Recently got back into the gym and feel absolutely wiped after about 4 lifts. Lately I’ve been doing an A/B style routine where:
Workout A: Squat, bench, RDL, row.
Workout B: Deadlift, OHP, leg press, lat pulldown
Now I’m not asking for program critique, but I’m wondering if it’s okay to not do more accessories?
Absolutely. 4 movements in a workout is plenty, IMO. Depending on your rep/set scheme, you may be over doing it if you’re coming back from a long layoff.
Start tapering in some accessory work as you acclimate to your routine.
If you’re feeling completely wiped workout after workout, take a closer look at your volume and intensity. Too much of that can be a problem. Head over to Barbell Medicine and see what they have to say about session RPE (sRPE).
Rep/set scheme is 5/3/1 for the first two lifts and 5x5 FSL (first weight used in 5/3/1 lifts) for the rest. I can see why that might make me exhausted unfortunately!
Yes, I think tapering is the way to go. Maybe I will add planks at the end or something. & I’ll look up session RPE.
Thanks!
I can relate to coming back from a long layoff. I was out pretty much all of last year due to a persistent back tweak. The programs I use taper up the volume over the first 3 or 4 weeks. As I got back into it this year, I just repeated the first week of a program over and over, gradually increasing the weights as my fitness returned.
When I felt like I was stalling, I moved on to the next week, repeating it until the next stall. And so on. This is a pretty conservative approach that makes sure I’m ready for the added volume.
Yeah, maybe my current training max should be lower. I might have increased my weights too fast.
(I was out ~4 months because of travel + knee injury)