Posted: 4/15/2013 9:37:15 PM EDT
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I have been doing SS for about a year now, with a few periods of inactivity due to injuries and illness. My pressing stalled temporarily in the fall, but I worked through, and started progressing again. After a very rough month or so, with three bouts of illness (January into February), I had to reset my weights. I made some more progress, but seemed to have stalled again. My bench has plateaued at 3x5 @ 260, and my overhead press is 3x5 @ 170. I seem to have some issues with shoulder recovery, in particular. The sticking point is about a third to halfway up, for both. Deads are still improving after a major reset due to a groin injury (370 for five as of this week). Squats are still off of the table due to said injury. I can currently only increase load in increments of 5 pounds.
I am going to work on nutrition and sleep, as I don't think I have really been doing well in those areas since the illnesses. I think I can probably eek a little more out of this program. However, I suspect it might be time to look into something else. I have seen recommendations for "Texas Method" as a good follow up to SS. Of course, 5/3/1 seems pretty ubiquitous, also. I believe I also saw someone mention trying to stick with SS for as long as possible, while trying to use fractional plates to lower the weight increase to 1 or 2 pounds per week. So, if I can't get through the stall, what would you guys recommend? |
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Quoted:
I have been doing SS for about a year now, with a few periods of inactivity due to injuries and illness. My pressing stalled temporarily in the fall, but I worked through, and started progressing again. After a very rough month or so, with three bouts of illness (January into February), I had to reset my weights. I made some more progress, but seemed to have stalled again. My bench has plateaued at 3x5 @ 260, and my overhead press is 3x5 @ 170. I seem to have some issues with shoulder recovery, in particular. The sticking point is about a third to halfway up, for both. Deads are still improving after a major reset due to a groin injury (370 for five as of this week). Squats are still off of the table due to said injury. I can currently only increase load in increments of 5 pounds. I am going to work on nutrition and sleep, as I don't think I have really been doing well in those areas since the illnesses. I think I can probably eek a little more out of this program. However, I suspect it might be time to look into something else. I have seen recommendations for "Texas Method" as a good follow up to SS. Of course, 5/3/1 seems pretty ubiquitous, also. I believe I also saw someone mention trying to stick with SS for as long as possible, while trying to use fractional plates to lower the weight increase to 1 or 2 pounds per week. So, if I can't get through the stall, what would you guys recommend? A lot of people go to the "Texas Method" after starting strength because Rippetoe likes the program. There is another program called "Madcow" it is modified version of the texas method. The texas method has Monday as a volume day and it is a bitch of a workout you do 5x5 across on Squat and Bench then do 1x5 heavy deadlifts. So a lot of people have a hard time with that much volume Madcow uses ramp sets of 5x5 squat and bench. So you are doing the same number of reps but at a lower volume on Monday. Here are some of the differences between the two. Madcow Pros: - Volume is spread out over the week so if you don't do well with a high volume day then it can help - The ramping sets might make it easier and more productive for people who can't handle sets across - If you have a little bit of novice LP left it might get you an extra 20 pounds on your lifts since the frequency of the 5RMs is reduced in comparison to SS Cons: - Might not be enough volume to stress and cause an adaptation. You could add more top end triples and more backoff sets but in my experience it wasn't much help - Workout tend to be a little longer, especially in a busy gym it can take up to an hour and a half-2 hours. - The deadlifting on the light day could interfere with recovery for the next session, I just ended up moving it to the heavy day in my training TM Pros: - Can train the upper body lifts evenly (press and bench) - Recovery day actually helps you recover, you end up feeling better and fresher after than you did before - Enough rest programmed in after the volume day that you can usually hit your target on intensity days - Recovery and Intensity days are much shorter, can be done in under an hour - Each start of a training week you feel pretty fresh and ready for volume day since Intensity day had low volume and you get 2 days off to fully recover from the week - Once you understand the Volume and Intensity relationship well enough and get to know how your body responds you can drop some sets and reps and still make pretty good progress. Cons: - Volume day is a motherfucker. - For some people the heavy sets across are just tough to recover from My recommendation is stick with SS as long as possible. Since you are not squatting right now that will fall way behind. When you start back up take it easy on the squats so you don't hurt yourself again. Then run a hybrid program with Squats following the SS model and the other lifts following MC, TM or 5/3/1. You could also do the 5/3/1 more squats programs to get that back up. |