Hello,
I’d like to have some piece of advice on strength/powerlifting program.
(Also, I’m a non native english speaker, so please excuse me for making grammar mistakes)
I’ll put the weights as follow : kg (lb). Also, sorry for the big text, I wanna be as precise as I can.
Personal background :
I’m starting from an obese state, ~115kg (253lb) for 1m77 (5’8’’) height. I’ve lost weight down to 73kg (160 lb) during a 2 years period, with a classical Push Pull Legs frequency 1.5 program (and also good nutrition). Since mid 2018, I’ve taken back a significant amount of weight, I’m now 100kg ± 2kg (220lb), but I’m stable. I’ve also much more muscle mass than when I was 115kg.
I’m became tired of bodybuilding style of training, and wanted to try strength/PL training (just for fun, no competition plan). Also, I’d like to incorporate OHP, since my shoulders are quite weak.
Strenght training background:
I began with a linear program, increasing randomly weigth on a weekly basis, with 2x squat and 1x deadlift frequency (august 2019). 2 months later, I tried Madcow 5x5 for 12 weeks. My squat went up to 5x140kg (308 lb) and my dead 5x150kg (330lb). But I ran into a brick wall regarding OHP and bench : stalling after 5 weeks at 5x60kg (132 lb) for the bench, and 5x45 kg (99 lb) for the OHP.
After that, I try a 5/3/1 with BBB 5x10 template, and had good results, until the lockdown (from mars to may in my country, but gyms only reopened late june). I’ve been doing some kettbell and bodyweight training at home, but lost a lot of strength (as a lot of people).
After the lockdown, I continued with a 5/3/1 template, with a BBB variations 5x3@85 % TM on the 3’s and 5/3/1 weeks, and 5x5 at 80 % TM on the 5’s week. On this template, I invert the 5’s and 3’s week (inspired by the template given on the powerliftingtowin website).
The thing is that I feel like stalling, and don’t manage to gain back my strength at squatting. I think 5/3/1 has to low volume and to long adaptation period for my current level.
I wanted to try the Texas Method, but I feel like I can not deal with the volume on the monday (also given the fact that I can only train for ~1h15/session).
Do you think it would be relevant to make 1 step backward to a kind of modified Greyskull LP with the 3x5+ and then a 2x8@65% or 2x10@60% backoff sets for more volume ? With, as rate of progression, +2.5 kg (5lb) per week on SQT/deadlift, and +2.5kg every 2 weeks for OHP/bench, since I don’t have acess to microplates. Or do you have any other suggestions ?
I usually like incorporating explosive kettlebell mouvements (swing/snatch/clean&press) or Pendlay row as assistance work.
My biggest constraints are 3 or 4 training/weeks (only between monday and friday) with ~1h15/training (maybe 1h30 sometimes). I low bar squat and pull conventionnal with hookgrip (elbow valgus). My actual numbers : dead 7x140kg (308 lb) RPE9, SQT 5x125kg (275 lb) RPE9, bench 6x65kg (143 lb) RPE9, OHP 7x47.5kg (104 lb) RPE10 (so very big delay with my bench/OHP).
Thank you very much in advance !