequency you can manage. Try harder to do the actual program.

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

To echo this, I learned a while ago that how I felt on a particular day had very little relationship to what I could actually do when I forced myself to get under the bar. I've set several PRs on four hours or less of sleep (to the extent I actually felt like taking a nap between sets), and I've bombed out miserably feeling alert and rested with plenty of food over the previous days.

The reality is, at the novice and intermediate stages, you shouldn't have to be at 100% to hit your worksets. If you need to be at 100% every time, then you're doing something wrong.

You don't know what you're capable of until you force yourself to try. If the program calls for you to add five pounds and do a certain number of reps, then put on another five pounds and don't rack the bar until you complete the reps. Don't give up on either the weight or the reps because you don't think you can do it--that's letting yourself off easy, and you have to teach yourself to be an obstinate dick to keep progressing.

The most vivid memory I have of this was the first time I hit 410x4 (I was going for 4 reps). The second rep was absolutely grueling, and I thought there was no way in hell I could do two more. Normally I would just rack the weight, but that time I decided to just keep going until I hit four reps or I failed. The third was just as bad as the second. The fourth was even worse. But by just trusting the programming and not my feelings, I hit two reps that I would have thought were impossible until I did them.

tl;dr - Just follow the program. Don't let yourself quit early...either for the weight on the bar or the number of reps.

[VincePIC]

ScottLush,
Whenever you think like that, just listen to Barbell Logic Podcast #26: #26 - Barbell Logic Extra: Training to Survive Cancer with John Wilson | Barbell Logic.

Then listen to #27.

Then get back under the bar.

[Dr. Manhattan]

This subject prompts a question for Coach Rip:

Is it a scientific fact that a male (heterosexual) will lift more (the Big 5 lifts) weight if he knows a female is observing? And if so, is that amount positively correlated to the attractiveness and/or known strength of said female?

If yes, the OP has a potential solution.