NLP Reset?

Programming Discussion
1

Hi, folks. Question for anyone who can answer it:

I’ve been running the NLP for about a month and a half. Prior to that, I’d been using machines at the gym for a year or so (I know, I know. Crappy idea, but I’ve seen the error of my ways.) After that, I bought my own equipment and have been lifting using a barbell since about January. At first, I did a push/pull/leg split of my own invention using the exercise sheet provided with the bench I bought. I realized I really needed to work on building up my strength, though, so I began the NLP on May 26, and by most accounts, I should be able to squeeze about another month out of it. However, I’ve hit a point where my lifts are stalling out.

My question is whether I’m better off doing a reset or just going straight onto the Bridge. I’m not bothered by the idea of taking weight off the bar for the sake a reset if it’s the best thing to do in the long run. I just don’t want to waste time pursuing a course of action that is less productive. I’m 28 years old, so I’m late to the game, and I’d like to make sure that I take the most efficient course in my training to maximize strength gains and increase muscle mass while it’s still a relatively easy thing for me to do.

Here are my numbers. They’re not impressive by anyone’s reckoning, but I’ve been making steady progress every session (as a dude who spent his adolescence and early adult life almost completely sedentary, any noticeable strength gains make me happy):

Squat: 3X5 @156 at start, 3X5 @ 230 now

Deadlift: 1X5 @ 156 at start, 1X5 @ 235 now

Bench: 3X5 @ 105 at start, 3X5 @ 140 now

Press: 3X5 @ 80 at start, 3X5 @ 98 now

Barbell Row: 3X5 @120 at start, 3X5 @145 now

I weigh 200 pounds, eat 3,112 calories per day, and generally come within 10 grams of meeting each of my macros for the day. Sleep is 7 to 8 hours per night. I do twelve minutes of jump rope twice a week (three sets at four minutes) to keep up some level of cardiovascular conditioning. All that to say I think all of my non-training stuff is in order.

So again, just wondering if it’s more efficient/realistic for me to do a reset before moving on to the Bridge, or just go ahead and start the Bridge now.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post, and thanks even more for any input anyone can provide. I greatly appreciate your help.

2

At 200lb (not sure about your height) you should have a lot more left in NLP. Do you have lifting shoes and a belt? The jump rope may be sapping some of your recovery resources.

3

How tall are you? If you’re 6’4” and 200 lbs, you’re a bit underweight, and that may be hindering progress. That said, I think you should reset 1 time by 10% for each “stalled” lift, and continue to make 5/2.5 lb jumps back until you stall again, then switch to the bridge. If you’re stalling on your pressing but not squats/deads, there’s a BBM plug-in you can find on here to do instead of a full reset

4

Unless you’re 7’ tall there’s virtually no way you’re done with LP. That said you shouldn’t be wasting your time on a bunch of resets. Generally I recommend:

  1. Getting your forms checked
  2. If they’re not at 80%, resetting
  3. Repeating steps 1 and 2 until they’re at 80%
  4. Resetting only if there’s something obviously wrong over the last few weeks like: you slept 3 hours a night or you forgot to eat breakfast every day, or you were trying to rest 2 min between sets.

And people seem to define stalling out differently. To some it means they failed a lift once. To others it means it got hard. To SS coaches now it seems to be you failed the lift 3 sessions in a row on 3 different resets over the course of 3 months. Generally I’d define it as failing in the same way twice on a lift. I.e. you can’t get the 5th rep on your first set two times in a row. If you only miss the second set, then miss the third set, I’d probably try 2 more sessions to get all sets before giving up.

And if your upper body stalls out before your other lifts, like most of us, I’d definitely use the BBM Press plugin while you continue to run out squat.

5

I wouldn’t worry about starting out at 28, I started recently at 59 and feel I have plenty of lifting years left to build up and compete in the masters category. If I was in your situation I would switch to the bridge right away. The real benefit is learning to judge RPE, and that will take a month or two. So the time spent getting some additional gains in LP could be better spent learning a new skill that will carry you for years in your training. Or another way of saying it is that continuing the LP is optimizing the short term while learning RPE in the Bridge is optimizing the long term. I am on week 7 of the Bridge and love it.