I am going to restart the novice LP tomorrow with a deload week. I ran it for awhile and I kept falling into these ruts where I can only speculate that I was underecovering and then fell to poor sleep, getting weaker, tired, achy and sore all the time.
I wasn’t running any deloads though and just kept piling on more weight every workout when eventually every set felt like a 5RM. I want to avoid this and deload before it’s too late.
I plan on deloading 10% off the bar for every lift and plan on hitting the week as followed
squat: 1x5. Squat: 1x5 add 5# to the bar. Squat: 3x5 add 5
bench: 1x5. OHP: 1x5 add 5# to the bar. Bench: 3x5 add 5
DL: 1x5. Chins: 3 sets. DL: 1x5 add 5
I plan to deload like this every fourth week from now on even if I’m feeling great. I want to avoid feeling like run down before it’s too late
do you think this is an effective way to approach training. FWIW: 5’8”, 185, 3100 kcal/day
Hello there! Based on what you have provided here, I’d suggest you NOT restart the LP but move to something like the Bridge 1.0 instead. You should NOT need to add deloads to the NLP, and if you’re not doing well with that programming, it is time to move on. Remember there is nothing magical about staying on a modified and tweaked LP for as long as possible.
that is certainly an option I could take. In your opinion, what are numbers that you feel are strong enough to graduate to the bridge? I’m a 38 year old male and have been mostly body building for 20 years. I checked rippetoe’s strength standards chart and my lifts are not even intermediate yet.
There is no graduating weight, and your goal right now should be finding and working through a program that is successful for you. Needing to deload the novice LP every 4 weeks is simply continuing to reduce the training stress (valuable training stress) while you grind though sets that are at too high of an intensity for you. The table you referenced there really is of note here-you need to be using a program that consistently provides a productive training stress, allows recovery, and is something you can comply with.