Help picking my first program

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi, I’ve been reading BBM and listening to the podcast recently and I’m interested in picking up one of the programs to give it a try, but I’m having difficulty deciding where to start. I’m hoping I can get a little guidance here.

For starters a little background on me, I’m 51 years old and had a full shoulder replacement (reverse) last year at the end of April. After completing my physical therapy I began training on my own and have done so consistently for just over a year. I’m taking the training seriously and am pretty motivated to gain both strength and mass.

My training over the last year started with full body workouts and light weight as I got into the swing of things, but later turned into a push, pull, leg split, training each once per week. I very recently moved to a 4 day split by breaking out shoulders and triceps into their own day, and filled their spot on chest day with some ab work. I’m currently doing 3 sets of 8 on everything, using the same weight for all 3 sets. If I have anything left in the tank at the end of third set I’ll do extra reps to failure. Each day centers around a big compound lift consisting of either Bench, Squat, Deadlift, or Press. Then I have a number of supplemental exercises supporting each of those lifts. Generally I’m looking at 14-18 heavy sets per workout.

What I’m considering now is maybe cycling between the Power Building and Hypertrophy programs, but I’m not sure where to start. My initial thought is that the Beginner Prescription may not be the best starting point for me now, though let me know if you disagree, but I don’t know whether to begin with Power Building/Hypertrophy 1 or 2.

Any thoughts or advice that anyone can share would be much appreciated. If you want any more detail I’m happy to provide that as well.

2

Hey John,

Welcome to the forum. Happy to have you. Just to make sure I have it right, you’re doing push. pull, legs, and then a shoulder and arms day, with 5-6 exercises per session,and 3 sets of 8 for all exercises? How long have you been doing that and how has it been working?

Most pertinent to my recommendation would be what do you want to get out of your training program? I’ll noodle on this information once I have it. Then, I’ll provide some feedback. Our template quiz may also be a useful resource.

-Jordan

3

Hey Jordan, thanks for getting back to me.

Yes, that’s correct. I’ve only been doing this particular configuration for about a month. It’s been working fine. When I first got out of physical therapy about 1 year ago, I was very nervous about putting too much stress on that joint replacement. I started with very light weights, 20 rep sets, not very challenging, and whole body workouts. I gradually built up to where the 20 rep sets were challenging. I then dropped to 15 rep sets and did that for 2-3 months, then dropped to 12s, did that for 3 months, and dropped to 8s about a month ago, when I also moved shoulders and triceps to their own day. All of these have worked pretty well for me. I have generally been able to add weight to the bar most workouts, with the exception of a couple of setbacks and brief plateaus. But that also means that I’m adding weight once a week at most because I’ve only been training each lift once per week. I do think that window of being able to add weight to the bar almost every workout is rapidly coming to a close. I am really beginning to notice that the new weights feel heavier and that I’m less likely to be able to squeeze out an extra rep or two on my last sets.

Over this time I have gradually gained a lot more confidence in that joint replacement. I’ve gone from babying that shoulder to giving it extra volume to try to help it catch up to the other side. My outlook is also shifting. I generally had been trying to have my final heavy set for each exercise be to failure. After reading some here and listening to some of your podcast episodes, I’ve begun to think that I should reconsider my approach regarding exercise frequency and how close to failure I should be working. I used to train pretty seriously when I was a teenager and in my early twenties, but that was back in the late 80s and early 90s. As a result, a lot of my assumptions and theories were rooted in that era. As I read and listen to more information I’m realizing that there’s a lot of new information to consider. I’m thinking now that it might be best to try some proven programs for a few cycles to get a better feel and understanding for how this works.

My goals are pretty simple. I want to get bigger and stronger. I don’t have any desire to compete, but what I love about lifting is chasing the carrot and finding incremental improvement when and where I can. Ultimately, I guess I’m doing this to be strong and healthy as I continue to age, but adding weight to the bar and muscle to my body is what keeps me motivated and committed, so that’s my goal with any program I’m undertaking.

Thanks for reading this and giving it some consideration. If there’s any additional information I can provide that would be helpful please let me know.

4

Thanks for the additional information. It’s very helpful. I think it may be instructive to briefly review the programming variables as we meander towards my recommendation.

The main programming variables can be represented by the mnemonic, FITT-VIP.

F is for frequency, e.g. how often you train and how often you train a muscle group. This variable is mostly used to distribute training load over as many (or as few) days as an individual wants. Provided the training load is the same, there’s little difference with different frequencies.

I is for intensity, e.g. the weight being used, the pace of the conditioning piece, and how hard it is. Broadly speaking, the weight needs to be heavy enough to drive the adaptations we want. For strength, that’s ~ 60-65% on the low end, whereas muscle size has a much wider range of intensities.

T is for time, which refers to the duration of exercise…typically conditioning. I’d prefer everyone get in at least 150 minutes of cardio per week, ideally after lifting or on separate days, and done somewhere between ~ 60-80% max HR.

T is for type, which refers to the mode of exercises and specific exercises selected. There are two major modes, e.g. resistance training and endurance training. Would recommend both for everyone who is able. Within each category, exercise selection is mostly personal preference, though greater exercise variation is likely better for reducing injury risk and improving proficiency across many tasks.

V is for volume, which refers to how much exercise you’re doing. Generally speaking, the more exercise someone does, the better their results. The biggest caveats here are 1. you need to have enough time to do all of that training, and 2. you need to be fit enough for any given amount of training. In other words, I want you to do as much exercise as you can, where logistics and current training tolerance being the big limiters.

P is for progression, which refers to how the program is adjusted to match a user’s change in fitness. As you get stronger and better conditioned, you get to use more weight and go faster, not the other way around. Most people will not be able to get stronger week to week, where “stronger” refers to an increase in performance under the same conditions (e.g. reps, sets, bar speed, proximity to failure, etc.) We have articles on this here and here.

For you, I’d favor Hypertrophy I and see how you do. From there, I’d likely move to Powerbuilding II (using the non-competition version).

1 Like
5

Thanks very much Jordan! I went ahead and purchased Hypertrophy I last night. I’ll start reading through the instructions today and will get started as soon as I can. I’ll likely circle back in a couple of months or so and report back on how it’s going. I really appreciate your help with this. It helped me feel a lot more confident with the program selection.

6

Glad to hear it. Wishing you the best of luck. Let me know if anything comes up in the interim.

7

Thanks Jordan, I do have a quick follow-up question after reviewing the Hypertrophy 1 program. My question is specific to the ramping sets and when to add weight. Using the Week 2 Day 1 Squat entry as an example:

image

Should I increase the weight once I can accomplish the 8 reps at an 8 RPE, or should I wait until it feels like a 7 or 7.5 RPE? I believe I understand when to progress in all the other set types.

8

In a perfect world, you would increase weight once you’ve gained strength. This is discussed extensively in the two articles linked under the progression section, and againg here and here. There’s also some in-depth discussion on progression in the PDF accompanying the program.

The reason for all of this text instead of a simple answer is that this topic is somewhat difficult to understand without a more in-depth discussion. I want you to add weight only when you’re stronger, which takes place over a variable period of time, and is layered on top of day to day variability in performance. Identifying when you’re stronger can be done during the warm-up or after a workout, which provides two separate approaches described in the second article:

  1. The “Aggressive” Approach: Use a “marker” warm-up weight to gauge your readiness for the day. If that marker set feels lighter and faster than it did in the previous session, you have evidence that you can push the top sets heavier. This approach is most effective during periods of high resource availability (great sleep, solid nutrition, low life stress) and can allow an individual to demonstrate strength improvements as fast as they come online. However, because it relies heavily on day-to-day fluctuations, it also carries a higher risk of overshooting your actual capacity and prematurely accumulating unwanted fatigue if you get it wrong, potentially leading to an eventual abrupt plateau.
  1. The “Conservative” Approach: Wait for a noticeable, sustained decrease in your Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) before increasing the weight. For example, if your sets of 5 have been consistently feeling like an RPE 8 (2 reps left in the tank), wait until they drop to an RPE 7 or RPE 6 for the same weight before increasing the load by a standard increment (e.g., 5 lbs). This is a reliable method that prevents overshooting the target RPE, which can be useful for individuals who are prone to going too heavy, too often. On the other hand, it may feel frustratingly slow for some driven athletes.
  1. The “Artificial Momentum” Approach: Start with a weight that is intentionally light (e.g., aiming for an initial RPE 6) and gradually increase the load over a training block (4-6 weeks) so that the same prescribed work (e.g., 5 reps) becomes progressively more challenging (e.g., reaching RPE 8 by the end of the block). This provides a predictable on-ramp and may offer a strong psychological boost from adding weight week-to-week, even if the actual strength gains aren’t occurring at the same rate in which weight is added. With this setup, the final week of the block can serve as an implicit test of progress as compared to previous training cycles.
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9

Thanks again Jordan, very helpful. I’ve been targeting your programming podcast episodes over the past week or two, and am currently listening to an older episode (#129 on progressive overload) and have heard you and Dr. Baraki discussing these issues, so this is not a big surprise. I tend to be a more “aggressive” type, but I’m older now and have no real need to rush anything other than my own lack of patience. I think I’ll try to use the conservative approach and see if I can push myself to be more patient.

This was all very helpful. I really appreciate all of the feedback and insight here. It means a lot.