Switching from Greyskull - Phase 2?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Howdy,

After eyeing up the Barbell Medicine templates and programming for a while now, I’ve finally made the jump and purchased the Beginner Template.

I’ve been running the Greyskull LP (pretty much the base program) for 2 months now, but wanted to switch over to RPE-based work and something a bit more structured so here I am.

Prior to Greyskull I had been on a 1 year hiatus from lifting - I had completed the Starting Strength novice LP before that.

My current stats:

5’8", 186lb body weight, 37" waist

Squat: 240lb 3x5, 280 e1RM
Dead: 270 1x5, 315 e1RM
Bench: 180 3x5, 225 e1RM
Press: 125 3x5, ~140 e1RM

I’ve had all these lifts higher before, so I know I have more left in me, but I was also 20lbs heavier when I was running Starting Strength (real men weigh 200lbs and all that :))

Anyway, down to my question. On Greyskull, I’ve already had to reset my Bench and my Press, and am currently micro loading my press with 2.5lb jumps. I understand that after 2 lifts start stalling, the beginner template should move onto phase 2. Should I count my stalled progress with greyskull and start out with phase 2, or run phase 1 fresh?

I can also tell my squats and deadlifts are also close to stalling, although they haven’t yet.

Thanks for any advice! I’m looking forward to running this program.

2

Matt,

Thanks for the post. I’d probably have you run phase 1 given the markedly different programming approaches. If it doesn’t work well for you, you’ll know very soon, but I think you can squeeze a few weeks out of it.

-Jordan

3

Thanks! I did try out the first workout from phase 1. The high rep DL sets kicked my ass but overall I enjoyed it. I’ll run it from there and see how I do.