My name is James and I am currently running The Beginner Prescription. I have been lifting on and off for the past few years and usually use Starting Strength programming. I will often run the NLP and get to a 275-300 lb squat and then by that time I am so burned out I just stop lifting all together.
Then after a break I will run the NLP again and expect a different result. It is very frustrating and I feel that I am just going in circles, scared to do anything other than NLP. A friend of mine recommended Barbell Medicine and that is why I am now going to give The Beginner Prescription a try. I am new to RPE and my lifts are no where near were I was a few years ago but I am looking forward to the program!
My goals are to build more muscle and size while hopefully setting some new PR’s.
Deadlift
225lbs x5 @RPE 8 - supposed to have done 8 reps
I really enjoyed the program today, I have a lot to learn about RPE but I felt like Day 1 was a good start. I was a little bit conservative on some of my weights but I am still figuring it out. My squat at 215lbs was more like an RPE 6 or 7. I definitely had more in the tank which is good.
One thing that I realized is that I have no cardio and I am under trained as the sets of 10 and 8 reps killed me. I couldn’t figure out how to deadlift 8 reps lol and was out of time so I just did 225lbs and called it a day. I will have to figure out how to deadlift for so many reps.
Back to logging after some layoffs. I am looking forward to running this whole program and seeing where I end up after the 3 Phases. I am starting off probably undershooting my RPE but that is okay. I would rather start lighter than too heavy.
Squats for 7 reps felt pretty good and same with my Bench Press.
Had to start week 2 off a bit earlier then I wanted to but I had a rest day yesterday and I am feeling good because my weights were pretty low for week 1.
Today i got my squat to 205 lbs which still felt light at rpe 8 so I think i have lots of room to keep improving.
I am really enjoying the program so far. It is nice using rpe as a measure for setting your working set weights.
I did 185 lbs which felt like a decent rpe 6 and then based on that it is easy to program the rpe 7 and 8.
Also its nice working in various rep ranges other than Fahves…
Ideally i would have done this workout tomorrow but i basically have no time tomorrow so I had to start day 1 of week 3 today. Not ideal but better than missing days.
Lifts felt fine today however i was running out of time so i did 3 sets of deadlifts instead of the 4 which the program had.
Good workout though and I am really enjoying this template. I would recommend it for sure.
Workout was feeling pretty nice today. My bench at 170 lbs felt light, as did my 7 rep squats today at 175 lbs. Definetley still undershooting my rpe’s and I feel like my work capacity for all these working sets is improving.
Completed day 2 of week 4 of the Beginner Template today. When i started the workout on the app i was surprised to see another set for the bench press added in.
So that was 5 total working sets for Bench Press today! I love how this program is set up.
After Bench, I moved onto squatting and again I felt great. Pushed 225 lbs for both rpe 8 sets. I filmed the lifts and the 7 reps all moving smoothly.
That was my last workout for Phase 1 week 4. I feel that I am still making progress and will be continuing on with Phase 1 for atleast a few more weeks.
I hurt my knee grappling a few days ago so for the next week it is likely going to be Upper body lifts only. Atleast until my knee losens up and i can get into a squat position again.
I am optimistic that my knee will improve soon though.
Lots of volume on the bench today. Felt pretty good overall. My knee is feeling better as well so I should be back to some light squats and deadlifts soon!
I havent logged much since hurting my knee at the end of January. The injury has been really annoying since before the injury i was having awesome results on the Beginner Template.
While rehabbing my knee back slowly I ran Phase 1 again for the past 4 weeks. I have been cautious progressing back and my lower body lifts are still terrible lol.
I have had some small wins though such as pressing 90lbs for 10 reps x 2 sets the other day so that was pretty cool. I am going to keep doing phase 1 untill progress stops and then do phase 2 probably in a few weeks.