Getting back to Barbell Training
There’s an infinite number of reasons for having time out of the gym and although this feels most relevant now, it’s not confined to only this specific situation…
If you’re reading this 3 or 4 years from now… we’re into week 15 or so of a health pandemic where the gyms have been shut for the full duration and are about to reopen in around 10 days time.
Secondly, I’m a strength coach and a lot of my audience compete in strength sports that rely heavily on maximal strength over one rep, so thats where I’m going to be coming from while writing this article.
Thirdly, if you don’t compete in strength sports and you generally just enjoy going to the gym, my advice is that when you’re ready to get back in the gym forget about your maxes. Focus on great technique, get the reps in, get conditioned to lifting and enjoy it. Start with higher reps, work to lower reps and do it across 6, 8 or even 10 weeks. You’ll be back where you were quicker than you think.
Lastly, I didn’t come up with this and can’t take full credit for it. Its partly a Greg Nuckols progression that I’ve used at certain times in programs, liked and modified a little for myself and my athletes.
The Problem
So, you’re a strength athlete. You’ve had time out from the gym and you’re ready to make a come back, what should you do?
Realistically your ‘Maxes’ aren’t going to be your maxes any more and running a program based off them straight away probably wouldn’t be advisable for either your physical wellbeing or, knowing what strength athletes are like, your mental health.
At the same time, as long as you’ve stayed active and kept moving and not just ‘slobbed’ about for 15 weeks… Im looking at you Powerlifters… you’re most likely going to gain a lot of what you’ve lost back fairly quickly. So, running a full percentage based block probably isn’t going to serve you very well either and will most likely limit your progress on the way back to full strength.
So as you can see, we kind of have a problem where we’re not where we were at, but will also progress to quickly for a traditional percentage based program, but don’t fear! I’m here to outline a way to get back as quick as possible while doing it sensibly.
I say ‘outline’ because I’m not going to give you a whole program and instead i’ll be giving you a a progression to implement into whatever structure fits you and your sport best.
Your sport relies on singles
If your sport relies on singles inevitably your going to have to do singles to get good at your sport…
You wouldn’t attempt to become good at football without kicking a ball and the same goes for the barbell.
Its one of the reasons I have singles in my programs in some way for those who compete regardless of training phase and its why I have a big Saturday with my weightlifting club.
Being strong is as much about practice and knowing how to express the strength you’ve acquired as it is about actually being strong, so heavy (not maximal) singles scattered in to training is a good way to keep hold of and develop the skill as well as helping the transition between training blocks.
Its also why, as long as my athletes don’t trash themselves and are far enough away from competition, I don’t mind them going rogue every now and again if they’re feeling good.
Singles and RPE
Singles aren’t just a great way to ‘test’ and practice though, when programmed with an RPE target they can help recalibrate where you’re at in your program, or even just what you can do that day, which is exactly what we’ll use them for here…
Sorry weightlifters. RPE isn’t relevant for the Snatch or C&J, although you can just hit a heavy single with perfect technique in place of the 8RPE, so read on and this could benefit you too.
If you don’t know what RPE is its the ‘Rate of Perceived Exertion’ also sometimes known as RIR or ‘Reps in Reserve’. Go research it if you need to, its a fairly simple concept but sometimes hard to implement.
So in a perfect world a Single with at 8RPE (two left in the tank) would usually be around 90% of your max, it might be 88% for bigger stronger guys and it might be 93% for smaller, or female athletes but 90% is a good start point.
This means that, although the numbers will shift from session to session we can hit a single at 8RPE and confidently know that you’re around 90% of your max for that day.
So, the first thing to do within this progression is hit that Single at 8RPE and then work out what your daily max would be which will allow you to run a percentage based program for the rest of the sets of that movement, and give you something thats relevant to where you’re currently at in that moment of time.
If your after the maths its:
Weight on the bar / 90 = Z
Z x 100 = Max (Or your max for that day)
Technique Practise and Volume
While going close to failure is great for muscle growth, the thought is that its not overly important in terms of strength as there’s now a growing body of research that strength development is predominantly about getting enough practice in with heavy enough weights. This means that working sub maximally for more sets and more quality reps should probably be the goal over taking each set to failure or technical breakdown.
When we talk about ‘heavy enough weights’ we’re talking between the 70% to 90% threshold, as researched by V.M. Zatsiorsky where he observed average training loads of USSR olympic athletes in the run up to the 1988 Olympics.
Yes, I’m aware its weightlifting and thats not necessarily what we’re talking about. In my experience the programming works predominantly the same and it’s the rep ranges that usually change.
With that in mind, once you’ve got your heavy single in and calibrated the max you’re working off that day, its time to practice and get the volume in.
You should be aiming for 5 to 7 working sets total per session and just like in a percentage based program, advance the relative percentage each week. I say relative because we’re basing there numbers off the single you did that session.
Personally, although you’re basing things off your single that day and the literature says to work from 70% upwards in terms of strength training, I’d still recommend starting low and would start at 60% of your estimated max in week 1 for your technique practice and volume sets to keep things safe and not too strenuous as you work into it.
The progression i’d go with would look something like this.
Week 1: 60% x5 to 7 Reps
Week 2: 65% x4 to 6 Reps
Week 3: 70% x3 to 5 Reps
Week 4: 75% x2 to 4 Reps
Week 5: 80% x2 to 3 Reps
Week 6: Deload
Once that first 6 week cycle is complete, you have a couple of options, you can either start over adding 2.5% to each of the weeks above, look to add reps, or go into a fully fledged completely separate program.
Which one you choose really depends on your goals and priorities.
Last Set
Lastly, we’ll be doing an all out set to failure.
This is because a bigger muscle has the potential to be a stronger muscle and taking it close to failure is the best way to grow. Its also important to recruit those biggest, strongest, fastest, high threshold motor units, which is something that you won’t do in the bulk of your working sets.
The number you’ll get, or should aim for, will depend on a few factors including how well you recover between sets and how your technique holds up, but starting at a goal of double whatever the reps were in your volume work isn’t a bad place to start.
Finally, when I say ‘failure’ I mean technical failure… its no good lifting like shit and putting yourself in harms way if you have a weak point. Build it with targeted assistance movements, its much safer and you’ll have a much nicer time.
Putting it all together
That is a lot, but its not that complicated. Below is an example of how I would write it out in one of my programs.
If you’re doing 2 main compounds in the same session, its advisable to do a ‘Lower’ movement and an ‘Upper’ movement to get the most out of the session, rather than two uppers or two lowers, but its fully flexible and can bend it to how you want.
The beauty of this is you’ll cover your bases while getting sufficient volume and technique practise for where you are CURRENTLY, which will allow you to progress much quicker and safer back to where you were without running yourself into the ground.
The whole framework works for any movement that would be loaded normally and also works for auxiliary movements.
Auxiliary Movements
If you are using it for auxiliary movements, just work at a lower percentage with higher reps.
I usually go for around 2 to 3 reps extra and 10% lower than my main movements rep and percentage scheme while also limiting total sets to 4 or 5.
I’d also miss out the Single and just estimate what you could do on it.
As an example, week 1 for auxiliary movements would be:
Week 1: 50% x 7 to 10 Reps with a 14+ rep set to failure.
Structure
If you’re stuck for a structure and want to make it easy on yourself, most 5x5 style program layouts will work well. There’s millions of them for free out there, just find one that works for you and apply this loading progression to it.
Assistance
Not much to write here, if you’re running this on your way back keep the assistance to a minimum until you know how you’re recovering, but at the same time cover your bases.
This means rear delts, rotator cuff, vertical pull and horizontal pull work, you could maybe throw in some tricep work if you really wanted, but I wouldn’t advise much else, at least initially.
Variations
As a note on variations and using them as a main movement.
You don’t have to use the competition / classic movement as your main movement and using a variation for the first block of 5 to 6 weeks is probably a pretty decent idea as it will naturally decrease the overall load you can use, and as a by product overall fatigue, while also keeping you working hard.
When I talk about variations don’t get confused, I’m not talking about a partial deadlift from above the knee that you could lift more with. I’m talking about movements that are close enough to the competition / classic movement that you’ll still gain efficiency, skill and strength on the main movement but with a stipulation that will naturally limit intensity.
With that said, tempo’s and pauses are ideal if you’re going down that route.
A Final Note
If you’ve had time out of the gym and away from the barbell, or your sport for any reason, you’ll not pick up exactly where you left off no matter how hard you try and how much you worked on other things… Its just part of the laws of specificity in training.
Theres also always more than one way to do things when it comes to training and this isn’t the only way to ramp up and get back into it… Its just a way to do it that follows the basic principles of progressive overload while not taxing the body too much, or too early.
I think i’ve said everything I wanted to say here, so i’ll leave it there with this last bit so it sticks in your head…
I would highly advise not overshooting your single for the sake of a couple of kilos, and in all honesty, if you’re not going to get it right you’re better undershooting. Just take whats there, get on with the rest of the session, and focus on technique over everything else.
It all comes back quick and you’ll be back where you were quicker than you think.
Adam Johnston, 11th May 2020 (Edited 14th July 2020)