BW: 165#
Bench: 240#
Dead: 390#
Squat: 365#
That’s where I’m at, at this point. I’ve had either mild bronchitis or bronchiolitis (yeah, the little kid disease) for the past week, so I didn’t lift out of fear of getting something worse and being out of the game for months. I started as a hundred and forty pound kid unable to squat 250, but I worked my ass off in any way possible to get stronger. I did random shit on a Bowflex for a little while before I found the old Sherdog S&P; switched to Stronglifts 5x5 for almost a year, plateaued BAD; switched to Sheiko, and I’ve seen decent gains off of it until recently, where I think I’ve hit another plateau. I’ve done deloads, before that gets brought up, but the problem isn’t with recovery: it’s with overall strength. I don’t seem to be doing well off the Sheiko programs anymore. I’ve run them for aboutâ?¦thirteen months, or so.
I’m not a “hardgainer” or any of that bullshit, the insane volume and low intensity just aren’t giving me the results I want. It’s been forever since I went up as much as 5# on deads or squats. Bench has actually gone well, but I feel it could be better if I were using more intensity and less volume. I think that the lifting template I’m trying to draw up will let me use higher weights for fewer reps/sets, without running into the linear progression wall I did with Stronglifts. The plateau I hit there was weird - I wasn’t squatting that heavy, but I couldn’t add weight every week and expect to be able to lift it anymore. It was really more of a ravine than a plateau. I got set back from a 315 squat to a 260 squat, and I fought my way back from that by switching to narrower squats versus the wide ones I thought I was supposed to do. I hate to admit it, but I had S4 when I started lifting: Skinnyass Special Snowflake Syndrome. I thought that I could be different for the sake of being different, so I pulled sumo and squatted wide raw. I recently rediscovered that I know not a damn thing, and that if I’m going to get anywhere in this sport, it’s going to be by talking to guys who move a fuckton more weight than I do and listening to what they say.
tl;dr I made a routine based on that 24-50 rep principle from Chad Waterbury and I want strong motherfuckers to give their thoughts.
Day 1:
Bench - 155x5, 185x5, 210 3x3, 185x3, 155x5
Squat - 155x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x2, 305 2x5
Dumbbell Fly - 50 10x3
Decline Situps - 100x3
Chinups - 90 5x5
Day 2:
Deadlifts - 135x5, 225x5, 275x3, 330 1x10
SOHP - find weight; 25 reps
Decline Situps - 100x2
Ab Roll-outs - 10x3
DB Fly - 55 8x3
DB Curls - 50 8x3
(Note - the deadlift weight is low for now because I’m sort-of relearning the conventional stance)
Day 3:
Squat - 155x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x2, 315 2x5
Bench - 135x5, 155x4, 185x3, 205x2, 225 2x5
DB Fly - 50 10x3
Decline Situps - 100x3
Pullups - 90 5x5
Day 4:
Run 2 miles
Power Clean - 100x5, 135x5, 165 4x4
BOR - 135x5, 155x3, 165x1, 185 3x5
SOHP - find weight; 25 reps
Decline Situps - 100x2
Ab Roll-outs - 10x3