Introduction

[Quantumfoam]

Hello all, first a thank you to all who volunteer their time and input here.

Not new to lifting, started back when I was 18, nothing serious. I grew a 1ft tall the summer I turned 13, ended up 6' tall and 150lbs. by 18 still 6' but managed to gain a couple lbs and was 175. I looked like a skeleton, seriously how any medical group considers that to be healthy weight I'll never understand. I could at the time dead lift, bench and clean and jerk 135lbs. Given that's all I had that's what I worked with. Fast fwd a decade and I had ballooned up to 320lbs yup you read that right... college, work etc.. and not lifting for about a decade I gained weight fast! I had also gained a couple inched in height to level off at 6'4". Decided to loose the weight and started lifting again, dropped down to 230lb in 9 months. I spent the next 5yrs lifting but with more volume then goals on strength. I was able to lift 5~6 days a week on split groups.

My lifts were as follows:
BP: 255x10, 315x10, 355x10 a few times I would start at 315 then progress to 405x5
DL: 405x10
OP: 205x5x10
C&J: 205x5x10
I also did loads of dumbell lifts in there as well.

All of this was self training in my home gym and doing lots of reading. Eventually I got bored and frankly burned out with the repetition, was in the midst of starting a business and moving across country. Took a hiatus that ended up going a bit longer then I expected.

Now I'm just over 40, started lifting again and decided to change up what I did in the past. Read both SS and Practical programming. I started ~16wks ago. Since the last time I lifted when I stopped I did not want to gain weight so I cut back on my caloric intake and managed to maintain a 245~255 weight since then. Past 40 now I find the eating part to be hard, strange but true. If I was to point to something holding me up I'd defer to not consuming enough calories.

Ok so where I started vs where I'm at now and why I'm posting...
I started with a 5x5 program every other day, I have the advantage of a home gym and being the boss, time.
BP=Bench press, SQ=squat, OP=overhead press, DL=deadlift, BR=bentover row
HT: 6'4"
WK 1:
Wt: 253lbs
SQ: 135
BP: 245
OP: 135
DL: 245
BR: 205
progression has been linear thus far on a couple of the lifts. My weight dropped to 245 then climbed up to 250, expected as I've also dropped some body fat and gained muscle mass again.
WK 16:
Wt: 250
SQ: 315
BP: 305
OP: 175
DL: 345
BR: 260

Recovery is taking longer now, I've switched up to every 4th day and dropped to a 3x5 routine, i.e. sets x reps. I might be able to go back to every 3rd with the reduction in sets but I'll see how it goes.

Here's my last routine and I'm wondering if I'm doing enough or not. this takes me 1.5hrs to do.
Squat:
135x6
155x5
175x5
290x5
300x2 (this was my target weight but I felt I could more and did)
315x5x3

BP:
135x6
155x5
175x5
275x5
305x5x3

BR:
135x5
155x5
175x5
260x5x3

I feel that my squat is lagging, I'm not entirely sure how much weight can be added per wk, 1st wk was 25lb 2nd 30lb, 3rd on out was 15lb for about 6wks then a stall, took 2wks off due to travel out of the country on buisness and came back and was able to pick up with no loss and increase the wk by 15lb. then it lagged again to where the last increase was 5lbs, changed the routine to 3x5 and stretched out the sessions to every 4th day and was able to go up 30lbs.

I'm also wondering if I should swap out bench presses for the power clean or just add in the power clean somewhere. I do pull-ups as well, not weighted at the moment, but I can do ~25 at a time. I should probably add weight to them but do wonder where the gain would be. My shoulders are already fairly big, I can shrug my DL. Do I focus more on lower body and cut back on the upper?

I don't have any specific goals in regards to sport or competition at the moment. I'd like the routine and results to be even or at least not where one half of my body is over developed from the other.

Oh and the overhead press is TOUGH! given that when I was younger I could put just over 200lbs over head easily I wonder why the slow progress now. Hate to think it's purely an age thing or age combined with something else.

If anyone has any input or pointers I'd be thankful.

For now I'm going to switch to a 3x5 routine. I've been tracking everything for the last 16wks so if there are any questions hopefully I can answer them in full.

[Steve Hill]

Congratulations and all, and thanks for all the info, but this is the Staff Coaches Forum. WE answer YOUR questions.

Let us know if you ever have any.

[Quantumfoam]

OK, thanks. If this is in the wrong section my apologies as I honestly couldn't figure out where it would fit best.

But yes I do, given where I'm at and the progress made so far, do I simply tear a page out of the book and continue from there?

distilled down, 16wks and I've added 175lbs to my squat and 100lbs to my deadlift. I know this may sound strange but how far should I go? setting a realistic goal is more helpful then pie in the sky, I just don't know what that would be, 400? 500? Historically I was able to bench over 400, honestly I'm not really concerned with that. More interested in overall strength and fitness as I get older.

[Matt Reynolds]

Very simply, you continue with linear progression until it stops working. As a novice, having a "goal stopping point" is a bad idea because you don't have any idea when the progress will slow and eventually stop. Also, you won't stall on all the lifts at the same time. You'll stop making progress on a specific lift first and will have to change the programming FOR THAT LIFT before you do the others. Then others will follow. Eventually you'll have to have a more periodized model. But if you can make linear progress, why wouldn't you? Stay on the program until you can't make progress anymore.

Matt