Hey there Barbell Medicine Crew!
A little background:
Male, 34, 6’3, 233lbs, 39" waist. Ran a NLP with an SS coach from April 2017 through July 2017. Continued with the SS coach doing intermediate programming (looked a lot like the Bridge and the 12 Week Strength Template) through April 2018. My 1RM PRs as of April 2018:
Squat: 360
Deadlift: 450
Press: 180
Bench Press: 260
I recently decided to buy the Barbell Medicine template package and go it solo (no coach) for a while. In April 2018 I was 245 with a 41" waist. I had heard on your podcasts a number of times that a waist measurement over 40" was considered a risk factor. I also wasn’t happy with how I looked so I started the 7 Week Hypertrophy template in late April and followed the “To Be a Beast” diet guidelines.
Good news: Over the 7 week period I went from 245lbs and a 41" waist to 233 and a 39" waist.
Bad news: During the same period I had 10 days of travel without access to a gym, and I had a vasectomy which required 1 week of no training at all and another week of just upper body (press/bench/chins were fine but lower body stuff was still too painful…but what was I going to do, not train?).
In short, of the 7 weeks only 3 went according to plan. My E1RMs are down 5-10%, especially for the squat and deadlift. My near term goals are to hit 500/400/300/200 on the main lifts. I’d also like to lose another 2" on my waist. I’m out of the “danger zone” being above 40" but I still think there’s room for improvement there.
My question (finally): Should I…
- Run a mini-LP to regain the strength lost due to time off (and if so, what should follow that)
- Re-run the 7 Week Hypertrophy program and continue to reduce the waist measurement
- Start the 12 Week Strength program (my original plan had been to run the 7 Week Hypertrophy and then start the 12 Week Strength template)
For what it’s worth, I have no (planned) surgery, travel, or time off. My schedule is wide open going forward.
Thanks for all you guys do for the community. I’m a huge fan of your work. And thanks in advance for taking a look at this.
–Matt