When you think about trying to build muscle and get stronger, most people believe it needs to be hard…
To a degree they are right, at least some of the work you do in the gym is going to be physically hard.
The part where it gets tricky is finding the magical program that’s going to get you the results you’re after. The ideal combination of sets and reps, the perfect exercise variations and tempo and then the biggest piece of the lot how your training week looks.
Should you do a push pull legs split, what about an upper lower split or even multiple full body days?
There’s plenty of questions that need to be answered all making the process harder than it really needs to be.
Honestly, I still find myself getting stuck with this all the time. It’s particularly hard when you find movements you struggle with and want to make them better quickly.
Here’s the deal though…
Some of the strongest people I’ve ever met don’t worry about those details. Building strength is easy if you ask them. Not because of genetics, drugs or the perfect program either.
It’s easy because they simplify the process and focus on just doing a little bit better each week.
One of the people who really instilled this in me was my strongman coach Brad. I remember speaking with him and looking at my first program and thinking it’s not much different to what I had been doing before.
There was a small yet major difference though…
How you go about the week to week progression of the plan.
This little one tweak made things very easy to make progress and my strength improved significantly over a few short months.
Here’s the strategy to use with your main lifts:
Week 1: Ramp up beltless in small jumps to a maximum load for the given rep range
Week 2: Complete all sets with a belt at max load from previous week
Week 3: Ramp up beltless again and attempt to beat the rep PR set in week 1
Week 4: Complete all sets with a belt at max load from previous week
How that may look with a back squat session:
Week 1: Back Squats (Beltless) 5×120, 5×125, 5×130, 5×135, 5×140
Week 2: Back Squats (with belt) 5 sets of 5×140
Week 3: Back Squats (Beltless) 5×125, 5×130, 5×135, 5×140, 5×145
Week 4: Back Squats (with belt) 5 sets of 5×145
Following this 4 week cycle simply change the rep scheme and continue or you could alternate the main movement.
Month 1: 5×5
Month 2: 5×4
Month 3: 5×3
Month 4: 5×2
OR
Month 1: 5×5 Front Squat
Month 2: 5×5 Back Squat
Month 3: 5×3 Front Squat
Month 4: 5×3 Back Squat
With accessory movements the process is even easier. Either aim to add a rep to each set at the same weight per week, keep the sets and reps the same and add a small increment of load each week or do the same amount of work at the same load in a shorter time.
Now the workouts aren’t necessarily easy but the thought process to getting stronger for most people should be.
Try out this training phase with your main lifts and let me know how you go.