I am currently working my way through the Barbell Medicine beginner program and have hit my first bump. Things have been going quite well so far with all lifts moving up, however the volume increase on Week 8 combined with some work/life stress around this time resulted in a stagnation of both Squat and DL progression during week 8.2.
Based on what was written in the pdf, I believe the failure to increase weight on these two lifts for this one week warrants moving on to Phase 3 of the program. Is this correct?
Yep- you are cleared to move on. However, if you think that the work/life stress played a significant role here- you might want to give it another try before moving to phase III. Either ways is fine, of course
Thanks for the quick response. I want to follow-up with another question for (1) my own edification and (2) to help anyone who may find this post later:
Hypothetically, if during the beginner program one lift stalls out in a particular block would a lifter continue progressing through the block until a second lift stalled?
Also, given the structure of the program, I’m assuming that its probably normal to start feeling a bit rundown the week(s) following the volume increases on Week 8 and Week 12 of the beginner program?
This is specifically addressed in the Beginner Template PDF under the “Running the Program” section
I don’t think people will reliably feel more or less run down during any part of the program, as the feeling of fatigue has a number of training-independent inputs. Additionally, the more trained you become, the better you are at tolerating training and recovering from training. I wouldn’t expect people to necessarily feel better or worse.
