Reply With QuoteTwo years lifting and training a sport 3 to 4 times a week.
Option 5) Probably a less aggressive intermediate program to allow slow gains and leave something in the tank for sports. HLM is flavour of the month, it's highly customisable.
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Advanced Novice Programming
First, I have to admit that I haven't actually been doing the program... I own, and have read all of Mark Rippetoe's books, but I've been using the Stronglifts 5x5 program - two reasons 1) I love the app, and 2) I still can't get my arms into the rack position even with some coaching!
Anyway, I started lifting March 28th, 2015 at 44 years old, about 310# body weight, estimated 30% plus body fat. I had never lifted before in my life... I went from an empty bar to 380# Squat for 5x5, 410# DL for 1x5, 240# bench for 3x5, and 150# OHP for 5x5, by January for 2016. (bench and OHP maxes were at the end of October, 2015)
Unfortunately I had a tear in my left shoulder's rotator cuff, which diminished my ability to do Bench/Press movements and ultimately made it very difficult for me to do squats and deadlifts. I had an MRI in February of 2016, confirming the tear..
Anyway, for most of 2016 I did a lot of rehab work for my shoulder and I struggled with lifting lighter weights (up to 360# squat, 380# DL with several resets) - it wasn't until September/November that I was able to do a low bar squat without significant pain. Since then, I have been progressing..
I did a max single, for the first time ever, for squats at 465#on April 23rd, 1x5 @ 420# and 435# 1x5 for Deadlift, at a body weight of 280#, estimated 24-26% bodyfat. (I'm in a slight caloric deficit - I lose about 1#/week, I eat about 280-300grams of protein per day, I know that's not ideal, but face it - I'm still a fat f-er!)
My current working squat weight is 430#, 440# deadlift, 130# OHP, 180# bench. I've only been able to do OHP/BP painfree (mostly) for about 6 weeks.
So.... Here are my problems..
1) I'm no longer able to do 1x5 deadlifts after 5x5 squats. I'm just too gassed. I can come back and do deadlifts the next day and it is fine.
2) I've failed 430# squats twice now - today I managed to do a single at 430# and then dropped the weight to 345 (20% reduction) for 5x5. I last tried 430# two days ago and got 5/4/3/0/0 (didn't attempt the 4th and 5th sets). I think the two day break was not sufficient recovery time - if I'd waited another couple days I might have been able to do the 430 set. But then I'd be lifting twice a week rather than three times, which would be fine for squat and deadlift but I'd like to keep upper body work at 3x/week.
3) I'm 46 now and I don't sleep very well - I'm lucky to get 6 hours of sleep on a regular basis with 8-9 hours on occasion. (It isn't that I don't budget the time, I just wake up and then I'm like - FML!)
4) I train martial arts 3-4 days a week - the lifting, for me, is accessory work for martial arts. I don't have expectations of ever being a competitive lifter.
So, as I see it, my options are:
1) Drop 10-20% for Squat/DL (I'm not stalling on DL's yet, but will soon), then work back up. The only reason why I'm hesitating to do this is I've already had a number of resets, although they were not necessarily due solely to strength issues.
2) Change every other lift to a light day for Squats and/or DL's (20% reduction on those days). I'm leaning towards this. That would give me roughly 7.5# increase/week instead of 10-15#, and my Bench/OHP would continue to follow a novice progression.
3) Reduce from 5x5 to 3x5 for squats but continue with the per session increases. I'm skeptical that this will work for me, but the cost of trying is pretty low!
4) Use backoff sets - So, 2x5 at working weight, 3x5 at some reduction..
5) Move on to an intermediate program.
6) Some combination of the above!
Any advice would be appreciated!
Here's a video of my squats/dl from last month:
Let me know if the video doesn't show up - I can't see it in the preview for some reason.
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Two years lifting and training a sport 3 to 4 times a week.
Option 5) Probably a less aggressive intermediate program to allow slow gains and leave something in the tank for sports. HLM is flavour of the month, it's highly customisable.
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definitely that^
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Honestly, the squats are above parallel and the deadlifts look like you're not locking them out, and you are hitching on some of the reps. Before you worry about adding weight on the bar you need to take a significant amount off and correct your technique.
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Tough crowd.Originally Posted by Tim K
I've had a lot of trouble with depth on the squat - I have really poor flexibility - I'm happy I can see my toes, forget about touching them! Even with an air squat, my depth is about the same as in the video. I can't remember what the flexion test is called, but the one where you lay on your back, bring your knee to your chest and your heel to your butt... I totally fail that one. At any rate, if I bounce the bottom of the squat, I can go slightly below parallel, and I'd do that if I was competing, but it seems like it is cheating if I'm trying to gain strength... Perhaps I'm wrong.
As far as hitching goes, my understanding was the hitching was when the bar descends and then goes up, rather than pausing on the ascent. Here's a video of 1x5 at 440# (my wife stopped recording before the 5th rep... She was like, "Why did you do 6??")
For chrisd, Eric Larousse - why HLM instead of Texas Method? They seem pretty similar?
I'd have to agree with Tim on his form assessments. Have you seen a coach yet?
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you are 44 years old man....based on my experience with endless discussions with experienced people here and anecdotally myself a HLM just makes more sense
i am not saying that you CANT do the Texas Method and lose fat...plus play sports but i am convinced that you should not do that....a HLM would offer you much more recovery from day to day and make the sports you play much more enjoyable and the lifting on top of that
now that I have told you that.....I am going to be doing the Texas Method AND playing basketball...i however will not be losing weight on the Texas method when i do this and i do realize that my performance in my chosen sport will suffer(this is a sacrifice i am willing to make for the time being) and it is very likely that the lifting could suffer as well but I live a very disciplined life when it comes to recovery and i am hard headed enough to try to make the damn thing work
all that said do yourself the favor and do HLM...look up garage gym warrior it is actually perfect for a guy in your situation
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I visited Alan Thrall last year for a few hours, but other than that I've only had YouTube....
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46 actually. 44 when I started lifting.
Go visit Alan again. I think he's a much better coach now, especially for SS. I'm actually going to be sharing the platform with him at the end of the month.
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