Fundamentals: Sets and Reps (Part 1)

 When I first began working on this series, I was going to title it "Back-to-Basics".  However, I've had a change of heart.  From henceforth (man, that sounds official), this series will be titled "Fundamentals" in an homage to the great Bradley Steiner, who penned a column of the same name for Ironman Magazine for a few decades beginning in the '70s.

Bradley Steiner is seen here on the cover of one of his training booklets

Steiner preached no-nonsense, sane, sensible training - almost ALWAYS full-body, 3-days-per-week workouts.  The man had a profound effect upon me through all of his many articles, not just as a lifter but as a writer and trainer.

Everything in the rest of this series will follow his sane, sensible, no-nonsense theory of training.

In the first post, I discussed workout frequency.  If you haven't done so, read that one first.  This one will build upon that one.

Okay, now, before we get into the specifics of the sets and reps that I recommend, I want to give you a little motivation from the mouth of Steiner himself.  In a 1971 article for Ironman called "Super Training", he had this to say about a couple of men who built their physiques with nothing but hard, full-body workouts:

There's no point in making the explanation of this program more difficult to understand than the exercises will be to work on  . . . so let's sum up - briefly and quickly, the essentials:

1) Training with the heaviest possible weights.

2) Training to your absolute limit on the BIG exercises.

3) Getting sufficient rest.

4) Eating like a horse. 

There was a great lifter of some years ago by the name of Maurice Jones. Jones was a living Hercules in every sense of the word. Now, remember that Jones was handling these weights in the early 1940's. For example, he worked up to doing 15 reps in the stiff legged deadlift with 425 pounds (standing on a bench with knees locked and going all the way down to round back). In his prime, Jones was one of the greatest physical specimens on earth. He exercised with over 500 pounds in the squat.  

Jones trained on the simple, basic exercises. The same ones that you and I do. But he, and the few Supermen like him today who do train as hard as Jones trained, work those exercises so hard they put the rest of us to shame. Men who train hard - really HARD - can make you tired just watching 'em! 

Reg Park always stressed heavy, heavy training. He spent a solid year doing little else in the way of exercise but getting his squatting poundage up to 600, his bench up to 500, and his PBN to 300. 

There is, of course, no guarantee that you'll ever build up to the point that Reg Park did, and that should be obvious to you by now if you are truly an advanced lifter. But you ARE guaranteed of building yourself into a very, very impressive YOU. 

Diet is of the utmost importance in this kind of training. Let's face it. You hope to build big muscles and great strength by munching on potato chips and eating ice cream.

Milk, steaks, chops, lots of good, fresh fruits and veggies, poultry, eggs, fish, and thick soups - taken in abundance - is what you've got to be stuffing into yourself every day if you want your strength and muscles to grow. Training by itself is not enough. How can your workouts build you up if your body receives little in the way of building materials.*

Sets and Reps, Oh My!

Now that we have that little bit of inspiration out of the way, let us begin with full-body workouts!

As reinforced in the last "Fundamentals" post, most of your workouts should be full-body programs.  And, yes, there is truly NO need to ever do anything other than a full-body workout.  You certainly can do other "split" workouts, but it's not necessary.  The two examples above - Maurice Jones and Reg Park - both built ADVANCED physiques (NAY, world-class physiques) using nothing but full-body sessions.

For your full-body workouts, stick with the BASICS.  The best program - in my book - to start with is a 5x5 regimen.  Here is a program I wrote for my "Old School Muscle" article from 2014 here at IS, and you really, truly CANNOT go wrong with this sort of training if your goal is to get as massively strong - not to mention downright MASSIVE - as possible.  Here goes:

The Old School Mass from the Past 5x5 Program

     The following is a program for almost 4 months of training.  Don’t be fooled by its simplicity when you first look at it.  And make sure that you move through it progressively by following each phase.

Phase One

     Perform the following workout for 4 weeks.  The weights lifted do not include warm-ups.  Be sure that you perform 2 to 3 warm-up sets on each exercise before proceeding to your work sets.  Make sure that you train on 3 non-consecutive days per week.

Day One:

Back Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Deadlifts: 5 sets of 5 reps

Abdominal work of your choice

Day Two:

Back Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Overhead Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Chins: 5 sets of 5 reps

Abdominal work

Day Three:

Back Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Incline Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Power Cleans: 5 sets of 5 reps

Abdominal work

     Rest 2 to 3 minutes between work sets.  After you have finished 4 weeks of training, perform a “down week” where you perform the same workout, but you cut your weights used in half.

Phase Two

     This phase will also last four weeks.  The first week, your body may have to adjust to the increased workload, so there’s a possibility that you will still be sore on days 2 and 3.  That’s okay—train through the soreness.

Day One:

Back Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Front Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Weighted Dips: 5 sets of 5 reps

High Pulls: 5 sets of 5 reps

Deadlifts: 5 sets of 5 reps

Abdominal work

Day Two:

Back Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Front Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Overhead Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Seated Behind-the-Neck Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Curls: 5 sets of 5 reps

Abdominal work

Day Three:

Back Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Front Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Incline Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Flat Dumbbell Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Chins: 5 sets of 5 reps

Power Cleans: 5 sets of 5 reps

Abdominal work

     Rest 2 minutes between work sets.  Following 4 weeks of this workout, be sure to take another “down week.”  On this week, cut the weights and the number of exercises in half.

Phase Three

     Phase three is a killer.  It’s so tough that there’s no way you would be able to finish it unless you have first completed phase one and two.  With that in mind, perform the following phase for only 3 weeks before taking a “down” week.

Day One:

Back Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Front Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Incline Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Overhead Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Deadlifts: 5 sets of 5 reps

High Pulls: 5 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Curls: 5 sets of 5 reps

Abdominal work

Day Two:

Back Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Front Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Weighted Dips: 5 sets of 5 reps

Power Cleans: 5 sets of 5 reps

Wide Grip Chins: 5 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Curls: 5 sets of 5 reps

Abdominal work

Day Three:

Back Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Front Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Incline Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Flat Dumbbell Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Overhead Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Bradford Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Deadlifts: 5 sets of 5 reps

High Pulls: 5 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Curls: 5 sets of 5 reps

Abdominal work

When you are done with this phase—and after you’ve taken your “down” week—you will probably want to try something different.  You could continue with full-body workouts, but start using the 5/4/3/2/1 method, or 5 sets of 3s or 2s.  Either of those methods can be productive.  Another option would be to perform some split workouts, but only split your body two ways, and follow the same principles.  (For how exactly that sort of split would look like, make sure you check out my "Fundamentals" post on workout frequency.)

This also might be a good time to do some higher repetition training.  Although I have never been the biggest fan of high-rep training, it definitely has its place.  Especially after a few months of 5x5 training!

In the quote above from Steiner, he mentions that Maurice Jones could do 15-rep sets of stiff-leg deadlifts with 425 pounds.  And there, my friend, is the kicker!  "Heavy and high", should be your constant saying when using high reps.  Anyone can put 135 pounds on the squat and do high reps, but how many can put 405 on the bar and do 20-rep breathing squats? The answer, of course, is very few.  But those that DO IT, those are the true mass monsters of the game.  So never think that you "shouldn't" use high reps.  Some lifters, depending on their body types will do better with high reps, and others (such as myself) will gain the most muscle with lower reps.