Previous college athlete, but never did all the big 3 lifts (we did bench, but more hang clean, trap bar jump style deadlift, and front squat…classic college/athlete lifting at the time) and then got into the “bro splits” in med school. Am now 37, had significant achilles injury (required surgery on left achilles to fix the tear and then ended up cutting about 3cm off and then making a Z incision through the left calf to be able to re-attach the tendon), so had strayed away from lower body lifting until recently since it had taken nearly 2 years just to be able to run again. Just had second little kid, so between injury and kids had gotten out of shape. I started doing bigger leaner stronger about 2.5 months ago as well as dieting and tracking macros about 1.5 months ago.
I am 37 and 6’1". At end of Dec 2020, weight was 244, 45" waist, and BF navy calc 30.7%, Bench 175x4, Deadlift 215x6, Squat 205x4 when I started to lift again. After the 2 month first phase of BLS, I got down to 228, BF 27.9%, Waist 40", Bench 205x5, Deadlift 355x4, and Squat 295x5. I just started adding in HIIT in addition to LISS the past few weeks to help with weight loss. Goal weight is between 205-210, and waist 35-37%. Am lifting only for health reasons, but have found I do really like the deadlift and squat. Considering beginner vs the bridge programming. In terms of weight I am still losing 2lbs/week, but I have started to do a bit more carbs on days I lift and less on off days as I feel like my lifts go down across the board unless I up the carbs a bit. What plan do you think would be of most benefit for continued weight loss? Ultimately want to move to the hypertrophy plan but I assume you will say I need to do beginner or bridge first (or appreciate thoughts on continuing bigger leaner stronger since I am showing some progress).
Also, thoughts on squat shoes for my specific achilles situation. I definitely struggle to get to parallel, as when I get all the way there my ankle mobility on the left seems to limit me and I end up leaning towards my right a bit since I have more mobility there. My depth has improved after first few weeks (paused squats seem to help stretch things out) but seems like just barely to parallel is all I can do. When elevating my heel even with just horse stall mats at 3/4" does seem a bit easier to get depth, but I see squat shoes that go from 0.6" all the way to 1.5" in height. Unfortunately they will all have to be ordered from internet without trying on first so wonder if you could suggest a height to look for with achilles injury like mine (aka if .75" is good, would 1 or 1.5" be better?).
Thanks docs.