Linear Progression for over 50

I am a 54 year old male, 5’9, 169 and started LP 7 weeks ago. I am getting to the point where I am struggling to add weight. I am at 255 3x5 squat, 190 3x5 bench, 255 DL for 1x5 and 110 3x5 press. I have shoulder limitations due to injuries and I am wondering if LP at 3 days a week, 3 sets squats, 1 set DL and 3 sets Bench/Press is too much at my age. What do I do?

Hi Eric,

Congrats on your progress so far! If you are struggling with the LP now, you can certainly move to another program, like the Bridge 1.0. This is not necessarily going to be “easier” as you’ll likely find that you need to work on increasing your overall work capacity and that’s a good thing. Training is not “too much” for you and really, 54 is not old. However if this is new for you, it’s not easy, however it’s very worth it. But there is nothing inherently wonderful in grinding out your LP for a few more weeks if it’s not working well for you.

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Eric, my LP ran about 9 weeks in my late 40s.

I should have switched to another program, but instead stubbornly insisted on re-trying the novice progression because I thought it “ought to” last longer. I ran it 4 times, ending at about the same weights each time.

In retrospect, doing as coach Lutz above suggests would have been much better for me.

These days I run programs with much higher volume than SS NLP, but that don’t feature max-effort sets as often. My concession to age is just that I add volume gradually, and am patient with slower gains than a younger person might expect.

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I’ll third Leah’s advice, Eric. In my late 40s. Beat myself up last year starting and restarting LP, and that was after a year and a half of doing bodybuilding-style programming. I kept restarting LP thinking it would be different each time if only I tweaked some variable. (More protein, eliminate conditioning, add supplements, etc.) The only thing I succeeded in doing was racking up injuries because I kept trying so hard to push it when I should’ve just changed programs. Subsequently, I set myself way back and lost most of my gainzZz. LP isn’t meant to last forever.

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Hi Eric,

I predict you will enjoy Bridge more than LP because (1) RPE autoregulates the stress, (2) the GPP prepares you to handle the training volume and (3) the 1@8’s give you the arousal/excitment of lifting heavy without the anxiety of failing them.

I’m in my late 40s. I definitely enjoy my training more after switched to Bridge.

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