Hey there BBM team!
First, thanks so much for the resources and information during these somewhat uncertain times effected by COVID-19. For me, and I’m sure many others, it’s been reassuring to know that I have tools available to make the best of this situation with respect to maintaining previously developed training adaptations.
My gym is closed and in the interim I’ll be running the At Home template. Prior to gym closure I was running Powerbuilding II and had also previously ran Powerlifting II as well. My question is this: upon the returning to barbell training would you recommend returning to PB2? Or would it be better to use PB1 as a ramp-up of sorts back up to precious training volumes? (I already own Powerbuilding I so I wouldn’t have to purchase the template in order to use it for this purpose.)
Provided you’re still exercising during this time of uncertainty, I’d probably feel okay with you going right back into PB II. Here’s to hoping we get some good news about this soon!
Follow up to this as I’m in the same spot but wanted to get more specific guidance. I was halfway through the second to last week (Week 9), which I believe has the most volume along with Week 10 (most exercises are 4-5 sets). Given I’ll also be doing the at home workout consistently until this is all over, would you recommend backtracking to a lighter volume week (e.g. Week 6) first to acclimate myself first? Or perhaps some alternative type of light week first to re-sensitize my body to the volume. I can only imagine that initial soreness is going to be rough…
P.S. really appreciate the home workouts; obviously not ideal, but I was really down being stuck at home with no barbell access. Being able to do these this week has uplifted my spirits a lot! As always, game (life!) changing.
Thanks!
I would just start the template over since it builds upon itself all the way through.
I hear you on the home workouts, too. They’re not quite the same as lifting a heavy barbell…but they’re kicking my ass!
Thanks, Jordan. Since I was almost complete with PB II and I was intending to run 12 Week Strength after, how would you go about actually deciding which program to run? I live in NYC, so let’s pretend I may be going approx 2 months without any barbell training. With that type of “layoff”, would there be a particular type of focus that you would recommend, pending goals of the client?
My goals have been pretty broad; I would probably rate overall health/fitness and building muscle at the top of my priorities while either maintaining weight or slightly adding, but I also do want to continue getting stronger as a secondary goal as I know still lots of room to grow there (before quarantine my e1rm maxes were: Squat: 310, DL: 385, BP: 225, OHP: 127).
I did enjoy the PBII template, although I’ve enjoyed all the BBM templates (Hypertrophy I, Endurance, PB I, HLM), but do appreciate mixing up the programs.
To recap my question to be more clear with my high-level goals above in mind:
- With the layoff/break from BB training, would you recommend training with a certain intensity/rep range over another? I.e. more benefit to trying to regain strength (more heavy singles) or muscle (say a more hypertrophy focused program)? Or does it really not matter, and is just personal preference?
- I know there are substitutes in the templates, but if I did decide to re-run PB II, any ideas to change things up a bit? Perhaps I also would like to develop my triceps more (which I’ll try and focus on a bit in the home workout templates) Thanks!