PREFACE
I'm going to keep this short and sweet. The template is very straight forward
and easy to explain, but there are some finer points that need to be covered
about how it works, who it will benefit, and, more importantly, who shouldn't
attempt this.
This is an over-reach program. The main mechanism for it's success is high
frequency, meaning you will have more press days throughout the week than
you are used to.
The pros:
1.) This is likely much more frequency than you have ever been subject to,
which will tax your ability to handle and recover from fatigue workout to
workout. This is a quick and dirty stimulus for growth and works VERY
predictably.
3.) High frequency = regular practice. Because you will be drilling the press
so often, you will see an increase in efficiency in that movement. Lifters who
go through some of the more monotonous high frequency training programs
usually report an increase in the smoothness of the lift as the weeks go on,
despite being fatigued from all of the work. This is a great opportunity to
break out as a technical lifter.
4.) There will be a hyper-focus on pressing, which means you will spend less
time on the other lifts. This will allow you to recover from all of the work
that will be done, allowing your benching power to actually increase.
Some of that hyper-focus will be directed towards secondary muscle groups
that are important to benching but usually get sidelined. This will likely be
more upper back, tricep, and rear delt work than most of you have done in the
past.
The cons:
1.) Muscles recover extremely fast and you will find that they grow to handle
the workload relatively easily. Joints and tendons do not. If you have
shoulder issues, tendinopathy (regular tendon inflammation), or previous
injuries involving the elbow or shoulder joint, I can just about guarantee that
this will compound those issues.
2.) As I said, this will hyper-focus on the press and the rest of the upper body.
If you are prepping for a meet that requires dedication to squatting,
deadlifting, or other heavy compound movements, you will spread your
recovery thin and end up with the worst of both worlds. Do not try to pair this
with another squat or deadlift program.
3.) This is not a program to be ran indefinitely. 'Over-reach' means that you
will be handling more work than you can continuously recover from. It is, by
definition, a temporary program.
Once you run it, take a full week to de-load, then move on to another
program that starts with lighter percentages (60-70%) and has you pressing
no more than twice per week. If you have assessed, after a full 6 to 8 weeks
of steady improvement, that your muscles are strong and your joints are
healthy and you are ready for another boost, then run it again (congrats, you
just mastered periodization!).
INTRODUCTION
I want to give credit where credit is due. The influence for this came from a
dozen different sources, but one of them was my first introduction to a set
lifting program. I purchased Lee Hayward's “Blast Your Bench” routine a
good 20 plus years ago from a website that looked like it was made on
Windows 95. His program boiled down to 3 weeks of benching 5 days per
week for a variety of rep ranges; pyramids one day, repeating 3s the next,
repeating 15s the next, and so on.
The program worked fantastically well (30lbs up in 3 weeks), but week 3 of
the program, which featured 5 days of triples, left my pec insertions feeling
dry and exposed, like old rubber bands, and my shoulder inflammation was
so bad I physically couldn't push with the strength I knew I had.
Was it a shortcoming of the program, or was I interrupting progress by
inserting my two cents where it didn't belong?
Some advice from the original program:
Focus on bench only: No, I think I'll still squat and deadlift.
Allow for recovery: More beat down, the better, right?
Pay attention to bench accessory: I don't really like rear delt work and
rotation so I think I'll sub with more benching.
In hindsight, it's obvious that I was sidelining the program by making
judgement calls when my novice self should have stuck to the program
recommendations.
I sidelined the aggressive training approach and my joint health eventually
improved, but I was suspicious afterwards of such a melee of work on one
single movement and spent the next few years on more minimalist programs.
My go to during my 'fat years': each exercise to a heavy set of 3 or 5, then
back to a hard set of 10 or 12, a ham sandwich, jug of chocolate milk, and
call it a day. Twice per week between 3 exercises total.
It worked surprisingly well for a time. Short, hard efforts followed by a flood
of calories and plenty of rest; I had found it! Except.... a few dozen months of
that lazy routine left me soft, immobile, out of shape, and horrifically
imbalanced.
From one end of the pendulum to the other.
During this time, I was still studying and digesting the training methods of
other coaches and systems. I knew there had to be something more unified,
more 'start-to-finish', to overcome this pattern of '2 good training months
followed by stagnation and injury'.
The floor of my room through my late teens was a scattered mound of of
bodybuilding rags, old Powerlifting USAs, MILO Strength Journals, and
Strength and Conditioning text books. My desk wasn't much better, stacked
with notebooks of seminar notes and scribbled programs from former world
champions I had copied from online sources. I was constantly trying to
reconcile what was being pushed in major publications with what I was being
told in person by the strongest men in the world. One big point of contention
was training frequency.
Some case studies:
Olympic Weightlifting:
John Broz runs Average Broz gym in Las Vegas, an Olympic Weightlifting
facility that produced Pat Mendez (who hit a disgusting 800lb no-no-no squat
at 20 years old). John trained with former Snatch World Record Holder
Antonio Krastev, a product of the Bulgarian Weightlifting system. Olympic
weightlifting is synonymous with high frequency as it is, but the Bulgarian
system is notorious for producing champions with heavy, balls out maxes on
the competitive lifts, not weekly, but daily.
John became a proponent of the 'squat every day' school of thought that was
briefly a topic of discussion on the popular strength forums. His rationale,
which was proven in his mind by the champions produced by the Bulgarian
system, was that the body would adapt to the stress placed on it over time,
much like a garbage man adapting to the stress of his route. He cited case
studies where the adrenal glands of lifters were shown to have doubled in
size over a period of time from the aggressive strain put on the endocrine
system by such high frequency.
This type of training was controversial for it's extreme approach, there isn't
any denying the end result when someone makes it through alive.
Bodybuilding:
Bodybuilders, especially at the elite level, rarely limit a body part to one day
per week; actually, it's often just the opposite. Lagging body parts often take
priority and will get token attention at the beginning or end of other
workouts. Smaller muscle groups may get hit 3 or more times per week, and
even large muscle groups will be trained 2 to 3 times a week by nature of
their split. If hamstrings are trained one day with quads on another, and a
third day features rack pulls for the upper back, well that's 3 days of hard
hitting lower body work in 7 days.
Powerlifting:
This was the important one. Oly lifting is concentric only (little or no
'negatives' featured in their lifts means minimal tissue breakdown which
means faster recovery). Bodybuilding relies heavily on isolation movements
with lighter weights, again, reducing recovery necessary from nervous
system beat-downs. But how would such high frequency hold up with the
heavy lifts?
Many of the popular ebooks of the last 10 years (Juggernaut, 5/3/1, Cube,
etc.) feature one day per week of some main lift with ample amounts of
accessory; i.e. one day each for squat, bench, deadlift, overhead, each
followed by a high volume of secondary movements. You can call that two
upper body and two lower body days if you like, but as far as skill
development on a main lift goes, one day a week is all you get.
Upon further investigation, these 'pop' powerlifting manuals seemed to rival
older, dare I say 'purer' systems that have consistently produced champions
by relying on main movements more than accessories and by using much
higher frequency. Soviet systems like those that produced Sergey Smolov and
Boris Shieko will utilize only the main lift (or some close variation of it) for
3, 4, or even 5 sessions per week, depending on the phase. There it is; some
elite powerlifters were built on programs that involved 3 or more days per
week on each of the main lifts.
Blaine Sumner, all-time single ply record holder, utilizes very few accessory
exercises and, last I heard him speak on it, was following an uber-sportspecific split that involved squatting, benching, and deadlifting 3 times per
week.
To further drive that point home was Leroy Walker who spent some time at
our facility several years ago. Famous for a 675lb incline bench (he flat
benched 750 at our gym with just a slingshot), Leroy was a huge proponent
of developing world class abilities in a lift by treating it as a skill. He referred
to his style of training as 'the Volume Method' and would bench press 4 days
per week, often to 10 or more sets at 10 to 15 repetitions. He moved each rep
as fast as possible (compensatory acceleration, anyone?) and called the early,
fast reps 'speed reps' and the slower, fatigued reps 'growth reps'. This
smacked of Bill Kazmaier's philosophy, who described a similar philosophy
during a seminar I attended of pairing blistering speed with exceptionally
high reps to produce one of the best bench presses the world had ever seen.
As someone interested in broad development of strength, speed, size and
skill, I couldn't deny the persistent trend of high frequency training in both
highly competitive formal systems and informal systems alike. Obviously,
there are many different ways to train, each with their own success stories
and set of rules to follow. But one thing seemed clear; for fast muscular
development and skill acquisition, high frequency of training seemed to be
king.
Now, I'm not selling you a golden ticket here, just an epiphany I had years
ago that proved to be a powerful tool if used correctly.
The inclination of everyone reading this is now going to be to train as hard
and as often as you can with as many exercises as you can fit in a day, from
now until eternity.
The missing piece of that puzzle is sustainability.
The reason that we don't see every magazine article, Youtube video, and
world record holder espousing the virtues of super-high frequency training is
because, as far as the general population is concerned, it cannot be sustained
very long. The (very) few people who can use it indefinitely are the true
genetic outliers; not for their predisposition to strength and power
development, but for their durability.
For simplicity, we can talk about recovery over 3 areas: muscular system,
nervous system, and skeletal system (I'll include tendons and ligaments in
that category).
Muscles, saturated with blood vessels, heal in just a few days, which is the
reason they can universally adapt to a high frequency of work over time.
The nervous system follows predictable cycles of recovery and requires a
predictable amount of time in between heavy attempts with the same lift to
keep from being burnt out. Cycling exercises and rep schemes is a very easy
and effective workaround that allows consistent, frequent work to be done
while still being productive.
Joints, tendons and ligaments are where recovery falls short.
Tendons, which attach muscle to bone, take a very long time to recover and,
when they are over-trained, can become chronically inflammed. Over any
training lifetime, they thicken and become more durable, but this process
takes a loooong time and the very stimulus that strengthens them is the same
thing that can cause tendinopathy and, if unchecked, injury.
Remember Blaine Sumner, the only person to bench 1000lbs in a single ply
bench shirt? When I shook his hand I thought I would never get it back. On
top of being a large person in general, his hands, wrists, elbows, neck, etc.
look as if they were repurposed from an elephant graveyard. There is no
doubt that his frame (which we unfortunately can not train to possess) is a
huge contributor to his ability to handle heavy compound lifts multiple times
per week, week in, week out.
Paul Carter, while on tour in Australia with Olympic Sivler Medalist Dmitry
Klokov, commented on his 'caveman like features'. According to Paul, his
fingers were twice the size of a normal persons, a trait that seemed relevant
when he snatched 200kg in a morning session within an hour of having
woken up.
And the Bulgarian system that produced so many champions? I have heard it
described as a sieve, using it's brutal methods to sift out less durable athletes.
Take a dozen eggs and throw them against the wall. The ones that don't
break? Well, those are your world champions.
So, we have high frequency methods, which appears to be brutally effective
for developing size, strength, speed, and skill across virtually all strength
sports and in a very short period of time. But it's relentless nature also taxes
foundational structures like joints and connective tissues which require time
to grow and adapt...... so what do we do?
The answer is, we use what we can as individuals and discard the rest (or at
least put it on the shelf for a later date).
Use this program for the prescribed duration, so long as it does not worsen
existing issues or create new ones. Take a week after to recover, then move
on to something more measured. Take notes the entire time, keeping record
of when you felt really good and strong and when you felt like a juiced
orange. This information is completely individual to YOU and will give
insight to the rules you need to follow for successful training in the future.
This training pattern of 'blast and cruise' (along with diligent note-taking)
ensures that we will go through periods of training intense enough to grow,
while also ensuring periods of recovery sufficient enough to heal. The time
away from the 'blasts' also de-trains you from the high volume and frequency,
meaning their effects will be just as potent next time around.
This is the foundation of all periodization.
At this point, it's important to highlight the fact that I am not offering
coaching here; this is just a broad template with vague instruction directed
towards a large group of people. I am attempting to cast a wide net over all of
you by addressing the problems that most of you are likely to face, but every
one reading this is different and will face different circumstances. My hope is
that you will leave this with a bit more self-awareness in your training (and a
PR if you're lucky) and that's something that will benefit every program you
run from now until you expire.
ACCESSORY
The back-bone of this program is benching. Lots of benching. There won't be
much variation or heavy secondary movements, just consistent progression
from session to session in the same exercise.
But the bench press requires strength from areas that bench pressing alone
will not improve. The upper back, rear delts, biceps, and even the rotator cuff
all need to be fully developed to realize your potential in the bench press (and
to stay injury free). Even the main movers, the pecs, delts, and triceps, may
not develop fully from benching alone, depending on the leverages and bench
style of the lifter. This is one reason that many pro bodybuilders end up
benching with the best of them, despite having no real incentive for worldclass strength.
A future program with a more measured amount of benching volume will
certainly benefit from secondary pec, delt, and tricep work but, because the
main movers will take such a hit from this program, we will leave them alone
for now. We are, however, going to put a special emphasis on the antagonist
and stabilizing muscles, both to realize as much strength as possible and to
keep you healthy.
Follow each for the prescribed rep range using a simple linear progression
(just add a small amount of weight each workout). Start a bit light just to get
your reps in and aim for the sets to get a bit challenging by week 3. Give
yourself 10 or 20lbs to play with; don't hesitate to add or subtract weight
based on how easy/hard each set is or if you miss reps.
AND KEEP IT STRICT. This is not a program for slop, forced reps, or
partials. When you're done, you're done. If you didn't hit your mark, drop
weight.
The accessory exercises will go as follows:
Upper Back (lats and rhomboids)
Bent Rows – 5x8-10
Grip shoulder width, perfect posture, bent over flat like a table, zero body
english, touch somewhere between the belly button and sternum on each rep.
Don't touch the ground; these aren't Pendlay rows.
Lat Pulldowns – 4x10-12
I prefer using a close grip with a v-handle, but you can use a medium grip on
a straight bar. Upright with head back, bar finishes between chin and collar
bone, no rocking or swaying.
One Arm Dumbell Rows – 2x20 each arm
If you are going to use sway on a back movement, these are it (think Kroc
row), though you can definitely do them strict as well. Perfect posture, laid
out flat with one hand supporting you on a bench or dumbbell rack, drive the
elbow up hard and touch the dumbbell to your body.
Rear Delts and Traps
Reverse Pec Deck Flys – 5x15
Hands, elbows, and shoulders all in the same plane (usually involves elbows
high), initiate movement with your rear delts and squeeze. Short range of
motion and keep tension the entire time.
Bent Raises – 5x10
Again, bent over flat like a table with hands, elbows and shoulders in the
same plane (no chicken wing action). Go light so you don't get sloppy; most
get a lot out of 10-15lb dumbbells.
Upright Row – 3x8-10
Use straps if the grip causes weirdness in your hands or forearms. Mediumwide grip, keep elbows above the bar, get the bar to mid-chest. Shrug at the
top for extra trap engagement.
Rotator Cuff
Dumbbell Cleans – 3x12-15
No lower body action, in fact, do them seated. Perform an upright row with
elbows high and out to the side, like a 'scarecrow' position, then execute an
external rotation. Reverse slowly under control. Light weight at the start, and
keep it strict.
Dumbbell External Rotation – 3x12-15
Sit on a bench with your left foot up, position your left elbow on your left
knee for stability. Start with a dumbbell in front of your face and slowly
lower, keeping your elbow dug into your knee and just swiveling at the upper
arm. Reverse direction under control. Repeat with your right arm.
Biceps and Forearm
Hammer Curl – 5x8
Standing, hands in a 'thumbs up' position holding a pair of dumbbells. Keep
your elbows in tight, don't let them drag back, and raise the dumbbells to 90
degrees or above while squeezing at the elbow. Stay strict, don't get sloppy.
Reverse Curl – 5x10-12
Take a barbell and grip shoulder width with an 'overhand' grip. Keep the
elbows in tight and curl the bar to chest level. Lower under control.
Dumbbell Incline Curl – 5x12-15
Lie back on a bench at a slight incline back from 90 degrees. Keep your
palms up (think pinkies up) and elbows by your side. Slowly curl to 90
degrees or slightly higher, squeezing the bicep. Return, reaching a full stretch
in the bicep. Keep tension and don't get sloppy.
THE PROGRAM
The program is going to focus on 5 different progressions, each emphasizing
a different avenue for growth. They range from heavy to light, hard to easy. If
you thought the variety of rep ranges in the same week hints of undulating
periodization, you would be right; this is definitely an example of undulation.
Other high frequency protocols, especially those connected to formal
competitive sports systems, will typically focus on specificity and train one
range while varying the percentages and number of working sets week to
week to cause an adaptation. That approach is a bit more one-dimensional
(linear, even) and typically exists as a single block of a longer chain of
blocks where each piece focuses on a different quality (hypertrophy, strength,
power, peaking, etc.) that all come together to make up a full training cycle.
Instead of taking several months to realize the effect of a full training cycle
(which is more sustainable and should make up the majority of a training
lifetime), we are going to temporarily use the power of undulating
periodization to train multiple qualities concurrently.
Light Day 1
Session 1: 5x15 @ 55% with 1 minute rest
Session 2: 5x15 @ 60% with 1 minute rest
Session 3: 5x15 @ 65% with 1 minute rest
I got this straight from Lee Hayward's book and it is a doozy. Don't add
weight; trust me when I say the minute rest periods will catch up with you.
For added difficulty, stop an inch short of your chest on each set. If you fail
before you get to 15, rack it and finish the remaining sets as best you can
without using forced reps or help from a spotter. Only add weight the
following session if you make all sets of 15.
Light Day 2
Session A: Rest/Pause @ 55%
Session B: Rest/Pause @ 60%
Session C: Rest/Pause @ 65%
Rest/Pause – R/P refers to a set done until failure, 20 seconds of rest, another
set to failure, 20 seconds of rest, and one last set done till failure. Your
workout might go 20 reps, rest :20, 14 reps, rest :20, 7 reps. That's it, go on to
the accessory. It is important to note that technique breakdowns count as
failure, regardless of whether the bar is still moving. You would do well to
stop an inch above your chest on this one, as well. It is ok to leave a rep in
the tank, but do not go past failure on any sets. No generous spotting or
forced reps. When you are done, you are done.
Medium Day
Session 1: 5,5,Failure
Session 2: 5,5,5,5,Failure
Session 3: 4,4,4,Failure
Session 4: 3,3,Failure
@ 70%
@ 75%
@ 80%
@ 85%
This is one of my favorite methods of linear progression. The repeating sets
at a sub-maximal weight primes you for the failure set so you are dialed in
and efficient. Take a few minutes between each set, focus on quality and bar
speed, then cut loose on the last set. The first session at 70% might go 5,5,13.
The next session at 75% might go 5,5,5,5,11. 'Touch and go reps' preferred.
Once again, no generous spotting. You need to be chasing your numbers, not
the numbers of you and a friend.
Heavy Day 1
Session 1: 10x3 @ 80%
Session 2: 8x2 @ 85%
Session 3: 6x1 @ 90%
These low reps will start out easy and get heavier each time. They will prime
you for big weights at low reps towards the end of the program. The point is
NOT for the sets to be brutally hard; in fact they might even be easy. That is
the point. Again, focus on technique, stability, and bar speed. Try to keep rest
to 1 minute. I recommend a split second pause on the chest on these.
Heavy Day 2
Session A: 85% x 3/ 75% x 5x3
Session B: 90% x 2/ 80% x 5x2
Session C: 95% x 1/ 85% x 5x1
This is one 'top set' followed by repeating back-off sets at a lighter weight.
Using heavy weights before the lighter sets utilizes post-activation
potentiation, which allows for more explosive efforts than if the lower
percentages were done first. Do these 'touch and go'; control the weight
down, touch the chest and, without bouncing, forcefully change direction.
Take at least 3 minutes in between the heavy and light set and about a minute
on every set after.
MON
TUES
WEDS
THURS
FRI
Week 1
M
off
H-1
off
L-1
Week 2
H-A
L-A
M
L-2
H-2
Week 3
L-B
H-B
off
M
H-3
Week 4
L-3
off
H-C
off
M
Week 5
L-C
off
off
off
Test
WEEK 1
MON
WEDS
FRI
Ext Rotation
Bent Raise
DB Clean
Reverse Fly
Ext Rotation
Upr. Row
Bench Press
5,5,F @ 70%
Bench Press
10x3 @ 80%
Bench Press
5x15 @ 55%
Bent Row
Hammer Curl
Lat Pulldown
Reverse Curl
DB Row
Incl DB Curl
WEEK 2
MON
TUES
WEDS
THURS
FRI
DB Clean
Bent Raise
Ext. Rot.
Rev. Fly
DB Clean
Upright Row
Ext. Rot.
Bent Raise
DB Clean
Rev. Fly
Bench
85% x 3
75% x 5x3
Bench
R/P @ 55%
Bench
5,5,5,5,F
@75%
Bench
5x15 @ 60%
Bench
8x2 @ 85%
Bent Row
Hammer Curl
Lat Pull
Rev Curl
DB Row
Incl. DB Curl
Bent Row
Hammer Curl
Lat Pull
Rev Curl
MON
TUES
DB Clean
Upr. Row
WEEK 3
THURS
FRI
Ext. Rot.
Rev. Fly
Ext. Rot.
Bent Raise
DB Clean
Upr. Row
Bench
R/P @ 60%
Bench
90% x 2
80% x 5x2
Bench
4,4,4,F
@80%
Bench
6x1 @ 90%
DB Row
Incl. DB Curl
Bent row
Rev Curl
Lat Pull
Hammer Curl
DB Row
In. DB Curl
WEEK 4
MON
WEDS
FRI
Ext. Rot.
Bent Raise
DB Clean
Upright Row
Ext. Rot.
Rev. Fly
Bench
5x15 @ 65%
Bench
95% x 1
85% x 5x1
Bench
3,3,F @ 85%
Bent Row
Hammer Curl
Lat Pull
Rev Curl
DB Row
Incl. DB Curl
WEEK 5
MON
FRI
DB Clean
Bent Raise
TEST
Bench
5x15 @ 65%
Bent Row
Hammer Curl
To test, warm up as usual and space out your jumps over 10 or 12 sets. Only
the first few should feature more than 5 reps, and the last few should be
singles only. The goal is to warm up to heavier weights and dial your
technique in without causing any fatigue. Make sure to take a full 3 minutes
or more in between your last few sets.
WHAT ABOUT LEGS?
You worked hard for your lower body gains and surely do not want to see
them fall by the wayside. That's where 'maintenance mode' comes in.
It's important to realize that, while training to actually get stronger is hard,
training to maintain the size and strength you have is ridiculously easy. And,
since your upper body is about to spend 5 weeks in critical condition, your
lower body should be all about easy.
The lion's share of scientifically collected data regarding elite strength
athletes came out of the Soviet Union's sports program. Their mad scientists
concluded decades ago that it takes 3 full weeks for strength to regress with
zero further stimulus. This means that, if you were to completely cease
training today, it would be another 20 or so days before you noticed any drop
in physical strength.
If we opt instead for minimal training over zero training, we can put in a
substantially reduced effort on certain lifts while still keeping them from
regressing for many weeks at a time, or well beyond the 5 week scope of this
program.
If that doesn't calm your doubts, I have an anecdote for you.
On June 1st of 2014, I broke my leg in 3 places. The details of that incident,
though hilarious, I will save for another time. All you need to know is that it
left my foot dangling like a slinky from my ankle and required a plate and 12
screws to fix.
Surgery was July 10th.
By September, the atrophy in my leg was astonishing. My calf was visibly
smaller, as was that thigh. One of the first things I did before I could squat
was attempt a leg extension with the pad set right above the break. 3 measly
little plates on the stack was all it took to make my quads scream for mercy.
No burning here; we're talking knives and razors like I've never felt, not even
in my first leg workouts as a wee teen.
Sometime in September, long before I was supposed to bear weight on it in
the first place, I attempted to squat with an empty bar. A week later was
95lbs, and a week after that, 135lbs. I had to determine a solid 'come back'
date where I could start pushing the pounds again, so I came up with a highly
sophisticated algorithm that weighed the doctors orders against my own lack
of patience and some articles I skimmed through on the rates of bone growth.
By early October, I was confident enough that a loaded bar wouldn't cause
my tibia and fibula to slide down the sides of my foot, so I started to push
ahead. My first squat workout over 135, I took 405 for 2. I had done that for
15 mere months before. Now it was 2. A hard 2.
Did I set myself back a year? Had all of that progress flushed down the
drain?
Not even close.
6 months to the day of my break (3 months of actual training), I entered into
my first powerlifting meet and sunk a 589lb squat with about 30lbs in the
tank. My best before the break? 565.
And that 405 for a double that haunted me in the first weeks of my comeback
had turned into a 20 repper that, dare I say, was not as hard as one would
expect a 20 rep squat to be.
Long story short, comebacks are quick and you don't have to grind yourself
into the ground to keep gains from slipping away. That knowledge has been
integral in prioritizing weak areas over strong ones in the short term while
keeping everything moving forward in the long term. I know I can take the
time to bring up a lagging area and pick up right where I left off.
And that powerful information is what you should apply here.
So maintenance mode for lower body is going to consist of some bare-bones
stuff, which should set you up for a nice squat-centric training block in the
weeks following this one so your wheels can grow once again while your
shoulders and elbows cool off.
I'm not going to give you a full leg program, just some guidelines to follow.
Rule 1:
Focus on squats; absolutely no deadlifting. Deads are a fantastic lift but also
an SOB to recover from. In fact, if you aren't careful, they will take more
than they give back. Try pulling during this block and you will likely find
your deadlifts and bench presses suffering. Squats are biomechanically
friendly which makes them easy to recover from. They also hit enough of the
muscles used heavily in the deadlift to ensure that deadlift performance will
be maintained as well.
Rule 2:
Keep it to one extra session per week. You can do it on another day or
squeeze it in at the end of one of the lighter bench days. If you try to cram 2
or more leg days into this template, you will have the same problems
illustrated in Rule 1.
Rule 3:
Keep it sub-maximal. Whether you're doing sets of 10 or sets of 1, avoid
doing anything that ranks higher than an 8 out of 10 difficulty. Remember,
maintenance is super easy, and in this program your legs should be all about
easy.
Rule 4:
Keep the volume down. No more than 5 working sets, preferably 3 or so. Use
the opportunity to focus on setup and bar speed. Make it an exercise in
technical precision. This is actually a golden opportunity to spend some time
under the bar without the burden of having to worry about percentages or
effort. You might learn something about your squat you can take into your
next training cycle.
Rule 5:
You can do accessory, but keep it quick. No marathon sets of lunges or leg
presses. At most, do 2 other exercises for 2 or 3 sets each, then call it. Better
than that, just do the squats and go home.
END NOTES
It's important to know that the back-bone of a successful training life is
paying due diligence to rote mechanical progressions that are often very slow
and methodical. The field of barbell training, which usually attracts people
who enjoy the passion and effort required to progress, ironically benefits
from steady, measured, punch-clock workouts where the prescribed work is
completed and the numbers are adjusted just so for the next time around. It's
not sexy, but it's essential.
I wrote this as a deviation from that principle because it is also important to
remember the role of really hard, focused work as a driving factor of
progress. This is not a full contest prep (in fact I would discourage you from
using it right before a meet) and it is likely not a sustainable method of
training. It is a one-off, something that you will likely only run once or twice
in between longer training cycles (and hopefully benefit from greatly in that
time). Use it to focus your efforts when you have the time and luxury in your
training cycle to put your better lifts on the back burner and put a lot of effort
into one that is lagging.
Call it a plateau buster, a screw around cycle, a gonzo workout, something
done 'just for lulz'. As long as there is purpose and direction, along with
diligent note taking, a certain piece of your long term growth will still rely on
such experimental deviations from the norm. In fact, this is exactly how we
find out new things and use them to improve old things.
To wrap this up, I'll just remind you to take the recovery aspect seriously.
Warm up thoroughly, prioritize the prehab and accessory movements, and
practice plenty of maintenance via stretching, rolling, scraping, tempering,
and the occasional use of ice and ibuprofen. If you can master staying in one
piece, you can really accomplish anything else.
If you make it through this alive, I welcome all feedback, good and bad.
Leave a comment on the Youtube Channel (Alexander Bromley) or DM me
directly through Instagram (@empire_barbell).
Now get to it!