Get ready folks. This one's a doozy. If you fall asleep, don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings, I passed out a few times while writing it.
Here it is.
Programming:
Unless you have been lifting for a good seven years, you are
more than likely a beginner lifter. Even the intermediate lifters can easily be
considered beginners. What defines a beginner lifter is adaptation. An advanced
lifter has maxed out his or her adaptation responses to the point where even
minuscule progress may take a year to produce. These are people who compete at
elite Olympic levels and their programming is designed years out from
competitions for them to peak and maybe, just
maybe the training will manifest a result.
The rest of us are beginners; simply because our bodies can
adapt to stress much more actively. A heavy set of squats, a good meal or five,
and a solid night’s sleep and all of the sudden, our bodies change. We adapt to
facilitate and negate the stress with more work capacity. This is called the
law of accommodation. It is also why you can’t just keep doing the same thing
and expect results. So what do we do? We add weights to the bar to stimulate
the same adaptation response. The cool thing is that for beginners, the
programming is simple and focused around progress.
Here are a few approaches:
First let’s define a hypothetical lifter.
Hypothetical lifter –
Jack,
Male, 165lb, beginner lifter.
1rms:
squat – 185; dead lift – 250; Press – 105; Power Clean – 135
Linear Progression:
I linear program is one that elicits adaptation after every
training session. It is phenomenally effective and work so elegantly. But, and
this is a big BUT: it’s brutal. The idea dates back to the ancient Greek days
when Milo the wrestler carried a calf around a track every day. The calf grew
slowly and incrementally, and as such Milo’s body adapted to the
ever-increasing load and demand of the calf. In time, Milo ended up carrying a
full-grown bull around the track, but logically, he would have never achieved
this task without the daily progressively increasing overload training imposed
upon him by the growing calf.
A training protocol would essentially follow that logic.
Every training session requires the lifter to lift a little more than the
previous session.
So a squatting set would look like this for Jack.
5 @ 135 (~<75 135.="" 135="" 1rm="" 5="" o:p="" of="">
The last set of 5+ is the kicker. That’s where you get to
lay down your worth and squat until your legs fall off or you pass out.
The next week:
5 @ 140, 5 @ 140, 5+ @ 140.
So slowly but surely; most importantly: CONSISTENTLY and
PERSISTENTLY, jack will keep adding small increments of weight for his body to
adapt against and that last set of 5+ will really stress the body maximally.
He’ll use the same gradual incremental progressive overload model for the other
lifts as well. And he’s going to get stronger. No two ways about this; the body
will adapt.
Eventually, he might stall out and fail to make progress. No
problem. All Jack has to do is “Reset”. Let’s say his last successful session
ended with a set of 5 reps at 205. That’s huge progress, but he missed a rep at
210. Jack’s next squat session will reset him to 90% of the last successful session.
So 205 x .9 = 184.5; round down to 180. So the next session will look like this:
5 @ 180. 5 @ 180, 5+ @ 180.
So not only is this 45 pounds of
progress since the last starting point, the last set of 5+ (the + is the
important part) will pick up the slack from resetting to a lighter weight. Use
this approach for all of the lifts and you will make incredible progress as
long as you follow this program consistently. If you start missing days and
opting to do other things, then your body won’t invest in strength and you’ll
fizzle out rather quickly. I know this for a fact. I followed a linear
progression for a solid 18+ months. It works as long as you commit to it. If
you want to do a little of everything and cherry pick your workouts, then this
won’t be for you. You will fail more often than not and progress will be
elusive at best.
So plan on adding 5 pounds to the squat, 1-2 pounds to the
press, 5 pounds to the dead lift, and 1-5 pounds to the clean for every session
where the lift is revisited.
Many different variants exist, but they all basically follow
this approach.
Monthly Progress:
There comes a point where daily/weekly progress becomes
unsustainable or life makes it a bit hard to keep up with the demands of
physiology. Not everyone can handle the progressively escalating load demands. Workouts
become scary at best and form takes a back seat to the numbers.This is where a
monthly progress method becomes useful. The idea here is that if you focus on
making progress in your 65-85% or 1RM ranges, then theoretically, your 1RM will
also progress.
Example: if I make Jack squat 135 (75%) 5 times today, 6
times tomorrow, 7 times the next day and so on, we can assume that by the end of
the month Jack got stronger.
Lucky for us, someone figured out a more effective periodization
than simply battering the body repeatedly: enter the 5/3/1 method. This method
utilizes monthly progress. It is slow and steady and very effective because
much more focus is placed on form and volume over high intensity.
The program follows a weekly breakdown of monthly baselines.
In this case, Jack would use his 185lb 1RM squat as the
starting THEORETICAL MAX. But, to enhance form and progress, he would reduce
his tested 1RM to 90%. So 185 x .90 = ~165. So the ACTUAL starting 1RM is 165lbs.
** Note: This method applies to all of the lifts. The squat
is being used as the example.
The 5/3/1 program incrementally increases the loads weekly
as a percentage of the 1RM for 4 weeks at a time. Each lift being trained once
per week. So you’re not jumping into the unknown every day like you would with
a linear progression. You’re usually lifting weights well below your maximal
efforts.
So for the squat, it would look like this:
Week 1: Warm up; 5x @65%(105lbs); 5x @75%(120lbs): 5+ @85%(140lbs).
DONE!
Week 2: Warm up; 3x @70%(115lbs); 3x @80%(130lbs); 3+
@90%(145lbs). Done!
Week 3: Warm up; 5x @75%(120lbs); 3x @85%(140lbs); 1+
@95%(150lbs). Done!
Week 4 (deload/recovery): Warm up; 5x @40%(65lbs); 5x
@50%(80lbs); 5x @60%(100lbs). Done!
At the end of this 4 week cycle Jack would simply add 10lbs
to his Theoretical 1rm: 185 + 10 = 195. Then, he’d once again, he’d reduce that
to 90%: 175. This is his new Actual baseline 1RM. Thus the progress continues
and the resets work the same way as in a linear progression. Where does the
progress come from, you ask? From the sets that have the +. This is where you
have an opportunity to blast through what you previously thought was
impossible. You can even use a formula to estimate where your progress is
taking you: Weight x Repetitions x .0333 + Weight = Estimated 1RM; but don’t
worry too much about this.
This program works. Plain and simple. It is relatively less
stressful and leaves you open to doing plenty of other activities for workouts.
This program is highlighted in the back of some of your log
books. Let us know if you need one.
Also, there is an iPhone app called "Big Lifts" that will track things for you.
So choose the lifts you want to make progress in, hopefully
all of them, but not necessarily and come in on the lifting days (Monday,
Wednesday, or Friday) and hit those numbers. The most important thing is to
adhere to a program; the more simple the better. Adhere to it until you reach
your goals and make the progress you were shooting for. Until you do, don’t go cherry-picking
and lallygagging around doing a little of everything. If you want to squat 315
and you've been stuck at 185, well, you have work to do. You should probably
aim to squat 195; then build on that. Investing a month here and a month there
and hoping something hatches just won’t work. Strength requires applied
commitment.
Reminder: This is how the new 5-day layout will break down.
Monday – Strength (Squat + Press), Assistance lifts
(optional TBA), Complimentary short Met-Con
Tuesday – Varied workouts (standard BHIP protocol).
Wednesday – Strength (Dead lifts/RDL/Rack-pulls), Assistance
lifts (optional TBA), Short Met-Con
Thursday – Varied workouts (standard BHIP protocol).
Friday – Strength (Squat + Press), Assistance lifts
(optional TBA), Complimentary short Met-Con
Again, if you don’t want to lift or are to beat up to lift,
you can side-step all that business altogether and do a met-con or anything
else to your heart’s content as long as it is suitable.
I hope this helps shed a little light on the protocols. And
if this is all over your head, don’t worry; we’ll have plenty of coaching on hand
to help you figure things out.
Enjoy!
* I realized this is an exercise in futility upon reading this.. but maybe you'll learn something.
Look how happy she is. Because she's so strong and doesn't get tired easily.