Not finishing Beginner Template workouts

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello,
As I increased weight in all lifts, workouts became more and more difficult to complete and I started splitting them across two days. Now most of the workouts are being split across two days and it’s taking me more than a week to finish the three workouts.
Would it be better to lower the weight so that I can finish in one day, or do I need to push through and just finish in one day? Or add extra conditioning? (I’m not going any gpp). The workouts are taking me 2:15-2:30+ to complete.
Thank you

2

Hi Phyzical,
Thanks for the post here, and it sounds like there are a few things to adjust here.

  1. You should be using loads that allow you to complete the sessions in one session/day. This is an important part of using RPE as well. I suspect you are over-shooting the RPE at this time.
  2. Doing the GPP and conditioning as prescribed int he template would be highly recommended. This is great for your overall health and your training capacity/recovery ability.
  3. I’d keep an eye on your rest times and work on getting through your training sessions with less down time.

This article might help explain from auto-regulation/RPE ideas as well- What is RPE in Lifting? (Rate of Perceived Exertion Explained)

3

Thank you, this is so helpful. You’re awesome

4

A couple of suggestions

  1. If you’re using around 3 minutes of rest between sets, it should take you 1 - 1.5 hours to complete your workout.

  2. Don’t rest for 3 minutes between warm-up sets if you don’t need to. Warm ups are pretty easy and on most lifts 20-30 seconds between warm-up sets should be fine.

1 Like
5

I’m lowering weight by about 25% to start in order to complete workouts in one day. For each set should I record my actual RPE? So if it says to do 1 rep @ RPE 9 am I going to record 1 rep @ RPE 7 or 8 if that’s what it really was?

6

So how are you assessing this RPE? If you time your rests and don’t futz around in your warm up, is this lower weight really going to be RPE 7? How are you assessing this?

7

From my experience in failing reps I have an idea of RPE (could I have done 1 more, 2 more…) So it’s just an estimate based on experience of how it feels when you’re getting close to failing a rep. I’ve been lifting for 20+ years.

I do ~3 empty bar sets and ~4 warmup sets increasing weight. I was trying for 1 minute rest between warmup but when the warmup is RPE 6 and the next is RPE 7 sometimes I take 2 minutes or so. I was also taking 4-5 minutes where the template said 3-5 minute rest but I can cut that to 3 minutes.
6-7 warmup sets and 5 work sets (x 3 exercises) takes a while.

I feel that I’m running out of energy, or after I do 2 of the 3 lifts I think the third will take an unreasonable amount of effort to complete, it’s not just about how long it’s taking but how much energy it will take and what I think it will do to me if I keep going. For example, after deadlifts and press, I would need to do 60-70 reps of box step ups (6 or 7 sets 10 reps each leg) on a 20" box and it seems unreasonable to keep going.

Similarly, when I know the workout is going to be grueling I don’t even want to start and I’m sure I’ve postponed some days in anticipation of the difficulty.

I increased all my lifts by about 25% since starting, my E1RMs are slightly over 300LBS. Somehow about a month ago workouts went from RPE 8 to RPE 11 (could not finish).

8

That’s helpful! Hopefully you had a chance to read the article on RPE as well. It sounds like you might benefit from the addition of the conditioning, seeing some improved recovery and work capacity after a bit of time doing that. This should help notably with something like the box step ups and in feeling like you’re pretty much able to do most of your warm ups by loading the bar and going, taking extra time only at your final warm up or two.

It also sounds like you can benefit from digging into the concept of auto-regulation more and more. It’s totally normal to have more fatigue for the 3rd movement of a session, and our templates are designed with this in mind. So aiming to truly hit the RPE for that movement, on that day, should pay off quite a bit. You might also appreciate seeing RPE as MORE than just reps in reserve.

Sounds like you’ve made some great progress! I don’t know that you need to reduce your lifts by 25% at this time, but I do think that having a better sense of RPE for the whole session, not just lift in isolation will help quite a bit.

9

Thank you, I’ll put this into action. It makes sense that the third workout is meant for when you are already a bit tired. I’ll read more about RPE and will re-read your comment later when I’m ready to put it into action. Thank you for steering me in the right direction.