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Thread: Construction job recovery issues

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
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    21

    Default Construction job recovery issues

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    Hello Rip, my name is Cassidy King. I am a male and 26 years old at 5’8.
    Starting weight: 148lb
    Current weight: 170lb
    Caloric intake: 4000-5500 depending on how work goes and if I’m able to stop and eat.

    All through my teenage years and until age 22 I was addicted to drugs and have been clean for a few years now. Due to my bad choices as a teenager I was not physically active, very skinny, and seem prone to injury (just my observation). I have bought the blue book and am currently reading it. I’ve been doing the program for 2 months. When I got clean I got a pretty hard construction job working 10-12 hours a day. I wake up at 4:30 to go to the gym. I have 3 children. They are age 5, 2, and 6 months. My lifts are the following,
    Squat starting at 135, now 230lb
    Bench starting 120, now 185lb
    Press starting 90, now 125lb (tweaked neck repeatedly for several workouts in a row when I tried to go beyond this weight)
    Deadlift starting 135, now 280lb
    I’ve had to drop my workout frequency to twice a week due to being so banged up from work.

    I seem to be getting stuck at this point on just about everything. I keep trying to hit my 5s for squats but have failed reps for 2 workouts in a row. I did finish all my reps but not in sets of 5 cause I just couldn’t despite grinding and getting stuck. Same on my deadlifts. I’ve had to break it up into singles with 30 seconds rest between each cause I didn’t know what else to do really and wanted to keep going up in weight. I’m shoving as much food and milk in as I can (doing GOMAD out of my cooler through work cause a lot of times we get no lunch). My sleep is 6-10 hours just depending on kids and stuff but averaging 8 hours. I can’t afford coaching YET though I have a little savings building for it in the future. I just want to keep getting stronger but feel like I’m hitting a wall.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    North Texas
    Posts
    53,557

    Default

    Are you eating anything before you train in the morning?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
    Posts
    21

    Default

    Yes sir I generally have 3 eggs, a bagel with peanut butter, 32oz milk, and coffee. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I really do appreciate all the content you’ve put online. I listen to your podcasts every time I’m in the car and really am trying to follow the program to the tee to my best ability.

  4. #4
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    Jul 2007
    Location
    North Texas
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    53,557

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
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    1. 8-12 minutes. 12 on squat and deadlift every set.

    2. 5lb on everything, I’m realizing while typing this I’ll need to figure out something for smaller increments. I apologize for wasting your time on this one. I should have thought of this it just completely slipped my mind that it was an option. I’m still making my way through the book soaking up as much as possible.

    3. 4000-5500 calories.
    At least 230 grams of protein

  6. #6
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    Jul 2007
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    North Texas
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    The small plates will fix the pressing. As far as squats and deadlifts are concerned, I don't know. Under these conditions you shouldn't be stuck. Can you switch to an afternoon/evening training time, to see what happens?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
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    I wish I could however my work and family life just don’t allow it. I’m about to build my own squat rack once I’ve finished gathering materials and will be able to workout in the evenings potentially. Yea I am racking my brain a bit. Would it be ok to switch my squats to triples or is that a bad idea? And is leaving my deadlifts as singles with some rest in between ok? If not I may have to do a small reset unless you don’t advise that.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
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    North Texas
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    Default

    Triples and singles are not very useful at your level of training advancement, but try them for a month and see what happens.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
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    21

    Default

    Ok then I will try to do 5s for a bit longer and see if I can just make sure I am as rested as possible. If I have to in a week after trying more then I will switch to triples as a last resort. Thank you sir.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
    Location
    Ireland
    Posts
    15

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    starting strength coach development program
    "My sleep is 6-10 hours just depending on kids and stuff but averaging 8 hours."
    Based on the thread you're probably fine on food which leaves sleep, and chances are you're overestimating this 8 hour average.
    If you're training 3x per week and working that construction job, 8 hours consistently EVERY night probably wouldn't be enough.

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