Heavy/Light/Medium Training - Workouts and Programming

     When a lot of lifters consider “heavy, light, medium” training, if they even consider it at all, they probably think about Bill Starr and his “5x5” programs.  If you read this blog, then that’s probably especially so.  But maybe not.  After all, I have, on a few occasions, mentioned using the methodology for programs outside of Starr’s routines.  And, here’s the thing, that’s exactly how I want you to think about it.  Starr’s system is great.  I love it.  I write about it.  I will continue to love it and write about it.  But the truth is that it can be applied to all training programs, not just Starr’s.

     It really comes down to using it as a way to manage load cycling, which I have written about in several articles and essays of late.  Load cycling is prevalent in almost all strength programs that have come out of Russia and other former “Soviet bloc” nations.  Probably the most popular proponent, at least in America, of all (lifting) things Russian, Pavel Tsatsouline, makes load cycling one of the cornerstones of his training systems.  And, one of the best ways to cycle your loads, because it’s one of the easiest and simplest ways to manage it, is through heavy, light, and medium training.  The difference, typically, between a “Russian system” of training and H-L-M training is that a lot of the Russian programs can, in my opinion, be overly complicated.  Pavel, as an example, does a good job of simplifying their methods.  H-L-M training, on the other hand, is largely an “American” system, represented by Starr and other lifters, like the great Tommy Kono.

     Heavy, light, and medium workouts might just be the key to the training of old-school bodybuilders.  At the very least, it’s the key that you don’t see written about much.  If you have ever looked at the workout routines of “classic” bodybuilders, from the so-called “Golden Era” (think the movie “Pumping Iron”) and before, and wondered how in the hell they managed to do that amount of volume—15 to 20 sets per muscle group, trained, typically, 3 days a week—and still be able to recover from it, the answer is heavy, light, and medium training.

     I can’t remember the exact article, so some of what I write that follows might be slightly off base, but I recall a chest training article of Franco Columbu’s where he discussed the high amount of volume he used in his chest training (and all of his workouts, for that matter).  He said that, after a hard session the first day of the week—he trained his chest for roughly 20 sets 3 days per week—he would often come into the gym still sore from the first workout.  So, he used lighter weights on that day and went more by how he “felt,” but said that the 2nd workout was, usually, quite a bit lighter than the 1st.  On the 3rd training day, he would warm-up and, after his first exercise for the muscle group, would then decide how heavy and hard he would train that day.  He said that sometimes it fell in between the other two sessions and sometimes it was around the same volume/intensity as the heavy day.  Even though he didn’t call it heavy-light-medium training, that’s exactly what it sounded like to me.

     I believe that the best method of training for the natural lifter—whether he’s a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, or something in-between—is high-frequency training (HFT).  No matter your goals, for HFT to “work,” however, you must learn to cycle your volume and intensity in a manner that is effective for you.  For the remainder of this essay, let’s look at some different ways you can apply H-L-M training so that you can do just that.

     First off, there are two “approaches” you can take to H-L-M training.  The approach you take will probably mirror the same one that you apply to your workouts in general.  You can use a “systematic” method, where you know, pretty much, exactly what days will be heavy, what days light, and what days medium.  Or you can use a more “instinctive” approach.  You may not even know how you’re going to train until you actually start your workout.  Depending on the feel of your session, as you train, determines whether it ends up being a heavy, light, or medium day.  The second method, if it can even be called “method,” is more typical of the approach of the old-school bodybuilders, such as the training of Franco mentioned above.

     When it comes to specific training plans, most programs slot into 2 methods.  You either keep the sets/reps the same (largely) but change the poundages at the workouts or you keep the poundages the same at each session but change the sets and/or reps.  Let’s now look at how both of these methods might work in practice.  You can also do both, though for the purpose of clarity, you may want to begin by implementing just one of them.

     Bill Starr’s 5x5 methodology is an example of the 1st way.  At each workout, you do 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps.  You simply change the weights used.  Let’s look at squats to show how his system works.  On Monday (heavy), you do 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps, working up to 1 all-out set.  On Wednesday (light) you work up to the weight that you used on your 3rd set from Monday.  You then stick with that weight for 2 more sets.  On Friday (medium), you work up to a weight that is around 90% of Monday’s top set.  Each workout—heavy, light, or medium—still utilizes 5 sets of 5 reps.

     In Starr’s system, as the lifter advances, he often goes about this in a slightly different way.  This technique is good no matter your training program.  For advanced lifters, Starr often let the exercise selection itself dictate whether the day was heavy, light, or medium.  If you do, for example, back squats on Monday, overhead squats on Wednesday, and front squats on Friday, no matter how hard you train, the exercise choice determines whether each workout is H, L, or M.

     If you’re familiar with Starr’s methods—if you’re not, read my series of essays on his training—then you will know that another way he calculated whether a program was heavy, light, or medium was total workload, not how “heavy” one trained in a session.  Often, his lifters would train with heavier weights on the medium day than they did on the heavy day.  But they trained with doubles or triples on that day.  A 250 pound bench press for 2 reps is going to be a significantly lower workload compared to a 225 pound bench press for 5 reps, 500 pounds compared with 1,125 pounds.  So, one thing you might want to do, even if you don’t follow Starr’s training system, is to calculate the total workload of your sessions.  If the workload “waves” between heavier and lighter training, then your training is on the correct path.

     The 2nd approach, where you keep the poundages of your exercises the same but change the number of sets and/or reps, is a good method for more minimalistic programs.  Let’s say you want to increase your bench press—a lot of lifters do, so it’s perfect to use as an example.  On Monday, select a weight, after warmups, that you could do for one all-out set of 8 reps.  Do several sets of 5 reps with that weight.  You might do 3 or 5 sets.  Stop once the sets seem to lack power.  (If you choose higher rep sets, stop the set once the reps begin to burn.)  On Wednesday, work up to the same weight, but this time do less sets and reps.  If you did primarily 5 rep sets on Monday, you might do 3 sets of 2 reps here.  On Friday, return and work up to the same weight, but this time do a number of sets and reps in between the Monday and Wednesday session.  Using this technique, you also don’t have to stick with the same number of reps on each set.  For instance, your heavy day might be a set of 5 reps, followed by a couple sets of 4 reps, followed by a couple sets for only 3 reps.  Once you do 5 reps on all of your sets, increase weight on the next heavy day.  If you use this method, make sure that you are keeping a training journal so that you know your sets and reps are programmed correctly on each day.  (Actually, make sure that you keep a training journal all of the time.)

     You can also rotate between heavy, light, and medium weeks of training.  This is a good system for you if you like to train hard and go “all-out” in your workouts.  For the first week of training, go hard as you wish.  By the end of the week, you might be rather fatigued and tired.  In the 2nd week, reduce your total workload to somewhere between 50 and 75% of what you used the week before.  In your 3rd week, use a workload in between the 1st and 2nd week.

     However you train, and whatever system of H-L-M lifting you wish to use, you also don’t have to be “linear” in using it.  For example, you might do a couple of heavy workouts followed by a light workout, followed by a medium workout, then go back to another light session before utilizing a heavy workout again.

     If you’ve read enough of my material, you probably know that, in addition to HFT in general, I’m also fond of full-body workouts.  When doing more than 3 full-body workouts in one week, I prefer a heavy-light-medium-light system.  If you want to read more about a specific program I use, then read my article from a couple of months ago that’s (aptly) titled “The Heavy-Light-Medium-Light Program.”

     When using easy strength methods, another technique I prefer is one where you train 3 days in a row (on average) and make the first day heavy, the 2nd day medium, and the 3rd day light.  Day one might be squats, bench presses, deadlifts, chins, and barbell curls, all for 5 sets of 2 reps.  The 2nd day, you might do front squats, overhead presses, power cleans, and dumbbell curls for 3 sets of 3 reps.  And the 3rd day, you do double-kettlebell front squats, one-arm dumbbell overhead presses, and one-arm dumbbell snatches for 2 sets of 5 reps each.  Each day, you use slightly lighter weights from the one before, one fewer exercise, and movements that require lighter weights in general.  This keeps you fresh and manages fatigue without really attempting to do so.

     In the end, a lot of it does come down to managing fatigue and cycling your training loads, which are two of the most important factors of proper programming no matter what your workout routine entails.  There are many ways to “skin the training cat.”  Heavy, light, and medium training is just one of them.

     If you are interested in more thoughts and ideas about H-L-M training, then just do a search for it in the blog and you’ll find plenty of articles and essays to read.  Add H-L-M workouts to your training arsenal and reap the benefits of more strength, power, and muscle mass.