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)
Personally I’ve worked out for years doing primarily the big 4, and have gotten good results. Occasionally id do assistance work but not usually. The only thing that’s noticeable are my arms and back are a little lacking in definition imo, but not severely. Id say you should be fine, especially if you plan to pick it up more accessory work later on.
I also lift on the heavier side of my %ORM for strength though.
I’m not concerned about definition (happy with what I have), more concerned about symmetry and preventing injury. And both the replies on this post made me realize that maybe I’m lifting too heavy (I’m using 5/3/1 for the first two lifts with FSL 5x5 for the others). I will reduce my training max by 10%.
Thanks!
Yea if your goal is to just maintain and or prevent injuries you should not lift in a 5 rep range (or lower). It is way higher chances to injury when lifting heaver weight compared to more reps with lighter weight (not saying it should be easy or light weight). But it all comes down to what works for you.
Yeah if I reduce my training max I’ll go back to doing 3x10 instead of 5x5. Thanks!
It’s a fine routine until you notice it isn’t. I did the Stronglifts 5x5 for a long time until I started noticing weakness is certain muscles. Then I started targeting and expanding.
Sounds like a good strategy, thanks!
The big question is what would you want to get out of doing more accessory exercises? If you’re hitting all the muscles you want to hit, and it looks like you’re doing the classic routine that hits the big areas evenly, I dont see any issues with 2 per week, you’ll still get stronger and grow muscle, depending on how weights and reps. Further, more workouts equals more fatigue which equals higher risk of injuring yourself, so if you just want to do accessories for the sake of doing them, that’s just burning energy to wear yourself out, and you could probably do a better job of that through cardio. I do a couple of accessory days myself, but that’s more shoulder and wrist work to help my tennis, as well as a functional leg training day in amongst there since I work outdoors a lot. It all comes down to what you want out of it and what your body will allow.
You make a good point. For accessories I want to do more pressing since I feel it’s difficult to progress in that lift and more adductor/abductor work to strengthen my knees. And more core work never hurts. Tbh though these are all just “icing on the cake” as long as I’m hitting the big compounds.
Guess I just wish my body allowed me to do more, haha. Thanks!
Also this is probably a poor reason but I “feel” like I should do more accessories. It’s probably peer pressure from seeing others doing them at the gym - but I don’t know their goals and how well they align with mine, so I should probably overthink it less lol
