I’ve lifted pretty seriously in the past, though always under guidance, so something like rippetoe might be too long winded on exercise explanations, but from a progress perspective I’m closer to a beginner— aside from having previously developed some of the neural pathways. 5/3/1 was my go-to in younger days but now I’m older and looking for more general fitness and athleticism as opposed to size/strength specific.
I’ve been using gambetta’s athletic development and it’s been great for circuit training and overall increase of work capacity but I’m finding that when it comes to programming it sort of falls flat in that recommendations are very generic. I would like something that would educate me on the whys and let me come away with the ability to design my own programs depending on situational needs. Any recs would be appreciated
Stronger by Science is my go to, they have a free program that I had excellent upper body results with when I ran it for it for three months recently. Most of their content is free and they do a good job with summing up the fitness and nutrition science: https://www.strongerbyscience.com
not sure, but maybe you can go after some primary scientific research papers for answers to the whys around specific recommendations. some of the programs ive read do make some hand-wavey references to those but they usually focus on keeping it simple in lieu of making an argument for why its valid for some circumstance. ultimately the human body has a lot of variability and plasticity so i think its hard to say for sure whats going to work best under all circumstances.
