Goals will vary widely by person, but my main recommendation would be to not try to get a new PR on all the lifts at the same time. Pick a lift to improve, set a goal of adding 5 or 10 lbs, and keep the others the same while you focus on just that one lift. Once the goal is achieved, pick one of the other lifts to do the same treatment.

My other suggestion is to have a primary-backup plan in place, so if you just aren't feeling it on your primary lift that day/week you move to your alternate. For example, let's say I want to improve my squat, but my knee is really bothering me when I wake up in the morning. For today I'll then use my alternate lift, say the OHP. Make your alternate use different muscles than your primary (don't pair OHP with bench, for example).

AbsoluteTara79 wrote: »

After struggling the last 5 months with no weight loss - I'm going to try and accept moving into recomp and focusing on strength goals.

I think focusing on strength is a great idea for a lot of people. What is your current height and weight if you don't mind me asking?

Is it reasonable to try and set a target PR/range to hit by the end of 2016? I feel like I would work harder if I knew I needed to add 5 pounds at every X interval in order to hit a goal. Otherwise, it's too easy to let the whiny/tired voices in my head make an excellent case of why my workout is good enough.

Your program itself should be designed in such a way that you executing the program causes you to get stronger.
It's possible that having a long term goal will help you mentally, if that's the case then yeah, have at it. Predicting it accurately especially over years is going to be pretty tough though, in my opinion.

I really think you'd be better off doing something where you program in 8 to 12 week blocks and then have some sort of test to evaluate progress, and then repeat.

So I'll throw a hypothetical out there -- suppose you ran 12 week blocks where on week 12 you test (note that this doesn't necessarily need to be a true 1rm test, it could be AMRAP at 90% or something of that nature). At the end of 12 weeks you see that you gained 20lbs on your squat and 10lbs on your bench and 15 on your deadlift (I totally made up numbers there).

You'll probably feel pretty motivated I would imagine. You'll get to see payoff in the short-term. Then you repeat the process and keep doing it until it no longer works, at which point you address why.

You can do all of this without having a goal for how much weight you lift by X date.

AbsoluteTara79 wrote: »

SideSteel wrote: »

AbsoluteTara79 wrote: »

After struggling the last 5 months with no weight loss - I'm going to try and accept moving into recomp and focusing on strength goals.

I think focusing on strength is a great idea for a lot of people. What is your current height and weight if you don't mind me asking?

Is it reasonable to try and set a target PR/range to hit by the end of 2016? I feel like I would work harder if I knew I needed to add 5 pounds at every X interval in order to hit a goal. Otherwise, it's too easy to let the whiny/tired voices in my head make an excellent case of why my workout is good enough.

Your program itself should be designed in such a way that you executing the program causes you to get stronger.
It's possible that having a long term goal will help you mentally, if that's the case then yeah, have at it. Predicting it accurately especially over years is going to be pretty tough though, in my opinion.

I really think you'd be better off doing something where you program in 8 to 12 week blocks and then have some sort of test to evaluate progress, and then repeat.

So I'll throw a hypothetical out there -- suppose you ran 12 week blocks where on week 12 you test (note that this doesn't necessarily need to be a true 1rm test, it could be AMRAP at 90% or something of that nature). At the end of 12 weeks you see that you gained 20lbs on your squat and 10lbs on your bench and 15 on your deadlift (I totally made up numbers there).

You'll probably feel pretty motivated I would imagine. You'll get to see payoff in the short-term. Then you repeat the process and keep doing it until it no longer works, at which point you address why.

You can do all of this without having a goal for how much weight you lift by X date.

I'm 5'5 and 145 pounds. Based on tape measure calculators, I'm guessing I'm 26-28% body fat. So while it would be great to lose another 5-10 pounds of fat, the work/reward trade-off associated with eating at a deficit isn't big enough for me right now since I'm not really unhappy with my body. And I'm under a ton of work stress.

For a program, I'm doing SL. But I'm not adding weight very frequently. I like SL because it's simple and I don't have to think about it too much since I still have so much to learn on the lifts themselves.

Goal #1 is to shift away from focusing on the scale and I'm finding this very hard - especially in absence of a new measure.

And goal #2 is to make sure the internal whining doesn't get in the way of progress. I'm constantly asking myself if I chose not to add weight on a workout because I legitimately am not ready to progress...or because my mind got the better of me.

I don't know...Maybe I need to suck it up and find a new program that enforces a progression cadence where I have to focus on percentages and planning and stuff...I do like the idea of tests within intervals though.

Thank you all for the replies...It's a big shift for me and I'm just not sure how to navigate it yet.

Regarding the reasons for not eating in a deficit, I think that's good self awareness on your part. I've definitely had situations with clients where we decide that an extended maintenance period is the best solution AT THAT TIME for them, and this sounds like it's the case with you.

I would find a new program and I would consider that you start logging an estimated RPE after each set. Basically:

RPE 10 - absolute max
RPE 9.5 - probably couldn't have done another rep but might have had 5lbs in the tank
RPE 9 - Definitely could do another rep
RPE 8.5 - MAYBE could do 2 additional reps
RPE 8 - Definitely could do 2 additional reps
RPE 7.5 - MAYBE could do 3 additional reps
etc

Doing this will start to build your awareness around perceived effort. Building that awareness can be helpful when it comes time to add weight to the bar/etc.

Some programs are autoregulated in that you may not have a distinct load target but you might have something like

Squat: 3x8 @ RPE 7.5-8.5
Bench: 4x4 @ RPE 8-9
Deadlift 6x1 @ RPE 8

Which basically means that you'd squat 3x8 at whatever load you estimate you need in order to reach 8 reps while leaving 2-3 reps in the tank at the completion of each set (67-72% for most people?). You would bench 4x4 at whatever load you would estimate such that at the completion of each set, you've got 1-2 reps left in the tank (86-91% or so). and 6 singles on deads such that you've got 2 in the tank on each single (you'd estimate this at your 3 rep max, or probably in the low 90%s).

Other programs combine methods, so for example the one that I'm on, and the way I currently prefer to program for some clients, would be to assign an estimated load using %rm, assign a rep target or a tight rep range (+/- 1 rep for example), and then assign a target RPE range so that the individual understands where I expect their effort/intensity to land.

So for example if I assign Susan to hit 5x3 on bench at 140lbs and RPE 9, and during her warmups she's just destroying it, she might try 145 knowing that at 3 reps she's still going to land at RPE 9 which fulfulls the recommendation. Conversely she might have a rough day and drop 10lbs off the bar in order to land at RPE 9 even though the program initially suggests 140.

At any rate, I'm not suggesting you autoregulate yet, but it's a great idea to start familiarizing yourself with it by back-tracking the RPE at the completion of each set as a means of learning how to gauge relative intensity/effort.

i've been watching this thread for a few days... my personal preference is following a program and making progress, watching my numbers go up, and feeling badass. I don't have goals other than that... i don't compete (except with myself), i don't have deadlines. When my program stops working, or it's time to make a change, that's when I start thinking about what's next.

Glad I could be of no help whatsoever!

AbsoluteTara79 wrote: »

Thanks for the additional replies and thoughts. I decided that I'm going to start working with Sidesteel on programming/coaching starting in December. I've done really well on my own since December of last year, but I'm looking forward to some professional help for 2016. I'm sure I'll share updates going forward.

You've done a great job on your own so far -- especially your squat, it really looks great.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you accomplish