Tips for intermediate(?) powerlifting

[IcemanIsDead]

Hello everyone, I'm hoping to get some tips on what program and type of training to choose, I have read the stickies and searched the forum but I have not found anything that I can relate to. I'm a pretty thin guy, decent amount of muscle (not even close to enough though) currently at 134lbs but a couple of weeks ago I was 141lbs. My weightloss occured during a string of sicknesses and depression, but I am slowly working my way back. my stats are:

Squat: 237x5
Bench:143x5
Deadlift:242x5

I have been doing staring strength for a couple of months (I have been training for a year, 8 months in a gym) and I have had steady progression for about three months, but I have stalled over and over for maybe two months or so, and realized that I'm not recovering and not responding well enough to full body training anymore, since a typical trainingsession takes two hours or more and I'm not even getting sore or gaining muscle even though I have upped my calories to over 3000.

So, now to the question: What program should I do? Am I advanced enough to do westside or am I still considered to be a novice? I can point out my weaknesses in all the lifts and know how to adress them, since I have been reading up alot and have a big interest in powerlifting and different methods. Any tips or opinions would be greatly appreciated!

[koyongi]

You're 19, 5'8", and 135 pounds. That's the problem right there.
Keep with the starting strength, gain 20 pounds, then come back and report on the progress of your lifts.

[tom11]

So, now to the question: What program should I do? Am I advanced enough to do westside or am I still considered to be a novice? I can point out my weaknesses in all the lifts and know how to adress them, since I have been reading up alot and have a big interest in powerlifting and different methods. Any tips or opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Interesting... You seem confident enough to say that you can point out your weakness. The problem is that at 5'8'' 135 lbs and a 700 lb total you don't have any weaknesses, you are just weak overall and just need to be all-around stronger. I would suggest going to the stickies, pick a good 5x5 routine, learn the big 3 lift's form (this is IMPORTANT), go to nutrition section to get your diet in check and boom, you will make progress.

[IronOynx]

Your are a novice. Stick to 5x5

[arian11]

Soreness is not a sign of a good training session. And if you are not gaining muscle then you need to eat more so your bodyweight continues to gradually go up. If you stalled on Starting Strength, then take a deload week drop your work sets and go at it again.

[IcemanIsDead]

Interesting... You seem confident enough to say that you can point out your weakness. The problem is that at 5'8'' 135 lbs and a 700 lb total you don't have any weaknesses, you are just weak overall and just need to be all-around stronger. I would suggest going to the stickies, pick a good 5x5 routine, learn the big 3 lift's form (this is IMPORTANT), go to nutrition section to get your diet in check and boom, you will make progress.

7

Just to make everyting clear, I have gained 30 lbs in 6 months, my squat started at 90 lbs, my bench at 45, my deadlift at 135 and I know the form on all the lifts, I use my lats when I bench, elbows tucked and leg drive, my squat is a low bar squat, moderate stance width, my knees track inwards slightly in the hole so that I can use my quads more and explode out of the hole, and my deadlift is close stance, feet outwards to activate the glutes more, straight back, hips relatively high, shoulders above the bar, flexed triceps to prevent bicep tear. I currently eat 3000 calories a day, 1g of protein/lb of bw

I certainly have a long way to go, but my knowledge of training is not represented by my stats, since I started with an eating disorder, depressed, sleep depraved and eating around 200 kcals/day. I do appreciate your approach but I have to be an annoying prick and point out that I have done starting strength, I have deloaded, I have bumped my calories up, slept more and everything that you are supposed to do. SS was burning me out, I have read the stickies. I know that I am a little scrawny **** but I bench my own bodyweight for reps, so I don't consider myself to uch of a noob.

[IcemanIsDead]

Soreness is not a sign of a good training session. And if you are not gaining muscle then you need to eat more so your bodyweight continues to gradually go up. If you stalled on Starting Strength, then take a deload week drop your work sets and go at it again.

I have deloaded several times, sometimes more than 20 lbs just to get stuck 5 lbs over the previous weight, I eat 3000 calories a day and I get 10 solid hours of sleep a night. I know that soreness isn't a sign of a good training session, but I can feel that I' not improving since the only thing growing is my waist and my lifts are barely moving at all. It takes a month to increase the squat 10 lbs, and I just think that there must be something out there more fit for me, considering how far I've come since I started. Thank you for your reply!

[arian11]

7

Just to make everyting clear, I have gained 30 lbs in 6 months, my squat started at 90 lbs, my bench at 45, my deadlift at 135 and I know the form on all the lifts, I use my lats when I bench, elbows tucked and leg drive, my squat is a low bar squat, moderate stance width, my knees track inwards slightly in the hole so that I can use my quads more and explode out of the hole, and my deadlift is close stance, feet outwards to activate the glutes more, straight back, hips relatively high, shoulders above the bar, flexed triceps to prevent bicep tear. I currently eat 3000 calories a day, 1g of protein/lb of bw

I certainly have a long way to go, but my knowledge of training is not represented by my stats, since I started with an eating disorder, depressed, sleep depraved and eating around 200 kcals/day. I do appreciate your approach but I have to be an annoying prick and point out that I have done starting strength, I have deloaded, I have bumped my calories up, slept more and everything that you are supposed to do. SS was burning me out, I have read the stickies. I know that I am a little scrawny **** but I bench my own bodyweight for reps, so I don't consider myself to uch of a noob.

I have deloaded several times, sometimes more than 20 lbs just to get stuck 5 lbs over the previous weight, I eat 3000 calories a day and I get 10 solid hours of sleep a night. I know that soreness isn't a sign of a good training session, but I can feel that I' not improving since the only thing growing is my waist and my lifts are barely moving at all. It takes a month to increase the squat 10 lbs, and I just think that there must be something out there more fit for me, considering how far I've come since I started. Thank you for your reply!

Sounds like you got everything down and figured out. You don't need us. Run Westside or whatever you want. Good luck.

[IcemanIsDead]

Sounds like you got everything down and figured out. You don't need us. Run Westside or whatever you want. Good luck.

I started this thread because I was hoping for input, but it seems like everyone just saw "135lbs" and decided to point out that I was a noob. My squat is more than 1.6x my own BW so I was wondering if I should use a more periodized program, since I am stalling with linear preogression. If you got the impression that I'm starting this thread to prove something, or that I'm ignorant I am sorry, it was not my intent, I was merely trying to explain further my stats and my progression as I thought that you were misinterpreting where I was coming from.

But the fact of the matter is, I've been stalling for two months straight and have been deloading and eating more and more, but still haven't seen progression in the way that I have before, so any tips aside from "eat more, sleep more, deload, YNDTP" would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your reply.

[arian11]

I started this thread because I was hoping for input, but it seems like everyone just saw "135lbs" and decided to point out that I was a noob. My squat is more than 1.6x my own BW so I was wondering if I should use a more periodized program, since I am stalling with linear preogression. If you got the impression that I'm starting this thread to prove something, or that I'm ignorant I am sorry, it was not my intent, I was merely trying to explain further my stats and my progression as I thought that you were misinterpreting where I was coming from.

But the fact of the matter is, I've been stalling for two months straight and have been deloading and eating more and more, but still haven't seen progression in the way that I have before, so any tips aside from "eat more, sleep more, deload, YNDTP" would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your reply.

I didn't see 135 lbs and point out you're a n00b. I saw you talking about soreness, not gaining muscle and stalling and gave my suggestions on that. I also have a friend who has competed in the 123s and 132s and so was comparing your numbers to his. He can bench 100 lbs more than you and deadlift like 120 lbs more than you and yet he still focuses on the main lifts, learning technical mastery and working in lots of 5 rep work. He doesn't focus on working on specific weaknesses for each lift and continues to get stronger while staying in those 2 weight classes.

Didn't get he impression you're trying to prove something. Did somewhat get the impression you are ignorant by the soreness comment and the fact that you ask for help and then quickly put down everyone's help.

But the fact of the matter is that you're going to do what you want to do. And that clearly isn't continuing Starting Strength. So do what you want. Which sounds to be Westside from your 1st post. So do Westside.

[Jeepindoc]

It takes a month to increase the squat 10 lbs...

If you consider yourself an intermediate lifter, you'd know 10lbs/month increase in your squat is a blessing.

Progress is progress.

[Yagidy]

OP look at my 5's in my sig, I'm still a novice on 5x5, you could only possibly slow your self down by going to an intermediate program with where your at right now. You need to stay on your novice program and eat more. What ever your eating now, 3000, 4000, 5000 eat more until your gaining weight.

Also soreness doesn't. Mean your working too hard, it means your on the right track.

[headrek1]

How fast is you're freaking Metabolism?? I thought I had a fast one, 3000 calories a day and no progress?! I gained 10-15 pounds over a year just bumping my calories up to about 2800. You seem to be getting offended by people calling you a beginnner. Although it may come off in a mean way, they are just being frank, and don't get hung up on titles, they aren't important for anything other than knowing what type of program would best suit you . Regardless of your body weight you're pretty much in that beginner range until you can squat about 300, and are hitting at least 225 bench. Most men, unless they are severly underweight (you're light, but not severly) can reach these numbers within two or fewer years of training, no special programs or anything. I'm only an intermediate and I've been lifting for a decade, don't be offended.

[IcemanIsDead]

How fast is you're freaking Metabolism?? I thought I had a fast one, 3000 calories a day and no progress?! I gained 10-15 pounds over a year just bumping my calories up to about 2800. You seem to be getting offended by people calling you a beginnner. Although it may come off in a mean way, they are just being frank, and don't get hung up on titles, they aren't important for anything other than knowing what type of program would best suit you . Regardless of your body weight you're pretty much in that beginner range until you can squat about 300, and are hitting at least 225 bench. Most men, unless they are severly underweight (you're light, but not severly) can reach these numbers within two or fewer years of training, no special programs or anything. I'm only an intermediate and I've been lifting for a decade, don't be offended.

Thanks for the input, yeah my metabolism is ****ed up, I used to weigh 110 lbs at 5'8'' (eating disorder).. I'm not getting offended at all, it just seems like some peope are jumping to conclusions rather quickly, and I was trying to clarify the fact that I keep good track of my progress, always work on my form and are aware of the different factors in gaining weight and getting stronger. I know that none of you are trying to offend, and I thank you all for giving your opinions, it's just hard to be convinced to continue a program in which you have stalled over and over again, it's getting tiring not to see progress..

[arian11]

If you consider yourself an intermediate lifter, you'd know 10lbs/month increase in your squat is a blessing.

Progress is progress.

Yea I'm hoping for 30 lbs on my squat, 5 lbs on my bench and 20 lbs on my deadlift...in 4 months of training.

I know that none of you are trying to offend, and I thank you all for giving your opinions, it's just hard to be convinced to continue a program in which you have stalled over and over again, it's getting tiring not to see progress..

Then be more analytical and detailed in your approach. How do you know you have such great form after only 20 months of training? This is my 3rd year of competing in powerlifting and I still feel my form is pretty crappy. Are you taking videos of yourself to check your form, bar path, depth, etc? Are you showing the videos to someone with more knowledge and experience to get another perspective? If you feel Starting Strength is no longer working for you, have you thought about making a small change to elicit gains rather than going completely in the other direction? There are different versions of the program, you know? How do you know you aren't gaining muscle? Are you tracking it? Bod pod, caliper, scale weight, looking in the mirror, etc? Are you actually tracking your calories or just assuming? Are you tracking your macros? Are you tracking your bodyweight daily or weekly to see how fast you are gaining?

[headrek1]

Thanks for the input, yeah my metabolism is ****ed up, I used to weigh 110 lbs at 5'8'' (eating disorder).. I'm not getting offended at all, it just seems like some peope are jumping to conclusions rather quickly, and I was trying to clarify the fact that I keep good track of my progress, always work on my form and are aware of the different factors in gaining weight and getting stronger. I know that none of you are trying to offend, and I thank you all for giving your opinions, it's just hard to be convinced to continue a program in which you have stalled over and over again, it's getting tiring not to see progress..

You say you've deloaded, but have you reset? With these types of programs you can't keep failing the same week and expecting to eventually progress. You have to go back maybe a wee or two. I rather recently did about 9 weeks of stronglifts, but because of my constant resets, 9 weeks took about 7-8 months to complete, I never got to all 12 weeks. Let me explain, say I got to week 6, and it had me attempting to bench 275x5, and I only got 4. I'd try week 6 one more week, if I still failed, the next week I'd go back to week 5, complete that week, then attempt week 6 again. If it still was a no go, I'd go back as far as 2 weeks and try again. it might take a full month or a bit more to progress past week 6. But it's all about perserverance. And again, I didn't let titles offend me. This was a "beginnner prorgram" by all accounts, I had decentish lifts (bp280, sq315ish) that would by own criteria, put me in intermediate categories, but I thought what the hell, nothing else to that point had worked, maybe it was worth a shot. I benefited, despite it being considered a "beginners program."

Try the resets like I said, deloads can help sometimes but you really wanna save those for when you start having connective tissue pain. Deloads can be beneficial lets say when you've tried numerous resets and still aren't progressing, a deload can be a last resort type thing to break your slump.

[scottyk31]

Op understand in powerlifting many lifters classify theirselves based on their meet total, which fits them into a class standard. Class 4, class 3, class 2, 1, master, elite. Generally speaking 2 and 1 are intermediate. That being said if you have not competed you have no real total, therefore you are considered a novice...in the powerlifting world. That being said you can run any program you like, that you understand how to implement with success. The recommendations have not changed as far as what is in the stickies. Pick one you feel you understand and can have success with. Also if you have not done a meet, do one so you actually know where you are.

[IcemanIsDead]

Op understand in powerlifting many lifters classify theirselves based on their meet total, which fits them into a class standard. Class 4, class 3, class 2, 1, master, elite. Generally speaking 2 and 1 are intermediate. That being said if you have not competed you have no real total, therefore you are considered a novice...in the powerlifting world. That being said you can run any program you like, that you understand how to implement with success. The recommendations have not changed as far as what is in the stickies. Pick one you feel you understand and can have success with. Also if you have not done a meet, do one so you actually know where you are.

Ok thanks!

[ElAlchemisto]

How fast is you're freaking Metabolism?? I thought I had a fast one, 3000 calories a day and no progress?! I gained 10-15 pounds over a year just bumping my calories up to about 2800. You seem to be getting offended by people calling you a beginnner. Although it may come off in a mean way, they are just being frank, and don't get hung up on titles, they aren't important for anything other than knowing what type of program would best suit you . Regardless of your body weight you're pretty much in that beginner range until you can squat about 300, and are hitting at least 225 bench. Most men, unless they are severly underweight (you're light, but not severly) can reach these numbers within two or fewer years of training, no special programs or anything. I'm only an intermediate and I've been lifting for a decade, don't be offended.

I thought you were a beginner until you could no longer make linear progress. I've been training for 9 months and only 2-3 of those months have been with free weights (was at Planet Fitness for first 6 months using smith machines and not a program) and for 5x5 I bench 225 squat 290 and deadlift 300 and I'm still very much a beginner imo.

[InspecktaDeck]

guys I know I weigh nothing and have a sub 1k total but Im very depressed and starve myself so if you take that away Id be a pretty elite lifter. Pls go somewhere else with that nonesense

[scottyk31]

I thought you were a beginner until you could no longer make linear progress. I've been training for 9 months and only 2-3 of those months have been with free weights (was at Planet Fitness for first 6 months using smith machines and not a program) and for 5x5 I bench 225 squat 290 and deadlift 300 and I'm still very much a beginner imo.

As I mentioned earlier in powerlifting you are a beginner if you have never competed or only competed a few times and have a class 3 or above total. Has nothing to do with linear gains. Gains are gains. The biggest misconception is that a certain type of "gain" goes away. People get strong on linear, congagute, bloc, high frequency etc....and at a very high level. However if you are new to lifting/programming linear is the easiest to not f-up.

[KyleKeough]

To be frank, at 5'8" and 135 lbs., your primary goal right now should be building a physique base, not gaining strength. You can obviously accomplish both at the same time, but you will benefit the most right now from eating a bigger surplus and trying to gain muscle mass.

Honestly, right now, the program doesn't really matter--just train in such a fashion so as to facilitate size gains. You can run SS, or the conjugate method, or any other program, but the bottom line is, you have to add muscle mass. Right now, your physique is what is limiting your ceiling--your progress will slow simply because you don't have the muscle mass to continually get stronger through linear progression.

The way to correct that is to get bigger. I don't mean this to be an insult to you, but even though your strength level might be (in terms of relative strength) at an intermediate level, you're not yet at a novice state because you need to develop the physique to increase your ceiling. Once you're 20 lbs. heavier, you could still see good returns on linear progression. What's holding you back is not that you've advanced past linear progression, but that you don't have the base to properly take advantage of it.

There is something to be said for just going in, training hard, utilizing heavy compound movements effectively, doing a lot of assistance work, and eating a ton. Gym bros all over develop a reasonable physique base by doing the most absurd stuff; your training doesn't have to be terribly sophisticated right now. It just has to be reasonably difficult, and rest and recovery need to be geared towards weight gain. This is probably different advice from what you've been receiving, but I figured I'd put it out there.

[IcemanIsDead]

guys I know I weigh nothing and have a sub 1k total but Im very depressed and starve myself so if you take that away Id be a pretty elite lifter. Pls go somewhere else with that nonesense

Thank you for your input, but that is not what I said at all, I said that I was having an ED before I started lifting. You can call it nonsense how much you want, I have never claimed that I would be "elite" if it weren't for some setbacks. I know that other people go through **** as well, I'm not trying to claim anything. Pls go somewhere else with your hatecomments about how beta everyone else are.

[IcemanIsDead]

To be frank, at 5'8" and 135 lbs., your primary goal right now should be building a physique base, not gaining strength. You can obviously accomplish both at the same time, but you will benefit the most right now from eating a bigger surplus and trying to gain muscle mass.

Honestly, right now, the program doesn't really matter--just train in such a fashion so as to facilitate size gains. You can run SS, or the conjugate method, or any other program, but the bottom line is, you have to add muscle mass. Right now, your physique is what is limiting your ceiling--your progress will slow simply because you don't have the muscle mass to continually get stronger through linear progression.

The way to correct that is to get bigger. I don't mean this to be an insult to you, but even though your strength level might be (in terms of relative strength) at an intermediate level, you're not yet at a novice state because you need to develop the physique to increase your ceiling. Once you're 20 lbs. heavier, you could still see good returns on linear progression. What's holding you back is not that you've advanced past linear progression, but that you don't have the base to properly take advantage of it.

There is something to be said for just going in, training hard, utilizing heavy compound movements effectively, doing a lot of assistance work, and eating a ton. Gym bros all over develop a reasonable physique base by doing the most absurd stuff; your training doesn't have to be terribly sophisticated right now. It just has to be reasonably difficult, and rest and recovery need to be geared towards weight gain. This is probably different advice from what you've been receiving, but I figured I'd put it out there.

If I had any rep power I would rep you. I will increase a little on hypertrophy work and work on getting my BW up, maybe a little more BB stuff won't hurt as finishing exercises. Thank you for your answer, very nicely put and straightforward. I will keep at it, get up to 141 again and beyond.

[Limitless7]

Kyle's advice is very good. Take it on board OP.

Increasing calories and eating more is the general consensus, which I agree with, but don't go overboard. Some people get carried away and gain too much fat.

Interesting... You seem confident enough to say that you can point out your weakness. The problem is that at 5'8'' 135 lbs and a 700 lb total you don't have any weaknesses, you are just weak overall and just need to be all-around stronger. I would suggest going to the stickies, pick a good 5x5 routine, learn the big 3 lift's form (this is IMPORTANT), go to nutrition section to get your diet in check and boom, you will make progress.

Ever since I started powerlifting I've focused on weak points to get stronger and break plateaus. I don't follow any recognized program and never have. Whether you are a beginner or elite, or anything in between, you are going to have weak points. Not focussing on weak points, if you know you have them, makes no sense to me.

guys I know I weigh nothing and have a sub 1k total but Im very depressed and starve myself so if you take that away Id be a pretty elite lifter. Pls go somewhere else with that nonesense

At no stage did OP say he was cutting or elite. He's made it clear he's trying to gain weight and muscle. He said he used to weigh 110lbs. He's made good progress already. Learn to read before insulting people. I checked your log to see what your numbers are considering how bad your attitude is around here. Turns out I deadlift more than you weighing 100lbs less. That made me laugh (even more than I usually laugh at your anger problems).

[IcemanIsDead]

You say you've deloaded, but have you reset? With these types of programs you can't keep failing the same week and expecting to eventually progress. You have to go back maybe a wee or two. I rather recently did about 9 weeks of stronglifts, but because of my constant resets, 9 weeks took about 7-8 months to complete, I never got to all 12 weeks. Let me explain, say I got to week 6, and it had me attempting to bench 275x5, and I only got 4. I'd try week 6 one more week, if I still failed, the next week I'd go back to week 5, complete that week, then attempt week 6 again. If it still was a no go, I'd go back as far as 2 weeks and try again. it might take a full month or a bit more to progress past week 6. But it's all about perserverance. And again, I didn't let titles offend me. This was a "beginnner prorgram" by all accounts, I had decentish lifts (bp280, sq315ish) that would by own criteria, put me in intermediate categories, but I thought what the hell, nothing else to that point had worked, maybe it was worth a shot. I benefited, despite it being considered a "beginners program."

Try the resets like I said, deloads can help sometimes but you really wanna save those for when you start having connective tissue pain. Deloads can be beneficial lets say when you've tried numerous resets and still aren't progressing, a deload can be a last resort type thing to break your slump.

Yes I meant reset, my bad, I have deloaded only once.

[IcemanIsDead]

Yea I'm hoping for 30 lbs on my squat, 5 lbs on my bench and 20 lbs on my deadlift...in 4 months of training.



Then be more analytical and detailed in your approach. How do you know you have such great form after only 20 months of training? This is my 3rd year of competing in powerlifting and I still feel my form is pretty crappy. Are you taking videos of yourself to check your form, bar path, depth, etc? Are you showing the videos to someone with more knowledge and experience to get another perspective? If you feel Starting Strength is no longer working for you, have you thought about making a small change to elicit gains rather than going completely in the other direction? There are different versions of the program, you know? How do you know you aren't gaining muscle? Are you tracking it? Bod pod, caliper, scale weight, looking in the mirror, etc? Are you actually tracking your calories or just assuming? Are you tracking your macros? Are you tracking your bodyweight daily or weekly to see how fast you are gaining?

counting 3000 calories a day, only count protein (1g/lb bw), weigh myself 2x/week, look in the mirror as well, but when you see yourself in the mirror every day it becomes hard to measure any kind of progress, I notice if I gain fat though, which I have gained a decent amount of. I video myself and have shown it to some guys that are competing and I always research form queues, form tips and stuff like that. Yeah I will add some stuff to the program, decrease the squat to 80% on wednesdays and see where it takes me. Thanks a bunch!

[IcemanIsDead]

Kyle's advice is very good. Take it on board OP.

Increasing calories and eating more is the general consensus, which I agree with, but don't go overboard. Some people get carried away and gain too much fat.



Ever since I started powerlifting I've focused on weak points to get stronger and break plateaus. I don't follow any recognized program and never have. Whether you are a beginner or elite, or anything in between, you are going to have weak points. Not focussing on weak points, if you know you have them, makes no sense to me.



At no stage did OP say he was cutting or elite. He's made it clear he's trying to gain weight and muscle. He said he used to weigh 110lbs. He's made good progress already. Learn to read before insulting people. I checked your log to see what your numbers are considering how bad your attitude is around here. Turns out I deadlift more than you weighing 100lbs less. That made me laugh (even more than I usually laugh at your anger problems).

Thanks man, yeah Kyle's advice seemed solid and made a lot of sense, I will implement maybe one exercise/week adressing a weak point, don't want to go overboard since I will keep doing SS with a few assistance stuff and a lighter squatday.. InspecktaDeck seems allergic to people who aren't as alpha as him, but whatever lol.

[InspecktaDeck]

I checked your log to see what your numbers are considering how bad your attitude is around here. Turns out I deadlift more than you weighing 100lbs less. That made me laugh (even more than I usually laugh at your anger problems).

I actually give pretty constructive criticism in this section. Im only cheeky when people come in here throwing pitty parties looking for sympathy. Or have a shytty attitude. Im very sorry I dont deadlift enough for your satisfaction, but Im doing the best I can on 1.5 years of training. I also like how you only mentioned pull tho, and not total..

InspecktaDeck seems allergic to people who aren't as alpha as him, but whatever lol.

If alpha = not spewing excuses I guess the shoe fits.

[tom11]

Kyle's advice is very good. Take it on board OP.

Increasing calories and eating more is the general consensus, which I agree with, but don't go overboard. Some people get carried away and gain too much fat.



Ever since I started powerlifting I've focused on weak points to get stronger and break plateaus. I don't follow any recognized program and never have. Whether you are a beginner or elite, or anything in between, you are going to have weak points. Not focussing on weak points, if you know you have them, makes no sense to me.



At no stage did OP say he was cutting or elite. He's made it clear he's trying to gain weight and muscle. He said he used to weigh 110lbs. He's made good progress already. Learn to read before insulting people. I checked your log to see what your numbers are considering how bad your attitude is around here. Turns out I deadlift more than you weighing 100lbs less. That made me laugh (even more than I usually laugh at your anger problems).

Why are you so angry? Simply at this level he has no "weaknesses", he is just weak all around and need to work on everything, technique, muscle imbalances, neural efficiency, etc. Personally I find laughable when a person with a 700 lbs totals say he has "weaknesses", good technique, 5x5 and a good diet will take him veeery far. Take into consideration that usually I'm the first person that would praise the importance of isolation+assistance work but that's after basics have been covered.