I have lifted since the 1970's there is no magic routine.
You want to get stronger you gain weight and make 90% of your workouts on proven routines and principles.
After you have lifted for a while, your gains will slow down.
https://liftvault.com/
https://blackironbeast.com/
Best source of info there is, basically: https://thefitness.wiki/
For just starting, Starting Strength or Strong lifts is great. Go with whatever appeals to you. You'll only do that problem for 3 months or so, anyway. At that point, you'll be way stronger than when you started, and ready for a little more complexity in programming.
"It was the fuck aroundest of times, it was the find outest of times."- 45dotACP
Everyone has posted some really good info, I just wanted to say 5/3/1 has been one of my long time go tos to cycle in if I want to focus on pure strength work, there’s an app called Boostcomp you can plug your numbers into and it will give you your weight percentages per workout. These are about a 40 minute workout, it’s ultimately hard to recommend a program though due to how personal it is. For me I’m grappling 2-3 days a week in addition too, so I don’t do as much conditioning work whereas if I weren’t in jiujitsu I may do a little more. Starting strength and 5/3/1 are the gold standards. And I’ll also throw in anything by Dan John is worth a read.
I grapple about as often as you do. I’m doing starting strength for the second time (last time was great, but I was starting to plateau around the beginning of hunting season and by the rut I was hunting so much I fell off the program).Originally Posted by MCGILLA G
Are you able to do 5/3/1 pretty much as prescribed with that grappling schedule? Im grappling a lot more now than the first time I did starting strength and I can tell it’s impacting my recovery.
5/3/1 I can follow as prescribed, I will say that the key for me was the deload week, and after that I take another week and work some accessory movements. So really about two weeks of easy, and then I cycle the program again. It seems to work really well with my schedule and Jiujitsu, I think they complement each other really well. I have not plateaued yet I have always increased weight even if it was a minor percentage. But everyone is different, there is a variation called Boring But Big also by Jim Wendler that pretty much keeps it very minimalist. Before doing 5/3/1 I would try random programs but I would start modifying them within a couple weeks, by following the protocol though I’ve seen nothing but results. One thing that helped was I switched the days up if it was a squat day I normally tried to hit that on a Friday that seems to take the most recovery and Saturday is a day I normally take off from the gym so I get almost a day and a half of rest before I start all the training again on Sunday. Hope that helps
Worth noting: 5/3/1 is Jim Wendler's methodology/system. There are many different variations, sometimes called "templates", that are essentially different programs with a somewhat similar structure.
I highly recommend it if you are interested/willing to learn a little about progressing from a newbie lifter to an intermediate, or have sport goals outside of the weight room.
This is a good, short intro: https://thefitness.wiki/5-3-1-primer/
"It was the fuck aroundest of times, it was the find outest of times."- 45dotACP
Thanks Joe I forgot to mention that. If this is the Joe S I think it is, he would be a good reliable source on a fitness component for sure.
Thought I would post an update here. I switched from starting strength to 5/3/1 about a month ago. The change has been really positive for me. Starting strength was great in that my lifts were going up quickly, but when I went to train grappling (which I value more than lifting) I was dead. Just dragging and felt awful. I needed the full day between lifting sessions to recover, even after replacing some dead lifts with power cleans.
I’m doing 5/3/1 two days a week just as Wendler lays out in his book. I’m lifting Monday and Wednesday and grappling Tuesday and Saturdays (with a Thursday or a Sunday when I can depending on the family schedule - that’ll change when it’s time to kill deer). I feel MUCH better on the mat and I’m still getting stronger. Very pleased.
Nice,
FWIW, there are a lot of templates that Wendler put out, and people get very far into the weeds on it. I would suggest keeping it simple as it sounds like you are, and only resort to some of the complexities if you really need to.
His last book was just an absolute tome of ideas, but I think for a lot of folks, complex programming is a mental exercise that may be interesting, but doesn't lead to physical improvement.
"It was the fuck aroundest of times, it was the find outest of times."- 45dotACP
Right now I’m not doing any assistance work at all. I wanted to give it a month of that, and see how I felt with the grappling. Like I said so far I’m really pleased. If I change anything up it may add in first set last as the assistance work, but then I will probably switch to 3 days per week to keep the work out within my lunch break. That’s the other thing I like. With the 2 day split and no assistance work I can get it done in 40 minutes easy assuming I don’t have to wait for a rack. And after competition class this morning I sure don’t feel like I’m short changing myself.
Reply With Quote