The Basics Of Programming for Strength TrainingFirst off let me tell you everything I am going to talk about is based on my experience and not on any proven science. I am not an expert, but I do have some experience on how programming works based on the years I have been exercising. Programming is probably one of the most important variables you can control to help make progress toward your strength goals.A good program builds a solid foundation. For the purpose of this program I’m going to assume you work out and lift weights, as starting off as a beginner would require a lot longer of an explanation than I intend on doing. To begin a program it is important to begin by building up muscular endurance.How do we build muscular endurance? Simple,
…show more content…
This should be done for 2-3 weeks. Optimally you would want to do one of two things;Start at 60% and over the three week period build up to 70% using the same rep range for the 2-3 weeks ORStart at a keep the percentage the same for the 2-3 weeks and increase the number of reps each session. For example if I start with 10 reps at 60%, I would by the third week want to be doing 15 reps with 60%.The purpose of doing this is to slowly progress the volume of your program.Our next focus, after 2-3 weeks of endurance training are over, would be 2-3 weeks of strength training with a focus on hypertrophy.To build strength and make the muscles grow in size we would have to train at a higher intensity with slighly less volume than we were doing before. Focus on using 75-85% of your max for this phase. This will force you to use heavier weights.We want to focus on doing a maximum of 4 sets for our compound movements in this phase. Why …show more content…
Do a few sets with that much weight and that will help you maintain your strength for your next cycle where you repeat the program over again.After 8 weeks of training, you should consider taking a break or doing what is called a deload. A deload is when you are still working out and performing with low volume and intensity. Basically you just do 2 sets of every main exercise you are working on in this example you are doing only compound movements, squat, bench, deadlift, so you will be doing 2 sets of these exercises at 50% for no more than 10 reps, I would say anything between 5-10 reps is good enough to let the muscles recover from those 8 brutal weeks, but not enough to tax them and keep them from recovering.What I like to do, however, is just take a whole week off where I do not do anything inside the gym. It gives me a break from being in there every day.I hope this gave you an overview of how to program. The basics are build endurance, then hypertrophy+strength, finally focus on maximal strength, and then take a break before starting the whole thing over
This should be done for 2-3 weeks. Optimally you would want to do one of two things;Start at 60% and over the three week period build up to 70% using the same rep range for the 2-3 weeks ORStart at a keep the percentage the same for the 2-3 weeks and increase the number of reps each session. For example if I start with 10 reps at 60%, I would by the third week want to be doing 15 reps with 60%.The purpose of doing this is to slowly progress the volume of your program.Our next focus, after 2-3 weeks of endurance training are over, would be 2-3 weeks of strength training with a focus on hypertrophy.To build strength and make the muscles grow in size we would have to train at a higher intensity with slighly less volume than we were doing before. Focus on using 75-85% of your max for this phase. This will force you to use heavier weights.We want to focus on doing a maximum of 4 sets for our compound movements in this phase. Why …show more content…
Do a few sets with that much weight and that will help you maintain your strength for your next cycle where you repeat the program over again.After 8 weeks of training, you should consider taking a break or doing what is called a deload. A deload is when you are still working out and performing with low volume and intensity. Basically you just do 2 sets of every main exercise you are working on in this example you are doing only compound movements, squat, bench, deadlift, so you will be doing 2 sets of these exercises at 50% for no more than 10 reps, I would say anything between 5-10 reps is good enough to let the muscles recover from those 8 brutal weeks, but not enough to tax them and keep them from recovering.What I like to do, however, is just take a whole week off where I do not do anything inside the gym. It gives me a break from being in there every day.I hope this gave you an overview of how to program. The basics are build endurance, then hypertrophy+strength, finally focus on maximal strength, and then take a break before starting the whole thing over