Previous Chapter ... ... Next Chapter
First, what is programming? Why do we want to know about this? How does it affect us?
In terms of training, the simplest definition of programming is "scheduling." We are setting an order and time for planned events. Thus, programming means to have a plan for our workouts. What type of plan depends on what type of goals you have and your current abilities.
For example, we have our exercises planned with repetitions at certain intensities over certain numbers of sets for a total volume of work. This volume of work is spread or alternated over a series of days, weekly, or biweekly, monthly, or even yearly in the case of Olympic level competitors. This allows our bodies to constantly progress, and if we have competitions to peak at exactly the right time. However, I am not going to discuss competition dependent peaking. What we will discuss is the basics of programming and how they can be applied to bodyweight training.
Let us go back to the basics unit of programming, a single workout, and build from there.
The key of any single workout, especially as a novice, is to have a high enough amount of intensity (difficulty of an exercise) and enough volume (total amount of overall workload) to force neural and/or muscular adaptations. Upon the rest following the workout, our bodies should recover such that we will become stronger, more muscular, or both.
There are multiple aspects of modifying workouts. We modulate our intensity by (1) increasing the difficulty of our exercises
cording to the amount of repetitions we can perform. This can be done through increasing the progression, utilizing a weight vest, or other methods. We modulate the total volume of our workouts by three factors namely (2) the amount of repetitions per set, (3) the amount of sets per exercise that we perform, and (4) the total amount of exercises that we perform.
Our bodies rely on homeostasis to regulate themselves. When we put sufficient stressors on them to force a change then our bodies will adapt to this given sufficient recovery afterward. However, since the
body has been forced to adapt to this change, it has already become more resistant to the initial stressing workout.
Therefore, to continually keep getting stronger it is illogical to repeat the same workout over and over again. What i the point of doing a workout repeatedly? If our body already adapted to the stress, is doing the same thing again going to make us stronger? Surely not.
Likewise, if we continually perform the same workout or even perform a workout that causes adaptations, but fail to progress after we have adapted we may undertrain.
One of the premier examples of constant progression via weights for beginners is Starting Strength as
I mentioned earlier. This program works the core compound lifts namely squats, deadlifts, power cleans, press, and bench press for a fixed number of sets and repetitions each workout. The way to continually get better on this program is through linear progression. Linear progression increases the intensity of the exercises relative to the number of repetitions by adding weight. This process of constantly adding weight o the lifts each workout (usually 5 or 10 lbs per lift forces constant adaptations every workout such that both strength and muscle mass can increase drastically. It is one of the most effective ways to progress for beginners.
With bodyweight exercises we cannot effective increase the weight unless we have a weight vest which many people do not have access to. Novice level progressions still occur quickly, but not quickly enough that one can jump up a progression level every workout. For this reason the best way to progress will be through (1) increasing repetitions, or (2) increasing sets, or (3) increasing total volume. However, since our goal is primarily strength increases we have constraints that we need to adhere to such as not changing the speed of repetitions or changing the amount of rest between sets. Also, the main constraint is that we want to stick with exercises in the 3-8 repetition range. Additional constraints may be performing 100 many sets or exercises.
For beginners, the reason that we do not want to increase exercises is due to a variety of reasons. First, since more advanced bodyweight exercises are often vastly different to anything that most people have trained with before. These exercises subject the body to too many movement patterns dulls learning capacity, especially with a lot of the more skill based movements such as handstands
Second, adding additional exercises often adds an additional 2-3 sets or more of an exercise. While it is true that we need additional stressors to elicit continual adaptations, it is unlikely that we need that much additional overall volume. Adding the intensity of additional repetitions and sets by adding an additional exercise may be too much. More is not always better for beginners. Often an increase in one set or multiple repetitions is enough for beginners to make good progress from workout to workout.
Third, spreading out exercises between too many goals often leads to stagnation. Remember, you cannot gain both strength and endurance optimally at the same time because of the adaptations that occur at the different ends of the repetition spectrum. Spreading ourselves out between too many exercises and especially goals (which in the context of adding exercises is often the case) often leads to overall decreases in quality of improvement in the domains we are trying to improve.
After a single workout our capacity to perform additional work will decrease. However, as our bodies heal with proper nutrition and rest, we will supercompensate and come back stronger and better.
The training stimulus must pass a certain threshold to force good adaptations (e.g. do not undertrain), and it must not be too much that it actually causes so much damage that we do not gain any
supercompensatory effect (e.g. more is not always better). Knowing how to manipulate workouts to not overtrain and undertrain takes a bit of experience to do correctly. I will try to guide you through this.
Fitness and fatigue are a different approach to the traditional model, and are termed in "dual factor" theory. So let us discuss other factors involved before we can see why it makes a difference.
Generally, the optimal time for recover after a workout to see enough supercompensatory effects such that performance in the next workout should be greater than the previous is approximately 2-3 days or 48- 72 hours. Many initial beginner programs are based off of the 3x a week model which allows 48 hours between 2 of the workouts and a 72 hour break between the third.
However, this is not the quickest way to gain strength. Remember, strength has two components which are neurological adaptations and muscular adaptations. The body can build up a resistance to stress from both of these by repeatedly forcing it to adapt with workouts. This is why professional athletes will often never get sore and often workout 5-6 if not 7 days a week and even multiple times a day.
The body has an abnormal capacity for increasing neurological strength even at certain muscle sizes. For example, Olympic weightlifters from the 69 kg / 151.8 lbs weight class can put up amazingly heavy weights. The current world record for the snatch and clean and jerk in this weight class is 165 kg / 363 Tbs for the snatch and 198 /435.6 lbs for the clean and jerk. You really do not have to be heavy to be incredibly strong.
Neurologically we have the greatest capacity for strength gains, but it is also the neurological system that adapts relative to its potential the slowest when compared to muscle mass. This is because we can literally "force" the body to put on muscle mass if we lift heavy weights and eat like there is a coming famine. To overcome this neurological bottleneck, it is often advisable to train more than 3x a week as we. improve in our abilities especially to continue with optimal progress. However, this also comes with its downsides.
As you can see from the model, when we start increasing our training during the week without allowing adequate recovery we can train "too early." Initially, a workout will produce both a positive effect from the stress that increases as the as the neuromuscular system and the body adjusts to the stress. This is fitness. The same is true of the negative effect which is fatigue.
On some level once we increase the frequency or overall volume load of workouts beyond a certain point, we will reach at stage at which our fatigue has not yet dissipated before we do another workout. Likewise, from there the same thing occurs again the next consecutive workouts.
One of the interesting things about this is that we can still see progress — even significant progress — in strength and/or muscle gain even with accumulating fatigue. However, it is inevitable that we will eventually stall out. Accumulation of fatigue which is equal to gains in fitness is called reaching a plateau in your training. Therefore, this point at which gains stall is good measure of when fatigue has overtaken fitness or supercompensatory adaptations that kept allowing us to constantly progress.
To counteract the fatigue buildup we will do exactly what you would expect to do when fatigued — rest. Rest breaks come in various forms such as actually taking a break from training for a while, or working on skill work, or just deloading total intensity/repetitions/sets/etc. We will discuss this a bit more later though.
Periodization in sports is a way to organize training by progressively alternating various aspects such as frequency, intensity, volume, repetitions, etc. to increase capacity. Thus, periodization is a plan that encompasses multiple workouts over a set amount of time.
In typical Soviet periodization structure there are three components: the microcycle, the mesocycle, and the macrocycle.
The microcycle is typically based around 1 week of training. It is generally organized into a specific attribute that we want to focus on. In the old Soviet model there were generally 4 microcycles that were used: a preparatory phase, hypertrophy phase, strength phase, and a power phase.
A mesocycle is a combination of 4-8 microcycles. The amount of microcycles depended on how many phases there were in a plan. So in the context of the above types of microcycles, in the archetypal Soviet system there was generally 1-2 preparatory phase microcycles, 1 hypertrophy microcycle, 1 strength microcycle, and 1 power microcycle. These microcycles were often follow by a rest or deload week to dissipate fatigue. Therefore, a typical mesocycle was usually 6 weeks long.
A macrocycle is just a combination of mesocycles. Often the macrocycle was planned such that the athlete would finish their final mesocycle close to the competition date. They would still be training hard so they were strong, but it stopped early enough for a deload so they would get enough rest to dissipate extra fatigue. This would allow them to peak during the competition so that they could lift weights well above their previous personal records. This would hopefully allow them to win the competition.
Now how does this structure apply to us?
It is extremely convenient for most people to operate on the weekly microcycle schedule because occupations around the world are based on a week schedule. Thus, any intermediate or advanced programming will generally be for the 7 day week. Secondly, microcycles teach us the valuable lesson which is that we must consider overall volume weekly instead of workout to workout.
Remember that the stronger and/or more muscular we get the more resistant our bodies become to stresses. This makes it harder to force the adaptations we want. Thus, our focus must shift from a workout to workout structure to a more weekly model. It seems counter intuitive until you realize that it is easy to plateau for long periods of time once you get past novice level strength. Many of us know people who go to the gym for years on end yet are still using the same weights.
When we become sufficiently strong it may even shift to a monthly or multi-monthly / yearly structure in the case of Olympic level athletes. This is what "increasing the complexity of programming" means as we start to develop our strength into the intermediate and advanced ranges. However, this takes years of consistent work, so we need not yet worry about that for most of us looking to pursue bodyweight training
Mesocycles will be the main part of our programs. Generally, the mesocycles that I recommend will be anywhere from 4-8 weeks long depending on when we plateau or feel fatigue sufficiently catching up with us. This gives us a good amount of time of consistent work to force adaptations in the body to get stronger. Finally, after the workout weeks we will often have a week of deload to dissipate additional fatigue, allow any aches and pains to go away, and evaluate our goals, plan/program, and retest for our next upcoming mesocycle.
As you can see, rest weeks are extremely critical to success and progress. If you have never properly used deload or rest weeks before you probably have not gotten very far with your training unless you intuitively know how to train effectively.
Al of the information I have talked about is just a quick summary; there are entire books written on periodization. Up until now all of this can be applied to weights as well as bodyweight. So let us start to examine how these concepts, along with the information we learned about the basics of the physiology of strength, and apply it specifically in the context of how to program repetitions, sets, total volume, and frequency for our workouts.
The 3 types of exercises we are going to concern ourselves with here are concentrics (dynamic movements), isometrics, and eccentrics. We already discussed skill work previously in chapter 4, but I will post some reminders later once we start to discuss integrating it into routines.
Concentric exercises as we discuss them in this book are ones that have a quick but controlled eccentric (or muscle lengthening component) and then a quick accelerated concentric (muscle shortening)
component which is the most difficult part of the exercise. For example, a full range of motion pushup would have the eccentric component of lowering yourself to the ground quick but under control, and then explosively pushing out of the bottom of the movement. A similar thing occurs with other pushing movement dips and handstand pushups where you lower eccentrically and then push through the concentric to complete the repetition.
Pulling movements start with the concentric component and end with the eccentric component. For instance, pullups start with the hard part of the movement by concentrically pulling yourself up to the bar, and then eccentrically lowering yourself under control to the bottom of the movement.
In isometric movements the muscles stay the same length during the entire work phase. So for example, the "static" positions in gymnastics are all classified as isometric movements. These are your planches, front levers, back levers, iron crosses, etc.
Pure eccentric movements typically consist of a slow controlled movement as the muscles are lengthening. One example of this is using pullup eccentrics where we can use some assistance such as the legs to get to the top of the pullup position, and then eccentrically lower slowly under control all the way o the bottom.
There are different ways we will express how to quantify the intensity and volume of these different types of exercises since they are all useful in certain instances within our bag of training methods.
Alternatively in weightlifting we can term it by weight X repetitions X sets, so if I was doing weighted dips I could say 190(lbs) x 5 (repetitions) x 3 (sets). This is typically how programming is written down on paper. However, this is counter-intuitive unless you have read a lot on programming texts. It is "common" now to use the typical sets X repetitions or sets X amount of time held so that is what I will go with when talking about this.
A relationship exists along the strength continuum for all of these movements. If we were to compare a concentric contraction to an isometric contraction we would find out that an isometric contraction is anywhere from 100-120% stronger than a concentric contraction. Likewise, when we compare a
concentric contraction to an eccentric contraction we would see that an eccentric contraction can be anywhere from 100-150% stronger than the concentric.
Note that a lot of these percentages vary widely depending on different training factors and specific muscles in the body. Various studies have suggested this. For reference, we are going to assume that isometric contractions are about 100-120% stronger than concentrics, and eccentrics are approximately 120-150% stronger than concentrics because it can lead us to some general conclusions about how much training volume of these exercises is needed as a stimulus to elicit muscular strength and/or hypertrophy adaptations.
First, we will discuss the value of certain repetitions before we talk about how to structure them into sets for exercises.
As stated before I eschew higher repetitions (c.g. >12 RM) very strongly for developing strength because they are not as effective as the 3-8 RM range. Even 8-12 repetitions has some good benefits for hypertrophy that we may use on occasion as well
High repetitions (e.g. >12 RM) are extremely effective for injury prevention because they help to force a lot of blood through the areas which is very good for overall health of the tendons and ligaments. 1 will delve into this topic more extensively in both specific programming at certain levels, and of course in the Part 2 which focuses on the management of injuries and health
I also try to avoid working with the extremely low repetitions such as the 12 RM. This is because often times at this high effort with bodyweight exercises technique tends to break down significantly much like it would with a barbell if you are deadlifting very heavy weights. It is also just not practically useful to get enough volume in this range at this intensity unless you want to spend more than 2 hours working out.
Remember, given dual factor theory (fatigue vs. fitness) we want a bit more than the minimum amount of stimulus to force our body to adapt, but we also do not want so much volume that the damage to our muscles is going to outweigh the supercompensatory effect.
Thus, the repetition range that allows us to work best in the above areas is 3-8 repetitions. That is why we will use this for our typical workout programming.
Now we are going to quantify the amounts of sets and total repetitions to our workouts given the various three types of movement — concentrics (or range of motion exercises), isometrics, and eccentrics — to look at what will constitute a stimulus that provides a training effect. We will discuss them in order.
Fortunately for us, there was some research done by the Soviet's on what type of repetition training is useful for eliciting a stimulus to improve. One such example is Prilepin's chart.
| Intensity | Reps / Sets | Total Reps | Total Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| < 70% | 3-6 | 24 | 18-30 |
| 70-79% | 3-6 | 18 | 12-24 |
| 80-89% | 2-4 | 15 | 10-20 |
| 90-100% | 1-2 | 7 | 4-10 |
Prilepin's table is more or less a summation of the minimal amount of exercise that creates a training stimulus big enough for adaptation.
Now, with weightlifting (specifically Olympic weightlifting) the percentages in this chart are based on their predicted contest max. They would then take the percentage of that max according to the intensity table, and then the training stimulus would chosen according to the repetitions per set. Next, the sets would be based on the total range and how the athlete is feeling that day. There are some variations but that is the general structure of how this works.
Now, the predicted contest max (or the contest max of what they wanted to perform) is a bit beyond the estimation of the novice/intermediate strength trainee who has no background knowledge in programming. So we are going to ignore that. However, we are going to take a lesson from this and modify Prilepin's table in a way that makes it easier enough for beginners to use with no knowledge of programming
Remember that ~90% 1 RM is about 34 repetitions. In the table the repetitions per set that would be performed within the 90-100% 1 RM range is 1-2 repetitions for about 7 total repetitions for a 4-10 total range. But i their case they are basing their 1 RM% off of their predicted contest maximum which would often be anywhere from 10-20kg or more above the weights they were lifting currently. So the 1-2 repetitions would often be closer to their 2-3 RM. Basically, I repetition short of failure, but repeated enough to get the necessary volume.
| Intensity | Reps @ % | Reps / Set | Total Reps | Total Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| < 70% | > 12 | 3-6 | 24 | 18-30 |
| 70-79% | 8-11 | 3-6 | 18 | 12-24 |
| 80-89% | 4-7 | 2-4 | 15 | 10-20 |
| 90%-100% | 1-3/4 | 1-2 | 7 | 4-10 |
When you add an additional column (the second column specifically) for the amount of repetitions according to predicted maximal intensity a fairly interesting phenomena occurs.
Note that when I compare the Reps @ % to the Reps / Set (both of the darkened columns), the higher intensity movements at the 90-100% and even moving into the higher percentage 85%+ range are typically about 1-2 repetitions short of failure given predicted contest maximum.
The *5-8 RM" in about the 80-85% range are typically about 1-3 repetitions short of failure over about 3-4 sets for those exercises. This is good because as fatigue increases form will start degrading significantly. With highly technical movements such as the Olympic lifts we would want to avoid that.
If you are familiar with other training systems the <70% intensity work which equates to around 12 RM performed at 3-6 repetitions per set looks very similar to Westside's dynamic method/speed days. This is in fact where I believe Louis Simmons got this from.
Overall, the chart shows that we can maximize training volume to stimulate adaptations without overtaxing our bodies with training to failure.
So how do we use this to suit our needs?
First, we know that we cannot reliably estimate a contest maximum that we would like to achieve with bodyweight exercises since there are no weights. Second, we cannot reliably tell how much strength it is to move to the next progression. Therefore, we must base our chart off of our predicted 1 RM or known 3-8 RM.
Like the chart suggests, I tend to like staying short of technical failure by about the 1-2 repetitions. This means that our first set may be a couple repetitions short of failure, but the last set if there are about 3 will be maybe 1 repetition or close to technical failure. This is OK. Preserving the CNS so that we can maximize training volume without overworking ourselves is necessary for working towards maximal strength
Now, since we are not working based on our contest maximum we either need to increase the total volume to get the necessary stimulus for adaptations or we need to increase the intensity. For our purposes T.am going to suggest unilaterally increasing the volume. It is much easier to increase the volume by adding in another exercise or couple of sets than manipulate intensity with bodyweight exercises. This is
actually good since there are many different planes of movement with bodyweight exercises that we need to become strong in
Obviously, if you can jump to the next progression this is preferable, but the majority of the time this will not be able to be done:
The initial routine I like for beginners in upper body is the 2 push and 2 pull system plus legs. This means we are performing 2 exercises in pushing movements (say handstand pushups and dips), and 2 pulling movements (say pullups and rows). The volume we would typically start out with is 3x5 for each exercise if our maximal repetitions with good form in all of these exercises were about 6 repetitions.
At two exercises with total repetitions at 3x5 or 15 repetitions that puts us at 30 total repetitions. A 5 repetition maximum puts us around the 85-87% 1 RM range. On Prilepin's table we would typically have a total range of about 10-20 repetitions. This is the type of volume increase that we need to get sufficient adaptation in the muscles without making complicated adjustments to predict a "contest maximum."
Since we are mostly going to use the 3-8 repetition range, this is about the 80-93% 1 RM. The total volume we want lies approximately in the 25-50 repetition range to force adaptations with these exercises. Thus, I remade the chart for bodyweight exercises.
| Intensity | Reps / Sets | Total Reps | Total Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 78-82% | 8-10 | 64 | 50-80 |
| 83-86% | 6-7 | 48 | 36-65 |
| 87-93% | 3-5 | 37 | 25-50 |
Based on the charts you can perform 2-3 exercises to hit the total repetition range volume if you are working in the 3x5-8 range. However, I typically suggest only 2 exercises maximum for beginners to start with though. You can play with it more as you get more advanced.
Once you get much stronger and need additional stress you may add an additional exercise, or you may add additional sets. An extra exercise may be useful or an adjustment in the total volume by modifying the repetitions and sets. This is just a general guideline to get you started. Generally, keep the repetitions in these ranges though at any training level
I would recommend staying more in the 80-93% 1 RM or about the 3-8 range when training if possible. The sweet spot I recommend is the 5 RM for beginners which is why I made it gray shaded.
Now, if it were that simple we would all have an easy time making routines. So let us move on to talk about the isometrics and eccentrics.
Fortunately, I have spent some considerable time looking at what type of hold times and ranges are useful and have thus formulated two charts to standardize the typical 3x3-8 repetition set into isometric holds and eccentric exercises.
| Max hold | Hold Time Range | Sets | Total Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26s-33s | 16s-20s | 3-4 | 60s-76s |
| 19s-25s | 12s-16s | 4-5 | 52s-65s |
| 13s-18s | 9s-12s | 4-5 | 45s-60s |
| 8s-12s | 6s-8s | 5-6 | 36s-48s |
First, our hold time range (c.g. the amount of time that we are going to hold each set) is based upon a percentage of our maximum hold. Like the modified Prilepin's table, this ensures that we are not operating at our 1 RM or maximum hold which does not permit enough sustained volume for optimal strength gain.
Second, you may notice that the hold time ranges are not exactly 50% of the maximum holds. The actual numbers for each of the rows across are 60%, 60-65%, 65-70%, and >70%. I chose these percentages for a particular reason. Remember that we stated earlier that isometric holds are typically about 20% stronger than 1 RM. If we approximate those percentages of the 3-8 repetitions which are 80- 93% 1 RM and decrease those percentages by 20% we end up approximately in that 60-70% hold time range. This is the optimal based on the numbers, and from what I have seen it works out the best in practice as well.
Traditionally, there are other coaches who use 50% of 1 RM time protocol for isometric holds, and the standard of about a minute of total hold time. I want to be more specific because which can manipulate the volume here to your specific level which will allow faster progression. The traditional method underestimates the ability of the trainee to some extent (5% as opposed to 60-70% range), and overestimates the volume needed to force adaptations at certain intensities and makes workouts unnecessarily long (60s compared to the difference in total ranges). I will explain this a bit more
Third, you will notice that the amount of sets are kept low. We want to keep some consistency with the total amount of sets performed because performing more than 5 sets within a workout is extremely time consuming. Under the old methods of programming using 50% of 1 RM for our holds we could often be doing 6 sets of 10s or 8 sets of 8s or more. Since we increase the total intensity from the 50% range to the 60-70% range we can drop off the total volume (c.g. by reducing the number of sets). Therefore, we are able to gain a similar training effect in less time.
I would say that the most important range to be in would be the bottom three rows which are more in tune with the 3-8 RM range that we want. In the skill and progression chart chapter, we quantified 1 repetition to be approximately worth 25 of an isometric hold. This matches up extremely well with the bottom three rows in that the hold range times vary from 6-16s which is exactly double the 3-8 repetitions. At these intensities to get a training effect combined with the other exercises in a workout we are going to do about 4-6 sets of the isometrics in this range.
I prefer that if you are working with 60-70% max hold time that you work in the second to bottom column if your maximal isometric falls within that range. Like the concentrics chart, I have colored it gray. This matches up the best with the total hold time of 9-125. When converted to repetitions, it is about 4.5-6 repetitions for 4-5 total sets which is consistent with about 20-30 total repetitions overall. This allows our isometrics to approximately match up in both stimulus and volume with concentric exercises such as handstand pushups or dips very well
As you can see this chart is fairly easy to use to quantify isometrics to the typical repetitions. This will make your life a whole lot easier and save you time when trying to figure how much and how long You need to do your isometric exercises.
Now, let us discuss the eccentrics chart.
| Max eccentric | Eccentric Time | Sets | Total Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15s-20s | 9s-12s | 3-4 | 27s-36s |
| 11s-14s | 7s-9s | 3-4 | 24s-32s |
| 7s-10s | 5s-6s | 4-5 | 20s-26s |
| 5s-6s | 3a-4a | 4-5 | 15s-20s |
As we can see in this chart, the time for each eccentric is constructed on a similar premise to the isometrics chart that we talked about earlier.
The main thing is that the eccentrics total range time is about half of that of isometrics total range. This is due to a couple factors. The first is that eccentrics activate the nervous system more strongly (and more high threshold motor units faster) which leads to significantly greater fatigue. Second, we have to account for the fact that eccentric exercises damage the muscle much more than isometrics and regular repetition exercises. Thus, I have found the good stimulus to be about half of that of isometrics for the total range. Everything else is held fairly consistent.
The sweet spot for eccentrics (again as denoted in the highlighted section) is the second to bottom row where the eccentric hold times range from about 5-6s. Given the fact that we halved the total volume of eccentrics in comparison with the isometrics, we can say that total eccentric time is similar to this reduction. Thus, we can say 1 repetition approximately is eccentrics. This again yields about 4-5 sets of the 5-6 repetitions, which is what we want for an adequate training stimulus to force adaptations.
Eccentrics take a bigger toll on recovery than isometrics and concentric exercises do, so use them sparingly or to bust through plateaus. Some of the exercise progressions I have found they help out with the most are some of the higher level strength progressions for the front lever, one arm chin-up, and the planche.
If they are to be used consistently through a mesocycle be careful look for plateaus that as they may develop early because of the extra toll on recovery. Unilateral exercises such as the one arm chin-up will require double volume, so adequate care must be taken so that recovery is not overtaxed. This is one particular thing to be concerned of when doing a larger volume of unilateral exercises; total training stimulus on the nervous system is effectively doubled.
There are four goals that I aimed for with these repetition/set schemes and charts:
I hope I succeeded in convincing you of their utility.
The charts and explanations should help you be able to determine your holds, repetitions, and total sets that you need to perform for your workouts. Likewise, the total repetitions and sets are comparable between exercises. The sets are not excessive that they should prolong the workouts which have been a big problem for bodyweight routines. And lastly, the charts are based upon percentages of max repetitions or max holds such that the training stimulus is enough to cause the adaptations we are looking for.
The training stimulus we concluded was the most effective physiologically for the range of motion exercises is 3 sets of the 3-8 repetitions (at 80-93% of 1 RM approximately) stopping about 1-2 repetitions short of technical failure. This is consistent with the third to bottom row on Prilepin's table.
Remember, 1 repetition = 2s isomeric = approximately 1s eccentrics.
| Intensity | Reps / Sets | Total Reps | Total Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 78-82% | 8-10 | 64 | 60-80 |
| 83-86% | 6-7 | 48 | 36-65 |
| 87-93% | 3-5 | 37 | 25-50 |
| Max hold | Hold Time Range | Sets | Total Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26s-33s | 16s-20s | 3-4 | 60s-76s |
| 19s-25s | 12s-16s | 4-5 | 52s-65s |
| 13s-18s | 9s-12s | 4-5 | 45s-60s |
| 8s-12s | 6s-8s | 5-6 | 36s-48s |
| Max eccentric | Eccentric Time | Sets | Total Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15s-20s | 9s-12s | 3-4 | 27s-36s |
| 11s-14s | 7s-9s | 3-4 | 24s-32s |
| 7s-10s | 5s-6s | 4-5 | 20s-26s |
| 5s-6s | 3a-4a | 4-5 | 15s-20s |
Now that these have been made much more clear, it is much more easy to construct a routine of any varying type of exercise. I hope this entire section is helpful in doing that because we need to pick our sets and repetition schemes according to our abilities.
Let us discuss another factor in programming: rest times per sets.
One of the biggest barriers to bodyweight strength training can be the large amount of skill work and rest time between strength sets. This can be mitigated in various ways depending on how much time we have for the total workout.
If we think about the time for warm up and skill work at the beginning, it can be anywhere from about 15-20 minutes depending on how long each of these two phases take. Thus, once we start our sets for strength work we may already consumed a considerable amount of time.
If our goal is pure strength, we are going to want to rest until we are fresh for the next set of exercises. Depending on the person this can be anywhere from about 3-5 minutes and even up to 7 minutes for some people. It takes around 3 minutes to replenish about 90-95% of the ATP stores within the muscle. Therefore, I would not go below 3 minutes per set unless you want to turn your strength work into more hypertrophy specific work.
If we look at a more minimalistic full body routine such as the two push and two pull system with one or two leg exercises for a full body routine, we will end up with about 6 sets total for pushing (two 3x5s), 6 for pulling (two 3x5s), and anywhere from 3-6 depending on one or two leg exercise.
This totals around 15-18 sets for the whole workout. If you are resting 3-5 minutes between these sets You are going to be working out for minimally 153 or maximally 185 which is 45-90 minutes respectively on top of the warm up, skill work, and other components of your workout routine. This may take upwards of two hours if additional flexibility/mobility work and any other prehabilitation work is performed at the end.
For some people this is doable. For others this is absolutely untenable as they have families or full time jobs and cannot devote the time to such a long workout routine.
Thus, for the sake of those who need to condense their workouts to around an hour or less we can move into some different set up structures for the exercises within a workout.
Paired sets of exercises can be implemented in different ways. One way is to pick two exercises that work opposing muscle groups. For example, planche and front lever work as a paired set work pretty well together since they are pushing and pulling exercises respectively.
What we would do with the paired sets is to alternate between exercises of each of them. First, we execute our hold for the planche. Then instead of resting the typical 3-5 minutes between sets, we can halve the rest time because we are doing an opposing exercise that allows the muscles to recover during that period of time. If we typically used a 5 minute rest interval, then a pair set of exercise would look like this:
Thus, what happens is that we are able to execute all say 3 sets of both planche and front lever generally within the amount of time that it would take us to normally do all of the sets of planche. 3 sets of planche * 5 min rest = ~15 minutes to do planche and then another 15 for the front lever. If we use the paired sets then we do 1 set of planche * 2.5 min rest + I set of front lever * 2.5 min rest then do 3 rounds which equates to approximately 17.5 minutes.
Using this paired structure is one of the best ways to save time if you are busy. If we have leg exercises within this period of time we can actually do some triple sets of exercises instead which allows condensing of the training period further. However, if there is an even amount of exercises that we are trying to condense then doing 3 couplets of 2 exercises is the same as 2 couplets of 3 exercises. This system does tax the body a bit more, and adding more exercises to rotate through does decrease overall intensity and thus adaptations caused. Therefore, it is best to stick with 2 exercises if you want to pair them.
One other alternative that is available is a push/pull system or a upper/lower system. These are technically body splits, but applicable if time is in dire g. I tend not to recommend these unless someone is also involved with another sport or has significant skill work such that they need the extra rest from performing 3x a week exercises. With the type of splits described above, you will typically only be working the exercises 2x a week. I will talk more about these in the next chapter on programming and advancing.
One alternative I would like you to consider is routines with little or no isometric work. Personally, I tend to prefer more movement based routines over strict isometric work. You do not have to work the isometrics to obtain the isometric skills, but it will be faster if you do. I have built up to crosses, straddle planche, full front lever, etc. without the use of much isometric work during training.
Some of the benefits for this style of training may include better overall and more balanced strength development in all ranges of motion. This contributes to faster leaning. For example, I have a good ability to navigate unexpected movements which occur in parkour or other disciplines such as martial arts. If you have a sport or hobby where you are often called on to do unexpected movements or to adapt to the situation, then the elimination of isometrics from the routine may be beneficial in some cases.
Additionally, studies have indicated that isometric movements only confer strength within 30 degrees of the range of motion being worked. For the shoulder, which is the lynchpin of upper body strength, 30 degrees is nothing compared to the overall 300+ degrees of rotary movement is possesses. This is another reason why I use isometrics sparingly,
The way you would program a routine based on elimination of isometrics is simple. Instead of the addition of isometric work such as planche, front lever, back lever, etc. to your program, you would substitute in extra concentric exercises. For instance, to replace the planche we could use a horizontal pushing exercise such as a planche pushup progression, other rings pushup variations, or some other variation of movement like dips and HSPUs. The front lever can be replaced by front lever progression pullups, rowing movements, or even barbell and dumbbell work with bent over rows or one arm dumbbell rows.
As you can see eliminating the planche isometric does not mean you have to eliminate planche focused work such as planche progression pushups. The same is true for front lever, back lever, etc.
It is something to think about, but I suspect that almost 100% of trainees reading this book are looking into bodyweight strength training because of the isometrics like the planche, front lever, etc. In this case, I would recommend keeping the isometrics in your routines.
Along those lines I would like to make another point clear. Isometrics may or may not lead to faster gains. If you have never worked with isometrics or cccentries before they will lead to some very fast adaptations within a 1-2 month period of starting. This lends credence to the "fast gains" theory. Most of the strength is via neurological adaptation with some smaller portion due to hypertrophy. The reason behind this is that we get faster adaptations when we switch up our exercise structure
Hypertrophy is gained via 3 different pathways in the body: stimulus of the high threshold motor units, hypertrophy derived from hypoxic conditions, and damage related muscle induced adaptations,
Full range of motion concentric exercises tend to have a mix of all of the types of hypertrophy. Isometrics tend to be more polarized to the HTMU and hypoxic condition hypertrophy. Eccentrics have even greater HTMU than isometrics, and their hypertrophy is mostly from the repaired damage.
Our bodies adapt to the stresses we put on them, so this evidence in the support of the idea that "the best routine to do is the routine that you are not doing." However, I would only suggest this if your goal is purely hypertrophy. Strength is best obtained from working compound movements repeatedly. Good amounts of hypertrophy can be gained from proper strength work. In fact, for beginners this is all the more reason to have a focused routine.
One way to integrate isometrics effectively into a routine to avoid plateauing is in a ratio of 2-3 10 1 mesocycles where you perform them versus in those where you do not perform them. This equates to the approximate period where you may hit a plateau with statics; thus, you eliminate them for a cycle before coming back to them. When you come back to them you will initially be slightly weaker because you have not worked them for 4-8 weeks, but the gains come back fast and the adaptations from movements should help you bust through a plateau quickly.
Additionally, different isometrics respond slightly different with supplemental work. For example, the back lever can be obtained with just working the isometric progressions. On the other hand, the front lever responds a bit better to a combination of statics, concentric movements like front lever pullups, and a mix of eccentrics, and perhaps some specific rotator cuff work
Planche work definitely requires assistance exercises beyond the isometrics to move to the higher progressions such as straddle planche. Straight arm press handstands work very well as supplemental planche work, and they help significantly with handstand skill work as well. HSPUs and dips can help, but it varies from person to person. Planche progression pushups a good go-to as well.
Therefore, the focus of training can vary depending on the particular isometric that is being worked on. I will provide you with some more of this isometric specific information in Appendix B. You can think about whether you may need supplemental work from there.
Routines, sequences, and combinations are actually an interesting way to work the muscles. You will be moving in and out of a lot of different types of skills consecutively using muscles in ways you usually do not with typical exercises. This is one of the big benefits of routines, sequences, and combinations which make them highly underrated. Transitions from exercises to exercise can be considered very difficult and thus beneficial for gaining great concentric range of motion strength.
I typically like routines, sequences, and combinations for more advanced strength work. As I highlighted earlier in the book, strength is mostly neurological. Therefore, it is best to train movement patterns in typical repetition exercises first to build the requisite neuromuscular and musculoskeletal strength. Training multiple exercises moving through different transitions is great, but it does not have the focused movement patterns that the exercises have. You can liken this a barbell complex or quick circuit of different strength exercises; it works better once you are already fairly strong.
Combinations or routines can consist from any type of exercise strung together in a series. They are usually performed on rings or parallettes. I am not going to go into specific routines because there are literally thousands of different variations that can performed. However, I have listed some typical combinations of movement strength skills in the progression charts from the FIG COP as well as some variations of other movement combinations such as handstands — elbow lever — handstand. I will also be discussing some concepts in Appendix A on sample programming
These are actually a very good way to do some quick work if you do not have time to do regular exercises. You can just throw together a sequence of 5-6 skills and do it about 5-6 times. This will give you a decent training session, and it can be more fun if you are tired of the "grind" of doing similar exercises over and over again
I will talk about these sequences more in the intermediate and advanced programming in the next section.
The grease the groove (GTG) method is an interesting method that is typically applied outside of a workout. This method utilizes very high frequency. You will perform sets of a particular exercise multiple times throughout the day almost everyday during the week. This primes the nervous system to gain fast adaptations in strength or endurance. First, let us look at the typical implementation and then its different qualities.
One way to perform GTG is to do 6-10 submaximal sets or more interspersed throughout the day. Typically, you will do about 60-80% of your maximal amount of repetitions. We will use dips as an example. If your maximum is 4 dips, then you will want to perform about 2-3 dips for one set each. You will then do this 6-10 times during the day every hour or two. This leads to performing up to about 30 dips during the day whereas if you were to perform dips during the workout you may be only able to do up to 4-5 sets of 3 before you are too tired to do more.
The interesting about this protocol is that it can take you from low numbers of dips to a large number ly quickly. If we continue with the 4 dips example, it may take a few weeks for us to get good enough at them to perform up to 10 or more. Staying submaximal with the sets will help to keep away from overworking your body, but you get a lot of practice with it which makes you strong at the movement very quickly.
The limitations of this method is that typically this is the only pushing type of exercise you will be able to perform each day. You should eliminate all other pushing exercises from your workouts (and only do pulling and legs). Otherwise, it is very easy to burn out with this method.
If you need to gain some strength or endurance quickly for a particular exercise, then this protocol may work well for you. Many people have used this effectively for PT conditioning tests in the military for their pushups and situps. Likewise, it has been used successfully to obtain dips or pullups very quickly after gaining the ability to do a few concentrics.
Some notable statics that it works on are back lever and front lever. However, it does not work on planche. So do not attempt it on that exercise. The planche has smaller muscles, so you will burn out before you are able to increase your abilities substantially.
I like this method for building up about 8-10 repetitions. Then work on strength or specific endurance to differentiate towards your goals.
Many people are probably wondering why I did not include core work. My reasoning for this is that core work should be developed as part of the flexibility and skill work regimen. This is mostly in the form of compression exercises to improve active flexibility.
Why do extra work on the side and waste valuable training time when you can train multiple things at once? It is the same analogy as compound versus isometric exercises. With most of the upper body strengthening exercises there is some core component in holding and maintaining proper technique during the exercises which will also reinforce the core. For example, the front lever progressions also work the core effectively.
Here are some guidelines for "compression work."
I would add compression work to the end of the workout when you do flexibility work. Alternatively, you may add them into the beginning where you are working on your L-sit/straddle-L/Manna work. Both work well from my experience.
Cramping is common; if this occurs use massage to loosen up the muscles and try again. It will go away if you keep working it repeatedly over many sessions.
If you can get your knees to you face for most of the sets, move your hands closer to your toes.
I am going to assume that most of you are either using weights for lower body in which you are getting adequate lower back work. If you are not, I would recommend bodyweight work such as glute- ham raises, reverse hyperextensions, or other such bodyweight exercises.
For novices, I think that it is never a good idea to terminate the workout except with extenuating circumstances such as sickness. The other exception I would make is if you are extremely sleep deprived for multiple days in a row.
Even if you are having a bad day and feel terrible going into the workout, as a novice sometimes you have the capacity to actually perform greater than what you think your capabilities are. You may even set personal records. Pushing yourself through workouts also helps to build consistency and work ethic. Building these habits and the surprises that you may experience when your body can go above and beyond your expectations are definitely worth experiencing.
As you progress towards a higher level of ability, the accumulated fatigue from stress or other factors may affect your decision to terminate a workout early or entirely. I think that if you are in the intermediate range, and your workout is going poorly for whatever reason then you have the option to terminate the workout. Sometimes it is better for the psyche and the body to finish the workout and get all of the stress out. Sometimes it is better to just stop what you are doing and call it quits for the day if the quality of technique is terrible.
Here is a good way to determine if a workout is such poor quality that it may be a good idea to terminate it. If the quality of skill work is very bad, I would at least attempt an exercise or two working out for the intermediate level. If the quality is still pretty bad, it may just be a good idea to call it quits for the day and go do something relaxing. Beyond these two factors it is a judgment call.
If you are in the range of advanced level strength you have more leeway. By now you should know how your body responds to working out when tired to fresh. You have more experience to discern if you will do poorly with certain skills or exercises perhaps even before you workout. If this it the case and you feel it necessary to terminate a workout before even starting then that is your call. I defer to your judgment
This is along the lines of instinctive or autoregulatory training. It can be used well if you can adapt your workouts, but you need experience to use it effectively. Some people have the ability to do this without any training, but they are few and far between. This is why I recommend that novices work through the fatigue, and why I give more leeway to intermediate, advanced, and elite trainees.
Exams, families, babies, and life in general can throw curve balls at us, and we need to have a plan to be aware of whether we can shorten or terminate workouts. 1 do not mean for these as be-all end-all suggestions. Nevertheless, I think it provides a good guideline for how to rely on your expertise as a trainee to make some judgment calls in how you can approach training if you workout is not going as well as expected.
Remember, we are training for a lot of different reasons, and I hope you enjoy it. It should not become a chore.
Now pull back out your pieces of paper.
Look at the exercises that you have listed as the core of your routine, and begin to think about the types of repetition/set schemes you can use on them.
If you have time now and are fresh it may be a good idea to do a quick warm up and then some maximal repetition and isometric hold testing to determine your maxes and/or competency level for each.
This should allow you to easily figure out the repetition/set structure for each of these exercises that you will start with in your first cycle.
If you already have a routine you should know your current abilities. You may want to wait until the end of your current cycle to begin testing and implementing these protocols. However, if your current routine sets and repetitions are ineffective or can be modified to be better with the charts then do it
We learned that workouts are then stimuli upon which we subject our bodies to force changes. This can come in the form of any of the intraworkout variables by modulating intensity, repetitions, sets and/or total exercises. These single workouts can be constructed into an overall plan called a mesocycle over which progressive training is applied. In the dual factor model, we see that we can think of workouts as units where we can plan them to produce adaptations over a longer term to allow fitness to appear and fatigue to dissipate. This allows the body to supercompensate from one workout or multiple workouts with proper deloading.
Next, we learned about the three different types of exercises — full range of motion concentrics, isometrics, and eccentric exercises. We discussed how they affect the body physiologically, and I proposed that we can use Prilepin's table as a general resource to quantify the amount of sets and repetitions per exercise to elicit adaptive changes in the body. Likewise, I proposed new charts for isometrics and eccentrics that I hope will be useful in constructing a routine.
We expanded our knowledge in how to set up rest time between sets, and how to modify our workout structure if we are time pressed and cannot have the amount of time between sets that we need for strength development
I suggested that isometrics may not be the best plan for developing overall strength in relation to some non-static oriented goals, but they can be extremely useful in particular goals such as hypertrophy.
Core work should be incorporated into active flexibility work and as part of the strength development as a subset of maintaining proper technique.
Finally, we looked at different reasons for terminating workouts and concluded that novices should generally try to complete workouts, while intermediates and advanced strength trainees will tend to have more judgment calls based on whether they should eliminate or terminate workouts because they know their body better.
Previous Chapter ... ... Next Chapter