Starting tomorrow morning!
A clustering, myo-rep, basic lift barbell plan. It appears overly complicated, but it’s pretty straightforward.
Same lifts every workout, but vary between heavy, medium, light rep ranges.
I’m not focused on getting bigger, just need to lose fat, build work capacity/conditioning (get back into shape), stay injury free, and I would always like to get stronger. Plus, quick workouts.
I haven’t lifted consistently over the last decade (!). Some injuries playing basketball, back/sciatica/bulging disc, work a lot of hours, and family commitments (kids sports/activities at least 4 days/week). Getting to the gym takes too long for consistency, so going to my garage with an old bench set that has a stand that will work for loading squats.
HST inspired: Really excellent strategic deconditioning over the years. I’m starting the weights low, and then progressing. Not regimented, but looking at either increasing the reps or weights every week (don't care if every workout).
Borge inspired: Myo-reps focused, but varying rep ranges throughout the workout. A lot of the higher rep stuff will initially be really light (so not really getting into the “effective rep” range right away), but I’m thinking it will help with movement/form and recovery/conditioning.
With a catch: All (minus warm up) are either cluster sets or myo-reps style. Sounds fun, and I mainly don’t like to wait, and I’d prefer a quicker workout before taking the kids to school and getting to work.
Initially 2 sets, but if frequency/RPE is high enough, I’ll drop to 1 set. RPE is going to be LOW at first. Deadlifts and 20+Myo-reps exercises are just one set though. I was going to initially do 1 “set” on everything, but I’d prefer a little more volume to start with. I think with 1 set, I would feel I’d have to hit it too hard. I should find out pretty quickly.
Roughly 15 second breaks on the clusters and myo-reps.
Same exercises, but three different rep ranges:
Day 1)
A group: 3-5 cluster reps
B/C Group: 20+Myo-reps
Day 2)
A: 10-12 + myo-reps
B/C: 3-5 cluster reps
Day 3)
A: 20+Myo
B/C: 10-12 myo-reps
Frequency: Shooting for at least 3x week, but bare minimum is 2x week. Some weeks might be 4 days in a row, etc., just depends on my work schedule (have some random travel). Weekend workouts usually don't happen.
Here’s the plan:
Overhead squat (as a warm up, waking up, working on form/flexibility, don’t care about the weight)
A1) Barbell Row (stopping at the slightest form breakdown)
A2) Squat
A3) Shoulder Press
B) Deadlift (clean grip, so won’t ever be that heavy)
C1) Pull Ups*
C2) Bench
C3) Chin Ups*
C4) Step Ups (easy, just working on movement, and something to do between chins/pull ups)
D) Dumbbell suitcase walk - seems good to add.
E) Optional (but probably skipping): light set of curls/skull crushers. I can’t decide on this.
Group A is a meandering superset (convenient to do the warm up sets together, and I don’t like long breaks). Same with group C. Deadlift all by its lonesome, and only 1 set on it.
*Pull/Chin ups are low rep easy clusters. I can’t do 20, so it’s more +“greasing the groove,” but looking to increase the weekly reps, so I’m including both.
Goals:
1) Stay injury free
2) Lose 20+ pounds.
Reassess after 20 workouts (arbitrary number, but seems like a good measure).
Age: 36, Height: 6’, Weight 250 lbs.
I’ve worked out a little over the past few months with some full body workouts, about 2 times a week.
Current lifts:
Bench: 225x5 (tough, and lower back felt bad)
Squat: 275x4 (tough)
Deadlift: 275x3 (that fried me, and my back didn’t feel “right” for a week)
Pull ups: 7 (tough, and I cheated a little)
Dips: 10 (some elbow pain, wtf?)
No clue why, but I didn’t seem to lose a ton of bench press strength from rarely working out - it rebounded quickly. Squat is harder than I thought it should be.
Top lifts (when I was around 210 lbs), years ago:
Bench: 275x6
Squat: 405x2
Deadlift 405x2 (lift didn’t feel bad, but felt destroyed for at least a week afterwards).
Pull ups: BWx22-25 (don’t recall),+65lbs x5.
Rambling on exercise order if anyone is interested:
I run into problems with my lower back on deadlifting before squats, but no problems if I squat before deadlifts.
My biceps (cramping, etc) don’t like deadlifts if I do pull ups/chins earlier in the workout. So, those go after deads. Similar problem with triceps and heavy benching before deadlifts.
Lower back says barbell rows are a no-go after deadlifting, so those go before.
Kind of excited and impressed with myself on having a high rep/easy day for squats on the day after “heavy” deadlifts.
I never really focused on shoulder press or deadlift (mainly included RDL or SLDL), so I’m interested in seeing how those move. Mainly want to keep my back pain free, and get rid of the gut.
Any predictions or recommendations?
A clustering, myo-rep, basic lift barbell plan. It appears overly complicated, but it’s pretty straightforward.
Same lifts every workout, but vary between heavy, medium, light rep ranges.
I’m not focused on getting bigger, just need to lose fat, build work capacity/conditioning (get back into shape), stay injury free, and I would always like to get stronger. Plus, quick workouts.
I haven’t lifted consistently over the last decade (!). Some injuries playing basketball, back/sciatica/bulging disc, work a lot of hours, and family commitments (kids sports/activities at least 4 days/week). Getting to the gym takes too long for consistency, so going to my garage with an old bench set that has a stand that will work for loading squats.
HST inspired: Really excellent strategic deconditioning over the years. I’m starting the weights low, and then progressing. Not regimented, but looking at either increasing the reps or weights every week (don't care if every workout).
Borge inspired: Myo-reps focused, but varying rep ranges throughout the workout. A lot of the higher rep stuff will initially be really light (so not really getting into the “effective rep” range right away), but I’m thinking it will help with movement/form and recovery/conditioning.
With a catch: All (minus warm up) are either cluster sets or myo-reps style. Sounds fun, and I mainly don’t like to wait, and I’d prefer a quicker workout before taking the kids to school and getting to work.
Initially 2 sets, but if frequency/RPE is high enough, I’ll drop to 1 set. RPE is going to be LOW at first. Deadlifts and 20+Myo-reps exercises are just one set though. I was going to initially do 1 “set” on everything, but I’d prefer a little more volume to start with. I think with 1 set, I would feel I’d have to hit it too hard. I should find out pretty quickly.
Roughly 15 second breaks on the clusters and myo-reps.
Same exercises, but three different rep ranges:
Day 1)
A group: 3-5 cluster reps
B/C Group: 20+Myo-reps
Day 2)
A: 10-12 + myo-reps
B/C: 3-5 cluster reps
Day 3)
A: 20+Myo
B/C: 10-12 myo-reps
Frequency: Shooting for at least 3x week, but bare minimum is 2x week. Some weeks might be 4 days in a row, etc., just depends on my work schedule (have some random travel). Weekend workouts usually don't happen.
Here’s the plan:
Overhead squat (as a warm up, waking up, working on form/flexibility, don’t care about the weight)
A1) Barbell Row (stopping at the slightest form breakdown)
A2) Squat
A3) Shoulder Press
B) Deadlift (clean grip, so won’t ever be that heavy)
C1) Pull Ups*
C2) Bench
C3) Chin Ups*
C4) Step Ups (easy, just working on movement, and something to do between chins/pull ups)
D) Dumbbell suitcase walk - seems good to add.
E) Optional (but probably skipping): light set of curls/skull crushers. I can’t decide on this.
Group A is a meandering superset (convenient to do the warm up sets together, and I don’t like long breaks). Same with group C. Deadlift all by its lonesome, and only 1 set on it.
*Pull/Chin ups are low rep easy clusters. I can’t do 20, so it’s more +“greasing the groove,” but looking to increase the weekly reps, so I’m including both.
Goals:
1) Stay injury free
2) Lose 20+ pounds.
Reassess after 20 workouts (arbitrary number, but seems like a good measure).
Age: 36, Height: 6’, Weight 250 lbs.
I’ve worked out a little over the past few months with some full body workouts, about 2 times a week.
Current lifts:
Bench: 225x5 (tough, and lower back felt bad)
Squat: 275x4 (tough)
Deadlift: 275x3 (that fried me, and my back didn’t feel “right” for a week)
Pull ups: 7 (tough, and I cheated a little)
Dips: 10 (some elbow pain, wtf?)
No clue why, but I didn’t seem to lose a ton of bench press strength from rarely working out - it rebounded quickly. Squat is harder than I thought it should be.
Top lifts (when I was around 210 lbs), years ago:
Bench: 275x6
Squat: 405x2
Deadlift 405x2 (lift didn’t feel bad, but felt destroyed for at least a week afterwards).
Pull ups: BWx22-25 (don’t recall),+65lbs x5.
Rambling on exercise order if anyone is interested:
I run into problems with my lower back on deadlifting before squats, but no problems if I squat before deadlifts.
My biceps (cramping, etc) don’t like deadlifts if I do pull ups/chins earlier in the workout. So, those go after deads. Similar problem with triceps and heavy benching before deadlifts.
Lower back says barbell rows are a no-go after deadlifting, so those go before.
Kind of excited and impressed with myself on having a high rep/easy day for squats on the day after “heavy” deadlifts.
I never really focused on shoulder press or deadlift (mainly included RDL or SLDL), so I’m interested in seeing how those move. Mainly want to keep my back pain free, and get rid of the gut.
Any predictions or recommendations?
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