Another Full-Body, Heavy Singles Program

An “Everything Moderate” Approach to Heavy Singles, Full-Body Training, and Continued Progress

     As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat.  I’m unsure where this idiom originated from—as an avowed animal lover I can’t imagine skinning any sentient being—but it does contain a certain truth.  If one method fails at something you are trying to achieve, you should find another.  Training is no different.

     In my last article, I presented a Bill Starr-inspired method of implementing heavy singles into a full-body routine using Starr’s heavy/light/medium system.  When training with full-body workouts—singles or otherwise—you basically have two options that are the most effective for the majority of lifters.  You can cycle your training loads with the H-L-M method—or something similar, but load-cycling is the point—or you can follow an “everything moderate” approach, where, essentially, all of the workouts are “medium.”  With an everything moderate system, you do a relatively easy workout each time you hit the gym, and then you just add weight whenever it feels natural to do so.  You don’t force it.  You don’t get “psyched up” or “amped” for your workouts.  You don’t take any kind of pre-workout energizer so that you can “kill it” in the gym.  You keep the volume and workload fairly low (but still train with heavy weights) and just get in your sessions.  As you adapt to it, you simply and naturally reach a point where you feel like adding weight.  Using this technique, you find that you are soon bigger and stronger than you were before, despite the fact that you’re not really training “hard.”  It goes so against the grain of the common gym mentality that it’s just not used that much by modern trainees—which is a real shame.  For the majority of lifters, especially those that consider themselves hardgainers, it just might be the best system of lifting available.

     Both systems of training work.  If you love having at least one hard workout each week, then my previous article, and the workouts within it, is probably for you.  If, however, you like the sound of an everything moderate approach to lifting, then consider the program here as your alternative.

     One advantage of the program below, just as with my previous article, is that you don’t have to “think” about your training or plan what you are going to do for the day.  Do the workout as written and the results will come.  This is especially true if you’re new to such methodology and are more accustomed to doing “high-intensity” workouts.  Once you adapt to the program, and learn what works best for your body, you might find that you do make some changes—at least minor ones.  Maybe you find that you do best with a little less work.  Or a little more.  Perhaps your body responds well to one less movement per day.  Or one more.  But, to start with, just do the program as written.

The Get Big and Strong with Singles Regimen

     This is a 3 days per week program.  Train every other day for 3 workouts, such as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, then follow it with 2 days off.  The only thing you shouldn’t alter—at least at first—is the order of the training days.  If you train M-W-F, then, for instance, Day One should be Monday, Day Two should be Wednesday, and Day Three should be Friday.  Once I outline the program then, per the usual, I’ll give you a few additional tips and suggestions.

Day One - Powerlifts Emphasis

• Squats: 7x5,3,2,2,1,1,1.  These are 7 progressively heavier sets.  Do a set of 5 reps.   Add weight and do a set of 3 reps.  Add weight and do a double.  Add more weight and do another double.  The final 3 singles are all progressively heavier.  Work up to around 90% of your 1-rep max on the last single.  Once you have adapted to the workouts, and the frequency of training if you haven’t been doing full-body workouts beforehand, you can work up to around 95%.  On days when you feel really good, not to mention strong, then feel free to go for an all-out, maximal effort single.  Limit this maximum attempt, however, to about once per month.

• Deadlifts: 6x3,3,3,2,1,1.  After the squats, move on to deadlifts.  You can do conventional deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, or deficit deadlifts (using either a conventional or sumo stance).  If you’re a more advanced lifter, you can also rotate between a couple of different versions (or all 3) from workout to workout.  As with the squats, these are all progressively heavier sets.  And, the same as squats, work up to around 90-95% of your max on the final single, with an occasional all-out max attempt on days that you feel particularly strong.  Some lifters will find that they like to go for a max on the same day that they go for a max on the squats.  Others will want to do this on different days.

• Bench presses: 7x5,3,2,2,1,1,1.  Follow the exact same format as the squats.

• Barbell curls: 5x3.  Do 5 progressively heavier triples.  Work up to around 90-95% of your max triple on the final set.

• Ab work of your choice.  When you finish your barbell movements, do 1 or 2 sets of some sort of abdominal exercise.  Weighted incline sit-ups, the ab wheel, or hanging leg raises are all good selections.  You can train with slightly higher reps than the barbell lifts, or you can do them weighted and train in a similar manner to the free weights.  Whatever you select, train with the same “everything moderate” approach.

• OPTIONAL: Loaded carry of your choice: 1 or 2 sets.  As an option, finish off with 1 or 2 sets of sandbag or stone carries, farmer walks, tire flips, sled drags, or something similar.  And, yep, don’t go all-out.  Make sure you feel “good” when finished, like you could have done significantly more if you had wanted to.

Day Two - Overhead Emphasis

• Squats: 5x3.  Do 5 progressively heavier triples, same as the barbell curls from Day One.  Work up as heavy as you feel like it on this day, but it’s fine to not work up to 90%.  Just go by how you feel.  Some days, you may only work up to 70% of your 3-rep max.  Other days it might be 80%.  When you feel like it, hit a triple at 90% or even a little more.  After you have been on the program for a few weeks, you might do more 90% sets, but that’s not set-in-stone.

• Military presses: 7x5,3,2,2,1,1,1.  Do these the same as your squats and bench presses from Day One.

• Power snatches: 5x2.  Work up over 5 progressively heavier sets of doubles until you reach around 90% of your 2-rep max.  Because of the nature of quick lifts, I prefer doubles here instead of triples, however, if you know your body well and you have cemented good technique, then feel free to do triples instead.

• Barbell shrugs: 5x3.  Once more, do 5 progressively heavier triples.

• Ab work: Same as Day One.

• OPTIONAL: loaded carry of your choice: Same as Day One.

Day Three - Barbell Curls Emphasis

• Squats: 5x3.  Do these the same as Day Two.

• Power cleans: 5x2.  Same as the power snatches from Day Two.

• Incline bench presses: 5x3.  Same as the other movements where you do 5 progressively heavier triples.

• Barbell curls: 7x5,3,2,2,1,1,1.  Do these the same as the powerlifts and the overhead presses on the other days.

• Ab work: Same as the other days.

• OPTIONAL: loaded carry of your choice: Same as the other days.

Tips

     You may have noticed that with the exception of (possibly) the quick lifts and the deadlifts, there is a total of 15 reps on all of the lifts.  This is done on purpose.  When training with an everything moderate approach on 3 days per week of full-body training, 15 reps is a good total number to shoot for.  This also means that, after several weeks of doing the program, you can opt for some other set/rep schemes as long as 15 reps is still the total.  3 sets of 5 reps, for instance, would be the most common option.  You can also do 7 to 8 sets of 2 reps, or even 2 sets of 7 or 8 on days that you feel as if you need more of an active recovery day.  You could also do something such as 2 sets of 5 reps, followed by a triple, followed by a double or 1 set of 5 reps, 2 sets of triples, and 2 doubles.

     If you wish, you can do the movement-of-the-day for singles at the start of the workout.  In other words, you would begin Day Two with overhead presses and Day Three with barbell curls.  You can also swap the order of movements if you want.  For example, if your bench press needs the most work, begin Day One with it.  Or if you like saving squats for the end of the session, do them as your last barbell movement but before you do your ab work or optional carries.

     As with my last two articles on singles, make sure that you are getting adequate calories and protein each and every day.  This is especially so if you’re trying to bulk up.  You need to be in a calorie surplus to gain as much muscle as quickly as possible.  Even if you’re not trying to gain any weight, but are just after pure strength gains, make sure you still get at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily.

     This program is quite similar to my Full Body Big & Strong routine.  If you want more information on how to make an “everything moderate” program work, then read that one for additional insights.

     If you want more information on singles, be sure to read my two previous articles, including info on some of the strength training legends of the iron game that used them for building strength, power, and muscle mass.

Final Thoughts

     The kind of training program presented here was always one of my favorite ways to train.  This was primarily because I always enjoyed training in this manner.  When you leave the gym after a full-body workout consisting of heavy weights and an everything moderate approach, you just feel good.  An hour after doing a workout you should feel great, in fact.  Your appetite should increase and you should sleep well at night.

     Add this training program, and other similar ones, to your strength training, mass building arsenal.  You’ll get strong and grow large, thick, dense muscles.  What more could a lifter ask for?

     If you enjoyed this training article, then you would probably love my book “Ultimate Mass and Power: A Collection of Training Programs for Getting Massively Big and Incredibly Strong.”  It’s PACKED with programs for achieving just those goals.  For more information on it, and all of my books, visit the My Books page.

     As always, if you have any questions or comments about this program, please leave them in the “comments” section below.  You can also send me an email for a more personal, or private, response.  I usually get around to answering my emails within a couple of days.