I did my first day of the Beginner Template today and really loved doing only 3 exercises! I definitely over and under shot my RPE’s but that’s a work in progress for me. Always.
I recognize that I’m allowing myself to overthink this a bit, but wanted to ask anyway.
How important is it that I do the exercises in the order they are listed? With the issue being availability. For example, today was squat/ohp/dl. We have only 2 deadlift stations. If it was busy and one was free so I hopped on and did that first, or did squat and then deadlift and ohp last due to space…does that matter?
Secondly, if it’s packed and I need to get a new plan all together and do leg press, DB press, DB deadlift because I can’t get in to a station, do I have to change the template for that one day (is that even possible)?
Somewhat unrelated, I did the form check with Cassi and I can’t say enough good things about that service!! I’ve had two online trainers trying to get a good squat and I’ve made little progress, the feedback from Cassi was amazing. The best $20 I’ve ever spent. I should have done online training with BBM but thought it was more for super lifters and less so for regular gals like me.
She suggested thinking about squat shoes, which I’ve looked up and they are so expensive. I was fooled into buying Vivo’s for deadlifts and don’t love them. Are squat shoes more valuable to the workout? If worth it I’ll invest, just don’t want to be fooled twice.
Not terribly important, though the program is setup to mitigate intraworkout fatigue. In other words, we think that doing squats before overhead press gives you a better chance of lifting “up to your potential” for the day with this program, as the first exercise is prioritized on each of the three workouts for this program. Day 2 puts a pressing movement first whereas Day 3 puts a hinge movement (deadlift) first. Ideally, you have one day where you squat first, another where you press first, and another day where you deadlift first. Of course, commercial gyms aren’t always super accommodating for this and doing the exercises out of order is better than not doing them at all. However, I can’t give you an estimate about how much your results will differ by sometimes doing them out of order vs. sticking exactly to the plan. I would suspect more week-to-week variability when it comes to increasing load, but can’t say for sure otherwise.
I would prefer you to ask to work in as a first option, doing the exercises out of order as a second option, and then, if you have to, subbing everything.
You can live a full and complete life without squat shoes, but you are likely to find that your squat form is more consistent and stable with shoes, particularly early on in your lifting career. I would not use heel lifts or squat shoes for deadlifts. I do think having lifting shoes you do squats, overhead presses, and other non-deadlift barbell lifts would be useful. For me personally, I use my lifting shoes (reebok legacy lifter II’s) for squats and OHP, then just use Reebok Nanos or Nike Metcons for everything else.
Jordan: Hopefully this doesn’t hijack the thread, but what benefits (subjective or otherwise) do you find there are to OHP and other lifts in squat shoes?