New Rules of Lifting

21 years old
6’3" 205 lbs
Lifting exp: 6-7 months

I’ve been training on New Rules of Lifting: Hypertrophy I for the past 6 weeks sporadically(vacation for 1.5 weeks), but I’ve gotten my lifting schedule down.

Here’s the workout I typically have:

A
Dumbbell incline press(3x5)
Cable-seated row(3x5)
-------------------superset rest 90 seconds
Overhead dumbbell press(3x5)
Lat pulldown(3x5)
-------------------superset rest 90 seconds
Smith machine narrow-grip bench press(3x5)
High pull(3x5)
-------------------superset rest 90 seconds
Swiss ball crunch(3x15)

B
Squat(3x5)
Deadlift(3x5)
-------------------superset rest 90 seconds
Bulgarian split squat(2x5)
Step-up(2x5)
-------------------superset rest 90 seconds
Reverse crunch(3x15)

I try to workout 3x per week(ABA or BAB).

I have seen gains during this program, however my legs become very tired after B - lifted on Monday with B and my legs are still a bit sore, i.e. not hurt but sore!

Evaluate my current program that I’ll do for the next 5 weeks.

Also, if anyone has done NROL, tell me about your experiences with it - the workouts seem to be very long(which is a problem for me because I only usually spare 1 hour in my day for lifting).

bump

help me out!

You can’t do all that in an hour? With 90s of rest between supersets, you shouldn’t have a problem doing all that in an hour. If you are going with Lou’s recommended warm up, that should only take 10-15 minutes and then you have 45 minutes to do all of that and cool down.

That is more than enough time. Of course, I could be missing something that you are doing. You may want to re-read the recommendations and see if you are doing what the book says.

I’ve never tried 3x5, but the primary thing to look at is what your goals are.

If you intend to get stronger lift between 1-5 reps with 80% of your max and higher.

If you intend to pack on more muscle well, eat alot of food.

I just recently bumped my calorie intake up from 2000-3000 to 4000-4200 and have gained three pounds in one week.

[quote]Arioch wrote:
You can’t do all that in an hour? With 90s of rest between supersets, you shouldn’t have a problem doing all that in an hour. If you are going with Lou’s recommended warm up, that should only take 10-15 minutes and then you have 45 minutes to do all of that and cool down.

That is more than enough time. Of course, I could be missing something that you are doing. You may want to re-read the recommendations and see if you are doing what the book says.[/quote]

I can fit A into one hour, but typically my legs become very sore after consecutive squats and deadlifts, so I take a longer break(2 minutes).

[quote]SpadeK wrote:
Arioch wrote:
You can’t do all that in an hour? With 90s of rest between supersets, you shouldn’t have a problem doing all that in an hour. If you are going with Lou’s recommended warm up, that should only take 10-15 minutes and then you have 45 minutes to do all of that and cool down.

That is more than enough time. Of course, I could be missing something that you are doing. You may want to re-read the recommendations and see if you are doing what the book says.

I can fit A into one hour, but typically my legs become very sore after consecutive squats and deadlifts, so I take a longer break(2 minutes).

[/quote]

You have been doing this program for six weeks(4.5) with a 1.5 week break somewhere in the middle, and you wonder why legs are sore? During the other 4 months that you lifted, did you work the legs hard or did you sometimes skip them?

This is probably the first time that you have worked your legs in an intense manner in your life. It takes a bit of time for them to get used to the intense training after 21 years of just moving your body from place to place. So of course they will be stiff/sore between workouts. They will get better over time, you will be rewarded for the pain, be patient.

I am sure you can budget an extra 10-15 minutes of time for schedule B, or you must be the busiest 21 year old in the history of mankind.

If you must do 2 minutes between sets, by all means do it, or you could man up and do the 90 seconds that the program was designed around. This stuff is not rocket science, but is isn’t supposed to be easy, either.

Good Luck