Well, I'm not completely convinced that DLs bother my knee. It's a working hypothesis. Today I'll try conventional DLs again and see how it goes. My right knee feels better every day, so if it feels worse after today's workout, that would be good confirming evidence that conventional DLs do indeed bother my knees.I'm still one the fence, after squatting today my left knee has been giving me shit. Weird how DL's bother yours and squats bother mine.
Yeah that's the plan, I am just trying to get the groove going again. I was thinking about cycling either micro cycles or just per each cycle between a progressive overload and maybe a higher volume plan. So something like I am doing now cause I think the 3 lifts a day works pretty well and then maybe every 4 weeks switch it to add some of wendler's joker sets to the upper stuff (pyramiding basically) and set a new 5 rep level.
I just need to figure out about my 20 min sets? Maybe microload them for 4 weeks (5kgs) and plateau the next 4?
Or just microload till I cant finish and then take a step back?
In your case, I wonder if it's a technical tweak that's needed, or you just need a little more time to adapt to consistent squatting. Almost everything I've read, including squatting after knee replacement surgery, suggests that squats, properly done, are good, not bad, for the knees. So I dunno.
I think you're maybe overthinking things a little bit in your potential programming. I think you should only manipulate one or two variables max, otherwise, it's hard to know what's really going on, what's getting results and what's not. Plus, I don't think a lot of variety (in parameters or exercise selection) is necessarily effective. I like your idea of switching between, say a week or four weeks of progressive overload, and then a week or four weeks of volume. That's interesting.
Microloading until you can't finish, and then taking a step back also seems like a good idea. I think there is something to the idea of deloading once in a while. I don't know why it would work, but it seems to. Maybe it helps build volume/density/work capacity? I'm beginning to sense that my workout three times a week might be a little too much, so I might have to think through some of the possibilities you've suggested, but for the moment, I'm still placing my faith in simple microloading and, if it starts to feel too hard, simply sitting at a load until it starts to feel easier and then resume the microloading. That's the beauty of microloading--it never should get to the point when it feels like it's too hard. Just slow the rate of increase if it starts to feel too hard. And too easy is always better than too hard, because the loading will eventually catch up to your strength level.
I think Rippetoe is right that for most of us, simple and hard are enough. I also think Wendler is right that we should (1) start light, (2) progress slowly, (3) set PRs, and (4) focus on the basic, compound lifts. I've been progressing really slowly this cycle, and there have been times when I've been tempted to add weight to a given lift, but I'm getting better at judging the workouts as a whole. And bringing up all the lifts slowly, at about the same relative level of intensity, seems to be the way to go for me. I think all the lifts have carryover, so it's foolish to get too caught up in the results of any one lift. I still think squats are the keystone, but they can only come up in the context of everything else getting stronger too. And vice versa.
So, I think if I were you, I would stick with the full-body split you got now, and start to microload when everything starts to feel relatively easy. Or maybe even back off right now to make everything easy and start microloading right away. For microloading, try something that seems too little at first, like a pound or two a week. Just a pound a week adds up to 52 pounds in a year after all. Give that a try for at least four weeks, but better eight, before you start to tweak anything. I feel like I'm really starting to hit a sweet spot now after about two months of consistency. Really feeling strong and confident in my lifts these days, and I love the mindless flow of the workouts.
But as Rippetoe says, it's hard to believe that simple can work. How can 3 x 5 x 6 lifts be enough? But I think it is. I always feel a little guilty for not doing dips or back extensions, and so on, though. Or for not varying my rep scheme. And microloading is kind of similar. It seems too simple. Today I'm adding one pound to my squat. How can one pound make a difference? But then Friday I'm adding another pound, and by the end of the year, my projected 1RM will be over 300 pounds. Sometime next year, it should be 350.