Strength Gen 2 Sticking Point Advice

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

I would consider my “sticking points” related to bottom-end strength in all the lifts.

Squat: I fail directly out of the hole, or juuuuuust around parallel. Also get a decent bit of upper back rounding.

Bench: I fail directly off the chest, or about ~2-3 inches up.

Deadlift: I either fail directly off the floor, or up until mid-shin or so. Once it’s over the knees, lockout is easy.

Press: Directly off the shoulders, up until the nose.

Would you be willing to recommend sticking point exercise selections for the Strength II Gen II sticking point slots?

A follow-up point on this topic: the thought of doing heavy deadlifts, then a supplement squat, then coming back for more deadlifts fills me with dread.

Thanks!

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When it comes to sticking point analysis, there’s four parts:

  1. Identifying where the sticking point is
  2. Identifying what is causing it
  3. Selecting a strategy (educated guess)
  4. Monitoring the response, adjusting from there.

I would press you to work a bit more on number two (who does number 2 work for?), as outside of the press and maybe bench (pending technique), I’m not sure these are straightforward muscle issues without some more analysis.

If forced to pick variations, I’d be thinking HBBS or SSB squat +/- bands and chains, 1 board paused bench press, paused deadlifts, and close grip incline bench presses.

I’m not sure I follow on the exercise order part. Can you clarify?

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Could you suggest some strategies for delving into number two, practically? How would I determine, for example, if failing off the chest is a pec weakness issues vs. maintaining stability in the pause, etc.?

Re: the exercise order part. I guess the amount of volume of similar heavy compounds in one day goes against my intuitions. On a given day 3, I’d be doing a top single, ~3 sets of deadlifts, then after squats, I’d be coming back to do ~3 more sets of paused deadlifts. Feels like a lot of heavy pulling in one day to me is all. I haven’t tried it yet :wink:

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I don’t see that exercise order in any of the templates. What specific template and version are you looking at?

As far as a strategy, I lay out a few in the PDF. Admittedly, it’s challenging to detail my entire thought process within an abbreviated text…or a forum post for that matter.

I don’t think maintaining stability is likely to be a factor in your bench press, though bar path certainly could be. If the book’s guidance gets you close enough to be between ~two variants, pick one based on your gut and see how you do. That’s what I’d do (and what I do do practically-speaking)

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I’m realizing now that I wrote Strength II instead of Strength III. Version 1.2. This is what I’m seeing:

Category Exercise
Main Hinge Conventional Deadlift
Supplemental Squat Safety Bar Squat
Sticking Point DL 3-Count Paused Deadlift (Technique)
Posterior Chain Lying Hamstring Curl
Trunk Knee Raises

That day would have me doing 3 sets of paused deadlifts after already doing multiple sets of conventional deadlifts. I’m just not used to seeing that much pulling volume on one day.

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Hmm, yea I can see your point. My take is that there are ~ 6-7 total sets of deadlifts on this day between the two variants, with the 3ct paused deadlifts being pretty light. I think you should be fine to tolerate that :slight_smile: