Beginner template

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

I had a couple of questions regarding the Beginner template (I completed week 1 on Friday):

  1. Should the number of reps in the warm up sets be the same as the number of reps prescribed for the work sets? E.g., if I’m doing work sets of 10 reps, is it recommended to also do all my warm ups sets with 10 reps?

  2. Why is there only 2-3min rest between sets prescribed for the 3rd exercise of the day, compared to 3-5mins for the others?

The reason I ask these questions is that my session on Friday called for squat sets of 10 reps, and the reduced time between sets combined with the many sets of 10 reps for warmups saw me doing quite poorly. My estimated 1RM decreased from 120kg after Wednesday’s workout to only 102kg after Friday’s. For this coming Monday, if I used the 102kg max, I would be doing sets of 4 at a weight less than what I did last Wednesday for sets of 7! I guess the solution is to be guided by RPE on Monday to find the appropriate weights for sets of 4. But the discrepancy between the 1RMs seems quite large, and I’m sure there must be some explanation. Please let me know ur thoughts? Thanks!

2

Hey Erik,

When you get a chance, take a peek at the included PDF. Many of your questions will be fleshed out in detail there :slight_smile:

As for your current queries:

  1. Yes
  2. To reduce the amount of time spent in the gym and to promote slightly different adaptations. I disagree that your e1RM from Wednesday and Friday are the comparable given the exercise order, rep scheme, and rest periods.
  3. Yes, RPE should be used to determine the load.

-Jordan

3

@Erik_Johnson Judging from my own experience and what I’ve read here it’s common for the 10 rep squat sets and the 8 rep deadlift sets to be limited by endurance rather than strength if you’re coming from a 5 RM style background with no conditioning.

4

Perhaps the way to do it is to compare each squat day with its equivalent the following week? So if the e 1RM for 7 reps is 120kg on day 2, then I might try to program using an e 1RM of 121kg on day 2 of the following week. And if the 10 rep sets on day 3 produces an e 1RM of 102, then 103kg might be a good number to use for day 3 the following week. Of course this is subject to the actual RPE feedback I receive when doing the exercises and modifying the successive work sets accordingly.

Yes, precisely.

5

Thanks Hans and Jordan. I’m slowly getting the hang of it