I’m currently watching Ep 17 of the BBM podcast and just heard you suggest 200 lbs as a good weight for a 5’10" dude, then semi-jokingly used the terms tier 1, 2, … for 10%, 20%, … under that weight, and said that each tier lower someone is, the more trouble they will have with their SSLP. This is interesting to me and not exactly how I’d understood how the whole weight thing worked. I would have assumed that it was the amount of weight gained during the LP that matters with regards to how long the LP can continue, but from your discussion with Austin, it sounds more to me like the weight gain is supplemental (you say that someone at a healthy weight will still perform better gaining 1lb per week on their LP).
I’m no longer doing a LP but I am still probably at least 20% underweight at 178 lbs and 6’2". I have been concerned about gaining bodyweight too quickly out of concern that it will be predominantly fat and that instead of having the problem of too little muscle, I will have the two problems of too much fat and too little muscle. But would it possibly be advantageous for me to just get to 200 or 210 lbs as quickly as possible, and then stay at about that weight while trying to build up strength? I was on my way to becoming a fatboy a few months ago, was approaching 200lbs, but it was pretty repulsive looking in the mirror. Thoughts?
In any case, we would almost never recommend rapid weight gain for anyone as it’s just going to mostly body fat gain with limited benefit. Slow and steady wins the race. As far as what you should do right now, well, that depends on your waist circumference and what you want to do personally. What do you think?
Thanks for the response! Good to know about your change of position on that, I think a slower change in diet will be easier for me to maintain in the long term. By the way, I’m 26 and 31" waist
I want to get significantly bigger, with a lifetime target of maybe 220, or larger, as long as I can legitimately say that the incremental benefits of an extra pound still outweigh the tradeoffs. Basically, my aim is to get as large as possible while still being reasonably lean (I’d say you and Austin are both around the leanness I’d aim for), however, at the risk of sounding like a meme, I’m probably low test and not very responsive to training, and I think it will probably take a very long time to get anywhere near that weight without it all being fat, so I’d say a nearer term goal is 200lbs, again, relatively lean. Although another goal is just to get my numbers up and I think I probably need to be gaining a bit more weight to do that, currently going up maybe a lb every couple weeks. My numbers are currently (all kg) 101x5 deadlift, 76x5 squat, 67x5 pause bench, 42x4 press after on-and-off SSLP for a couple years and then consistent other programming for the past couple months. I am trying to get 120-150g of protein per day but given my low appetite and how filling protein is, it becomes very hard to hit both those protein requirements and calorie surplus, even with protein powder. I could drink 2 whey protein shakes with 50g each and not need to eat a single thing for the rest of the day. Has served me very well in not becoming obese, but has not served me well in putting on muscle.
It is unlikely that your testosterone levels have anything to do with your training response, but rather that the program you’re running is either inappropriate for you if adherence is good.
Haha I’ve been getting coaching with BBM the past 8 weeks so hopefully programming is reasonably appropriate. It definitely is getting much stronger results than I was when trying to re-run LP after a break before getting a coach. It’s also possible I don’t have the right expectations on how things should be increasing. I’ve been adding per week about 3kg to deadlift, 2kg to squat, 1-2kg to bench, 0-1kg to press. I’ve been happy with deadlift and bench improvements but especially squat I feel like 2kg is a low amount to be adding given 3 days of squat+variants (normal w/ belt, high bar, 2ct pause) and how low my squat currently is. I see so many people who seem to be able to add 15lbs a week to their squat well into the 200s and assume I’m probably doing something significantly wrong for that to happen. Given I have someone watching my form and programming my lifts and that I haven’t missed days (although I have had several back-to-back days, eg Wed/Sat/Sun), I assume the problem is more likely dietary or just me being a low responder.
I’m not so much worried about my progress at this exact moment in time as that if I’m struggling this much at the beginning when gains are easy for most people, it will only get harder as I get stronger and returns diminish.
If your squat is ~76kg x 5 and you’re adding 2kg/wk then you’re adding ~2.5% per week. That’s pretty good.
I think that’s a bit of a stretch, assuming you’re talking about LP. That program normally works for ~ 9 weeks and most end up with a middle 200lb squat, which ultimately doesn’t matter because it’s not like the majority of them go on to be really strong, e.g. 500 or 600lb squatters. So, what’s the rush?
It is possible, of course, but I’d be curious to know how much you’ve added to your squat in the past 8 weeks. If it’s ~ 15kg, that’s really good dude.
No rush, really. I just get a bit caught up on comparing myself to numbers I see online and Rip’s (probably cherry-picked) examples and wondering whether there’s something crazy wrong with me. Although I guess I should just be thankful I found a way to squeeze a squat rack into my apartment and have 9 months to train I wouldn’t if I waited for San Francisco to open gyms back up. I think I’m just trying to undo 2 years of Rippetoe brainwashing.
I started Week 1 with 64x6 and Wednesday I lifted 76x5, both at RPE 8. Dropping a rep accounts for ~2kg, so I added more like 10kg in 7 weeks. (Based on 2ct pause performance today, I should likely be able to add another 2kg to base squat next session, so that’d be 12kg in 8 weeks.) There were a couple weeks where I only added 1kg to the bar, I added 0 the week I switched to heels, and added 4kg the week I dropped reps, obviously. But if 15kg is “really good dude” I’d guess 10-12kg must be at least “not bad man”.
I’ll just keep it up, I guess I shouldn’t be concerned as long as I’m adding weight consistently. I like training so I’m not in a rush, I’m enjoying the ride. Thanks for the responses