Limit Rack/Equipment Time

[Drone]

Hi Andy,

I lift during peak gym hours in a single rack commercial gym. The majority of people tend to be into BB/Fitness and are usually done with their lifts much quicker. Having to do 5x5 on 8-10 minutes rest is seen as bad gym etiquette and people get annoyed having to alter their workouts. Doing my warm-up ahead of my next lift and having to occupy two pieces of equipment isn't that practical either. So what's the best way for an intermediate to keep VD Rack/Bench time at 25 min. max? Total session time is not that much of an issue.

Not to be lazy I scraped the forum for idea's and found this:
DE (2 repsx12min. EMOM)
2-3sets BB Bench press/Press + 2-3 sets DB Bench press/Press
Descending sets
Back-off sets
Top set 6-9 reps + 12 min AMRAP same load in 3 rep sets
5x5 Top set (no warm-up needed)

Cheers

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I know. It sucks. That's why so many people are ditching these types of gyms if they are into barbell training. It's a better investment to carve out a corner of your garage with a good rack and just train at home. Or perhaps find a Crossfit gym that has some open gym hours for you to go and use their racks.

You are right though. You can't hog the rack for 30+ minutes. Can you go at like 1pm? Gyms usually empty in the early afternoon

[I_iz_a_fatass]

If other gym-goers don't have the brains to ask to work in, fuck'em.

[Drone]

I know. It sucks. That's why so many people are ditching these types of gyms if they are into barbell training. It's a better investment to carve out a corner of your garage with a good rack and just train at home. Or perhaps find a Crossfit gym that has some open gym hours for you to go and use their racks.

You are right though. You can't hog the rack for 30+ minutes. Can you go at like 1pm? Gyms usually empty in the early afternoon

The gym opens at 09.00 and work starts at 08.30 till 17.00. I understand my gym is a very suboptimal training environment and is not the way to go long term but I'm still under contract for quite a few months. A home gym would be sweet but the noise production from deadlifting in my basement could become a problem with my neighbors since I live in an apartment complex.

So any advice on the most beneficial rep/set/rest set up I could use in those 25 min. per lift? A 5x5 is 32 min. just in rest alone.

If other gym-goers don't have the brains to ask to work in, fuck'em.

Works for a while. Then you're that guy.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Fastest route is an ascending 5x5 protocol that work up to one top set of 5. I like a % based approach. So say that your top workset for the day is 300x5. You go backward by 10% increments until you get your 5 "work sets" and then you still might have to have a few warm up sets in between the first workset and the bar, but you can move through all of that really fast. Basically just enough rest to change plates on the barbell. Then take a full 5-8 minutes between worksets 4 and 5.

Like this:

300x5
270x5
240x5
215x5
195x5
135x5
45x5