Please advice me if I have to resset my program

[Mugur85]

Hello guys,
please advise me what should I have to do. I was following a 4-day split (upper-lower body)/ High-low intensity for the last year. I followed this program by instinct, I didn't now about SS. I saw a progress with my lifts and gained around 10 kg body weight. Then, 3 month ago I found about SS and start reading it. After reading it, I think I was ignorant with what I was doing all the time. At this moment, on the 4-day split program I hit a wall. My progress stall at almost all the lifts, and on my bench even regress, so I'm a little bit concerned.

I'm a 32 yrs/ 178 cm male/ 80 kg, and my numbers are:
Squat- 110 kg 5RM (I think I have to work really hard on my form)
Deadlift- 120 kg 5RM (is the lift that I feel the most comfortable, and I think I have more in the tank)
Bench- 85 kg 5RM
OHP- 55 kg 5RM
Sorry for using kg and not lbs.

My questions for you guys are:
1) If I start SS, how much should I reduce the weights?
2) for how long I'll follow the SS program? I told that at this time my progress stall, so I'm not a complete novice any more.
3) How much will affect my recovery If I go for a 20-25 min run in the days off?
4) should I gain more weight? I'm currently feeling good with my diet, I have gained almost 10 kg in the past 1,5 years.

I'm pretty sure that I have to reread the book again.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

PS: greetings from Romania

[Tom K]

The book answers 1 and 2 so yes, re-read. Ultimately you'll have a shorter LP than most but based on the lifts you have listed, you've got plenty of opportunity still.

#3: Do you run now?

#4: Gaining weight will help your lifts increase during the LP. After, you can tweak it back. I'd say you could put on another 15-20 ish pounds.

[Mugur85]

The book answers 1 and 2 so yes, re-read. Ultimately you'll have a shorter LP than most but based on the lifts you have listed, you've got plenty of opportunity still.

#3: Do you run now?

#4: Gaining weight will help your lifts increase during the LP. After, you can tweak it back. I'd say you could put on another 15-20 ish pounds.

Thanks for your response.
What would be a good start point to start the SS program, I mean how much should I reduce the actual weights (in percents %)?

#3 I do run for recreation/conditioning 2-3 times per week, but not long distances or intense pace.

[timelinex]

1. You should not start SS if you have legitimately been doing HLM routine thats just like the ones advised here. You are no longer a Rank Novice. You can continue using the HLM. (this all assumes its actually like the ones described here). Just read Practical Programming to see where to go from here. But in general if you hit a wall you just deload 10% and start again. Focus on gaining more weight and you should break through your plateau. If you don't eat enough then you will jsut stall again and dig yourself into a bigger hole that will be even harder to climb out of..... If you don't want to eat more or gain weight, then you shouldn't be doing SS anyways.

2. If I remember correctly, Rip has mentioned that <20 min he doesn't it the LSD (long slow distance)..... If you do high intensity cardio during training, it WILL effect your strength gain. That doesn't mean you can't do it, you just have to know what to expect.

3. If you have already been doing this conditioning for a while, your body is used to it and it won't effect you too much. Just like construction workers can still do SS, even though they have 'physical' work all day.

[Alexander Rix]

You start your LP at a weight where you think you can do 3 sets of 5 with good form and decent bar speed.

I suggest you do this and post form checks to to Technique or SS Q&A after so you get feed back on the form and weight.

I don't recommend doing much conditioning on the LP

[MBasic]

You start your LP at a weight where you think you can do 3 sets of 5 with good form and decent bar speed.

I suggest you do this and post form checks to to Technique or SS Q&A after so you get feed back on the form and weight.

I don't recommend doing much conditioning on the LP

are you an SSC? Is this Alan?

[Dalton Clark]

Hello guys,
please advise me what should I have to do. I was following a 4-day split (upper-lower body)/ High-low intensity for the last year. I followed this program by instinct, I didn't now about SS. I saw a progress with my lifts and gained around 10 kg body weight. Then, 3 month ago I found about SS and start reading it. After reading it, I think I was ignorant with what I was doing all the time. At this moment, on the 4-day split program I hit a wall. My progress stall at almost all the lifts, and on my bench even regress, so I'm a little bit concerned.

I'm a 32 yrs/ 178 cm male/ 80 kg, and my numbers are:
Squat- 110 kg 5RM (I think I have to work really hard on my form)
Deadlift- 120 kg 5RM (is the lift that I feel the most comfortable, and I think I have more in the tank)
Bench- 85 kg 5RM
OHP- 55 kg 5RM
Sorry for using kg and not lbs.

My questions for you guys are:
1) If I start SS, how much should I reduce the weights?
2) for how long I'll follow the SS program? I told that at this time my progress stall, so I'm not a complete novice any more.
3) How much will affect my recovery If I go for a 20-25 min run in the days off?
4) should I gain more weight? I'm currently feeling good with my diet, I have gained almost 10 kg in the past 1,5 years.

I'm pretty sure that I have to reread the book again.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

PS: greetings from Romania

1) I would like to counter some of the often given advice that one must be a 'rank novice' to begin the starting strength novice progression in order to take advantage of linear progression. Given your current weights, I would be surprised if you could not start the program as written and get some additional progress that way. If you simply want to reduce the weights, a 10% decrease might be a good start, especially if form is at all a concern. However, you might also be able to determine your starting weight by following the protocol described in Starting Strength, Basic Barbell Training. One thing you should not do is attempt to make 10 pound jumps on the squat (or equivalently difficult jumps for other lifts).

2) Using your current 5RM on the squat (and my own personal experience), you are not stalled on linear progression. Stalling on a program other than Starting Strength does not mean that you are 'stalled' with regards to Starting Strength. No, you are not a complete novice, but you are most likely still a novice based purely off of your stats. A typical novice progression would last from 3-9 months (depending on genetics and how closely you follow the program/manage recovery). I would say that you could probably follow a novice or advanced novice program for another two months. You might want to consider only squatting 80% of your work weight on the middle day of the week once the squat gets difficult to recover from.

3) This is a difficult question. If you are conditioned to it, and it is not done with any particular amount of intensity, I don't see a reason why this would negatively impact you ASSUMING YOU EAT ENOUGH TO COMPENSATE. Essentially this run is reducing the amount of calories you consumed on any day that you run which would impact recovery resources available for your muscles.

4) Depending on your body fat percentage, you could stand to gain some more weight. I wouldn't go crazy on a 6000 calorie diet, but you should be gaining some muscle mass at that weight.

[Leah Lutz]

are you an SSC? Is this Alan?

Any SSC posting on the board must use his/her real name and will have the SSC title under their name.

[Alexander Rix]

are you an SSC? Is this Alan?

Why does it matter? No

[Mugur85]

Thanks guys for your responses, really appreciate it
From your feedback I understood the following things:
- I should reduce the weights ( smth around 20%) and work from there with my form, especially with squat (post it in form check forum)/ add 5 pounds per session;
- do a LP with 3x5, which sounds great for me; since now I was squatting 2 times per week, really exciting to see how I respond to 3 days per week;
- complete remove running part, hope for a better recovery.
- try to gain more weight
- and ofc, reredead the book