What program should I do after Novice LP?(+ program critique pls?)

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Hey yall. I’m ending my Starting Strength LP around Sq 275lbs 3x5, Bench 170 3x5, DL 325 1x5, OHP 135 3x5… so I’ve been looking for a program. I’ve been asking all over the Reddit, so sorry to anyone who is seeing this for the 3rd or 4th time.

my goals: I’m 26m 260 lbs 30%bf navy method. I am lifting for “general health” but more specifically my goals are in order:

#1. Increase my squat and deadlift. I find these fun, and there is an intrinsic reward to squatting and pulling heavy

#2. I’m fat. I’d like to be less fat, but because I have not mastered the art of diet, “cutting” isn’t really an option. So I’d like to run a program at maintenance or with a small calorie defecit.

#3. For general health and to keep the fat at bay, I’d like to do some cardio/conditioning. Currently I run treadmill 3 milers 3x a week with my heart rate around 150 for about 45 minutes.

#4. I’m neurotic. I’d like a program that I can just set and forget. I like tinkering, but it makes me obsessive and is not worth it. Also, I’d like it to last for as long as possible

#5. Hypertrophy would be cool, but is way lower on list of things I want. Since I’m fat, you can’t really “see” my muscle, so I’m happy for 100% of it to go to my “making me more dangerous” muscles. ie Quads, glutes, hams, back, etc.

As for other small details, I’m lifting in my garage/home gym, so the simpler the better. also as part of my neuroticism, I’d rather not have tons of exerscise variations or complicated stuff like rpe and fatigue percents. This is actually why I’m reluctant to do “The Bridge”…

So now that I’ve layed out my whole life story, what programs would be usable for me? In other places I have asked, 5/3/1 BBB, Andy Baker’s GGW, Juggernaut Method, Average to Savage(Nuckols & Isuf), Tactical barbell, and a few GZCL programs have all gotten mentions. I haven’t seen really compelling rationales for any of them, so I’m planning to do 5/3/1 BBB, unless yall have any better ideas.

To give me something to do for the next few weeks, I’ve adapted some of Andy Bakers stuff and my own understanding of intermediate programming to come up with a weekly LP HLM program that looks like this.

Monday: Squat 1x5 @80% of 1rm, 4x5 @75%

OHP: 1x5 @80%, 2x5 @75%

Power cleans 5x3

Wednesday: Squat 3x5 @ 65%

OHP 5x5 @ 70%

Deadlift 1x5 @80%, 2x5 @ 75%

Friday: Squat 3x5 @70%

Bench 1x5 @80%, 4x5 @75%

Rows 3x5

  • conditioning/cardio on off days.

My logic was basically that it follows Andy Baker’s HLM philosophy to manage fatigue. It increases weekly squat sets by 20%(from 9-11) and increases tonnage by about 9% over SSLP. There is also room to add extra sets to the medium squats on bench day as needed. Deadlift sets doubles and tonnage almost doubles. I wasn’t sure how to address the presses, but since I prefer OHP, I decided to Bench once per week on my heavy press day, heavy OHP as my medium press, and medium intensity OHP for 5x5 on my light press day. Rows and Power cleans seem like reasonable back/deadlift accessories, and I don’t really have 1rms tested on those, so I’m just progressing those linearly. The plan is to progress this linearly for a few weeks to make sure I’ve milked out all of my newb gains. If i wanted to milk this program longer, but maintain some linearity, it might be reasonable to alternate weeks of progressing the volume work and progressing the top sets… I’ve done the first two workouts and it seems reaonable. More volume than SSLP, but still feels doable. I guess the proof will be in the pudding over the next few weeks as we see if I can ride this program past my SSLP maxes. Once it stalls, I will switch to whatever program yall recommend.

Also if anyone wants to try the “FailedVessel weekly LP”, go for it.

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Download The Bridge from BBM (since you are here anyway): http://www.barbellmedicine.com/the-bridge/

For set and forget, the program was put into a google sheets format by @azeemqwerty , who is most awesome, here: https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/fo…racker-updated
There is another spreaddy floating about somewhere, but I like this one.

I ran The Bridge at a slight caloric deficit and all my weights/e1RMs went up and my bodyweight came down a couple of kilos (say about 4.5 pounds in your language) and down about an inch at the waist. There are GPP days that incorporate cardio (one day LISS (low intesity steady state), and one day HIIT), so it is good to trim a little bit while getting stronger. However, you will have to tighten your diet otherwise no training program will make a difference. But remember, it is not a weight/fat loss program, it is a strength program, but you can do it while on a slight caloric deficit. It is an introduction to BBM methodologies and introduces more volume than SSLP.

For fat/weight loss, it is suggested here to do the GPP Hypertrophy or the GPP Endurance templates. I did The Bridge after SSLP, got stronger and a little bit leaner, and now I am on the GPP Hypertrophy program to lean up more aggressively, together with a greater caloric deficit diet. The aim is to lean up and try to maintain my strength levels as best I can. Then I will go back to The Bridge for another strength run while keeping waist at the same level that I finish GPP Hypertrophy.

I am not going to critique your program as The Bridge is there on a plate, a full 8 week program that can be run back to back if you get good results the first time (or with GPP Hyp in between), which is super generous by Jordan and Austin. There is much discussion about The Bridge and RPEs on these forums so have a scour around and read up. :slight_smile:

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Seconding The Bridge. I tried 5/3/1 for Beginner’s after my novice program, as suggested heavily by Reddit, and I got weaker in the 2nd cycle. Not only that, but I felt run into the ground. Several times I felt like throwing up after working out. So why would I continue killing myself if I’m not even getting better? BBM doesn’t rely on the mantra of “if you’re not almost dead you didn’t do enough.” They’re smarter than that.

What’s great about BBM templates for you is you can do everything in a home gym. From what I’ve seen, all you really HAVE to have is a rack, bench, bar, and weights. Things like leg press, SSB, etc are optional. I have 2 weeks left on the Bridge, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Once I’m finished I’m doing GPP Hypertrophy.

RPE is not difficult to grasp and is actually awesome once you start using it. Fatigue isn’t really used by them anymore, so don’t worry about that. You can actually base your weights off a percentage if you just absolutely refuse to use RPE.

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Do the Texas Method for Hypertrophy. There’s no RPE in it, only a few exercise variations, the slightly higher reps will help you shed fat, the two GPP days will help you shed fat (you can switch out the 15min HIIT for your 3 milers) , and hypertrophy is one of your goals. Plus, it’s free!!!

It’s explained in the article http://www.barbellmedicine.com/12-wa…-texas-method/