Nice find. I know Bill Starr was Rippetoe's mentor, and his book is the basis for all the 5x5 programs, but I've never read anything by him directly. That site has a lot of his articles, so I'll be looking through them during breaks.
He makes an interesting point about higher reps being more of a muscle range, with lower reps being more of a muscle plus attachments range. Still, I think if an older lifter still has healthy joints, there's no reason not to do lower rep/higher weight lifts. All the docs I've seen have said I have the joint health of a man 20 years younger, so I take that as a green light to greater intensity. I suspect my lifting on and off for so many years, with no serious injuries, is part of the reason I've kept relatively healthy joints.
In another article I just skimmed (
http://www.ironmanmagazine.com/singles-for-new-strength-increases/), he recommends avoiding singles for deadlifts in training, limiting oneself to three reps as the heaviest set. I'll probably follow that advice for the next several months at least. Even if I do singles, it will probably be more like 95% training max instead of 100% like I was doing last summer.
Good find, I like those charts. I am going to focus on that medium range for my assistance work. Which means I will have to push the press a little more.
About your rows being assistance only, I think the neutral grip bent row might be a good lift for me to become my max lift, and weighted pull-ups. One front heavy paired with one back heavy will be my Monday/Friday lifts and then basically 70% for 8 reps for my assistance work which will offset with the opposite pairing. Although I am not quite sure what I would call curls? Horizontal or Vertical back work? Also I would like to find another variation of presses, I tried wide grip behind the neck ones like this:
But it put a little too much strain on my shoulders. I'm not sure why but close body positioning seems to work well for me for all lifts? Odd. Anyway I could do landmine presses? That might be a good pairing as I'll have the bar loaded in there anyway. Feel free to share some additional shoulder ideas though.
Yah, I'm thinking for me barbell and cable rows might be best to always keep in the 5-10 rep range, and make them a volume lift. Maybe one-arm bentover dumbbell rows too, but I like the cheating style with overload, as I've mentioned. The Kroc Row is also supposed to be done high-rep. I'm intrigued by the power row, but it didn't feel as good as I thought it would when I tried it on Monday. I think I could do bentover barbell rows at lighter weights, but whenever I load the bar heavy, I feel it in my lower back during the eccentric phase. It's interesting you don't get that. Maybe I should give the t-bar rows another try, but it's kind of a hassle to load.
In any case, it's true, I'm starting to think of the rows as more of an assistance lift. I'm getting pretty excited about getting the four 'performance' lifts up, especially the overhead press and squat. I was shooting for the overhead press to be 60% of my bench, which I've recently achieved, but now, reading up a bit more, I think I'll go back to the ideal 2:3:4:5 harmonic resonance ratio, which means my overhead press needs to be 66% of my bench. So I'll take the bench back down and tie its increases to increases in the overhead press. During Monday's workout, I was kinda fried by the time I got to my bench press, and only managed four reps in my first set of five. So if I continue to focus on getting the overhead press up with volume work, and keep the bench press relatively low, I don't have to worry about having enough in the take for the bench press. Still, I was looking forward to seeing my bench 1RM PR go up, so maybe I'll continue to push it on intensity day, but put it on the backburner during the volume and stamina workouts.
I think behind-the-neck presses could work at high-rep/low-weight, almost as a mobility exercise. A lot of people have shoulder issues with that lift, but I think perhaps at lower weights it could be beneficial. Otherwise, I don't know what to suggest for alternative shoulder exercises. Maybe a dumbbell press, like the Arnold Press? I've been meaning to work something like that in for a while now. Of course, there's always the shoulder raises. Some people say they're bad for you, others say the opposite and say they're therapeutic and will prevent injury. I used to like doing them. There's also reverse flyes and face pulls for the rear delts. I dunno, I guess I've kinda gotten away from thinking in terms of body parts, so I haven't thought specifically about 'the shoulders' in a while. Nothing wrong with that approach, but I've become more performance-oriented over the last year or so. I want PRs in the big four lifts, and until progress starts to stall, I don't see any reason for much variety, in, for example, the overhead press. Likewise, I tried good mornings for the first time in a long while on Monday, but I don't see why I would do those instead of just doing more deadlifts, or something purely assistance like back extensions or pikes. I guess I've become pretty Rippetoean in that respect.
Curls are kind of hard to classify, aren't they? I've been thinking of them as horizontal pulls, but it's not quite right, the same way a dip isn't really a horizontal push. Curls are definitely part of the pull family though, and if you're doing them cheating or 'power' style, you're bringing in a lot of the back pulling muscles.
I think close body positioning, or medium grip and stance, should feel most natural, because that's when everything is at a mechanical advantage, and moment arms are minimized. RDL Fitness makes this point quite a lot, and I've seen it explained like that in other places too. I certainly feel best this way. I think wide grips and stances are mainly for powerlifters or bodybuilders, not for general strength development. Powerlifters like them because it shortens the bar path, but a lot of them end up with achy joints when they're older. Bodybuiders like them because the can bring out secondary muscles and stabilizers, or overemphasize one muscle over others in a compound lift, like the guillotine bench press or wide pec flyes, but they also put themselves at risk this way.
The landmine press, which was first suggested by Sid I think, might be a good alternative, especially since you already have the landmine bar loaded, as you say.
One more item, I still am fascinated by the interference I feel between running and squats. However with the deadlifts there is absolutely no interference and potentially some symbiosis?
I am trying to understand if I am more of a quad dominant runner and if that may be a problem?
However I think I should be careful to understand my recent success in the deadlift might be a result of only performing the lift once a week. Or potentially the easy strength style lifting I did last cycle really provided some unexpected and surprising benefits?
Not sure what to think really, other than maybe better squat would translate to better running? I will probably get an answer about the once a week deadlift by the end of the cycle.
Yah, I've found that to be true too. The interference with the deadlift is minimal. But my running has been crap most of the time since I've gotten serious about the squats, so I'm still hoping that my body will reach some kind of accomodation after I've been running and squatting consistently for a few months. Your high-bar squat is a little more quad dominant than my low-bar squat, so that's something to consider as well.
Congrats on the double PR! You have a good chance now of getting in a 400-pound deadlift and a 100-mile ultra this year.
It's interesting that your deadlift is responding to the less-is-more approach. I'm trying that to some extent for both my bench and deadlift. I'm aiming to do both lifts relatively light on volume and stamina day, but then at normal levels on intensity day. I like laying off the bench both because it's ahead of my overhead press, but also because it helps keep my left shoulder issue at bay, and the same reasoning applies to the deadlift. It's stronger than my squat, but it's also the lower body lift most prone to provoking issues. So it's kind of a one-step-back, two-steps-forward approach, hoping that an emphasis on the OH Press and Squat will carry strength development further than the more common focus these days on bench and deadlift.