Hello all,
I am a very big fan of Barbell Medicine and cannot express how grateful I am for the amount of high quality information you make accessible to the general population through your articles and podcasts. I appreciate any amount of time you are able to spend answering my questions.
I have stalled hard on SSLP after 3+ months of grinding and multiple reboots. Although I am very underweight, I am wondering if I should continue with SSLP. I have extensive past experience (before LP) lifting weights and subjecting my body to high levels of stress. I could probably eat more, gain weight, and increase my lifts on the LP, but would I gain the “right kind” of weight considering I may not be as sensitive, in terms of hypertrophy, to the LP program?
When I was reading SSPP for the first time, I did not know how to categorize myself. I also have many friends who have logged many hours in the gym (benching, dumbbells, cable machines, smith machines, etc.), who have all had the same problem with not knowing where to start, how to categorize themselves, and not experiencing a significant response from the LP program.
In other words, I feel like a novice, but I don’t feel like a novice, and I am very underweight.
My situation:
I am 28 years old, 164lb, 6’1, very lean and muscular, 30-inch waist, a wide strong back, and about an average (~18 inch) vertical jump. I have been training with weights for many years. Before discovering SS, I would workout pretty much everyday (6-7 days a week), while taking a day off here and there. At times I would even go up to four weeks, training twice a day everyday. I have completed many high volume, high frequency, and high intensity programs. I have also done a lot of sprinting and swimming in my past.
My workouts were primarily bodybuilding style–a large accumulation of pretty much pointless exercises and variations. However, I was still training bench, overhead press, and sometimes deadlift, all with pretty decent form. I was of course very much neglecting squats and doing a lot of leg pressing.
However, through all of my past training, I did manage to gain weight, increasing from 125lbs and a 29-inch waist to 160lbs and a 30-31 inch waist–all over the course of about 3 years. I also went from benching 95lbs to benching 235 for a single at 155lbs.
I eventually discovered SS, read the book multiple times, practiced form over and over, threw everything else out the window, and never looked back–probably one of my prouder life decisions, before discovering Barbell Medicine of course.
I tried the LP program for about 3 months or so, practicing form, stalling, starting over, dropping weight and climbing back up only to stall again at a very slightly heavier weight. Right now, I can squat 225 for a very rough 3 sets of 5. Every time I go into the gym I feel like I am severely grinding away (RPE 9.5-10). Before SS I could probably only squat about 185 for 3 sets of 5.
Goals:
I understand that I am vastly underweight. My goal is to weight 200+ and to be able to lift at least a 200 Press, 300 Bench, 400 Squat, and a 500 Deadlift. I even entertain the ideal of maybe one day competing or becoming a coach. I am gaining weight, but probably not as fast as I should be (~ 3500-4000 calories per day, 2-3 pounds a week).
The LP program was extremely helpful for me in regards to really learning the movement patterns and giving me a solid base to work from. My numbers went up slightly in all of my lifts, but not significantly.
I am currently 164lbs and stalling at a 225x5 squat, 210x5 bench, 135x5 press (160 single), and a 285x5 deadlift.
My questions:
Is the answer to my problem simply to stay on the LP, cut back intensity, and gain weight quicker as I climb back up? Or is it to switch to a program with more volume, and gain weight quicker?
Does one theoretically stay on LP until one is no longer underweight? What about in this case when the trainee has a long history of training and stress with no significant periods of time off?
Is the answer simply my weight, or am I maybe not as sensitive to the LP program, or both? Would I be gaining the right kind of weight if I were eating a tone, but not in a program that I was sufficiently sensitive to?
If I were to cut back on the LP and work my way back up again (even while eating more), I have a strong feeling that I would stall again, maybe at a slightly higher number. It feels like I am rewinding a youtube video that is taking too long to load, only to get the “buffering” message once I catch back up.
Which program would you recommend for me?
I apologize for such a long post. I very much appreciate your time.
Thank you very much!