Greetings fellow lifters.
Coming here to keep myself honest and hopefully get some feedback on progress.
Started lifting with Starting Strengths 4 years ago almost to the day.
Beginning stats 4 years ago were:
Male
39 y/o
5'4"
190 lbs (fatty)
I use this format: Sets X Weight X Reps
SQ: 3 x 95 x 5
DL: 185 x 5
BP: 3 x 95 x 5
OP: 3 x 55 x 5
Current Stats:
43 y/o
5'4" (no change! :()
176 lbs
SQ: 3 x 365 x 5
DL: 385 x 5 (short arms, and some injuries have kept my DL relatively weak)
BP: 3 x 245 x 5
OP: 3 x 155 x 5
I think I've been pretty disciplined, missed maybe 2 workouts over 4 years. Started with starting strength program, the blue book, did the program pretty much to the letter (even the power cleans and the chins) for 5-6 months with resets and a light squat day and other adjustments before moving on to Texas Method. Ran Texas Method for about a year with resets and made good progress but after a year of it, stalled pretty hard. Then brought in some Feigenbaum/Baraki philosophy added volume, and assistance work, built up some work capacity, and size, and started moving the needle on the lifts again.
Right now doing a 4 day split:
Sunday:
Heavy Bench Day
- 3 sets of 5 heavy bench (when these get heavy will move down to 3 sets of 3, then when those get heavy will drop to either singles or doubles)
- Assistance: been doing dumbbell incline bench, right now doing 5 sets of 5 Dead Bench with no belt
Monday:
Heavy Pull/Volume Squat Day
- Heavy Rack Pulls: one or two sets of 5 to 15 reps move the bar one hole down every week or two. Try to keep the weight the same, so the rep range moves down as the bar goes down.
- Volume Squat: 3 sets of 8 right now (just did 3 x 315 x 8 this week). Will move this down to 4 sets of 6 and then 5 sets of 5 as the weight gets heavier
- Barbell or Dumbell Rows. Just did 3 sets of 8 with 137.5 lb Dumbells (I have the power blocks that go up to 175 lbs)
- Curls (for the girls)
Wednesday:
Volume Bench Day
- Overhead Press (or "The Press" to make SS folks happy :)): 3 sets of 6 right now.
- Bench Press: 3 sets of 8
Friday:
Volume Pull/Heavy Squat Day
- Heavy Squat: 5 heavy singles, followed by 1 heavy set of 5. Last Friday, did 425 lbs for 5 singles, then 400 lbs for a set of 5 (PR). The heavy set of 5 will turn into two triples or three doubles. We'll see.
- Volume Deadlift: Rest / Pause, as many reps as possible in 10 minutes. Just 365 for 13 reps in 10 minutes (PR)
- Chins or Pull ups (alternating by week); sometimes weighted sometimes just bodyweight
- Curls (for the girls again).
All workouts done in my basement. I got a rack a mess of plates, a couple barbells, dumbbells, and power blocks. Will start posting workouts tomorrow. Curious about what others think of this kind of programming, and always open to critical feedback / suggestions.