In light of some recent injuries and lack of progress, I
took time to sit back and look at my present and past training highlighting
things that worked and things that did not.
Here is a short list of some of the key points I came up with:
- Train three days a week
- Focus on basic movements
- Focus on increasing weights in the higher reps
- Do not hit max singles in the gym
- Do not do a 1000 different assistance exercises, use only the ones that work
- Warm up properly
- Do recovery work on off days
These key points got me back on track. I contacted Paul Carter
with a long winded message stating how I had lost my way and asked for his
advice. He pointed me toward his big-15
program and told me to start hitting rep PRs, something that has long been
missing from my training. You can
purchase his books here: http://www.lift-run-bang.com/
I set up a 3 day split: Push (bench), Legs (squat), and Pull
(deadlift). It has been nice to get back
to a medium volume, but intense training program. Even on this new-found path to greatness, I
still had some trouble: I was jumping around on my assistance exercises and
doing a bunch of extra shit. It was only
the other day a simple approach to building a simple program popped into my
mind. It has to do with a single number,
5, whose significance will become apparent later.
I managed to narrow down exercises in three categories: main
movements, supplemental movements, and accessory movements. Defining each
category bluntly:
1. Main movements are your big movements, important to your sport and building a strong foundation. These are multi-joint movements don’t mainly with a barbell.
2. Supplemental movements are again big movements, but are aimed at building your main movements. They are usually multi-joint movements don’t with a barbell or dumbbells.
3. Accessory movements: These are movements to keep your shit in line. Injury prevention, weakness targeting, and balance are the uses for these movements. These are done with bands, machines, cables or dumbbells.
This is all shit that has been said over and over again, and
explaining them is not the point of this article, organizing them is. And this is where the number 5 comes into
play. You are to choose a maximum of 5
exercises for each category, and split them up into a 1 to 6 day split. That is a maximum of 15 movements. What this does is challenge you to choose
exercises smartly based on your goals.
Cuts out the bullshit. Allows you
to realize what is working and what is not.
The following is how I would classify and program these
movements and you will hopefully get a good idea of how this method of
organization works.
Main movements are done to a top set of 5-10 reps. These are
heavy barbell movements. You can use any rep scheme you want: 5/3/1, big-15,
rest pause, 5x5 to a top set, pyramid scheme, etc. It doesn’t matter, just as long as you are focusing
on hitting rep PRs. Taking your squat
from 400x 5 to 400x10, or 365x10 to 405x10 means you are getting stronger. You are also progressing in a rep range that
allows for long term progression, and will promote hypertrophy. This is the
whole focus of the program. Some examples are:
- Bench
- Squat
- Front squat
- Deadlift
- Barbell rows
- Pull-ups
- Power shrugs
- Olympic movements
- Overhead presses (seated or standing)
- Dips
Supplemental movements are big movements done for volume,
3-5 sets of 10-15 reps. These use similar
muscles as the main movements, or build muscles that support the main
movements. A lot of the main movements can be used again, and even better yet
have some slight variation from how you perform them as main movements. Such as
close grip benches, stiff leg deadlifts, high bar squats etc. You can progress on these by up the weight or
reps when you complete the same weight for all sets, or another way in to focus
on making your reps harder. Pausing at
the bottom, longer negatives, fat gripz; all make the exercise harder while
keeping the weight on the bar the same.
You still get bigger and stronger, but run less risk of injury and allow
more room for progression when you do put weight on the bar.
- Db bench
- Db overhead press
- Db rows
- Shrugs
- Dips
- Pullups
- Lunges
- Upright rows
- Jm presses
- Floor press
- Barbell curls
Accessory movements are done for high reps and you should
have a pump by the end. 1-5 sets, 10-100
reps. These take care of all the little things and can be used to bring up
certain body parts and prevent injury. Don’t
even worry about progression on these.
- Rope pushdowns
- Upright rows
- Shrugs
- Curls
- Face pulls bent/side laterals
- Db cleans
- Abs
- Neck stuff
- Band pull a-parts
- Leg curls/extensions
So there you go. Pick
5 movements for each lift and follow those guidelines. Stick with them for a
minimum of 4 weeks to see if they are helping or hurting. Here’s a rough
outline of what I am currently doing:
Push (bench) Day:
Bench: Big-15 (mm)
Bench with alternate grips and pauses:3-5x225x10 (sm)
DB inclines:3-5x10 (sm)
Rope pusdowns:1-5 sets for 100 total reps (am)
Legs (squat) Day:
Squat: Big-15 (mm)
Squats or pause squats: 3-5x275-315x10 (sm)
Arched back stiff legs: 5x5 to a top set of 5 (mm)
Leg curls: 3x10-20 (am)
Pull Day*:
Shrugs: to a top set of 5 followed by a drop set (mm)
Barbell rows: pyramid down to 6 reps (mm)
Barbell curls:3-5x10 (sm)
Leg raises: 3-5x10-15 (am)
Back raises: 3-5x10-25 (am)
Neck raises: 3x15-25 (am)
So I ended up with 14 movements total, and only 9 really
matter. Pull day is starred because normally this would be a deadlift day, but
a recent injury that really flairs up has made me go into rehab mode, so
deadlift are unfortunately on the back burner for now. Hopefully the stiff legs on leg day will help
prevent loss in deadlift strength if they to do not irritate the injury.
Next time we will talk about setting rep goals for the offseason
and some intensity techniques.
