I did the main lifts as written. I literally can’t complete the accessory stuff, so I decided to YOLO it and have a bit of fun. I read a couple of reviews and most ppl seem to do the same
My 2c is that it will be more effective if you stick to the spirit of the program, if not the letter. It should be pretty easy to scale these sessions so you can do them.
I’m not Jim and I haven’t run this program, but it seems to me that there’s a very high volume of “main” lower body work being done, and therefore lower body accessories need to be minimised/cut out.
You don’t know what it used to be like, haha. The gym in the University Center is light-years better than what used to be available to the general student population (or even the varsity athletes, really).
When I started (2004), there was a gym up in Skibo that had a few machines (lat pulldown, cable crossover, etc), a dumbbell rack, two crappy benches, and one squat rack (plus a few other places on campus that had cardio equipment and a few token machines). The “varsity” weight room at the time was a basement dungeon with two decent benches, two decent squat racks, a dumbbell rack, and a few machines.
In my junior year (2006), they opened a brand new varsity weight room with significantly better barbells, plates, three full power cages, a bunch of new Hammer Strength machines, a much bigger dumbbell rack & area for their use. This was only available to the varsity athletes but I think it benefited the general student population because a lot of the old ‘varsity’ equipment (which was much better than the general student population’s gym equipment) was trickled downwards.
I think the new weight room in the University Center only opened within the last few years, and it’s MUCH bigger and nicer than what was available to the general student population a decade ago. I expect your biggest challenge will just be finding a good time for you to go that fits into your class schedule but doesn’t coincide with other times when the gym is mobbed with your fellow students. Best to find a relatively quiet time.
I’m lucky since my earliest class this semester starts at 10:30 and are all in a row so I’m done by 3 every day. I also wake up a 5:30 every morning so I can always get a lift in before most ppl are up. It sucks that the gym only opens starting at 9 on weekends though