Average gains by the end of LP

Hello everybody,

Apologies for the bad English, it’s not my first language. I hope this is not too hard to read because of that.

This is my first post, and I would like to ask something that has been bothering me for a while now. A couple of months ago I saw a Mark Rippetoe’s video in which he mentioned how much the average young male beginner should be able to lift by the end of his linear progression. I apologise for not posting the link, but I could not find the video again. What bothers me is that I tried LP for about 4 months and I believed I’ve pretty much plateaued and I was nowhere near those numbers that Mr Rippetoe mentioned.

I’m going to give you now some more of my stats and history so that you can answer my question.
I’m 6ft 3" male 32 years old now. Started LP in March 2018 at 210 Lbs (95 Kg) bodyweight and continued until June 2018 at 223Lbs(101Kg) if I recall correctly.
My squat went from 110lbs (50kg) up to 193lbs (87.5kg),
deadlift 110lbs (50kg) to 231lbs (105kg)
bench 88lbs (40kg) to 165lbs (75kg)
and press 66lbs (30kg) to 94lbs(42.5kg).

I felt at that point that it was harder to recover and could not add more weight to the bar anymore without my form getting worse. Especially rounding my back. I must mention that I had sciatica 3 years before that and numbness-weakness of my left calf. My diet was good, i was gaining weight, getting protein supplement, my sleep maybe was not ideal, about 6.5 hours per night.

Decided along with my trainer to change the programme for about 6 weeks and then got back to linear progression 3x5 as before.

That was the beginning of Seprember 2018. Was feeling good and my numbers went slightly up. Squat went up another 15lbs and deadlift about 22 Lbs Smaller increases on the other 2 lifts too. My mentality was better and was pushing myself harder until in the beginning of December when my knee pain which was developing the past couple of months was severe enough to make it impossible for me to squat. The physio said there was an imbalance in my glute muscles that made my knees rotate outwards and not move in the proper way and that cause pain. At the same time the training sessions where quite taxing and agan felt it was getting very difficult to recover from one session to the next.

I had to reduce the weight at squating and do single leg exersises which I didn’t do for long enough. Gradually increased the squat near my previous PR and got pain again. This time decided to do my single leg exersises everytime i go to the gym and keep the squat weight low at 155lbs(70kg). That was end of last June. I’ll see the physio for a review in a couple of weeks.

In short I seem to have a very hard time getting better following the LP. I am nowhere near the average lifts for someone plateauing for the 1st time so either I am not or I am doing something wrong or there’s somehing wrong with me. I wanted to ask what was your opinion about that, given my age as well. Could it be as simple as eat more sleep more? (after addressing the knee problem of course) I sleep at least 7 hours now. Where is the limit with food and sleep?

Thanks a million for taking the time to read through this, I look forward to reading your replies. To everyone working hard for this forum and the website/youtube channel to help and inspire people who need it all over the world, a great thank you!

Best wishes to everybody,
Spyros

Spyros,

Thanks for the post and I hope all is well with you :slight_smile:

An aside before we jump in here. We do not recommend the Novice LP routinely at this time due to the shortcomings of the program. I can appreciate wanting to get a second opinion on why the program didn’t work for you (the first one being your trainer), but perhaps this question would be better asked on the SS forums. Conversely, they’ll likely to tell you you’re not doing the program and/or you needed to gain more weight. So…maybe you are in the right place. Alright then, let’s get to your questions:

I felt at that point that it was harder to recover and could not add more weight to the bar anymore without my form getting worse. Especially rounding my back. I must mention that I had sciatica 3 years before that and numbness-weakness of my left calf. My diet was good, i was gaining weight, getting protein supplement, my sleep maybe was not ideal, about 6.5 hours per night.

Rather than being a lack of recovery, it’s more likely that you were not imparting enough stress to demonstrably get better. Alternatively, you may have needed a different type of stress.

Decided along with my trainer to change the programme for about 6 weeks and then got back to linear progression 3x5 as before.

I guess the big question is why go back to LP?

That was the beginning of Seprember 2018. Was feeling good and my numbers went slightly up. Squat went up another 15lbs and deadlift about 22 Lbs Smaller increases on the other 2 lifts too. My mentality was better and was pushing myself harder until in the beginning of December when my knee pain which was developing the past couple of months was severe enough to make it impossible for me to squat. The physio said there was an imbalance in my glute muscles that made my knees rotate outwards and not move in the proper way and that cause pain. At the same time the training sessions where quite taxing and agan felt it was getting very difficult to recover from one session to the next.

Yea, it’s unlikely there was any muscular cause for the pain, but rather the constant grinding on the LP doesn’t tend to agree with folks.

In short I seem to have a very hard time getting better following the LP. I am nowhere near the average lifts for someone plateauing for the 1st time so either I am not or I am doing something wrong or there’s somehing wrong with me. I wanted to ask what was your opinion about that, given my age as well. Could it be as simple as eat more sleep more? (after addressing the knee problem of course) I sleep at least 7 hours now. Where is the limit with food and sleep?

It seems like the program just isn’t good for you, which is to be expected. In short, there are no programs that work well universally. Some people will thrive on a program whereas some will get worse. It’s not a personal failing, it’s just an individual-program mismatch.

You need a different program. We’d recommend starting with our Beginner Template and going from there.

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Dear Dr Feigenbaum,
Thanks a lot for your quick response, very helpful, I will definitely give it a try!
Best wishes