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Thanks for the response ENORRIS. My gym does have a smith machine, but its broke right now and I have no idea when it is supposed to be fixed. That exercise does sound interesting and when they fix the equipment I will have to try that out.

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"You can succeed if nobody else believes it, but you will never succeed if you don't believe in yourself."
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22 yrs old
6'3 220lbs
Goals: Add lean mass and cut body fat.

Hunter since you doing ab work so often why don't you spice it up with some differnet stuff than just flexion.

Maybe one day have torsion (twisting) stuff like cable woodchops or russian twists and another day have have a side to side thing like db side bends or overhead db side bends (recommended).

And maybe drop on of those flexion things (I'd reccomend the situps) and put in bridges or something like that. Theres no point in doing that same thing so often.

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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.

Yeah I guess I was just getting lazy with my routine and doing the stuff that I know how to do. I have been meaning to get more creative with the ab exercises. I will try cable woodchops and db side bends on monday, but im keeping my weighted decline situps...I love those things!

Hey Eric I read what you were saying in Topshelf's journal about bringing volume down on Wednesday workout to help recovery and I really want to try that myself. My squats are getting really tough and on Wednesday of this week I went into my workout feeling sore from Mondays. I want to try to use Wed as a day to work on my form for squats. Maybe do a few sets at 185? Think this is a good idea?

Correct me if I'm wrong here... but don't pretty much all the 5x5 variations call for something like a 10-20% weight reduction on squats on Day 2?

I dont think Rippetoe calls for that in his Starting Strength routine. Pretty sure its the same weight all three days and then you try to increase weekly if possible.

I think it's a perfectly fine idea. It's not the spelled out way to do SS which is once you hit a plateau you do a back off on that exercise to try and get it going which may result in a little more progress before another plateau and then you have to change up things.

But I really think it's about longterm progression rather that the fastest possible progression. And another thing is I hate the idea of cutting back deads to once every two weeks (with PC's in between or something) if you are still progressing on deads. I hate making deads the bad guy on things and if you're lighter squat day falls on dead day that in itself makes a huge difference. Later on in your career you will probably seldom do heavy deads AND squats on the same day.

So yeah, if you feel like you need a day to work on form and some recovery then go for it. I'm all for it and if you are still loading the bar twice a week that's still really good progression. If one of your goals is to practice form then you could do a couple sets at moderately higher reps at a weight that didn't represent a maximal effort at that rep range. This would give you more "practice" then low rep sets with more rest. As long as the weight is plenty light enough so that every rep can be done with perfect form. This is just my opinion but when it comes to form I think a little higher density works better. It's up to you though...either way is fine.

Sounds good. I think I will maybe do 135 x 10, 155 x 8, and 175 x 5.

Ten reps may be a little much. I was thinking more like a COUPLE sets of 7 or 8 LIGHT . If you go too high volume then you defeat the purpose of a recovery day because volume will actually incur more long lasting fatigue and it will accumulate rather than allow you extra recovery. That setup you proposed could actually make you MORE tired. There's nothing wrong with the weights they're actually pretty low for you.

You can think of it this way. If your were going to do 80 to 85 percent of your working weight for sets of five you would probably be able to do 65 to 70 percent for sets of 7 to 8 and not have that tax you too much. It's a tricky slope.

No, this program (as rip lays it out) is pretty much balls to the wall loading the bar every workout. The idea being that beginners can progress this way at this moderate volume. And then once they can no longer progress this way by any means it is time to move on to those intermediate programs with the light day as you described. That's the theory anyway. Of course I see nothing wrong with any one individual putting in a light day if they see fit. The way the program is supposed to be run is perfectly logical and tried and tested, though, don't get me wrong. My only gripe, as I've stated before, is the idea of fastest possible progression versus sustained progression. Sometimes, I really don't believe fastest possible progression is the best way to go for everyone.

Well my problem is that I cant get good form if the weight is too light. I know that sounds weird but when I just have the bar its just too light and I like to have atleast 135 cause I can feel the weight and really focus on my form...but I see what your saying about doing it too many times.