does it have to done in order?
rhileyschubbygranny
Posts: 145 Member
Hi. I am planning on starting the week of 3/23 when I get back from vacation. My gym is very, very busy and I know from observing that there is no way that I will be able to do the exercises in any particular order without planning on waiting around for hours on end. Is this okay or I should I just find a different program to follow? Thanks!
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Hi there! Welcome!
Generally I like to do the exercises in order -- partially because I'm kind of OCD and it ruins my sense of order
but also because I think squats are a great way to warm up the whole body in preparation for the other lifts. With that said, it's not imperative (in my opinion).
Workout A is easier to shift around, so I wouldn't worry too much about doing them in order if you can't get the squat rack right away.
Workout B has deadlifts, and while you're only doing one set, they can be beastly when you get to higher weights. Which means squats will be that much harder. I would do your best to keep deads for last on "B" days, but OHP and squats can be swapped when necessary.
Good luck!0 -
I agree with crabada, it is nice to be able to go in order and you probably want to try to keep deadlifts last on workout b, but I wouldn't really call it a deal breaker for the program.0
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i don't mind if i do the second and third lifts out of order, but i do tend to start out with squats. i know the problem you're talking about though, so sometimes that gets switched around too.
in that case, the only thing i really worry about is starting right out with bench or overhead press. smaller muscles are more vulnerable to injury from being used while still 'cold', and i've got enough shoulder troubles already. so if i can't get the rack i think i would actually start with deadlifts or rows. and i'd do it carefully - maybe with a whole bunch of warmup sets first and not really intending to push things really hard for that lift on that day.
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Thank you for all the feed back! I really appreciate it! Now I have a second question. Once I start this program I may cut back a lot or cut out all together the cardio DVD's that I do at home 5-6 days a week for 33 min each night. According to my heart rate monitor I average 250 calories burned each night doing them. Should I cut back on my calorie intake or keep it the same?0
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Once I start this program I may cut back a lot or cut out all together the cardio DVD's that I do at home 5-6 days a week for 33 min each night. According to my heart rate monitor I average 250 calories burned each night doing them. Should I cut back on my calorie intake or keep it the same?
I forgot to add that I am trying to lose an additional 35 lbs of fat0 -
If cut back on your videos I would keep calories about the same and then see how it goes. It is really hard to estimate calories burned during weight lifting (do not trust a HRM on these, it just isn't in the realm of their algorithm). You might need to adjust as you continue.
Also, just as a heads up, you may experience a fair bit of water retention at first so I wouldn't do anything drastic with your calories for the first month-6 weeks or so just for that to settle out.0 -
on cardio: i bike commute five days a week, and that's about 60 minutes to make the round trip. i haven't found it significantly affecting my lifting, but on the other hand i've never made much of an experiment to see how much i could lift if i were driving instead. it does work the other way round sometimes. i.e. lifting on tuesday can make me slow getting to work the next day.
i also got pretty bored with calorie tracking a few months ago and quit doing it, so i guess really i'm making a post here that doesn't tell you a thing
but to me, it's kind of like eh. it's all exercise, and how much does it really matter which thing i did to use up the energy? 0 -
I think the guy that started stronglifts says to always do squats first because it is the most important so its best to get that out of the way before doing the other lifts. But I have the same problem where equipment is not always available. Today, I did benches first bc the squat equipment was busy. I kinda liked it because my arms were not tired from benches for rows. If you are concerned about being warm enough, do 5 or 10 minutes of cardio and/or do some more light warm ups.
And, for cardio, I would keep going and see how it feels. At first, 5x5s don't get too much out of you because the weights are low so you shouldn't have too much trouble doing that and cardio. When the weights get really heavy, you might be too tired to do both or you might not be so just see.0
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