Slow, Steady, and Strong

 

A Hepburn-Inspired High-Frequency Strength Program

     In April, I wrote an article entitled “Size AND Strength: The Best Way to Train for Both.”  In it, I outlined a few Hepburn inspired routines based on the power/mass methods of the great Canadian strongman and world-champion weightlifter Doug Hepburn.  The methods in that article—as the title portends—are all about building a combination of size and strength, as most lifters who are trying to achieve both often go about it incorrectly.  The program here is going to be a bit different.  This is a program geared strictly toward getting the lifter as strong as possible on a few, select lifts.

     The program I’ve designed here is based on another one of Hepburn’s methods.  Although Hepburn would often combine this particular strength and power method with multiple sets of “pump” work once finished with the strength sets, this program foregoes the pump work in favor of a pure strength-building workout.  This will allow you to utilize it three-days-per-week for each lift.

     This program will really build up your strength on a few select lifts—as little as three or as many as six (assuming you have the work capacity to handle six).  This makes it ideal for powerlifters, Olympic lifters, or anyone else that just wants to get really strong on a handful of movements.

     Hepburn’s technique for this program works like this: On the lift(s) you want to improve, use a weight where you can manage 8 reps before reaching failure.  Now, do 8 sets of 2 reps with that weight.  Hepburn said that if you selected an accurate weight, this would feel easy.  And that’s the point.  It’s sort of an old-school grease-the-groove method.  At the 2nd workout for the lift, do 1 set of 3 reps and 7 sets of 2 reps.  At the next session, do 2 sets of 3 reps followed by 6 sets of 2 reps.  And at the next session it will be 3 sets of 3 reps, and 5 sets of 2 reps.  You can probably see where this is going.  Use this method of adding a set of 3 reps at each workout until you get 8 sets of 3 reps with a weight.  At this point, add 10 to 15 pounds for big lifts (such as squats or bench presses) or 5 pounds for smaller lifts (barbell curls, for example), and start back over at 8 sets of 2 reps.

     The following example program utilizes 5 lifts: the squat, power clean, bench press, weighted chin, and barbell curl.  After I’ve outlined it, I will give you some advice for any modifications you may need to make depending on your training experience, body type, etc.  Remember, each lift will utilize the exact same method described above.

The Slow, Steady, and Strong High-Frequency Program

Monday:

• Bench Press: 8 sets of 2 to 3 reps

• Weighted Chins: 8 sets of 2 to 3 reps

• Barbell Curls: 8 sets of 2 to 3 reps

Tuesday:

• Squats: 8 sets of 2 to 3 reps

• Power Cleans: 8 sets of 2 to 3 reps

Wednesday: Repeat Monday workout

Thursday: Repeat Tuesday workout

Friday: Repeat the Monday workout

Saturday: Repeat the Tuesday workout

Sunday: OFF

     That’s it.  Pretty simple.  In fact, it’s so simple that some lifters will dismiss how effective it is.  Hepburn’s methods often go against common gym mentality, where people think a “good” workout is based on how “hard” it is, or how tiring it is, or the amount of exhaustion it produces.  But a workout is only “good” if it achieves the results that one is hoping to achieve out of it.  And this workout will definitely make you stronger.

     Here are a few tips to get the most out of it, and to personalize it to your particular lifting needs.

• If you use my example program exactly as written, it will probably produce some muscle gains, as well.  Especially if you, like me, respond well to frequency over intensity or volume.  The reason it may cause some mass gains in addition to the strength is because of the amount of total workload you will end up utilizing on a weekly basis.  The workload simply adds up and, for the most lifters, the greater your weekly workload, the greater your hypertrophy gains.

• Since I mentioned this program could be good for powerlifters, you may wonder why I didn’t include the deadlift as one of the exercises.  After all, you could train your bench press on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and your squat and deadlift on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  And if you know that you respond well to frequent deadlift training, then, by all means, utilize it in such a manner.  But I also believe that the vast majority of powerlifters do better with much more infrequent deadlift training.  When I was powerlifting, for instance, I would often bench press or squat three times-per-week, but I would only deadlift once-weekly, and sometimes not even that much.  If you just wanted to utilize the three powerlifts in your training, then train your bench press on M-W-F and your squat on T-TH-S, and train your deadlift only on Tuesday, but use a different method (ramps would probably be the right choice) for it.  Another option, if you feel as if you need more back work, especially if your deadlift lags behind your bench and squat, is to deadlift on Tuesday, but power clean on the Thursday and Saturday workouts.  If you opt for this latter approach, then train the power clean using Hepburn’s technique.  Sure, you won’t be increasing in weight as frequently on the clean, but that’s okay since you’re using it to boost your deadlift.

• If you know that you respond well to less-frequent training, or if you’re relatively new to this sort of lifting, then you may want to start by simply training on a 2-on, 1-off rotation.  Train your bench press, chins, and curls on day one, then train your squat and power cleans on day two, take off on day three, and then repeat.

• If you want to use some different exercises, then here are some recommendations: bottom-position squats, front squats, power snatches, barbell overhead presses, weighted dips, high pulls, one-arm dumbbell overhead presses, one or two-arm dumbbell cleans or snatches, thick-bar deadlifts (you can train these more frequently than regular deadlifts since the thick bar will really limit the amount of weight you can use), bottom-position bench presses, rack presses, board presses, and floor presses.  This list isn’t exhaustive but it does give you good suggestions.  And if you opt for a one-arm movement, make sure that you’re doing 8 sets for each arm.

• I would be hesitant to add any extra work to this program, but it might be a good idea to add some loaded carries to a couple of the training sessions each week.  Don’t overdo it, but you could do, say, farmer’s walks on Monday and sandbag carries on Thursday.  The benefits of various forms of carries are just too good to neglect them entirely.

• Although this isn’t a mass-building program, make sure you’re eating enough nutrients daily, and getting adequate protein intake.  Although it’s true that in strength training—unlike in bodybuilding—the workout itself is more important than nutrition, you still need to pay attention to your food consumption.

• Unlike most programs, where I recommend that you make changes after about 6 weeks, stick with this program for at least 8 weeks before you switch to another exercise or try a different program.  12 weeks would be even better.  And if you want to utilize it throughout the entire year, then just switch over to some same but different exercises every 8 to 12 weeks.  Replace the squats with bottom-position squats or front squats.  Replace the bench presses with board presses, rack presses, or weighted dips.  And replace the cleans with thick-bar deadlifts, power snatches, or a dumbbell variation of the clean.  That should do the trick and keep the strength coming throughout the year.

     This program will produce slow, steady strength gains for anyone who is willing to give it a try.  And, sometimes, slow and steady is exactly what is needed to win the strength race.