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Contents
Why Intermediates Usually Hit Plateaus?.............................................. 4
The Philosophy Behind The Template................................................... 6
Warm up Sets........................................................................................ 7
Acclimation Sets.................................................................................... 7
Technique.............................................................................................. 8
"Ramping" Sets And RPE...................................................................... 8
Further use of RPE.............................................................................. 10
Is Training to failure Productive........................................................... 10
The Importance of Tracking Training................................................... 11
Proper Mentality and Work Quality...................................................... 12
Stop Killing Yourself in The Gym......................................................... 13
The template....................................................................................... 15
Template Breakdown and Customization Recommendations..............19
Hypertrophy Focused version of this Template.................................... 25
My Personal Best Muscle Building Program........................................ 26
Some final words................................................................................. 28
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Thank you for downloading and welcome to the "TallLifts Strength and Mass" template!
Before we dive into this program I want to clarify a few things and give you a few warnings.
This is only a training template. This is not a "program" that you have to use exactly as it is
written.
There is no "best program" for mass or for strength and people who claim such things
either just don't know what they're talking about or they are purposely trying to scam you.
This is a template for people who are already familiar with terms like "RPE", "1RM", who
know their maxes on the main lifts and for the people who already have solid technique.
I'm not saying that if you're a beginner that you CAN'T do this workout and that you won't
get anything out of it, I'm just saying that there are better ways to train if you're a beginner
and this is mostly suited for early intermediates who didn't have any structured training for
at least one year consistently although it still works for me.
Once I personally started TRACKING TRAINING I have made huge gains. Emphasis here
is on tracking training and looking at the results objectively.
Why Intermediates Usually Hit Plateaus?
The biggest issue for most intermediates is that they either don't have any structure at all
(program hopping), or they follow a certain structure like a religion for years without any
gains (HIT, 5x5, bro splits etc.) and either one of this situations is not good. Of course, this
isn't the ONLY problem why intermediates hit plateaus but it is probably the most common
one.
If you're a beginner I suggest that you first learn and practice your technique for 2-4
months in major lifts before diving into a program like this.
This program is based on my experience
This is a program that is a product of many years of training and experience, and this is
the program that I personally use and have been using and adjusting since 2015
(variations of it) and I've been training for 12 years total with some breaks.
Of course I didn't use the EXACT same routine from 2015, but I won't go into my training
history here.
I'm gonna be totally honest here, I personally made a lot of gains on it, but that
doesn't mean that YOU will.
Every program has to be individualized if you want to MAXIMIZE your results. That doesn't
mean you won't make ANY gains on this program, it just means that it was originally
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developed for MY individual preferences and you may make a lot of gains on it too, who
knows, nobody can tell.
I also want to point out that this template is not “made for tall guys”, this is the template
that worked for me and it doesn't matter if you're tall or not, you can still do this template
and see if it will work for you.
I personally made more gains in the last two years on this program than in my whole lifting
"career".
I know I gained a lot of fat but I also gained a lot of muscle and strength.
In the first year of this exact template (beginning of 2016) I gained around 50kg on my
squat, 30kg on my bench press and 60kg on my deadlift.
I don't believe that the template itself was the only thing that gave me this results but a
combination of weight gain, consistency, tracking and reasonable programming based on
my previous experience.
The pictures on the left are from January 2016 and the pictures on the right are from June
2018. On the left I have ~99kg/218lbs, and on the right I have ~108kg/238lbs.
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The Philosophy Behind The Template
The strength of this program is in it's simplicity. It focuses on basic and effective
movements which are proven to give you the most gains possible.
Basic movements don't always necessarily mean squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press,
pull up and row. These probably are the best muscle and strength builders which is proven
time and time again through history, but because everybody is built differently (bone
structure, muscle attachments, levers etc.) you will have to start literally finding exercises
and techniques that are better suited and safer for YOU.
That being said, if your goal is strength, you have more limitations with movements in
comparison to "just" building mass.
This is not some magic formula for gains, there are no secrets here, you just have to
put the work in, track your results, adjust through time and the gains will come
(hopefully).
If somebody claims or is presenting themselves like they have some secret, guess what?
They don't..
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Warm up Sets
I'm staying very firm on this – that it is an absolute necessity to do warm up sets IF you
want to optimally perform that day. There is no other way around it.
Not only are you moving your joints through the range of motion, you're gonna lift some
heavy stuff, but you should also PRACTICE technique on your warm up sets so that you
literally get into the groove when you get to the working sets and heavier weights.
So this is how you would do warm up sets if you would be warming up for 100kg bench
press:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
20kg (20% of working weight) (empty bar) 15-20 reps
40kg (40% of working weight) 10 reps
60kg (60% of working weight) 8 reps
70kg (70% of working weight) 6 reps
80kg (80% of working weight) 3 reps
90kg (90% of working weight) 1 rep
Some of you may think that this is too much warm up sets and I can understand why.
Sometimes when you feel good you can skip some of this warm up sets but for my FIRST
exercise I prefer to do this many warm up sets. The only thing to consider is that you don't
have to rest between warm up sets. You just add the weight and go. The point of warm up
sets is to actually warm up and get your heart pumping.
Another thing to consider is that the first exercise in this template is always the hardest
one and the most technical one for the day which requires proper warm up and mental
preparation.
Acclimation Sets
Acclimation sets are the sets that you do for your other exercises of the day. After you
warmed up for your bench and you finish your bench sets, there is no need to do 7 warm
up sets for your incline bench or your overhead press, just a few acclimation sets to get
you ready for the exercise.
They should be heavy enough so you can feel the weight but not so heavy that they
fatigue you before your working sets.
On the subsequent exercises you're not trying to warm up, you're just getting into the
groove. You want to do 2-3 acclimation sets before your working sets on every compound
exercise, single joint exercises usually require less warm up but I also find that I need to
spend some time warming up my elbows when I do triceps extensions.
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Technique
I can't even emphasize enough how important it is for you to have proper technique.
Proper technique isn't something you can take lightly. From squats to curls, technique is
one of the most CRITICAL things you need to focus on.
It is important for complex movements like squat or bench to fully utilize them in a safest
way possible and for exercises like curls to make sure that you're working the muscles you
actually want to work, not everything else.
If you think your technique isn't the best, always try to improve it and learn as much as
possible about it or just hire a coach.
We could talk about technique forever, but we will just mention why it is in your best
interest to really clean up your technique:
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•
•
•
By having a proper technique you make sure that any additional rep or any
additional weight added to the bar is from ACTUAL progress. If you do more reps or
more weight with THE SAME technique, you can almost be sure that you're building
muscle and you actually KNOW you're getting stronger.
By having a proper technique you can track your results much more precisely.
By having a proper technique you drastically decrease the chance of injury.
By having a proper technique you are basically a better person in general so you
should focus on proper technique just because of that.
"Ramping" Sets And RPE
Ramping sets are basically sets where you work your way up in weight to a certain rep
range and a certain RPE range (usually higher RPE's).
My version of ramping sets looks like this...
For example, if you do top set of six reps at RPE8 on squat, that means that you should
start your "ramping sets" with a weight that you know you can do 6 reps with comfortably.
You incrementally go up in weight every set until you hit a goal RPE for that day.
Sometimes you will end up doing ~3-4 sets and sometimes you will end up doing
more. We will look at this example here.
Let's say that your 1RM on squat is 120kg/264lbs and you need to do a ramping set of six
reps up to RPE8 (r6 @8).
You would probably start somewhere around 72kg/158lbs which is around 60% of your
1RM.
That would be your first set. You would add around ~7-10% of that weight for your next set
which would be 72kg/158lbs + (10%) = 79.2kg/174lbs which we would round up to
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80kg/176lbs because the goal here is NOT to be neurotic about numbers but to train
and make gains.
You will do another set of 6 with 80kg/176 lbs, see how it feels, if it's around a prescribed
RPE you would stop there, if the RPE is too low, you would go up in weight another 710%.
There is no magic in any of these percentages, the goal here is to incrementally
increase the weight from set to set until you hit a prescribed RPE for that day. You
can do that with percentages or just by adding extra 2,5 – 10kg per set (5kg max for
pressing movements).
The next weight would be 88kg/194lbs for 6 reps (80kg + 10%). You can round that
number however you want and however it is suitable for you. Again, there is no magic in
any of these numbers, the only goal here is to hit a top set of 6 reps ~@8 while doing
some quality volume before the top set.
If we conclude that you hit RPE8 (or 8,5 doesn't really matter) on the next set, the squat
workout for that specific day would look something like this:
Squat:
72kg/158lbs x 6 @ 5 (basically warmup)
80kg/176lbs x 6 @ 6
90kg/198lbs x 6 @ 7
95kg/209lbs x 6 @ 8.5
Again, this numbers aren't written in stone, your numbers may be totally different
depending on how you feel that day, and on some other factors, but the basic progression
for ramping sets will usually look something like this example.
If you don't want to calculate percentages you can always add on every set 5-10kg on your
big lifts like squats, deads, and 2.5-5kg on your smaller lifts like row, overhead press,
bench until you hit the prescribed RPE.
The ramping sets are marked with letter "r" in the program like this: r10 @8 this means
that you should ramp up in weight like in the example above for sets of 10 reps.
Most of the time you will be doing good old straight sets. You have prescribed number
of sets and reps and you do it at a certain range of RPE.
@10
@9.5
@9
@8.5
@8
@7.5
@7
@6.5
@6
RPE TABLE MADE SIMPLE
Technical failure
probably can't do one more rep
you're sure you can do 1 more rep
probably can't do 2 more reps
you're sure you can do 2 more reps
probably can't do 3 more reps
you're sure you can do 3 more reps
probably can't do 4 more reps
Not very precise*
you're sure you can do 4 more reps
Not very precise*
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Further use of RPE
If the set was around RPE6 on higher rep sets (above 12 reps) I would not count that as a
working set, but on the “lower” reps (1-10), especially on "bigger" movements (like squat,
deadlift, bench, row), I would count RPE6 as a working set, but RPE6 is the lowest
threshold for working sets, you should be in @6-8 range most of the time and very
rarely go up to @9 (once a month).
On the other side, if your first set was too heavy (~@9-10 RPE) lower the weight and do
the prescribed amount of reps, as planned, but with less weight.
You can also do other sets with the same weight but lower the prescribed reps (if you had
to do 3x6 reps, you could do 1x6 @9 + 2x4 @7-8 with the same weight).
I like to lower the weight because if I hit high RPE on the first set that probably means that
the weight was heavy and since I came close to failure with heavy weight so there is no
need to lift heavy for that day anymore, just to do back off sets.
This is the example of how the RPE can raise with the same amount of weight because of
accumulated fatigue:
Squat:
100kg x 10 @6
100kg x 10 @7
100kg x 10 @8
Your training will automatically start to look something like this when you get more
experienced with rating RPE and everything starts clicking for you. Maybe it will not be the
exact number on all sets but it's gonna be pretty close.
Just one last tip with RPE ratings. Don't rate RPE with your ego. Record yourself every
set and then rate it based on how it felt and how it looked. If it looks kinda OK but you felt
like you're gonna die, trust your instincts. Also, rate the RPE on the slowest part of the lift
not the fastest part.
Is Training to failure Productive
RPE10 is considered to be technical failure, not absolute failure!
Let me repeat that again...
RPE10 is considered to be technical failure, not absolute muscle failure.
If you're trying to build mass and your technique breaks down that literally means that the
muscle you're trying to target is unable to lift the weight so the body starts using different
muscles and/or momentum to lift weight.
If your technique breaks down often while lifting heavy weights you're increasing the risk of
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injury and on top of that you're compromising your gains.
Your first and last rep in the set should look almost identical even when you're pushing it
hard. Training hard doesn't mean training like an idiot.
If in some case you don't know what RPE is go online and look at the RPE chart and
watch a few videos that explain what RPE is. Mike Tuchscherer practically invented
RPE for weight training.
The Importance of Tracking Training
There are many ways you can progress with weight training. In the first 8 years of training I
did almost every kind of set – rep scheme you can imagine going from drop sets, super
sets, cluster sets (very similar to myo reps), tri sets, going to failure, going above failure,
super-slow reps, explosive reps... you name it, I did it.
I understand the mentality behind these concepts. I was that guy who took Mike Mentzer's
Heavy Duty Training like a religion, and that was one of the "original" heavy duty routines
where you train muscle groups two times per week to absolute failure, which is crazy, but I
was kinda crazy back then so it fit me perfectly.
Things are a little bit different now. Through experimenting and learning, I sincerely
believe that you get the best gains possible doing MOSTLY "straight" sets.
When you do your super sets, drop sets, burnout sets or whatever "advanced techniques"
(sounds much cooler than it is) you actually can't track progress with those kind of
techniques because every time you do something like that it is literally a new adventure.
With straight sets you can really "optimize" your training and have everything
properly tracked.
When you do 3x10x100kg, and after a few workouts you do 3x10x102.5kg (or
3x11x100kg), you know something happened, which is good because now you have
confirmation that whatever it IS you're doing does CURRENTLY work.
This kind of tracking is almost impossible with so called "advanced" techniques.
Through time you should be able to progress in lifted weight, reps, technique or volume. If
you aren't capable doing any of that, something is probably wrong with the program,
unless you're cutting weight.
Progressing in weight is pretty straight forward. If you can do the same amount of reps
with more weight that means that you got stronger in that rep range, which most likely
means that you gained some muscle.
Strength gains and muscle gains are NOT 100% correlated but you can be sure you're
moving in the right direction if you're slowly lifting more and more weight over time.
Doing more reps with the same weight is basically the same thing. If you do more reps
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with the same weight, you can be almost sure that you're progressing.
This is the reason why you should track everything. Every rep, every set and every RPE
needs to be written down so you know what is going on after a few months of accumulated
data.
I suggest that you make an excel sheet and just put everything in there or you can go “old
school” and use a real notepad.
Without tracking you're just going in circles.
Proper Mentality and Work Quality
People usually overthink programming while they don't know how to actually TRAIN. I
don't like to use the term "work out" because when I hear that term I imagine some old
ladies doing Pilates.
This is weight training, not working out, and when you're in the gym, you have to train like
an athlete not like an old lady and you should avoid all distractions, like talking to other
people and using your phone.
When you enter the gym, you have to already know what you're gonna do. Even if you
don't have the exact load prescribed (RPE), you already know approximately how much
weight you're gonna use and you have to have some targets for that workout based on
your previous workouts (if you're doing sets of 10 @7-8 you're probably gonna work in 6570% range).
You don't just randomly go into the gym and play roulette.... you plan and execute,
not guess.
The focus in the gym should be to do the best work possible in the present circumstances.
That's why I like RPE because it is an autoregulatory tool. RPE @8 can one week be
100kg and next week it can be 95kg but the following week can jump up to 107.5kg. Focus
should be on work quality not on quantity, quantity is secondary. Too much things are
going on that affect your training so being neurotic is pointless.
What does your squat sets and reps even mean if you're quarter squatting?
If you do 8 reps and the last 3 were with poor technique, you did 5 reps, not 8. That's the
big boys standard and now yours too.
I'm not talking here about "perfect" technique because that doesn't really exist, but all reps
should be performed through full range of motion and with controlled eccentric
portion (negative or downward motion). Your last rep should look almost exactly like
your first rep.
If you feel that you're dropping your weights while you curl, bench or pull and you aren't
really controlling the descent (negative) you're literally leaving gains on the table. You
always have to be pretty much in full control of the weight through full range of motion.
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This is a totally different thing than neurotically obsessing if you're lifting the weight
absolutely perfectly, and the distinction between the two comes only with a lot of practice.
If you need to do three sets of ten on bench, do the best damn three sets of ten on bench
in your life. That's the mentality you must have every time you go into the gym.
Again, obsessing about training and being focused in the gym are two completely different
mentalities and you should learn what the difference is.
You may not lift more weight every single workout, you may not do more reps every single
workout but no matter how much weight you lift you should always approach every single
exercise as the most important thing to do currently, because it is.
Every exercise in this template has it's place and purpose, nothing is extra or without any
reason. Every exercise has a specific reason of it being there. That's why you have to put
all of your focus in every exercise. If you have only two sets of overhead press that doesn't
mean that those 2 sets aren't important, on the contrary, because there is only 2 sets, you
can and should put even more emphasis on them.
Stop Killing Yourself in The Gym
I know most of you still hold that "go hard or go home" mentality about training so I wanted
to say a few words about that. This mentality has become so popular that people think it's
the way you HAVE to train to make gains.
You have to train hard and sometimes you have to push yourself, but that has been over
emphasized to the point that it just became ridiculous. According to some fitness experts,
every time you go to the gym it should be life or death scenario? You're lifting weights man
not going to war... come on, give me a break.
Most of the fitness personalities have adopted this attitude because it sells and people buy
it. Most of them somehow become motivators (and some of them actually did become
motivational speakers) and it looks like they forgot why they become a fitness personality
in the first place.
When a beginner dives into fitness and starts looking at some of the most popular
fitness personalities it really looks like it's all about hard work and motivation.
They make it sound like the only thing you need is motivation which in the end drives you
to work hard and then hard work alone gives you results. Which is not true at all.
You know what hard work without good programming gave me? Only injuries and
sprains.
Do you know what really gives you results? Smart training + hard work, but to be perfectly
honest here, going to the gym isn't really THAT hard.
Of course, it takes discipline and consistency and for some individuals this is going to be
hard, I understand that, we're not all the same but looking at it objectively... it isn't hard at
all.
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•
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Discipline? Yes...
Consistency? Yes...
Smart planning? Yes...
Hard work? Sometimes...
Is it possible to train too hard on one training routine? Yes...
Can you not train hard enough on the same training routine? Yes...
Make a habit of enjoying your training. Of course we all want results as fast as possible.
After 12 years of training I frequently find myself caught up in that trap, but just remember
one thing before we dive into the actual program:
You CAN'T actually FORCE your muscles to grow and you CAN'T really force them
to be stronger.
If this were true, then you could do 100 sets every day for a certain muscle group and you
would grow, but we all know that is not true.
DON'T JUST CHASE STRENGTH
DON'T think just because you're using more weight that you're definitively getting bigger or
even stronger. Yeah, I really said that!
You can be stronger on a particular day for many reasons. You just ate a bit more, you
were better prepared, you slept better, you did an accidental micro deload or micro peak
(we wont go in deload or peaking here), you switched the exercise, you overdosed on
preworkout lol... etc. So having more strength can be misleading for many reasons.
Your goal shouldn't just be to add more weight. Lifting more weight should be the
effect, not the cause! I'm gonna repeat that again... Lifting more weight is the effect,
not the cause!
Just remember that the next time you're tempted to lift more weight on the next set while
you damn well know your last set was already borderline RPE9-10 (you almost died)! We
all did it, and we all know the feeling.... it just isn't productive and it's actually dangerous.
This is my last warning, you shouldn't take this things lightly.
To be perfectly honest here, the only thing you REALLY can do is to train smart, with
adequate intensity and technique and after that you basically just wait patiently and
observe the results.
You're NOT FORCING your muscles to grow, you're actually stimulating them to grow with
surprisingly “little” work and then you just wait until your body repairs itself via thousands of
different biological processes.
So for the last time here, I really encourage you to train hard but not too hard, train smart
but don't overanalyze every little aspect of the training.
I present to you...
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The template
If you didn't actually read the explanation I would highly suggest you do that before you
dive into the template. It can literally make you or brake you.
I'm going to give you my exercise recommendations. These are just exercises that are in
my opinion some of the best exercises for muscle building. You can milk the gains out of
these exercises for years. If you like some other exercises you can do them but these are
my suggestions in the order from best to worst for muscle building:
Squat Movement:
•
high bar squat
•
low bar squat
•
front squat
•
any squat variation that is safe for you
Hamstring Movement:
•
romanian deadlift (RDL)
•
good morning
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back extension
•
any type of hamstring curl that you have available or you prefer
Bench Variation:
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barbell bench press
•
incline barbell bench press
•
dumbbell bench press
•
incline dumbbell bench press
Row Variation:
•
bent over barbell row (strict)
•
dumbbell row (strict)
•
seal row (any chest supported row)
•
cable row
Shoulders:
•
overhead press
•
seated dumbbell press
•
dumbbell lateral raises
•
cable lateral raises
Vertical Pull:
•
pull ups
15
•
chin ups
•
lat pulldown
•
any pulldown machine
Biceps Exercise:
•
barbell curl
•
dumbbell curl
•
incline dumbbell curl
•
hammer curl
Triceps Exercise:
•
laying barbell triceps extension (preferably on decline bench and lowering the bar
behind the head)
•
laying dumbbell triceps extension
•
overhead barbell triceps extension
•
overhead dumbbell triceps extension
•
straight bar triceps pushdown
Single leg quad movement:
•
bulgarian squat
•
lunges
•
split squat
Deadlift:
•
conventional deadlift
•
sumo deadlift
•
deficit deadlift
•
snatch grip deadlift
Pick the exercises that you like, or the ones you think work best for you and do
them for at least 2-3 months. For the first few weeks the body is just adapting to the new
exercises and basically you're just learning the movement.
You can't do one exercise for one week and then change it with another one the next
week. You need to spend some time doing the same movements before you switch
exercises because you want to get good at them.
You should gain strength on the new movements pretty quickly in the first few weeks
because you're not used to them and your body is just getting used to them and you're not
very efficient with your technique.
For further customization recommendations you can see the next chapter on how to
do that.
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The Template:
Week 1
Monday
Squat
Romanian Deadlift
Calf Raises (any)
AB Exercise
Wednesday
Close Grip Bench
Barbell Row
Incline Bench Press
Pull Up/Pulldown
DB Curl
Lying Triceps Extension
Friday
Deadlift
Split squat/Bulgarian Squat
Plank
Saturday
2ct Pause Bench Press
DB Row
Overhead Press
Pull Up/Pulldown
BB Curl
Cable Lateral Raises
Triceps Pushdown
Week 2
Monday
Squat
Romanian Deadlift
Calf Raises (any)
AB Exercise
Wednesday
Close Grip Bench
Barbell Row
Incline Bench Press
Pull Up/Pulldown
DB Curl
Lying Triceps Extension
Friday
Deadlift
Split squat/Bulgarian Squat
Plank
Saturday
2ct Pause Bench Press
DB Row
Overhead Press
Pull Up/Pulldown
BB Curl
Cable Lateral Raises
Triceps Pushdown
sets/reps
3x10-12 (~65%)
3x10-12
3x12-15
3x15-20
RPE
@6-7
@6
@9
/
3x10-12 (~60%)
3x10-12
3x10-12
3x10-12
3x12-15
3x12-15
@7
@7
@7
@8
@8
@8
3x10-12 (~65%)
3x12-15
3x45sec
@6
@7
/
3x10-12 (~65%)
3x10-12
3x10-12
3x10-12
3x12-15
3x12-15
3x12-15
@7
@7
@7
@8
@8
@8
@8
sets/reps
r8-10 (~70%)
2x8-10
3x12-15
5x15-20
RPE
@6-8
@7-8
@9
/
r8-10 (~65%)
3x8-10
3x8-10
3x8-10
3x10-12
3x10-12
@7-8
@7-8
@7-8
@8
@8
@8
r8-10 (~70%)
3x8-10
3x45sec
@6-8
@7-8
/
3x8-10 (~70%)
3x8-10
3x8-10
3x8-10
3x10-12
3x12-15
3x10-12
@7-8
@7-8
@7-8
@8
@8
@8
@8
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Week 3
Monday
Squat
Romanian Deadlift
Calf Raises (any)
AB Exercise
Wednesday
Close Grip Bench
Barbell Row
Incline Bench Press
Pull Up/Pulldown
DB Curl
Lying Triceps Extension
Friday
Deadlift
Split squat/Bulgarian Squat
Plank
Saturday
2ct Pause Bench Press
DB Row
Overhead Press
Pull Up/Pulldown
BB Curl
Cable Lateral Raises
Triceps Pushdown
Week 4
Monday
Squat
Romanian Deadlift
Calf Raises (any)
Wednesday
Close Grip Bench
Barbell Row
Incline Bench
Pull Up/Pulldown
DB Curl
Friday
Deadlift
Plank
Saturday
2ct Pause Bench Press
Overhead Press
Pull Up/Pulldown
sets/reps
r6-8 (~75%)
2x6-8
3x12-15
5x15-20
RPE
@7-8
@7-8
@9
/
r6-8 (~70%)
3x6-8
3x6-8
3x10-12
3x10-12
3x8-10
@7-8
@7-8
@7-8
@8-9
@9
@9
r6-8 (~75%)
3x8-10
3x45sec
@7-8
@7-8
/
3x6-8 (~75%)
3x6-8
r6-8
3x8-10
3x8-10
3x10-12
3x10-12
@8-9
@7-8
@8-9
@8-9
@9
@9-10
@9-10
Reps @RPE
5 @6, 5 @7, 5 @8, 5 @9
2x6-8
3x12-15 @9
5 @6, 5 @7, 5 @8, 5 @9
2x6-8
5 @6, 5 @7, 5 @8, 5 @9
3x8-10 @9
3x10-12 @9
@9
@9
@9
@9
@9
5 @6, 5 @7, 5 @8, 5 @9
3x45sec
5 @6, 5 @7, 5 @8, 5 @9
5 @6, 5 @7, 5 @8, 5 @9
3x8-10
@9
@9
On the main movements you can follow this instructions based on percentage or based on
RPE, that is up to you, but if at any point you go over the prescribed RPE you need to
lower the weight to hit prescribed RPE.
This program is made to be followed with RPE and the percentages are just suggestions if
you don't know where to start with the weights.
Ramping sets are meant to be used as described in "Ramping Sets" chapter and
you should do around 3-5 ramping sets.
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Template Breakdown and Customization Recommendations
The program is broken down in movement patterns, not on particular muscle groups.
There is some dedicated work for arms because, in my opinion, you have to have some
isolation work for arms if you want to maximize your arm development.
Workout "A1" - Lower Body 1
First workout is lower body and the main focus of the day is the main quad movement
which is almost always some type of squat.
These are just suggestions and in my opinion the best exercises for quad development:
• high bar squat
• low bar squat
• front squat
• safety squat bar
• etc.
The next movement is some sort of hip extension exercise that targets mostly your
hamstrings:
• romanian deadlift
• good morning
• loaded 45 degree back extension
• glute ham raise
• etc.
The next two movements are optional but if you really want to do something else for
quads I suggest some unilateral quad movement like:
• barbell standing lunge
• bulgarian squat with barbell
• split squat with barbell
• step ups (on the box) with barbell
• etc.
And the last movement of the day would be some sort of leg curl because of the way
hamstrings are designed, some muscles work best on curling motion:
• any type of leg curl
Here is one example of my favorite mass building template for lower body:
Workout "A1"
1. high bar squat
2. romanian deadlift
3. barbell lunge
4. laying leg curl
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Workout "B1" - Upper Body 1
Workout B is an upper body day. In this day you will have 2 pushing movements, two
pulling movements and, depending on your goals, 2 to 4 other exercises to additionally
train your shoulders and arms.
The first movement is a horizontal pushing exercise. These type of exercises mostly work
your chest, triceps and anterior shoulders. I almost always do flat benching in this slot.
Here are some suggestions for horizontal pushing exercises:
•
•
•
•
•
barbell bench press
incline barbell bench press
dumbbell bench press
incline dumbbell bench press
etc.
The next exercise is always a horizontal pulling movement. The reason why a pull is the
next exercise is to give some time for your pushing muscles to rest, and to (in a way)
prehab your shoulders and keep them healthy.
Horizontal pulling suggestions:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
strict barbell row
dumbbell row
pendlay row
barbell seal row (or any chest supported row)
inverted row
cable row
etc.
The next exercise will depend on your goals, really. I don't like to have more than 3
pushing movements in a single workout. That's why you basically have to program your
workout based on your goals.
Now, if you want to focus more on chest development for the next training block, then your
third exercise for workout "B1" could be some sort of incline chest pressing.
For naturals, it is much harder to build upper chest (yes "upper") than lower chest. This is
perfectly normal, and because of that fact, if you want to have a nice looking chest (who
doesn't), it's probably in your interest to do some incline work for your chest.
It doesn't matter that much if it is with dumbbells or with a barbell, but pick some exercise
that targets the upper chest that you like and just do it.
Here is also one interesting point to have in mind.
Depending on the individuals biomechanics, you can fatigue your triceps and your anterior
(front) shoulder while you did your flat benching to the point that you can't lift enough
weight on the incline bench for it to be effective for your chest development.
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I'm saying this because chest muscles are much larger and usually require more load than
triceps (just a personal observation).
I'm mentioning this mostly based on MY experience. When I did close grip bench, after 4-6
sets of bench my triceps were usually pretty much fatigued to the point that I couldn't do
any more effective pushing movements, like barbell incline bench or DB incline bench.
When this scenario happened, and I wanted to focus more on my chest, I usually did only
dumbbell flies.
So, for the chest focused "B1" workout, your third exercise, depending on the situation,
would be one of the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
barbell incline bench press
dumbbell incline bench press
dumbbell flies
incline dumbbell flies
cable crossover
etc.
Now for the fourth exercise in this workout you would have to do some sort of
vertical pulling motion.
In my opinion, these are the exercises where you really work your lats. There are many
variations of vertical pulling motions from various grips of pullups to various machines, and
the most popular one, and in my opinion the best after pull ups, is the lat pulldown.
So in my humble opinion, you should just pick either lat pulldown or pull ups for this
exercise. Doesn't really matter what type of pulldown or what version of pull up or chin up,
just do it.
The fifth exercise is your triceps exercise. If you didn't really feel your triceps while you
did your bench and incline bench and they're pretty fresh, I'd suggest that you do dips
or close grip bench first, before considering any isolation exercise.
Here are the best "isolation" exercises for triceps (in my opinion) in order from best to
worst:
• lying barbell triceps extension (preferably decline lowering the bar behind the head)
• lying dumbbell triceps extension
• overhead barbell triceps extension
• overhead dumbbell triceps extension
• triceps cable pushdown
Your next exercise is a biceps exercise. Biceps is a relatively small muscle and it has
pretty simple attachments. When you curl, you use your biceps, that's pretty much it. We
all know that it has a role in shoulder flexion (some of you maybe don't) but it's primary role
is arm flexion.
It's not entirely clear if you can REALLY train certain parts of the biceps, but you can put
just a little more emphasis on the long or short head.
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That being said, your biceps/triceps work with all your pulling/pushing movements,
and depending on your biomechanics it will work more or less, and you will know that
depending on how much pump you got from pulling/pushing exercises and how much
fatigued they are after you did your pulling/pushing for the day.
Since we are natural here, we need to focus on exercises that are proven to be the most
effective for growth so we're just going to do that without going in any more details.
Natural lifters have much less room for experimentation than enhanced athletes. It is
already difficult just to stimulate growth in the muscles after noob gains, there is no
point in trying to emphasize certain PARTS of muscles when the GROWTH ITSELF
is really hard to achieve.
This is in my opinion why you shouldn't bother with weird or needlessly over complicated
isolation exercises at all. Because your meat and potatoes are always going to be the
meat and potatoes no matter with what side dish you choose to eat it.
In my opinion best exercises for biceps are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
barbell curl
dumbbell curl
hammer curl
concentration curl
incline curl
preacher curl
These exercises hit pretty much all of your upper body and you will probably gain mass
doing "only" them but I'm no magician so I can't really tell if you're gonna gain mass or not.
Gaining mass isn't just about programming, your recovery modalities and lifestyle has to
be in order also.
Since there can be some shoulder imbalance problems, I like to do some sort of rear delt
work at the end of this workout just for “prehab”. Your rear delts are probably working really
hard while doing rows and pull ups, but just to be sure, we're going to add one of the
following:
•
•
•
cable face pulls
light dumbbell upright row
lying dumbbell rear delt flies
Workout "A2" - Lower Body 2
The next workout is probably gonna be a favorite for some of you guys because it is
primary a hip extension (deadlift motion) workout.
I just want to point out that your deadlift form should be really good, and if it isn't, you
should invest about 2-4 months building technique before adding weight.
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Workout A2 starts with deadlift (obviously). Since this is a general strength program, I
suggest that you do conventional deadlifts, not sumo deadlifts. If you like to do sumo
deadlifts, well you can do sumo but just bear in mind that the conventional deadlift most
likely develops your upper back and posterior chain muscles a bit better than sumo
because of it's inherent properties. This may or may not be true depending on the person
but it generally is the case.
If you want to focus more on your hamstrings or lower back, you can do romanian
deadlifts.
You can do basically any type of deadlift variation you want except the ones that are
meant to "overload" something and are with less range of motion, like rack pulls, or block
pulls or reverse band deadlifts etc.
I don't see any real benefit in doing these types of deadlift exercises to be perfectly honest.
You can even argue that they don't do much for raw powerlifting either.
They do have some time and place but this is not applicable for us. From now on, when I
refer to "deadlift" I will always mean conventional deadlift.
Acceptable "deadlift" variations:
•
•
•
•
deadlift
sumo deadlift
deficit deadlift
snatch grip deadlift
After deadlift you can choose one compound quad movement or you can do the same one
you did in A1 workout. You can also do high bar squat or front squat in this slot if you really
want to build your squat.
Some additional quad focus movements:
•
•
•
•
•
split squat
lunge
bulgarian squat
hack squat
leg press
I usually like to do some 45 degree back extensions after this workout as a prehab to
pump some blood in my lower back and to stretch a little bit.
Workout "B2" – Upper Body 2
This workout in essence is the same as workout B1, but depending on your goals you will
have some other exercises in it.
If you want to focus more on your shoulders, you would choose exercise that train your
shoulders more.
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Same goes for arms, chest or back.
So this is a template for B1:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
horizontal push
horizontal pull
horizontal push/vertical push
vertical pull
triceps exercise/push exercise
biceps exercise
rear delt exercise
As you can see, already for workout B1 there are many variations, and I always used
workout B2 to focus more on specific movements, however I always had "some" rules
for this workout.
My first "rule" is that I almost always do strict overhead press as a vertical push for that
day, the only exception being that I'd like to work on my bench. I almost never deviated
from this except in case of an injury or time restriction.
This workout basically serves as a day to emphasize certain upper body muscle
groups.
I'm just gonna explain my example here.
Since I always struggled with arm development I like to start this day with a close grip
bench as a primary horizontal push.
Close grip bench is really good (probably the best) triceps builder and it really shows how
much triceps size I gained in the last two years.
Notice that I still kept the bench press, but only did a variation that suited my goals. My
chest still works on this day, but the focus is shifted on the triceps.
If you want to focus more on your chest, of course, incline bench is probably the best
option.
I just want to point out that in my experience I generally feel my triceps work much more if I
do barbell movements vs. dumbbell movements. Just a thing to consider.
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Overhead Press Training
If you want to focus on the overhead press you can do a few tweaks in this template to do
so.
•
•
On B1 instead of bench, for the first exercise do the overhead press and for the
second pushing exercise do incline bench.
On B2 instead of bench, for the first exercise do overhead press and for the second
pushing exercise do close grip bench.
The second pushing exercises are just suggestions. You can really do whatever you want
as long as you train overhead press two times per week and pick the other two pushing
movements that help your overhead press.
Hypertrophy Focused version of this Template
Since I know some of you mostly care about muscle mass I'm just going to give you some
simple suggestions how to modify this workout to be a bit more focused on hypertrophy.
In this template you're already doing mostly hypertrophy work and reps almost never dip
bellow 8 reps. The only exceptions being the bench, squat, deadlift and overhead press.
If you want to focus more on hypertrophy you can do this little tweaks:
1. On all major lifts just add 2 reps for every set (if in program says to do 6-8 reps you
do 8-10 reps etc.)
2. In the third week add one more set for all lifts, not just major lifts (major lifts are
almost always the first exercise)
3. Never do less than 3 working sets on ramping sets
4. On the fourth week just do 8 reps instead of 5 reps
5. On deadlift just do a top set of 8-10 at RPE7 and after that choose another exercise
for hamstrings or don't do conventional or sumo deadlift at all just hamstring
exercise for that day. Deadlifts are not easy on your body.
6. Shift the focus from lifting heavy to working your muscles.
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My Personal Best Muscle Building Program
When you find someones program online it usually isn't the EXACT program that they did
to get THEIR results.
In most cases you can hear people say something like:
"Do this program because I know it is the best."
But they themselves didn't train like that for the majority of their lifting career and in some
cases they never actually did the workout they're selling which is crazy.
When I started training at 16 I was "lucky" enough that I somehow found some weird
program that actually split the body in front and back sides.
One day you did the front side of your body (quads, abs, chest, biceps) and the other day
you would do the back side of the body (back, triceps, hamstrings, rear delts).
"Interesting" routine, yes I understand, but in that routine you train your body two times per
week, which is pretty much "optimal" (I hate that word) for majority of people who want to
build muscle. I understand some people will benefit from a little bit more and some from a
little bit less, but generally speaking two times per week it is a pretty good frequency.
The routine on the next page is just my personal best routine that is specifically made for
me.
This routine is the result of 3 years of experimentation and I REPEAT, it is MY routine.
I personally gained a lot of muscle on it, put 50kg on my squat, 30kg on my bench and
60kg on my deadlift in one year.
This is not what I do when I want to hit a PR on my powerlifting movements, but this is
basically my "default routine" which I use most of the time.
Sets and reps can vary a lot but all in all, this is the general template I use most of the
time.
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MY PERSONAL Best Routine, this is NOT the template (although very similar)
Exercise
Sets x Reps
RPE
Squat
r3-5x5-8
@6-8
Squat
1x10 -12
@6-9
Pause Bench / CG bench
3-5x3-5
@6-7
*Back Extension / RDL
2x15-20 / r1x10
@6-7
*Leg Curl
2x10-15
/
Pause Bench
r3-5x5-10
@6-8
Barbell Row / DB Row
2-3x6-10
@6-9
Incline Bench / CG Bench
1-2x10-15
@6-8
Pull Up / Lat Pulldown
3-4x6-15
@6-9
*Lateral Raises
2-3x10-15
@7-9
*DB Fly
2-3x10-15
@7-9
DB Curl
2-3x8-12
@7-9
Lying Triceps Extension
2-3x6-12
@7-9
Face Pulls
2-3x15-30
/
Deadlift
r3x6-10
@6-8
Deadlift
1x8-10
@6-9
High Bar Squat
r2x6-10
@6-7
*Back Extensions
2x10-15
@6-7
Pause Bench / CG Bench /
Incline Bench
r3-5x5-12
@6-9
BB Row / DB Row
3-5x8-15
@6-8
Overhead Press
2-4x5-15
@6-8
Pull Ups / Lat Pulldown
2-4x6-15
@6-9
BB/DB Curl / Incline Curl
2-4x8-15
@6-9
BB/DB Lying Triceps
Extension / Pushdown
2-4x8-15
@6-9
*Lateral Raises
2-4x10-20
@6-9
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
Saturday
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*Face Pulls
•
•
•
2-4x10-20
The sets marked with the letter "r" are ramping sets as described in chapter on
ramping sets
The "*" means that the exercise is optional
MY progression through weeks would look something like this and this is only for
the first exercises in a day and for deadlift even less volume:
2x10
3x8
4x6
5x4-5
r2-3x5
2x5 (deload)
@7
@7-8
@7-8
@7-8
@9
@6
•
Sometimes when I want to just maintain I alternate weeks with sets of 8-12 and sets
of 5-8 reps ~@7
Some final words
It's really hard to make any suggestions for the majority of people because you need to
consider a lot of factors while making a program.
This program isn't the only way I train and generally I like to make a program
SPECIFICALY tailored to individual's needs because the best program for everybody
doesn't exist.
This program is not purely focused on strength or on hypertrophy. It's somewhere in the
middle, maybe even more leaning to hypertrophy rather than strength.
For pure strength you definitively need to spend more time doing lower reps with higher
intensities (3-6) but you also have to have dedicated hypertrophy mesocycles and this
would actually be a good hypertrophy mesocycle in my opinion given that the volume suits
your needs.
Let's take my powerlifting program compared to this mass building template.
When I train for squat, bench and deadlift I squat 2-3 times per week, bench 3-4 times per
week and deadlift 1-2 times per week. I do very little direct shoulder work, isolation work (if
any) and my template doesn't look like this.
This is just a template that I find is very productive for most people because the frequency
is average, volume is average and intensity and reps are in my opinion best for building
muscle and general strength combined.
For some people this amount of volume is gonna be really high and I can understand that,
that's why this program isn't meant to be for beginners.
Focus is on increasing intensity through weeks and not volume. There are a few reasons
why is that but the main reason is that this program should build strength and muscle not
just muscle.
I'm tempted to say that this is a powerbuilding training but I don't like that word, that's why I
call this template strength and mass templat
28
I wish you the best and I hope you enjoy this program and make some gains on it.
Good luck!
Filip
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