when will strength gains come bk

I was active during quarantine and I still lost some strength. Probably because I also lost weight.

I’m doing Linear progression for a few weeks then back to regular training. I’m about 2 weeks away from normal strength. Then back to my regular training.

I lost about 30kg on my squat and more on my deadlift. My OHP and bench press I lost around 10-15kg.

squat pr was 80.
bench was 60
deadlift was 110.

im not bothered about my body/wanna get jacked. just need to be outside and not in my house all day.

hopefully end of year i can regain my stuff and get to 100 squat.

Definitely possible just got to find a good programme. Good programme will help you get strong and jacked and out of the house

i was on a good programme i forgot the name though. until sept imma train calves arms shoulders with my weights at home then do split workout at gym.

how long you been at it?

I’ve been going gym for 3ish years now but I only really learned how to train and diet properly last November and that’s the period I have made most of my progress (Nov to March). But the time before that I appreciate as it helped build consistency and okay technique and I’ve already gone through most of the mistakes

Hey man, I was an intermediate/advanced novice by the end of March with a 180kg deads, 140kg squats, 100kg bench, and 65kg OHP all lifts x 5. Took me about 6 months on a hard Linear Progression scheme and I've regressed.

I've jumped back onto Linear Progression and recommended it for anyone. A few benefits:
1) You'll start off stronger than your last starting point on LP.
2) You'll be able to get away with 5kg jumps even longer before dropping to 2.5kg.
3) Mentally it's great. Getting stronger workout - to workout once again.
4) For me, I'll be able to get back to hit new PRs within 2-3 months. That's not a bad trade-off for a 4 month lay off and have lost 20lbs over quarantine.

Don't get disheartened for something that's out of your control. if you don't know anyone with a home gym or have the money to splash on one yourself, then there's nothing you can do but wait. Good news though is you'll only lose 2 months of getting back to where you were as opposed to spending thousands on a gym.

I was on the 5x5 novice programme. Do you think i should do lp first then 5x5?

5x5 is a good Novice Linear Progression Programme. Something like Stronglifts will get you stronger. I don't see a problem with it, however, for me and most of the population, a 3x5 stress is more than enough to trigger the stress - recovery - adapt cycle workout to workout. For this reason, I prefer Starting Strength - it saves time in the gym, less stressful while still causing an adaptation and also less risk of overtraining. At some point on a 5x5 program, you would have to drop to 3x5 anyway because the volume will just become too much to recover from workout to workout. Not only that but mentally having to squat 5x5 130kg squats just doesn't board as well when you can create recoverable stress at 3x5 and make it easier for yourself. Also as much as people can hate on Mark Rippetoe for his wacky political views, he is an expert in the field of strength and provides an abundance of information in his books and videos on how to get strong and the science behind it.

so instead of 5x5 these lifts i can do 3 sets of 5 and still get the same gains?

I eventually hated squats because 5 sets was so much once i was like 5 weeks in adding 5kg so hopefully 3x is better mentally 2

Yes. If you switch them to 3x5 you will still certainly see gains. The stress is enough, you will just have to ensure you allow for optimum recovery - lots of sleep, food and protein etc. Also if you're 5 weeks in you should probably revert to smaller incremental increases - 2.5kg per session for all lifts but perhaps the deadlift, which can go up to 5kg jumps for a bit longer.

Adding 15kg each week to the squat in Novice LP is only supposed to go as far for maybe 1 - 2 weeks, perhaps 3 if you started off very light to ingrain form.

Remember, It's easier to not get stuck than to get unstuck.

5x5 is a good Novice Linear Progression Programme. Something like Stronglifts will get you stronger. I don't see a problem with it, however, for me and most of the population, a 3x5 stress is more than enough to trigger the stress - recovery - adapt cycle workout to workout. For this reason, I prefer Starting Strength - it saves time in the gym, less stressful while still causing an adaptation and also less risk of overtraining. At some point on a 5x5 program, you would have to drop to 3x5 anyway because the volume will just become too much to recover from workout to workout. Not only that but mentally having to squat 5x5 130kg squats just doesn't board as well when you can create recoverable stress at 3x5 and make it easier for yourself. Also as much as people can hate on Mark Rippetoe for his wacky political views, he is an expert in the field of strength and provides an abundance of information in his books and videos on how to get strong and the science behind it.

@thatman100

Linear progression is a good idea for regaining your strength.

However SL5x5 is not a good overall programme. For many reasons as listed here https://thefitness.wiki/faq/starting-strength-and-stronglifts-not-recommended/

I would do LP but then change to something more intermediate once you get close to your old strength. I made way better progress with periodisation.

My advice is based on my experience with these ‘beginner programmes’

I agree that if you're solely looking for a hypertrophy programme, SS and SL are not the way to go about it. The rep ranges and rest times aren't adequate enough to specialize in increasing muscle size. However, a bigger cross-sectional muscle belly correlates as a stronger muscle. Starting Strength will offer hypertrophy, but its main focus is increasing force production against a loaded barbell, correlating to strength and an increased force against the environment. This is why it prescribes sets of 5. Bang in the middle of strength and hypertrophy.

However, anyone I see, of really any relative non-obese mass, overhead pressing 70kg - 80kg x5, something Starting Strength can offer, or it's intermediate TM (or other strength-related programs), does have big arms.

Someone looking solely to go into hypertrophy, shouldn't be benching 60kg x 8 - 12. He should be benching 100kg+ x 8 - 12. What could take years to get to can be accomplished in SS within 6 - 12 months Once a novice exhausts his LP, he puts himself in a prime position to then actually play with the big weights necessary for increasing muscle mass.

All good programmes will give you strength and hypertrophy because stronger muscle is bigger muscle. (Which we agree on).

i don’t think I agree that 5 is the best amount of reps. There should be a mix of rep ranges and that is one of SS’s flaw.

also I highly doubt the majority of people on SS or SL can get to 100kg bench for 8x12.There is not enough bench volume. (Especially under 83kg beginners)

I compete (Well it got cancelled in April) in powerlifting and I am lucky to have a friend coach me. Once he showed me periodisation I made much better gains than I ever did on LP.

I think the GZCL method and also 5/3/1 Are good methods that require some reading (and just download a spreadsheet for free online).

Calgary Barbell programmes are good too, and Candito’s programmes.

The authors are so much more credible than Mehdi and Rip

I think the whole point of linear progression though is that there doesn't need to be such a high amount of volume. It's the intensity which is driving up progress - 2.5kg added to the barbell every workout, down to perhaps 1kg each time on the upper body during late stages. Novices respond very easily to training stress quickly, and sets of 3x5 (I think) seem to be enough.

Once you get to an intermediate programme, applying that stress through volume becomes a little more necessary. For instance, the Texas Method implements the first workout as 5x5 volume day, and bloody hell, that certainly does get very hard. Especially when squatting in the 400lbs (I had a friend on it, I myself had only transitioned but yeah he hated Mondays).