Required levels of adherence (PBI)

[Vincent von Sperling]

Hello Drs,

question here as I am trying to decide whether I'm beating a dead horse with PBI.

I ran it a year ago, maintaining my strength during the first half and having ambiguous strength gains during the second - basically my trajectories on the comp lifts stayed flat until I took a 4 day break after completing week 10. Since then I've used the first half PBI and sometimes the time-crunch template in 'maintenance mode' while being busy with other things. 5 weeks ago I've worked up to very high adherence in PBI again and 4 weeks ago switched to the second half (the weeks with the heavy singles). I seemed to be making good progress on the bench, while squat and deadlift have remained pretty much the same. Then 2.5 weeks ago I got the flu and missed 2 workouts. Since then I've completed all the lifts and accessories and almost all the GPP, however I've had to shift training days and variant lifts around quite a bit. Squat and Deadlift remain flat, while bench is now almost as strong as before my flu.

I'm tempted to try Hypertrophy I for at least one run, as mixing things up seems like a good idea. But I'm trying to decide whether PBI can work for me if only I had even higher adherence. I wonder what level of adherence would a male (31yrs) with average response to PBI type programs have to exhibit for him to actually make progress on the main lifts? For example, how high is actual adherence among the people you are coaching and who are making decent progress?

Thanks guys,
Vincent

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

I think if you've ran it as outlined (3x/wk RT for the duration), your current environment is ripe for gainzZz™ (sleep, nutrition, attitude, etc.), and it hasn't been working to increase strength in the lifts you care about, then I'd probably tweak the programming to generate the desired outcome. Hypertrophy I may be a good choice to take a little break from chasing absolute strength gains, particularly if you're more interested in muscle size. That said, if maximal strength gain is your goal- I'd probably pick Strength I or II.

To answer your question, adherence is really good across the board with our clientele, but even then things don't always work out. Sounds like you had perfectly fine adherence the first time around, but since then you've had some things come up, e.g. sickness, missed sessions, etc. If you finished running the program as written to the best of your ability and then switched to something else, I'd support that decision.

[Vincent von Sperling]

Hi Jordan,

thank you for this information, you made me think that maybe I simply need to experiment a little with training styles. The main idea was to use Hypertrophy I as a way to get around my current ‘plateau’ in SBD - otherwise I kind of like the mix between strength and bodybuilding provided by the Powerbuilding style.

My main question was what good adherence actually means. Say one week I lift Monday, Wednesday, Friday. However for that week I postpone Stiff-legged Deadlifts from Monday's to Wednesday's workout - without change in target load or target RPE. Or say every week I move workout days around a little bit, while always lifting on non-consecutive days. I have little variations like that almost every week. Session RPE always between 7-8.5 . I wouldn't normally consider myself ‘advanced’ enough that these variations should significantly affect my progress. Am I wrong?

Maybe template pdfs should have an adherence statement somewhere, where it says ‘normally to see regular progress, we would expect the average trainee to have at least this average level of adherence’

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

There isn't a set definition for what adherence in this particular context means. While I don't encourage people to move around lifts, workout days, or miss workouts as much as possible, if you have to do it, you have to do it. If you're doing this every week, that can definitely alter how the program works. If it's here and there, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Vincent von Sperling]

I was a bit too generous in my interpretation of your instruction then. I 'mixed and matched' things in ways I read/heard you guys say were perfectly fine. I guess you didn't intend to say that it would be fine to 'mix and match' differently every single week

Going back over my training log I can see that I overshot my squat for at least 2-3 workouts in a row, at 135-137.5 for 1 rep. Last week reduced weight by 5kgs and paid more attention to protein. Today I felt pretty strong so I pr'd 140 at 8.5 . I guess I had accumulated some fatigue which then dissipated, like you mentioned in the programming podcast.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Congrats on the PR!