NIck: 0:00

Hey folks, a lot of you have been asking for more programming episodes for the Stronger is Better podcast. So what we're going to do for this week is run the Novice Linear Progression episode that Ray Gillenwater and I recorded back in December of 2021. We also did a intermediate programming episode and we did one on nutrition and rehab, which I'll also run over the next few months. So enjoy the show. I didn't feel the need to record a whole other episode on the Novice Linear Progression Intermediate because I think those episodes did a pretty good job of covering. everything that we need. So as usual, if you have any questions or if you have any topic suggestions, send them to podcast at ssgyms.com. And thank you for supporting the show. Okay, so we're doing a starting. Strength Gyms Podcast. We've recorded a few episodes, but this will probably be the first. We're here with Nick Delgadillo. We thought we'd start off strong. So. today's episode is about the starting strength novice linear progression. If you've read the book, you know what the NLP is. If you've been around the forum or know about starting strength, you're probably loosely familiar with it. But we find that lots and lots of people don't have a complete conception of what NLP is, and so they do it incorrectly. The program works so well that even when done incorrectly, it still is effective. But we thought we would just give you the summary of what the novice linear progression is and how you might do it on your own if you're so inclined. So Nick, let's break it down. Let's talk about the schedule, the lifting schedule. Then let's also talk about how to progress each lift. And let's see if we can get from day one all the way to day two. So let's get started. So, let's get started. So let's get started. the novice space. Does that sound good? Yeah. Can we start with application though first, just briefly? Absolutely. So the whole programming discussion gets pretty complicated and it's easy to drift off in all kinds of different directions. So if I was to give somebody. a breakdown or a summary of what the starting strength approach is to programming, it would be the following. So it doesn't matter what the weight on the bar is when you start. So it's about a process, right? And the starting strength novice linear progression is your entry point into this process of strength training, of getting stronger. So regardless of your experience with lifting, with training in a gym, with barbell sports, with barbells in. general, if you can add weight to the bar every workout that you come in, whether that's with an empty bar starting out, Or with a 275 or a 315 squat starting out, you are what we consider a novice. And the novice linear progression applies to you if those criteria are met. So what the novice linear progression does is it takes advantage of your ability to add weight to the bar and get stronger in a short amount of time as quickly and efficiently as possible. And that's good because time is limited. Efficiency is good. Getting stronger improves all of your physical characteristics, among other things. So we're going to go ahead and do that as efficiently and quickly as possible and then move on and let things go wherever they're going to shake out. So if you're weak, you're going to do the novice linear progression. If you've never done the novice linear progression, you're going to do the novice linear progression. If you're coming back from a layoff or from an injury, you're going to do the novice linear progression. So again, think of it as an entry point into this process. Whether you're getting stronger. for the first time, or there's some deficiency, some thing going on where you need to reset the process to some extent and start the program. Now, brand new people, they're going to run the thing, as written, the most basic version. Everything beyond that is going to be a little bit more individualized. But if you need to run the novice in your progression, these five exercises and. the specific way that we do them and the set and rep scheme are designed to take advantage of your ability to demonstrate a strength adaptation three times a week, two times a week, whatever it is. So that's the application. So think of it as novice in your progression starts the process. And then beyond that, programming variables are going to change and things become more, individualized and more specific to you. Once you've got the set and rep scheme, you're going to be able to run the thing as written. gone through that process. So we'll just, one more point on this, Ray. Let's say I have a room of 20 people and they're from all different backgrounds, all different sports. You've got jujitsu people, you've got runners, you've got cyclists, you've got just people who don't do any other sports other than lifting, and you've got young and old. If all 20 of those people have never done the starting strength novice linear progression, they've never done a systematized barbell training program where they have demanded. that the weight go up on the bar every workout, then they're all going to do the program regardless of what other circumstances exist in their lives. If we take those same 20 people theoretically or hypothetically and bring them back two years later or even a year later, and they've all done what their coach has told them, and they've done the program, and they've gone through, and they've intelligently introduced their sport into their overall programming, don't ever forget that. Everything. Right. Six months to a year later or two years later, we could go down the line and every single person in that room's program is going to be different, right? The things that are going to be the same are that they're all going to still be squatting, pressing, benching, and deadlifting regularly, right? But beyond that, sets, reps, what assistance exercises, what days, what frequency, all that stuff is going to be individualized because they've been at it for two years, right? So that's the idea. That's kind of the overview here. People get excited about variety and they get excited about what do I do next, especially when things get hard, right? It's like, well, this variable I need to change or I'm going to try this thing. But really, the process is extremely simple. It's extremely simple and it's just really hard work, right? So the novice progression takes advantage of your ability to add weight to the bar and it also introduces you to another huge benefit is introduces you to squatting. So that's the idea. That's kind of the overview here. back to your, uh, original question. What, what was it, Ray, the number of the days or the.

Ray: 7:04

exercises? What was it? So I was thinking we could, we could start off by outlining what the, the program actually is. And then we could, we could talk about each lift and how to progress from each phase of the linear progression to the next. Okay. And then potentially if there's time, the, uh, the first step of intermediate programming, you raise a good point though. So just to add to your preamble, um, in other words, what Nick is saying is that whether you are stand efforting or you're me on day one and me on day one, I weighed 85 pounds. less than I do now. And I was squatting 75 whopping pounds out of the rack. So whether you're me on day one or you're stand efforting, uh, you would start with our method of strength training with the exact same program. And the nice thing about having a program that's this detailed is number one, it's, it's proven it works. We've built an entire franchise business around this. Um, and number two, you can have a program that's this detailed is number one, it's, it's proven it works. confidence that it works and so you can just follow the process exactly as it is written and that's important because it answers all the questions you've got you've got uh that you're. curious about when you start training so um how many reps how many sets how much rest between sets which lifts what lifts do i do in each day uh you just have to follow the program and the reason for this this particular podcast episode is because one of the most common things you'll see on the message board from rip is why ndtp you're not doing the program um and so nick and i want to outline this for you so if you if you do want to venture off and do this on your own you've got a better chance of being successful and and to reiterate one of nick's points. do not change it um you might have good ideas they might make sense they might sound plausible the program is written the way it's been written because it's the most effective way to use your time and your effort in the gym right um so nick why don't we start with uh with just laying out the the the sequence so um or actually let's just start first day in the gym, So someone's listening to this, they're doing starting strength, or they've been wanting to do starting strength, haven't read the book, they're not going to get a coach. We obviously recommend at least one of those things, but this is reality. This is the way things work. For that individual, what is that person going to do on day one in the gym.

NIck: 9:17

Yeah. And let me just, I can hear people screeching right now because you said Stan Efferding. So let me just, that might not be the best example because he's actually a very strong man and he's a powerlifting experience, stuff like that. But the point remains.

Ray: 9:31

He might only be on the program for a week, but he'll still start with the same process.

NIck: 9:35

Yeah. And then the more typical example is a guy who's a, let's say a college football player, right? And he maybe two years ago squatted five, 600 pounds, may have been three inches high, whatever. But the guy obviously has experience in the gym. We'll establish a starting weight just like we would with anybody else. And honestly, if a guy with very, very experienced- And lifter, for example, Stan Efferding was at our seminar, you know, to a year ago, year and a half ago. Don't even remember how long ago, but he was at our seminar, came in and learned everything. And he squatted 585 like it was nothing, you know. And and here we are coaching Stan Efferding. And yeah, you know, he learned how to press for the first time at that gym. The way we teach the press or at that seminar, learned how to squat the way that we teach the squat. And, you know, the advice was go home and incorporate this and you're going to have to take some weight off and then and then run. Yeah, a short LP up. Right. That's the that's the way to do it. So anyway, the.

Ray: 10:44

And just to reinforce that point, Nick, so Stan then went on to coach Juju Mufu on on our method and Juju added 100 plus pounds of a squat. Right. Using his hips. Right. So even people. That are brutally strong and doing this a long time can make some serious progress with a couple of tweaks. Yep.

NIck: 11:00

Right. Right. Yeah. So the, the sequence, uh, it, it, again, it's super simple, right? Because it doesn't need to be any more complicated. Um, and we go into great detail in the seminar and rip goes into great detail in the book about why these exercises and these sets and these reps, uh, work the best for our purposes in the novice linear progression. Uh, but the application again is just, uh, you're going to squat every workout. It's set up three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, whatever you want three days a week, give yourself two days at the end of the week. And there's no magic behind that. It's just how most human beings arrange their lives, right? So if you're in a situation where you can train every 48 hours, that may work better. So, you know, you can do that. Um, but typically it's going to be a three day a week program. Um, and we'll just assume Monday, Wednesday, Friday for the sake of simplicity here. we can talk about things. You're going to squat Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You're going to. alternate your bench and your press. So one week you're going to press, bench, press. So press on Monday, bench on Wednesday, press on Friday. And then the following week, you're going to bench on Monday, press on Wednesday, and then bench on Friday. So every two weeks you get two exposures to the upper body lift. And then you're going to deadlift every workout. And that's the initial setup. Again, super simple, three sets of five for everything except the deadlift. The deadlift is going to be one set of five. And the reason for that is because the deadlift is heavy. Well, let me just say the reason that you do one set of five on the deadlift is because it works. You don't need to do more. And it's as simple as that. We can talk about why that is all day long, but one set is enough. Why would you do more if you don't need to? So we'll just leave it at one.

Ray: 12:56

set of five. And does that apply to women too.

NIck: 12:58

Initially, yeah. Yes, it does. Yep. So everybody does, again, going back to the idea that a novice is a novice until proven otherwise, an entry point into a process of getting stronger. Everybody that walks in the gym, provided that they haven't walked in, provided that they've walked in, provided that they've walked in, you know, under their own volition and control, they haven't used the walker, they can squat to depth, you know. So, I mean, we're not talking about old people that are frail and can't do full range of motion. I'm talking about an average normal person who can move and do the program, right? So, yeah, everybody's going to do the exact same thing on day one.

Ray: 13:45

Got it. And there are three phases to the novice linear progression, but I want to stress on this episode that it's not wise to look at your training plan as a whole to determine what phase you're in. but rather track each lift and adjust each lift individually based on your progress with that lift how well it's working and when when it looks like it's going to stop working and an adjustment needs to be made Nick so applying that to the squat let's say what is the so you'll be adding. five pounds per lift per day to the squat so you'll be adding 15 pounds to your squat every week your first couple of jumps might be bigger especially if you've got some form issues to work out and those were the things holding you back on the first couple of workouts so Nick what what is the first change you would make to your squat as soon as adding five pounds per workout stops working and how can you tell that that's about to stop working well let's let's back up a little bit.

NIck: 14:49

let's go in the order that this actually usually happens with with people right so people usually start their squat lighter than they can actually lift and that's for a variety of reasons so, Cause it's, you know, it's, it's technical, it's harder to do, it's harder, so on and so forth. The deadlift starts out pretty heavy. Um, and then the press and the bench just, you know, they, they are what they are. So, um, yeah, so let's, let's actually, if it's all right with you, let's start with a deadlift and then, and then go from there. Um, and then let me back up and let's talk about one quick thing here, because you mentioned that there are, uh, uh, what'd you say? Three phases to the novice linear progression. Um, so yeah, it don't, don't think about it as phases and people, people get, uh, people get these phases things into their head and they, they think about graduating levels or unlocking achievements. Um, that's not the way it works. All right. So, uh, just, it's the novice linear progression, and then you're going to progress your training variables based on what's going on. So, uh, what that means is that the lifts may, the, the program, for the individual lifts may change will change individually so you're not a novice then you're a phase two novice and a phase three novice and a phase four whatever the fuck you know there's there's not the there's not these different achievements that you're unlocking like it's a video game you're just going to go until something needs to be changed and then you're going to change it and it's going to be different for everybody now you know a good coach an experienced coach can make some some pretty decent predictions about when things are going to start. to slow down based on what they're seeing day to day in the gym with a client but uh for you it's just uh make a change make a small change and if you make a small change you're unlikely to screw things up too bad provided that you are showing up to the gym consistently and you're uh um you're, not so you're not missing workouts and uh that your form is is generally pretty good that you're not messing up the technique too bad where it's just completely inefficient so. Um, someone's running the program and they're moving along, adding five pounds to everything. Usually the first thing that becomes a problem is a deadlift and the, and it's because it's heavy. And what actually tends to happen is that the deadlift will make it harder to, um, recover by the next workout because you're squatting and deadlifting during the, the, the workout, right? So you've got both lower body lifts. They're both fairly heavy and stressful and the lifter may start to feel, feel beat up or whatever. So, um, the deadlift starts. off so heavy that it doesn't, this is one of those changes that it doesn't really matter because, it's, uh, it, the deadlift is further, is pretty far along and backing off a little bit from the deadlift is not going to kill you. And what I mean by backing off, isn't take weight off the bar. What I mean is just reduce the frequency. So we're deadlifting three days a week initially, and that's to number one, learn the mechanics of the lift. Get good at pulling bars off the floor. and also to run the weight up but once you know once the weight gets up pretty heavy you know. it might just be as subjective as like uh shit this is getting really hard uh let's start alternating the lift that's fine for the deadlift i think that's perfectly fine uh you can do that early um so the recommendation is to do do a power clean right or some other lighter pull so now you're alternating the deadlift with this with another pull if you if you want to take the time to learn how to power clean you should uh and do the power clean if you're not going to power clean do something else uh people love to substitute barbell rows um but you know if you're not good. at setting your low back barbell rows are not a good option uh they're they actually take some technique and you've got to set your back properly and stuff like that so it might be as simple as just a lighter deadlift uh chin-ups um weighted chin-ups if you can do them uh if you're really well, I try to stick to something that's as close to the parent movement or to the main movement as possible. So my first change might just be a lighter deadlift. Or if the deadlift is pretty high up, like let's say you're squatting 205 and you're already deadlifting like 285 or 315 or something like that, we'll just go with chin-ups and just reduce the frequency of the deadlift. So, I mean, as you can see, the joke is, you know, on the board during the programming lecture, I write, it depends, and then it doesn't matter. And then people start asking questions like, well, what about this? What about this? What about this? And I can usually just point to one of the two because it depends on your situation. And then a lot of this stuff doesn't matter. Just do it and then see what happens, provided that you don't screw up, right? So you've got to keep the deadlift in and you've got to keep the deadlift heavy and you've got to keep deadlifting sets of five. Yep. So don't… Don't allow yourself to fail early. Don't allow yourself to do three reps and then be like, shit, that was hard, and then just pack it up for the day. Just do five reps for as long as you possibly can. Keep the deadlift in the program and keep it as frequent as possible in the program for as long as possible. So, yeah, the problem is you start getting a lot of unsatisfying answers because people love, like, well, tell me what to do. And if you want that, alternate with the power clean. Deadlift and power clean, alternate them. There you go. That's the best recommendation I have for you.

Ray: 20:39

And how do you know when it's time to do that? So let's say we're talking about a 38-year-old guy, middle of the road in terms of athletic background, exercise background, day one, deadlifts, 185 pounds. How long on average would a guy like that run his? deadlift until it's time to alternate with the clean? And how would he know it's time to.

NIck: 21:03

alternate? Uh, alternating the deadlift was pretty, pretty early on. So if somebody's, if somebody's really weak, um, like first time in the gym, it might be a couple months before they do that. Uh, people who have a history with, with exercising or working out or training, it might be pretty early on. Like I may have them start from day one, provided that they know how to pull the bar off the floor. So, uh, yeah, that's, again, that's one of those things. Doesn't matter. You can start it right away. Yeah. You can, you can, you can start it right. away. You know, just if, if you, uh, if you've been at this for a while, you've been trying it and you're trying to get your programming in order. Um, there's no reason to not power clean. Just go ahead and start with the squat press. Uh, deadlift is one workout, squat bench, squat bench power clean is your second workout. And then you just alternate the two workouts.

Ray: 21:53

That's perfectly fine. Yep. Okay. So the deadlift is running up. Um, it's changed. I mean, whenever it needs to change as far as the frequency of the, of the programming of that lift. Um, and then what happens when that stops working? What's the next step and how do you know.

NIck: 22:11

it's time for the next step? You, for the deadlift you mean? Or for the pulls? Um, well, one of two things will happen. Either, um, either the lifter will start failing reps on the power, on the deadlift. Um, the, the hard part about that is you have to determine, you have to be honest with yourself and determine whether it's, uh, not, you not willing to keep pulling on the bar, um, long enough that it, that it, it, it comes up because, um, that's probably the more, the more common situation. Um, you're not actually unable to lift the weight. It's not that it's too heavy. It's that you haven't really learned how to grind. You haven't really learned how to pick up the bar. Uh, or push the floor for three four or five seconds until it comes until it starts moving and it comes up so um every once in a while you'll get somebody who's excited about dead lifting and and this they can they can go to dead lifting once a week and do it for a very long time so. uh so the first part of the answer is reduce the frequency even more so if you're if you're alternating the power clean and the deadlift then the next step is to only deadlift once a week um so pick which day that's going to be um and then the other days do a lighter pull and then do like a medium pull so let's keep the example of the power clean in and what that might look like is that you deadlift heavy on monday and then you start to learn how to power snatch. on wednesday so you got your power snatch is a lighter pull and then you power clean on wednesday and then you deadlift heavy on monday and then you start to learn how to power snatch on friday, there's your heavy pull is your deadlift, your power snatch is your light pull, and your power clean is your medium pull. And this may happen three months into the program, two months into the program, depending on what the weight is. And this is where things get interesting because that's an intermediate setup for your pulls, right? You've got a heavy, light, medium. You're only going up once a week on each lift. So that's an intermediate setup. You may not be an intermediate. lifter. It doesn't matter, right? That's just what's going on. But again, you're only deadlifting once a week. So it's got to be heavy. It's got to be a full set of five. And you can't allow yourself to let that backslide. It's got to be really heavy. Got it. So that's the whole progression.

Ray: 24:47

on the deadlift then. What are some of the main issues you see? So for example, there's a couple of red flags where if someone's doing this on their own, you can tell that they're not pushing hard enough on the deadlift. Like if the deadlift and the squat. What are some examples of, or some indications that a lifter is doing this incorrectly.

NIck: 25:08

You mean in terms of the lift or the programming or both.

Ray: 25:12

Both.

NIck: 25:14

The primary thing that people mess up on the deadlift technique-wise is not setting their back. So the bar is going to leave the floor when it's in the right position. So if you've got the bar too far forward, you're burning energy unnecessarily, right? So you're gassing yourself. So that's a simple fix, right? Get the bar closer, get your ass up in the air. But learning how to set your back and maintaining a neutral and extended lower back is tough. So you've got to start thinking about that early on from the beginning so that by the time things get heavy, you're not having to figure out how to set your back with now PR heaviest things you've ever pulled weights. Because it's... too late. You've got to go back at that point, learn how to set your back and then run things back up. So, uh, don't, uh, just because you can lift the bar off the floor inefficiently, meaning with a rounded low back, um, doesn't mean that it's a good idea, right? So, uh, spend the time early on when you're first starting to learn how to set your low back so that you have that built in by the time things get heavy. Um, and then the main thing.

Ray: 26:26

before you answer the programming question, uh, just to point on technique. So the emphasis of this conversation will be on programming for those of you that are going to take this input and then run the program on your own. Um, cool, but definitely take the time to go through all the videos on the YouTube channel. And there's what Nick five videos on how to set your back. Oh, at least at least. So really, really take your time to understand this stuff because if you get the programming, right, you don't want, you want the technique to be the thing that's.

NIck: 26:54

holding you back. Right. So the other thing technique wise that people are going to mess up is, uh, is the grip. And this is a simple thing. I don't get this, man. I have people at the seminars, people at camps, online clients, people in person, and they refuse to modify the grip. I just want to tell everybody right now, modify the damn grip as soon as things get heavy. Go to a different grip. There is no bonus points. There is no additional benefit from maintaining a double overhand grip so long that you can't break the bar off the floor or that you're low backgrounds because one of those things is going to happen. The bar is either not going to move or your low back is going to unlock or you won't finish the lockout at the top. So depending on how far you get in the lift, one of those things is going to occur. So this is, again, a it doesn't matter thing. As soon as it gets heavy. And people will immediately ask, well, what does heavy mean? Doesn't matter. Just switch the grip. Starts to get hard. Switch the grip to something else. So the next question, and this is like a starting strength fan problem, because people that like us love to just focus on these little small details. So what grip is the best grip? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. There's pros and cons to each one. Mixed grip versus a hook grip versus using straps. Pros and cons to each one. So just pick one and go with it. If you ever, you know, obviously using straps takes a huge percentage of the amount of grip strength out of the lift. But in the grand scheme of things, might not matter too much, right? And the other thing with straps is it's a pain in the ass to put on and take off. So if even for that reason alone, it's probably a good idea to switch to a hook or a mixed grip.

Ray: 28:47

And just to add to that point, if you require all this equipment every time you go to the gym, it makes going to the gym more difficult. Yeah. And it increases your chances of missing a lift because of lack of.

NIck: 29:00

equipment yep right right yeah so the grip is grip is important make sure that you switch the grip when you need to and make sure make damn sure that you have chalk because um if you can't hold on to the bar you can't lift it so chalk and then mixing the grip if your gym doesn't allow chalk uh sneak it in or get liquid chalk um whatever you got to do but chalk is required it's required to do this you can't you can't lift uh you can't lift a weight in your hands without without using.

Ray: 29:28

chalk it's not going to work and if you want a complete list of things that are required to do the program non-optional things check out a video i made on the youtube channel called um what you.

NIck: 29:39

need to do starting strength right yep um so those are the big ones rounded low back so learn how to keep your back straight keep your back flat early uh mix the grip alternate the grip uh hook grip whatever you need to do as soon as things get heavy and then use chalk you know so those are those are the big ones for the day, deadlift, There's some other, like, more detailed things that people probably don't need to worry about, but in terms of the movement, you've got to really think about pushing the floor. You know, if you try to pull it off the ground, that'll tend to kill things, so pushing the floor, but that's, you know, these other things are far bigger issues as far as priority in my head. And then in terms of programming, the programming, did we talk about the programming yet? I haven't answered that question. Okay. In terms of the programming, again, really simple, just missing reps, missing reps, because the deadlift is at the end of the workout, and it's the thing that people are going to set the bar up, warm up, pull a couple reps, and be like, eh, you know, maybe I'm only deadlifting once a week. I'll do it Wednesday instead of today, right? And then Wednesday comes along, and they're like, yeah, fuck, I'll do it Friday, you know, and then it just never happens. But look. It's been now almost a week and a half since you deadlifted heavy, right? So get it done on the day that it's scheduled, be consistent and get all five reps. That's in terms of programming, the deadlift is not something that needs to be practiced the whole, you don't have to see it a bunch of times. It's heavy and it's really, it's simple to do. It's stressful. So it doesn't require a lot of frequency and because, and since it doesn't require. a lot of frequency, if you fuck it up and you don't actually do it, you're losing all of the benefit of the deadlift, right? So you, you've got to get it done. You've got to get it done consistently and you've got to get all five reps.

Ray: 31:38

Got it. Which lift do you want to cover next.

NIck: 31:41

So the next thing that usually starts to go is the, is the upper body stuff press, specifically, right? So, um, and this may kind of be in tandem with the squat. Um, but usually the press goes pretty early in terms of having to make some, some modifications to, to programming. And the thing about the press is that it goes from, um, from novice programming to pretty relatively complex very early on. And by the way, we're going to assume that all of the recovery factors are taken care of. So the first three questions, RIP's article, read that, make sure that all those things are in line, make sure that you're actually training consistently, make sure that your form is decent. So those three aspects or those three things are required before you can make intelligent decisions about programming. So you have to have your recovery factors under control. The first three questions, you got to be eating, you got to be making sure your jumps are appropriate, so on. You got to be sleeping. Sleeping is probably the most important one out of those things. Number two, you got to be training consistently. So if you've missed a bunch of workouts in the last two months, that's the first thing you need to fix before you work. Number three, you got to be training consistently. So if you've missed a bunch of workouts in the last two months, that's the first thing you need to fix before you work. programming changes. Like you need to run another LP, you know, back off, whatever. Uh, but you need to get back to where you're being consistent. Um, so you can't make intelligent programming decisions without accounting for your recovery factors, consistency, and form. Uh, now in terms of form, you know, you just got to make sure that things aren't wildly off, right? You can't be. pulling the bar off the floor, three inches forward, because that results in less weight on the bar. You can't be lifting your chest on the squat. You can't be dropping your elbows on the press. These are all things that are going to prevent progress because they limit how much weight is on the bar. So the major problems in terms of form need to be fixed. And you can do that through form checks or visiting a coach periodically or online coaching or whatever. Um, but consistency is, uh, is probably the, out of those, out of these three things, consistency is the thing that people mess up the most. So, um, you know, You're missing workouts. You're wondering why your program is not working. You blame RIP or you blame starting strength for your shitty progress, but it turns out you really haven't been actually training. And by actually training, I mean doing 12 workouts a month, three workouts a week and not missing any workouts. So with all that said, the next thing is the press. So we're going to assume that all those things are under control.

Ray: 34:24

Nick, one sec on that. Yeah. What you're basically saying with consistency, recovery factors, and form is that programming needs to be changed when programming is the thing that's holding back your progress. Exactly. But if you artificially plateau because you're messing other stuff up and then you use programming to solve that problem, that's not the right solution for the problem.

NIck: 34:51

Yeah, it's not going to work. It's not going to work. You're going to end up in a maintenance loop and you won't actually continue making progress. Which may be okay with you, right? But… If you're interested in actually continuing to make progress, the process has to continue, right? And if you interrupt the process by not recovering, by training inconsistently, or introducing so much inefficiency in terms of form that you're messing everything up, then you're not actually doing the process, right? So I want to kind of keep this idea of this process that needs to run because it's useful for people to think about it this way rather than taking a snapshot of what's happening to me today and then trying to figure out solutions to what happened today or this week and ignoring the last month, two months, three months of this process that you're supposed to be a part of, right? Does that make sense.

Ray: 35:44

Yep, yep. And then one last point before we move on to the press is this. This, the novice phase where you're making progress on each lift more than once per week doesn't last very long, and it's a phase where you can make. really quick progress and and change who you are as a person you know visually physically, psychologically um so the point there is and you've heard it a million times on this channel you know don't rob yourself of that um if you're going to do it commit to it don't miss a workout and it only lasts a few months and if you want to start missing workouts and changing. focus after that cool but you'll really be happy if you go through this process in a committed.

NIck: 36:24

diligent way yep absolutely absolutely yeah um yeah and if this is you if you're if you're the person who's been kind of uh just going in circles for the last six months or a year or something uh again kickstart the process reset the process and do it again and see what happens there's been um you know myself included there's been plenty of people who have you know either attended a seminar or camp learned how to do the lifts better um who have gotten injuries and kind of. you know you've had a lot of pain and you've had a lot of pain and you've had a lot of pain gone back and forth with getting stronger getting weaker getting stronger getting weaker and if you've got a block, time where you're like, okay, you know, I can spend 90 minutes in the gym three days a week. I'm going to rearrange my schedule. You know, you can commit to two, three months, of restarting this process. You'll probably end up, you know, go ahead and run the linear progression again. And you'll probably end up well ahead of where you were definitely the first time you ran it. And then maybe even ahead of where you were when you kind of got into this back and. forth loop, if that makes sense, right? So, you know, let's just say you ran your LP. You did like a year of just shitty programming, like just figuring stuff out, doing it yourself, running 5-3-1 when it wasn't appropriate type stuff. And then you finally say, okay, well, let me actually try to get strong again. You reset your lifts, run the linear progression. And let's say you were doing your like 5-3-1 workouts at like 300 pounds, right? You're squatting like 315 or something. You'll blow. past that on another linear progression it happens all the time you'll just blow right past it and you'll keep going and then you'll uh be in a better position to go into intermediate programming and then advanced programming by doing that then by trying to uh just kind of back engineer a solution to a shitty process that you're running right now right um so yeah sometimes you just have to redesign the whole thing and you redesign it um you start with the most basic version of things and then and then add complexity from there right um so with the press um it's going to be early and. this is this is why people struggle with press programming because it's going to be you know you start your press at 75 pounds on the on the first day and you've got between 75 pounds and let's say 200 pounds um maybe probably even less than that right so uh most guys don't ever press 200 pounds even less press 225, And a very small minority ever press 250 and like four guys press 315, right? So, um, so it is a very quick drop off where most, most men are going to squat 315, you. know, a lot of men are going to squat for, uh, less are going to squat 500 and then a few are going to squat 600, right? So there's like a big, huge disparity in the range between, uh, like the thing that very few people do and the thing that most people do between the squat and the deadlift and the press. Um, so, and what I mean by that is, you know, you start at 75, you don't have very much room. You don't have very much room. Things are going to get really hard for you at 135 baby, right? Which is, again, it's not very far. So that's only, that's only a month away or a month and a half away if you're doing the program correctly. So the idea with the upper body lifts is to, um, is to add more stress. So in the deadlift, it's kind of an opposite approach. Right. Because the deadlift is heavy, requires not a lot of practice and frequency. The press especially requires lots of exposure, lots of frequency, and it's not very heavy. It's not very stressful. So you've got to figure out a way to add stress when you're dealing with the press versus with the pulls. You're trying to figure out ways to reduce stress. Right. Because progress is going to and reducing stress is probably not the right terminology to use. Reducing frequency because the stress is still going up because the weight's going up. But the maybe stress for the week. Well, the point is, the point is that the press is not the press is not stressful enough by itself on its own. Where the deadlift is, it's sufficient stress. Right. Where the press is not going to be sufficient. It's not going to be sufficiently stressful to continue driving adaptation on its own. And that's that's the more accurate way to say this. So what you'll need to do is. press more often, right? So think about it right now, you're pressing three times every two weeks. So the simplest solution is to add another press day. So now you're pressing two times or two times every week. So four times every two weeks. Um, so you've increased frequency, you've increased exposure, you've increased stress. Um, so step, step one is to add another pressing day. Uh, probably not actually let's back up. Step one is going to be to get all your reps in, get all your reps in. So you've got three sets of five initially. Um, and the first thing that people mess up is they'll, they'll start failing and then they'll move on. Right? So, you'll get like set number one, let's say you're at one 35, you set number one, you do a set of five, set number two, maybe you get a set of five, then set number three comes along and you get three. And then you're like, well, shit failed. I'm going to try it again next time. Then Friday comes along and you go to press, you set up one 35. And then what happens? You get a set of four, a set of two, a set of two. And you're like, damn, this isn't working. So then Monday comes along and you're like, okay, I'm going to press again next Wednesday. So Monday you're benching. And then you go, I'm going to try it again, 135. And then what happens is you get single, right? Something like that. And it's just, it's just like the steep drop in performance. So when you have a steep drop in performance like that, what that means is that you're understressed. You're not, you're not, you're, you've, uh, you've de-stressed yourself. So your performance has gone backwards, right? Right. Um, so you want to avoid that. So the easiest way to avoid that is you've got three sets of five, 15 reps, get all 15 reps in. So you get 135 on the bar. You do a set of five, you do a set of four, you do a set of four. You've got two reps to make up, make them up. Singles, doubles, whatever. Just get them all done in as few sets as possible. Then maybe you just keep that going. You know, you go up to 140, 137, you know, next workout. So you do a two pound jump or even a one pound jump. And then next workout you say, okay, I got it. to do 15 reps just get them done in as few sets as possible you might get three sets of five you might get a set of four a set of three a set of three and then a set of three and then a single or something like that right but just get them all done so that's the first change that's an.

Ray: 43:13

important point about the about the weight jumps too nick which is on the deadlift you're not doing anything less than a five pound jump in most cases in most cases yeah you're moving to a two and a half pound jump um within a couple of weeks for most people uh early yeah maybe not within a.

NIck: 43:31

couple weeks but yeah pretty early on two pound jumps um one pound jump if and the only the only determining factor on how small of a jump i will do with somebody is the equipment that they're using so if they're at a if they're at a typical commercial gym you know there's all kinds of weights everywhere the smallest jump i'll usually have people do is like a two pound jump maybe a one pound jump for women um and then um if they're at home they've got nice plates and they're always training you, on the same equipment, I'm totally cool with doing two and one pound jumps. I have no problem. with it because you're always using the same equipment. You know, if, if you like how some people are insane and by calibrated, calibrated plates, you know, even better, you know, you can make, cause you know exactly what's on the bar to a very, very, uh, very close degree. So, um, so that's okay. But remember, like if you're in a commercial gym and it, and people hate to hear this, but if you're in a commercial gym, um, with iron plates, you got 225 on the bar, you might. have 215 on the bar, right? You might have, you might have 235 on the bar, right? Yeah. So don't, don't ever weigh the plates because you'll drive yourself insane. So you're always dealing with this kind of margin of error. And that's, so how much, how much different is two pounds? You know, I don't know. So, um, so don't, don't stress out too much, too much about that. Just you're looking at it more in terms of the press, you're looking at it more as, getting, practice with it and making sure that you're not under stressing yourself. So get all the reps in and then make slow, gradual increases. And that will work. That'll work for a while. The main consideration on when the next change I'll make for the press, um, will come is how long that's taking, right? So if you're getting to the point where you're doing like 15 singles, that's just silly. It's going to, um, you know, that makes that workout unreasonably long. So once you're down at like triples, you know, for, for, um, work set weights, like you're doing a bunch of triples, then add the second day at the second rest day, right? So you're going to be, uh, benching and pressing one of these days. So typically what I'll do is. I'll have people just, uh, press on Wednesday and Friday, you know, whichever day makes sense in terms of, um, the rest of the program. So they're pressing on Wednesday and Friday, and then the bench just stays on the normal, uh, alternating progression, right? Or if we want to go ahead and just put both lifts. twice a week. I'll have them bench on Monday, press on Wednesday, and then bench and press on.

Ray: 46:07

Friday. So it's usually the way that shakes out. Got it. Got it. Okay. So step one, three sets of five stops working every other workout. Continue to do as many sets as is necessary to get all 15 reps. And then when that stops working, and let's say you get to threes and that's beginning to fail, then move to an additional pressing day. So instead of an average of one and a half pressing days per week, you're now pressing two days per week, correct? Exactly. Right. Right. Yep. And.

NIck: 46:35

once you're adding that second press day, one of the days needs to be singles, like a bunch of singles, five, seven, 10 singles, uh, heavy. And then the other day, uh, three by five, five by five, five by three, doesn't matter too much. Just get about 15 to 25 reps. If you're really bad at pressing, get 25 reps. If you're strong, get 15.

Ray: 47:00

Yep. Got it. Okay. Which lift next squat bench? Um, the bench, let me just briefly talk about the.

NIck: 47:08

bench. So the bench, depending on how heavy your bench is and how good you are at benching, you can approach the bench. Like we would do the squat, which we're going to talk about here in just a minute, or like the press, if you're, you know, and this is pretty typical, you'll get a, get a guy who's squatting in the mid threes, former runner, you know, fairly athletic guy or physically, uh, active guy, I should say, um, squatting in the mid threes, um, first time strength training, right? But this is, we're talking three months into the program. Um, who's pressing one 25 or one 30 and benching like one 50 or one 60, right? So that guy is going to do exactly the same kind of setup as the press. So maybe a five by five day on Monday of benching and like a heavy set of five on Friday for the bench. Thank you. In addition to the pressing work for the week, uh, you've got a lot of guys who have experienced benching, like their bench is way above their squat even. Right. So those guys may follow a more traditional kind of like, you know, three by five and. then, uh, three by five alternating with, uh, with some rotating, like set of five triples singles type thing.

Ray: 48:25

So the bench, when you do have a preference, um, on the bench, as far as following the squat progression versus following the press progression or what, what advice do you have.

NIck: 48:35

on picking a method? It completely depends on how weak the guy is in his upper body. So, uh, if I was going to like tell you when to do, which I would say if the, if the squat, I'm sorry, if the, if the bench is significantly ahead of the press, it's going to, it's going to, uh, it's going to respond more like. One of the bigger lifts, like the squat or the deadlift. If the press is really close to the bench or the bench is really close to the press, and I'm talking within 20 to 50 pounds, then it's going to respond more like the press.

Ray: 49:17

So it depends, in other words.

NIck: 49:19

Right.

Ray: 49:20

Okay.

NIck: 49:22

But you can kind of draw a little bit more clear line. And you know what I'm talking about. You know, you've got guys who are like kind of pear-shaped, right? They're relatively weak upper body, stronger legs. Those guys are going to need to approach their bench like the press. Like they're going to have to see it often. Right. And then you've got the guys who have been gym bros their whole life, like, you know, wearing pants to the gym because they don't want people to see their legs. But they can bench a ton of weight relatively, then they're not going to need a whole bunch of exposure to the bench press.

Ray: 49:55

And the former applies to women as well.

NIck: 49:57

Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Almost always.

Ray: 50:00

one. So with that in mind, let's talk about the squat. Squat three times a week, adding five pounds of workout, 60 plus pounds added to your squat every week, assuming you're recovering in a way that facilitates that. Um, what are the signs that that, that is, uh, uh, beginning to not work? And then what is the first move that you make? So the squats, the think of it as the.

NIck: 50:22

main driver of this program, right? So you're going to squat every workout. Um, it's going to be the thing that, that, uh, it's like the base of the pyramid, right? It's the thing that keeps, keeps the whole program moving along. So it's extremely important, um, for a variety of reasons. So your programming with the squat should be, um, should be the thing that gauges where you're at. And, and I use, I use the squat as the, uh, um, what I'm thinking about a lift. So if you were, if I were to categorize a lifter, I guess is the way to say it. If I'm categorizing novice versus intermediate versus advanced, I'm probably thinking, weighting that, that categorization towards what their squat is doing. If does, does that, does that make sense? So. So because it's at the base of everything. Yeah, it's a good way to think about it. Right. Right. So, um, I want to be careful with how I program the squat and I don't want to mess around with it too much. So I'm trying to use as a, um, I want to keep it as basic as possible and make as small changes possible. So I'm not going to, I'm not a fan of adding a bunch of variety to the squat initially, at least. So we're going to keep doing the squat low bar squat, you know, just like we teach it. And the only thing we're going to manipulate is the intensity. So the load on the bar. Um, so you're going along 60, uh, 60 pounds a month, 15 pounds. week, adding five pounds every workout. And then, uh, first change is this to add a light day. So rather than going up every workout midweek, so on Wednesday, take a light day. So three sets of five at a reduced weight. So typically I'll start at 80% just to set it up that way. So 80% of. Monday. So 80% of the new PR that was set on Monday, 80% for men and women. Um, yeah, typically maybe a little bit higher for, for women. Um, it doesn't matter too much, right? Uh, because it's not, it's not, it's a light day. I'm not, I'm not considering it a very stressful event. And what I will do is if they're already deadlifting heavy, just once a week, I'll move the deadlift to that light day, light squat day. So, so start to prioritize a lift, right? So prioritizing squat. on Monday and Friday, and then prioritizing the deadlift or, or whatever heavy pull on. Um, so then that, if there is any kind of, um, room where that lighter squat day is potentially going to be too much of a reduction in stress, I see is like moving the deadlift to that day. We'll take that up, right? It'll, it'll just take up the slack there. So, um, whether or not that's happening, I don't know. It doesn't matter. Don't care. Just, it's, it, at least, at least let, let's the lifter be fresher for the deadlift because they're squatting.

Ray: 53:28

Physically and psychologically.

NIck: 53:29

Physiologically, exactly. That's exactly right. So there's a lot of, right. A lot of benefits. Exactly. Lots of benefits doing it that way. Um, so yeah, that, that'll give you, um, that'll give you some weeks of progress, four weeks, eight weeks, you know, potentially quite a bit because you're mentally fresher for Friday. Um, and you're physically, I mean, you're actually a little bit fresher going into, into that second workout of the week. So this is where we're getting into now. Like, Yeah. Um, there's no, there's no official way to do this, right? So we're getting beyond the novice linear progression. There's no, um, prescription for this is how you finish a novice linear progression. It's going to depend, right? My preference is to do it as gradually as possible and to change as few things as possible. So the next change that I'll make, and people will talk about this as being advanced novice or will assign some kind of phase to this, but the next change I'll make is to, uh, only go up on one set. So first set or last set doesn't matter. Just pick one set to go up on. And then the other two are going to be lighter. So just to keep things simple, let's say we're at 300 pounds for the squat, um, 300 pounds for the first set of five, and then, uh, 270 for the other two sets. So you've got three sets of five, two of them are at 90% of the first set. And then light day is 240, right? That's around 80% of three. 240 for three sets of five. And then you come in on Friday and you do 305 for the top set. And then you do two sets at 275. And then that's your setup now. So you don't recalculate percentages. You just run with it and then add five pounds. And doing that top set and back offs will, again, get you a bunch of progress. More so than if you stopped there, reset 10%, and then ran a new LP. Like run it again, right? Which is typically how people do it. But for younger guys, 17 to 25-year-old guys, that's exactly what I'll do. We'll just, you know, we'll keep going until we slam into a wall. I'll say, hey, go home and eat and sleep. And then we're going to go again, right? And then just brute force the thing. For most grownups and most clients, this approach works better. It's just gradual. Never fail, you know. Don't fail unless you're at a meet. Keep the weight going up on the bar. Keep you as fresh as possible. You're not... ever going to be like a hundred percent fresh, you know, this, this is a hard program and it's designed to be hard and hard things are the only things that actually work to transform you. Right. So, um, you can't get away from that part of it, but at least doing it this way, um, keeps you from ever having to stop and back up and then try again. You just keep slowly and steadily and gradually moving the bar up or moving the performance bar up. Right. And that's, that's what I'm interested in doing. So, um, yeah, top set back offs. If you look at practical programming, at the end of the novice chapter, um, I think it's actually called advanced novice or, or, uh, transitioning out of novice or something like that. Um, there's a few different ideas on how to do this. Some guys go to triples, um, you know, you can do all kinds of different ways, but keeping sets of five, going to back off sets is the simplest, um, and works, works really, really well. Cause then it gives you like a framework for where, what do I, what do I do next? Cause if you've been, last four to six months, it's fairly easy to think about, okay, well, what do I do next? I, haven't messed around with triples yet. So once you're in the intermediate, you're only going up. once a week, you can potentially just add kind of a new stress with triples and singles and kickstart things and keep things moving. And I just wanted to confirm, you mentioned when.

Ray: 57:24

switching to drop sets that you only go up on the top set, whether that's the first or the last doesn't matter. Um, but I, I, uh, just wanted to clarify that, that when it is time to switch to drop sets, you're immediately doing 90% for the other two sets, correct? Yeah. But in other words, you're not, yeah, you're not, you're not just adding, adding weight to the bar for that one set and then having you like a five pound difference between the top set and the drop sets and then only your top set, you're dropping 90% and then workout to workout, you're adding five.

NIck: 57:54

pounds to both. Exactly. Right. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. And you, you look, you could do it the other way. You could do it. it the other way um just hard it'd be it'd be hard like you're not the difference between 305 versus 300 is not that big right so if if that works keep doing it you know you can do ascending sets um the sets across just seem to work better but ascending sets might work just fine too so uh there's different ways to do this uh but again the back offsets are just very simple right and. and the thing is the thing is with these changes is it doesn't matter when you make them because if you make the change and people people get really really worried about this like when is the appropriate time to make a change look if you're if you're adding five pounds to the bar every workout and then now you're only adding five pounds on monday and friday you have slowed your progress by five pounds a week right how much does that matter in a lifetime of training it doesn't especially especially if it allows you. to continue enjoying training to some extent, it allows you to come in the next workout on Friday fresher to actually hit that PR, you know, and also allows you to start learning how to gradually manipulate variables to progress your programming long term, right? So if you wait until you fail a rep, things happen when you fail a rep that are difficult to come back from mentally, physically, you know, recovery wise. There's a lot of potential. There's a lot of questions in my mind for a client or a lifter that I'm working with. Like when they have to set the bar on the pins after that, I don't know what's going to happen. Like, I don't know how hard it's going to be to get them to learn to keep grinding through reps because every time they start pushing through. A rep and it gets hard. There's a little thing in their brain that says, well, shit, man, I can just put it on the pins. Nothing bad's going to happen, right? So.

Ray: 1:00:00

Or I can't do this.

NIck: 1:00:01

Yeah, or I can't do this. Yeah, so I want to avoid that situation for as long as possible. There's a lot of kind of like psychology involved in this, and I want to avoid a fail for as long as possible. I try to tell people that I'm working with, like you should not fail a rep in training. Fail a rep at the meet. If you want to fail a rep.

Ray: 1:00:19

Does that apply to the press too, Nick.

NIck: 1:00:22

No, it applies to the squat and the deadlift. Squat, yeah. Squat and the deadlift, yeah. You're going to fail press reps because you're going to fuck it up. But there's no like – like think about being under the bar and grinding through a heavy rep and then failing it, versus pushing on a press and it just coming back down. In terms of like subjective risk inside your brain, what does those two events feel like, right.

Ray: 1:00:47

Especially when you try the press rep again and it goes up because it was closer to your forehead.

NIck: 1:00:51

Exactly right, yeah, yeah, exactly. Where if you – great point, right? If you push the bar forward on a press, and a coach – identifies it and says, all right, aim for your nose, and then the thing flies up, you immediately get a feedback thing that says, hey, that was a technique deal, not a big deal. When you fail a squat rep, it's not likely that you're going to be able to get that rep again. If you rack the bar, take a couple minutes, and then try it again, it's probably not going to go up. And then when you come in the next day, there's a thing in your head that says, shit, man, this is the weight. This is where I'm going to be stuck. You know, there's a psychological deal to deal with there now, right.

Ray: 1:01:35

All right, so on the squat, you're making progress three times a week. You then switch to making progress twice a week when you're out of light day. You then continue to make progress twice a week, and you facilitate that by implementing drop sets. And then what is the next move when you're going up twice a week with drop sets and that stops.

NIck: 1:01:56

working? Just once a week now. Pick whether it's going to be on Monday, or Friday, and you only go up on the one set. And then the other day, so let's say you decide Monday is going to be your heavy day. So one set of five at a new PR on Monday, two sets at 90%. Wednesday is your light day, 80% of Monday's top set. And then Friday would just be all three sets at 90%. That doesn't work for very long. So that's your kind of first taste of intermediate. programming, but you don't have long before you have to make another change. But now you have the framework set up where you've got a heavy day, a light day, and a medium day. So figure out where to go on your heavy day. Triples, singles, start transitioning into a Texas method situation where Friday is going to become your heavy day. So lower the sets on Friday, increase the weight on Friday, lower the weight on Monday, and start increasing the sets on Monday. But you figure out from there.

Ray: 1:02:59

Yep, yep. That's when things start to get a little more complicated. Right. Okay. Anything else to add on programming before we recap the principles here.

NIck: 1:03:08

No, I think we got it all along the way, man. Just keep it as simple as possible. Don't, and I don't want to, I want everybody to keep in mind the tendency as the novice linear progression starts to get hard, you know, and people always say when this, when this novice linear progression stops working, that's typically not what's happening. What's happening, what's actually happening is that it's getting really fucking hard and you start to get distracted. So there's, there's always going to be that tendency to think I need to go on a cut. I need to do this. I need to try this program. I'm going to buy this template. So keep in perspective where you are in this process. And the change that you actually need to make is probably much smaller than the one you will want to make. So make the small change and then keep progress going.

Ray: 1:04:00

Yeah. And, uh, you know, I'm one of those guys who early on didn't have access to the sort of information on the YouTube channel because it just wasn't there. Um, and I, uh, you know, wasn't, was a, uh, artificial intermediate. And you mentioned five through one, I jumped.

NIck: 1:04:16

onto five through one way too early. Yeah. Me too. Yeah. I was trying to do five through one with a 275 pound squat and it did not fucking work. I was roughly in the same area. So take.

Ray: 1:04:26

it from our failed experiences, make smaller changes and you'll make more progress over time. Right. Yep. So let's, let's run through those recommendations. Um, I think Nick's overall philosophy on this stuff, which is, um, don't grind yourself to a nub when you're doing the novice linear progression. You know, if you have to reduce the frequency of making jumps on your deadlift at two times a week and you're a couple of weeks early or same thing on the squat, that's better than being a deadlift. Too late in most circumstances for most people. Uh, Your keys to success, as Dick pointed out, are consistency, so don't miss a workout. Your recovery factors, if you're not going to read the book, at least read the article, the first three questions. That's a critically important article. And then form. Your technique has to be in line with what we suggest to make sure it's efficient. And if your technique is dialed in, your programming is dialed in, you're consistent in your recovering, you will make, better, faster progress than you ever thought possible.

NIck: 1:05:25

Yeah. And one more thing to add to that is your capabilities are way ahead of where you think they are. So how you feel today and what you think is going on is more than likely a lie that you allow to kind of creep in your brain. And the difference between us normal people and the people who do extraordinary shit is that they ignore that voice. You're not going to hurt yourself. You're going to be just fine. If, If you can muster up the balls to go in and hit a PR three days a week for as long as possible, you will make some significant changes physically and mentally and emotionally in your life.

Ray: 1:06:13

Life-changing stuff, truly.

NIck: 1:06:14

Yep.

Ray: 1:06:16

Yeah, that's actually one of my favorite parts about being a coach. We were just talking about this in the Slack group for the coaches last week, which is when you have a trainee that comes in and they're looking at the weight on the bar with timidness and you can tell that they're worried about it. And they tell you they're worried about it. And you go, hey, I'm your coach. I do this for a living. You did five pounds less than this last workout and you got three sets of five. So this is five pounds heavier. You can at least get one rep, right? Okay, cool. We agree on that. Get under the bar, do the rep, and I'm right here. I'll tell you exactly what you need to do and focus on my cues and you'll get it done. And then afterwards you're like, oh, shit, I just didn't even think I could do one rep and I did 15, right.

NIck: 1:06:57

Right. Yeah, look at it. This could go forever, but let me just make one more point. This is what you see in a gym where if you go and train somewhere where there's a bunch of really strong people, the bar automatically gets set higher in terms of what a normal performance is. So if you're in your garage or your basement by yourself, you have no frame of reference other than what you are feeling every day when you get onto the bar. So keep that in perspective because you can walk into a powerlifting gym and everybody in there is squatting three, four, five plates. Your brain will recalibrate itself to understand that that's normal, right? So you'll do things to make your... You don't have to squat five plates, but you'll realize that 225 is not that heavy, right.

Ray: 1:07:55

Especially when you see a 70-year-old gal next to you on the platform.

NIck: 1:08:00

You can walk into WFAC and see women squatting 225 as a matter of course, just all the time. But if you're just in a commercial gym where rubber-coated plates and stuff like that and nobody's squatting, and you put 315 or 405 on the bar and you squat it to depth, you're like a god. It's an unusual thing to see that. So the point is, again, your capabilities are far away from where you think they are at any given point. So don't shortchange yourself in terms of this process. You're going to be just fine. People obsess over all these little minor details. Your goal is to just get stronger, and the way to get stronger is to get more weight on the bar. You've got to figure out how to do that.

Ray: 1:08:53

That's probably a good place to end. Anything else you want to add? Nope. It's good. Cool. That was solid. Thanks for the time, Nick. Absolutely. All right. See you guys. Thanks. Thanks, guys.