I am starting up after a long long layoff. Its been two years since I trained consistently. I am running into problems with designing a program because of work capacity.
My body cant handle multiple sets without fatigue or burning out. So for instance doing 5 times 5 program, or one six is not even possible at this point.
I have been doing 1to 2 working sets and 1 two 2 warm ups. in the rep range of 6 to 8. I no its weak, but I didn’t know what else to do.
So chest and back looked like this:
incline dbs 2 working sets
pull downs supinated ( cant chin yet) 2 working sets
incline barbell to working sets 6-8
hammer row to working sets 6-8.
Any Ideas, i’m doing c\b, legs, off shoulders arms\ off off repeat
would you put your lowerback on leg or back day if i’m squating i wouldn’t do it on chest back day?
1 - Don’t worry about you being too weak. You haven’t worked out in a while. Go balls out with what you can do. Two sets sure is little, but if you can’t drop down to just one easy warm-up set and three sets of 5-6, stick to what you can do. What matters most is your dedication to upping your strength.
2 - Incorporate more leg-work. One lower body day and three upper body days isn’t very ideal.
3 - I speak from experience on this one: try to work on just the big, compound lifts. This is good for a number of reasons for someone in your shoes. First of all, you haven’t worked out in a while. You probably need to work out your whole body, and as many muscles as you can at once. Furthermore, you say yourself you don’t have much endurance. A four-day body split requires in general higher sets with higher reps. With three full-body workouts a week, using big compound lifts, you can focus more on lower reps and sets, but bigger weights. I think it’s ideal for someone in your situation.
After a layoff, I just do a full-body workout a couple times a week for a few weeks. This is using mostly compound movement lifts and gradually upping intensity. After the 2nd or 3rd week, I start making a “real” routine.
There is no reason to make yourself overly sore when starting back.
[quote]4est wrote:
After a layoff, I just do a full-body workout a couple times a week for a few weeks. This is using mostly compound movement lifts and gradually upping intensity. After the 2nd or 3rd week, I start making a “real” routine.
There is no reason to make yourself overly sore when starting back.[/quote]
I’m just starting back this week after 6 weeks off after surgery. I feel out of shape and my abs are still tender and sore. I started ABBH on Monday, but the 10x3 just didn’t feel right - I need something more basic and a little easier for a couple of weeks. Here’s what I came up with if you’re interested. Good luck!
Monday (3x10)
pushups/bench press
military press
lunges
hammer curls
You’ll probably want to get your work capacity up, get your heart moving. Try some form of full-body circuit training with low rest periods. It doesn’t need to be heavy, just make it as dense as possible.
I had to take two years off. When I came back, I chose to do a machine circuit. This worked well. I always hated using machines. So, when I stopped getting so sore, I moved into compound lifts and all the good stuff.
This is a good opportunity to reprogram your body and take the time to get the movements down right.