After a 4 month layoff from barbell training due to COVID, I was able to start up again about 8 weeks ago, running the Beginner Template as per suggestions on the Barbell Medicine site. It’s going quite well, on week 8.1 now and may stay on it for a couple more weeks before switching to week 9, then doing the same before ending it with week 12. After I finish with this, I’d like to run a Hypertrophy program (especially since you guys are running a sale!). My issue is I don’t know whether to go with 1 or 2. Since I had experience (roughly 15 months) before the lockdown, normally I would, of course, go directly to 2.
But since I had the 4 month layoff, am running the Beginner template as my “comeback” program (which will probably end up taking a total of 14-16 weeks with the repeat weeks), and have never done a dedicated hypertrophy program before, I’m wondering if I should do 1 instead? I’m fine with doing either, as amount of days available to train is not an issue (I was running Powerbuilding 2 with the 4 lifting days and 2 GPP days before the lockdown, but I obviously had a much longer unbroken streak of training before I started that.). As for equipment, I have a barbell at home, but I can also go to a gym if I have to, although I’d prefer spending as many days doing home training if possible just for safety’s sake. My gym does take significant precautions, though, which is good.
Overall, I am leaning more towards 2, but that may just be my impatience getting to me.
Hi GPB, completing the Beginner’s Template and then moving to Hypertrophy 2 would be just fine. I know it’s seems like 4 months off barbells seems like forever, but it’s not, and if you work through all phases of the BT completely, you’ll have re-established a great training base. Both also come with exercise selection tabs so you can adjust those as you want, allowing you to train at home or head to a gym for more variety at times as well.
Thank you very much, Leah! That’s very encouraging. Indeed, although I had lost around 25-30% off of my e1rm’s when I hopped on week 1, now on week 8 of Beginner Template I’m within 5-10% of where each of my comp lifts were at before the layoff! I was really worried that first week, but seeing how fast it has come back (although with a few extra pounds on, but that was my fault) has actually been really motivating. So yeah, I’ll go ahead and pick up Hypertrophy 2, but I’ll make sure to properly run the rest of BT, including those repeated weeks for 8 and 12 as prescribed first.
It’s definitely a really good feeling seeing how fast I can get back to these numbers considering how long it took to get there the first time. I’ll definitely keep BT as my go-to program for any future extended layoffs (hopefully that won’t be necessary, but who knows?). Although putting on a little weight may have sped the process up. Not a huge amount, but 10lbs can make a real difference.
While I’m talking about BT, I know the recommendation for moving on is when 2 lifts stall. Is that true even if those 2 lifts are Press and Bench press? Press is obviously going to flatten out way faster than any of the other compounds due to the nature of it. And would just the same e1rm for 2 weeks in a row be enough to qualify as “stalling” for the purposes of this program? I probably was too eager going from block 1 to block 2 and just jumped right to Week 5 after my first run of Week 4.1, but I want to make sure I’m doing it right for 8.x and 12.x.