The Great LP Stall Thread of Shame

[quikky]

I was drinking 5k calorie shakes. As a 35 year. With a family history of heart disease.

But I got muh 3x5 squat to 365 dammnit.

In the enormous collection of stupid shit Ive done, my eating habits during LP might be prime stupid.

Clearly you didn't do the program.
A guy your age, size and athletic background should have his squat in 400s for fahve or something is wrong.
You should have a done a reset and up you calorie shakes up to 6k.

I was addicted to lactaid

I would wander around post-shake in a nauseous stupor for an hour.

Wait, what the fuck did you make a shake out of to hit 5k calories? 1kcal shakes put me in the nauseous stupor.

Blend sheet cake with whole milk and ground beef pizza dipped in olive oil. Serve over ice on the rocks.

You could build a rack attachment that dispenses this stuff. Kind of like a hamster water bottle. Trainees would drink this during their 15 minute rest times. I'd also sell it in a big container with lots of very shiny and fancy looking labeling. Can call it The Fatass 5000 Ultra Diabetic Anabolic XXL.

[TheDuke]

Damn, you guys are hillarious

[KyleSchuant]

I think this information is more valuable than we know.
If only I had known that someone who is where Austin is at now finished where he did, instead of being shamed for my supposed weakness, making me reset over and over, and over-analyzing every piece of minutiae to find where I was going wrong.
Now I find out that I stalled with 2 lifts slightly higher than Austin and 2 lifts lower.

Yes. I think it's both valuable in terms of "what's reasonable to expect during your novice period?" (Your novitiate?) and in terms of, "how much does it matter if I do 350 vs 300 in the first 3 months?" This latter is a question that seems unimportant on the day of your first squat session, but very important when you're doing 315 with a bellyful of Hanleyshake.

The disadvantage is that some will see the median as a goal, so the guy struggling with 250 may want to push on, and the guy who hits 300 but could have done 350 might slack off. I'm more concerned about the first guy, though, the second will probably be alright eventually.

I'll put the new data in later, I'm off to the doctor to get my cholesterol results.

[KyleSchuant]

A while back I got bigger to lift more, got up to 92.5kg. Lots of heavy breathing, snoring, joints sore all the time - but hey, squat PRs! Anyway once I eased off I pretty quickly dropped to 88kg, but at that time I started having chest pains. I went off and got checked - it was just reflux. So I improved my food and the reflux went away and I was down to 85-86kg. A couple of 28 day challenges this year and I'm down to 80.4kg.

From 88 to 80.4kg, the changes were,
Total chol 6.1 --> 4.7 mmol/L
HDL 1.4 --> 1.7
LDL 2.6 --> 2.5

I don't remember my old non-HDL and triglycerides, but now they're 3.0 and 1.1.

I do wonder what people's bloods look like at the end of SS NLP when they've put on the median 20lbs, let alone the guys who did 40 or even 100.

[Paul]

the main thing is that past a certain point extra calories don't help training outcomes, and that point is lower than advertised in the SS world and all those shitty Dave Tate olive oil pizza articles from like 2010. I feel better when calories are appropriate for gaining weight, but I'm not sure there'd be a difference between .5lbs or 2lbs a week besides getting fatter.

Ah, I remember reading those. I still jokingly tell people to do that sometimes.
I honestly used to think there was something wrong with me because all these people were struggling that bad to gain weight and I had to manage my intake to not be 400lb. I was obviously not lifting heavy enough... I wanted to be the guy who "had to" eat pizza and super shakes to gain 2 lb. SSLP did not help the situation...

[cwd]

From 88 to 80.4kg, the changes were,
Total chol 6.1 --> 4.7 mmol/L
HDL 1.4 --> 1.7
LDL 2.6 --> 2.5

I don't remember my old non-HDL and triglycerides, but now they're 3.0 and 1.1.

I do wonder what people's bloods look like at the end of SS NLP when they've put on the median 20lbs, let alone the guys who did 40 or even 100.

Congrats on the better bloodwork. My cholesterol is better when I'm leaner too.

My mother-in-law keeps having little strokes. Scares the shit out of me, I don't want to outlive my brain.

[cgeorg]

tl;dr

2/2/2016 => 11/7/2016ish for work sets, 10/28/2016 for the singles
Squat: 95x5x3 => 325x5x3, 375x1
Bench: 85x5x3 => 200x5x3, 225x1 (this ran about a month longer than the others)
Dead: 135x5 => 350x3, 385x1
Press: 45x5x3 => 148x5x3, 155x1
BW: 190 => 215 (could still make visible abs)

3 resets or so, doing GSLP for most of the second half. No programming related injuries. Prior history of 1 summer of gym fuckery that did not get me strong, and always being decent at sports and active.

Lots of history and log quotes:

SpoilerShow

https://startingstrength.com/resources/ ... log-1.html
First post in my SS log:

Started as a:
6'0,
190lb
32yo male

Had done SS a couple times in the past w/o the book. No real records that I could find. This time around, not really sure why I'm doing it, but LP is fun. I hope it lasts for a while because I feel like once I hit intermediate I'll need to figure out what I actually want to get out of this. As of now I just bowl, so as long as I have ok core, leg and wrist strength, non-skill work doesn't really help. Maybe I'll actually get in a softball league or something. Oh also I'm bad at sleep and a vegetarian. I started low and have been keeping my increases quite reasonable to prolong LP as long as possible.

I started back in February.

Week 1

2/2/16
Squat 95x5x3
Press 45x5x3
Dead 135x5(x3?)

2/4/2016
Squat 105x5x3
Bench 85x5x3
Dead 155x5(x3?)

3 months in, I was saying things like this:

Had to go in the morning because I was going to the afternoon Pirates game. So this was on 40 hrs of recovery.

Squat 45x10x2 95x5 145x4 195x2 240x5x3
Hammies were super tight AF in warmups, hence a second set of bar. By the time I got that 2nd one done things felt ok. The work sets went up but form really suffered, RPE was probably 9.5. I might have been able to get a bit more up but it was pretty close, and I think the bar stopped on a few reps. Having trouble keeping the knees out. Wonder if I should take a small reset, down to say 225, to concentrate on form and come back up in 5lb increments?

and, 2 days later

BW 191 :/

Squat 45x10 95x5 135x4 185x3 225x2 240x5x3
I wasn't sure if I was going to delay back to 225 or not, so I figured I'd do the 2 and see if I wanted to do work sets of that or repeat 240. The 2 felt good so I added the weight and asked a nearby girl to video. The first few reps felt great, form definitely broke down near the end. I wasn't sure the first rep of set 2 was going to go, it felt so bad. Set 3 was a set 3.

I reset back to 225 next workout and was sad about knee cave.

Some thoughts from June:

Thinking about some numbers... end of week 20 I should be at:
Squat 260x5x3
Deadlift 290x5
Bench 160x5x3
Press 117x5x3

And my programming has them increasing at:
Squat +10/wk
Deadlift +5/wk
Bench +2.5/wk
Press +2.5/wk

If I can keep progress up, I will hit 3 plates on squat and deadlift by the 1/2 year mark, which would be sweet. Press would hit 135 a couple weeks after that. All that said... the programming does seem a bit weird - if squat realistically overtakes deadlift I'm probably doing something wrong. Also, while I really don't think I can LP bench quicker than what's listed, it seems like a pretty tame plan. I guess we'll see how the accessory work plays in - I may end up being able to make a few larger jumps here and there. And I think somewhere in week 26 there are going to be some 1RM attempts.

I tweaked an ab/intercostal reaching across my car, and woke up with possibly the worst pain I've ever felt in my shoulder for like 15 minutes one night, but no injuries due to LP so far. Anyway, moving on after recovering from the intercostal, on GSLP with a small reset... After 285x5x3:

Who knows if I had more than 5 in me that last set. Every single one of these felt like death. I think my form is still solid though.

after 290:

Christ.

Squat 95x6 135x5 185x4 245x3 295x[5,4,5]
After that talk in manveer's thread about bar position w/empty bar I figured I'd start my warmups with a bit more weight. Felt it in my left shoulder too - I think the bar-only warmup being higher actually helps ease the shoulder open, so I'll add it back. As to the work sets... I was standing there after the 4th. It goodmorning'd pretty bad. I was like "ok, breath, breath, ok go". Body didn't move. "Ok, go!". Body didn't move. Stood there for about 10 more seconds and then re-racked. Got the last set though. I guess it's early (first actual squat failure, though I've reset twice) to start saying I might be running out of LP on squats but it's a thought that's starting to go through my head. Which is probably not good when I'm under the bar. I really want 315 for reps though.

Did a mock meet in august, still riding out the LP

Squat 295x1 315x1 325x1 335x1 345x1 355x0
In the video you will see an example of how not to bail out of a squat. Ended up with a fairly painful pinched ab thing on the right side, I believe caused by extreme folding + belt. I think I just needed to either let this go down my back, or have it be higher? I dunno never bailed into straps before, but it was the best bar setup available. ANYWAY 315 felt really light and even 345 didn't feel as bad as a 5th rep at 295 does. I shouldn't have even tried 355.

Bench Press 175x1 185x1 195x1 205x1 215x0
I thought 215 was going to go but it just stopped. I think 214 would have gone - the 210ish e1rm from my spreadsheet definitely would have.

Press 135x1 145x1 155x1
135 and 145 really flew.

Deadlift 315x1x2 355x1 365x1
Notice the velcro belt - the first pull at 315 was with the 4" and it really sucked so I switched. Decided I was running out of gas so I'd bypass 335 and head straight to 355. No video of 365 because it fell off the thing I had it sitting on, but picture one that took a real long time to budge and probably looked a good bit worse than 355.

The pinched ab thing took me out for a little bit, but that was on me not the programming. But reading on, it looks like I took a hefty reset after that as well, and then GSLP'd up again for another quarter. Next mock meet and quarter (deads were triples, the rest were still 5,5,5+)

Squat: 315x1 345x1 365x1 PR 375x1 PR
Upon video review I'm calling all of these wonderful.

Bench Press: 185x1 205x1 215x1 PR 225x1 LMAOPR
These were TNG as opposed to the previous which were paused, fine. 225 hit a sticking point higher than I thought it would but then it went. 225 was also the one that I didn't get video of, because I didn't feel like setting up in a cage so I asked for a spot and then didn't want to make the guy wait.

Press: 135x1 155x1 165x1 PR 175x0
175 didn't get past my nose. There's some layback but I don't think it's terrible like the sumo press thread.

Deadlift: 315x1 345x1 365x1 385x1 PR
So here we have an issue. 345 was a little round. 365 was round. I really did all the setup stuff as good as possible for 385, I definitely was in good position with a nice flat back right before I started the pull. I then instantly became a cat? It was kind of an iffy pull but I think it white lights. I need a good cue or something to begin this movement. Or maybe a reset or maybe more volume or who knows, maybe someone will have an idea when I post the video.

Q3

Worksets:
Squat: 275 -> 320 = +45
Deadlift: 315 -> 345 = +30
Bench Press: 165 -> 183 = +18
Press: 120 -> 145 = +25
BW: 208 -> 215= +7
Workouts missed: 2 + 5 due to injury

Moved on to 3x3 for squats shortly after, then officially started an Intermediate Log.

I miss @Shane. And kfreeman85, SSOC destroyed that guy. I do really like going back and reading my log, it's the closest thing I've had to a journal that lasted more than a week.

[KyleSchuant]

We need your age and height, too, cgeorg.

We need some of the trainers other than me and McBride to step up, just tell me your email here or by PM and I'll add you to the permissions so you can edit the spreadsheet. I've many more entries to add but it's stupid to have it just one trainer's stuff in there. Especially for the women.

People who argue so enthusiastically about bar speed numbers and RPE and timing of muscle protein synthesis surely can tell us a few former clients' last successful set of 5s on low-bar back squat. Come on, step up, contribute.

[cgeorg]

32, 6'

[Hanley]

People who argue so enthusiastically about bar speed numbers and RPE and timing of muscle protein synthesis surely can tell us a few former clients' last successful set of 5s on low-bar back squat. Come on, step up, contribute.

Holy shit, dude. Throttle back on the weenie-fire.

[cgeorg]

I also did get advised by an SS coach in my log to switch deadlifts from a set of 5 to 3x3 because I needed more volume, which was probably actually solid advice for me at that time.

[noviceLIfter]

I think the main thing is that past a certain point extra calories don't help training outcomes, and that point is lower than advertised in the SS world and all those shitty Dave Tate olive oil pizza articles from like 2010. I feel better when calories are appropriate for gaining weight, but I'm not sure there'd be a difference between .5lbs or 2lbs a week besides getting fatter.

Yep. I remember trying to extend the end of my LP by eating a whole pizza + a few pints of chocolate milk. Just made me fatter. Similarly I gained a bunch of weight on Aasgaard post novice programming (mostly TM), and I just became fatter. My lifts did not improve. I was in my mid twenties at the time. What a waste. Awful programming model.

[acciosnacks]

Hey everyone, I'm new here.

Female
I did HIIT classes and dicked around with weights for about a year previously. My H and I would go to the gym together and we would do the four main lifts occasionally. I started an actual SSNLP 6/18/18 and ended 1/5/19. I switched to 5 sets of 3 early on and microloaded as well. It ran me into the ground pretty hard, so I probably should have stopped earlier, but I just kept going.
Injured: no
Age: 29
Height: 66"
BW: 183 > 183
Squat: 155 > 285x3
Bench: 95 > 150x3
OHP: 75 > 130x3
Deadlift: 180 > 245x3
I never did power cleans however.

[mettkeks]

BW: 183 > 183
Squat: 155 > 285x3
Bench: 95 > 150x3
OHP: 75 > 130x3

You sure you're not a very feminine guy? JK. Those are really impressive numbers!!!

[KyleSchuant]

She stretched it over 6 months and microloaded. I think you can go a bit further that way. That's unusually far, of course, but still.

[mettkeks]

She stretched it over 6 months and microloaded. I think you can go a bit further that way. That's unusually far, of course, but still.

I did too, was taller and fatter and still didn't dominate the list.

[KyleSchuant]

You perhaps went further than you would have with a less patient and more aggressive approach. We don't have the data to answer that, of course.

[michael]

I didn't realize this thread evolved beyond bad LP numbers. You can add mine to your spreadsheet if you like.

Age 42
5' 9"
BW 190 -> 220

Squat 185 -> 375x5x3
Bench 115 -> 225x5x3
Press 95 -> 165x3x3
Deadlift 185 -> 505x5

I didn't have any resets, but I did the light day thing for squats. My LP was officially declared 'near perfect' by SSOC.

Deadlift kept LP ing for a couple months after everything else stalled. I'd say it was still LP since it was just 1x5 +5 pounds once a week the entire time until it stalled at 485. At that point it was 1x5 +5 every other week alternated with a light week 2x5 -20% until I tapped out at 505x5.

I developed a bad habit of resting 10-12 minutes between sets.

[mettkeks]

You perhaps went further than you would have with a less patient and more aggressive approach. We don't have the data to answer that, of course.

I should have stopped earlier, that's what I know for sure. I did it exactly like layed out in PPST. I don't think it matters that much If you microload 10-15kg onto your grindy 3x5. I think It's universally better to do more volume. You might not load 3plates for a while, but that will change soon enough, and the ability to do 50-100% more work will translate better to everyday life than adding 10% of weight over 8 weeks of grinding, imo.

@michael Ahh the freaks are rolling in to shame us normie's.

[jwilson625]

I could have smoked michael's LP if my bench touch point was better, what a wasted opportunity