The 1-5 Program

Develop Mass and Power with This Unique Wave Loading Method

     In my recent article “Skill Training as Size Building,” I introduced the concept (on the blog, at least) of the “90% rule.”  I believe it’s one of the most effective ways to make consistent gains in the gym, whether you’re after strength, strength with a size side-effect, or hypertrophy alone.  Basically, the method involves doing the majority of your sets in a workout with 90% of a certain rep range.  This doesn’t mean 90%, necessarily, of your 1-rep max, though it most certainly would if you were to do multiple sets of singles—as we will be doing in this program.

     In our previous article, the workout programs I suggested utilized 90% of one’s 5-rep max and 90% of a 10-rep maximum using “cluster sets.”  If you want to know more about what those programs look like, then, please, read that article.  Also, it wouldn’t hurt, if you haven’t done so, to read that article before you read this one.  It’s not a must, don’t get me wrong, but that article explains, in greater detail, the reasoning for why the 90% rule is so efficacious.

     This program will use a wave-loading technique, where you will do multiple sets of the same exercise but will alternate between 1-rep and 5-rep sets.  Most programs—and there is certainly nothing inherently “wrong” with the method—have you doing all of your sets at one rep range before moving on to multiple sets performed with a secondary rep range.  But there are some benefits to a wave-loading system.  When you alternate between really heavy, low-rep sets interspersed with sets for higher reps, you will often find that you are stronger—sometimes significantly so—at both rep ranges.  This is assuming, however, that you don’t “kill it” on your sets—in other words, you don’t take your sets to muscular failure—but leave some reps “in the tank” on each set.

     Around 20 years ago, Charles Poliquin wrote about a similar program that he called the “1-6 method.”  I believe it is, essentially, very much the same as what I am writing about here.  However, I purposely didn’t look up that program again while writing this one, just so I’m not influenced by it.

     Here, I will present 3 different programs.  The first 2 are probably sufficient enough for most readers.  They are size-building programs that will also significantly elevate strength, too.  The 3rd one is strictly for powerlifters or for anyone who is looking to boost the strength on one, or all three, of their powerlifts.

Program #1 - One Exercise Per Muscle Group

     This program is a 3-way split.  You will train your chest, shoulder, and arms at the first workout, your back and biceps at the 2nd, and your legs on the 3rd, the so-called push-pull-legs split.  Once I have finished outlining it, I will give you some options if you prefer to use different splits.

Workout 1: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

• Barbell bench presses: 10 sets of 1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5.  Take your time warming up on the first movement for the day.  I think ramps of 5s, triples, and singles work best.  Start with nothing more than the bar and do a set of 5 reps.  Add weight on progressive sets.  Stop doing 5s before they get hard and switch over to triples.  As with the 5s, stop the triples before they get hard and start doing singles.  Once you’re sufficiently warmed up—you can do less than that if you know you are the kind of lifter that does best with little warming up—load the bar with 90% of your 1-rep max.  Do your first set.  After a few minutes of rest, drop down to 90% of your 5-rep max and do a set of 5.  Alternate back and forth in this manner until you have done 5 singles and 5 sets of 5 for a total of 10 sets.  Follow the same method, except for the number of sets, on all movements for each day.

• Military presses: 8 sets of 1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5.  You shouldn’t need as many warm-up ramp sets for this movement.  Two or three should be sufficient.

• Close-grip bench presses or close-grip weighted dips: 6 sets of 1-5-1-5-1-5.  For your final movement, you probably won’t need any warm-up sets.

Workout 2: Back and Biceps

• Weighted wide-grip chins: 10 sets of 1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5

• Barbell curls: 8 sets of 1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5

Workout 3: Legs

• Barbell front squats: 10 sets of 1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5

• Romanian deadlifts: 8 sets of 1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5

     Feel free to add in some abdominal work and some calf exercises on one, or all, of the training days.  Don’t follow the same wave-loading method for them, however.  Simply do 3-4 sets of higher reps.

     For your first workout for each lift, assuming you selected appropriate and accurate weight percentages to begin with, you should get all sets at each rep range.  Add weight at the next session, but not too much.  Perhaps 10 pounds on really big lifts and 5 pounds on smaller ones.  At this point, you will start missing a rep on one of your sets.  Stick with that weight until you can get all of your singles and all of your sets of 5 reps.  Once you can get all 10 sets again, repeat the process.

     I recommend a 2-on, 1-off, 1-on, 1-off rotation.  If you need more rest, then follow a 2-on, 1-off, 1-on, 2-off rotation.  If you have the work capacity to handle it, you can also just train 3 days in a row and then take a day off, though I feel that’s probably too much for most lifters.

     If you prefer longer workouts but don’t want to go to the gym as often, you could do a two-way split and train every other day or train 3 days each week.  If you go this route, you could train your upper body on one day and your lower body on the next or you could do something such as legs, chest, and shoulders on one day and back, bis, and tris on another.

Program #2 - Multi-Exercise Per Muscle Group

     The 2nd option allows you to train multiple movements for each muscle group.  You do the same exercise for all of your singles and intersperse it with two or three different exercises for the 5-rep sets.  So, for chest, you do, as you’ll see below, bench presses for all of your singles, but alternate 3 different movements in between each heavy single.  The program will look like this:

Workout 1: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

• Barbell bench presses alternated with dumbbell bench presses: 1-5-1-5

• Bench presses alternated with incline barbell bench presses: 1-5-1-5

• Bench presses alternate with incline dumbbell flyes: 1-5

• Military presses alternated with seated behind-the-neck presses: 1-5-1-5

• Military presses alternated with standing dumbbell presses: 1-5-1-5

• Close-grip bench presses alternated with skull crushers: 1-5-1-5

• Close-grip bench presses alternated with standing dumbbell extensions: 1-5

Workout 2: Back and Biceps

• Weighted wide-grip chins alternated with close-grip chins: 1-5-1-5

• Weighted wide-grip chins alternated with one-arm dumbbell rows: 1-5-1-5

• Weighted wide-grip chins alternated with barbell rows: 1-5

• Barbell curls alternated with standing dumbbell curls: 1-5-1-5

• Barbell curls alternated with incline dumbbell curls: 1-5-1-5

Workout 3: Legs

• Barbell front squats alternated with back squats: 1-5-1-5

• Barbell front squats alternated with barbell hack squats: 1-5-1-5

• Barbell front squats alternate with reverse lunges: 1-5

• Romanian deadlifts alternated with dumbbell Romanian deadlifts: 1-5-1-5

• Romanian deadlifts alternated with deficit deadlifts: 1-5-1-5

     All of my recommendations for the first program apply to this one.

     Another option, even if you stick with a 3-way split is to train antagonistic muscle groups together.  This was always the kind of training that Poliquin preferred, too.  If you went the antagonistic route, it gives you another option.  Let’s say you trained chest and back together.  You could alternate singles on the bench presses with 5-rep sets of chins (or with multiple back movements as in workout #2).  Then you could alternate singles on the chins with sets of 5-rep presses.  Of course, it almost becomes a completely different workout at that point, but it would still be effective, and you would still get both singles and 5-rep work on both muscle groups.

Program #3 - The Powerlifting Version

     When I was powerlifting—before I started using more Russian methods and, then, programs of my own that were hybrids of Russian training, Westside, and H-L-M workouts—I would often use a sort of “modified” Westside program.  Instead of rotating between various and assorted movements on each “maximal effort” day—the kind of movements best used by heavily equipped powerlifters—I stuck with just a few lifts and rotated in different set/rep ranges.  And one thing I liked to utilize was the 1-5 method.

     With this program, I’m not going to explain all of the details of Westside methodology.  If you want to know more about why you lift in the manner detailed below, read my “Speed-Power-Strength Program.”  It’s a “modified” Westside program for raw and natural powerlifters.  This one uses much of the same principles.

     This program is good for any powerlifters that also want to add muscle mass while getting stronger.  Meaning that it would also be good for anyone who wants to add muscle while increasing their three powerlifts.

     You will train on a 2-on, 1-off, 1-on, 1-off, 1-on, 1-off rotation.  I have listed the days below as Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday but please understand that any days will be fine as long as you adhere to the schedule.  Also, don’t change around the order of the speed days and the heavy workouts.  For optimal programming—yes, I do understand that some lifters do the opposite and I have in the past recommended that same thing—you want 2 days off after the speed work and then 3 days off after the heavy session for each lift.  I have experimented with the inverse, but I have found that this is optimal for almost any lifter.

Monday: Speed Bench Press Workout

• Speed bench presses: 8-10 sets of 3 reps with 70% of one-rep max (60% if using bands and chains)

• Triceps exercise: 3 to 4 sets of 10-12 reps

• Lat exercise: 3 to 4 sets of 10-12 reps  

• Front delt exercise: 3 to 4 sets of 10-12 reps

Tuesday: Heavy Squat and Deadlift Workout

• Back squats, front squats, or deadlifts (conventional or sumo): 10 sets of 1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5.  For the first week, do regular squats.  On the 2nd week, go to front squats.  And in the 3rd week, do deadlifts as you lift in competition.  I find this is optimal, as you have 2 weeks straight of squatting, followed by deadlifts in the 3rd week.  Do not worry that you aren’t deadlifting heavy very often.  When you are working your squats hard, along with doing speed work and other accessory movements for your lower body and pulling muscles, that frequency will work best.

• Power cleans, power snatches, or high pulls: 3-4 sets of 3-5 reps.  These are all “straight” sets.  Rotate to a different movement each week.

• Steep incline weighted sit-ups: 2-3 sets of 6-8 reps

Thursday: Heavy Bench Press Workout

• Bench presses, bottom-position bench presses, or board presses: 10 sets of 1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5.  Rotate to a new movement each week.  I find that it works best when done in the exact order listed week-to-week.

• Triceps exercise: 3 to 4 sets of 10-12 reps

• Lat exercise: 3 to 4 sets of 10-12 reps  

• Front delt exercise: 3 to 4 sets of 10-12 reps.  For these 3 movements, you can use the same exercises you did on Monday or rotate to some new ones.

Saturday: Speed Squat and Deadlift Workout

• Speed squats: 10 sets of 2 reps with 70% of one-rep max (60% if using bands and chains)

• Speed deadlifts: 6 to 8 sets of 1 rep using 50-60% of one rep max.  On the week that you deadlift heavy, I recommend not doing this movement.

• Power cleans, power snatches, or high pulls: 3 to 4 sets of 3-5 reps

• Ab wheel: 2-3 sets of 6-8 reps

     If you are a “specialist” who only competes in the bench press or the deadlift, you can substitute different workouts for the lifts that you don’t compete in.  So, if you’re a bench press specialist, you can do hypertrophy work on the squat and pull sessions or, heck, eliminate them entirely—and, yep, I can’t believe I just wrote that, either.

Summing it Up

     In future articles, I will write some more programs that revolve around the 90% rule.  I find that when utilizing it, even though it’s a “rule,” it frees the mind of the lifter into an almost inexhaustible number of workouts that can be created from it.  When adhered to properly, you know that the program you create will be effective.

     If anyone has any questions about this program or the 90% rule in general, then please leave them in the comments section below or shoot me an email if you prefer privacy or want a specific answer to your personal training situation.

     If you’re looking for a program that builds strong and powerful muscles, then look no further.  The 1-5 Program is as good as it gets.