Gilgongo

Ah, cool - thanks! I have tried taking less rest time between sets in fact (from 5mins to 3mins) and I think it's helped. I'll try more reps at maybe 10-15% less too.

Thanks, I did in fact get a trainer to have a look at my OHP as well as my squat and DL (at the Bethnel Green Weightlifting Club https://bgwlc.co.uk - anyone reading this in London,UK, you can just drop in and they'll have a look at your form, free of charge!). They gave me some tips for my squat which turned out to give me a huge boost later on, but they said my OHP was fine. My arms have been making some progress, just very small. I guess I should be content with that rate of progress while my lower body lifts are doing well. I'll see if I can incorporate some more vertical pulls in with what I'm doing. Right now though, I tend to plateau out on the same weight for 3-4 weeks then try microloading from there until I hit another plateau maybe 0.5Kg later. It's agonisingly slow going,

I'm 53M and been lifting for over two years. Started with SS, then moved on to a programme of my own design after six months, but it's very similar to SS only with longer recovery periods. Over that time, my squat and DL have improved a lot. Plugging them in to strengthlevel.com says I'm comfortably mid-intermediate for my squat, and even tipping into advanced for my DL (1.85 x bodyweight). However, my bench and OHP have not seen anything like that improvement. I'm only just intermediate for by bench, and mid novice for my OHP. I do have pretty long skinny arms, and the rest of me isn't exactly well built either. But how come I'm so imbalanced? I alternate benching and pressing twice a week, and usually do one or the other after squats too. Chins after DLs usually too.

OK that makes sense that measuring 1RM is mainly if you plan to compete (which I'm not).

Thanks - I ask because I was reading about training at different percentage zones and was curious as to how that worked over time. But what you're saying is that as long as the programme is incremental, you don't need to know your actual (as opposed to theoretical) 1RM. That raises the question of why bother measuring your actual 1RM at all though. It seems a bit of a bother to do, so I'd rather not measure it if I don't have to! I also ask because I'm thinking that after having done a bit more than 5 months of SS, and now over a year of a 5x5 based regime I've basically come up with myself, maybe I should look to do a more structured program. So I was googling program design. I see there's the Danger Method posted here though, which looks like it might be quite good for somebody like me who is pretty much intermediate now.

Hi - I have what seems a pretty stupid question, but I can't work it out... Most advice seems to be to test your 1RM for your lifts about every 12 months or so. But how does that square with increasing your strength during your program? That is, if I measure my squat's 1RM as 100Kg, then do a program that involves doing lifts at, say, 80% six months later, won't that 80% calculated from a 1RM taken six months ago be rather lighter than my actual (new) 1RM? Or does everyone just rely on calculators? For example, I'm using strengthlevel.com to tell me what my current 1RM should be, which I then use to work out my percentage lift levels.

Cool. I started on a light day this week and got my first heavy day tomorrow. Interesting about your preference for a higher rep day - can you elaborate?

I'm male, 51 years old, 183cm (6'), 82Kg (180lbs) fairly skinny, no past history in strength training but I've been doing Starting Strength at home for 4 months (with chins instead of cleans as per The Barbell Prescription). I do some light cardio on most of my off days. I think I'm now ready to "move on" because most of my lifts (but not the DL) are stalling and I can't get back over that even after a 10% deload. I'm eating a slight calorie surplus (as per this calculator) but all that's doing is my waist is just getting bigger. My goal though is ye olde loweringe of bodie fatte, together with maintenance of muscle mass, and preferably some slight increase (at least until I'm about 90 years old). So I thought I'd try applying an HLM template (as per Andy Baker's ideas). Would be good to have somebody sanity check it though (Heh - just noticed he does phone consultations. Maybe I should try that!) Heavy Sunday (work sets) Squat 3x5 Bench 3x5 Deadlift 1x5 Light Tues Squat 1x5 (80% of Heavy Sunday load) Press 1x5 (I'll just increment the load from my current weight) Chins 3xF Medium Thurs (All +1% of previous Heavy Sunday loads) Squat 2x2 Bench 2x2 Deadlift 1x1 BTW I also thought I'd do some rotator cuff strengthening with an exercise band after each workout too. 'Cos my shoulders need that I think. So basically all this elongates my recovery period while keeping my technique and general body stuff in line. It also gives me a "preparation day" on the Medium day, which allows me to test my new weight for the coming Heavy day, but at less than half the volume so as not to knock out my recovery. Nway - any tips gratefully received. PS: My previous post about being on SS forever kinda inspired this one.

OK that sounds good to me. For SS, I'm supposed to go on to the Advanced Novice programme once I plateau, so I'll do that at least. I see the book (The Barbell Prescription) says it's quite likely somebody of my age will be a perpetual novice, nudging up very gradually as my technique refines to searing levels of awesome in the execution of many thousands of lifts over 30 or more years. I wonder how it'll end though, eventually?

It's going OK. Week 14 now. Each lift is progressing really differently though and I've have to re-set everything at different times apart from my DL, which is progressing fine. One thing that's annoying is that my waist measurement keeps going up, which wasn't supposed to happen. I'm only eating about 2000-2500 calories a day (and usually getting about 1-1.5g of protein per kilo). Starting to think about what to do in a couple of months though when I'll be starting to really plateau.

I'm male, 51 years old, 183cm (6'), 82Kg (180lbs) no past history in strength training, but used to do HIIT (mainly Tabata until I had a bad back) for a few years. I've been doing Starting Strength at home for 14 weeks (with chins instead of cleans as per The Barbell Prescription). I do some light cardio on most of my off days. My lifts are OK I think (for a guy of my age): S: 82Kg (180lbs) B: 56Kg (123lbs) P: 37Kg (81lbs) DL: 102Kg (224lbs) I've got some technique issues to work on, and don't quite understand my metabolism (I only have about 2000 cals a day but my waist measurement keeps getting bigger). I've re-set everything once so far (at different times) - apart from my DL, which just keeps going. However, at some point I'll need to "move on" (maybe after I've re-set another couple of times). But what does that mean? I'm doing strength training just to keep in shape and slow down atrophy in old age. I'm not interested in body building or competitions or whatever. Can I just keep re-setting forever? What do people like me do once they've re-set a few times and aren't progressing?

Ah OK. My squat is about 25% of my DL so maybe that's not unusual then if calanthrophy's is 75%. I'm always a bit worried about my form on the other lifts, and have posted my squat and OH press here for some great tips that got me to the next level with those. So now I see that it is the opposite of a problem. Phew :-)

I'm 50M and weigh 80Kg (176lbs) and have been doing SS for 13 weeks. I reset my press about four weeks ago, and my squat and my bench a couple of weeks after that. Now going up by smaller amounts on each, which is fine. But my deadlift shows no sign of slowing down. I'm putting 2Kg (4.4lbs) on each time. My squat is at 78Kg (I de-loaded after getting stuck at 85Kg), but this morning I happily did 100Kg for my DL. Is this normal? I've always felt good with my DL technique, so that may be part of it, but I'm thinking maybe it means my other lifts are having problems if the disparity between my squat and my DL is so big.

I got over something similar by learning to recognise my subconscious mind better. I know it's got a bad rap, but the technique was essentially mindfulness. Practicing separating your "doing" (angry, reactive) mind from your "being" (passive, observing) mind. Take this thought experiment that shows you are not your thoughts: if you are walking along and a tiger jumps out of the forest at you, your "doing" (automatic) mind will key you up and want to make you run away. But if you want, you can use your "being" (deliberate, conscious) mind to stand your ground and punch it on the nose. So conversely, you can *feel* angry, but you can learn to not act on that anger. The same technique is used by Green Berets: they still feel frightened, but they know how to not let it affect them.

Whoo! I think I'm getting it now. Can feel my hip drive coming in when I'm going back up. Bar speed's good, keeping my feet motionless and upper back tight. Push from the whole foot was a good tip!