I imagine that I have a good 4 moths or so before I'm done, +/- a little.

Am I correct to assume that as long as squat and DL are going up, even if the other lifts aren't going up as steadily, that i'm still in novice phase, though?

jf,

I'm gonna answer a question you didn't explicitly ask. There is no reason why you can't do SS while cutting. In fact you can do "less" than SS and drop body fat. Put differently, metcon work is not neccesary for fat loss, a deficit is.

Assuming strength is something you want to maintain (while cutting), keeping the intensity (load) high while scaling back the volume is a good way while in a caloric deficit.

See posts #240 - #242 in this thread

Ok, makes sense. Right now I don't care about losing weight or cutting. I don't want to gain anymore, so eating at maintenance for me is fine. I was just thinking that doing SS for 8 months and then cutting+SS wouldn't work very well since it seems like I would be reaching the end of the novice stage + I would be eating less calories.

So, really I have 4(ish) more months to go of just eating at maintance, doing SS and seeing gains before I worry about anything else. I try to spend each four months planning on what I am going to do for the next 4 months, H+F wise.

And thanks, AB you've been a lot of help itt.

ab,

fwiw AJ and I think some others said cutting (i.e. SS/other intensive work + deficit) would be unwise before novice phase was done.

Couldn't cutting just end the novice phase early, and that's all?

Guys, the novice phase is not something that you lose and it never comes back. It's just a point in your training where you can still recover in about 2 or 3 days from a workout taxing enough to drive an adaptation.

I've been training since May (after about a year of sporadic workouts preceded by 2 years of steady training)...and I'm a novice. Why? Because I started eating way way above maintenance.

Set your goals, then craft a training plan that will help you reach them. Worrying about what "phase" you're in is silly beyond what type of programming it necessitates. If you want to lose fat than go ahead. If all you care about is getting bigger muscles than do so.

What smiley said. You guys seem to think about the stages too much. It's a continuum. At some point, you will just not be able to take the frequent SS workouts anymore. So you switch in whole or in part. But you can always get back to it to get up to speed after a lay off, an injury or some other reason for a regression in strength. So if you feel you need to lose fat, do so and then get back on ss and you'll see you get your strength back quickly even if you were on an intermediate program before, because your body can recover from those loads because you have done them before. Do what works in the moment and stop thinking about the stages.

If you're near the end of the novice phase it and want to cut soon as well you would probably have more success switching to a weekly progression scheme like the texas method. I think there's enough flexibility in the program to add a small amount of short metcons as well if you make some good choices with the other work in the program.

Hi guys. I'm looking for a little critique for my workouts. Here is my plan so far:

Monday
Bicep Curls 3 sets of 10
Tricep Extensions 3 sets of 10
Bench Press 3 sets of 10

Wednesday
Hammer Curls 2 sets of 15
Preacher Curls 2 sets of 15
Bosu Ball Dumbbell Bench 2 sets of 15

Friday
Pronated Tricep Curl 3 sets of 10
Wrist Curls 3 sets of 10
Dumbbell Shoulder press 3 sets of 10

i drink 4 scoops of protein mixed with water right after as i drive home. I'm trying to tone and get really strong. What do you guys think?

I lol'ed

too bad levels like that are too obvious with the user name and all.

i still lol'ed though

Yeah I should have picked a different username
Greetings from the SomethingAwful Health and Fitness forum. Keep lifting heavy bros/broettes

nice lifts btw. (strong stalker)

Military Press
145x8

Bench Press
195x6

Squats
265x4

Deadlifts
335x7

Clean and Jerk
90kg

Bahaahha, welcome bro.

Nice front squats today bro.

Why thank you bro.

I think I'm going to give that Texas Method **** a try. It actually looks like what I like doing anyway

Whoa cool smilies

hey bro you should get on the whiteboard by beating the current record in the 50lb curls category, it's only at 6.

Nah bro SmileyEH can honestly probably curl more than I can. He curled a 65 pound dumbbell today!! I saw it with my own eyes!!!!

Besides if I seriously started training my curl I don't think I'd be able to live with myself.

I missed a week and a half of workouts during finals and I'm going back to the gym tomorrow. My squat and bench were starting to get quite hard, so I think I'm going to drop back 10 pounds on squat and 5 on bench. Both drops are about 3% of my previous work sets. Sound reasonable?

I've also eaten approximately nothing during the exam period so that might affect energy levels.

Bro your bench should be higher than everything else to make it trollworthy. Also barbell curl should=squat.

are there any good websites that can help me create a good fitness programme?

Age,weight,goals, lifting experience???

20, 150lbs, atm im in healthy shape, but not exactly ripped, looking to get ripped and increase build in the next few months. in terms of experience, id say im of intermediete knowledge in the gym etc.

help????
thoughts????

SS

quit trolling.

yeah. its in the FAQ. starting strength for sure.