Advice please

[Mindforge]

Hi Andy

Looking for some general programming advice.

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I am a big fan of the book and have been doing Starting Strength for a few years now, prior to which I was doing the usual commercial gym rubbish. Felt like I hit a wall with the programme and tried some tweaks but to no avail.

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In the last six months I have taken up the Olympic lifts and have been training with a very experienced Olympic trainer. This helped with my all round technique and flexibility. I had been training five/six times a week to learn the lifts, which included two compound sessions similar to Starting Strength, except with six sets of three reps, as recommended by the trainer. Now the interesting thing is that I have actually made progress on the big lifts for the first time in a while, even though I have been doing some gruelling Olympic workouts.

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I weigh 72.5kg and am 5 foot 9 and quite small framed. With my twice a week compound routines, my current numbers are as follows:

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Low bar back squat – 6 sets of 3 reps at 110kg

Bench press – 6 sets of 3 reps at 75kg (I have struggled to get bench press much higher than 77.5kg ever, but finally have made some progress by doing some close grip bench press on alternate days).

Press (alternate workout to bench press) – 6 sets of 3 reps at 57.5kg

Deadlift (once every two weeks) – working up to 1 set of 3 reps at 140kg with hook grip

Pendlay row – 6 sets of 3 reps at 82.5kg

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Olympic lifts maxes have been 60kg snatch and 80kg clean and jerk.

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My wife is due to have our first baby in the next couple of months, so I recognise I will not be able to devote so much time to the gym and so I am looking to cut down to a minimum three times a week routine. I would appreciate recommendations as to what programme to move onto – straight back to Starting Strength, even though previously it did not work that well for me, or some other variant?

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Thanks very much.

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[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Just make a minor adjustment to the schedule but keep using the same program if it's working for you. No reason to change