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Thread: SS in 1 hour sessions?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
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    17

    Default SS in 1 hour sessions?

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    Hi,

    I was wondering if you could give me some advice. I'm a 36 year old male, 6'1", 190 lbs body weight. I've been doing SS for the past few months and my progress was fine, until recently. I only have one hour to train, three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), and this was ok at the beginning of my LP. But as the weights have gotten heavier, I've been having a hard time finishing my workouts in one hour. I feel I'm not getting enough rest between sets and I often have no time to finish my pulls at the end of the session. I've been stuck on all my lifts for the last few of weeks. My current 5RMs are as follows: Squat @ 265 lbs; Deadlift @ 305 lbs; Bench @ 160 lbs; Press @ 130; Power Cleans @ 135 lbs.

    I've already tried to superset the warm ups for the next lift between working sets, but I still can't finish my workouts in one hour. Since adding more training days or doing longer workouts is not an option for me, I thought I could make shorter sessions by leaving only two lifts per session. Here's what I had in mind:
    Monday: Squat 3x5; Power Cleans 5x3
    Wednesday: Deadlift 1x5; Press 3x5
    Friday: Squat 3x5; Bench 3x5

    Does this make sense? And if it does, should I change the number of reps or sets, too? I'll appreciate any advice you can give me.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2015
    Location
    Portland, Oregon
    Posts
    560

    Default

    How much time are you spending warming up? How much time are you waiting between sets?

    I was in a similar boat, with at most one hour.

    Realized I was wasting time during warm ups, so that was the first place I made changes. Squat, for instance, I'll do a set of 5-10 with an empty bar, throw on a set of 45s, set of 5, throw on another set of 45s set of 4, throw on another set of 45, set of 3-4... no waiting, just the time it takes to load the plates on the bar. Timing myself, that saved 5-10 minutes over my prior warmups where I'd stretch or whatever between warmup sets.

    Next I decided to minimize the rest between sets. This wasn't easy... I liked the 4-5 minutes between squat work sets. Getting it down to 2-3 minutes felt like hell once the weights were in the mid 300s, but I adapted (or the lack of oxygen to my brain left me in a fog, either way).

    I eventually got my standard SSLP down to 40-50 minutes depending on the day. It was a hustle, I certainly sweat a lot, and it kicked my ass, but it was manageable, and I eventually got used to it. For what it's worth, I did this while 42 years old.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Illinois-"Chicagoland"
    Posts
    4,058

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    I hate to lose the cleans, but at age 36 with a power clean that's just a little more than a third of your deadlift, I'd ditch those and free up that slot.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Posts
    17

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    Thanks for the reply. I've been doing five warm up sets for each lift, as described in SSBBT3, without rest between them. But the rest periods between working sets have been getting longer and longer as the weight increases. Now I'm taking 7-8 minutes for Squats and Deadlifts, and 3-5 minutes for the other lifts. I could try to take shorter rests between working sets, but I'm afraid that will not help me get out of the rut I've been for the past few weeks.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
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    17

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    Yes, my progress with power cleans has been very slow, and it's likely due to poor technique. There are no strength coaches in my area, so I've been training on my own. What would you recommend me do, instead of power cleans?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Posts
    1,301

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    Borderline impossible to progress either Press or Bench when you're doing each only once a week. You're going to be need to be doing one or the other every session of the week. Also, instead of just warming up the press or bench during your squat or deadlift, just do both simultaneously. Warm up both, going from one to the other without any break (or a very small one). Then alternate the work sets between the two. You'll need a couple minutes to catch your breath after a squat or DL workset, but other than that you shouldn't need much excess rest to be getting effectively 5-8 minutes rest between consecutive worksets of the same lift.

    I wouldn't change any sets or rep schemes. Also, keep in mind that this is going to put a limit on how far you can go, regardless of how well you set it up.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
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    17

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    Thanks a lot for the advice. I'll try doing squat/deadlift with bench/press together, and the pulls at the end, to see if I can fit all three lifts in one hour. Hopefully this will help me be more efficient and get unstuck with my lifts. If that doesn't work, I'll ditch the Power Cleans, and I'll do Squat and Bench, and Deadlift and Press on alternating days.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    RS WY
    Posts
    980

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    I have the same challenge I can fit two lifts into a 1 hour session. I have done:

    squat / bench
    press / deadlift
    squat / bench
    press / pc
    etc...

    Chins are on sq / bn days 1 set before squats, one set before bench, one set after bench.

    I have also done the following but this extends the week beyond 7 days (this is what I am currently doing):

    squat / bench (press)
    squat / pc
    squat / press (bench)
    bench (press) / deadlift
    etc...

    Same as above with chins.

    You could also replace the squat / pc day with an alternative press / pull day if you want more pressing frequency...

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Posts
    35

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    Hi.

    Seeking similar advice (40yo, 5'10, 90kg). I gave up on LP late last year due to time pressure & newborn. I got to Squat @ 110 kg; Deadlift @ 130kg; Bench @ 87.5 kg; Press @ 62.5kg; Power Cleans @ 72.5 kg. I never reached the stage of microloading.

    I get more sleep now but am still time poor. I'd love to take another shot at LP but can only give consistent time to 2 lifts per session.

    My thoughts were the following;

    Mon: SQ (3x5) & Deadlift (1x5)
    Wed: Press (3x5) & Power Clean (5x3)
    Fri: SQ (3x5) & Press (3x5)

    At this point a 4th day is not feasible for me. I've excluded bench because my work gym doesn't have safety bars and im now often training alone.

    Any obvious problems I might face?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    Austin
    Posts
    11

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    starting strength coach development program
    Mon: SQ (3x5) & Deadlift (1x5)
    Wed: Press (3x5) & Power Clean (5x3)
    Fri: SQ (3x5) & Press (3x5)

    Any obvious problems I might face?
    You may want to consider moving the Deadlift to Wednesday. If that is going to be your only heavy pull for the week, I think you'll be limited by doing heavy squats right before.

    Even with that change, your deadlift will stall only getting five heavy deadlift reps a week. You'll need to eventually add more deadlifting volume. You could either add some drop sets after your heavy deadlift set or turn some of those power cleans into medium deadlifts.

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