Im new to this forum so heres a short intro.
I’ve been lifting for 2.5 years now and seen some really nice gains ( for me anyway ). I first started with 135 squat, 85 standing press, 185 dead, and 155 bench. Today my PRs are 395 squat, 485 deads, 335 bench, and 190 strict press. I started with Mark Rippitoe’s Wichita Falls program followed by Jim’s 5-3-1 and then started reading some of Jamie Lewis’ Chaos and Pain and attempted it, but I kind of just peaked.
Looking back, Chaos and Pain was just too advanced for me and I applied it incorrectly. After that I started messing around a lot with Olympic lifts and did that for around 6 months. I really enjoyed it and had fun with it, but it didn’t help with any gains… I wasn’t going for gains though, more of doing something different and having fun.
Well, now I’m back into strength/power training and I’m really focusing on breaking PRs. I’m currently deployed for another 8 months and would love to be pulling close to 600 and squatting in the 450 range. I started with Steve Justa’s single rep training regimen and have seen some really nice size gains ( put on 12lbs in 2.5 weeks ); however, it hasn’t upped my maxes. The program has you doing squats and deads everyday at 70% of your RM for 3 singles on day one to 13 singles by day 7.
It also incorporates RPT ( rest pause training ) between each single having you only rest 10-15 seconds. After doing that for a month I saw a few strength gains, but mainly I don’t feel worked anymore as I don’t feel it has enough intensity to it. Therefore, Im now doing that everyday and every other day I’m utilizing Washington University’s 5x5 program to add some intensity.
Sorry for the long read, but I’m really looking for advice from someone with more experience. I just feel like I’m hovering and not moving forward right now… anyone see some obvious faults there? After adding the 5x5 I feel like I have the right amount of intensity.
As for eating and sleeping… I’m able to sleep around 9 a night and eat all day ( food is free here ). I’ve kind of adopted Jamie’s take on over training - that it doesn’ exist, only under sleeping and eating, but that might be my fault.
Well thx in advance for any inputs or recommendations…
Dillon
