One month in to Starting Strength

[thrlskr]

I'm moving tomorrow so my book is packed (should have left it out). Am I supposed to drop to 5lb increments once I miss a lift or before that? I ask because I'm surprised each workout that I'm getting through each 3x5; I don't want slow down by getting scared of the increase, but I don't want to risk injury for bravado either. My lower back is struggling to recover between workouts and I'm just wondering if I should push further or slow the rate of progression.

Thanks,
Nick

*Dec 28-Jan 28
Squat 125-255lbs
Bench 135-180lbs
Deadlift 135-205lbs
Press 65-105lbs
Power clean 65-105lbs

Body Weight 163-176lbs
GOMAD

[ban0001]

The first thing I would do is reevaluate your squat. It should not be fifty pounds more than your deadlift. Your either squatting high, or not training your deadlift frequently enough.

[thersites]

It really depends on the lift. On the squat, you'll likely find yourself going to 5 pound increments by about a month, but you should still be able to do 7.5 or 10 pound increments on the deadlift. On the bench, you probably are already there, and the press is hard to maintain even 5 pound jumps for long. No harm waiting until you start missing a rep on an exercise to decrease the increments. Still, it is better to not be greedy and keep the linear progress going as long as you can than it is to start stalling.

And, I agree with ban0001, that you want to look at your deadlift progress, as you should not be that far behind your squat at this point (& the DL should be far, far ahead of the bench at this point). The deadlift starts off every session for a week or so, then starts alternating with other lifts, but it should have started with 15 pound jumps, and probably about the same time you were ready to drop the squat jumps down to 5 pounds, you would be dropping the deadlift to 10 pounds. Remember that squat progress is supported by deadlift progress, so make sure you aren't neglecting it.

[thrlskr]

It really depends on the lift. On the squat, you'll likely find yourself going to 5 pound increments by about a month, but you should still be able to do 7.5 or 10 pound increments on the deadlift. On the bench, you probably are already there, and the press is hard to maintain even 5 pound jumps for long. No harm waiting until you start missing a rep on an exercise to decrease the increments. Still, it is better to not be greedy and keep the linear progress going as long as you can than it is to start stalling.

And, I agree with ban0001, that you want to look at your deadlift progress, as you should not be that far behind your squat at this point (& the DL should be far, far ahead of the bench at this point). The deadlift starts off every session for a week or so, then starts alternating with other lifts, but it should have started with 15 pound jumps, and probably about the same time you were ready to drop the squat jumps down to 5 pounds, you would be dropping the deadlift to 10 pounds. Remember that squat progress is supported by deadlift progress, so make sure you aren't neglecting it.

I'm sorry I neglected this forum, we moved and I was without internet access.

I put a couple sections above in bold. On what pages can I find this in the Starting Strength book? I was doing DL every other workout and only going up 10lbs each time. Even after a month, the only lifts that felt heavy to me when I wrote the first post were squats and the press. Power cleans felt akward and the DL and bench were still easy. I was blindly following what I thought was the program, but perhaps my memory of the program was incorrect. I'd assumed DL would eventually overcome SQ as the DL progress continued and SQ slowed.

Anyway, I'd like to get those page number from you if you can. Thanks for the help.

[thersites]

For the progressions (how much weight to add), see pp. 297-9, w/ the deadlift specifically discussed on p. 298.

For how often to deadlift in early weeks, in PPST, look at pp. 105-7 & the "Young Angus McSnort" sample novice program on pp. 176-7. In SS, look at p. 289. However, both of these differ from the "Onus Wunsler" sample novice program found in SS on pp. 300-1, which looks more like the program after a few weeks, but says it is the first few weeks. I was a bit older when I started SS, but I still found I could recover from the more frequent deadlifting the first few weeks, although I was only bumping the weight 10 pounds per session. Over the course of a few years, it shouldn't make too much difference to worry about too much. Just make sure you are giving your deadlift the attention it needs both for progress on that & power cleans, but also progress on your squats.

[thrlskr]

Thank you for your help and for taking the time to look those pages up. I will review those sections this evening.