13d ago in General discussion
How to Tell If Your Program Sucks
For those of you who are following your own program or something your found on the internet, I'm going to give you some basic parameters to be able to tell if your program sucks or not.
1. Body part splits will not get you there.
Optimal development of muscular strength and growth requires a minimum of 2-3 exposures to training per week.
The overall volume of work needed to stimulate change in your muscles is incredibly difficult to achieve in a single training session. It is best to split it up into 2-3 sessions, so you can recover adequately and maintain intensity.
This means if you are doing a Push-Pull-Legs (PPL) split or a body part split, you have effectively tied your shoelaces together before the race starts.
Either Upper/Lower split for 4 days per week or Full Body 3-4 days per week is the way to go for optimal results.
2. 3-4 days of HARD training per week is plenty.
If you want to lift more than 4 days per week, understand that you won't be able to keep intensity or volume high. In fact you'll need to make about half of your training days the absolute bare minimum.
3. Train what you are testing.
“Make the main thing the main thing.” Whatever lifts are going to be the ones you test should make up the majority of your training program.
As in 80-90% of the work you do each day should focus on those lifts.
The other 10-20% should be "structural balance" work as an accessory.
For example, if you are focusing on your overhead press, make sure you are also working lots of pullups/rows to build up your pulling muscles.
More than 2-3 exercises per day is just asking to major in the minors and slow down your progress in the stuff that actually matters.
4. You can handle higher volume than you probably expect.
If you want to know how many reps/sets to be doing each day, take a look at Prilepin’s chart. That will give you a good idea of the optimal total volume you can hit on a major lift in a given session. Break it up into however many sets/reps you want to, but for most of you it’s significantly more than you’re planning on doing currently.
5. Variety in volume is necessary
If you aren’t changing the weight, mix up your volume each time you train at a given intensity by at least 20% every day. This makes adaptation occur faster, with longer lasting results, and makes programming super simple.
If you do change the weight, it’s still good to change the volume slightly but not as necessary.
6. If you want honest feedback on your training program, just ask.
We’re here to help you. This community is a resource for all of you to use in your pursuit of the best shape of your life. Use it accordingly.
In summary, everything I posted above is backed by science, along with actual successful application on thousands of people I’ve trained over the past 16 years. I’m happy to dive deeper into any of it for those curious, but the nitty gritty doesn’t actually serve the group in this setting, so I kept it limited to the actionable info only.
Now let’s get after it. 🦾
0
0 comments
How to Tell If Your Program Sucks
skool.com/sultan-of-strong-5607
Community for those who are dedicated to building strength, both mental and physical via purposeful physical training
powered by