I apologize if this was answered elsewhere but I am wrapping up the PBII template and before I purchase another template an issue I ran into was the excercise selection.
I have a shoulder issue that rules out OHP, and limits what I can do with incline bench. I also train at a gym that doesn’t have machines, except for a belt squat and a lat pull down.
In PBII there are leg press, leg curl, and a decent amount of OHP type movements. I sub in just more bench variations, squat variations or skip the excercise in question.
I noticed that in the Endurance Template and GSC templates there is a lot of OHP/Incline/Power Clean. The alternate suggestions are just more bench press or deadlift or variations for example. This means I’m jst doing more bench or deadlift and at times, probably not effectively hitting the target muscle groups or accumulating fatigue in ways I probably don’t want. What I mean is if I sub in a paused deadlift for power clean, or a paused bench or close grip bench for OHP I’m either not really hitting the desired muscle group or I’m adding fatigue to my lower back that I didn’t really need to have, or if I reduce the weight to do the OHP so it doesn’t agrivate my shoulder then the rpe/set/rep scheme isn’t enough volume to drive adaptation.
Am I missing something?
Yes, I’m aware there is a shoulder rehab template but I am not in a place where I want to dedicate 13 weeks to a rehab program just hoping that somehow I’ll be able to OHP and not aggrivate my shoulder.
I also hope I don’t have to find a gym that has the machines needed to run these templates.
That is on me, I’m aware but I am hoping that I can get some guidence as to what substitutions are viable and how to modify the rpe/rep/sets to compensate for the additional fatigue in my back from just doing more deadlifts or not being able to do the prescribed or suggested alternate excercises.
Thanks in advance.
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the question. Sounds like you’re looking to get some information on how I think about exercise selection.
The first, is that I think most exercises within a particular movement category (squat, press, pull, hinge) work the same muscle groups more or less. In your example, I think a close grip bench trains the same muscle as OHP. The big difference is the specific movement pattern, i.e. how the muscles are coordinated to contract. Both movements train the muscle groups to create more force, but in different ways. This is why the alternate exercise suggestions are what they are.
The second is trainability, which refers to an individual’s ability to perform the exercise relatively pain free, with acceptable technique, and load it. The loading part is also a bit complicated, as the viable range of intensity, that is, the breadth of weight you can use for an exercise where it is very productive, is WIDE. Practically-speaking, anything north of ~ 65% 1RM is going to be good enough, though less than that still works.
I’m hearing that power cleans and OHP are not on that menu right now. In this context, I would pick a lower body explosive movement to replace power cleans, so paused DL’s aren’t an option. I’d be thinking jump squats, trap bar deadlifts, clean pulls, etc. I think most of these are options in the template you reference. For the OHP, I would try to find a trainable non-flat bench barbell bench option. If it’s a tempo low or high incline bench, that would be great. I also like football bar incline and OHP, landmine presses, arnold presses, and so on. Are there any of these things doable for you?
Happy to help sort out some exercise selection stuff, but hopefully this helps get you started.