Basic Programming For Strength Training

This template for novice programming can be used to maximize progress through the beginner phase of one's weight training career.

This blog post corresponds to this video from my YouTube channel: Basic Programming For Strength Training.

Session 1 (Monday):
A. Box Jump (5 sets of 3)    
B. Squat (5 sets of 5 @ 60%)
C. Leg Press (4-6 sets of 8-12)
D. Romanian Deadlift (4-6 sets of 8-12)      
 
Session 2 (Wednesday):
A. Bench Press (5 sets of 5 @ 50%)        
B. Overhead Press (4-6 sets of 6-8 @ 50%)    
C1. Pullup (4-6 sets of 8-12)    
C2. Face Pull (3 sets of 15-20)  
 
Session 3 (Friday):
A. Power Clean (5 sets of 5 @ 50%)
B. Deadlift (5 sets of 5 @ 60%)
C. Leg curl (4-6 sets of 8-12)
D. Step Up (4-6 sets of 8-12)



Additional Notes:

• Rest 1 day between sessions.
• For the first few weeks, rest 1-3 minutes between sets on all "A" and "B" exercises.
• As the cycle progresses, rest times can be increased to 3-5 minutes for "A" and "B" exercises.
• Add 5lbs to the squat, bench press, and deadlift every week.
• Focus on perfect form (film yourself); make it automatic while the weight is still light.
• Add 5lbs to the OHP and Power Clean every OTHER week.
• For the assistance exercises (C, D), the weight is not as important as the quality of the work.
• There is no need to increase the weight on these exercises until it becomes easy, so only do it every few weeks.
• Rest times between sets of the assistance exercises should usually be about 1-2 minutes.
• All the exercises in the program may be substituted depending on one's goals, injury history, etc.
• Assistance exercises (C, D) can be changed up every 3-4 weeks to help alleviate boredom.
• The substitute exercises should be auxiliary in nature and target the same muscle groups as the original.
• Main exercises (A, B) should not be changed for the duration of the cycle.
• Run the cycle for 16 weeks
• Test main lifts on week 17 (excluding jump squats)

Examples of Appropriate Substitutions:

Box Jump (Broad jump, Jump Squat, Power Clean/Snatch) Squat (Front squat, Squat From Pins) Leg Press (Single-Leg Leg Press, Hack squat)  Romanian Deadlift (Stiff-legged Deadlift, Good Morning) Bench Press (Incline Press, Overhead Press, Close-grip bench press) Overhead Press (Bench Press, Incline Press, Close-grip bench press Pullup (Lat-pulldown, Barbell Row, DB Row, Horizontal row machine) Face Pull (Dumbbell Rear Delt Flye, Reverse Pec Dec Flye) Power Clean (Jump Squat, Power Snatch, Broad Jump, Box Jump) Deadlift (Sumo Deadlift, Deficit Deadlift, Deadlift From Boxes) Leg curl (Glute-Ham Raise) Step Up (Lunge, Split Squat)

Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting Program a.k.a. "The Supertotal!"

This post corresponds to a two part video series that I am currently working on to post on my YouTube channel (Part 1)(Part 2). It's meant to provide an easy visual reference of the program, so that you can see it all laid out, how everything is ordered, where the rest days go, etc. At the end of the post I will also talk about the program's progression system as well as detail a few other considerations and some rationalizations for why things are the way they are. I will cover all of these things in part 2 of the video series as well.

Let's take a look at the program...

• Session 1 - Sunday
• Back squat (high bar)
• ramp up to 5rm
• Clean & Jerk
• ramp up to heavy single
• drop 30-50lbs and perform 3-5 doubles

• Session 2 - Monday
• Snatch
• ramp up to heavy single
• drop 30-50lbs and perform 5-7 triples
• Bench press
• ramp up to 5rm
• drop 20-30lbs and perform 2-3 sets of 5 reps
• Rear delt/upper back work
• 3-5 sets of 15-20 reps

• Session 3 - Wednesday
• Back squat (high bar)
• use 85% of best set of 5 from Session 1
• perform 5 sets of 5 reps
• Deadlift
• use 80% of current max
• perform 6-10 sets of 3 reps

• Session 4 - Friday
• Power snatch
• ramp up to heavy triple
• drop 20-40lbs and perform 3-5 triples
• Power clean
• ramp up to heavy triple
• drop 20-40lbs and perform 3-5 triples
• Bench press
• use 90% of best set of 5 from Session 2
• perform 5 sets of 5 reps
• Rear delt/upper back work
• 3-5 sets of 15-20 reps

Progression: 

One thing to note on this program is that your legs are going to be doing a lot of work, probably more work than they're used to. They will feel tired at first, but eventually they will adapt to the workload. Part of the beauty of the program is that all of the progressions (except for the deadlift) are auto-regulated. The heavy squat and bench work is done at the beginning of the week, in the first 2 sessions, and is regulated by only working up to the bets set of 5 that the body is capable of on that day. Later in the week, the sub-maximal work is done by taking a percentage of what was done on the heavy days. 

The same goes for the Oympic lifts. You only go as high as you are capable of that day, and your rep work is based on your daily max.

This type of progression accounts for daily fluctuations in strength and technical proficiency, and so you should concern yourself less with the actual weight on the bar each session, and more with getting in quality work and eliciting a training effect. The important thing is that there is a general upward trend over time, but not necessarily from session to session.

This auto-regulation allows this program to be used for a long period of time, rather than the typical 8-12 week cycles seen in many programs.

As for the deadlift, I recommend moving up slowly. Start at 80% and add 10lbs every other week or so. The main point here is that all reps should be smooth, with the focus being on good bar speed and perfect form. If either of these is lost, you attempted too much weight. There should never be any real strain while deadlifting on this program as doing so would make it impossible to recover for the net session. 

Exercise order:

The heaviest work is performed at the beginning of the week in sessions 1 and 2. Sessions 3 and 4 are either more volume based/use lower intensities, or use exercises that necessitate a lower load by their very nature.

In session 1, squats are done before clean & jerks because we care more about making progress in the squat and we want to maximize this work by doing it while we're at our freshest.

In session 2, it is necessary to snatch first because the snatch is the most technical lift we'll be doing and we cannot be fatigued while we do it.

I tried to place exercises that would create overlap as far from each other as possible, but there's only so much that can be done when one needs to squat, deadlift, bench, snatch, and clean multiple times in a week. Some soreness will have to be worked through.

Rest periods:

Take as much time as is necessary between sets, anywhere from 3-5 minutes is acceptable. The main goal is to build strength and that requires putting in the work in a quality fashion, not doing sets rapid fire to crank the heart rate up. The strength days may require more rest than the volume days; the C&J may require more rest than the snatch. Some of it is trial and error and some of it personal preference, but never lose sight of the main goal. These workouts are not exactly quick, and will probably take anywhere from about 90 minutes to 2 hours to complete depending on a myriad of factors. But such is the reality of chasing dual goals.

Rest days:

The rest days are placed where they are for a reason. When the legs adapt, one can easily snatch the day after squatting and cleaning, however, it is prudent to take a day off after these two back to back heavy sessions.

After taking a day off, one should feel somewhat refreshed for Session 3, but the combination of squatting and deadlifting in this session requires a rest day after it.

On the surface Session 4 seems like a tough session due to 3 different exercises all being performed at a moderate volume, however none of the exercises are that tough to recover from. The power snatch/power clean are generally considered to be "easier" on the body both mentally and physically than are the full versions of the lifts, so they won't create too much of a recovery deficit. Nor will the bench press as it is far and away the least stressful of the 3 powerlifts. Thus, a rest day after this session ensures that we start the next week off fresh and ready to wreck shit.

Drawbacks:

Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting are both their own sports where men and women who focus solely on each endeavor lift insane amounts of weight in their respective lifts. To attempt to train both at the same time is essentially attempting to ride 2 horses with your 1 ass and will lead to sub-optimal results in both. There are simply too many demands from each one to be able to couple the two without leaving out some key aspects for progress in each.

Olympic Weightlifting is especially benefitted by high frequency. Since the lifts are so technique dependent, the more often you can perform them, ultimately the better off you will likely be. In this instance, we only really have enough time/energy to perform the full lifts once each week and the power versions once each week. This is not going to lead to optimal progress.

The powerlifts on the other hand are probably best done at a moderate frequency, but coupled with several accessory exercises for the individual muscle groups involved. While also performing the O-lifts, however, we don't have the time for this accessory work and as a result our progress on the squat/bench/deadlift will eventually suffer. 

Final considerations:

I'm not bashing the program. I wrote it and I think it's a good program or I wouldn't have published it. It may not make you an elite powerlifter or a nationally ranked weightlifter, but it will make you all around strong and powerful, and for the majority of the population that's a win/win. And as far as maximizing your supertotal goes, this is a damn good, long-term template that can be followed for years.

Try it out and let me know what you think!  

How To Squat To Maximum Everyday (And Not Die)

This post is a continuation of this video from my YouTube channel: How To Add 50lbs To Your Squat In 8 Weeks.  You should watch the video before reading this post or it won't make very much sense.

I'm simply going to detail in chart format the 8 week buildup to maxing out the squat everyday for the two hypothetical 400lbs squatters that I talked about in the video. It should be noted that in both of these scenarios (which should cover pretty much all recreational lifters) the lifter will not have truly reached a point of "maxing out" everyday at the end of the 8 weeks. However, for someone so unaccustomed to such high percentages being utilized so frequently, the gains will be enormous anyway.


Lifter A (already squats 3x a week, usually does 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps @ 80-90% of maximum)

	Session 1	Session 2	Session 3	Session 4	Session 5	Session 6
Week 1	380x1 330x3x3	380x1 330x3x3	380x1 330x3x3x3	X	X	X
Week 2	380x1 335x3x3	380x1 335x3x3	380x1 335x3x3x3	X	X	X
Week 3	380x1 340x2x2	380x1 340x2x2x2	380x1	380x1 340x3x2x2	X	X
Week 4	380x1 340x3x3x2	380x1 340x3x3x3	380x1	380x1 340x3x3	X	X
Week 5	380x1 345x2x2	385x1	380x1 345x2x2x2	390x1	380x1 345x3x2x2	X
Week 6	380x1 345x3x3	400x1	380x1 350x2xx2	410x1	380x1 350x3	X
Week 7	380x1 350x3x3	405x1	380x1 355x2x2	415x1	380x1 355x3	425x1
Week 8	380x1 355x3x3	435x1	380x1 365x3	440x1	380x1 375x3	450x1

Lifter B (squats once a week, does 5 sets of 5 reps at about 85% of maximum)

	Session 1	Session 2	Session 3	Session 4	Session 5	Session 6
Week 1	380x1 330x3x3	380x1 330x3x3x3	X	X	X	X
Week 2	380x1 335x3x3	380x1 335x3x3x3	X	X	X	X
Week 3	380x1 340x2x2	380x1 340x2x2x2	380x1 340x3x2	X	X	X
Week 4	380x1 340x3x3	380x1 340x3x3x2	380x1 340x3x3x3	X	X	X
Week 5	380x1 345x2x2	380x1 345x2x2	390x1	380x1 345x2x2x2	X	X
Week 6	380x1 345x3x2	380x1 345x3x3	400x1	380x1 345x3x3x2	X	X
Week 7	380x1 350x2x2	380x1 350x3x2	410x1	380x1 350x3x3	415x1	X
Week 8	380x1 355x2x2	380x1 355x3x3	425x1	380x1 365x3	435x1	X

Remember, these numbers are purely hypothetical. I'm simply taking guesses at how things may go based on my past experiences. Your results may be better or they may be worse. The important thing to remember is to learn what you are capable of on a given day based on how the ramp up lifts feel, and then to learn what you can do in terms of back off work based on how the maximum lift feels. Some days will be better and some will be worse, but by the end of the program you will see huge jumps in your 1RM the way I outline in these charts. The most important thing though is to learn your body. You have to be able to auto-regulate with training like this or it won't work for you long term. I can only outline so many hypotheticals, but eventually you will have to learn how your body responds to the stresses you are placing on it.

At the end of the 8 weeks I recommend dropping the frequency back down to 2-3x a week and continuing to squat to a heavy single with back off work in each session depending on how you feel. Once your numbers have stabilized and you have built your strength back up to what it was at its peak then you can consider daily squatting again. At this point you will probably know enough about your body as well as be conditioned enough to high frequency/high intensity squatting to simply jump right back in to squatting 6-7x a week.

One last thing, while you're doing this your legs are going to hurt. They will "feel" tired pretty much all the time and if you accidentally flex a quad too hard it will cramp. But do not be disheartened by this. You may think your legs are tired, but all you have to do is suck it up for a little while and they will soon become stronger than ever. Good luck!

Alec Enkiri's 12 Week Novice Strength Training Program

This is a novice strength training program. It is designed to build a base of strength for someone who is new to weight training. The 12 week duration is enough time for a beginner to make substantial progress on a handful of compound lifts. At the end of the program you should test your new maxes, and at this time you can choose to start it over from the beginning or move on to something else (e.g. a program more geared toward hypertrophy if that is your goal).

Every beginner, even those whose primary goal is not strength, should be introduced to weight training with a program such as this one: a simple, linear progression that focuses on a small number of compound lifts. Building a solid base of strength, even if it's just for a short period of time, will go a long way in making all future work done much more productive.

If you choose to run the program a second time, start over with 70% of your new max on all main lifts. Most beginners can probably run this program 3-4 times and still make good progress before they need to switch to something different. That means you can run this program alone for almost a full year. If you do this you will be much, much stronger than you were when you started.

The basic premise of the program is to complete 5 sets of 5 reps of the primary lifts (squat, bench, deadlift, and overhead press). Whenever you successfully complete the 5x5 for a lift, you add 5lbs to it the following week. In the first run through the program you should be able to add 5lbs to the primary lifts every week (except for maybe the upper body presses). In subsequent runs you may get "stuck" at a certain weight for more than one week, and therefore will not make quite as much progress with each subsequent run as you did with the first one.

Anyway, enough talking. On to the program...

Workout 1: 
Squat- (start at 70%) 5x5 (on the final set do as many reps as possible with good form)
Bench press- (start at 70%) 5x5 (on the final set do as many reps as possible with good form)
Dumbbell row- 3 x 10 (each arm)

Workout 2:
Deadlift- (start at 70%) 5x5
Power shrug- 5x3
Hyperextension- 3 x 10-15 (add weight if necessary)

 Workout 3: 
Squat- (use the same weight as Workout 1) 5x5 (do not rep out on the final set)
Overhead press- (start at 70%) 5x5
Chin up- 3 x as many reps as possible 

Notes:

• These workouts should be done on a Mon/Wed/Fri or Sun/Tues/Thurs rotation, e.g. one day off in between workouts and 2 days off at the end of the training week.
• For the dumbbell row, using a little hip momentum is fine, but don't go overboard.
• For the power shrug, set the bar up on pins so you don't have to lift it off the floor, but don't set it down in between reps. To initiate it, push your hips back and then explode up and through with them as powerfully as you can while aggressively shrugging the shoulders. You can go heavy pretty heavy here, but don't go so heavy that you can't feel your hips "pop" forcefully, or that you are unable to shrug the shoulders all the way up. I also recommend using straps here or the grip will simply become too limiting.
• Most people will need to use some extra weight for the hyperextension. Focus on forcefully squeezing the glutes at the top of the movement.
• If you can do 3 sets of 10 chin ups, add 10lbs to your waist via a dipping belt.
• Remember to add 5lbs the next week every time you successfully complete a squat, bench, deadlift, or overhead press 5x5.
• The other exercises are assistance work. Do not worry as much about adding to these every week. 
• If recovery becomes an issue as the main lifts increase in intensity towards the end of the program, the assistance work can be dropped.
• Again if recovery becomes an issue in the last few weeks of the program, the weight for the 2nd squat session can be reduced by 10%.
• Log all of your workouts in a training journal.

Sample Week 1 and Week 12 workouts for a hypothetical lifter starting with:

• 175lbs squat
• 135 bench press
• 225lbs deadlift
• 95lbs overhead press

Sample Week 1:

Work out 1
Squat- 120lbs (4 x 5, 1 x 9 rep out)
Bench press- 95lbs (5 x 5)
DB row- 40lb DB (3 x 10 each arm)

Workout 2
Deadlift- 155lbs (5 x 5)
Power shrug- 135lbs (5 x 3)
Hyperextension- (3 x 15 w/10lb plate held behind head)

Workout 3
Squat- 120lbs (5 x 5)
Overhead press- 65lbs (5 x 5)
Chin up- 7, 6, 5   


Sample Week 12:

Workout 1:
Squat- 175lbs (5 x 5)
Bench press- 145lbs (5 x 5)
DB row- 55lb DB (3 x 10 each arm)
Workout 2
Deadlift- 210lbs (5 x 5)
Power shrug- 185lbs (5 x 3)
Hyperextension- (3 x 15 w/25lb plate held behind head)

Workout 3
Squat- 160lbs (5 x 5)
Overhead press- 100lbs (5 x 5)
Chin up- 12, 10, 8 

A very simple program that can yield great results. All you have to do is work hard, be consistent, and eat plenty of food. Good luck!