Heavy/Light/Medium Training for Upper Body Size and Strength

 

Heavy/Light/Medium Training

Part Two: Bill Starr’s Secrets for Upper Body Bulk and Power

+How to Move to a 4 Days a Week Program 

     This is, as the title indicates, the 2^nd part of our new, ongoing series on heavy, light, and medium training.  If you haven’t read it, then please go to Part One first before diving into this one.  This essay assumes an understanding of everything discussed in the first part.

      Here, we will cover upper body training, and more specifically how to build your upper body pressing strength.  I’ll give you the great Bill Starr’s advice along with some of my personal insights.

     I was never a strong presser, either on the bench press or on the overhead press.  The most I ever bench pressed in competition was just over 350 pounds in the 181-pound class.  Sure, that’s not bad for the average gym-goer—and, yes, I did win some local bench press competitions—but it’s paltry compared to the elite bench press competitors in that weight class.  But I write this for a reason: because it was so hard for me to increase my bench press strength, I learned a thing or two about every training technique, tip, and advice under the sun, especially Starr’s advice when I was utilizing his training system.  Often, you don’t want to get advice from the lifters who are genetically gifted at a particular lift.  They can’t give you advice because everything they do for that lift or bodypart comes easy for them.  Heck, I like Tom Platz as much as any lover of old-school bodybuilding, but the man could have grown his tree-trunk thighs no matter what kind of training he performed.  Believe it or not, you want to ask Platz about building big biceps or a massive chest.  Those were his weaker bodyparts, which meant they required hard-learned lessons in the gym.

     I will also use upper-body training to show you how to move from 3-days-per-week of training to a 4 days-per-week program.  In addition, we will look at how to use set/rep combinations other than the standard 5x5 discussed in part one.  I often think that the best way to think of Starr’s set/rep methodology is 5x5ish for the big lifts.

     We’ll look at the 3-days-per-week program first.  I will give an outline of it, then I’ll offer some tips on how to get the most out of the entire regimen.

     For both the 3-day and the 4-day program, I will only present the upper body work.  Keep in mind that each training day would also include a squatting movement, some sort of big “pull,” such as cleans, deadlifts, high pulls, or the like, along with (possibly) one or two other auxiliary exercises.

 

3-Days-Per-Week to Ponderous Pressing Power

Monday – Heavy Day

Bench presses: 5 sets of 5 reps or one of its variations*

Incline dumbbell presses: 2 sets of 20 reps

 

Wednesday – Light Day

Overhead presses: 5 sets of 5 reps or one of its variations*

   or Dips: 4 sets to failure**

Straight-arm pullovers: 2 sets of 20 reps

Chins: 4 sets to failure

  or Curls: 2 sets of 20 reps

 

Friday – Medium Day

Incline barbell bench presses: 5 sets of 5 reps or one of its variations*

Triceps pushdowns: 2 sets of 20 reps

Dips: 4 sets to failure***

   or Seated dumbbell presses: 4 sets of 10 reps

 

*Change your sets and reps each week.  Here’s one approach that works well: the first week do 5 sets of 5 reps.  The week after that, do 3 sets of 5 reps, followed by 2 or 3 sets of progressively heavier triples or doubles.  The week after that, go to 4 sets of 8 reps.  Follow that up the next week with 3 sets of 5 reps, followed by ramps with singles until you reach a near max single.

 

**Once you reach the point where you can do 20 reps, start doing weighted dips instead, as discussed in part one.

 

***When you reach the point where you are doing weighted dips on Wednesday, begin using seated dumbbell presses on Friday.

 

Tips and Pointers

Overhead Pressing

     You can do the overhead presses either seated or standing.  Starr recommended alternating between the two.  I personally like a two-to-one ratio of standing to seated presses.  I think standing work is almost always superior to a seated version of the same movement.  Starr did have an interesting view regarding which one he thought you should use more: whichever one gets you the sorest is the one you should do more often.

 

Triceps Work

     Here is Starr’s reasoning for using straight-arm pullovers, an exercise much-loved by many old-school lifters: “The straight-arm pullover strengthens the long head of the triceps, which is a critical part of that group and a difficult one to stimulate.  The exercise also involves the high chest and lats, which makes it an excellent compound movement.  Still, the main reason that I prefer straight-arm pullovers over most other triceps exercises is they place less stress on the elbows.  Most athletes shouldn’t do any triceps exercise that entails jamming their elbows through full, rapid flexion.  This includes skull crushers and French presses.”

     I think Starr’s advice is correct for athletes, since they subject their elbows to a lot of “snappy,” ballistic motions while competing in their sport.  But if you’re not an athlete, or if your sport is competitive weightlifting or powerlifting, then I think it’s fine to substitute with skull crushers, French presses, or anything similar.  However, you shouldn’t make those movements your sole assistance exercises for triceps.  Rotating between one of those movements and the pullovers workout-to-workout would be a good idea.  Also, if you start to develop any elbow pain, then go with Starr’s advice and cut out skull crushers and the like immediately.

    

Getting Strong on Dips

     Starr again: “Dips are also useful for developing the triceps, but I consider them more of a deltoid builder.  Once you’ve reached the stage where you can add weight, they really do influence your pressing power.  In the past, many Olympic lifters did dips to help their overhead press, for the two exercises hit a lot of the same muscles.

     “Dips aren’t always easy to do, and sometimes people become discouraged when they find they can only do 5 or 6—or fewer.  It doesn’t matter where you begin, only what you can build up to.  The secret to improving on the dip is to slowly but consistently add a rep or two.  If you can only do 6 the first time, try to move it to 7 the next week.  Then go for 8 and so forth.  Eventually, you’ll get to 20 and be able to add resistance.  It’s been my observation that dips don’t really push up the other pressing exercises to any extent until you can add resistance.  Even so, I believe you need to establish the base of at least 20 reps to ensure that your shoulder girdle is adequately prepared for the stress before you use any additional weight.”

     Another method is to do the 4 sets of dips but not take any of them to failure.  You, instead, stop a couple reps short of failure at each set.  You then slowly build up the reps over the coming weeks.  Let’s say you can do 8 dips before reaching failure.  Then your 4 sets may look something like this: 6, 5, 5, and 4 reps.  At the next session, it might be 6, 6, 5, and 5 reps.  The next session might be 7, 7, 6, and 4 reps.  Simply stop once the set gets hard, which means the reps might ebb and flow from workout to workout, but you will be able to slowly build up your repetition strength in this manner.  Once you can get 4 sets of 10 reps with ease, test your strength at the next workout and see how many reps you can get for one all-out set.  Whenever you reach the point that you can do 20 reps for one all-out set, add resistance.

 

Chins and Curls

     Keep in mind that chins aren’t the only back movement in the program. You would also be doing some variation of deadlifts, cleans, snatches, high pulls, or a similar exercise on the heavy and medium days.  We will save detailing those movements, however, when we cover pulling strength in a future essay.

     It’s interesting, too, that Starr included it as part of his upper body program because he saw it more as an arm movement than a back one.  Here’s Starr once more: “Chins, in my opinion, are the very best biceps exercise for beginners.  They’re an excellent combination movement and I think you need to include in your program as many as possible.

     “Chins involve the lats and delts in a positive manner, so you get more for your money.  The best advice I can offer for chins is to use a full range of motion and do them smoothly.  In other words, make sure you extend your arms completely on each rep, and don’t jerk about.  Start with a rather wide grip and move it in slightly on each set.

     “As with dips, start by doing as many as you can and increase the number at each workout.  It’s more difficult to increase your reps on chins than it is on dips, so you only add one to the total number you do at each workout.  If you’re able to perform 6, 6, 5, and 4 the first time you try them, that’s a total of 21 reps.  So the next time you do dips, you need to get to a total of 22 reps.  The increase usually comes on the first set, when you are fresh but sometimes it comes later because you’re more warmed up and more determined.  The formula works if you do it consistently and never cheat on the numbers.  I’ve had athletes who needed to do a certain number to get into some military establishment start with 6 and end up doing 29.”

     If you have a well-developed back, are already strong on chins, or you are doing a significant amount of heavy pulls on the Monday and Friday sessions, you may just want to do curls on the Wednesday workout.

 

Adding Work and Switching to the 4-Day Program

     As you advance, you will want to start adding some back-off sets to the big movements on each training day.  After you finish with your 5x5 sets (or one of its variations), start by doing 2 sets of 8 on each movement.  This won’t be too much, as you want to ensure that you’re taking your time building up your workload.  As you adapt to the 2 sets of 8 reps, start adding some other variations.  If you like 2 sets of 8, and find it to be effective, you can begin by simply going to 3 sets of 8 and then 4 sets of 8 reps.  On average, do 2 to 4 sets of 8-15 reps.  You may want to change it up at each session.  Some days do 4 sets of 8.  Others do 3 sets of 10.  And other days do 2 sets of 15.  My only other advice is to not do more than 40 reps total on your back-off sets.

     At some point, you can switch to a 4 day a week program.  This becomes almost a necessity for advanced lifters only because of how long the workouts start to become on the 3-day program.  Keep in mind that as you add back-off sets and more work for your upper body, you will be doing the same thing for your squats and your pulls, meaning your workouts—especially on the heavy and medium days—can easily stretch to well over 2 hours.  Once you move to a 4-day program, you won’t be doing more work than you would on your 3-day regimen, but you are simply dividing it up by adding one extra session.

     The 4-day program is not a split program.  You are simply adding another day of full-body training.

 

The 4-Days-Per-Week Program for Advanced Pressers

Monday – Heavy Day

Bench presses: 5 sets of 5 reps or one of its variations*

Weighted dips: 5 sets of 5 reps or one of its variations*

Incline dumbbell presses: 2 sets of 20 reps

 

Tuesday – Light Day

Overhead presses: 5 sets of 5 reps or one of its variations*

 

Wednesday – Light-to-Medium Day (workload on this day should be in between the workload of the Tuesday and Friday workout)

Incline barbell bench presses: 5 sets of 5 reps or one of its variations*

Straight-arm pullovers: 2 sets of 20 reps

Chins: 4 sets to failure or close to failure

  or Curls: 2 sets of 20 reps

 

Friday – Medium Day

Bench presses: 5 sets of 5 reps or one of its variations*

Dips (no resistance): 4 sets of 10-20 reps

Close-grip board presses: 4 sets of 10-20 reps

 

*You can follow the same protocol as you used in the 3-days-per-week program, or you can start including other variations.  You can begin doing “straight” sets of 5x5 if you’d like, but only do this on your heavy day, and not all the time.  Another good variation would be 5 sets of 5/4/3/2/1.  Also, each of these movements should also include a few hard back-off sets.  On the medium day bench presses, train heavier than your heavy day, by utilizing heavy triples and doubles.  This works really well so long as your workload stays below the heavy day, which it must!  Depending on how many doubles or triples you end up doing, you may want to eliminate the back-off sets on Friday.  (If you want even more variations that you can use on this program, check out my article “5x5 TrainingVariations” from last year.)

 

     Make sure you diligently track your workload (at least at first) when you switch over to the 4-day program to ensure that you’re not doing too much—or too little—on each day.

     The tips and pointers from the 3-day program apply here, as well.

 

The Sum of Things

     In the next few entries in this series, we will cover how to build up your squat, how to build a tremendous pull (whether it’s for the deadlift or for the “quick lifts”), how to get bigger, and advanced variations for the advanced lifter.  With the exception of that last one, I’m not sure the exact order that I will write them.  If these entries were all chapters in a book, they might appear in a different order than first written, but I do hope they will make for a seamless whole once completed.

     If anyone has any questions, or if you are at all confused about the programming, then please leave your question in the comments section below or shoot me an email and I will try my best to answer.

     Until next time, keep up the training and keep getting stronger, because, as Starr reminds us, it’s only the strong that survive!

 

 

Sources

All quotes from Starr, and the outline of the programs, are from the article “Stabilizing the Shoulder Girdle,” by Bill Starr, from the July, ‘98 issue of IronMan magazine.