First stall (2 exercises same day)

[MJR]

So I've been following the program for several months now.

Squat is up to 290, still progressing nicely about 5lb a workout.

Bench is at 205, still progressing nicely.

But today, I did OHP and stalled at 132.5 (only got 4 reps on the last 2 work sets).

And then I went to deadlifts, and stalled at 300lb (only got 2 reps).

In PPST, it talks about back off periods. It says one or two is beneficial. My question is this: Is that for EACH exercise or in total?

Thanks.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Why would it not be for each exercise, especially since they got stuck at the same time?

[TGM]

I think he means this:

If my squat is still progressing nicely, but my press stalled, should I also back off on the squat? Or should I just back off on the exercise that got stuck.

I also think the answer is obvious.

[hatmanii]

If your question is "should I back off/reset the two individual exercises OR the entire program/day?" then it would be the former. You only reset the
exercises you stall on.

[FatButWeak]

Rip:

I have had the same question for a while and am re-reading PPST2 and SS2 to try to find the answer, without great luck. However, I will try to word it differently -

When a novice gets stuck on a lift (for example, the squat gets stuck at 275 but all the other lifts have continued progressing) does the novice: A) reduce/back up the weights for the squat only while continuing his forward progress on the other lifts, or B) reduce/back up the weights for the squat as well as for all the other lifts?

The only possible reason for choosing option B instead of option A would be for systemic/hormonal/rest/overtraining reasons, but I can certainly understand why you might recommend option A (keep moving linear progress wherever you can).

If it is option B, and the novice re-sets the squat to 250, am I correct in assuming that the the other lifts be re-set to the weights he was doing when he was squatting 250, or should some other weight be chosen?
Your knowledge is needed.

[MJR]

Yeah thats what I was thinking.

I just wasn't sure if once I used a back off period for my press, and then one for my deadlift, then that meant I burned my two total resets. But now I realize two for each exercise makes a lot more sense before intermediate programming is required.

Silly assumption on my part I suppose. Thanks Coach.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You don't stop making linear progress on lifts that will support continued linear progress. It's odd that this needs explaining.

[FatButWeak]

Okay. If I understand Rip correctly, just re-set the stalled lift.

My hypothesis was that the whole system (i.e. the whole body) might need to be re-set if there is a breakdown in part of it (i.e. the squats). This hypothesis comes from my reading/studying of SS and PPST, which encourages thinking about training the body as a whole, not as a series of body parts, such as bodybuilding does. In other words, if recovery ability is compromised and squats are stalling, then the body's recovery processes need recalibration (i.e. the back off), which means all the weights should be reduced by 8-10%.

I suppose I overthought/misthought it.