Over the past few weeks, you have probably seen social media flooded with memes and quotes either promoting New Year’s resolutions or making fun of them. The exact same stuff gets recycled with each January. But when you clear away all the positivity and negativity, I think most people on both sides can agree that the toughest part of taking on a new training goal is establishing something you can stick to consistently.
There are plenty of programs out there that boast effectiveness and seem alluring, but how many of us have started the “perfect” program and then realized within a few weeks that it is not sustainable? Especially if training is not your number one priority and you are balancing a family, work, and/or school, spending hours at the gym every single day just may not be feasible (or optimal).
RELATED: 12-Week Conjugate Program for Raw Powerlifting
I am a firm believer that during busy and high-stress times in life, it is important to establish your training minimums that you know you can accomplish no matter how crazy things get or how exhausted you are. Even if it’s half the volume and frequency of what you would ideally like to do, establishing consistency in an area of your life (like training) that benefits your physical and mental strength will carry over to other areas of your life too. Sometimes dedicating a few days per week to going in and “punching the clock”, even when you are not hitting huge numbers or feeling awesome, is what you have to do. In all honesty, you will be surprised how much strength you can gain with a program that seems “too simple.”
I have trained with and written many different program variations, and they all have their pros and cons. This particular program has the busy lifter in mind, is three days per week, and sessions should be able to be completed in about an hour once you get in the swing of things. It also requires minimal setup and equipment (everything should be available in your average gym). Eight weeks is a short training cycle but if you can be consistent for that time, you will have two months of solid training in the books and break past the February/March time when most people fall off with their New Year's training resolutions.
At the end of these eight weeks you will have...
- ...established consistency and habits.
- ...practiced technique.
- ...built momentum by beating your rep counts from the beginning of the program if you follow the RPE instructions correctly (these small “victories” will set the tone for training moving forward).
- ...established rep PRs and maxes to build upon in future programs (I would not recommend repeating this exact program over and over).
Some notes before you get started:
- The training days can be distributed however you like, and the nice thing about a three-day setup is that days can be adjusted easily if traveling or if you encounter a scheduling conflict.
- This program is based on daily maxes and RPE (rating of perceived exertion), so you don’t have to know your “true max” before starting the program. This was designed with keeping those that haven’t been training heavy or consistently recently in mind.
- RPE is listed on a ten-point numerical scale (one being easiest and 10 being heaviest you could go or the hardest you could push).
- The program is designed into two blocks, where your goal should be to beat your Block 1 numbers in Block 2.
- In a program setup like this, there’s nothing wrong with leaving a session feeling like you could have done more. If anything, that is what we want: for you to leave each session ready for the next one, not mentally and physically destroyed.
- If movements are listed as A1 and A2 (B1/B2, etc.), it means that those two movements are supersetted with each other.
- Primary movements should have two to four minutes between top sets (initial light warm-ups can be done more quickly).
- Secondary and assistance movements should be done with less rest (30 to 90 seconds). Remember, this is designed to be time-efficient and assistance work is often done as a circuit.
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Great article! What I have been needing to do as I have been super busy with work responsibilities. One question, I'm not a powerlifter, what would be the best way to swap out OH Press for bench. I get the main move could stay the same but what about the pause supplemental. Leg drive on the main and strict for the supplemental?
Thanks.
I would say you're probably on the right track with OHP. I would do a push press as the primary movement and a seated or strict standing press for secondary (and maybe drop the % to 80 or 85 instead of 90).
Am I warming up and then only doing one set of the primary movement?
Thanks for the help.
I don't think you can go wrong with whichever direction you go. The biggest thing I would do no matter what program you choose, is to sit down and determine:
1. your goals
2. what you need to do each day and week to build toward those goals
3. how much time you want to realistically commit to training to achieve those goals (and make sure the goals and your commitment match up)
..As long as you have those down on paper to keep you grounded throughout your program, then you have a plan of attack.
Because the structure of this particular program I wrote differs from a standard conjugate setup - I would probably either use Jim's beginner manual program right off the bat (although I haven't read that one in particular, and it may be less of a program and more of teaching the conjugate method of creating a program). OR, if you haven't trained consistently in a while, you may be better off using this program first to build some momentum, and then transitioning to Jim's 5/3/1 program (which would be a pretty easy transition from this).
At the end of the day, go with what you'll enjoy doing, you'll do consistently, and will help you achieve those goals. Let me know if I can be of any other help!