At 5' 11" and an almost 74 years old man, I started NLP in mid September at 165 lbs
with a 50 lb squat, 30 lb press, 60 lb bench and 115 lb deadlift. I reset due to greed,
changed to a one-on/two-off schedule, got stuck again a couple of times, kept decreasing
the jumps and started using creatine to help recovery. Trained quite regularly, just on
three different occasions moving the schedule back a day because of to much physical work
on a rest day. Good sleep, no stress, three protein shakes a day with milk and I'm up to
175 lbs (let out the belt an inch and starting to get grief from the wife). I've been doing
squat and bench on one stress day and (after two days rest) doing squat, press and deadlift
on the next stress day. I'm not strong enough to do a chin-up yet.
Now my PR on the squat is 115 lbs, but I wasn't going deep enough, so I've reset
to 85 lbs and am working my way back up again in 2.5 lb increments in the lower 90s.
(After this squat reset, I don't feel quite so 'beat-up' anymore). My deadlift has always
been my 'strongest' lift and I'm progressing steadily up to 192.5 (recently dropped from
5 lb to 2.5 lb increments).
My presses have always been my weakest lifts, always a grind. I was using 1/2 lb
jumps on the overhead press and last time (18/12) could only do 4 reps the last two sets at 54 lbs.
Similarly, with the bench I was using 1.5 lb jumps, switched to 1 lb and stalled back on 3/12/18
at 4 x 83.5, deloaded to 80 and completed 3 sets of 5 . Since then I have worked back up
3 x 5 x 81 (9/12), 3 x 5 x 82.5 (15/12). Today (21/12) the first rep at 83.5 was a 5 second
grind and the second rep stalled half way up. After wiggling out from under the safety bars
I did 3 x 5 x 80 with the 5th rep being a grind on all 3 sets. I felt good, not beat-up, not sore, just
aggravated at stalling so I went back to my 65 lb warm up and cranked out 15 reps (13 and 14
started to grind and 15 was a grind). [Twenty-five or so years ago in a prior life my PR was
2 x 15 x 105 lbs for the bench press.]
Since my pressing is coming along so slowly, I'm thinking of doing the bench press every
session, just like the squat and abandoning the overhead press until my bench improves.
I'm in good health and my objective is to get stronger to have more "reserves". I have
a power rack in the barn, so I don't have gym or coaching fees to motivate making 'rapid' progress.
What do you folks suggest?
Grinnell Jones