Hey guys, I just joined today, brand new noob. I was into bodybuilding in the late 90’s, but I liked beer and girls too much to commit to anything except…. Well, beer and girls. I lifted off and on with uninterrupted decades in between, but with a strength and endurance focus. Did crossfit, and all the things.
Fast forward a bit, and I’m 45. After my army career, I had some pretty serious injuries. I had my shoulder rebuilt in 2020, L4,L5,S1 fusion in June, and a partial knee replacement in September. So, I’ve been on my back for most of the last 6 months. I’ve been back in the gym and eating well for about 8 weeks now. My reclaimed newbie gains are coming back so fast it’s shocking. I’m taking 250mg cyp per week, and have been for about 6 months. About 3 weeks ago I hired a bodybuilding coach that some of my friends have been using for a few years. He whips me up a program, and it’s pretty simple, but it will lead to my question. It’s 3 days of lifting, 2 days cardio, 2 days rest. On the 3 lift days, it is all failure sets. 43 failure sets per week to be precise. Rep ranges typically in the 10-15 rep range, as much weight as possible, every set to failure. I was pretty concerned when I saw it, but he’s the expert, so I went for it. I’ve been lifting long enough to understand true failure, so I was even going to half sets and rest sets to attain true failure. After week 1, my joints were beat up, lower back pain, not great recovery. Week 2, same program. I shrugged and did it again. Serious inflammation, joints suck, sluggish, losing strength etc. I forgot to mention that he had me at a 800-1000 calorie deficit per day. When the third week rolled around a couple nights ago and he hadn’t changed the program, I went at him about the failure volume and asked him if he had some sort of literature to justify that many failure sets (43 per week), consecutive days, consecutive weeks, 10 exercises total repeated 1 day upper, 1 day lower, 1 day full body. He didn’t even seem to understand what I was asking. It got heated and I told him to kick rocks. Was I wrong, or was this guy going to injure me with a stupid program? Thank you in advance for your responses.