Next program (late novice / early intermediate)?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Austin and Jordan,

I’ve been reading your articles for some time now and was wondering if you could give me advice on how to proceed with my training.

Stats (all metric, sorry):
Age: 32
Height: 1,76m
Weight: 77kg
Body fat: Approx. 15%

Background:
I’ve been hitting the gym for a couple of years, but for a long time my training was based on knowledge obtained from T-Nation or YouTube fitness gurus. Most of the time my training was based on some 5/3/1 variation, mostly probably due to convenience or because I had fallen for the cult. Also tried things like Candito’s Linear Program, the Power Look Programm or a variation of the TM 4 days split.

My best lifts were around a 135kgx5RM Squat, 117.5kgx1RM Bench and 185kgx1RM Deadlift, mostly around 2 to 3 years ago. Since then, I’ve been struggling to make further progress or even get close to those numbers again.

Around 5 weeks ago, I decided to do a complete reset after I had been off the gym for a few weeks due to injury and vacation, and started the SSLP with 80kg for Squat, Bench and Deadlift, respectively (my Bench usually doesn’t suffer from a lay-off as much as the lower body lifts) and 45kg for the Press. My hope was that maybe I had never really milked all my novice gainzZz potential because I had never run a good novice program.

Until last week my progress was steady, and I ended up with the following training weights:
127.5kg Squat, 98,5kg Bench, 145kg Deadlift, 60kg Press, 50kg Power Cleans*.

(*Power Cleans only introduced 1.5 weeks ago when deadlifting 3 times a week became hard to recover from.)

I feel like I could still make some progress with the Bench and Press (1kg increments) and the Deadlift (still at 5kg increments), but the Squats, which have always been my weakest lift, are getting tough.

At my last workout, I felt really weak at the Squat - I just didn’t feel the tightness and the hip drive. During warm-up I knew that I wouldn’t be able to reach the scheduled 130kg, so instead I did 120kgx5x3, which still felt heavy.

So maybe this was just a bad day (I had a few drinks - not many - night before), but made me think about my next steps. Getting past the 130kgx5 Squat has always been a barrier for me that was hard to overcome.

My Goals:
Primarily gain strength in the big 3 lifts; secondarily gain lean mass.

Questions / Next Steps:
What would be your recommendation on how to proceed? The following options are currently floating around in my mind:

  1. Stay on the SSLP as long as I can make any progress, even if it takes a few resets or implementing the light Squat day;
  2. Ditch the SSLP fast and switch to any of the BBM templates, e.g.: Bridge 1.0, Bridge 3.0, Powerbuilding 2…;
  3. Get some online (group) coaching; or
  4. Anything else?

It would be very helpful if you could tell me your thoughts on how to proceed in my situation.

Thanks in advance!

2

The Toby,

Thanks for the post and hope you’re doing well. My answers in-line:

  1. I see no reason to modify a program by reducing training stimulus in order to continue adding weight to the bar for short-term gain in the context of a beginner. This has the potential to retard long-term progress by limiting work capacity development, reducing muscle hypertrophy stimulus, etc. The reason why LP stops working isn’t because it’s too much stress, but rather because it’s not enough training to produce fitness adaptations. By training less (light day), you’re actually making it worse in order to see a short term improvement.

  2. We would recommend the beginner template.

  3. This is also an option, though you’d be fine to do the beginner template on your own as well.

  4. I don’t know how much conditioning you’re doing, what your waist circumference is, and what your medical history is like, but I think it’s reasonable to take all that into consideration for weight management.

3

Hi Jordan,

really appreciate your response! Just a few follow-up questions for my better understanding (and out of curiosity):

re 1) I got the idea with the light squat day from PPST and understood that the rationale was that the light day would allow for more recovery inbetween heavy squat work-outs, but I assume that your approach would be quite the opposite, i.e. opt for more stimulus? (I am just hesitating to quit SSLP because you always read about the guys who took SSLP to a 500lb squat without stalling - even though I understand that this is not the average outcome of SSLP.)

re 2) May I ask why you would recommend the Beginner Template over e.g. the Bridge? From your experience, what levels of progress can someone doing the Beginner Template after stalling on SSLP reasonably expect (on average and provided that the person is consistently following the program)? (Just curious; I’m definitely willing to try the Beginner Template.)

Many thanks!

4

Hey Toby,

Thanks for the reply.

re 1) I got the idea with the light squat day from PPST and understood that the rationale was that the light day would allow for more recovery inbetween heavy squat work-outs, but I assume that your approach would be quite the opposite, i.e. opt for more stimulus?

Correct. PPST is wrong in this line of reasoning, as you actually get better at recovering from training the more trained you become. So, LP stops working because it’s not stressful enough. Adding more recovery in the way of reducing stress makes it worse. We’d add more stimulus and allow for potentially longer times between objective improvements.

(I am just hesitating to quit SSLP because you always read about the guys who took SSLP to a 500lb squat without stalling - even though I understand that this is not the average outcome of SSLP.)

The average outcome of LP is a mid to upper 200 lb squat. It is also relatively unimportant what program you start training with so long as it encourages you to train for the rest of your life.

re 2) May I ask why you would recommend the Beginner Template over e.g. the Bridge? From your experience, what levels of progress can someone doing the Beginner Template after stalling on SSLP reasonably expect (on average and provided that the person is consistently following the program)? (Just curious; I’m definitely willing to try the Beginner Template.)

I think the Beginner Template lasts longer, builds more work capacity and self-efficacy, and has more flexibility than The Bridge.

5

Many thanks Jordan! Understood!

I suppose you’d recommend switching to the Beginner Template rather sooner than trying to squeeze out a few more kilos on SSLP until I stall?

6

I don’t think there’s any utility to prioritize short term performance in the context of a beginner. Adding a few kg within your first 3 months is meaningless over the course of a training career.

7

Thanks for the advice. I already started the Beginner Template and did two sessions.

Just a technical question on the template:
I’m using version 1.1 or so of the spreadsheet which I downloaded around end of may. Is there also a kilogram version of this template?
It seems like I’m not able to enter fractions for weight and RPE used. For weight that is no big issue; I can round up half a kilo, but is it normal that RPEs can only be entered as whole numbers?

8

There is not a kilo version and both the weights and RPE are rounded up to the nearest whole number, as we didn’t want to be that granular at this level of training.

9

Hi Jordan,

I’m about to finish week 4 of the Beginner Template and have made some good progress so far - many thanks for your advice!
(Even though, the high-rep work is still hard to get used to - especially for Squats and Deadlifts.)

I will try to milk week 4 a bit more. In the first week of September I will be on holiday, so my plan is to stick with Phase 1 until then and start with Phase 2 after my return.

In this regard, what is your general recommendation for holidays, business trips etc. where I don’t have access to any gym or equipment? Is there anything that can be done in the meantime (e.g. bodyweight exercises, conditioning), or should I just give my body a break?

Many thanks!