This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/SpookyJabroni on 2024-02-04 04:11:21.

24yo male

Just finished this program after 3 months away from squatting and deadlifting. For context, I hurt my back as a kid, and doctors told me I had spondylolysis. I did some pt, and it basically didn’t affect me aside from mild flare ups/aches and pains related to sports over the past 10 years. In September I went full degen mode and ignored every possible warning sign that I was going to aggravate the injury chasing a pr. Low back was pretty jacked up after pushing through some pain in a mock meet day and I was unable to squat and deadlift even an empty barbell without pain from September-December.

During the month or two before this program I did a lot of reflecting and realized how bad I really was at bracing and maintaining tightness especially in the squat. I invested all my energy in relearning how to properly breathe and brace and did the McGill big 3 pretty much every day. Alex Bromley’s videos helped a lot in correcting misconceptions and bad habits that created the problem in the first place. Three weeks before running the program I started squatting and deadlifting 135x10 twice a week, adding 10-20lbs every time until I was doing 225x10.

I’ve been lifting for strength for about 2 years. I wrestled from age 5 through the end of college. Started lifting in high school mostly for sports performance/aesthetics. After college, I started using Stronger By Science RTF, then Candito 6 week, then Stronger by Science RIR until I did my first powerlifting meet last year.

The entire six weeks I ate around maintenance calories. Everyday I eat a breakfast sandwich then ground beef, rice, and carrots for lunch and dinner. The only deviation from this is if my wife cooks dinner or we go out to eat once every other week or so. Sleep is typically 7-8 hours a night. My job is as low impact as humanly possible.

The first week was the most difficult for squat and deadlift by far. Weights felt insanely heavy which makes sense since I haven’t really put weight on the bar since last November. Week 2 was difficult, but I really enjoyed the feeling of grinding out that many reps. From then on squats and deads became easier every week and felt really good by the end of the program. I used deficit deadlifts as my variation, started at 275 and added 20 pounds each week.

Bench was not so chill. I had a shoulder surgery in college and it has always been bad. Week 1-2 felt good. The last time I used this program my bench didn’t really move much so I decided to 2 sets of spoto press after each main bench session. At week 3 I struggled pretty hard to hit the prescribed weights. Surprisingly I benched 275x2 at the end of week 4, and felt like I for sure could have hit a 3rd but I wanted to save it for next week. Unfortunately, failed rep 2 at 285 during week 6.

I think I will run this again for my squat and deadlift. I really enjoy the deadlift frequency between comp style and variation, and I love week 2 of squats. I might go back to what I was using with SBS RIR for bench/upper body because it helped me finally hit 300 during the summer. I’m not sure if adding the spoto press helped or hurt my progress. Overall, I feel like the program has helped me bounce back well. Still building strength back, but I finally feel good again!