Olympic vs "standard" barbell

Somnambulist said:
Look up Allpros Simple Beginner program (swap the SLDLs out for RDLs since it's a similar movement but the bar doesn't have to hit the floor). x3 a week, full body, still get to squat and bench and all that good stuff.
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At the risk of hi-jacking the thread.

I know this is a difficult question to answer, but i've been looking at some routines to follow. The All Pro Simple routine seemed good, until i got to the bit about cardio and it suggested 2 short easy runs a week.

What i'm after is to do 1 or 2 strength workouts a week to compliment my running/paddleboarding rather than purely gaining strength. Would it be recommended to follow that routine as it seems a good total body routine but instead of a heavy/medium/easy workout each week, just switch to 2x medium workouts?

My main concern is being over fatigued which then hinders my running. I've been using a PT since February just once a week and sometimes it took a couple of days for my legs to recover and it's part of the reason i stopped as it was interfering with my ability to run. Although this did ease off as i grew stronger and the main reason was down to the session costs going up and the gyms re-opening.
 
Martynt74 said:
At the risk of hi-jacking the thread.

I know this is a difficult question to answer, but i've been looking at some routines to follow. The All Pro Simple routine seemed good, until i got to the bit about cardio and it suggested 2 short easy runs a week.

What i'm after is to do 1 or 2 strength workouts a week to compliment my running/paddleboarding rather than purely gaining strength. Would it be recommended to follow that routine as it seems a good total body routine but instead of a heavy/medium/easy workout each week, just switch to 2x medium workouts?

My main concern is being over fatigued which then hinders my running. I've been using a PT since February just once a week and sometimes it took a couple of days for my legs to recover and it's part of the reason i stopped as it was interfering with my ability to run. Although this did ease off as i grew stronger and the main reason was down to the session costs going up and the gyms re-opening.
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I'd just pick a standard x3 a week barbell strength program like Stronglifts or something similar and instead of cycling between A B A one week and B A B the next, just do A B, A B and so on. There are twice weekly barbell programs out there but they pretty much look the same as the above (i.e. day 1 is basically squat, bench, something for the upper back then 1-2 exercises for arms or whatever beach muscles you want to work, then day 2 is squat, OHP, deadlift, 1-2 extra things again).
 
Cheers, i did consider Stronglifts but then i recall it ramping up squat weights quite quickly from when i tried it a few years ago. I suppose it's easy enough to just take those exercises though and use them on my own program.

I hadn't actually thought of googling "twice weekly workouts" for some stupid reason but came across this which actually seems quite ideal and throws in some things i enjoy

Full Body Workout 1
Bench Press 4 sets x 5-8 reps
Lat Pulldown 4 sets x 10-15 reps
Squat 4 sets x 5-8 reps
Leg Curl 4 sets x 10-15 reps
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 sets x 5-8 reps

Full Body Workout 2
Incline Dumbbell Press 4 sets x 10-15 reps
Seated Cable Row 4 sets x 15-20 reps
Leg Press 4 sets x 10-15 reps
Romanian Deadlift 4 sets x 10-15 reps
Lateral Raise 3 sets x 15-20 reps
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I know a few people swear by mixing a routine up quite often. My PT was a big believer of never doing the same workout twice. Is this something i need to think about or does it not really matter for someone like me?


Also what do people use to track gains etc? I see people in the gym with a little notebook, but surely there are some decent apps out there these days?
 
No it's daft and sadly indicative of the poor quality of most PT training - they get people to sweat, work hard and change things each time to 'keep it interesting' but you don't see much in the way of long-term progress at the client end. Training programs that work are structured and have built-in progression schemes - go watch any bodybuilder, powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter or strongman training on YouTube or Instagram, or just look at people's threads in the Training Logs sub forum here - which work if they're adhered to. They can be as simple as a session to session linear progression scheme, to block periodisation with % based macro and micro training cycles that's planned out months in advance, but they all conform to the same principles.

You can't track progress easily if you're changing things all the time. This is especially true as a beginner when technical execution and body awareness are low; someone who sticks to a few exercises for their legs at a sensible amount of volume and tries to out-perform their previous performance is going to make far more progress over time with their leg size/strength than someone who just comes in, decides it's leg day and does whatever they feel like until they can't walk.

If you want to introduce exercise variation, like swapping out RDLs for Good Mornings or barbell bench for dumbbell bench, you do so after a block of training (e.g. 6-8 weeks, then have a light week or week off). Same for things like changing rep schemes. Getting better at a given exercise in a given rep range is a skill, developing a skill takes time and practice.

I log my workouts on the app Strong, but I've been on that since it was a beta app and get it free (think you pay monthly for it now). There are loads of alternatives though.
 
Great help thank you. My plan was to switch to dumbell bench press anyway. Mainly just because it's easier/quicker than setting up a barbell :p

I assume the order of exercises doesn't matter much? I assume i'm better grouping the exercises which need a mat/weights rather than doing them in the above order since there's not always availability and for workout 1 it would involve going from bench, to lat pulldown, to weights, to leg curl machine and then back to the bench/weights.

Finally (i think i'm there), from the link below that i got the above plan from, it doesn't suggest weights. I assume i just go heavyish and stick with the same weight for each set rather than increasing/decreasing?
https://muscleevo.net/training-twice-a-week/
 
Martynt74 said:
Great help thank you. My plan was to switch to dumbell bench press anyway. Mainly just because it's easier/quicker than setting up a barbell :p

I assume the order of exercises doesn't matter much? I assume i'm better grouping the exercises which need a mat/weights rather than doing them in the above order since there's not always availability and for workout 1 it would involve going from bench, to lat pulldown, to weights, to leg curl machine and then back to the bench/weights.

Finally (i think i'm there), from the link below that i got the above plan from, it doesn't suggest weights. I assume i just go heavyish and stick with the same weight for each set rather than increasing/decreasing?
https://muscleevo.net/training-twice-a-week/
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DB Press is fine, it just becomes a challenge to set up if you're doing lowish reps so I usually don't go below 6-8 and even then 8-12 is usually easier to get into position. One exercise at a time is standard tbh, just do the most challenging movement (e.g. squats) first as those require the most coordination and effort.

Weights-wise - find a weight for each exercise where you can do the required number of reps and it's just a little bit challenging, then use that as your starting weight for your working set for that exercise. When you go up in weight, go up the smallest increment you can (usually 2.5kg). For exercises where the absolute amount of weight you're using is small, it can be helpful to have things like 0.5kg plates in your gym bag to allow smaller jumps

There's loads of ways to program weight progression, generally for beginners you just want to hit the max reps for each set at a given weight, then go up to the next weight. (Look up things like 'linear progression' and 'double progression').

Gigabit said:
@Somnambulist I assume this is the workout you refer: https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=4195843

So this is enough for decent size gains in terms of hypertrophy? I'll make sure I get enough protein and eat enough to compensate for the running I do. I like the look of this routine a lot, very simple and doable, meaning I'll probably actually stick to it.
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If you're a beginner pretty much anything works. The key is doing something that sets up good habits, avoids ****arounditis and encourages you to get the most out of the halo period of noob gains when you're new to lifting weights and can increase working weight or reps session to session.

That's the original - I'm sure there's newer versions but if you like the look of it, do it for a good while.
 
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