She wants to do 3 days a week with the sole goal of getting stronger. She is fairly new to heavy lifting, particularly, she has trouble with squatting to parallel without losing balance and strength. She is also a beginner so I didn't think that a Sheiko plan was appropriate (maxes would increase much faster than the 3 month training cycle accounts for). I wanted something simpler, so I Frankenstein'ed Sheiko, 5x5, and 5/3/1 into the following ... Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.
Day one:
Bench (a)
Squat (b)
Bench (b)
Bench assistance (c)
Deadlift assistance (c)
Day two:
Deadlift (a)
Bench (b)
Bench assistance (c)
Deadlift (b)
Squat assistance (c)
Day three:
Squat (a)
Bench (b)
Bench assistance (c)
Squat (b)
Deadlift assistance (c)
I've grouped the exercises into a/b/c, which means...
(a) - Following a 5/3/1 plan. Go for a 5rm, 3rm, or 1rm in successive weeks. I'm thinking these should be staggered so that on week one, day one goes for 5rm, day two goes for 3rm, and day three goes for 1rm; week two, one goes for 3rm, two goes for 1rm, three goes for 5rm; etc. I'm not completely convinced about that, though. I'm thinking that as a beginner, recovery time won't be paramount and this will keep thinks more interesting ... and it's intuitive to me somehow.
(b) - The main lifts done after the 5/3/1 lifts. These are just done 5x5 style. Jake suggested the following weights, based on the most recent max done in that lift: 90% of 5m, 80% of 3rm, or 70% of 1rm. The goal is to stay around 70% of current 1rm for the 5x5.
(c) - Exercises selected from a "menu" of possible assistance. These are generally done around 4x8. So far I have the following "menus" ...
Squat assistance menu:
Leg press, lunges, front squats
Bench assistance menu:
Dumbell bench, skull crushers, dumbell military press, close-grip bench
Deadlift assistance:
Rack pull (high or low), good mornings, pull-throughs, cable rows, bentover rows
The exercises are spread over the days to achieve roughly equal work load...
# squats - 3
# benches - 4
# deadlifts - 2
# squat assist - 1
# bench assist - 3
# deadlift assist - 2
So the deadlift has slightly lower volume just because its a deadlift, but this is compensated for by extra assistance. Also, the squat + deadlift volume is roughly the same as the upper body volume.
Thoughts?
7 comments:
Bench day should probably be day two....
Seems reasonable to me. I would watch on how the recovery process goes for squatting and deadlifting. Sheiko has that down pretty well, but as you said, it may not be right for a beginner.
For deadlift assist, I would change bent-over rows to t-bar rows. I think these target the upper back more, which is more deadlift-specific.
Also, is there no upper back aside from bent-over rows? I think something like dumbbell rows or lat-pull downs would help at least a little on the bench. Even though lat-drive isn't paramount to a beginner, including these exercises would prevent a glaring imbalance later.
Other than that, it looks good. How many weeks will your friend be on this program?
Good points. Yet another thing to keep an eye on is she's starting rugby practice season this week. So recovery might be out the window ... in that case, I'm not entirely sure what to do keep things in check. She has told me that lifting is her priority, though. And good points on the extra upper back assistance, I shouldn't have missed that.
And as for the time on this program... As long as its working and as long as she likes it. When she starts getting more advanced and her technique improves, and she has obvious maxes on each lift that aren't changing week-to-week, then it might be time to reconsider.
If she's doing Rugby as well, I would recommend limiting any heavy deadlifting to work around her schedule. I think she could still do it, but the change of injury would likely increase if her back is tired. Worst-case, substitute heavy deadlifting for heavy good mornings and include deadlifting as a secondary exercise? It's not like she needs to compete in powerlifting, so it seems like long-term progress without injury is more of the goal.
I think this is probably way too much work for a rank beginner, especially one playing rugby. I'm not convinced about the need to have her doing a 1RM at all (even if it is up to 90% only or whatever). You're going to have to keep an eye on her recovery, since this is a 99.99999999999_% chance that she will not be eating/sleeping enough to naturally recover from this much work.
And now for constructive comments. Try putting her on one of the Starting Strength progs. for 2 months or so (link). Its builds a good base for an intermediate program, which is what i consider what you outlined.
I think I'll put her on the starting strength program for a little while and see how she's doing with rugby + lifting. If she seems to be doing well, then I'll try putting her over onto this program.
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