Bare Minimum Programming

[Justin Smale]

I need some help with programming. I ran the beginner program for 6 months and am pretty confident that I ran out my beginner gains as best I could. After that I switched to a 4 day style Texas Method where I mixed volume vs 5 rep maxes. Since then though, my time has become somewhat cramped and I can't find the time to do a program like that. I've been doing 4 workouts a week, but only the volume days (5x5) for each lift except the deadlift (1x5) with very minimal other work mixed in (mainly chins or pull ups when time allows). I can still follow with progression of adding weight to the bar (more on a monthly level), and I know I would be better off if I could mix volume and max effort, but time isn't allowing that right now.

So my main question is as a bare bones program, does this make sense to just do the volume days for the lifts? Is that better or worse than doing a variation of a bare bones version of a 5/3/1 program?
I'm a 35 year old guy who's never going to be huge, but I want to keep building strength as best as I can.

[Adam Skillin]

I need some help with programming. I ran the beginner program for 6 months and am pretty confident that I ran out my beginner gains as best I could. After that I switched to a 4 day style Texas Method where I mixed volume vs 5 rep maxes. Since then though, my time has become somewhat cramped and I can't find the time to do a program like that. I've been doing 4 workouts a week, but only the volume days (5x5) for each lift except the deadlift (1x5) with very minimal other work mixed in (mainly chins or pull ups when time allows). I can still follow with progression of adding weight to the bar (more on a monthly level), and I know I would be better off if I could mix volume and max effort, but time isn't allowing that right now.

So my main question is as a bare bones program, does this make sense to just do the volume days for the lifts? Is that better or worse than doing a variation of a bare bones version of a 5/3/1 program?
I'm a 35 year old guy who's never going to be huge, but I want to keep building strength as best as I can.

Height, weight, lifts?

[Justin Smale]

5'11", 170 lbs (I know, I know, I know, eat more, gain more weight, etc. but I'm comfy with my weight as long as I can slowly keep getting stronger which I am on my lifts).

Bench - 175 lbs
Press - 130 lbs
Squat - 255 lbs
Deads - 335 lbs (I'm still doing linear gains on that since I only had 300 lbs in weights for a long time so I just kept doing that weight until I bought more).

[Charlie Davies]

Have you tried a 4-day upper/lower split with 1 heavy set and lighter back-off sets?

Squat day: do a 5/3/ or 1 rep-max heavy set, then 3x5 volume, 3x5 light deadlifts
Bench day: 5/3/1rm, then 3x5 volume, 3x5 volume press alternating with sets of chins
off
Deadlift day: 5/3/1rm, then 3x5 volume, 3x5 volume squats
Press day: 5/3/1rm, then 3x5 volume, 3x5 volume bench alternating with sets of chins
off
off

Keep the volume sets light enough that you can do them with 2-3 minute rest periods, so your workouts are short.
Probably not optimal, but very simple and time-efficient.

[edit to add] Shit, Skillin is in the thread. Listen to him not me, he's a coach :-)

I'm just pimping for this sort of program because it's worked for me in the past and I'm planning to run it again starting in January...

[Adam Skillin]

At what weights did you switch to intermediate programming? What were your starting weights? Are you generally a somewhat athletic person or a not-so-athletic person?

[Adam Skillin]

Have you tried a 4-day upper/lower split with 1 heavy set and lighter back-off sets?

Squat day: do a 5/3/ or 1 rep-max heavy set, then 3x5 volume, 3x5 light deadlifts
Bench day: 5/3/1rm, then 3x5 volume, 3x5 volume press alternating with sets of chins
off
Deadlift day: 5/3/1rm, then 3x5 volume, 3x5 volume squats
Press day: 5/3/1rm, then 3x5 volume, 3x5 volume bench alternating with sets of chins
off
off

Keep the volume sets light enough that you can do them with 2-3 minute rest periods, so your workouts are short.
Probably not optimal, but very simple and time-efficient.

[edit to add] Shit, Skillin is in the thread. Listen to him not me, he's a coach :-)

I'm just pimping for this sort of program because it's worked for me in the past and I'm planning to run it again starting in January...

I prefer to have the upper days immediately precede the lower days, rather than the other way around. I don't like to bench when my whole body is tired from squats. I'd rather deal with sore pecs making it hard to get under the bar for squats.

[Justin Smale]

At what weights did you switch to intermediate programming? What were your starting weights? Are you generally a somewhat athletic person or a not-so-athletic person?

I switched off the beginner program about 4 months ago and my weights were about:

Bench - 150 lbs
Press - 110 lbs
Squat - 230 lbs
Deads - 320 lbs

[Justin Smale]

At what weights did you switch to intermediate programming? What were your starting weights? Are you generally a somewhat athletic person or a not-so-athletic person?

And I'm generally athletic. I play on a few flag football teams every year, I run to work every day (mainly because I hate transit more than I like cardio).

[Charlie Davies]

I prefer to have the upper days immediately precede the lower days, rather than the other way around. I don't like to bench when my whole body is tired from squats. I'd rather deal with sore pecs making it hard to get under the bar for squats.

Hm, good point.

[Justin Smale]

One of the kids deleted my app and the data. I went through 2 deloads on each lift after stalling out. I was also eating a lot more during the LP phase, and maybe could have seen more gains had I kept eating more. But I also got put back into the dating pool around that time (thanks divorce!) and as much as I’d like to see my max deadlift soar, I’d also like success with “da ladies”.