Full-Body Big & Strong

A 3 Days Per Week, “Moderate Strength” Program for Size and Power

     Last week, I published a Q&A article based on a few questions that I had been asked in the preceding weeks.  One of the questions asked was if it was possible to do an “easy strength” program just 3 days per week.  I answered the question in the best way that I could—if you want to read my answer in full, then, well, read that article—but the more that I thought about it in the days since, the more I think that one of my answers might just be the way to set up a full-body program for 3 days per week of training.  I suggested that it might work for a 3 day program if you simply bumped up your total volume to around 15 reps per lift.  In this article, I want to outline in much more detail what this might look like and how you can use it to get the most out of a 3 day per week, full-body program.

     In many ways, this shouldn’t really be thought of as an “easy strength” program, though I suppose that it does fit those parameters to some extent.  I think for most lifters who are looking for size and strength, it’s just a simple but highly effective way to train.

     Most of the full-body, 3-days-a-week programs that I recommend fit under the guidelines of Bill Starr’s “heavy-light-medium” methodology.  Other full-body programs that I write about are higher frequency programs that fit under the moniker of “easy strength”—hence the original question that prompted, ultimately, this program.  You can think of this one as sort of in-between those two ways of training.  It’s “harder” than typical easy strength because the volume is more, but it’s easier than your typical HLM program because most of the workouts are, essentially, “medium.”  I guess you could call this methodology “moderate strength,” though I doubt that title will stick.  But, heck, who knows?  Maybe a couple years down the road, when this kind of training has caught on, I’ll end up writing a book with the title “Moderate Strength” or something.

     Anyway, here are the rules for “moderate strength” training (you will notice the similarities and differences if you’re familiar with easy strength):

1. Train with full-body workouts using big, compound lifts.  You know the drill.  Squats, deadlifts, power cleans, power snatches, high pulls, chins, an assortment of rowing movements, bench presses of different types, overhead presses of all sorts, shrugs, and barbell curls fit the bill.

2. Lift 3 non-consecutive days each week.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for instance.  When you feel as if you need a break, or if you find yourself too busy to make it to the gym 3 days in a week, I think this methodology would work well on just 2 days of training, Monday and Thursday, for example.

3. On average, keep the reps in the 1-5 range.  Sets of doubles and triples are probably the “sweet spot.”  Occasionally, you can do light, higher-rep sets, especially when your body needs a more “tonic” session after several workouts of heavy training.

4. Average a total of 15 reps on each lift, give or take one or two.  Some good set/rep combos would be 3 sets of 5, 4 sets of 4, 5 sets of 3, 7 sets of 2, 5 sets of 5,4,3,2,1, 5 sets of 1,2,3,4,5, 7 sets of 4,3,2,1,3,2,1, and, when you need some lighter work, 2 sets of 7 or just 1 set of 15 reps.  When you use singles for your heaviest session, reduce the total number of reps to around 10.  One of the things that I like about “moderate strength” over “easy strength” is that you have a bit more flexibility and variety.  With easy strength, due to the higher frequency, you need to limit your total reps per lift to around 10, which won’t give you quite as much variance.  The above set/rep suggestions are just that, suggestions, meaning that, as long as it fits in the 15-rep frame, you can use it.

5. Train, on average, with between 80%-95% of your 1-rep maximum.  Always leave some reps “in the tank.”

6. Go for a PR on singles or reps when you feel strong, but don’t go “all-out.”  Instead, go for a “near max.”

7. Vary the intensity throughout the week and over the course of the program from workout to workout.  Something such as this: 4 sets of 4 (moderate), 7 sets of 2 (heavy), 2 sets of 7 (light), 5 sets of 3 (moderate), 5 sets of 5,3,2,3,2 (moderate), 10 sets of singles (heavy), 1 set of 15 (light, “tonic” session).

     Now that you have seen the “rules,” let’s look at a couple weeks of training sessions to give you a better understanding of what the workouts should actually look like.  You can change exercises every few weeks, which will allow you to continue a program for as long as it’s garnering results for you.  But during the course of two to three weeks, use only a handful of movements at each session, and around 10 movements total over the course of 2-3 weeks, alternating back and forth between a handful of lifts, as you’ll see below.  Although I have listed the days as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, keep in mind that you can train on any 3 non-consecutive days.  When training 3 days a week, as a powerlifter who also worked a full-time manual labor job, I always liked to train on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  A hard and heavy session on Sunday evenings just seemed to mentally “prep” me for the coming work week.  After squatting and deadlifting 500 pounds on a Sunday night, work could throw whatever it wanted at me come Monday morning and I was ready for it!

     Before I show you the sample program, one more thing.  What follows is an example, not necessarily the exact program you should follow.  Its purpose is to show you how this kind of training would work for the majority of trainees.  It gives you the “rhythm” of what a regimen should look like.  Because this isn’t really a program for novice lifters, it will work best for you if you already know your body fairly well, so, even though I believe this example best represents the majority of lifters, it could be that you need more “easy” sessions or it could be that you can handle more “heavy” ones.  Only you can answer that.  With that out of the way, here’s the sample two-week program:

The Full-Body Moderate Strength Program for Size and Power

     Before you start each training session outright, make sure you’ve warmed up enough.  You don’t want to overdo it on your warmups but you also want to make sure that your body is prepped for the session.  I like to use kettlebells for my warmup, doing a few rounds of 10-15 swings, 8-10 double kettlebell front squats, 5-6 double kettlebell cleans, and 3-4 double kettlebell overhead presses—basically, Dan John’s “armor building complex,” if you’re familiar with it.  But I do these with some very light weights, using nothing more than 20 to 30 pound ‘bells.  Anything similar would work well.

Week One:

Monday

Squats: 3 sets of 5 reps.  These are 3 progressively heavier sets, working up to a weight where you still have a couple reps “in the tank,” as I mentioned earlier.

Barbell bench presses: 3 sets of 5 reps, same as the squats.

Power cleans: 5 sets of 2 reps.  Perform 5 progressively heavier doubles.

One-arm dumbbell overhead presses: 3 sets of 5 reps, same as our first two movements.

Barbell curls: 5 sets of 2 reps, same as the cleans.

Ab wheel: 1 set of 6-8 reps

Farmer walks: 1-2 sets, hard but not all-out.

Wednesday

Front squats: 5 sets of 3 reps.  Perform 5 progressively heavier triples.

Barbell military presses: 5 sets of 3 reps, same as the front squats.

Sumo deficit deadlifts: 5 sets of 3 reps, same as the squats and presses.

Alternate dumbbell curls: 3 sets of 5 reps (each arm)

Weighted incline situps: 1 set of 6-8 reps

Sled drags: 1-2 sets, hard but not all-out, same as the farmer walks from Monday.  If you don’t have access to a sled, you can replace this movement with any other loaded carry.  Sandbag or stone carries, tire flips, etc.

Friday

Squats: 10 sets of 1 rep.  Work up over 10 progressively heavier singles, to a “near max.”

Barbell bench presses: 10 sets of 1 rep, same as the squats.

Power cleans: 3 sets of 5 reps.  Work up to only a “moderate” weight here.  As the first two movements will be relatively taxing, the remainder of today’s session needs to be moderate to easy.

One-arm dumbbell overhead presses: 2 sets of 7 reps.  These should both be relatively easy sets.  One of the issues some lifters encounter is that they can go too “intense” on lighter sets, often making them harder than their heavier movements.  Though this can work for a little while, and there are some lifters who can handle an intense workload, for most it ends up being too much over the long run.

Barbell curls: 2 sets of 7 reps, same as the presses.

Ab wheel: 1 set of 6-8 reps

Farmer walks: 1-2 sets, hard but not all-out.

Week Two:

Monday

Front squats: 5 sets of 5,4,3,2,1.  On your first set of 5 reps, use a weight where you could get around 7 to 8 reps for one all-out set.  Add weight on each progressive set as you drop reps, but all of the sets should follow that same methodology.

Barbell military presses: 5 sets of 5,4,3,2,1

Sumo deficit deadlifts: 5 sets of 5,4,3,2,1

Alternate dumbbell curls: 5 sets of 3 reps (each arm), progressively heavier

Weighted incline situps: 1 set of 6-8 reps

Sled drags: 1-2 sets

Wednesday

Squats: 1 set of 15 reps.  After the previous two heavy sessions, your body is probably ready for a break.  This session will be an easy, “tonic” workout.  For example, you can use a weight where you could get double the repetitions for a tough set.

Barbell bench presses: 1 set of 15 reps

Power cleans: 2 sets of 7 reps, easy

One-arm dumbbell overhead presses: 1 set of 15 reps (each arm)

Barbell curls: 1 set of 15 reps

Ab wheel: 1 set of 6-8 reps

Farmer walks: 1-2 sets

Friday

Front squats: 3 sets of 5 reps, progressively heavier

Barbell military presses: 3 sets of 5 reps

Sumo deficit deadlifts: 3 sets of 5 reps

Alternate dumbbell curls: 3 sets of 5 reps (each arm)

Weighted incline situps: 1 set of 6-8 reps

Sled drags: 1-2 sets

     Okay, a few more notes about how to make this kind of program work.  You may notice that you do some sort of squat, overhead press, and curl at each session.  Squats and overhead presses, along with quick lifts, can be trained at every session.  It’s the reason that Bulgarian-inspired training programs have you maxing out at each workout.  You can do that with squats, overheads, and various versions of the Olympic lifts, or with smaller muscle groups like the biceps.  Not so much with deadlifts and bench presses.

     Although you see high-frequency deadlift programs, I’ve never been a fan of them.  Sure, I love high-frequency training, but not for the deadlift.  High-frequency deadlift programs can work if you’re “built” for the lift.  Even then, it’s not necessary, so long as you're squatting and doing other pulls with frequency.  I’m most definitely built for the deadlift, and I only liked deadlifting heavy about once every 2 weeks when competing.  This means that you might want to substitute another lift for the sumo deficit deads.  I simply included it because I’ve been “selling” it lately, and I think it’s one of the most underrated lifts out there.  Well, truth is, it’s not even underrated.  At least some lifters do the underrated ones.  I’ve often called it the best lift no one does.  And since it’s essentially a squatting movement, you might be able to get away with the frequency I recommend here.  If you decide not to use it, a good substitute would be the power snatch.

     Bench press movements are interesting because they’re sort of in between deadlifts and the squats and pulls.  You can do them more frequently than deadlifts but less than squats, quick lifts, or overhead work.  I think 2 bench sessions per week is plenty, no matter the program.  Maybe even better would be how they’re set up here, doing them 3 times in 2 weeks.

     You can, of course, select movements other than my suggestions.  Just make sure you’re doing similar exercises.  My suggested program doesn’t include any rowing or chinning movements, for instance, and those would be great too.  Also, make sure your program is balanced unless you’re trying to specialize on a certain lift.  You can run a specialization program for a few weeks, and that would work well, too.

     Some lifters might do better with only 3 movements per session, whereas others can add one or two more.  Not counting the ab work and the loaded carries, limit your exercises to no more than 7, however.

     Get plenty of rest and recovery while on this program, or anything similar.  If you do activities outside of the gym, make sure they’re not too intense.  Take a walk around the neighborhood for your cardio or do some recuperative stuff like Tai Chi or yoga.  If you participate in harder activities, such as martial arts, you could use this program but knock the frequency down to just twice per week.

     If you want to gain muscle on it, make sure you’re consuming enough calories and enough protein on a daily basis.

     Is this the perfect method of full-body training for 3 days a week?  Maybe.  Give it a shot.  If it’s not the best, it’s at least equal to anything else.  Like all training programs, you get out of it what you put in it.  Use it consistently for 8 to 12 weeks and then you can go back to a split program or something different such as a heavy, light, medium routine.

     As always, if you have any comments or questions, leave them in the comments section below or shoot me an email.  In the meantime, I think I’ll head out to my garage gym and do one of these workouts.