A State-of-the-Art Mass & Power Program for Outlandish Gains
I’m fond of some
forms of training over others. This
doesn’t mean, however, that I believe there is one training program or
method that reigns supreme. Some may
make such a claim as that. HIT
enthusiasts—who seem to think like the Highlander in that there can be only
one—I’m looking at you. But there
are also individual lifters and coaches who stumble upon a program that really
works well for them, and they declare it to be the one program that
stands above all others. No, I believe
that there are quite a few different training methods and programs that are
effective. But some are decidedly
better than others, depending on your goals.
I like full-body workouts, high-frequency training, Russian-style power
programs, routines that utilize the “big 4,” and old-school “classical”
bodybuilding routines. Those are all
different, by the way, but they have one thing in common: they are vastly
superior to most of the training programs performed by your average gym-goer.
I’m typically not
a fan of programs where you train incredibly “hard,” and then give your muscles
a long time off between workouts (the typical method of the average trainee),
especially not for natural lifters.
Instead, I prefer programs that utilize some sort of “riff” on
heavy/light training. Oh, I like hard
training at times, don’t get me wrong, but I think it needs to be balanced with
lighter sessions so that you can train your muscles frequently enough to
illicit gains. Because don’t forget: the
more often you can train your muscles, then the better your results will
be. (We won’t get into it here, but I’m
also a fan of “everything moderate” workouts—if you want to read about that
kind of training, then please search out all of my “easy strength” or “easymuscle” articles here on the blog.)
The program I
want to present here is, I believe, about as state of the art as they
come (if we can use that sort of phraseology for lifting) for building a
combination of muscle mass and strength gains.
It is an integral approach to training, as it uses different
modes and methods within a 4-week training block, and within a week of training
alone. I would call an “easy strength”
method, for example, a “flat” approach to lifting, as there is little deviation
during the entire training cycle. Flat
approaches often work well—sometimes exceedingly so—for a short period
of time. Integral approaches can be used
for longer periods of time because they have deviation “built” into them. When it comes to strength and power training,
I would say that both Westside and Bill Starr’s H/L/M methods are integral
systems—both of which can be used for long periods because of the variety
inherent within each training system.
Being an integral
program, this regimen utilizes several of the methods that I prefer: pump
training for upper body muscles, one-exercise-per-bodypart, multiple sets per
lift, 2-way split training, undulating workload (the “heavy/light” of the
program), and the Big 4.
Let me give you a
quick overview of the system we will be using, and then I will outline a 4-week
block of training.
Before we go
further, however, a word is in order.
This program is not for outright beginners or anyone that is
getting back into training. You need to
have a solid foundation in both strength and hypertrophy work before you
attempt this program. You also need a
good work capacity, as the volume and the frequency will be relatively
high—I have entitled it “High-Volume Hypertrophy” after all.
The Split
This is a 2-way
split program. I think, when it comes to
split training, the 2-way split is really all you need. To be honest, you could train for the rest of
your life doing nothing other than rotating between full-body workouts and
2-way split training, and you wouldn’t need anything else. Of course, you might end up being rather
bored—I sometimes do “larger” splits for no other reason than to avoid that boredom—but
it would still be effective.
When lifters do
utilize them, the most popular form of 2-way split training is probably an
“upper/lower” split, where you train your upper body on one day and your lower
body on the next. Another popular form
is a “push/pull” split where you do all of your pulling muscles on one
day—lats, biceps, hamstrings—followed by your push muscles—quads, calves,
chest, shoulders, triceps—on the 2nd training day.
The split here is
a bit different. You are going to
utilize a “pump” day and a “power” day.
On the pump day, you will train your chest, lats, and arms—muscles that
thrive under the kind of training that produces a massive pump. And on the power day, you will train (what I
call) the big 4. You will do a
squatting movement, an overhead pressing movement, a pull movement, and,
finally, some sort of loaded carry.
Those lifts—sans the loaded carries, which are trained different from
everything else—are great for power training, using multiple sets of low reps.
Day one will be
devoted to the power workouts with the Big 4.
Day two will be the “pump” day training your chest, lats, and arms.
You will train on
a 3-on, 1-off, 2-on, 1-off rotation. I
have the workouts outlined below as being trained on Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, with Thursdays and Sundays off each week, as
that seems to be the most popular way to set it up, but feel free to begin the
training week on another day (other than Monday) if you want.
Utilizing a 2-way
split means that on one week one training day will get 3 workouts and the other
day will get 2 workouts. On the
following week, it will be “flipped.”
Sets and Reps
Each training day
will have two different workouts that are rotated between from session to
session, a “Workout A” and a “Workout B.”
Day One’s Workout A will be ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles. Day One’s Workout B will be 8 straight sets
of 3 reps. Day Two’s Workout A will be
10 sets of 10 reps using straight sets.
Workout B for Day Two will be 5 sets of 5 reps, also straight sets. Here’s how you will do each method:
On the ramps of
fives, triples, and singles, do this: Start off with sets of 5, working up over
progressively heavier sets until you hit a really hard 5 rep-set. At that
point, start doing triples until, once again, you hit a near-max set of
3. At that point, do ramps with singles until you hit a near-max. Most of the time, make sure you leave
a little “in the tank” so to speak. On occasion, you can go for a true
one-rep max. But don’t do this at each workout. Stick, for the most
part, with a near-max.
For the 8 sets of
3 reps, after a few warm-up sets, pick a weight where you would fail around the
6th repetition for one all-out set.
Attempt 8 sets of 3 reps with that weight. Rest around 2 to 3 minutes between sets. If you manage to get 3 reps on all of your 8
sets, add 5 to 10 pounds at the next “heavy” session of 8x3.
For the pump
sessions calling for 10 sets of 10 reps, select a weight that is approximately
your 20-rep max. Attempt 10 sets of 10
reps with that weight, resting only
around 1 minute between sets. If you manage to get 10 reps on all 10 sets,
add weight at the next heavy 10x10 session.
Finally, on the
5x5 workouts, use a weight where you can get around 7 reps for one all-out
set. Attempt to do 5 sets of 5 reps with
that weight, resting 2 to 3 minutes between sets. As with the other “straight set sessions,” if
you manage 5 reps on all 5 sets, add weight at the next heavy 5x5 workout.
The loaded
carries are the only thing that will be trained differently. For the sandbag carries and the farmer walks,
do one or two hard sets (at the most). Select
a heavy weight and carry it until you are close to exhaustion on each
set.
On all of your
light workouts, use a weight that is around 75-80% of what is used on the heavy
days. So, for instance, if you do bench
presses with 185 pounds for 10 sets of 10 reps on the heavy “pump” day, you
will use around 135 to 145 pounds on the light session. For the loaded carries on the light day, stop
each set several paces short of what is used on the heavy days.
To sum it up:
Day One/Big 4:
·
Workout A: ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles
·
Workout B: 8x3
Day Two/Upper Body Hypertrophy
·
Workout A: 10x10
·
Workout B: 5x5
4-Week Training Block
With that brief
outline out of the way, let’s look at a 4-week block of training. After I give the outline, I will offer a few
tips and suggestions, and (hopefully) clear up any confusion that you may have
when first you look at it.
Week One:
Monday – Day One, Workout A, Heavy
Squats, deadlifts, military presses, farmer walks
Tuesday – Day Two, Workout A, Light
Incline bench presses, lat pulldowns (chins if you can
handle it), barbell curls, skull crushers
Wednesday – Day One, Workout B, Light
Front squats, power cleans, one-arm overhead presses,
sandbag carries
Friday – Day Two, Workout B, Light
Bench presses, chins, barbell curls, weighted dips
Saturday – Day One, Workout A, Heavy
Squats, deadlifts, military presses, farmer walks
Week Two:
Monday – Day Two, Workout A, Heavy
Incline bench presses, lat pulldowns, barbell curls, skull
crushers
Tuesday – Day One, Workout B, Light
Front squats, power cleans, one-arm overhead presses,
sandbag carries
Wednesday – Day Two, Workout B, Light
Bench presses, chins, barbell curls, weighted dips
Friday – Day One, Workout A, Light
Squats, deadlifts, military presses, farmer walks
Saturday – Day Two, Workout A, Heavy
Incline bench presses, lat pulldowns, barbell curls, skull
crushers
Week Three:
Monday – Day One, Workout B, Heavy
Front squats, power cleans, one-arm overhead presses,
sandbag carries
Tuesday – Day Two, Workout B, Light
Bench presses, chins, barbell curls, weighted dips
Wednesday – Day One, Workout A, Light
Squats, deadlifts, military presses, farmer walks
Friday – Day Two, Workout A, Light
Incline bench presses, lat pulldowns, barbell curls, skull
crushers
Saturday – Day One, Workout B, Heavy
Front squats, power cleans, one-arm overhead presses,
sandbag carries
Week Four:
Monday – Day Two, Workout B, Heavy
Bench presses, chins, barbell curls, weighted dips
Tuesday – Day One, Workout A, Light
Squats, deadlifts, military presses, farmer walks
Wednesday – Day Two, Workout A, Light
Incline bench presses, lat pulldowns, barbell curls, skull
crushers
Friday – Day One, Workout B, Light
Front squats, power cleans, one-arm overhead presses,
sandbag carries
Saturday – Day Two, Workout B, Heavy
Bench presses, chins, barbell curls, weighted dips
Some Thoughts
It may seem as if
it’s a bit of a cop out so I don’t have to explain the rationale for the
programming, but the best thing to do (if you want to try this program) is to just
do it. Follow the program as it’s
written, and don’t worry too much about the “how” of why it works. In other words, you could stop reading this
article right now and head to the gym to get started. Having said that, let’s take a look at why I
have designed it the way it is.
Notice that each
training day has a heavy week and a light week.
Week One, Day One has two heavy days and one light day, but, overall,
that means Day One will have a “heavy” workload that week and Day Two a “light”
workload. Day Two in Week One doesn’t
have a heavy day at all, but, rather, two light days. This is reversed in Week Two, where Day Two
gets three training days, including two heavy sessions, whereas Day One has two
light days.
In Week Three,
Day One once again has a heavy week. And
in Week Four, Day Two gets two heavy days and one light day, and Day One has
two light days. But notice that Weeks
Three and Four reverse which days get the heavy treatment. So, if we look at Week One, where Day One,
Workout A has two “heavy” days, notice that Day One, Workout A doesn’t have
another heavy session for the remainder of the 4-week block. The same thing goes for all other A and B
workouts.
In the 5th
week, you will run Week One again, and you will try your best to beat all your
numbers from the first week. Same thing
goes for the 6th through the 8th week for all other heavy
workouts. In fact, for all sessions
listed as “heavy,” you should see a noticeable improvement from the previous
heavy day in the first 4 weeks.
This program
won’t work if you try to replace some of the light days with additional heavy
days, so stick with it as written. At
least, at first. After 8 weeks of
training, once you’ve adapted to the volume, and if you want to continue using
it, then you can do three heavy days on the Monday, Wednesday, and
Saturday sessions, foregoing the light Wednesday workout for a heavy one. The Tuesday and Friday workouts, however,
should always remain light.
Since this is
more of a training system than just a program—as we touched on at the
outset—you can utilize it for as long as you wish. However, you do want to make some
changes. After running it through three
or four 4-week training blocks, change exercises. Just make sure, as with almost all of my
programs, you select same but different movements. Substitute squats or front squats for
bottom-position squats, barbell hack squats, close-stance pause squats
(Olympic-style squats), or something similar.
Those are all “same but different” movements. Same thing goes for all the other lifts.
You can also
change the sets and reps. At some point,
depending on how long you utilize this system, you would need to make
set/rep changes. Here are some other
set/rep variations that would be good for the two training days:
Day One: 8 to 10 singles (using the same weight), 8 sets
of 2-3 reps using the “Hepburn method,” 5/4/3/2/1 “countdown” reps, 9 “wave”
sets of 5, 3, and 2 reps
Day Two: 8 sets of 8 reps, 6 sets of 6 reps, 10 sets of 5
reps, 5 sets of 10 reps
Those are just
suggestions—albeit pretty good ones—but anything similar would be effective.
This is a
mass-building program, so make sure you’re getting enough calories, and
protein, on a daily basis. If you have
trouble eating enough calories through food alone, consume a couple of protein
shakes in addition to your regular meals.
You also need to
be well-rested in order to devote all of your energy and strength to your
training sessions. Get at least 8 hours
of sleep at night. An hour nap in the
middle of the day wouldn’t be such a bad idea, either.
Learn to relax
and take it easy as much as possible when you’re not training. Big, strong lifters have an uncanny ability
to relax throughout the day.
If you follow
this program without missing workouts, and if you ensure that you’re getting
plenty of get-big nutrition and adequate sleep and rest, then you can probably
pack on 20 to 30 pounds over the course of a few months. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose and all the muscle
to gain!
Superb!
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