Want a simple program to get stronger?

Kevcol · 21-10-2014 4:03pm

I just have a question about squats. My mobility is pretty dirt poor at the moment. I'm doing stretches to try to improve on these at the moment. Is it acceptable that I'm placing small weights under my heels so that I can get deeper until I have the mobility to go deep myself.
Thanks

Alf Veedersane · 21-10-2014 4:31pm

Kevcol wrote: »

I just have a question about squats. My mobility is pretty dirt poor at the moment. I'm doing stretches to try to improve on these at the moment. Is it acceptable that I'm placing small weights under my heels so that I can get deeper until I have the mobility to go deep myself.
Thanks

Possibly a personal thing but I wouldn't be inclined to use plates because I wouldn't feel stable on them.

But generally I'd be more inclined to try and fix the problem first if using small plates are your only option to work around your poor ankle mobility.

Hanley · 21-10-2014 4:40pm

Kevcol wrote: »

I just have a question about squats. My mobility is pretty dirt poor at the moment. I'm doing stretches to try to improve on these at the moment. Is it acceptable that I'm placing small weights under my heels so that I can get deeper until I have the mobility to go deep myself.
Thanks

All good. But work to fix mobility issue ASAP.

Brian? · 21-10-2014 7:03pm

Hanley wrote: »

All good. But work to fix mobility issue ASAP.

This, once you're not ignoring the problem.

Kevcol · 21-10-2014 10:47pm

Thanks for the replies, appreciate it.

I'm doing 4 main stretches at the moment every day for 2 minutes each. Hoping that this will start making an impact soon. Am I fooling myself thinking that this is enough or does it sound about right?

shakedown · 24-10-2014 9:14pm

Are you supposed to do A, B, C, D and E all in the same workout (23 sets)? Or is it 1 "letter" per day over 5 days of the week (so I only squat once a week)?

Alf Veedersane · 24-10-2014 9:20pm

shakedown wrote: »

Are you supposed to do A, B, C, D and E all in the same workout (23 sets)? Or is it 1 "letter" per day over 5 days of the week (so I only squat once a week)?

It's all the one workout. Pick a main lift, e.g. squat, and the B-E should complement the main lift.

shakedown · 24-10-2014 10:47pm

That's some volume!

Alf Veedersane · 24-10-2014 10:56pm

Should still be able to get through it in an hour or thereabouts.

burrenguy · 24-10-2014 11:23pm

Hanley, what do you think of doing alternating sets of exercises to cut down overall rest time? eg. Instead of exercise D for 4x12 with 3 mins rest between each set, then going onto exercise E, do a set of D - 1.5 mins rest - Set of E - repeat.

Brian? · 25-10-2014 7:15am

burrenguy wrote: »

Hanley, what do you think of doing alternating sets of exercises to cut down overall rest time? eg. Instead of exercise D for 4x12 with 3 mins rest between each set, then going onto exercise E, do a set of D - 1.5 mins rest - Set of E - repeat.

You're supersetting 2 similar movements. Not a good idea IMO.

If you want to superset, don't follow this program. The volume is more than enough get the job done. You're over thinking it.

Alf Veedersane · 25-10-2014 7:27am

burrenguy wrote: »

Hanley, what do you think of doing alternating sets of exercises to cut down overall rest time? eg. Instead of exercise D for 4x12 with 3 mins rest between each set, then going onto exercise E, do a set of D - 1.5 mins rest - Set of E - repeat.

Instead of doing D with a 3 minute rest between sets, do D with 1.5 minutes rest between sets. Then do E when you're done with D.

Edit: you wouldn't really be having 3-minute rests between sets for D and E anyway.

Hanley · 25-10-2014 8:14am

burrenguy wrote: »

Hanley, what do you think of doing alternating sets of exercises to cut down overall rest time? eg. Instead of exercise D for 4x12 with 3 mins rest between each set, then going onto exercise E, do a set of D - 1.5 mins rest - Set of E - repeat.

What these lads below me said.

Rest around a minute on D/E. It's supposed to be bodybuilder style pump work anyway.

Brian? wrote: »

You're supersetting 2 similar movements. Not a good idea IMO.

If you want to superset, don't follow this program. The volume is more than enough get the job done. You're over thinking it.

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Instead of doing D with a 3 minute rest between sets, do D with 1.5 minutes rest between sets. Then do E when you're done with D.

Edit: you wouldn't really be having 3-minute rests between sets for D and E anyway.

K09 · 27-01-2015 12:56pm

Hanley wrote: »

A) Main Lift
Something hard like the main lift 5x8
C) Something else hard like the main lift 5x8
D) Something bodybuilder-y that hits the same muslces as the main lift 4x12
E) Something else bodybuilder-y that hits the same muscles as the main lift 4x12

Hi,

How much rest should be done between each set?

Thanks!

Hanley · 27-01-2015 1:06pm

K09 wrote: »

Hi,

How much rest should be done between each set?

Thanks!

As much or as little as you need.

K09 · 31-01-2015 4:24pm

Hi,

Any advice on improving my program? Below is what I have done this past week. Is it ok to do deadlifts the day after squats? Legs/Back sore. Not sure what else to do with the deadlifts.

I am 5'11" and 79kg.

Thanks!!

Hanley · 31-01-2015 7:53pm

K09 wrote: »

Hi,

Any advice on improving my program? Below is what I have done this past week. Is it ok to do deadlifts the day after squats? Legs/Back sore. Not sure what else to do with the deadlifts.

I am 5'11" and 79kg.

Thanks!!

Bench/squat/bench/dead.

Though I don't know why you're benching 2x.

Vaidookas_ · 02-02-2015 11:42am

I am not personally fan of 1 rep max percentage calculations... Recently it was scientist research as well that you better off guessing the weight you can complete lets say 5 reps instead of calculating % of your 1 rep max. Just a thought.

deadlybuzzman · 02-02-2015 12:03pm

WorthIt wrote: »

I am not personally fan of 1 rep max percentage calculations... Recently it was scientist research as well that you better off guessing the weight you can complete lets say 5 reps instead of calculating % of your 1 rep max. Just a thought.

Yeah

Vaidookas_ · 02-02-2015 12:11pm

deadlybuzzman wrote: »

Yeah

haha good one

K09 · 02-02-2015 5:36pm

Hanley wrote: »

Bench/squat/bench/dead.

Though I don't know why you're benching 2x.

Benching twice a week as it's pretty low and hoping to bring weight up quicker

voodooman · 10-02-2015 9:11pm

Thanks for the program, one question (and apologize for adding more questions to what was supposed to be a hey here's a simple program to get stronger...)

I was always told that you need to increase the total work each week (or as close as possible) but in this case, take a squat @ 100kg for example:

Week 1: 70%: 70kg x 5 x 8 for a total of 2,800kg squatted
Week 2: 75%: 75kg x 5 x 6 for a total of 2,250kg squatted

and so on - so the total work done is decreasing over time. Is that ok?

Alf Veedersane · 10-02-2015 9:47pm

As I understand it, you can't keep increasing total work or you end up bolli*ed. So you deload fairly regularly when you increase load week on week.

If the frequency is staying the same and the intensity is going up, then it's only natural to have the volume go down.

Not too much but enough that you don't end up accumulating fatigue.

But I could be wrong.

LuckyLloyd · 11-02-2015 12:38am

The total volume would increase each cycle of training, though not each week. You can only tolerate linear progression type increases for so long!!

Mellor · 11-02-2015 12:47am

voodooman wrote: »

I was always told that you need to increase the total work each week (or as close as possible) but in this case, take a squat @ 100kg for example:

The simple answer is that the above is incorrect.

It's simple not feasible to maintain (let alone increase) total volume as you move towards 100% load.
Nor are the volumes comparable. Triples, doubles, singles are never going to keep up with 8 reps at 70%.

If reps are staying the same then volume could increase via the load.
If load is staying the same then volume could increase via the reps.
But when load and reps are both changing, the volume can go anywhere. Thats fine.

Hanley · 11-02-2015 8:50am

voodooman wrote: »

Thanks for the program, one question (and apologize for adding more questions to what was supposed to be a hey here's a simple program to get stronger...)

I was always told that you need to increase the total work each week (or as close as possible) but in this case, take a squat @ 100kg for example:

Week 1: 70%: 70kg x 5 x 8 for a total of 2,800kg squatted
Week 2: 75%: 75kg x 5 x 6 for a total of 2,250kg squatted

and so on - so the total work done is decreasing over time. Is that ok?

Whoever told you that is wrong.

Over a longer term (years) total tonnage would need to increase, but during a training cycle it's normal to see a taper down in total volume as intensity increases.

Run that program again in 6 months time. Calculate total volume for the duration, then come back to me and tell me which one is higher.

Actually you don't need to bother - the one in 6 months is higher.

Week 6 of the second run thru will still be lower than week 1 of the second run thru, but they'll both be higher than their respective numbers on the first run thru.

Zillah · 16-05-2015 1:32pm

Bumping an old thread to say that I have seen it linked several times on this forum and decided to give this a go this week. Today will be Day 3 and it is already kicking my ass. Feels good.

jive · 16-05-2015 7:16pm

Yeh I'm doing this program. Doing day #3 tomorrow, il report back after 12 weeks or so. Abroad quite a bit so sometimes have to mash 3 days back to back, but after 12 x 3 days il post up progression and feels

MightyMandarin · 16-05-2015 9:05pm

Brought my Squat from 135-145 and Deadlift from 140-155 in 4 weeks on this a few months back. Went from 77kg to 74kg in the process, as I was cutting at the time so strength gains were more limited, but was still surprised at how much better following an actual program was, rather than just banging around a load of weights like I did for my first 18 months of lifting.

K09 · 16-07-2015 2:45pm

Hanley wrote: »

A) Main Lift
Something hard like the main lift 5x8
C) Something else hard like the main lift 5x8
D) Something bodybuilder-y that hits the same muslces as the main lift 4x12
E) Something else bodybuilder-y that hits the same muscles as the main lift 4x12

Main lift progressions:
70% 5x8+
75% 5x6+
80% 5x5+
85% 5x4+
90% 5x3+
95% 5x2+

...then do it all again with 5kg more, and retest. You should be easily tripling (and more) the starting 1RM inside of the 10-12 weeks

B/C/D/E change to something else after the first 6 weeks too.

The last set on the main lift is "+" which is "as many reps as you can do, without failing".

Most of you won't do this for the next 12 weeks tho. Despite claiming you want to be stronger.

Ya know why? Because the grass is always greener, and the above is REALLY hard work.

But there ya go. It's there if you want it.

I have been doing this for 3 months now and this past few weeks I have struggled to increase my weights.

My squat is particularly poor - 100kg 1RM; and bench 90kg 1RM.

I am 80kg.

Any advice?
Thanks!

Want a simple program to get stronger?

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