Beginner programming question

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Guys, I am just wrapping up week 4.3 in the beginner template, and have started contemplating the process of moving into the second phase of the program. I have a couple questions below which I may be overthinking but would like your input. In closing I just want to say that I find your programming excellent, so much so that I took advantage of your recent sale and purchased Hypertrophy and Strength 1 which will help fill out my training this year. I love the mix up of rep ranges through the week as it’s a nice change and the higher rep deadlifts and squats are seriously kicking my ass but I see the benefit. Given I am eating in a deficit to continue my weight loss journey I am very satisfied with the strength gains I’ve made since starting this program 6 weeks ago.

Questions 1. When moving into phase 2. How do we handle the weight selection of the deadlift, and back squat in the new phase if we had stalled out on these lifts in the first phase. My thought is we would lower the weight a percentage and rebuild from there, but not positive that is what you guys had in mind
2. In the PDF template it states to move on when you stall on two lifts in regards to progress. My first stall came in week 4.2 on the bench, and for this week I kept the weights the same as the failure of last week, and completed all repetitions which allows me to increase the weight next week. Today I stalled on the overhead press, and planned on using the same theory as I did with the bench. Question is, would you consider that two stalls and should I move on to week 5, or would you say I should stay with week 4.4. My thought process is that by giving myself a second attempt the following week it allows me to rule out a bad training day.
3. Lastly, I have never done paused squats, or paused deadlifts. Can you give me an idea of a general rule on how much lighter these lifts would be in comparison to the conventional deadlift and squat.

Thanks for your time

2

Dgil,

Thanks for the post!

  1. I wouldn’t necessarily lower the weight artificially, rather we would recommend sticking to the prescribed RPE and basing your target weights off previous training.
  2. Your initial stall would not represent a stall since the volume increased. I don’t really understand the rest of your question, but when two lifts aren’t moving, I’d just move on to the next phase. No need to “run it out” until the bitter end.
  3. There’s no one-size-fits-all rule here and any percentage I give you would just be making something up. Anecdotally, my paused squats and deadlifts are about 85% of my regular squats.

-Jordan

3

Thank you for the advice Jordan

4

Hi Jordan, I am now on to the second phase of the Beginner program, and will be starting week 6 on Tuesday. I am fairly certain I am overthinking this, but figured I would get your opinion on this. In week 6 the GPP work turns into 2x a week, as well there are two cardio sessions per week. I was thinking of running all three of my GPP exercises on the same day that I do one of the cardio sessions. This would allow me to have the 5 days a week at the gym, with two of those days GPP and cardio. Is this in line with what you were thinking when you put the program together.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Darrell