I am 15 years old and I have been training for a year now. I weigh 170 lbs.
My lifts are
330 Squat
155 Bench
330 Deadlift
105 Military Press
I have been doing 5/3/1 and have been seeing good results with squats and deadlifts but my upper body lifts have not gotten any better. Should I switch to 5x5 Stronglifts or a different program?
What assistance work are you running for 5/3/1? How long have you run the program?
I have been running the program for 9 months with a 2 month break because I had to play football. I am doing BBB assistance.
Have you done BBB the entire time?
Yes I like BBB because I feel like I respond very well to the high volume but for some reason my upper body lifts are not making any progress. My bench press has gone up by about 30 lbs in a year in my first year of training. I should have made much quicker gains considering I am a beginner.
[quote]BangkokHustle wrote:
Yes I like BBB because I feel like I respond very well to the high volume but for some reason my upper body lifts are not making any progress. My bench press has gone up by about 30 lbs in a year in my first year of training. I should have made much quicker gains considering I am a beginner.[/quote]
Wait, before you said your upper body lifts hadn’t gotten any better, now you’re saying your bench went up 30lbs in 12 months. Are your lifts still increasing? If so, I would stick with your current approach, as it is working. If not, I would try different assistance lifts with the upper body. Dumbbell work would be a decent idea, or something as simple as changing your grip spacing or add/removing pausing on reps.
But don’t you think that 30 pounds in 12 months for a beginner is small?
[quote]BangkokHustle wrote:
But don’t you think that 30 pounds in 12 months for a beginner is small?[/quote]
If you are still making progress, no, not at all, especially given you are only 15 and only 170lbs bodyweight. However, if you are no longer making progress, that is worth addressing, in which case, eating more and different assistance work would most likely go far.
is it just me, or does the squat seem a bit “off” compared to the other lifts? Meaning, a football player who can squat 330 should be able to a lot more than a 155 bench. At least in my opinion. What Im getting at is, are your squats to depth? do you have video or someone to confirm it?
My squat has always been my best lift and my upper body has always been my weakness. And yes all of my squats are to parallel or deeper I do a lot of hip mobility before squatting to make sure that I am loose enough to hit good depth. My legs have always been really big though since I was a kid.
I find out that the early teens that do train their whole body ( which is quite rare), tens to progress better with their lower body dominant lifts than the ones that are more upper body dominant. So, in my opinion there is no reason to alarm if you are still making overall progress
There’s nothing wrong with your rate of gains. Each individual is going to have certain genetically gifted bodyparts, which in you case, and as you have personally stated, are your legs.
As long as your bench has been going up consistantly, it wouldn’t be wise to change anything.
A better question regarding your rate of gains would be:
How much bodyweight have you gained during this 30lb increase in your bench press?
periodization bible template
Since I have started lifting I have gained about 45 lbs and a couple inches to my height. I am 15% body fat and very lean because I am 6 feet tall. I am hesitant to gain weight because I want to be able to jump high and sprint fast and gaining weight will inhibit these things.
[quote]BangkokHustle wrote:
I am hesitant to gain weight because I want to be able to jump high and sprint fast and gaining weight will inhibit these things.[/quote]
Both guys above are about 6’1". One weighs around 180, the other around 225. Do you really think the one who weighs less will jump higher?
The overwhelming majority of the time, a stronger and more muscular athlete is going to be a better athlete.
If you’re very lean, that’s fine. 15% is not “very lean”. Forget whatever you’ve heard about bodyfat percentages because it’s only going to lead to confusion.
[quote]Young33 wrote:
is it just me, or does the squat seem a bit “off” compared to the other lifts? Meaning, a football player who can squat 330 should be able to a lot more than a 155 bench. At least in my opinion. What Im getting at is, are your squats to depth? do you have video or someone to confirm it?[/quote]
Unless he’s squatting with his arms or bench pressing with his legs, the numbers for the 2 lifts have no inherent correlation. I used to bench press 305, and squat 285. Now I can squat 405, and can bench about 275.
So I should just stick to what I’m doing which is 5/3/1 with BBB assistance, and joker sets.
You make me feel weak considering my bench is 180, mp is 135, squat is 250 and dl is 315. I’m 16 btw, I hope your hitting depth on those squats.