Barbell Prescription HLM Programming Question

[Dr.B.]

I'm a 49 year old intermediate lifter getting ready to start on the HLM program, as outlined in The Barbell Prescription. I'm going with the straightforward Program 6A (on page 255) which is as follows:

Heavy Day (M):
Squat 4x5
Bench 4 x 5
Deadlift 1 x 5

Light Day (W):
Squat 2 x 5 (90%)
Press 3 x 5

Medium Fay (F):
Squat 1-3 x 5 (95%)
Bench 1-3 x 5 (95%)
Chins 3 x 8-10

I have three questions about this program that I'm sure you more experienced lifters will be able to give me some advice about:

1) 1 x 5 on deadlift once per weeks seems like very little pulling. Would adding in a deadlift variant - I'm thinking of adding trap bar deadlift (to spare my sometimes iffy low back) at 1 x 5 at 90% on the Medium day. Does that seem reasonable, or would something else be better?

2) Should I be including accessory work, or will the training stress of the program be enough as it is? (And even if accessory work might be good, would it be wise to go a few weeks without it to see how I feel?)

3) Friday would be somewhat better as my 'heavy' day. Would it likely make much of a difference if I modified the program to make it Monday = Light, Wednesday = Medium, Friday = heavy, or would the medium day be too close to the heavy day in that setup. (In which case I guess I'd need to make Saturday my heavy day.)

Thanks very much for your advice.

[Dlk93]

1) 1 x 5 on deadlift once per weeks seems like very little pulling. Would adding in a deadlift variant - I'm thinking of adding trap bar deadlift (to spare my sometimes iffy low back) at 1 x 5 at 90% on the Medium day. Does that seem reasonable, or would something else be better?

If you find that the pulling volume is insufficient to drive progress, then add volume. You could just add another set of deadlifts on heavy day, or do 2 back off sets after your top set of 1x5 with a 10%ish reduction. That would all make heavy day a little more taxing than it already is, so you might benefit from just putting in another pulling variant on your light day as you suggested. You'll have to answer which is better for yourself, but those are some more options for you. In any event, you may want to hold off modifying anything until your sure that more volume is needed. Don't fix what ain't broke, eh?

2) Should I be including accessory work, or will the training stress of the program be enough as it is? (And even if accessory work might be good, would it be wise to go a few weeks without it to see how I feel?)

Include what you want and see what you can get away with recovery-wise. We can't tell you what to want and can't know exactly how much accessory work you can get away with, but if you want to add in some curls or upper back work, I'm sure you won't die.

3) Friday would be somewhat better as my 'heavy' day. Would it likely make much of a difference if I modified the program to make it Monday = Light, Wednesday = Medium, Friday = heavy, or would the medium day be too close to the heavy day in that setup. (In which case I guess I'd need to make Saturday my heavy day.)

Why can't you do Medium, Light, Heavy? What's the reason for wanting to switch it up?

[OZ-USF-UFGator]

Add 10 x 3 pendaly rows in your mid day?

[Brian Goldstein]

1- 1-3 total back off sets on heavy day would best. In this set up, the stress is concentrated on heavy day, so adding there is the preferred option. If you know that you need the extra practice pulling on the floor, move the chins to light day and add 1-3 sets x5 @90% of the heavy day’s weight on medium day.

2- if you don’t know what accessories you’d choose, why they would be beneficial, or where you’d put them, don’t.

3- MLH would be better than LHM, but HLM is best because you’re concentrating the stress after the longest period of recovery.

[bbuszard]

1) 1 x 5 on deadlift once per weeks seems like very little pulling.

I found I did need more pulling. I have an upper-back exercise on light day and lower-back on medium day (chins and rdls currently).

3) Friday would be somewhat better as my 'heavy' day.

I'd say go for it. I've done the program with the 2-day break in various places and it usually works out fine.

[chrisza]

You don't have to do all your heavy lifts in the same session. You can squat heavy mon, bench/press heavy weds and dl heavy on fri as an example. Andy Baker's Garage Gym Warrior uses this method and has worked great for me. I never feel beat up from a single workout.

[Brian Goldstein]

You don't have to do all your heavy lifts in the same session. You can squat heavy mon, bench/press heavy weds and dl heavy on fri as an example. Andy Baker's Garage Gym Warrior uses this method and has worked great for me. I never feel beat up from a single workout.

this is a good point and GGW is excellent. The big difference is exactly what chrisza points out - the stress is distributed across the sessions, as opposed to concentrated on just the heavy day.

Both set ups work well.

[Dr.B.]

I like breaking things up that way, but I thought it wasn't advisable because it wouldn't provide enough recovery time. If that's not the case, would the sort of program you're talking about look something like this:

Monday:
Heavy Squat
Medium Bench (95%)
Light Deadlift
Chins

Wednesday:
Heavy Bench
Light Squat (90%)
Press

Friday:
Heavy Deadlift
Medium Squat (95%)
Light Bench (90%)

[Brian Goldstein]

Basically. consider:

Mon:
Heavy SQ
Medium Press
Medium DL

Wed:
Light Squat
Heavy Bench
Chins

Fri:
Medium Squat
Heavy Press
Heavy DL

[Brian Goldstein]

Or, flip the Bench and Pressing for which ever you want to focus on.