Lol.

After I posted, I was thinking staying more upright would probably do the trick, and I think to do that I need to get the weight further back on my heels, at least a bit. I think when I try to keep my head down/neutral spine, it encourages me to pitch forward a little, and that effect is more pronounced the heavier the weight is. Beyond keeping an eye on it and just getting tighter, I'm not sure what else I can really do.

To me it's just harming your recovery while not adding much benefit. Why are you doing it? Calorie burn? Hypertrophy? Given the cut plus strength gains desired, I'd just stick to the worksets and your accessories.

Aidan,



I think I just did it to add more volume/no real reason, and I'm happy enough to remove it, because it sucks.

So the wifeacore seems ready to ditch the trainer and hit the gym full-time; she's really just using the trainer for accountability purposes now, so I suggested that we could lift together after work two days a week and one day on the weekend, which she seems to like, especially after I pointed out that the trainer is 60 bucks and hour and our nanny is about a fifth of that.

In any case, I PM'd Aidan and got some great advice for what we've been doing up until this point (actual lifting on Saturdays only), but now that we're going to start lifting together full time in the next few weeks, I think it's time to come up with a program, so suggestions are welcome. I was thinking of some sort of chick GSLP type split, maybe with higher (i.e. 8-10 reps) some of the time? I also think that more pulling is better, especially with the rack situation, and that front squats are probably a useful thing to do. Keep in mind she is essentially still a novice at this point, as her workouts up until now have consisted of mainly cardio stuff (for rehab purposes) and typical light trainer weight and machine BS.

Tear this apart:

M: Squat (2x5, 5+), Bench (2x5, 5+), Cable Rows, Lat Pulldown, maybe chin-up negatives, broette stuff if she wants
W: Deadlift (2x5, 5+ to start, moving to 5+ when the weight gets heavy), Front Squat (5x3), Seated DB Shoulder Press, DB Row, broette stuff
Sat: Squat (3x8), Bench (3x8), Cable Rows, Lat Pulldown, maybe chin-up negatives, broette stuff if she wants

How stupid is this, and what am I forgetting? Thanks in advance. BTW, I bought her squat shoes from that Maxbarbell deal Aidan put up the other day; they should come today. She seems excited.

I can't help with programming, but I'm here to give a big re lifting with the wife.

Monte,

I've only trained one woman but i used GSLP and it seemed to work pretty good. My roommate used GSLP on his girlfriend and it seemed to work pretty good as well.

I dont think front squat is necessary yet. also, i would keep the 2x5,5+ on saturday. Women are weird when it comes to listing. They'll be able to get like 10 reps with 90% of their max so i think its necessary to keep in the 5+ set. The chick that i helped had a weird problem too where she would just think the weight was too heavy. So like on press with say 55 lbs her sets would go 5,2,11 for some reason.

I would maybe add in some kettle bell swings too for conditioning and since novices get through workout quicks she might not think she is doing enough if her workout only takes 30 or 40 minutes.

Weasel,

Cool, so just straight GSLP with squatting 2x/week and DL 1x/week, then? I guess she should probably DL on Saturday so she has three days off in between squatting sessions, actually.

We were planning on some light LISS afterwards, but some KB metcons sound like a great idea (plus she has an adjustable bell at home that I got her years ago that she never uses). Any other good pull options that you can think of?

Ya, straight GLSP. I didnt even notice the days. I would definitely have the week start on Saturday so she winds up DLing on Wed.

I just used Lat pull downs, DB Rows and seated cable rows so what you have seems pretty good.

I just re-read your routine for her and must of skimmed it pretty poorly the first time. i just noticed you had DL and squat before the pressing stuff. Is there a reason for that? Squat i think would be fine but i would press/bench before deadlift. Also, For deadlift i would not do 2x5, 5+. If you want to get in more reps for practice, you could do ramping sets of 5 for a while. so like if top set is 125 do 65x5, 85x5, 105x5, 125x5+

Weasel,

A few things:

--We'll be lifting Monday/Thursday/Saturday for scheduling reasons, hence why I think squatting M/Thur would be better, as it would be three days between squat sessions to mirror a more traditional M/W/F format.

--Noted on bench/press before DL, I will do that.

--Re: DL work sets, we'll work up to that, but right now we're just doing a lot of reps at 75ish to get her used to the movement (we've only been twice so far). Once we get up to 135 or so, I'll utilize your ramping suggestion.

Thanks again for all the input.

Man I can't read today. Thusday squat sat deadlift, Monday squat is perfect.

Your deadlift plan sounds good. I would just make sure you don't stick at easy weights for her too long cause I have noticed a lot of women get psyched out by weights that feel heavy for them so I feel it is best to get them used to heavy feeling weights soon

Does she have wicked training ADD or something?

IMO that's too many movements and too much variation. Simplify and standardize so she can see progress faster:

Day A:
Squat 3x5
Bench 3x5
chin-up negatives

Day B:
Squat 3x5
OHP 3x5
Deadlift 3x5

Run this for ~25 sessions, establish some competency in the core movements, determine weaknesses and key points of focus, and redesign in 2 months. FWIW I've trained 5 women with varying degrees of success (though all came from competitive athletic backgrounds) and there were some clear consistencies:

1. They all developed awareness and consistency in movement pattern under a load more slowly than men.
2. They all were much better at grinding out sets of 5, though had much lower actual maxes in relation to their worksets than men.
3. They all desperately wanted to be able to do chinups.

I've trained my GF for 6 years and despite the fact that she's at an advanced training age (8 chinups, PL total of 525 even though she's 5'9 130, can still run a sub 20 5k), unnecessary variation of exercise selection really hinders her adaptation. Ultimately we program based on intensities and autoregulation on a day to day basis and do not change more than 1 exercise in her block per 3 month period.

ETA: Deadlifts done 3x5 because the weights will be light and you should never have her pull anywhere near a 5rm. The additional volume of doing that movement for more sets very much accelerates competency.

DFII,

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. I agree that a fair amount of DL volume seems optimal early, as she's doing very light weight and still trying to get her feet under her. I'd imagine she could still squat 3x/wk at this point, and I think she's kind of interested, so I guess I'll see after I run things by her. Regardless, I think (again, if she wants) I may run something like what you suggest with a little bit of extra back stuff thrown in, as she's experienced with the exercises I listed and really needs to work on pulling.

8/6
60 min @~5.1 = 5.12 miles

Sorry, if it wasn't clear I was saying lift 3 times a week ala SS. ABA then BAB. Definitely squat 3x a week.

Also get micro loading washers from McMaster-Carr immediately. OHP might need microloading from the start.

DFII,

I'm hoping we can do M/Th/Sat once she ditches the trainer.

I've got 1.25 lb plates, but I may hold off on BB OHP for a little while at least. She can comfortably bench press 55 lbs, but I'm not sure about doing it overhead (plus she gets tension headaches from a tight neck muscle, so I want to be careful about anything that could exacerbate it).

GL to the wifeacore. Lifting with your SO can be a lot of fun, assuming they care at all and don't give up.

Shoes for the wifeacore came yesterday, and they fit perfectly. Should be able to try them Saturday; she seems kind of interested but really just wants me to tell her what to do. Hopefully we keep it up for 6 months and she gets more into it, though.

8/7
OHP (10s realization)
10x45, 5x75, 3x95, 2x105
12x112.5

DB Row
4x10x75

DB Incline Bench
4x12x55

Facepulls
4x15x40

Skullcrushers
4x12x65

Hammer Curl
4x15x20

DB Flyes
4x15x15

Press was fine; was hoping for a few more reps, but it wasn't happening. Lightened up the back work by about 25% (rows were lol easy) because I've got DL tomorrow, and did some light flyes to stretch out my pec/shoulder reason. Looking forward to DLing tomorrow.

Glad they finally arrived.

She did give the thumbs up to your Facebook profile. I'm sure you'll be very happy together, soon I will join Soulman in #foreveralonefrenchigloo and drown our sorrows in baguettes. gg, you win.

zachgheadnod.gif

Monte,

I haven't worked out the actual conversions, but at first glance it appears Pummi is pressing more weight than you right now, although maybe not as many reps.

Just something to think about.

QB,

That may very well be true, and maybe even for bench as well. It's not likely to significantly improve until I get through 8s week in reverse juggernaut, though, so you'll keep getting it teed up for a while longer.

No real program specific advice, but my experience with training women includes:

- They hate upper body and love lower body (go figure)
- They suck at upper body anyway
- If you say do "as many reps as possible" they will never go close to as many reps as possible
- Two of the women I trained had really, really bad ankle dorsiflexion (I presume this is caused by wearing high heals for life) which made squatting deep really hard without elevating the heals.

I guess in contrast to the women DFII trained, the women I trained had basically never done any exercise in their life and zero athletic/competitive background.

Snitch,

Thanks for info! The wifeacore's problem is that she needs someone motivating her while she's there and giving her feedback/telling her what to do. I expect/hope once she has six months under her belt, that may improve a bit, but who knows. At worst, it's something we can do together.

8/8 (M/O week 3)

10x135, 5x185, 3x225
4x4x255
2x290
2x325
8x255

Front Squat
10x45, 5x95, 5x115, 3x135
5x3x155

Had to go early than usual because I was home with the kids for the first few hours of the morning (nanny was off; #firstworldproblems). I was feeling a little dehydrated/tired and was worried I wouldn't be able to handle the weight, but I got everything up. Still think I need to get tighter, especially on the first rep of a set. Probably had a few more reps in me at 255, but I was still a little sore in the core from adding in the ab wheel, so I backed off a bit.

Much better. If you compare this to your last deadlift video, you can see in the earlier video, the bar kind of shoots back right off the floor and doesnt do that anymore except for a tiny bit on the last rep of 325. You are really good at listening to everyones help and at least trying to incorporate it for a session.

325 looked faster then 315 as well

Thanks Weasel, I'm really appreciative that you (and others, of course) take the time to comment on my videos and help me out so much. I feel like I am in the process of getting my lower body lifts into the zone of "not terrible", which is probably the best I can hope for at this point.

One more question; M/O lists week 4 as a deload week where I'm only supposed to do upper back work. Is that what everyone else has done, or is some light work with 225 or something a better idea? I always have trouble when I take a week off DLing.