Help choosing program

[Jason Cross]

Hello,

First time poster here. I was previously doing SL 5x5 for 12 weeks, I made some decent gains.

These are the results to my 5RM after 12 weeks, bodyweight going from 177 to 184 with a 2.5" drop in navel measurement.

squat 260>310
press 125>145
dead 225>315
bench 185>210
bb row 105>190

I know the SL program is not very well received here, and I got fed up with the guy constantly trying to sell me something, on top of that, the forum is closed and I cannot post form check videos, something I will surely utilize here. When I got the SS book I realized the content of SL was seriously lacking compared to SS and that SS was obviously the better choice.

In 12 weeks I wasted a bunch of initial time with the 50% deload suggestion for trained guys, got some sore hips because of form, and managed to increase some numbers. I got the squat to 310 5x5 before deloading 10% because of a stall (following the program.) The volume at this weight I was unable to recover from. I am lucky the 12th week came to take some rest because I felt beaten up and broken down. I was most likely over training. I did manage the increase in bodyweight while losing belly fat, so most of the weight gain is muscle.

Sorry for the big intro, but I have just a simple question:

With my current numbers do I stand to still make some significant progress on the beginner program?

My guess is that I still have some decent gains to be made with linear progression on the beginner program, but I would like some experienced opinions.

I'm 5'9" 184 and 24 years old, body fat is roughly 12% (mean of multiple tests.) I'm not that interested in packing on huge amounts of weight, after going through a massive fat loss for 6 months (50 lbs lost) I don't really want the pudge to sneak back up on me.

[MikeC1]

Your deadlift is the only one that stands out as very low. How have you been training it? You should be able to get that much stronger by continuing a simple novice progression. Hard to say for the other lifts, depends on how you're recovering from them.

[Jason Cross]

My dead was pretty much untrained before I started SL, and I made the mistake of deloading at 315 to try and maintain a DOH grip, I know that I can make progress there. I switched to alternate grip for work sets. Gym doesn't allow chalk... Its hard to find anything that is not a commercial health club here.

I had not stalled on the press, or bench yet.

I think with reduced volume I can continue to make progress, but I am not very experienced.

[Greg C]

Your deadlift is the only one that stands out as very low. How have you been training it? You should be able to get that much stronger by continuing a simple novice progression. Hard to say for the other lifts, depends on how you're recovering from them.

Depending on where he started for DL and BS, with a 5 and 15 #/week progression, you're going to get to even numbers pretty damn fast. Around 300-350# is where a lot of folks have seen this happen. Doesn't necessarily mean anything wrong. Now, if it 230#/230#, I'd suspect high squats or some other issue.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

Program choice has NOTHING to do with how much you can lift. NOTHING. Program selection has to do with rate of recovery and the amount of stress needed to drive that recovery.

[gzt]

If you got to 310x5x5, you've got plenty of progress left in you at 3x5...

[Jason Cross]

Thanks for the replies, I will start the beginner program on Monday.

[Jason Cross]

If you are experience overtraining syndrome, or some symptoms how long should one wait before resuming heavy lifting?

Do you wait one week and go back to it no matter how you feel?

Or do you wait until all the symptoms are gone?

Everyone wants to come back quickly without losing time, but is there a time when its too soon? Is there a protocol for this sort of thing?

I'm resting a lot, getting more sleep, doing active recovery like walks, does ibuprofen help here?

[gzt]

What makes you think you're "overtrained"?

[Jason Cross]

I am in the middle of a week off and I am experiencing difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite, fatigue, over all soreness that doesn't go away in my entire body.

I'm not claiming that I am over trained, but am experiencing symptoms. Prevention is better than a cure.