Hey guys,
I’ve got some training/programming related questions. I finished my novice LP in August 2018 (squat 140kg, bench 80kg, press 60kg, deadlift 135kg all 3x5), then in September I began rowing and dropped barbell training, spending most of my time on the water and rowing machines to get my endurance up.
Now however I want to get back to barbell training to assist my rowing. As rowing is a power-endurance sport I can commit about 3 sessions a week to barbell training and can afford to carry more weight than most endurance sports. But spending about 7-8 hours a week on the water and rowing machine means I carry around a lot of fatigue, and if I start a novice LP again don’t think I could add weight as quickly as novice LP demands.
So, should I just add weight on a weekly basis until that’s no longer possible, then follow an rpe based program? Or just begin with an rpe based program?
Any suggestions welcome, thanks!
The NLP is generally considered here to be non ideal, especially on the tail end, but it is a decent place to start.
Because I’m not the best programmer, if I were in your shoes, I would start an “LP” to get back into the gym, with the expectation that it would be just to get started and re-introduced to the barbell movements, and the “progression” part might be truncated, especially if I started with relatively high weights compared to when I was an actual novice. Then I would try to switch to something RPE based like The Bridge before I missed any reps.
With your heavy recovery investment in cardio, do expect that no matter what you do under the bar, your GainzZz in the big 3 won’t be what they would be if you were doing more moderate cardio. But if you prefer to prioritize the rowing because that’s your thing, that’s great, and in the long term, the RPE based programming paradigm will be much better tailored to maximizing the GainzZz you can get within the limits of those training goals.
Edit: I wasn’t qued in on it until just now but Jordan also has a specific Endurance Template that might be right up your alley.
Hi Chazman - another rower here, albeit just on the erg.
I would let go of the results with barbell training if it isn’t your primary focus. the important thing is to maintain practice with the movements so that they don’t contribute a lot of fatigue.
the basics of a program that will work for rowing would be:
2-3x sessions a week 30-45 minutes a session
2-3 big lifts/session
3-6 reps/set
3-6 sets per exercise
2-5 minutes rest between working sets.
You should learn and practice RPE for your lifting - you don’t have to start an LP over again. your working sets should end up between 65-85% of your estimated 1rm, and you should leave 1-4 reps in reserve (i.e. an RPE of 6-9).
Does that make sense?