Barbell Program Suggestions for Me?

[Starlord]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for input from the crowd over here.

I currently weigh 198 lb., I have been training seriously for the better part of 3 years.

Deadlift: 385 x 9 ()
Squat: 335 x 9 ()
Bench: 225 x 4
Press: 155 x 9

Lately, I've been losing a lot of weight. Since July, I dropped from weighing 215-220 to 198. As I've been slowly tapering off a medication since then, I'm finding it tough to force down enough food to see consistent strength progression without puking. I'm currently running my third cycle of 5/3/1, before 5/3/1 I ran PTTP for months with a lot of success. I was doing well with the weight loss/strength gains for about 3 months, but I've found myself burning out recently and I know I need to change something up.

My diet is very restrictive for health reasons and my stomach can only tolerate ground beef, potatoes, rice, vegetables, avocados, and occasionally pork. I can't eat eggs, I can't drink milk, I can't consume whey protein, I can't eat chicken, and I absolutely can't have wheat, gluten, or oats. As you can imagine, this makes eating for strength gains/slow weight loss very hard to do unless I feel like shoving a pound of ground beef and buckwheat down my throat every day.

Now that I've rambled on for a few paragraphs, I can ask my question.

I would just go back to PTTP, but I want to include squat/press/deadlift + direct ab work and other assistance movements in my program. I'm looking for a program that allows me to hit my prescribed numbers for the day, do my assistance work, and never miss a lift on my spreadsheet.

Going for rep PRs was fun for a little while but now that I'm moving heavier weights, the rep PRs are getting harder to recover from and causing me to miss out on consistent strength gains in the long run. Not being able to consistently supplement my workouts with adequate nutrition is becoming a problem as well.

With all of that being said, do you guys have any suggestions for me? I'm primarily focused on getting stronger but wouldn't mind becoming more

Some properly solid food choices there. Why would you bother with chicken when you can have beef and salmon?

You shouldn't. Beef is superior. Look up the vertical diet for some ideas. The monster mash is ideal for you.

In regards to training. Sheiko.

 

[DocMike]

Competitive PLer here...
1. Diet. Go get the Vertical Diet by Stan Efferding. It will show you how to get the calories in with he exact foods you are able to eat.
2. Strength. Go get From Russia With Strength and Power by CS Sloan or Sloane. It's an article online. Great program. Run it 2-3 times or until you no longer gain and then switchnover to PTTP's Rogozhnikov program. It is a super recovery program.

That is alll

 

[william bad butt]

Competitive PLer here...
1. Diet. Go get the Vertical Diet by Stan Efferding. It will show you how to get the calories in with he exact foods you are able to eat.
2. Strength. Go get From Russia With Strength and Power by CS Sloan or Sloane. It's an article online. Great program. Run it 2-3 times or until you no longer gain and then switchnover to PTTP's Rogozhnikov program. It is a super recovery program.

That is alll

I wish I could give you more thumbs up.

 

[Luis T. Gonzalez]

I would strongly suggest a Plan Strong plan again. I just finished 8 weeks. I put 45 pounds onto my deadlift in that time. I could have done more but I went conservative. I was able to fairly easily zercher 300 pounds and felt like I had more I could do. My military press stayed about the same.

 

[silveraw]

If you are looking for a spreadsheet program that you won't miss lisfts on (I see that as something that includes autoregulation and not strict percentages), and have had success with 531. Then checkout Stronger By Science's program bundle. (formerly A2S 2.0)

It is a spreadsheet for like $5 where you input your lifts you want to do, the accessories, and it spits out a program. The program adjusts based on how you are responding to it to avoid overreaching and underreaching.

Or if you like the russian style stuff, Boris Sheiko has an app that uses AI to mimick his programming based on a bunch of different parameters. It looks real cool, but I can't personally say I've used it. (Honestly I was hoping the SF app was going to be something like this with Plan Strong, but it turned out to be more of an exercise journal with a couple programing articles in it.)

 

[DocMike]

First, I would recommend you get an in person coach. This is invaluable and a good one can help with all the areas you discuss and deal with variables that come up.

Second, try to avoid the forced feeding. Try to add 10% to your baseline every few weeks. There is a tendency to go from baseline to goal and the body just can't adjust that fast. If you are eating clean food then a 10% jump is about all you can handle without your stomach trying to have a mutiny.

Third, with regards to programming, there are.many that work, just showing up works. Optimal ones would be Stronglifts 5x5, Reg Park 5x5, 531...just be sure to use a beginner program and milk it for all its worth before moving on to an intermediate one and then milk that. I am running a Russian Program, Rogoznikhov, but have been doing this game for 15yrs.

My recommendation is to find the Strongfirst Foolproof Cycle and run it. 2 days a week of heavy stuff, total body work, assistance exercises on off days, and has a very easy formula on where to start, what to add, when to change rep range, and it works.

Example...I bench 400. Take 80% of that and you get 320. I can get 320 for 7 so I got to the chart in the program and this gives me a starting weight of 260 (65% of 1rm) with a weight jump of 15lbs a week (4%). I use that starting weight and that weekly jump to do 5x5 until I can't and then switch to 3x3 and repeat, then 2x2 and repeat, and then do a max single and repeat with my new PR. Do this for bench once a week, then second half of workout is lighter leg stuff. Second workout of the week is the above plan for legs (squat 1 cycle with DL assistance then DL one cycle with squat assistance) follower by light bench work. Throughout the rest of the week you can do nonmaximal isolation work for abs, triceps, biceps, calves, KB work...

Simple and effective