"Training Week" or frequency question

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

First, many thanks for the quality products put out by the BBM team.

After years of periods of strict adherence to a training block followed by periods of complete complacency leading to extended periods of non-training, I’ve been working (again) through the Beginner Template and seeing good success. I’m a 42 yo male, and just beginning ph2 of the template with lifts of S (320x4), B (175x4) and DL (350x4) OHP (130x4).

I’m continually working to improve my training consistency to get to strict adherence to the template as programmed, but rather than continually restarting from ph1, I’ve been approaching my training schedule such that if I only get two strength sessions one week, I simply do the third session from the training week on the next week and keep it moving. This takes what should be completed in a 7-day training week and stretches it out over as much as two weeks. I acknowledge this will slow my progression over time, but as of yet still allows me to progress.

My question is whether this is adequate, and I should keep going, or is there a max amount of time between sessions (either between training days 1 and 2 of the same training week, or between training day 1 from subsequent training weeks) that will still allow progress? For now it seems to be working, but I expect later phases of the beginner template or future templates may stop working. Knowing that doing the program as programmed is ideal, how much should I beat myself up over stretching it out vs rigid compliance?

Thanks again,
Rich

2

Rich,

Thanks for the kind words and the feedback, That’s great.

If I understand correctly, you’re wondering how detrimental it is to do 2 sessions some weeks and 3 sessions another week. I suppose you may even do 4 sessions on 1 week as a sort of catch-up. Ultimately, I don’t think this matters much for health provided a similar number of sessions are done per month.* For maximum performance, it’s going to be difficult to get enough training volume in with fewer sessions in a month. I don’t suspect adhering to a specific schedule has much impact though.

  • I don’t know that training stress is equilibrated, that is, fully realized and transformed into fitness adaptations or dissipated as fatigue, in 1 month. I made this up. I suspect it’s likely a bit longer…maybe 6-10 weeks or more.
3

Thanks, Jordan, and yes, exactly. Rather than repeating training weeks from the beginning if I miss a session in a given week (as I used to), I’ve just hit the next session in the program at the next opportunity to keep it moving. This means sometimes I may have a heavy squat on Monday one week, but may not hit the heavy squat again until the following Wed or something. I know this is not ideal, but it has kept my mind right and feeling good about making progress in the program. Getting the right amount of training volume over a given month will be the primary goal, as I continue to work to improve my overall program adherence.

Thanks again!
-Rich

4

Sounds fine to me!