Linear Progression without a barbell

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi BBM team,

Life happened and I haven’t been training consistently in about a year. I’ve just begun my linear progression for the second time. The first time being in 2021.

Current stats:
28 year male
5’10"
185 lbs
38" waist

I could probably lose 15lbs and certainly 4-6" off my waist.

My lifestyle has changed a lot in the last year – thus the break from the gym – I now work on cruise ships and no longer have access to a well rounded gym facility 10 months out of the year. I’m currently on land and am going to the gym and running my LP as prescribed, but in 2 weeks I’ll be back at sea.

When at sea I have limited equipment. I rarely have access to a barbell, I never have a squat rack, rarely have a smith machine, rarely have a leg press, and I can only do seated dumbbell press because ceiling is so low.

I do have dumbbells up to 50#, and your standard chest press, shoulder press, leg curl machines. Plenty of treadmills and other cardio equipment.

Given the limited resources, I struggle to accomplish my workouts as I’m accustomed. I max out 50# dumbbell bench pretty quick. And dumbbell squats and dead lifts just don’t give me the same tonnage overload. I wind up wasting so much time and energy just trying to figure out how to accomplish the workout with the equipment I have instead of putting that energy into training.

Do you have any advice or resources for BBM or Starting Strength style programming with limited equipment? Or maybe a completely different training direction I can go in?

I’m thinking of ditching heavy resistance training all together in favor of a Couch to 5k style running program. But I love lifting much more than I do running, I’m afraid I will struggle with compliance.

TL;DR I’m without the equipment I’m accustomed to having and don’t know how to train without it. I hate the way I feel being untrained, but I am really struggling to get back on the horse.

Thanks for your time and perspective,
John

2

Hey John,

Thanks for the post. A few thoughts here:

  1. I would not recommend trading resistance training for conditioning or vice versa, as both are needed for health and fitness development. Neither are sufficient on their own.

  2. I would not recommend doing Starting Strength Linear Progression even if you had access to traditional equipment. It has major limitations including hyperspecialization, lack of conditioning, and no autoregulation. It also doesn’t work that well, as users do not frequently develop remarkable levels of strength, size, etc. compared to other programs in the short- or long-term. Instead, people often anchor themselves to that program and seemingly see slower than predicted results, greater injury rates, and burnout. To be clear, there’s no special program that universally works well for everyone, but we would ideally pick one that doesn’t have so many limitations. I have offered to debate these points with the very vocal individuals at Starting Strength, but they are not willing to do so. I think most in this space want more people to exercise, improve their fitness and quality of life, and be empowered to maintain that habit for a long time. There are a variety of methods that can work, with some being clearly better than others based on available evidence.

  3. Seems like you have a few tools at your disposal to perform meaningful resistance training. The crux here is to alter the rep range, tempo, and movement selection as needed to get somewhere near failure. I think the at-home template and free resource on how-to do that would work well for you:

  4. How-to Exercise at Home | Barbell Medicine

-Jordan

3

Thank you.