INTRODUCTION
Since many have asked for this, here is the format of the strength block I’m currently running. I got feedback from a number of you who actually ran the front squat focused legs program I posted here previously. And everyone who ran it reported excellent results. So I wanted to take a moment to commend those of you who actually applied that material, in one way or another.
I was going to wait until I finished this block to release this, but I encountered a muscle spasm in my mid back (serratus posterior inferior, I suspect) while doing front squats. So I had to alter the program. When I do finish this block I will share everything I did exactly, day by day, so you can get a clear picture of how I worked around the injury. I think this will also be useful as you’ll get to see the finer adjustments I make intuitively throughout the program: extra day off here, extra set or rep there, different exercise variations on occasion, etc. But rather than make you wait, I’ll share the format with you now, which represents what I would have done in an “ideal” scenario had I not encountered the injury. This block is meant to be run for a period of 6-10 weeks. Less than that, and I don’t think there will be much effect; more than that, and the risk of injury begins to trend upward too quickly. The appropriate duration will depend on factors individual to you or your clients.
A NOTE ON PROGRAMMING FOR NATURAL VS ENHANCED ATHLETES
As you’ll see below, the split is upper/lower; one day on, one day off. I find it elegantly simple, extremely reliable, and realistic in terms of recovery for natural athletes/practitioners. And this is really my audience. I’ve never been on PEDs so I have to be honest: I don’t really know how to coach enhanced athletes and have never had any clients on PEDs. The recovery profile and response to stimuli are very different when you start to introduce anabolic steroids. Rate of recovery is faster, strength and hypertrophy adaptations are exaggerated, and adaptation ceilings are raises. thought this was worth mentioning as I suspect close to 100% (if not 100%) of the people reading this are natural. So when you look around at athletes on social media, remember: you don’t know if they’re enhanced. They might be, might not be. But if they are, then volume, intensity, and frequency variables that work for them might not apply to you. Anyway, here’s the template.
THE FORMAT
Upper Session 1
Warmup: 5min bike, 10 x grip tool each side, 2-3 warmup sets before each exercise
OHP (barbell): 4-7 sets x 2-3 reps, full rest (5-10min), RPE 8 cap
Weighted Rings Chinup: 4-7 sets x 2-3 reps, full rest (5-10min), RPE 8 cap
Weighted Rings pushup: 2-3 sets x 5-8 reps, 5min rest, RPE 8 cap
Superset (5min rest between same exercise)
Overhead Unilateral Triceps extensions (+bands): 2-3 sets x 5-8 reps
Lateral raise 2-3 sets x 8-10 reps
Lower Session 1
Warmup: 5min bike, 10 x grip tool each side, 2-3 warmup sets before each exercise
Front Squat: 4-7 sets x 2-3 reps, full rest (5-10min), RPE 8 cap
RDL: 2-4 sets of 5-8 reps, full rest
Upper Session 2
Warmup: 5min bike, 10 x grip tool each side, 2-3 warmup sets before each exercise
OHP (dumbbells): 12 sets x 2-3 reps, on 2min interval, RPE 8 cap
Weighted Rings Chinup: 12 sets x 2-3 reps, on 2min interval, RPE 8 cap
High/Low Rings Row: 2-3 sets x 12-16 (bodyweight), intuitive rest
Or
Unilateral ring row (lat focus): 2-3 sets x 6-10 reps
Or
Unilateral Dumbell Row: 2-3 sets x 10-15 reps
(I choose only one of these 3 exercises)
Lower Session 2
Warmup: 5min bike, 10 x grip tool each side, 2-3 warmup sets before each exercise
Front Squat: 12 sets x 2-3 reps, on 2min interval, RPE 8 cap
ROM Split Squat: 2-3 sets x 8-10 reps each leg (3min rest btw legs, 3-5min rest btw sets)
EFFORT MODULATION
While it says “RPE 8 cap” in a number of places, its noteworthy that for the primary exercises, I’m well below RPE 8 for the first half of the block at least. As you might have seen on my instagram, I actually finished the last sets of some of those early sessions at RPE 5-6. It’s only near the end of the block that I start to approach RPE 8 at the end of sessions. This is important. Contrary to what we see on social media, in strength, power, and skill development there’s a lot of value in doing sets at RPE 4-6. The same isn’t as true for hypertrophy. With power development its obvious why we would want to work at higher velocity, lower velocity loss, and lower RPE. And even with strength development, its worth saying that if you want to see a diret impact on your 1 rep max, at some point you’ll have to approach higher intensities. But the majority of the training volume can still be under RPE 8.
EXERCISE SELECTION
This program is really an experiment in minimalism. For the upper program I tried to choose the exercises I feel result in the greatest overall strength benefit and transfer to other movements. To a degree, this was also determined by my goals. Overhead press is a high priority for me at the moment, so I factored that in heavily when choosing the other exercises.
The lower program is the same. It’s both an experiment in minimalism and a symptom of my curiosity about front squat in particular. That is the movement around which everything else pivots.
EXERCISE ORGANIZATION
The reason I placed overhead press as the first primary exercise in every upper workout is simple: it’s a higher priority for me. My gaol is to reach 100kg barbell strict press, whereas I don’t really have a specific goal for weighted chinup other than to generally get stronger. The same is true for front squats: I’m running a specific experiment and I just care ,ore about them right now. This basic principle can actually provide a lot of clarity in your programming decisions, as it solves a lot of dilemmas about exercise organization. There are many variables that factor into exercise organization/order: global vs local fatigue, mobility, injuries, testing inputs, and on and on. But your personal goals should always rank high on that list of variables. And if you only consider this variable, placing the highest priority exercises first, you’ll probably do pretty well.
Another major consideration is recoverability. Since all these movements are quite demanding both in terms of systemic fatigue and recovery resources, I kept in mind not to overdo it. This is why the lower days only have two exercises, and the upper days have only two primary movements, and 1-3 accessory movements at most.
The rest of the exercise organization decisions here were also simple. I do compound movements first; the more ‘isolated’ a movement is, the later it falls. Ex: triceps extension and lateral raises come last. I find this to be most effective for me since the compound movements are a priority for me over isolating specific muscle groups.
But this is not the only useful way to organize exercises. Many bodybuilders for example chose to place isolation movements like seated leg extensions and hip adduction before compound movements like squats and RDL. This is for a few potential reasons.
They find it gets them ‘oiled up.’ They report that as their training age and strength advances, the more they find it useful to ‘oil the machine’ before doing the challenging stuff. Simply put, they just feel better using isolation exercises as a warmup.
It limits them from going too hard on compound lifts and risking injury. Many bodybuilders know the risk of pushing too hard on heavy compound lifts. Especially since most of them are enhanced, there’s an even greater risk of injury to tendons and other cartilaginous structures because the muscles are so strong and capable of moving very heavy loads. If they start with isolation movements, by the time they reach the compound lifts they’re less likely to overshoot.
The goal of bodybuilding in different from strength training. Most strength athletes want to become stronger and more efficient in movements over time. And while bodybuilders do want to become stronger, it isn’t their first priority. In fact much of their approach is centered around finding the LEAST efficient way to do an exercise. They want to restrict away cooperation from other joints and muscle groups to maximize stimulus in the target muscle. Isolation exercises provide them more stability and accuracy in this regard. So, given their goals of maximal tissue growth over everything else, it makes sense that they would prioritize isolation movements over compound lifts and place them first.
I just wanted to zoom out and show you there are multiple valid ways to looking at exercise organization. Often we see a very dogmatic or polarized perspective presented on this topic. But really, there are many approaches that can work, depending on which priority we use as a lens.
WARMUP
You’ll notice the warmup is the same for every workout. Over the years I’ve experimented with a number of warmups, and this is my attempt to keep only the essentials; not optimal, but the essentials. The 5 minutes of stationary bike could also be a 5 min jog or jump rope, etc. The only intention is to elevate heart rate, feel “warm,” and just begin to sweat. The grip squeeze tool is use is 150lbs. The purpose is to up-regulate the nervous system and access maximal force output, which is very connected to our grip. I even feel my whole body and face heat up after doing a set of 10 reps. These two when combined with a few warmup sets in the specific movements, higher than working weight, are a very effective way to mitigate injury risk and increase performance. And by keeping it to the essentials, we keep these benefits of a warm without wasting time and energy. This is especially important for longer workouts, or those who with limited time. With longer workouts you’ll find rapidly diminishing returns if you go beyond 2 hours. And eventually, we start to see negative effects. There is a cost incurred by staying in a stressed state (sympathetic, elevated cortisol and adrenaline) for a long time. So if we’re trying to get the most out of the session without passing that point, it’s wise to keep warmup succinct.
ROOM FOR INTUITION
In any program structure I write for myself or others, I leave ample space for fine tuning and intuitive adjustments based on feeling and lifestyle variables. You’ll get a more concrete sense for this when I relate the day by day training journal of this block. But even here you can see it’s built into the template itself. I decide intuitively, usually the day before or on the day, how to make these adjustments.
On some days, for example, I leave out accessory movements completely (though this is rare). On other days I add a set to accessories. This is determined by how I feel: stress markers, enthusiasm, technical accuracy, sleep, fatigue, performance, other tasks and obligations that day or week, etc. This also applies to when and how much I apply progressive overload.
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
Generally the rule I follow during this program is to do the same workout, same number of reps and sets, twice before changing a variable. The after that, if it feels significantly easier the second time, I’ll decide whether to increase volume or load. But it won’t be both. Usually I’ll favor a slight increase in volume first. Then I’ll reduce to the previous volume and increase load. I might choose, for example, to keep load constant and move from 12x2 to 12x3. I’ll do 12x3 twice at the same load. Then, if RPE is under 7 or below, I’ll go back to 12x2 AND increase load slightly. This is a conservative approach, but usually amounts to very reliable and sustainable progress.
OFF DAYS
On non training days I typically do 30-40 minutes of zone 2 cardio, casual walks, or sometimes nothing at all. I’d say more often I do the cardio, though. If you’re working on mobility goals, the off days are good opportunity to include a little of this. But don’t overdo it. Remember: they’re supposed to be off days, not training days. So mobility work or any activities should be done in a relaxed way, at low intensity and volume. When needed, especially if sleep is poor, I’ll add an extra rest day and take two in a row. Though I try not to do this more than once a week.
I suspect some of you will have more specific question about this. Comments will be left on, so feel free to ask or add your thoughts.