Which gym to go to - No time or less equipment?

[egghead99]

Hi BBM,

I am writing this on behalf of a friend, who I recommended your templates to. He's in a situation where he only has access to two places of gym equipment: 1) A gym where he is only allowed 45 minutes there due to COVID. 2) A home gym (belonging to his roommate) with a squat rack, barbell, bench and with enough weight. However, he does not have access to smaller plates like 2.5kg and 1.25kg, as well as DBs apart from having 8kg and 12kg DBs.
I told him to follow the hypertrophy 1 template, then the general S&C or a strength template, but he's unsure on where to train at for this template. He was saying that he could use both to get whatever done, but upon realistically thinking about it, it wouldn't be sustainable given his current busy schedule.

What would you advise?

Thanks!

[Leah Lutz]

Hello! If he has basic equipment right at home, that's the choice I would take, as I would be frustrated with only 45 min training sessions. Basic barbell equipment, without the smallest plates would be totally fine and the templates have selection options.

And that at a later date, should the time restrictions change, he finds that he WANTS to be at a gym, etc, then he can make a change then. But the key would be starting the most reasonable option now.

Leah

[egghead99]

Hi Leah,

Thanks a lot for your response. I agree only having 45 minutes is too tedious. For the home gym though, if it's fine then what should he do if for example:
He does a set on OHP for 8 reps (RPE 8) at 45kg and the next set must be RPE 9, but the only weight jump he can make is 50kg? Because i'm sure it wouldn't be possible to complete the reps @9..

Many thanks

[Leah Lutz]

Hi Egghead, he can do one more set of the OHP at 45, and it might be close to @9 when he first starts training. But then he could do the set @8 and then do a set of 10 reps to hit a higher RPE with that same weight. And then after a couple weeks with the extra reps, THEN he can move to to 50kg.