Quote Originally Posted by mdavis6890 View Post
I'm not trying to avoid doing what is required; I am trying to find out what IS required, given the modified goal of "pretty strong" rather than "maximally strong". I've got a job, wife and 4 kids, so anything I can do to be more efficient is helpful. I also know myself, and that I will put those other priorities ahead of training if training becomes too much of a lift (pun intended).

I figure I'll milk the novice phase for as much as it's worth and then move into maintenance mode, doing again the minimum to maintain my strength at that level. Or who knows, maybe by then I'll enjoy it enough to push farther.

Since my first post I've had a couple more workouts at 145 and 155, so making progress there. I also timed myself with the prescribed proper warmups and it came to around 40min or so for the squats. I also did presses/benches, and a set of 10 chins, but no deadlifts. So maybe an hour or so all-in for that.

I also just weighed myself naked at 167, which is the most I've ever weighed, so making progress on that as well.
I think what George is saying is that if you feel like the warm ups are taking too much time right now, or that they will become an issue in the near future when you get up to 185 (or whatever weight you are thinking), you may want to re-assess if this is the right thing for you. I get wanting to shave time, but even if you did shorten your warm ups a little bit, what is going to happen when you hit 315? Inevitably you will need more warm up sets at that weight than you will right now, and you may not be able to get it all done in less than 30 mins.

Otherwise, something like a top set/drop sets scheme might work better because you could take 4 mins between your drop sets and not have many issues. You can take less time between sets right now since it is easier, but eventually you will need a little more time. That is what I do currently. But again, using my warm up scheme, 30 minutes may be a little tight. Just for an example, here is what 315 would look like for me.

Bar (55#) x5
145# x5
235# x5
255# x2
285# x1
315# x5 or whatever you were doing in your plan.
290# x5x3 (three drop sets)

This I could do in 30 minutes, since I change the bar weight and go right away between warm up sets. But you would be eating up 16 minutes on the top sets/drop sets.

At 155 it would look like this if I was coaching you:

bar (45#)
95#x5
115x3
135x1
155x3x5 *if doing SS for now. Even with 5 min breaks, this could be easily done in less than 30 mins

But again, what is pretty strong for you? If it is 225, then you can just run SS and be way under 30 mins. If it is 405, eventually you will have to do some other kind of programming structure to do it faster, instead of taking 8-10 minute breaks between work sets. Either way, bust your ass and go fast on the warm ups.