Setting Goals; for a Newb

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
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Hey folks, been somewhat active on the T Replacement forum, first post here. Thought someone here who has walked in similar shoes can help with goal setting.

45 y/o
180 lbs, around 18% bodyfat
5’9"
back in gym after 20ish years (yeah, 20 years)

When I was a young man in the gym in my early 20’s, my max squat was 405, max bench 235. That was at 165lbs. DL’s unkown. I loved dips/pullups cause I was good at them

Fast forward today. Completed 6 weeks of training under an experienced strength coach who is westside barbell certified, along with all usual accreditations. He is a competitive power lifter and a non-nonsense approach. My MWF workout are based on the back squat, bench, deadlift, respectively. The first 4 weeks were general conditioning and only now am I moving to barbell work focusing on the big movements.

I’m eating a calorie surplus, get in lots of protein. Some whey, the balance meats and cottage cheese.

My goal, though I’m sure it’s probably light for you guys, is to be able to lift 1000 lbs b/t the three basic movements. I’ve had 3 days so far on DL’s, and either have done 5x5, or 5x3’s. My heavy sets moved from 185, to 255, and yesterday 305 3x. Squat only just starting to add weight as we were working on form based on wide stance box squats. I think last workout was 185 for the heavy set. Bench, 2 days so far, second day I did 5x5’s up to 145.

I obviously have a long way to go and am just finding my strength but my goal would be a 425/350/225 DL/SQ/B.

Am I making a reasonable, attainable goal? You think it can be done by end of year?

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If your coach can’t get you to a 1000lbs total in a year you need a new coach. Your goals are very attainable considering you went very light in the bench goals. Not sire if was on purpose but these are very realistic numbers.

3

Thanks for your feedback.

I know that this forum is pretty much for competitors moving a whole lot of iron, but wasn’t sure where to post since I’m chasing strength not a bodybuilder routine.

4

7 weeks since my original post. Total training time elapsed 4 months. Current maxes, all from this week as we did singles in each lift:

400 lb DL
225 lb bench
320 box squat (conventional unknown)

Pretty confident I’ll reach 1000 lbs soon. The 400 lbs DL was tough. The 225 bench was all I had in the tank but as I drifted the bar slightly back toward my head I was able to finish the lift with no form break. Lats stayed solid and shoulders in good position.

New goals (end of year):

460 DL
255 bench
405 squat (I know I can get there despite the modest box squat)

Reasonable?

I’d like to do my first meet next spring.

5

Why wait until next spring? You almost have that 1000 pounds now and I can almost guarantee you won’t regret the experience. I’d say those goals are very attainable though, especially if your coach is good.

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I guess I had it in my mind I wanted a full year of training under my belt before jumping into a competition. My thought was that the most rapid strength gains are said to be in the first year of training and thought it natural to jump in after a year. That would put me in the spring.

I also am still working hard on form. DLs seem to be locked in, but I have been inconsistent on bench and squat.

My main reason for wanting to compete is to put meaning behind all the training, put a goal out there to reach for. That goal would be to put in a respectable performance at my weight/age group. I’d compete at 181 and at 46 next month I’m not sure how competitive this class is.

Coach is awesome. But from what I’ve read no matter what program someone follows/advocates, there will always be those who are critical. He comes from Westside and focuses on conjugate training.

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[quote]knobby22 wrote:
I guess I had it in my mind I wanted a full year of training under my belt before jumping into a competition. My thought was that the most rapid strength gains are said to be in the first year of training and thought it natural to jump in after a year. That would put me in the spring.

I also am still working hard on form. DLs seem to be locked in, but I have been inconsistent on bench and squat.

My main reason for wanting to compete is to put meaning behind all the training, put a goal out there to reach for. That goal would be to put in a respectable performance at my weight/age group. I’d compete at 181 and at 46 next month I’m not sure how competitive this class is.

Coach is awesome. But from what I’ve read no matter what program someone follows/advocates, there will always be those who are critical. He comes from Westside and focuses on conjugate training.[/quote]

That’s a great reason to compete and competition is a great way to stay motivated and know that you work is paying off.

A lot of people are against conjugate training for raw lifters but I believe it does have merit to either very experienced lifters or masters lifters whose joints may not appreciate heavy squatting, benching or deadlifting very often. But keep working and I’m sure you’ll have that 1000 total in no time.

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[quote]tylerkeen42 wrote:

That’s a great reason to compete and competition is a great way to stay motivated and know that you work is paying off.

A lot of people are against conjugate training for raw lifters but I believe it does have merit to either very experienced lifters or masters lifters whose joints may not appreciate heavy squatting, benching or deadlifting very often. But keep working and I’m sure you’ll have that 1000 total in no time.[/quote]

Thanks.

Interesting. Can you explain why conjugate training is sometimes criticized for raw lifters?

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[quote]knobby22 wrote:

[quote]tylerkeen42 wrote:

That’s a great reason to compete and competition is a great way to stay motivated and know that you work is paying off.

A lot of people are against conjugate training for raw lifters but I believe it does have merit to either very experienced lifters or masters lifters whose joints may not appreciate heavy squatting, benching or deadlifting very often. But keep working and I’m sure you’ll have that 1000 total in no time.[/quote]

Thanks.

Interesting. Can you explain why conjugate training is sometimes criticized for raw lifters?

[/quote]

It’s quite non specific when compared to other training programs and it gets a lot of criticism for that. So for geared lifting the overload is so great that most cannot train with very high frequency so more time is better spent lessening the strain on the CNS and strengthening the individual muscle groups, but in raw lifting that overload isn’t present so you can do competition style lifting with a much higher frequency and the more you can practice lifting as close to the competition lift as possible the better. That is with the exception of diminishing returns but that isn’t an issue until you get into very high frequency training. At least that is what I have come to understand.

10

Update.

It’s been 3 months since I asked about goal setting. Current maxes as of last week:

418/320/235

So 27 lbs from 1000 lb total. Of those lifts my DL was a true max, I had nothing left. Squats I’m still having form/flexiblity issues so I think they’ll come up as a address some hip issues. And 235 on bench went up fast, so I think I have 245 in me right now.

My trainer says we’ll get here by end of year. I think these are conservative numbers:

475/375/275

I’d be happy with an 1125 lb total from 9 months of training. If I read the powerlifting classes correctly for 181 lbs at 46 y/o, that would put me at the a Class I lifter if I could pull it off at a meet and am already looking forward to it.