Why does Starting Strength prescribe minor resets?
Rippetoe's Starting Strength recommends that when you fail to get all 3 X 5 reps for 3 workouts in a row on a given exercise, you do a "minor reset" in which you drop the weight of the work set to 90% of the stalled amount and then work back up to the stalled weight.
It's tempting to instead continue doing the stalled weight but make up for any missed reps by doing them at a lower (doable) weight, since dropping 10% feels like a step backward. Obviously I won't do this because I'm sure Rippetoe has a good reason for using the resets, but I'm curious what this reason is.
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My guess would be that you're bumping into overtraining. The increases prescribed in the program are based on maximizing the stress->recovery->adaptation cycle. If you're not adapting (able to hit your numbers) then you're either over-training or under-training.
On intermediate programs if you don't hit your numbers (and you've been lifting on schedule reliably), the first suspect is insufficient recovery and/or overtraining.
If you reliably are knocking into overtraining on the novice level programs and have been lifting for 6-12 months, you might need to move onto an intermediate program. But definitely hang out in the novice range as long as you can.
Missing a given weight for 3 workouts in a row is a symptom of a significant (though not major) problem. Maybe you're not doing a good enough job at recovery, or maybe you added weight in bigger chunks than was appropriate, or maybe your body simply isn't getting stronger fast enough. Dropping 10% feels like a step backward, but really it gives you some room to continue your linear progression.
Simply put, missing the same weight 3 workouts in a row means you're too weak for that weight right now and you should be working with a lesser weight, in order to confidently finish your 3 sets of 5. Those sets will still be challenging, but you won't be risking injury and overtraining by insisting on working on a weight you've proven you can't do. You'll be blasting through that 10% in no time. (Actually, that's precisely true. Consider an example of someone stalling at 300 pounds, say for their deadlift. Minus 10% = 270. Adding five pounds per workout, they'll be back at 270 in a mere six workouts—a mere two weeks to blast through their previous one-week plateau. That's often better than dawdling at 300, not going up or going down.)
The other answers from Dave and Eric cover the various physiological reasons for resets, being overtraining, rest, etc. I won't go into that. Instead, I'll address the often overlooked psychological factor.
Every time you plateau, you fail. You are failing to get to that next weight and bypass the roadblock. Sometimes this is just a speed bump, and next week you get back on track and eek out more progress. But when you have failure, after failure, after failure, after failure, then mentally you start taking as much of a beating as your muscles. After enough failures, you start expecting to fail instead of expecting success. This is called psyching yourself out.
The best way to avoid mentally handicapping your progress is by taking those resets as Rippetoe prescribes. Resets allow you to put some distance between your roadblock, build up momentum by getting some small "wins" under your belt, and the next time you get to that roadblock you will hopefully have enough speed to break on through to the other side.
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