My SS story and where to go from here

[spjsschl]

I have never lifted in my life nor done a significant amount of sports besides
hiking before I turned 27.
I was overweight as far back as I can remember, at the height of it I had some
280 lbs at 6.2 ft, no visible muscle. I was unhappy with my physique and decided
that the fat needs to come off.
I knew nothing and went on a limited carb, no fat, no protein diet for the
better part of a year. After around 10 months I was still fat looking, skinny
arms and 170 lbs, depressed, unhappy. This did not work. I started to read up on diets, nutrition
and noticed, that the manly looking strong guys around me were not light, they
were muscular, heavy and had low bodyfat. Also they were eating like hell.
I bitched about genetics and all that and was unhappy for a while.
Then I decided to make a change. A friend of mine, the bulky, short but strong
wrestler type, went to the gym and I asked if I could join him to try it.
He was on a program called stronglifts 5x5 and put me under an empty bar for
squats, overhead presses and deadlifts the first day. I felt awkward, weak and
weird and thought this is not for me. I am an intellectual guy, brute strength is
not necessary in our modern society and tried to rationalize my way out.
The next day, some 36 hours after the first "workout" DOMS hit me, like I never
had it before - from an empty bar.
I somehow made my way home from campus, unable to bike, I think I caught a ride
from a friend. I downed a chunk of meat and glass of milk and went to bed at 6
pm. I woke up the next day after 14 or 15 hours of sleep and was amazed. My body
felt different. I could feel little muscles were there never was anything, and I
felt an incredible energy. I was hooked - this seemed to work.
I stayed on the stronglifts 5x5 for a while, reading up on nutrition and the
lifts. Another program called starting strength kept popping up and I liked it
better. It seemed this guy knew what he was talking about and I trusted him.

In the first months of stronglifts during which I eventually transitioned into
SS, I made incredible progress in my eyes. Soon I was able to squat 220, without
stalling once. I put on 30 lbs in 3 months, still looked better than ever and
did not have to hold back on food. My self consciousness got an incredible boost
out of this and I felt in control of my life. I started to see the world
differently, taxing everybody around me for strength, body composition and
mentality, and all the food according to energy and protein content. I
stopped smoking 100% and drinking to a single occasional beer on the weekend
with friends or a single glass of wine, that I mostly did not even finish.

I then went through a 12 months period of a couple of good runs, increasing my
personal records interrupted by regular set backs, that forced me to take a
couple of weeks off here and then and reset (lifting-unrelated surgery,
traveling) etc. and ended up last December, seriously overworked and probably
overtrained. My stats were:
squat 3x355x5
bench 3x175x5
press 3x135x5
dl 1x405x4
clean 5x170x3
at 220 lbs bodyweight, around 25-30% bf
This were all personal records within a single week. The rest of this week was
spent sleeping and eating, I barely woke up to grind out my workouts. I was
about to quit my job at that point so I did not go there anymore and literally
slept 20 hours a day, completely dead.
When I realized that I tried to reduce the workouts by cutting back and having
the recommended light Wednesday but I just kept failing already at warmups.
I used the next 5 weeks to wrap up some things at work, quit my job and recover
traveling to figure out what to do with my life. I did not lift during this
time.
In January I had things cleared up personally and for now I am in between jobs.
I started SS again at that time (starting with 225 squats, 275 dl, 95 press, 105
clean and 135 bench). I have consistently moved up to
squat 3x350x5
bench 3x177.5x5
press 3x137.5x5
dl 1x400x5
clean 5x175x3
chin ups 3x6
again at 220 lbs, maybe a little bit less bf. The increased need for sleep is
getting me again during the last week (I could spend all day sleeping, if I
would allow myself to) - I am "limiting myself" to 11 hours at night and not
more than 1 nap a day, once I start working again, this will not be possible
anymore.

I am eating between 3000 and 3500 calories a day. Mainly fat red meat (220-250
gr total protein daily), vegetables, eggs. I have a bowl of oats after every
workout. Wednesday night and on Saturdays I have carb meals (cheat meals) which
can be anything I crave. I still make sure to get my protein these days.
I am taking the following supplements daily: creatine 5g, fish oil 2g, whey
(75-100 g), a multi vitamin and some dietary fiber.
The dietary fiber goes into my whey shakes, since I started to be lactose
intolerant and it seems to limit the side effects... (I will pbly switch to
albumin soon).
With an increase in calories (up to 4000/day) I have found that my bodyfat goes
out of control. I am a natural fatty and need to stick to a paleo like diet 80%
of the time. If I start drinking milk for example I start to blow up around the
midsection a lot, while strength gains seem to not increase.

All in all I had a great run with SS and it fixed up many aspects in my life,
not just my body. I am thankful for this.

Based on my progression, the feeling that I am close to overtraining again and
maxing out close to the same stats that I had last December, I think it is time
for me to move on from SS. I also experienced mental failures on some of my 3rd
work sets (on squats and presses), where my brain just starts to fuck with me. I
get 2x5 in clean and then grab the bar after 5 minutes break for the last set
and my brain just fucks with me: "you are too weak", "you cannot do this", "let
it be you are gonna hurt yourself" shoots through my mind and my body feels
weak. I usually fail the next set on the first or second rep. I think that is
another signal that I need a change in program. I am pretty confident that I can
make my 5rm go up just not with sets across anymore.

I came up with the following program, based on the Madcow program:
Set up so that old 5rm is achieved in week 4
Monday (use previous Friday's triple as max)
5x5 ramped squats (50% + 12.5% increases + backoff set 10 with 75%)
5x5 ramped bench (50% + 12.5% increases + backoff set 10 with 75%)
5x5 ramped clean (50% + 12.5% increase)
3x6 chin ups
Wednesday
4x5 ramped squats (50% + 62.5% + 75% + 75%) same weights as on Monday
4x5 ramped press (50% + 16.6% increases + backoff set of 10 with 75%) add 2.5 lbs every week
4x5 ramped deadlift (50% + 16.6% increases + backoff set of 8 with 75%) add 10 or 5 lbs every week
3x6 dips
Friday
4x5 ramped squats (50% + 12.5% increases + 1x3 Monday's max + 2.5% + backoff set 8 with 75%)
4x5 ramped bench (50% + 12.5% increases + 1x3 Monday's max + 2.5% + backoff set 8 with 75%)
4x5 ramped clean (50% + 12.5% increases + 1x3 Monday's max + 2.5% + backoff set 8 with 75%)
3x6 chin ups

I would like to get a little bit more buff, that is why I added the backoff
sets. My plan is to test this for the next two weeks (then I have to travel for
a month) and after that start to work full time again. I will after the travel
start to work up to where I am now with SS again and then switch to the new
program.
I would like advice on the following questions:
Does the proposed new program make sense?
Are the backoff sets too high in weight, rep?
Is it the right time for me to switch away from SS?
Should I not have all the new heavy triples on Friday, but space them out somehow? How?
Any other constructive criticism is highly welcome

[Philbert]

Bless You, my son. Oops, this is the SS forum, not a confessional. Try it. I don't see any glaring issues. Your timing is correct. SS has served you well, it is not working for you at this point,whether that is due to physical or mental issues is irrelevant if changing to another reasonable program solves the problem.