For the majority of weight trainers pyramids or trying to add reps or weight to sets from previous work outs are the way forward. However for people who have been following this approach for a while and have started to see diminished gains set loading programmes can offer a great way of pushing past your stagnation.
There are a number of these programmes on the internet one of the closest related to the method I shall be discussing here is Jim Wendler's 5/3/1.
This 3x5 system uses an approach where over 4 weeks you will be building towards a Very Heavy (third week) week where both intensity and volume reach their peak. In the 4th week the volume will drop off drastically and the intensity of effort will remain high.
Laying out the programme.
The programme I will outlay here will cover basic lifting (squat-bench-deadlift) I will include two spread sheets at the end of this article one for those looking to follow the programme written here or for those looking to incorporate this approach to a single lift.
Accessory lifts and Ab work - accessory lifts and abdominal work are carried out for hypertrophy and as thus present a volume effort. The reps should be difficult by the last set each week and the weight used for each lift should increase as the weeks go on. On the fourth week the weights should drop 10-20% from the first week to represent a large drop in volume.
Here is a spreadsheet version of the outlayed programme
Hers is a spreadsheet programme for one exercise
I hope this article has given you some idea's you can incorporate into your training that can hopefully get you back into the habbit of setting personal bests on a regular basis.
Marc.
Hey Keys,
ReplyDeleteA modified 3x5 programme that I am using at the minute is a standard 3x5 on a Monday, followed by a recovery day on a Wednesday (heavy set of 2, others may need less intensity to recover but this seems to work for me), finishing off with 5x3 on the Friday. This has worked really well for me so far (as I write this I have Fridays session of week 3 to do tomorrow).
In terms of intensity over the weeks, I just went as heavy as I could in every session which by the time you adjust to the weight/rep range it ends up being an increase in volume load and intensity week on week (just like your own).
Exercises: squat (main aim), bent over row and military press. In around that been doing oly’s on Tuesday and Thursday.
For example my squat scores for almost 3 weeks:
Monday (3x5)
Week 1: 130kg
Week 2: 130 (set 1), 135 (set 2), 140 (set 3).
Week 3: 140
Week 4 aim is 145.
Wednesday (1x2)
Week 1: 155
Week 2: Missed
Week 3: 160
Week 4 aim: 162
Friday (5x3)
Week 1: 140 for 3x3, 145 for remainder 2x3
Week 2: 145 for 3x3, 150 for set 4 and 152 for set 5.
Week 3 (tomorrow session) aim is 145 for 1st set, 150 for remainder 4 sets. The way week 2 session went I feel this is realistic.
Week 4 aim: il see how tomorrows session goes.
All exercises have gone in similar fashion but not to the same extent of my squat performance as this is the main aim of this block.
This may seem quite a lot to do during the week including the Olympic stuff, but I’ve kept olys reasonably light (power cleans and technique to save the legs). If however on a given day the technique feels good, then I would go for a heavy single and no more.
I feel a mistake that I have made in this block, is that on average my snatch intensity on a Tuesday and Thursday was too much, resulting in me getting frustrated technically due to fatigue from heavy squatting the day before. So in hindsight, these lighter sessions should be kept LIGHT.
Also the Friday session ends up being more volume load than the Monday so you may want to swap these days around leaving you with a more traditional within week loading pattern. It may be quite hard to implement this for team sports due to the volume and team training/games etc. Thus for me, intensity is the most important thing for getting strong, therefore the 5x3 session would be your heavy Monday (due to the superior intensity) with a light 3x5 on a Wednesday.
In summary this has worked really well for me. Team sports players may need to play around with it but possibly using a stricter loading pattern across the weeks and within the week. The lesson I have learnt from this, is stick to your aim and hold back on other areas that might be affected by this aim.
John Wilson