Bench Press progress is going to go slower than with the squat or deadlift. 2.5 pound jumps are likely going to be necessary early on. That is why Rippetoe advises getting 1.25 pound plates.
Quick question
Am I a beginner?
BONUS QUESTION; Therefore do I do Rippetoes SS till I stall/get 400lbs DL?
I have been lifting for about a year and a half. I can do all the lifts prescribed by Rippetoe with good form.
My 3RM maxs are
kg lbs
Deadlift 130 286
Powerclean 75 165
Squat 120 264
Bench 70 154
I know my bench is insanely weak.
[quote]echelon101 wrote:
Quick question
Am I a beginner?
BONUS QUESTION; Therefore do I do Rippetoes SS till I stall/get 400lbs DL?
I have been lifting for about a year and a half. I can do all the lifts prescribed by Rippetoe with good form.
My 3RM maxs are
kg lbs
Deadlift 130 286
Powerclean 75 165
Squat 120 264
Bench 70 154
I know my bench is insanely weak. [/quote]
It is possible the program could work for you but only you are going to be able to find out the answer. You can always try it and if it works keep going with it until it doesnāt work.
Hi Everyone,
I hate to get off topic since this thread should probably remain devoted to the program in general but I really felt as though my first post here should not be used to start a new thread and this thread seemed to be fitting for the info im looking for.
For a little background on me i am currently overweight from about four years of eating badly and lack of sufficient lifting/exercise. I have recently adjusted my diet to a much cleaner version with reduced calories that seems to be effective.
I have dropped about 15 lbs on diet alone and then about 3 weeks ago started using rippetoeās alone with varied weekly cardio 3x as my weekly routine.
everything has gone quite smoothly up until the last trip to the gym I managed to ātweakā my left groin on my 3rd set of squats. I finished out the lift and was able to complete deadlifts and the bench without any complications. I can still feel the twinge while squatting air and it feels like heavy weight could exacerbate the problem.
I do not want to miss a workout day what does everyone recommend. Should I make tommorow a form day for squats and work on form with light weights or should I substitute something else. I hate to mess with what works and was hoping not to have to but I think it could take a few more days before I am ready to go back to full weight squats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
[quote]Eielson wrote:
It is possible the program could work for you but only you are going to be find out the answer. You can always try it and if it works keep going with it until it doesnāt work.[/quote]
Yeah sounds like a plan. My objective is to get about 400lbs deadlift 3RM, obviously using the Rippetoe calculator gets me there (1x5) in 12 weeks whereas the Madcow 5x5 only adds gets to me to 310lbs although for the last set of 5x5. Saying that we lift iron not numbers is quite pertinant, Iāll take your advice start with Rippetoe then see what happens switching to higher volume if the progression is not as rapid.
[quote]Poyse wrote:
everything has gone quite smoothly up until the last trip to the gym I managed to ātweakā my left groin on my 3rd set of squats. I finished out the lift and was able to complete deadlifts and the bench without any complications. I can still feel the twinge while squatting air and it feels like heavy weight could exacerbate the problem.
I do not want to miss a workout day what does everyone recommend. Should I make tommorow a form day for squats and work on form with light weights or should I substitute something else. I hate to mess with what works and was hoping not to have to but I think it could take a few more days before I am ready to go back to full weight squats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
[/quote]
I actually had something similar happen to me, but it was my right leg. What are your warm-ups like? You should consider adding some foam rolling pre-workout, and maybe take a day or two of just light leg work until your leg is recovered. If you keep pressing it, you run the risk of making the injury more serious.
Hi T-Nation,
I posted this in Strength Sports, it was suggested I post it in Otepās thread.
And so here I am.
Two months ago I read āStarting Strengthā by Mark Rippetoe, and followed his routine exactly as it was written.
Here are my results:
Day 1
[photo]16437[/photo]
Squat: 185 x 5
Bench: 135 x 5
Deadlift: 185 x 5
Press: 95 x 5
Power Clean: 95 x 5
Weight: 175 lbs
Day 57
[photo]16438[/photo]
Squat: 330 x 3
Bench: 200 x 5
Deadlift: 335 x 3
Press: 135 x 5
Power Clean: 185 x 3
Weight: 210 lbs
I am thirty-seven years old, and stand 6ā4".
I took no supplements or drugs.
I followed the routine verbatim. These are the only five exercises I did. Mark was kind enough to answer any of my questions on his forum.
I have a photo blog where I tracked my weekly results, however the credit really goes to Mark Rippetoe. I honestly wouldnāt have believed such a simple routine, chased with a gallon of milk a day, would be so effective.
In truth, I believe that it was Markās description of how to do a proper low bar squat, and his insistence that I donāt substitute any exercise for power cleans, that led to such great results.
Best,
Flux
Okay, so I still donāt understand something: how should I be progressing? It is impossible to go up 5 lbs every workout on each lift (especially the press and power clean, and I donāt have anything lower then 2.5lb weights), so how should I be trying to progress?
Do I attempt to add weight the next workout, then if I fail to get all 3x5, do I keep the weight the same the following workouts until I finally get 3x5? Also, someone (ninjaboy I think it was), said to deload every 4-5 weeks. Does that sound right?
[quote]fisch wrote:
Okay, so I still donāt understand something: how should I be progressing? It is impossible to go up 5 lbs every workout on each lift (especially the press and power clean, and I donāt have anything lower then 2.5lb weights), so how should I be trying to progress?
Do I attempt to add weight the next workout, then if I fail to get all 3x5, do I keep the weight the same the following workouts until I finally get 3x5? Also, someone (ninjaboy I think it was), said to deload every 4-5 weeks. Does that sound right?[/quote]
If you need 1.25 pound plates, get them. Or else get creative. I sometimes use a heavier weight collar and a baseball bat donut Iāve heard should work. Not having 1.25 pound plates is not an excuse.
Getting 3x5 before moving is basically what you should go by. If you get something like 2x5 and then 1x4 you can still move on if you choose to. I donāt believe deloading is absolutely necessary and I donāt think it is mentioned in the book.
Would someone be able to also do HIIT to maintain cardio while on this program?
Iām using this program right now, I do the rows, not the power cleans. The only other modifications Iāve made is I try to do 5x5 on everything except the deadlifts. The other thing is for the chins/dips I do 3xFailure, instead of 2x8. Once I can get at least 10 reps on the first set at a certain weight, I add weight to the belt for chins and dips.
As of now Iām at body weight plus 25lb on dips and body weight plus 15lb on chins.
My deadlift form was/is complete shit, so Iām gonna take a whole bunch of weight off the bar to get that right. I was able to do 225 x 5 DL, but I donāt think I was using proper form at all, it was hurting my lower back too much for it to have been right. Iāll back off the weight, get the form right and then move back up the weight.
I did the same thing with my squats. I was doing shitty half squats with 225. I backed off the weight, but now Iām doing ass to ground full squats and moving back up. Iāll be doing 180lb full squats during my next workout.
Improving form is VERY worthwhile, over just doing as much weight as possible. After watching proper form videos to improve my technique, I like looking around the gym to see how many people really are just doing shitty lifts with zero form but with a lot of weight. Itās better to lift less weight with good form than it is to lift too much weight with bad form. Youāll put on the right muscle quick enough and the weight will increase a lot faster with proper form.
My bench went up 10 lbs last week just from improving form and focusing on quality of lift rather than how many plates were on the bar.
Back when I started lifting, when I was finally able to struggle 125lbs up on bench I thought, damn, thatās amazing, I never thought I could put two 45lb plates on to lift. Now Iām at 175lb bench just a few months later doing 5 sets. I love it, I love the gains.
Take it a day at a time, do what you can and move up slowly. Even if you only move up 5lbs a workout, thatās 10lbs a week, 40lbs a month. Thatās huge!
After reading through all the postsā¦ maybe itād be best if I just followed the 3x5. Iāll stick with the 3xFailure sets though for the chins/dips.
Would it better to stick with the rows or to start doing the power cleans? Do they both work the same muscles or is one better than the other?
Weds. I throw in a little extra ab work by doing some hanging leg raises, but otherwise, Iāll start following a little more closely to the guide. If it aināt broke, donāt fix it, right?
I tried to make my own program and it only worked for a little whileā¦ too much volume I guess. Anyways, I switched to a rippetoe style program and the #s are going up again. I think its a great program. I thought it would be easier because its only 15 reps and I was used to doing 25 WRONG!!! It kicked my butt and continues too due to high intensity. I finally feel like im on the right track again. Soon comes periodizaton.
How beneficial has milk been for people? Iāve been doing about a 1/2 gallon a day, roughly - recently itās been 2% or even 1% (only organic stuff in bulk) but how has whole milk been for you for putting on muscle?
Iāve gone from 165 to 172-173 in the last two weeks, and I canāt tell how much is fat and how much is muscle (at least some of it is fat, my face is rounder.) How much of a influence might milk be on this?
Whole milk is fantastic for weight gain as itās relatively cheap. There is a diet that uses One Gallon of Milk a day, which macros work out as;
Skim Milk - 1280 calories; 0g fat; 192g carbs; 128g protein
1% Milk - 1600 calories; 40g fat; 192g carbs; 128g protein
2% Milk - 1920 calories; 80g fat; 192g carbs; 128g protein
Whole Milk - 2400 calories; 128g fat; 192g carbs; 128g protein
I wonāt worry about fat gain if you have only gained 3kg yet. For people new to lifting I think the general accepted value is around 0.25-0.5lb of muscle per week.
Milk can be a good diet foundation but you donāt work donāt get a lot of work done in a building that just has foundations.
Any ladies try this on here?
My girlfriend is going to start this next week; sheās pumped to do these lifts 3x a week.
A ton of people wanted to know if there were any modifications for women; but Iām having her do it just as its listed.
[quote]echelon101 wrote:
Whole milk is fantastic for weight gain as itās relatively cheap. There is a diet that uses One Gallon of Milk a day, which macros work out as;
Skim Milk - 1280 calories; 0g fat; 192g carbs; 128g protein
1% Milk - 1600 calories; 40g fat; 192g carbs; 128g protein
2% Milk - 1920 calories; 80g fat; 192g carbs; 128g protein
Whole Milk - 2400 calories; 128g fat; 192g carbs; 128g protein
I wonāt worry about fat gain if you have only gained 3kg yet. For people new to lifting I think the general accepted value is around 0.25-0.5lb of muscle per week.
Milk can be a good diet foundation but you donāt work donāt get a lot of work done in a building that just has foundations.[/quote]
Might a gallon of whole milk a day be too much? Iād be fine with it (itās so delicious) but my family has endomorph tendencies and Iām worried about excessive fat gains (recently Iāve noticed my stomach while Iām sitting down for the first time in a long while, but maybe Iām just more self-conscious than I used to me.)
[quote]
Might a gallon of whole milk a day be too much? Iād be fine with it (itās so delicious) but my family has endomorph tendencies and Iām worried about excessive fat gains (recently Iāve noticed my stomach while Iām sitting down for the first time in a long while, but maybe Iām just more self-conscious than I used to me.)[/quote]
No offence but stop f==king worring about your soma type. Seeing your pics you havenāt been training long enough to even get an inkling of how you operate. Why is it too much? Is 2500kcals too much? 128g of protein too much? 128g of fat too much?
You wouldnāt drink it all at once.
[quote]echelon101 wrote:
Might a gallon of whole milk a day be too much? Iād be fine with it (itās so delicious) but my family has endomorph tendencies and Iām worried about excessive fat gains (recently Iāve noticed my stomach while Iām sitting down for the first time in a long while, but maybe Iām just more self-conscious than I used to me.)
No offence but stop f==king worring about your soma type. Seeing your pics you havenāt been training long enough to even get an inkling of how you operate. Why is it too much? Is 2500kcals too much? 128g of protein too much? 128g of fat too much?
You wouldnāt drink it all at once. [/quote]
Dude, I just donāt want to get really fucking fat again. I used to be 180-190lbs/81-86-kg (possibly 200lbs/90kg) and I was a miserable fat fuck who hated himself. I spent a couple months working really hard to drop down to 155lbs/70kg and I just have no desire to be that fat ever again. Terrible energy levels, sick all of the time, you look awful, all of that stuff. Thatās why Iām so concerned about this now.
This is getting off-topic. Thanks for the advice on the milk.
Sorry about that, I appreciate that you are trying to gain weight but overcomplicating life on Day 1 is not the way to go:
Rippetoe + 1+g/lb pro + 90g+ fat + some carbs + 3x20mins low cardio pw = strength/some leaness.