No just annual membership. I'll be out the lookout for some bumper plate deals but I'll hold off on any other big pieces for a while I'm sure.

What rack and bar are you looking at?

My home gym is pretty much all Titan stuff. I've been very happy with it. I have a T3 power rack. My entire garage is covered in stall mats and the rack is bolted to the slab through the mats. It's worked great going on 3 years now.

I advise getting a taller rack. The T3 comes in 82" or 91". I'm 5'9" but wish mine was even a little taller than 91".
Also, I originally got mine with 36" depth because I was sure I would always be working inside the rack, but I wound up swapping out for 24" deep and adding safety spotter arms and I just do everything outside the rack. I enjoy it more and it frees up space. I feel very safe with the spotter arms.

When I started back on lifting, Rogue was really all I knew so I went with that. Now that I follow more pages for lifting and see the Titan and Bells of Steel stuff it seems like you can't go wrong with those. I recently got some Titan farmer carry handles and I like them.

Funny you mention that on the rack, I went with one that is smaller in the cage because I need a smaller footprint in my garage. I regret not going bigger and doing all my work in the cage. The spotter arms are good for bench, but I feel so much safer/willing to push my squat in the cage. I'd like a tiny bit more room in there but it isn't a dealbreaker.

Edit to add: I could see how getting one of the Titan yokes could work for you depending on your style of workouts. That could be a great option if you're into the strongman stuff. I can't justify having a yoke and a cage though

CC09LawAg said:

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What rack and bar are you looking at?

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I've gone back and forth and all around the last ~2 years as I've started looking at them all. If you ask me today, I would go with the 108" Hydra Half Rack and Utility Barbell from BoS. Seems like a solid quality for the cost. May go with a tall squat stand, but I think I'll like the added stability from the half rack. Overall impressed with the amount of rack add on options and cost from BoS. I can't do aggressive knurling so it's harder to find a powerlifting minded bar without that.

Other similar options I've heavily considered are from REP and Fray. Titan have been mixed about due to some YouTube reviews I've watched but helpful to know firsthand folks here like their stuff. Rogue is one I hadn't really looked at a whole lot oddly enough.

10andBOUNCE said:

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CC09LawAg said:

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What rack and bar are you looking at?

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May go with a tall squat stand, but I think I'll like the added stability from the half rack.

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I initially had a squat stand that was like $150, but once I started getting into the 200+ pounds range on lifts I just didn't feel comfortable with it anymore. I like the added benefit of the stability/cage when trying to max out or on those days where I just feel kind of flat, I know that if I don't hit my prescribed reps I have the cage there to catch the weight.

The spotter arms have worked fine for me on bench, but there is just something more reassuring about having the cage there to catch the extra 150 pounds you have on there when you're squatting.

The BoS Hydra looks interesting, I have seen ads for that (of course way after I already purchased my rack). If you have the space to customize it, it looks like a great option to add on to as you can set aside the cash.

Anyone used wrist/forearm rollers? I see some rack mounted options vs. handheld. Is there a significant difference between the two?

I've seen that some people just suspend weights from a barbell collar and do it that way - is buying a roller a significant upgrade over this rigged up method?

Leg day on 1800 cals/day (I'm 220 and wanted to cut about 10 lbs or fat by end of year starting in November) sucks…I could kick my ass for not putting some form of leg press in our home gym…

Working set of back squats here I come…

I plan on doing a significant bulk from now through February and then I'll be in your shoes.

Planning on doing a small deload on my main lifts and incorporating strongman lifts and sled work to hopefully keep me sharp mentally because it can be such a grind after getting used to all those extra calories.

Good luck!

So, I was traveling for a week with little sleep and not eating enough, topped off with a stomach bug on the last day and the flight home.

Got in the gym today at 80percent and man, felt like absolute crap.. from yalls experience, about how long before I make it back to where I was before I left?

Man it really depends… I had the flu (Flu A stomach stuff) last week and dropped about 10-12 lbs in 3 days. I barely ate, I didn't work out, and was losing fluids faster than I could replenish them.

My lifts since have been maybe 85% at best of what they were before. My endurance is gone too. I haven't been that sick since high school and it sucked.

Anyways, I bet I'll be 100% in about a month unless my old body just refuses to let me get back to "normal".

Good luck!

If I'm coming off a rough week, sickness, break, etc. I usually try to do an upper body day and a lower body day to ramp up back into my usual programming and usually don't plan for any heavy lifts - more like a 3x8 on compounds and then some accessory lifts depending on what my program I'm getting back into will be.

If I really felt gassed, I'd probably repeat whatever my last cycle was and compare to that. If you aren't able to lift what you did before, you should probably listen to your body and do a light deload and work your way back up. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Yeah. I dropped about 8 pounds in about a week. (I recognize that a good portion of that is water weight).

Guess all I can do is reset a bit and get back to eating enough.

On a side note, have yall found there is a limit on how far 3x5 can take you in terms of time? For example, I had some huge issues with my squat that took me months to really fix. Only really getting to about 245 3x3 (225x3x5) with good form. This is of course pretty low, but Ive been using this same stimulus for 7 months. Is there more runway in the tank here or am I going to have to flip to intermediate programming sooner rather than later because I just wasnt able to capitalize on the novice linear progression on the squat in enough time?

Depending on what program you're running, usually the first suggestion is that if you have failed 3x to progress in your 5 rep scheme, you need to do a deload and work back up.

If you've done that and you run into a wall again, you can either deload one more time or switch your program.

I ran Stronglifts 5x5 for about 30 weeks total and then Madcow for another 22 weeks and just kept plateauing on Madcow. I have since switched to 5/3/1 and feel like I am making way more strength gains.

Edit: To address your first question, yes there is absolutely a limit to it. The volume and rep scheme can only take you so far, eventually you'll have to change it up. I think a lot of it has to do with your ability to recover and your age; I imagine if I had taken this up a decade ago that I could've probably gone on with Stronglifts a lot longer.

I would also ask, what is your sleep and protein intake like? I was making good progress while maintaining/losing weight early on, but I really started to notice improvements when I became comfortable with eating more and slowly gaining weight, as long as my lifts were also going up.

One way I looked at it when evaluating programs to switch from Stronglifts:

With Stronglifts, you are aiming to go up 15 pounds a week on your squat. That is not sustainable for a very long period of time.

With 5/3/1, that goes down to 10 pounds a month as your goal - still 120 pounds a year. I will honestly be happy if I can keep pace at half of that.

So if you ask yourself, if you're at a 245 pound squat right now, and you switch to a program like 5/3/1, would you be mad if your squat was at 305 pounds for 5 reps in a year? If not, it may be worth evaluating some other programs.

For anyone else running 5/3/1 I recommend checking this app out. It's free (but I did purchase some packages that opened up more options) and it is pretty awesome! I always loved the StrongLifts 5x5 app and this is just as handy.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one-531-workouts/id1560266240

Thank you for this! The one I have been running is so-so, if I'm being generous to it. I will have to check this one out.

I know you can't run the 15 lbs a week increase forever.

What I'm asking is whether there is a sort of time limit on how far it will take you. (I have only been adding 5 to 10 lbs a week for awhile, with two major resets to work on form).

What Im really asking is...say I had perfect form from the beginning (all assuming I have eaten well and slept well...which I have)....adding lets say 10 lbs a week for 6 months and I reach 315. But then switched to intermediate.

But instead, I had bad form, two big resets, and now at 225 in 6 months.

Is the novice linear progression more based on just how far your body can progress under that rep scheme (could be 3 months could be 9...its going to end up where it naturally is). Or is it timing based...Ie, you are only going to ride the novice linear progression for a certain amount of time regardless (in my example, it was six months) without regard to the top number.

Does this make sense?

This is just my personal opinion, but there is no internal clock where you only have so much time before your body adapts and slows or stops responding and growing when training on a particular routine. Everyone is different and it all depends on your body and how it continues to respond.

I feel pretty confident in saying that you could take two people of similar size, age, strength, diet, etc. and they both run Starting Strength and will likely stall out at different points.

I get what you are saying and agree with the above.

I am no expert, but based on everything I've read and my own personal experiences I would imagine it is the former, and not the latter.

Obviously there are a ton of factors that can play into it, but all things being equal I would think that you're more likely to top out when you hit your genetic potential for a certain style of programming rather than there being a magic internal clock that decides when your n00b gainz are over.

Woohoo…8 rep, over 40 bench press PR, 3 weeks back into benching (worked around a bad shoulder for like 4 months). All while on like a 1000 cal a day deficit for the last 2 weeks..I'll take it!

Don't tease us, how much was it?

Enough to calculate to over 300 for 1 rep. I've actually benched 365 before (was 210 at the time, in my early 30's), so not a "real" PR.

Kinda funny, but my DL, squat and bench PR's are all decades apart. Squat in my 20's, bench in my 30's, and DL is actually right now if I did a single (I'm 43).

Nice work!

I hit 275 for a single back in September and I'm hoping that can be my top set work for 2024. Hoping for 3 plates next year.

Back in my 20s, I had a bum shoulder and just thought I'd never be able to bench even 2 plates. Of course, I had no idea what the hell I was doing so that didn't help.

I definitely used to work out more in a way that Dr. Mike would say is just "throwing heavy weights around"….hence why my back is as built now as it has ever been in my 7 months back even though I'm technically moving less weight than I have with it.

Slowing eccentrics, pausing at muscle stretches, higher rep ranges (used to be 5-8 or I called it cardio) make a huge difference.

So you think there is just a genetic limit out that with how far a novice linear progression can take you rather than some time limit?

aggiegolfer03 said:

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Woohoo…8 rep, over 40 bench press PR, 3 weeks back into benching (worked around a bad shoulder for like 4 months). All while on like a 1000 cal a day deficit for the last 2 weeks..I'll take it!

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WOW!

Based strictly on my anecdotal evidence and my amateur internet research, yeah I would say so. In combination with what you might have built up as your baseline of strength when you were younger.

As an example, if you were squatting 4 plates in your early 20s and took 20 years off, I would think you would progress further on a novice plan since you are working from a different baseline than someone who had never strength trained in their life and started picking it up at 40.

that "baseline strength when you were younger" thing is 100% real (personal n=1 anecdote). It's why I told my son that he WILL be lifting while he's a teenager in the house so that he can have a good base to decide if he wants it later in life.

My own experience bears it out. My best lifts in HS were a 300 bench and a 475 lb squat. (at 5'10" 240) I completely stopped strength training from then to 24. I had gained 30 lbs and then lost down to like 180 in grad school at A&M without lifting. Got steamrolled in a basketball game, and said **** that...I'm hitting the gym again. Went from 165 being a working set on bench, 225 working set on squats to benching around 330 and squatting 4 plates+ for working sets within a 6 months lifting. Also gained like 10 lbs+ of muscle (and yes, it was real muscle) without changing my body fat too much as I shot from 180 to 210 during that time.

Fastforward to my 30's and I'd quit strength training again since I was like 26. Was 270 again and decided to get healthier again and started strength training again. Within a year I'd hit my lifetime bench PR, and was back squatting over 500.

And now in my 40's I was back at like 288 (yikes) as of march, hadn't picked up a weight in like 7 years and our gym finally got in at home. I'm now benching over 300 again, and squatting in the high 400's (all calculated, but I actually did a set of 5 at 405) and deadlitfing around 500 (again, calculated). All the strength regains made while being in a caloric deficit since February.

Those strength gains you make in your teens and early 20's are money in the bank....

Seeing if this works…

1
Trap-bar Deadlift
0:30.8
1:19.6
5
165 lbs
2
Trap-bar Deadlift
0:26.5
2:49.4
5
165 lbs
3
Trap-bar Deadlift
0:25.7
2:00.2
5
225 lbs
4
Trap-bar Deadlift
0:24.5
2:01.0
5
225 lbs
5
Trap-bar Deadlift
0:24.4
2:00.0
5
225 lbs
6
Trap-bar Deadlift
0:28.8
2:05.4
5
225 lbs
7
Trap-bar Deadlift
0:31.2
2:20.2
5
225 lbs
8
Overhead Barbell Press
0:30.6
0:59.7
8
45 lbs
9
Overhead Barbell Press
0:28.5
1:58.6
8
45 lbs
10
Overhead Barbell Press
0:27.6
1:44.4
5
100 lbs
11
Overhead Barbell Press
0:30.2
1:56.2
5
100 lbs
12
Overhead Barbell Press
0:30.9
2:00.1
5
100 lbs
13
Overhead Barbell Press
0:30.5
1:54.6
5
100 lbs
14
Overhead Barbell Press
0:29.3
3:19.2
5
100 lbs
15
Lat Pull-down
0:32.7
1:05.5
5
100 lbs
16
Lat Pull-down
0:20.1
0:59.0
5
100 lbs
17
Lat Pull-down
0:21.7
0:54.0
5
100 lbs
18
Lat Pull-down
0:23.8
0:55.4
5
100 lbs
19
Lat Pull-down
0:23.3
0:05.3
5
100 lbs


101
Total Reps
19
Total Sets
12995 lbs
Volume

Are you using an app that spits that out?

Would save me a ton of time on my spreadsheet.

That's from the Garmin Connect app that syncs with my watch. It has a share feature that provides a couple of options for sharing, one of which is a link to a website that I just copied and pasted all that from.

Damn guys....tell me its going to be okay...

I spent a week traveling over Thanksgiving. I didn't sleep enough...I didn't eat enough...and I got a stomach bug on my return that both dehydrated me and didn't eat more than 600 calories a day for two days.

This was my first week back and I've been set back months on my lifts.

Does it come back quick? Does it come back in chucks?

Pretty irritated right now.

It does come back pretty quick. Just listen to your body and you'll know when to start pushing it again. I'd guess 2-3 weeks and you'll feel great again.

Agree with bam - get back into your programming and I bet you'll be back where you were ready for the new year!
I agree, though - it is irritating!