Hi, I’m a novice and I’ve got a question about the gray area between novice and intermediate programming. I’d read in an article or heard on YouTube that the idea at one point was to reduce volume and intensity for mid-week squats and to add volume for presses toward the end of someone’s linear progression. Now I’m reading and hearing that running the program out isn’t necessarily a good idea. As I’m starting to stall on squats, would it be a waste of time to reset and stall again? Should I go at it again just for the sake of taking a full-fledged run? And if I should, how many times stalling and resetting would be best?
I like the idea of practicing voluntary hardship through barbell training, but would prefer to do what works best in the long run. I think a lot of fuss is made about where somebody ends up at the of their novice linear progression, but after a couple of months getting modestly stronger and fluffier and learning the lifts I’m happy to move on to something like the Bridge (and then a hypertrophy template, if only for vanity’s sake).
I’ve noticed the trend to be follow-up questions about lifters’ personal history and numbers, so: I’m 30 years old and weigh 215 pounds at 6-foot-2. My fives in the squat are at 285, deadlift at 340, press at 150, and bench press at 205 (got a bum shoulder from old injuries that make me very conservative on the bench). I used to lift weights around 5 or so years ago, when my highest squat was around just shy of 300 and deadlift around 360-plus, and I’ve run a couple marathons but wouldn’t call myself particularly athletic. If I’m not watching what I’m eating I comfortably walk around at a soft 230-or-40 pounds, and could probably eat to push my progress on the linear progression. But frankly I don’t want to. Call it vanity.