HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW OF TRAINING PHASES (PART 2)

HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW OF TRAINING PHASES (PART 2)

Mass Training
chest - Shoulders
Incline Press - 5, 4,3,2,1 - 1x8-15 + 50% set
DB Bench Press - 5x10
Press Behind Neck - 2x8
Seated DB Press - 5x10

Legs
Front Squats/Squats (alternate each week) - 5, 4,3,2,1 - 1x8-15 + 50% set
Stiff Legged Deadlifts – 3x8 Leg Press - 4x20 Lunges - 4x20

Day off 

Back
Barbell Rows - 4x8
Chins - 5, 4,3,2,1 weighted - 5x5-20 (all depending on your chin strength)
Shrugs - 4x20
Close Grip Pulldowns - 3x8

Arms - (yes, an arm day) 
Barbell Curls - 1x100
DB curls - 4x10
Close Grip Bench - 5, 4,3,2,1 - 1x8-15 + 50% set
Pushdowns - 5x20

Day off

My advice for your mass training cycle is to set up a 6 week period to go hard after some rep PR’s on your big movements. I would not sweat adding weight. Just chase more reps. Instead of trying to program with intensity here, just pick something that allows for a fairly hard 8 reps, and stay with that weight until 15 or more can be achieved. If you’re busting out 15+ on a regular basis then add some weight to the bar. If you pick correctly, you should be very close to 15 by the time 6 weeks roll around. If you’re above that, it is even better.
It would be dismissive of me to not mention the fact that, regardless of what people tell you, you cannot gain mass eating no carbs. You cannot. I’m not going to take time addressing this in this book, but I don’t know of a single bodybuilding mass monster or big man strength athlete that got eating no carbs. Load up on the food, and understand that this is a time to not worry about your abs or being lean. This DOES NOT give you a free pass to turning into a slob/ tub of shit. The point is to eat, and eat well.

STRENGTH  PEAKING - STRONG-15 SHORT CYCLE
I will not get into the debate of being in peak strength year round. You cannot be. PERIOD. There are periods where you ramp up in strength and hold it for a short period and this is called a peak. It is real. You cannot be at peak strength all the time, and anyone who tells you that you can is lying to you.
The strong-15 short cycle has been probably the most productive cycle that I have created for strength peaking. It has been used by everyone from relatively noticing lifters to elite level strength athletes.
This doesn’t mean that it cannot be improved upon. Since the short cycle has been around for a little while now, I’ve used feedback and results from those that have used it to tweak it a bit to try and make it even more productive.
First off, you should be coming off of a base building cycle before you start the peak. Otherwise, it is better to use the full 9-week peaking cycle as outlined in Strength, Life, and Legacy. Since this is the base building manual, I’m not outlining both. You should simply design your cycles so that you transition from a base building cycle into a peaking cycle. This works wonderfully.
New tweaks to the short cycle
One downfall to a peaking cycle is the inability to account for the accumulative fatigue that happens from ramping into the upper-intensity ranges, especially with squats and dead-lifts. There has to be enough of that to allow for super-compensation, but not so much that the fatigue curve gets to be too long and adequate recovery is not accounted for before the meet. One option that has worked well for many strong lifters is to alternate heavy squats and pulls each week. My issue with that is you might only get three heavy squat workouts, and three heavy deadlift workouts, if you plan a 6-week cycle. For a guy with a very big base level of strength, this may be all he needs. Most guys will need a little bit more time with the lift than that.
This led me to talk to guys about managing their squat and pull before a meet, and how they de-loaded those lifts beforehand. The one commonality I kept finding with a lot of really great dead lifters was that they often pulled their last heavy deadlift two or even three weeks out from the meet. The squat, they would still push upwards until a week out or so.
Since the short cycle is five weeks, what I settled on was ramping up the deadlift for four weeks, and de-loading on the fifth. In the fourth week, the squat gets a de-load, and a final heavy session in the last week to compensate for this.
I also changed some of the back-off set protocols for all three lifts.

STRONG-15 SHORT CYCLE: BENCH  PRESS BASED OFF OF MEET GOAL 
• Week 1: 80%x1 - 70% 3 x 8, 60% 1 x AMAP
• Week 2: 85%x1 - 75% 3 x 8, 65% 1 x AMAP
• Week 3: 88%x1 - 80%, 3x5, 70% 1 x AMAP
• Week 4: 90%x1 - 85% 3x3, 75% 1 x AMAP
• Week 5: 93%x1 - 90% 2x2, no AMAP

STRONG-15 SHORT CYCLE: SQUAT BASED OFF OF MEET GOAL
• Week1: 80%x1, 70%x8, 8
• Week2: 85%x1, 75%x5, 5
• Week3: 90%x1, 80%x5, 5
• Week 4: de-load squat - 60%x5
• Week5: 93%x1, 85%x3, 3

STRONG-15 SHORT CYCLE: DEAD LIFT BASED OFF OF MEET GOAL 
• Week1: 80%x3, 75%x3, 3
• Week2: 85%x3, 75%x3, 3
• Week3: 88%x3, 80%x3
• Week4: 90%x3, 85%x3
• Week5: de-load dead lift - 60% x 3

Other keynotes: You should take your last heavy squat about 10 days out from the meet. You should also plan on your last heavy bench workout about 7 days out from the meet. These are just general guidelines but seem to work fairly well for most. The last and most important part is programming it for what to hit at the meet. I’ve written about this a lot, yet I always have to come back to it because no one seems to understand it. If you just squatted 500, then planning to squat 550+ at your next meet is fairly unrealistic. Shoot for a modest goal of around 515. If you just benched 350, don’t plan on hitting 400. Try for around 365. This is not complicated.
In fact, you can even plan the cycle around what you actually HIT at your last meet and still generally eclipse those numbers. You don’t have to constantly program higher in order to get stronger. If 500 was a true max, and now you can move it with ease, then you got stronger. In fact, almost all of the guys that programmed LOWER than their goals ended up surpassing them rather easily. You could program in an EDM for the meet and most likely do just as well, if not better, than if you programmed in the goal.
You don’t ever want to miss lifts during a peaking phase. If your program too heavy that will end up happening and you will not be prepared mentally to be at your best for competition. Every week that goes by, that you destroy weights, your confidence will grow. This is the key to doing well come competition time. Confidence in knowing you can hit your goals is one of the most vital components to success. Once you start missing weights, you will start second-guessing your strength and ability. This is a momentum killer and something to be avoided like you avoid the plague and death.

Setting up a yearlong cycle - As noted, you’re going to need different training solutions to solve different training problems throughout your life. This is why I have presented you with three different types of cycles to use. Because each one builds on the other, and helps make you a better lifter, and builds a bigger and stronger base.
This is a hypothetical layout for a year of training with two competitions thrown in.

• Week 1-6 - Mass training
• Week 7 - off
• Weeks 8-13 - Mass training
• Week 14 - off
• Week 15-24 - Base Building
• Week 25 - off
• Week 26-30 - peak
• Week 31-32 - De-load and Competition
• Week 33 - off
• Week 34-39 - Mass training
• Week 40 - off
• Week 41-44 - Base Building
• Week 45-49 - Peak
• Week 50-51 - De-load and competition
 • Week 52 – Off