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Making Gains

O

Oznut

Super Trooper
So I was thinking, and I know everyone is different, but what sort of gains are thought to be respectable when benching/squatting/dead lifting? I've only really started lifting weights at the start of the year for the first time ever, I haven't done a squat in around 15 years and I did my first (re: practice) dead lift last week. The only real increase I can give you would be my bench, I think I started with 40kg and in 3 months I'm up to around the 75kg mark.

Any thoughts? Oh yeah, 6'2, 109kg.
 
Every person is different (genetics, age, previous sport/athletic experience, injury history, mobility), and every program they follow is different.

One program for example that i followed had me increasing 1kg per week on press, bench and powerclean. 2.5kg per session on squats, squatting twice per week, and increasing deadlift by 5kg per week.

Doesn't sound like very much but if you keep at it consistently it adds up quickly.

Typically, that'll work fine for 6-9 months til your body can't handle that rate of improvement anymore (at which point you should be over the basic levels they talk about sometimes on this forum). Then you just move onto a different program ;)
 
I've seen the charty-thing about what level you're at being a novice and what not but how accurate is it? Is that only for power lifting and the like? Or does it apply to everything weight lifting, power lifting and body building in general? What is you're shithouse at say squats but are strong in other ares, does that still make you a novice?
 
The chart was in Mark Rippetoes Starting Strength 1st edition. He scrapped it from 2nd and 3rd edition, interpret as you will.
 
It's a tough call as everyone has their own opinion but when starting out, everyone has their own opinion lol.

I've been going with the small weekly gains and it seems to be working but how do you set goals when starting out? Say for instance if I wanted to bench 100kg by September, is it realistic and how do you know what is and what isn't?
 
You're a novice if you can add weight to the bar in every single session
Weight used and training history is irrelevant
 
Oznut said:
I've seen the charty-thing about what level you're at being a novice and what not but how accurate is it? Is that only for power lifting and the like? Or does it apply to everything weight lifting, power lifting and body building in general? What is you're shithouse at say squats but are strong in other ares, does that still make you a novice?
Click to expand...
i dont like standards, there are too many varying factors from lifter to lifter.
the only thing i would see them as are goals that you could aim for.
for example the 140/100/180 thing.
in 12 months i got 170/90/192.5 does that still make me a novice and say that i am training wrong? no lol every lifter is different, u cant make a standard for such things.
 
0ni said:
You're a novice if you can add weight to the bar in every single session
Weight used and training history is irrelevant
Click to expand...

So I were just lifting the same weight each session and maxing it at the same time, no more novice?

Also, I see what you mean Callan, cheers.
 
0ni said:
You're a novice if you can add weight to the bar in every single session
Weight used and training history is irrelevant
Click to expand...
that doesnt work, MP can stall in a few sessions, when i started it stopped at 40kg, i got to that within a month and couldnt add weight to the bar for ages, does that mean i am no longer a novice MPer? no lol. where lifts such as the squat and DL can go for ages if someone started light.
 
That's sort of what I mean with the thread. How do you judge progress? I guess slow progress is still progress am I right? But when should you look at something and go "this isn't working how I thought it would, what can I do to help?"
 
I admire your enthusiasm oznut. To be totally honest with you, these things take time. I to get discourage seeing bber mates look better than me or lift more than me in a shorter period of time. I need to remind myself that this is not a race and its about the journey.
Lifting weights doesn't stop at lifting weights. It takes a mental strength, diet and rest.
in my opinion, Keep doing what your doing for a atleast 6months then reassess.
 
slow gains, are still gains. all you can do is try some different things for a while, people can suggest things, but its just a stab in the dark, some people respond well to high volume, others dont etc. u just got to find what works for you.

if something isnt going well, you can either look at changing the rep ranges and changing the weight to suit and go with that for a while, say your doing sets of 8's and not progressing well, you can have a play with 5's and a higher weight for a while, add extra sets etc so you are changing up the volume of things. or you can look at adding or changing assistance exercises


edit: like what sook said, things take time, if your going to change things you need to do it for a while, a few weeks wont tell anything lol
 
Last edited:
Yeah, the routine I'm doing now I've been doing since the start of the year and it seems to be working. I think.
 
callan said:
that doesnt work, MP can stall in a few sessions, when i started it stopped at 40kg, i got to that within a month and couldnt add weight to the bar for ages, does that mean i am no longer a novice MPer? no lol. where lifts such as the squat and DL can go for ages if someone started light.
Click to expand...

Likely just means you went up in weight on MP too quickly.

I would agree that when you can no longer add weight each session/weekly you are out of the honeymoon period / beginner phase. It will differ a huge amount depending on personal circumstance though (food intake, rest, stress in your life, schedule, blabla).
 
moons said:
Likely just means you went up in weight on MP too quickly.

I would agree that when you can no longer add weight each session/weekly you are out of the honeymoon period / beginner phase. It will differ a huge amount depending on personal circumstance though (food intake, rest, stress in your life, schedule, blabla).
Click to expand...
it would of been 2.5kg each time i hit full amount of desired reps. still too fast? you are eventually going to hit your maxes for those reps (for example the beginners program mainly using sets of 10 and 8), simply because u cant add weight the next session doesnt mean shit about being a novice or not, all you would need to to is change the rep range and boom, u can add weight
 
Oznut said:
So if I just continue to lift heavy and so long as I'm making gains its all good?
Click to expand...
thats it lol, any progress is still prgress
some PLers will train for 2 months for 2.5-5kg gain on the bench. a lot of hard work for very little in return.
but as a beginner most gains will be made simply on technique improvements. this is why i stress the importance of honing in on technique.
 
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