confession I am skinny fat. Like 33% body fat on a 6’4" and 213 lbs. skinny fat /end confession
The reason why I say I am “out of whack”, because Mark Rippetoe says in “Starting Strength” that if your Bench Press is much higher than your Dead Lift and Squat (as it was when I started 5/3/1 last year), than “there is something seriously out of whack.”
Yup. That’s me all right, Rip. I’m sure you got a great Heinlein quote for me.
I am a 48 year old man who was never that strong in the first place, but got progressively weaker over the years, and now is trying to stop or reduce this embarrassing amount of body fat. I started 5/3/1 last November to try to improve my strength. I think that that 5/3/1 has been a great program for a skinny-fat guy like me because it appears I can really only add about 5 lbs every monthly cycle (I really don’t see myself on Rippitoe’s novice program, for example, which pushes you 5 lbs every 2 days!)
Anyway, my Dead Lift and Squat seem to be fine on 5/3/1…after a year, my 1RM still keep going up. For example, I have gone up 70 lbs for a 1RM in my Dead Lift the year I have been on 5/3/1 (1RM from 130 to 200…yea, I know, I’m incredibly weak). For Bench Press and The Press, I have plateaued at about 195 and 105 lbs, respectively. I did what Jim suggested and lowered my 1RM by 90% in the calculation and restarted the cycle. I went about 3-4 cycles and plateaued at these 1RM’s again. And I did this again! I cannot seem to get above 195 and 105 lbs at this time, but this is not a surprise to me since Ive never built muscle easily and I am middle aged, which does not help.
I have let my assistance exercises slack off and so I’ll be more aggressive about those. Also, Ill be more aggressive about eating good food and staying away from bad food.
Anyway, here are my 1RM’s right now:
Bench Press: 195; The Press: 105; Squat: 130; Dead Lift: 215 lbs.
I’m going to give a daily training log a shot to see if I can break these plateaus. Also keep me honest about the food Im eating. Over and out.