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Barbell Beginner lifting program with tension skills

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Scholar said:
Thanks again. I know it might be naive to ask, I want to know does one retain strength for a lift while they practice another lift e.g. Right now one is practicing dl & bp and after reaching certain standard weight benchmark, she or he moves on to achieve certain benchmarks on squat and OHP. Will she or he able to retain those Benchmarks on dl & bp? Can the same be said for OAPU, pistols, and pull-ups? And if the answer is affirmative, for how much time?
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I think @D-Rock has it right on the retained strength. I believe Pavel has written somewhere that strength gained through daily practice tends to stick around longer than strength gained through more traditional once or twice a week lifting program. Apologies, but I can't recall where exactly I read this. I also recall Logan Christopher mentioning that he seems to retain about 80% of a max when he totally leave a lift behind.
 
Scholar said:
Thanks again. I know it might be naive to ask, I want to know does one retain strength for a lift while they practice another lift e.g. Right now one is practicing dl & bp and after reaching certain standard weight benchmark, she or he moves on to achieve certain benchmarks on squat and OHP. Will she or he able to retain those Benchmarks on dl & bp? Can the same be said for OAPU, pistols, and pull-ups? And if the answer is affirmative, for how much time?
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Yes and no.

You know the old saying, "It's like riding a bicycle?" Well, strength is like riding a bicycle. You'll remember what to do, and if you had achieved a certain level at riding a bicycle or lifting a weight in a particular way, you won't be at 100% of what you used to be if you take a lot of time off, but you'll be much better off than if you were starting from scratch.

I'll give you my personal example - I'm a competitive deadlifter in the old, skinny guy category, raw division. My personal best is 364 lbs. I can, even if I don't deadlift for years, still pick up 225 lbs. easily, and can easily also do a couple of reps and that weight and then probably put another 50-75 lbs. on the bar that same day. But 275 lbs. is about 80% 1RM for me, and I might be good for 300 on that first day but that would probably be about it. 300 is a double bodyweight deadlift for me.

To be clear here, there is no real-world need for you to achieve benchmark-type numbers at a wide variety of lifts - pick a couple of lifts and focus on them. The best thing you could do for yourself is decide which lifts you want to excel at and which lifts you want to have decent technique but you don't want to push big weights. Focus, focus, focus.

-S-
 
So, it means to multiply all the standards one chose with 1.2 e.g. Dl= 2*1.2*bw, to retain it for "some time".
 
Scholar said:
So, it means to multiply all the standards one chose with 1.2 e.g. Dl= 2*1.2*bw, to retain it for "some time".
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Perhaps this is a language issue but I don't understand what you're asking. My point is simply that you'll retain around 70-80% of the skill of an achieved one-rep maximum in a strength lift, even without much practice.

Please note that I am not citing any study here, just going on personal experience. There are, obviously, variables, e.g., if your strength training program causes you to gain muscle, losing that muscle will result in a loss of strength. My training focus is on the skill of strength and not muscle hypertrophy, so this is not an issue for me.

-S-
 
@Steve Freides I agree with what you said. what I meant that as I am training only dl & bp with pttp, and then probably do the OHP & squat only in future once I reach my numbers I stated in the question. Given that one retains 80% strength in a lift, as a rule of thumb, I need to up my numbers by 1.2.
 
I'll agree with all that except the very last part. You don't ever need to "up" your numbers - there's nothing wrong with, e.g., achieving a 500 lb. deadlift and then knowing that you have a 400 lbs. deadlift at your disposal for the next 10 years - you can "up" it when you feel the need. Again, I'm trying to downplay the idea that one has to have tip-top numbers at many lifts at the same time.

-S-
 
You're not going to retain it all, but it also won't be as difficult to recover as it was to gain the first time.
 
If I can't retain them then what's the use of achieving these Numbers :(. Although, I know these are a bit arbitrary, I thought these numbers will give a strong, balanced and healthy physique.
To be clear here, there is no real-world need for you to achieve benchmark-type numbers at a wide variety of lifts - pick a couple of lifts and focus on them. The best thing you could do foryourself is decide which lifts you want to excel at and which lifts you want to have decent technique but you don't want to push big weights. Focus, focus, focus.
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Now I think I need to modify my short term goals. As my long term goal is to simply get strong, I think I should focus only on some lifts and keep practicing them. May be I should do deadlift and OHP pttp style to achieve some standard weight benchmarks and then learn clean & press pttp style and achieve some numbers there. So, complementing one training with the other while excelling at a push and a pull movement. Atleast I will be happy that I learned something besides it might help my squash game. I also naively think that it will be a good move from grind to explosive movement:rolleyes:. What do you think of this routine.
I have some concerns though. Will I have shoulder issues over long term with heavy OHP even though I learn proper technique? Will I have a balanced and healthy physique by replacing BP with OHP? Thank you all for support and suggestions.
 
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Life's hard! It's a journey, not a destination. You work hard to get numbers, you then work to keep them. It's much, much better than the alternative! If it's that important to you to retain numbers once you achieve them, you can find many ways to do that with everyday life and maintenance programs. Hip and leg strength lasts longest without much effort, cause most people use their legs to climb stairs, walk some, and lift things occasionally.

Many people get strong at some point in their life, then get sick, bedridden, or just lose the healthy lifestyle, and all of a sudden find themselves weak and overweight a few years later. If you know you want to keep strength once you gain it, that's good, because then you can avoid these pitfalls and test yourself periodically and do what you need to do to maintain where you want to be. No big deal. But also, not a free pass to work out hard for a few months or a year then take the rest of your life off!

I'm not sure getting to heavier weights is your best program for squash, but it shouldn't hurt if you keep playing and keep your mobility and quickness up. I used to play squash; it's a fun game.
 
@Pavel Macek
What do you think of replacing the bench press with ohp in the pttp given that in future I want to learn clean and press? I also intend to specialise in few lifts, as you instructed. It would be nice of you if you can elaborate a bit on step cycling and warm ups for pttp.
 
@Scholar

- you can do an overhead press (military press, or the side press as in original PTTP), or bench press. Check out this article. Because of the reasons explained in the article, I would probably choose BP - you will do lots of clean and presses in the future, trust me - and yes, lots of reps are the key for MP.
- warmups: 5 reps with 70%, 3 reps with 80%, 1 rep with 90% (% = % of the working weight).
- step cycle - it is explained in the PTTP book. It means that you simply keep the same weight for few training sessions, and then you add some weight.
 
@Pavel Macek Thanks sir I will follow your advice and use bp in the routine. I feel that the warm ups seems to be a work out on its own. And since I am can't go below the empty bar, are push-ups and bw squats fine for the time being?
 
Yes, or just skip it entirely.
Do them in the future when you get stronger - it is a good away how get more quality reps, not really a "warmup".
 
Scholar said:
@Pavel Macek And since I am can't go below the empty bar, are push-ups and bw squats fine for the time being?
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@Scholar, you need to receive quality instruction as soon as possible. If you are male, and you are healthy, there is no reason you can move more weight in all your lifts - right now. The skill of strength is the _most_ important thing you can focus on, more important than any program, sets, or reps.

-S-
 
@Scholar
Just a question, your 5RM for the Bench Press is 20Kg right? That equals a ~25Kg 1RM.
But you ask whether you can do pushups as warmup or not. This confuses me, because in a pushup you press ~70% of your bodyweight. In your case that would be ~45Kg. Your 1RM bench press should be at least 40Kg then. And that's only assuming that you can only do one single pushup.
You're either underestimating yourself big time or not telling the truth.
I don't want to be mean, just an observation.
 
@Steve Freides I try to lift more weight
@Kettlebelephant your comments are enlightening! The numbers I have mentioned in the question are not my 5RM. It's what I have tried right now. The 20 kg bp is not my 5rm. It's what I can lift without any trouble. I have been a bit aprrehencive that I might injure myself if I test for 1rm. So I am just trying to go slow and steady.
 
Scholar said:
I have been a bit aprrehencive that I might injure myself if I test for 1rm. So I am just trying to go slow and steady.
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It's good you are starting slowly and carefully, but please keep in mind that training with the right weight is important for many reasons, so please consider my suggestions - get instruction and learn to lifter heavier correctly. It's always an option to take a video of yourself and post it here for comments and suggestions.

Best of luck to you.

-S-
 
Your goals are to squat, bench and deadlift a lot. Getups and pistol squats will not help you do this, but doing this will help you do getups and pistol squats. Those are in any case technical and require some coaching, considerably more than the basic barbell lifts. So forget about them.

What you need to do is something like,

Firstly, get some microplates (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1kg), and when you go to the gym always use the same barbell (most gyms have gear from different manufacturers and the weight won't be consistent). Then,

A) squat for 3-5 warmup sets, then work weight 5,5,5; press in the same way
B) bench in same way; deadlift in same way, but for one set of 5.

alternate these two workouts doing them 3 times a week, and each time choose a third exercise just for fun and really push yourself on it - chinups, curls, lat pulldowns, dumbbell rows, whatever.

Start with the empty bar for squat, press and bench, and 40kg for deadlift. Add 2kg a time for squat, 2.5kg for deadlift, 1kg for press and 1.5kg for bench. If you miss the target reps, go home and eat a huge steak, try again next time. If you miss 3 times in a row drop the weight back 10% and build back up. Thus in about 6 months you would be squatting around 90-100kg, benching 70-80, pressing 40-50, and deadlifting 120-140.

This will be a good base and you can then build from there. You goals of squatting 1.75xbw, benching 1.5xbw and deadlifting 2xbw, the squat and the deadlift are reasonable for a healthy young guy in 12 months, the bench would be more like working up to 1-1.25xbw in 12 months and then it would take another 12 months to bench 1.5xbw.
 
#injury
So far so good. I am using 5-3-2 reps. No issues with my dl and it is now 55 kg within first week. My bench press is 35 kg. But during bench press I feel a lot of stress in my shoulders and a mild pain in them . Some times top of shoulder and some times side of the shoulders. And I still have the pain. But don't feel anything in my chest during or after the lift. But when I do a set of 5 push-ups I feel some good stress in my chest and triceps. I am using shoulder length grip. I have also gone through the article on "lateral arch" by chief. And I am using all the tips in this video by mark rippetoe.

What I am doing wrong?
 
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