Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, everyone. Happy New Year. Welcome to Lift Big. My name is Ashiem. Today I got a question
from Nate, who wants to get back to strength training. He's taken, ah, a hiatus for a year.
Well, not really a hiatus. His training has been very, very inconsistent. Ah, other things
in life have caught up with him, so, he's...he hasn't trained consistently for a whole year.
And, he wants to get back into training, and question is, ah, how is he going to get back
to getting strong again? I've trained Nate, before, in the past. So, before I even begin,
ah, prescribing, you know, a workout routine or a progression scheme for him, I just wanna,
make sure you're aware that ah...for a lot of people when I...when they ask me that ah...Ashiem,
how do you...what training should I do, or what should I base my training off right now,
I always, ah...I'm a little skeptical when they give me their numbers. Because, I'm not
sure whether their form is gonna hold up with more maximal ah, end lifting. So, I can understand
that maybe their form is OK, for example squatting 225 for reps, but then I'm not sure whether,
ah, if I was to make them take 275 if that form is gonna hold up. But with Nate, I'm
confident in his form, at least at this stage, because ah, he's trained under me in the past.
So, having said that, ah, I'll just give you Nate's numbers. Ah, Nate has, uh, Nate doesn't
really know what his bench or overhead press is at right now. He's got shoulder injuries
and lower back injuries. So, we have to take that into account with his training. He has...he
does back squats with 245 pounds for ten reps, 3 sets. And ah, he does deadlifts with 255
pounds for 3 sets of 5 reps. That's where he is right now. Well, where he was when he
trained last, but that's over...in the last few months, this is what he's done. He can
also do a few bodyweight pullups. So, here's what I suggest. The way I see it, Nate has
two options. He can either train four times a week, or three times a week. Ah, because
Nate has had issues with being consistent in his training, I don't really recommend
him training four times a week right from the get-go. I think he should start with three
times a week, because it's easier to get into this slowly. So, he should start with training
three times a week and then if...if he's able to dedicate more and more time to training,
ah, and if his real-life issues make way, or give him room to train, then he can always
throw in a fourth workout. So, essentially, the way I like to look at it is that he should
train four big lifts. He should train the deadlift, squat, bench press, and overhead
press. Well these are the...he, like me, loves the deadlift. But in any case, these are the
four big lifts that I think are important. But, ah, given that he's gonna train three
times a week, I think he should just knock out bench press for now. He should just, ah,
stick to deadlifts, ah squats - cause he likes back squats, not front squats - so deadlifts,
back squats, and overhead press. So, initially his training should just be the Honeymoon
Period. I know, I love the Honeymoon Period. I think it's the, ah, it's one of Eric's best
programming articles that he's written, best programming schemes. So, basically, what he
should be doing is, he's...he has one day allocated for each one of these big lifts.
And then, maybe four weeks down the line, he throws in a bunch of exercises which are
important to getting strong. He just...just to give ya'll an idea, because at the end
of the day Nate has to play around with this stuff and see what works for him. So, if he's
doing Honeymoon Period...and I'm gonna make a note on that later, but I'll just get to
the other fun stuff that's gonna come first. So, because initially for the first four weeks
his training will be very very boring, in the sense that it's just one lift per day,
three days a week. In the course of the whole week, he's only doing three lifts, and that's
it. I...I actually look at that as a lot of fun time [smiling, laughing] but, each to
his own. So, he's gonna take...after four weeks he's gonna be adding in a bunch of,
ah, assistance work. A hate using these labels, but just to make things simple. He's gonna
be doing, ah...he should do a unilateral leg exercise. So, I think, uh, lunges or step-ups
are in order. I personally prefer step-ups. So I think he should do one of these after
his deadlift workout. After his deadlifts, sorry. On his...on his deadlift day. On his
overhead press day, he should be doing some pullups and also some rows, some heavy dumbbell
rows, or cable rows. And then on his squat day, he should do squat and then he should
do something for his posterior chain like ah, a glute-ham...ah, swiss ball glute-ham
raises, ah, supine glute-ham raises, or maybe an actual glute-ham raise which if he has
it at his disposal then he should do that. Ah, or he, or he should do cable pullthroughs.
I love cable pullthroughs, so, I'm gonna give special preference to that. Initially, a lot
of people take Honeymoon Period as a very boring thing, but it's not really boring at
all. You're supposed to start with...at a certain weight, and then you're supposed to
slowly slowly work up. So, it's a numbers game, at the end of the day. Let's say that
right now Nate has a back squat of 245 for ten reps and three sets. We don't real...I'm
not sure whether Nate can really do this at this very moment, but I...but I know that
this is what Nate has done in the past. In the recent past. So his last squat workout,
this year...a few months ago...was, uh, 245 pounds for three sets of ten. Essentially,
he would start working by taking the bar, cranking out three or four reps, and, the
thing is...I know...I just want to make a note of this...that always, no matter how
strong you are, if you're training under me, I always say that you should start with the
bar first in your warmups, because it tends to make you understand whether or not something
is off. You can iron out certain tweaks from the get-go because you're made aware of it.
So, you should just to through the motions with the bar. Take it seriously. The bar is...is
important. It's the first set of your warmups. So take it seriously. So, he's gonna take
to..ah, 45 pounds, which is the bar, for let's say three or four reps. He may do one or two
sets with that. Then he can take 45 on each side, so he's gonna take 135, and do, ah,
three, four reps. Then take 155..or he can take 145 first then go to 155 for three, four
reps. Then 165, 175, 185, 195...he can work up like that. There's flexibility. So he can
work up like that to say, 225 for three. And then he can stop, because he feels that, OK,
so today I've done enough. I'm going to stop here. Next week, when he comes back, he can
try to beat these numbers. So, it's not really important for him to beat the numbers right
from the get-go, but, at the end of his workout if he did 225 for three last time, he can
do 225 for four today, or he can do 225 for two sets of three, or he can do 235 for three.
Or, he can just do 2...or he can just do 225 for three, and then 235 for one. All this
is fair game. So the option is with him to keep increasing, ah, his numbers. So, I don't
want...so, Nate, if you're...when yo...when you watch this, I want you to understand,
don't look at the Honeymoon Period as a way for you to get back to your old strength levels.
It's actually a way for you to be...to pass through them. So, you want to finish with
2...with whatever numbers you used to hit before. Make them as part of your work sets.
And then at a...at a certain point, I think from my expectations it'll probably...probably
be between 275 and 300. Or maybe even more. But, whenever it is that the Honeymoon Period
stops working...you're not able to use it to your advantage, and, at that time then
you can throw in something like SDT progression or whatever...we can re-evaluate at that stage.
Not right now. We can't plan so far ahead. So, I think for a few months, at least, the
Honeymoon Period will be more than sufficient, and it gives...because of the flexible nature
of the program, I just happened to mention that adding ten pounds to the bar every, ah,
every set as an increment...but, you don't have to stick to that. You can waiv..we can
waiver it. The article, which I've linked below, has all this information in it. So...and
the idea is that as you do this program, as you work along these lines, you will start
understanding the movement better, and you'll grow into the lift. So, you...you automatically
realize that, oh, OK, so if I'm doing 245 for reps right now, I can't do, I can do 275
for a single or two, but my goal is that I want work within the 245 to 275 range and
really really dominate it. So I...I wanna build volume and handle better, more workload
and I want...I wanna get stronger over here. So you'll do that. You can adjust the program
to make it fit, ah, those lines. And that's the beauty of the Honeymoon Period. So you
should do that for main lifts with the a...with the assistance work that I mentioned. Um,
for the unilateral leg work you should do two to three sets...maybe even three to four
sets. Two to four sets is a good, ah, estimate. You can...there's no need to be very very
rigid about this. But you do two to four sets of, ah, five to ten reps, so step-ups are
cool, you should do a lot of step-ups. They help. And then you should do ah, for pullups
it should be five sets to failure. For the dumbbell rows you should do another five sets.
Ah, varying the rep ranges. Ah, seeing...just seeing what you like. Ah, you should do...you
should work both ends of the spectrum. You should be able to do heavy work in less than
five reps, and you should be able to crank out thirteen plus reps as well. You shouldn't
just get stuck at one end. So, practice on both sides, at both...at both ends of the
spectrum. Ah, for the swiss ball glute-ham raises or the cable pullthroughs: higher reps,
more than ten. Ah, probably more than twelve. And you can every week, you can try to add
a rep, do three to four sets over there. And ah, yeah, that's about it. It starts off ah...I
like starting off small. Very very few exercises. You add in more as you go along. And then,
at some point in the future when you're...when you're switching things up in terms of your
progression on your big lifts...ah, because at the end of the day, Nate is a deadlift
guy. There's no need to train the deadlift and the squat with the same level of intensity.
Ah, and aggressiveness, basically. Intensity is fine, but there's no need be so aggressive
withe the volume and stuff, so as you switch things up a little bit you can rearrange it.
Maybe in the future you can ah, squat...you can do your heavy deadlifts and then you can
do light front squats or back squats after that. And then on your deadlift...on your
squat day you can do your squats then you can throw in a little bit of a deadlift variation.
So all these options that open up. But this is just to get you started and get you good
at it, for now. So, thank you very much for watching. Good luck, Nate. And ah, please
subscribe to my channel, everyone. Thanks a lot.