Entering final stages of NLP?

[Nico Garcia]

I’ve been on NLP for almost six months and it seems like my progression is coming to an end. I’m stalling on deadlift and squat however I also happen to know my sleep and food have been horrible lately due to familial responsibilities. I’m already on the advanced NLP and I’ve also lengthened the time btw each workout to 72 hrs, so I have a rolling weekly schedule without set week days. Finally, I have just started “intermediate” programming on my press as Nick Delgadillo outlined on his YouTube channel. Bench press has still not stalled once. I have had many problems with my squat primarily due to me doing shit wrong. Injuries in just about every possible joint which I’ve managed to overcome everyone. I have my entire journal and I made a number of programming errors early on. But I’ve survived and I’ve gotten a lot stronger.

I want to start doing this movement into Intermediate correctly and I’ve been reading that section over and over as well as the novice section in PP.

My question is do I switch to 3s on squat now and squeeze out another month of LP? Last two workouts were at 150 and the sets were grinding 4,5,4 and 5,5,4 with actual failed reps not just unattempted. (Also, I did have a cold this week)

Do I need MORE volume on my DL maybe? Do you think the extra time btw workouts with the addition of PC has caused me to get too little DL volume?

Or should I stick to the same NLP and try to focus and get the recovery back on track. Food I already have corrected and got right again but sleep will be hard… at best 6 hours guaranteed lately.

My numbers from Oct 6:
BW 82 kg
S 75
D 85
B 65
P 40

Now:
BW 98.5 kg
S 150
D 160
B 103
P 65

Any insights from the above info? Thanks.

[Maybach]

If you didn't change the rep scheme for squats before you moved to working out every three days, you messed up. Changing rep schemes maintains overall stress, but one-on-two-off actually reduces it. It basically just uses a minor deload or leaking effect to get MAYBE two weeks of progress out of the very end.

You can try 5x3 for squats. Squats tend to do better with topsets and backoffs. I would say go back to 3x a week with topsets and backoffs and a light squat day. Make biweekly increases until you can't, then you will be an intermediate. Read the grey book for how to do this.

Your deadlift is too light: I don't know if you need more volume, but you do need to increase it. For that matter, ALL of these are too light. You pulled volume too aggressively at some point.

Listen to this for how to approach this.

You really have to sleep more. Naps count.

[Jason Donaldson]

It's very hard (at best) to outprogram insufficient recovery, Nick. What's impeding your getting enough sleep?

[Nico Garcia]

It's very hard (at best) to outprogram insufficient recovery, Nick. What's impeding your getting enough sleep?

I’m trying to get more sleep but I have 3 children — a 1 yr old that wakes up several times a night and a 4 yr old that wants to sleep with me just about every night.

If you didn't change the rep scheme for squats before you moved to working out every three days, you messed up. Changing rep schemes maintains overall stress, but one-on-two-off actually reduces it. It basically just uses a minor deload or leaking effect to get MAYBE two weeks of progress out of the very end.

You can try 5x3 for squats. Squats tend to do better with topsets and backoffs. I would say go back to 3x a week with topsets and backoffs and a light squat day. Make biweekly increases until you can't, then you will be an intermediate. Read the grey book for how to do this.

Your deadlift is too light: I don't know if you need more volume, but you do need to increase it. For that matter, ALL of these are too light. You pulled volume too aggressively at some point.

Listen to this for how to approach this.

You really have to sleep more. Naps count.

Unfortunately due to my time constraints I shifted to the one on two off so I will not likely have time to go back to the 3x per week. Workouts with warm up and transit time were too time-consuming at this later stage. I’m 45 so squats take me a damn long time to warm up and get to the work sets.

I only cut volume about 2 weeks ago so I doubt it was that. It’s more likely my bad sleep. Again, I’m working on that but shit man it ain’t gonna be easy.

My deadlift is weak. I had it moving up quickly but then I hit a wall at 157.5 and reset briefly and ran up to 160 and got stuck. I’ve been stuck there for 3 DL workouts now.

How do you know if the lifts are too light? I thought it’s just based on my individual progress. I’m 45 so I was surprised I’ve continued 6 months on the linear progression.

[Maybach]

It's based on your individual progress, but you're almost 100 kg and are a normal man. 45 is oldER but not old. It's notable that your lifts are slowing down when your bench is just a hair over your bodyweight. It's not to say that it's unheard of but it raises some eyebrows about various intangibles that go into questions like these.

For example, it really shouldn't take you that long to warm up. Anything more than five warmup sets is excessive and you shouldn't need to take breaks in between them. If you really need to actually get warm, spend a minute or three the bike or rower.

But yeah, it's probably sleep. What is preventing you from getting more sleep? Two hours in a day is usually easy enough to find for most people.

[Nico Garcia]

It's based on your individual progress, but you're almost 100 kg and are a normal man. 45 is oldER but not old. It's notable that your lifts are slowing down when your bench is just a hair over your bodyweight. It's not to say that it's unheard of but it raises some eyebrows about various intangibles that go into questions like these.

For example, it really shouldn't take you that long to warm up. Anything more than five warmup sets is excessive and you shouldn't need to take breaks in between them. If you really need to actually get warm, spend a minute or three the bike or rower.

But yeah, it's probably sleep. What is preventing you from getting more sleep? Two hours in a day is usually easy enough to find for most people.

Lower the eyebrows! Don’t shoot!

I wrote about my sleep issue above, I sleep with two children in my bedroom.

OK, so you’re advice then based on what I’m reading is just go back to working out three times a week and sleeping more? My workout from getting to the gym to being back home and eating and showing takes 2.5-3 hrs now. That can’t be so abnormal.

I row for 5 minutes before my lifting.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll figure out something from here.

[Maybach]

Some people do fine with twice a week. But if you move from three days a week to one on, two off, you're pulling stress. If you get stuck, that's probably why. You gotta be angling to squeeze more stress in. Which is why people usually go back to 3x a week.

If sleep were a performance enhancing drug, it would be universally banned. Even outside of strength training, prioritizing proper sleep has probably the most positive impact on your quality of life.

[Jason Donaldson]

I’m trying to get more sleep but I have 3 children — a 1 yr old that wakes up several times a night and a 4 yr old that wants to sleep with me just about every night.

Having been through this myself, I feel your pain, Nick. There are some people who've been able to stick with more optimal training, and some who can't, and that's okay. You have a couple of goods that are competing right now - getting stronger and raising your kids. Both are important in the long term - and both are indeed long term prospects. What your kids need right now cannot be deferred. Optimizing training can, if necessary.

The closer you can get to optimal training, the better, of course, but in the case of a conflict, those kids need to win, especially for now. Your challenge here is to minimize that necessity, i.e. reduce the conflicts as much as you can, so you can meet the primary responsibilities to them while getting your training as close to optimal as you can, both for yourself, and to be a strong father for them. How you do that will depend on your overall household situation, including other people's support, as well as overall demands on your time.

Be encouraged, and do what you need to do to enjoy this season with them as much as you can. Parenting is a lot of long days and short years.

[Nico Garcia]

Having been through this myself, I feel your pain, Nick. There are some people who've been able to stick with more optimal training, and some who can't, and that's okay. You have a couple of goods that are competing right now - getting stronger and raising your kids. Both are important in the long term - and both are indeed long term prospects. What your kids need right now cannot be deferred. Optimizing training can, if necessary.

The closer you can get to optimal training, the better, of course, but in the case of a conflict, those kids need to win, especially for now. Your challenge here is to minimize that necessity, i.e. reduce the conflicts as much as you can, so you can meet the primary responsibilities to them while getting your training as close to optimal as you can, both for yourself, and to be a strong father for them. How you do that will depend on your overall household situation, including other people's support, as well as overall demands on your time.

Be encouraged, and do what you need to do to enjoy this season with them as much as you can. Parenting is a lot of long days and short years.

Thanks for the encouraging words. I am enjoying my time with the family and pretty stoked on my gym progress. I never thought I could get this strong - even if I’m not doing it optimally.

I’m going to start studying in the fall as well so I’ll see what I can do to keep everything moving in the right direction.