Ordinary Lifting is the Way

On Plain, Simple, but Effective Workouts and Progressive Training Programs

     Zhazhou asked Nanquan, “What is the Way?”

     Nanquan said, “Ordinary mind is the Way.”

     “Just watch children playing.  Eat vegetable soup instead of duck stew” ~Matsuo Basho (the most famous haiku poet of Edo-era Japan; this was his advice to poets)

     When in pursuit of our goals from resistance training—whether it’s size, strength, both, or just aesthetics—it’s only natural to look toward what you want to achieve down the road.  That is, after all, the reason that you are training to begin with.  You want to achieve.  You are in pursuit of mass and power.  Maybe you don’t want to just achieve but you want to excel.  But when we are constantly focused on the future, we take ourselves away from the now, the present moment where we are actually lifting.

     If we have lofty goals—there is nothing wrong with a lofty goal—then we are also apt to have lofty training plans and workout routines.  We make things too convoluted, too complicated.  We think that a complicated program will somehow bring greater results.  If we are after strength and power, we might max out on all sorts of different lifts that mimic the movements we’re trying to get stronger on.  You know, instead of actually doing the lifts that we need to improve.  We might throw in all sorts of one-arm or one-leg whatever lifts, plyometric work, and add bands or chains to all of our exercises.  All while we can’t even bench press 225 pounds for a single rep.  That’s just stupid.  If we’re after hypertrophy, we try all kinds of supersets, complexes, “intensity” techniques like forced reps and super-slow negatives, and more single-joint lifts, whilst standing on some silly ball or whatnot.  All while we weigh a buck-50 soaking wet.  Yep, that’s just as stupid.

     We don’t like “ordinary.”  We don’t like basic, simple training.  But it’s plain, basic, ordinary training that produces results.  Simple doesn’t mean easy, after all.

     We also think that if something is new then it must be better.  Usually, if it’s truly new, then it’s not very good.  Most stuff that is “new” isn’t really that, however.  Someone “discovers” a training technique or a plan that produces radical results for him.  When he then studies his new discovery, he also finds a group of lifters that had already done it 50 years ago or maybe even a century before him.  He might even discover that it’s been around for centuries—the ancient Greeks and Romans used progressive models of training that were rather sophisticated.  There really is nothing new under the lifting sun.

     Some of the best training programs that you can still follow have been around a long time.  100 years ago, for example, the Milo Barbell Company created a program they called the “double progressive method.”  You trained 3 days a week, such as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  At each session, you did a handful of lifts, training those lifts at every workout.  On each lift, you did only one work set.  On that set, you used a weight that was your 10-rep maximum.  Now, you did 5 reps with that weight.  Then you “always add one repetition every 3rd practice day.”  So, your training plan might look like this:

Week 1:

Monday:

Squats: 1x5

Bench presses: 1x5

Power cleans: 1x5

Weighted chins: 1x5

Barbell curls: 1x5

Wednesday:

Squats: 1x5

Bench presses: 1x5

Power cleans: 1x5

Weighted chins: 1x5

Barbell curls: 1x5

Friday:

Squats: 1x6

Bench presses: 1x6

Power cleans: 1x6

Weighted chins: 1x6

Barbell curls: 1x6

Week 2:

Monday:

Squats: 1x6

Bench presses: 1x6

Power cleans: 1x6

Weighted chins: 1x6

Barbell curls: 1x6

Wednesday:

Squats: 1x7

Bench presses: 1x7

Power cleans: 1x7

Weighted chins: 1x7

Barbell curls: 1x7

Friday:

Squats: 1x7

Bench presses: 1x7

Power cleans: 1x7

Weighted chins: 1x7

Barbell curls: 1x7

     On the following Monday, you would do 8 reps on each lift.  Continue adding a rep every 3rd session until you are doing 10 reps with that weight.  You then add 10 pounds to all of the lifts, go back down to 5 reps and repeat the entire process.  Sorry, but that’s still better than 90% of the crappy workout “routines” that most gym-goers do these days.  I think I’d increase the number of sets to 2 or 3 per lift, but other than that, I wouldn’t change a single thing.  The simple, ordinary progression method works.  Plain and, well, simple.

     Can the above program be improved upon?  Sure.  As written, if I was to use that workout, I’d personally have my lifters do 3 sets of each movement, but keep the reps the same.  So, it’d be 3x5 then 3x6 and so forth until you reach 3x10.  The total volume on each lift would be “better,” too.  As I’ve written before, for 3 days per week of training on each lift, a repetition range between 15 and 30 reps total on a movement works well.  With 3 sets on each lift, you hit that number perfectly.

     Here are some other progression models that would be great for continued progress.  Use any of them for 6 to 8 weeks before switching to a different one.

     Don’t try to overcomplicate your training.  For “straight sets” try something like this: Use a weight on your work sets, after warmup sets, that is approximately 90% of your 5-rep max.  So, if you can bench press 225 pounds for 5 reps, you would use between 200 and 205 pounds on your work sets.  At your first workout, do 5 sets of 3 reps.  At each subsequent workout, add one rep to one of the sets and keep the other sets the same.  Your progression would look like this: 5x3,3,3,3,3; 5x4,3,3,3,3; 5x4,4,3,3,3; 5x4,4,4,3,3; 5x4,4,4,4,3; 5x4,4,4,4,4.  Continue with this progression until you are doing 5 sets of 5 reps with that weight.  At that point, add 10 pounds to the lift and return to 5x3.  Train the lift 3 days per week.  A good workout would be this one:

Squats

Bench presses

Military presses

Power cleans

Weighted chins

Barbell curls

     You can also add a loaded carry of some sort—farmer walks, stone or sandbag carries, sled drags, tire flips, or even hill sprints—and some abdominal work to the end of each session.  Don’t do too much on these.  One or two sets each of sandbag carries and steep incline situps would be plenty.  Take each set just short of muscular failure, but leave a little something “in the tank” at the end of a workout.

     If you are primarily interested in hypertrophy, then decrease your sets and increase your reps a little bit, but don’t overdo it.  3 to 4 sets of 6-8 reps on each lift would work well.  Use a weight that is approximately 90% of your 8-rep maximum.  At the first session, for instance, do 3 sets of 6 reps.  At the 2nd, do 1x7 and 2x6.  At the 3rd, do 2x7 and 1x6.  At the 4th, do 3x7.  At the 5th, it would be 1x8 and 2x7.  Continue until you are doing 3 sets of 8 reps.  Add weight at that point and repeat the process.  Keep the lifts the same.  If you don’t want to do those specific lifts, then opt for some same but different movements.  So, you might do front squats, weighted dips, one-arm dumbbell overhead presses, deficit deadlifts, one-arm dumbbell rows, and alternate dumbbell curls instead, or anything similar.

     You can also opt for more sets and less reps.  The Hepburn method is a common example.  Use your 8-rep max on each lift.  At the first session, do 8 sets of 2 reps.  At the 2nd, do 1x3 and 7x2.  Add one additional 3-rep set at each session until you are doing 8x3.  Again, add weight at that point and repeat the process.

     If you prefer to vary your repetitions, try rep ladders.  Select a weight, again after warmups, that is 90% of your 5-rep max and do ladders of 2, 3, and 5 reps.  At the 1st session, do 3 ladders of 2/3/5.  At the 2nd, do 3 ladders of 2/3/5 and 1 ladder of 2/3. At the 3rd, do 4 ladders of 2/3/5.  At the 4th, it’s 4 ladders of 2/3/5 and 1 of 2/3. At the 5th session, do 5 ladders of 2/3/5.  At your next workout, add weight and return to 3 ladders.

     For hypertrophy, try ladders of 2/3/5/10.  For this one, use a weight that is 90% of your 10-rep maximum.  At the 1st session, do 3 ladders of 2/3/5/10 for a total of 60 reps.  At the 2nd session, do 3 ladders of 2/3/5/10 and 1 ladder of 2/3/5.  At the 3rd, do 4 2/3/5/10 ladders.  At the 4th, do 4 ladders of 2/3/5/10 and 1 of 2/3/5.  And, at the 5th session, do 5 ladders of 2/3/5/10.  Now, you’re at a total of 100 reps.  Again, add weight at the next session and start the process back over with only 3 ladders.  This one might work best on a 2-way split program.  Train half of your lifts on one day and the other half on the following day.  Follow a 2-on, 1-off schedule or a simple 1-on, 1-off if you think you could use a little more rest between sessions.

     If you want to train more frequently but not train your lifts more frequently, then follow a 3-way split but train 6 days a week or with a 3-on, 1-off schedule.  Again, keep it simple and ordinary.  One day, do squats.  On the next day, do bench presses and overhead work.  On the 3rd, do a heavy pull and a curl.  Sure, it’s a legs/push/pull split but try thinking in terms of movements over muscles.

     You can also try weight ladders or what the great early 20th century strongman Hermann Goerner called chains because you are “chaining” together several different weights using the same reps.  On each lift, for your final set of 5 reps, use a weight that is 100% of approximately your 8-rep maximum.  Do chains of 50%x5, 75%x5, and 100%x5 reps.  That’s one weight ladder or chain.  Now, do the max amount of chains for your workout, which would be up to 5 chains.  So, if your max deadlift for 8 reps is 400 pounds, your chains would be 200x5, 300x5, and 400x5 for 5 chains.  At the next workout, add weight but do only 3 chains.  At the 3rd session, do 3 complete chains and then 1 chain of 50%x5 and 75%x5.  At the 4th workout, it’s 4 complete chains.  At the 5th, it’s 4 complete chains again and 1 chain of 50%x5 and 75%x5.  At the 6th session, it’s 5 complete chains.  Again, add weight at that point and go back to 3 chains, repeating the process once more.

     With weight ladders, you can follow a 2-way split again or you can do a full-body workout, 3-days-per-week but alternate between “heavy” and “light” sessions.  If you choose this latter route, then at every other workout, just do 50%x8RMx5 for your light session.  The heavy day workouts should follow the process above.

     Ordinary lifting is the way.  Whether you follow the workouts above or something similar, the great thing about the sessions is that you achieve good results without having to think about your training.  You know exactly what you’re going to do at each workout.  Then, you just show up at the gym and you do it!

     I think a lot of lifters put too much mental effort into their training.  They’re constantly thinking about what they’re going to do different from one workout to the next—what new exercise they’re going to use, or how they’re going “hit” their muscles from a new angle to produce more growth, or how they’re going to “force” their muscles to grow with some new intensity technique, or how they’re going to use variation and the “muscle confusion principle” and on and on.  But all that thinking drains their physical energy, as well.  By following a more ordinary workout program, they can devote their time outside of the gym to their nutritional program or they can just learn to relax and take it easy.  They know that their workouts will take care of their progress.  No thinking required.

     Ordinary lifting has always been the way.  It always will be.

     As always, if you have any comments or questions about the progression models in this essay, leave them in the “comments” section below or send me an email.  I usually get around to answering my emails every couple days.

     If you want more workout routines and training programs similar to the ones here, then consider purchasing one of my books.  They’re PACKED with a variety of workout regimens.  Click HERE for info on all of my books available for purchase.

     I’m currently working on an article on my son Garrett’s high-volume, high-frequency training.  It will probably be my next article on the blog.  Look for it, or whatever I post next, in a day or two.