The beginner template is recommended for “Individuals returning from an extended layoff (more than 4 weeks) from resistance training”. I haven’t had a complete break, but only managed a few sessions in the last month or so due to holidays and illness. So think this is a good place to pick things up as I own the beginner template as I bought it for my wife.
Having read through the accompanying information I can’t see anything on how I should use it in this situation. It doesn’t seem like running the whole template (min 12 weeks) is necessary. Would doing the last phase be appropriate?
Thanks for the question and the business. As far as appropriateness, it really depends what you were doing before and how well-trained you are. If you’re pretty new to training, e.g. <1 year of experience I’d have you start at phase I and run the whole thing as planned. If you’ve been training between 1 and 3 years, but have recently had a break- I’d plan on starting on phase II. If you’ve been training > 3 years, I’d start on phase III. I just made all of this up, but seems reasonable to me.
Thanks for the reply. I’ve been training on and off for over 2 years, was part way through legacy 7 week hypertrophy before going on holiday for 2 weeks (no training at all) and then just being a bit lazy post holiday and a bout of illness last week. I’ve completed a handful of training sessions in this time (about a month since holiday), so not a complete break.
Didnt see your reply before I went the gym earlier so I did first day of phase 3, the 1@8 (140kg) squat wasn’t a million miles from my previous 1@8 best (157.5), so I think i can get back to that, or close to it in 4-6 weeks. Possibly could’ve gone a little higher, but prefer to be conservative.
If it was a longer (or complete) break I’d definitely be looking at phase 2.