Recovery between warmup sets and strength maintenance?

[Bleve]

Hey Rip,
I am not doing pure SS:BBT programming.

I'm squatting around 230kg for a (tested) 1RM, doing 3 x 1 at 220 tonight and 5 x 3 at 210 on Thursday, lifting twice a week (track sprint cycling training on Tues night, Fri and Sun, and this *is* stressing my ability to recover, I do have a healthy appetite though ... I'm coping at the moment). My warmup is generally : 2 x 5 @ 25kg (unloaded bar with topsquat handles on it), 5 @ 40% of workset, 5 @ 60%, 2 @ 80%, rest ~15-20 mins then do the workset (and rest 15-25 mins between worksets).

This is working reasonably well, I'm 41, ~107kg at the moment, 183cm (6') and am now squatting and deadlifting over 2x bodyweight. I'm happy about this, very, especially given the injuries I've worked through and worked around over the years. Anyway .. my question, with context as above.

My warmup, I'm finding that the 80% for 2 is getting pretty heavy. Tonight, for example, it will be 175kg, which isn't light, and I find that, while not a struggle to lift, I appreciate a bit of freshness, if I do it straight after 5 at 132.5, it's ... unpleasant ... and I get some pain in my lower back. I've dropped from sets of 5 to 3's mainly because if I do 5's my lower back flares up and I spend 2 weeks missing lifting and taking too many NSAIDs for my comfort.

I've been adding around 5-10 mins of rest after the set of 5 at 60%, before I do the 2 at 80% for the last couple of weeks and it's working out ok, but I wanted to ask your experience, is that a normal sort of thing to do when you're lifting moderately heavy stuff? Should I just say "fuck it, load and lift", or am I better off continuing with the rest between warmup sets? Or is this an artifact of not doing 5's much for worksets of late? I haven't done worksets of 5's for a couple of months.

A second question, related to programming;

As these get heavier, and harder to recover from, they start impacting my cycling training (which I can measure as well as feel, we use power meters and they tell a revealing story). I can program around the fatigue and do strength and anaerobic endurance/capacity work on the bike when tired and power work when fresher, but at some point soon (it's getting closer to race season) I will have to drop the lifting down to once a week at any sort of intensity if I'm an to get any value from the bike work - what's your experience with using once a week (or less?) to maintain strength levels when doing sports that are strength and power orientated? What works well? I haven't seen much in PPST (I have both editions, but they're on loan at the moment and I can't check them right now) on this, but I may have missed or forgotten if this is addressed in PPST (or SS:BBT?). The younger guys I coach recover much quicker and they're fine at 2 x week lifting, 2-4 times riding, but they're not 41 and broken! Little shits .. anyway ... Your advice?

[Mark Rippetoe]

1. Just single all your warmups after 135. I do. Same reason.

2. If you're down to 1x/week, the only decent option you have is 5s, 1 or maybe 2 sets across. Threes 1x/week won't hold you where you need to be.

[Bleve]

1. Just single all your warmups after 135. I do. Same reason.

Ok, will give that a try.

2. If you're down to 1x/week, the only decent option you have is 5s, 1 or maybe 2 sets across. Threes 1x/week won't hold you where you need to be.

Duly noted.

I owe you a thankyou too, last night I deadlifted (single) 227.5kg (500lb), using hook grip. Thanks to your books, the DVD and your advice on this forum, without which I would not have been anywhere near this strong. In the overall scheme of things, 500lb isn't a big lift, but it's pretty good for me! Thank you.