First I’d just like to give out an obligatory (but nonetheless sincere) thanks for checking this post out - and to all the BBM group who consistently put out the great free information that’s convinced me it’s time to move on from the SS LP.
My general problem is that I have been banging my head against the wall with the SS Novice LP and have been convinced (and still am to a degree) that the problems I’ve encountered are down to a lack of grit, food and adequate rest. To date, and due to some interfering life stress (moving, and applying for grad school etc) all this approach has led me to are mediocre lifts (far below average in some cases) and an out of control body fat percentage.
Running the LP from November 2018 to April 2019 my squat got up to a staggering 120kg / 265lbs (and body weight from 165 - 210 lbs @ 5’10"). After listening to one the BBM podcasts where this exact topic is addressed I’ve come to the revelation that it’s not so much that 120kg’s is necessarily terrible, just more so that i’m an average human (read: not an athlete).
The specific and altogether more shameful issue I’m facing however, is my comparative weakness in every other lift, especially the upper body lifts. At this point I’ve realised that my squats for sure require a different approach, lest I continue pulling the Hafthor / involuntary facial twitching / bells palsy face in the gym. Whereas my DL/BP/OHP numbers (125kg / 60kg / 40kg ) are surely weak for a 26 y.o male. I simply have been unable to improve them with this approach.
At this point I’m at a complete loss - I fully accept the idea that what I require is more total volume within a productive range of intensity, to that end I was looking at wading into a modified 4 day split Texas Method (the 9th of the 12 ways to skin it). But I can’t shake the general feeling that a person such as myself who is literally too weak to perform BW pullups / dips / or even a respectable number of pushups requires a transition into intermediate training!
I had also planned to use this time to practice implementing RPE before moving on to something like the bridge as I expect my ability to gauge that reasonably will take me some time and I don’t want to flail around messing it up while I can still theoretically make decent progress and practice RPE at my own pace.
To sum up, I’m really not sure what to do now - I have a strong suspicion that eating and sleeping more is not going to solve these issues, if anything I need to lose a not-insignificant amount of weight. I’d really appreciate any thoughts / comments / direction you all have for me, and thanks again!
There is no getting around it: you must shake this feeling. This is one of the common, harmful ideas put in people’s heads over there. It fails to recognize the enormous heterogeneity in training response, and leads to the sort of situation you’ve found yourself in all the time. Feeling like you “aren’t strong enough” to not be a “novice” (which is not a thing), increasing calories, repeatedly resetting to “do the program”, resting more, training less, grinding harder … literally anything to avoid increasing the dose of training stimulus (or, heaven forbid … complexity) for someone who is clearly not responding to the current dose.
You must move on. Whether that’s to one of our programming approaches including RPE (like the Bridge), or to some other approach entirely is ultimately up to you. They will continue to tell you that “you didn’t do the program” for some silly reason or that it’s due to “poor technique”, and continue to place these doubts in your head that you are missing out on gains forever. This is bullshit.
Train more – especially on the lifts that are lagging. Do some conditioning. Get the excess weight off. Learn autoregulation (or don’t, whatever you want - there are many ways to go about this). You’ll be better off for it.
Thank you for responding so quickly - it’s very encouraging to hear this laid out in non-dogmatic fashion. Per my hunches and your explicit recommendations i’ll be moving on from the SS novice model immediately.
If I could trouble you with one more thing with regards to; “training more, especially on the lifts that are lagging” - I’m certain it’s an ego / meathead-oriented concern but my bench press numbers really bother me.
What would your outlook on my employing something like Smolov, Jr. for 1/2 cycles be? Or more generally; would it be unwise to let my Squat and Deadlift take a back seat (but still maintain the weight I can currently lift) for 3 -6 weeks whilst I try to bring my bench up to parity? Given how comparatively underdeveloped my pressing is.
If this is too specific a question to answer then no worries and thanks again for the response!
Re: worrying about your ability to gauge RPE. Don’t get intimidated by the idea that you have to know exactly what an RPE 8 vs RPE 9 feels like, for example. If you’ve done the NLP to a weight you failed at, you already know what an RPE 10 feels like! The rep right before that was a ‘9’, and before that an ‘8’. And, you’ll still benefit whether it was ‘actually’ and RPE 7.5 or 8.5 when 8 is prescribed. I believe, and from experience can confirm for myself that the major benefit is the realization that going to an RPE 10 / failure results in much less ‘benefit’ than ‘cost’ (i.e. unproductive fatigue).
If ‘testing’ yourself will give you confidence, pick a lift and weight you think you can go to 6 or 7 reps on, go to what you think is an ‘8’, and then see if you can really grind out 2 more (or, if you can get 3 more, then you were at a ‘7’ instead of an ‘8’, for example). You’ll accumulate some ‘unproductive fatigue’ - but gain some knowledge/confidence that you can estimate your RPE.
“Whereas my DL/BP/OHP numbers (125kg / 60kg / 40kg ) are surely weak for a 26 y.o male. I simply have been unable to improve them with this approach.” My experience was not enough volume in DL, OHP, and BP to sustain gains. When I stopped my LP I was only DL about 245 lbs for 5 reps and it was inconsistent. My squat was ahead of my DL at about 265. Some of that was inconsistent set up in the DL sometimes pulling away from my body instead dragging up the legs. Most of it was just not enough volume. I did a free program from Allan Thrall that increased the volume and DL was tough at first and still was kind of inconsistent. I had to retest on the X rep max days a couple of times because I was off and it would mess up the next block since it was on % of 1 rep max. The now old Hypertrophy template from BBM proved it was a volume issue for me. At first multiple sets were hard and I still had some bad days with the DL but the RPE system meant it was ok. After increasing work capacity and moving to multiple DL sets I have gone up to pulling about 285 for 2X4 tonight and strength gain isn’t the main goal of the old hypertrophy or the endurance template I am running now. I couldn’t pull 315 for one before and now it is RPE 8 at 1 rep. My numbers aren’t going to impress in a meet but they are significant progress from where I was and the template wasn’t really designed for big strength gains. I ran hypertrophy about 1.5 times, then after missing a week with the flu went to endurance. So it took some time to get the work capacity for gains.
The SSLP program does not work for ever for anyone and the lower volume on everything but the low bar squat will eventually fizzle for some it is sooner than others. Honestly, if you listen to Coach Rippetoe in podcasts you find he often makes modifications for people who are stalling like 3 sets of DLs. So the YNDTP isn’t always the problem. I think especially if you start at lower weights and move up more slowly, the 1 set of DL a week you eventually get to just isn’t enough. It wasn’t for me. My DL was stalling around 245. I might have pulled 250 or 255 once or twice but hit a reset shortly after. Since adding volume in an “intermediate” program, I am not getting stuck and adding when the goal is to maintain or gain a little while I lean out. I still think the program is very good for a beginner. I gained a lot on it but sometimes it stops working because you need more to adapt, you just aren’t a beginner anymore.
Thanks for all the responses - very informative stuff!
Based on the above I’ve come to the conclusion that moving on to the bridge is probably the best course to take - if i’m going to need to learn to auto regulate eventually I may as well start now!
Re: The Bridge - is it supposed to be run in sequence? I.E Bridge I > Bridge II > Bridge III or, does III supersede I?