Hope everyone had a fun Holiday season. My post is in regards to making the transition to strength training from 3 days/wk to 4 days/wk. I was wondering what my options are after finishing the Strength I template this week. My goal of training is solely for strength, and I have no ambition to compete in powerlifting. I just feel at my best when I train, so I really want to transition into a template that has me strength train 4 days/wk (which would seem to be Strength III). However, I’m not sure what would be the best route to take in terms of making the best transition possible to Strength III from Strength I. Prior to Strength I, I did Starting Strength. Here are some of my stats:
Thanks for the response Dr. Feigenbaum. In regards to my lifting history - I don’t know the exact month that I started Starting Strength, but I know I started Starting Strength about a year ago. So I probably started Starting Strength some time within January - March (I know this is probably a wide margin). I was going through Starting Strength, but I repeatedly had issues with my knee and my lower back, so I ended up lowering the intensity of the programming multiple times which ended up prolonging my progression using the Starting Strength programming. After Starting Strength, I still was strength training but I didn’t commit to a specific program maybe for a couple weeks to a month. After fuddling around a bit, I committed to completing Strength I, which I must have started sometime in October. As I’ve said before, I’m now on my 13th week of Strength I. I should probably also note that I was working out a lot, using ‘bro’ programming, about 5-6 times a week for about 3-4 months prior to starting Starting Strength. So, I was doing ‘bro’ workouts, (e.g., chest day, leg day, etc.) from around September-December of 2020. Overlooking all of this lifting history, I essentially started strength training about 10-12 months ago, but I started generally working out consistently about 14-16 months ago.
In regards to how my lifts have progressed, the last data point I have is in early June towards the end of my Starting Strength program. My stats for the 3 main lifts were as follows:
S: 195lbs 3 sets x 5 reps
B: 170lbs 3 sets x 5 reps
D: 285lbs 1 set x 5 reps
I have a feeling that the numbers above may be slightly exaggerated, as it could be that I only hit those numbers on the S&B for 2 sets instead of 3, but that’s the data I have for my last training session of Start Strength. As I said in my previous post, my current numbers as of now are:
S: 255lbs @ 1 rep max
B: 215lbs @ 1 rep max
D: 335lbs @ 1 rep max