Training day has become too long - please help!

[Mariatheengineer]

I am a 57-year-old female, with a history of regular physical exercise. I am now in my fourth month of the Starting Strength NPL. I am following the programme religiously and I have been making steady progress. I train Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays, alternating workout A (squat, press and deadlift) with workout B (squat, bench press and power clean). I have been conservative in the weight increases, lately adding as little as 0.5 Kg at a time. I have also moved to 5x3 on presses and bench presses.

The issue: the training days are now too long.

As the weights are now heavier, my recovery time has increased, making the training day over 90 minutes long. I am also finding it particularly difficult to complete the 5x3 power cleans at the end of workout B. This makes me beat-up the next day.
The question - how shall I further progress with Starting Strength programme to ensure a reasonable time is spent training?
a) Should I decrease the number of reps to 3, maintaining the weight increases, i.e., 3 sets x 3 reps for the press and bench press?
b) Should I be doing just 1 set of power cleans as it is advised for the dealift?

My present numbers are as follows:
• Squat: 117lb (53kg)
• Press: 55lb (25kg)
• Deadlift: 132lb (60k)
• Clean and Press: 73lb (33kg)
• Body weight: 146lb (66Kg)
• Height: 5’ 6’’(1,67m)

By the way, I have read all three books and have found very little information on training which is specific for women. It would be good to have content written by a woman to the women audience. Please just take this as genuine feedback. The Starting Strength programme approach makes a lot of sense and it is easy to follow.

Many thanks in advance.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The question - how shall I further progress with Starting Strength programme to ensure a reasonable time is spent training?
a) Should I decrease the number of reps to 3, maintaining the weight increases, i.e., 3 sets x 3 reps for the press and bench press?
b) Should I be doing just 1 set of power cleans as it is advised for the dealift?

You should be doing your warmups for the next lift between the work sets of the previous exercise. Bench warmups between work sets of squats, etc. Saves a lot of time.

By the way, I have read all three books and have found very little information on training which is specific for women. It would be good to have content written by a woman to the women audience. Please just take this as genuine feedback. The Starting Strength programme approach makes a lot of sense and it is easy to follow.

That's because nothing in this program is specific to women except the loading: Training Female Lifters: Neuromuscular Efficiency | Mark Rippetoe

[Lost and Found]

For Maria

Baker Barbell Podcast: #22 - 10 Tips for Shorter Workouts

[GioFerrante]

Something to think about too, having a small electrolyte-carb drink to sip on during the workout helps a lot especially with those later sets.

You're deadlifting 3 times every 2 weeks, you can also bump that down to once a week if you're not recovering well and your workouts are a drag. Have you switched to a light squat day on your 2nd workout? Generally speaking as you near the middle and end stages of the NLP it's going to feel quite hard.

You probably don't need too many warmups for the deadlift or the clean either, as they can tire you out. Your low back and legs will be pretty warm from squatting. 1 or 2 warmups will probably be sufficient, and you can keep the reps low on them.