How much are you resting between sets of squats? Not abnormal for me to rest 5-10 mins between heavy squat sets. If you're cutting, then its pretty normal to have off days, or weeks. Or you could be nearing the end of linear progression and just about ready to move on to texas method or other intermediate brogramming.

Generally about 6 mins or so. I think that yesterday in between my 1st and 2nd set I only took like 4 mins so that may have been the culprit. I don't always keep track of the time between sets but I'm thinking that I should. It's easy to start a timer when I'm done so I think I'll start. I generally just look at the clock and then about 5-6 mins later go do another set.

I'm not doing like a super cut, but I am eating at a deficit of about 300-500 I estimate, so it being normal to have off days/weeks is encouraging. Maybe it's time to go down a different path like you said. I'm open to all kinds of ideas here.

**** no, setting a timer is nittery at its finest. But taking an extra minute or two if it feels better is probably fine.

I like the SS --> TM --> 5/3/1, because it goes from daily to weekly to monthly progression, but going straight to 5/3/1 seems fine as well. There is also a SS advanced novice program, which has some tweaks for what you should do once SS gets too tough to keep progressing. Things to think about if the current reset has you stalling at the same point again.

lol. agreed. it does seem nitty.

I've never actually read about 5/3/1 although I think I get the general concept from everyone posting about it all the time. What's the best resource link so that I can read some about it? And what's TM?

TM = the texas method

There are ebooks for both programs.

Okay I'll look into them then. I didn't know if there was a resource online for them like there is for SS.

I sent you a pm

May 20:

I decided to run outside today in order to burn some calories and get some sun simultaneously. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it was about 90% humidity and 85 degrees out so it was fairly miserable. Sun was out for about half of my hour run (6 miles) but I don't think I got much, if any, of a tan. Oh well. Pool opens on Saturday so I'll be unpalifying myself some soon.

May 21:

Decided to just do chest, arms, back and abs. For chest I benched 215 5,5,7 times. I was pretty saddened I could only get 7 on the last set. Considering I'm deloading from 235 I was hoping to get a lot more reps on my 3rd sets but that's not really happening. at 210 I got 9 reps, after all.

May 28:

Weight: 204

Squats:

Was tired and not feeling up for lifting heavy but felt better once I got to the gym but figured today would suck. Nope. It was great. Did 5 reps of 305, 310 and 315 with probably my best form to date.

OH Press:

135x3x5

Blah. I deloaded and it was still hard to finish. I really need to improve at OHP. Afterwards I did a bunch of extra shoulder stuff. Some arnolds, lateral raises and rotator pulls

I lifted on Sunday and it wasn't anything special. Squats, DLs, arms.

May 30:

DL:

405 x 4. Ding. Improvement! Used the bumper plates so I didn't have to expend as much effort setting the plates down softly. Makes a big difference obv.

Bench Press: 227x3x5. Slowly getting back to where I was previously but it's hard.

other bro stuff.

1lb is a pretty heavy clip.

Yeah, I should weigh them on the digital scale at the gym to verify, but they are fairly heavy. I'm guessing they are more like .8 or .9lbs but it doesn't matter much. The bench day I had 2 times ago I did just the 4 plates, this time it was 4 plates and 2 clips. Next time I'll try 4 plates and 2 2.5s.

I bet they weigh 1lb combined

Maybe I'll use 4 clips next time then

June 1:

Weight: 202! Progress progress! Pics to come.

Squats:

315x3x5

Last 2 reps were kind of hard, next time I'll do 320.

OH Press:

I am terrible.

140x4
135x5
135x5
140x4

I wanted to start at 140 and if I did 5 reps I would continue to set 2. Didn't work out. So, I moved down to 135 and did 5 reps twice to finish it out. After that I decided to give 140 another try and only got 4 again. Ugh. How can I get better at shoulder work? What kinds of extra movements should I be doing? Seated OH press? lat raises? Front raises?

Here are some of my "progress" pics. My only progress has been gains. First pic is pre-SS at 193lbs. Lifts were crap. 211 is the end of my bulking. 202 is today. My lifts are the same at 211 but down 9lbs in the last 5-6 weeks or so.

June 3

Weight: 202

Today's plan was deadlifts and bench press. Bro stuff after, time permitting.

DL:

I felt good today. Well rested. Strong, like ox. I had never hit 5 reps at 405 but I wanted to get there today. Here were all my sets

225x2
315x2
335x2
405x5 (PR)
425x1 (PR)
225x2x10

Both of the heavy sets were mixed grip and the rest were pronated. Someone before me used chalk on the bumpers so I had the best of both worlds. I really think I should get chalk now. Good lord it feels better. I think I get at least an extra rep out of just the chalk.

Bench Press:

230x3x5
Next time it's back to where I stalled out at before: 235

Congrats on the DL PRs; regular chalk is pretty elite, but I've found that liquid chalk works too and is easier to deal with in a gym that doesn't allow chalk (doesn't seem like an issue for you though).

Nice progress on your cut; I think you somehow have more ab definition than I do, but I'm pretty sure I have a bit less to lose there. Where are you trying to get down to, 190 or so?

Yeah I'm definitely gonna have to buy some chalk. Every time I've used it it's been second-hand but it's been amazing.

I suppose about 1lb/week is pretty standard so I guess it's going reasonably well. These were all morning, unflexed pics. Not like it makes much of a difference anyways. And yeah, I'd like to get down to 190, maybe 185?? Whatever looks best and doesn't kill me in the process.

June 3:

6.3mi run in 53mins. It was nice out and I wanted some sun and I didn't want to lift after just lifting on June 2nd.

June 4:

Legs were a bit sore from the run (but getting better) so I didn't want to do legs today. Instead I focused on OHP. I took some pieces of advice from the LC thread and watched the video snitch had posted from 70sbig and made some changes to my lifts. Results: eh, felt better, but I'm still weak.

OHP:

135lbs: reps of 5,4,4,3,3. Moved to 115 and did reps of 5,5,5.

Then I did some lat raises, front raises and delt work. Hopefully my shoulders got a good workout today.

June 6:

Legs were still a bit sore from running the other day but whatever, gotta lift. I knew I wasn't going to be around to lift on Friday and probably not Saturday so I wanted to make Thursday golden.

Squats:

Last time I did 315x3x5 and today I was going to do 320.

320x1x3. So bad. I could tell when I was warming up that my strength was off but on the first rep of 320 I knew it was going to suck. I barely got the 3rd and gave up. I want to stay in decent cardio shape but running is ****ing me up. Every time I run I have to give myself a lot of time for my legs to recover before squatting. ugh. Well, then I moved to 315 thinking that would make a difference.

315x1x3. Now I'm on tilt. I moved down to 225 just to do lots of reps and did 10 twice before going to 275 and doing 3 sets of 5 reps.

So, I'm just going to pretend this squat day never happened.

After this I did some barbell rows, leg press (!) and upper back stuff. I'm going to give myself a while before squatting again. That was just horrendous.

Busting it out old school here.

BTM:
[x] Wants to stay in decent cardio shape
[x] Wants to increase his squat
[x] Is on a deficit
[ ] Is realistic


FWIW, if you fail a set I've inevitably experienced that even if you drop down 5-10 lbs the next set will be really hard/a fail too. Prob because your nervous system is fried. So no worries imo. And work on #4.

I started 531 BBB yesterday but did the wrong worksets with my squats so I'm going to say that I started today. I printed out the guide from www.strstd.com which was awesome. Some numbers I'm going to change by a few lbs to make it easier to do. 180 becomes 185 etc.

June 11:

Day 1 of 531 BBB.

DL 5-day

Warmup
185x5
225x5
255x5 (oops, was supposed to do 3 as a warmup)

Worksets
285x5
315x5
365x7

BBB
225x5x10 w/ 2 min rests

I was drenched after this and it was awesome. I'm really loving the BBB. Never doing cardio again when I can sweat my ass off busting out reps like this.

Hanging leg raises:
2x10, 1x7 and then had to switch to captains chair leg raises since I was losing my grip thanks to DLs. Seems like maybe these should be after squat day and not DL day lol

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