Extending the novice experience?

[ScottBury]

Drs.,

I have enjoyed your forum posts, blog, videos and podcasts. I'm a month shy of 53 and I'm 38 workouts into the novice LP (started mid Sept, nearly 15 week in, so a bit behind the 3/week rate but never less than 2/week) .


I've taken a relatively conservative approach to the weight addition with 5 /lbs for Squats, 10 lbs for Deadlifts, 2.5 lbs for BP and 2lbs for Press with some adjustments/jumps here and there when it felt right. In response to accumulated fatigue, I did a light week on squats & deads for workouts (32,33,34).

At that point, I also switched to a modified schedule of Squats M-F and Deads on Wednesday with the Benches and Presses alternating MWF. On Fridays I do power snatches. I did this as I found that once my squats and deads approached 300lbs I had a hard time doing both on the same day and was really fried the next day. Following the light week I came back and resumed the LP (i.e, I did not reset ) This seems to be a sustainable plan. I'm not missing any reps on this whereas I missed reps and lost form on deads on the two workouts proceeding the light week. Another important change post light week is that I found a gym with round plates vs 12 sided IronGrip plates that make deads a nightmare. Much better.


Here are my numbers (lbs)

5'7, 200-205 lbs up from 195 lbs
Squat Start 135 Current 3x5 305
Dead Start 155 Current 1x5 325
BP Start 155 Current 3x5 195
Press Start 85 Current 3x5 122


The workouts are still not into grind or miss mode so I'm inclined to keep enjoying the steady novice progression. Do you see any reason to adjust at this point? My primary training goal is just increasing strength.

Cheers,

Scott

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Hey Scott,

Thanks for this and I hope you're doing well.

A few questions, what is your waist size and what sort of weights were you lifting 1 month ago?

[ScottBury]

Hi Jordan. I posted a response to your questions and it appeared to go into moderation mode. Did it actually make it? Cheers & Happy New Year.

[ScottBury]

Hi Jordan,

I'm doing well. Set new PR's today for squat and bench 3x5 of 315 & 200 lbs respectively.

My waist at the navel is 38 inches. It was a bit of revelation to learn about the older athlete resistance to protein and the need to get on the order of 200 gm/day. I have room to improve in terms of getting the carbs and fats in line so I slowly lose fat but still support the weight training with adequate protein. Mountain biking is my main sport, so in addition to the health benefits, I do want to reduce the non-contractile tissue.

I was 180 lbs in March 2017 when I was intensely training for cycling but not lifting. However, I found that couldn't support that training on a low carb & moderate protein ~120gm/day diet and although my cycling performance peaked, I was accumulating nagging injuries ( a new experience for me) and fatigue such that I couldn't meet my cycling training targets. By July I had gotten completely off-track. I concluded that my nutrition & training program was not sustainable and I need to make a change.

Also my wife wondered out loud where my chest & arms had gone (something like, wow you used to fill out that T-shirt). This started me looking into barbell training instead of the functional lifting (KB's, BodyWgt etc) that I had been occasionally doing. In summary, from about April I cut back on my training and I gained weight steadily to around 195 when I began my SS NLP in earnest in September. Since then I have definitely gained LBM and not just fat. I will also note that the severe legs cramps I started getting in 2016 when doing hard cycling training or long rides with high power surges have stopped since I started getting strong. The nagging injuries went away.

As to my weights for 3x5 about 1 month ago, they were Squat 275, DL 305, BP 182.5, Press 113. I was also doing Power Snatches at 115 lbs but stopped them at about that time but have since restarted at the new gym. (Why snatches vs cleans? Short humerus's and a large plate used repair my clavicle.). I have included plots of the LP for the major lifts.

Cheers,
Scott

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Copy that. I'd carry on the LP for now and when it's over- move on to more complex programming.

[ScottBury]

Copy that. I'd carry on the LP for now and when it's over- move on to more complex programming.

Thank you. The LP 3x5 PR's continue. It's fun to be a novice.