Hi Team,
Stats:
43 year old male
Height 182cm, weight 93kgs
On and off training for 20 years with current stint being 18 months Beginner Program, PB I, Low Fatigue General S&C, PB I x2.
My first run of PB I beat me up so I took Jordan’s advice on running the Low Fatigue General S&C which had me feeling fresh and enjoying the variety of lifts. My second run of PB I had me feeling beat up by the end but I enjoy the programming. Using the advice in the Training Plateau Action Plan, I dropped the RPE by 1-2 for anything at RPE 8 during my third (current) run. I’m in Week 4 of Block 2 and feeling beat up again. Legs are sore in bed and when in one position for a few minutes (such as driving) and lower back is constantly “stiff” and painful in bed - both wake me up at night. Motivation to train is low until I’m about 30 minutes into a session and conditioning sessions are a drag. My plan was to move to Strength I with lowered RPEs but think perhaps a run of the Low Fatigue Strength would help. Which brings me to my confusion:
The programming of the Low Fatigue Powerlifitng and Powerbuilding has lots of exercises targeting the same main lifts on most days. For example - Day 1 of Powerlifting 4-day has comp bench, larsen press and 3 count pause bench. Day 2 of the same program has high rep bulgarian split squats followed by tempo squats. Day 3 of Powerbuilding has comp deads followed up by SLDL. I feel like this programming would be me up further rather than offer some relief/recovery for a couple of months.
So, would you mind explaining to me the thinking behind this programming? And, should I just give it a go or make some modifications?
Thanks for all your work and time in responding to the forum questions. I find it incredibly helpful. Whilst I’ve lifted heavier and run faster in the past, I’ve never felt this strong within my body, and I have BBM to thank.
Angus
1 Like
Hey Angus,
Sorry to hear you’re not really agreeing with the program right now. Sounds like the training load is too high right now, which I’d probably chalk up to the single-rep sets and proximity to failure of the program you’re on.That said, exercise selection certainly contributes to training load too.
As you know, training load is both the amount of training you do, as well as its nature, i.e. exercise selection, intensity, proximity to failure, etc. We want to maximize training load because there’s a dose dependent relationship between it and fitness adaptations, but we also don’t want to do more than we can recover from.
To your specific question, I would expect programs with overlapping goals (e.g. get better at the Big Three) to have similar exercise selection. While it is one component of training load, the amount, intensity, proximity to failure, etc. are all more important when it comes to generating (and managing) training load.
Further, the powerlifting program has sticking point training, where you’ll pick either a muscle- or technique-based variation to do based on what you think your sticking point is related to. This is discussed in the accompanying PDF. Each example you posted here represents both sticking point exercises, of which you’d pick one.
Hopefully this is helpful.
-Jordan
2 Likes
Hey, just to chime in that I’m also a 43y Male and currently running Low Fatigue PL 4-day having bailed on PB Gen 2 due to getting beat up pretty badly - adductors, knees and calves were really sore all the time despite attempts to change exercises and stance. I decided I could live without calf and pec work.
LFS is really working right now and I’m am back within 10-20% of my old 1RMs for the first time in over a year.
The trick is to be really honest about today’s @7 or whatever, and knowing that some fatigue is going to carry over to the supplemental that follows the primary variation. First week I actually did both optional exercises and wondered if Jordan was trying to kill us all. Then I learned to read lol.
So far, it’s felt really good always picking the one option I think will torture my niggles less - this might be lower weight/more reps instead of tempo (Larsen rather than pause bench), or it could be avoiding triggering exercises altogether (3-1-0 squat instead of any single-leg squats).
The limited fatigue between sets allowing more overall quality work seems to jive, and the fatigue singles moving really well as predicted (per e1RM) seems to bear the approach out.
I would also point out I ran the original LFS 3-day template back in the day, and the new one also feels more tolerable looking back.
3 Likes
Thanks for the quick replies Jordan and Docjitters. I think I understand the programming now. Just to ensure I have this right:
3 Day Powerlifting Day 2 has Comp Bench, Larsen Press and Tempo Bench in the app. I would do the Comp Bench then one of the Larsen or Tempo.
Day 3 has Bulgarian Split Squat then Tempo Squat. I would do Tempo Squat because Split Squats were created by the Devil to gas me for an hour and give me DOMS for days at any challenging weight, even when I do program them for weeks…
Thanks heaps,
Angus
Yep, you’ve got it. Let us know how it goes.
