12 Week "Brian Alsruhe" Linear Program, How to Ramp Weights?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
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Hi,

I have been doing starting strength for about six months. Got a lot stronger, but gained a lot of weight during that time (I ate way too much), so I started a three month keto diet a couple weeks ago to lose about 20lbs (want to get to around ~15% bf @ 180lbs).

I’m a huge fan of Brian Alsruhe, and want to give his linear program a try. I like the idea of training four days a week, doing an antagonist movement with the main move, and upping my work capacity. I also want to experiment with different rep schemes and see how my body responds. Plus, his approach sounds like it will burn a hell of a lot of calories, helping me cut the fat.

I’ve never done ramping weights, so I’m not 100% how to do them, but this is what I’m thinking:

Weeks 1-4: 4x8 - Last set at 80% 1RM. Set 1 @ 75% of top set, set 2 @ 85%, set 3 @ 90%
Weeks 5-8: 5x5 - Last set at 87% 1RM. Progression: 75% / 80% / 85% / 90%
Weeks 9-12: 10x3 - Last set at 93% 1RM. Progression similar to above (start at 75%, end at 90%)

Progression: If last set is achieved for primary lift, increase upper by 2kg, lower by 4kg. Else, stay at weight.

Deload: With ramping weights, is this needed? At least as long as second to last set is hit — otherwise take off 10% weight.

In general, first giant set is focused on the primary lift, with the second adding practice for the other upper or lower lift (ex, bench on OHP day) and unilateral work. Second giant set probably also stays at 4x8, because I don’t want to be in the gym all day doing 10x3 across all sets, and also for practice.

All rests are 90 seconds between sets.

Day 1: OHP
Main Giant Set: Pendlay row (due to golfer’s elbow I can’t do pull-ups right now, but once that heals I’ll do those instead), OHP, obliques (Suitcase deadlift, landmines, etc)
Secondary Giant Set: Single arm landmine row, bench, obliques
Assistance Giant Set: Divebomber pushups (4x??), face pull (4x10)

Day 2: Deadlift
Main: KB swing, deadlift, abs (rollout, etc.)
Secondary: KB clean (can’t due 1 arm KB swing due to elbow, but will do that when it feels better), front squat, abs
Assistance: Farmers walk (4x50m)

Day 3: Bench
Main: Pendlay row, bench, obliques
Secondary Giant Set: Single arm landmine row, OHP, obliques
Assistance Giant Set: Dimond pushups (4x??, eventually dips once I can do 4x8), face pull (4x10)

Day 4: Front Squat
Main: KB swing, front squat, abs
Secondary: Bulgarian split squat, deadlift, abs
Assistance: Farmers walk (4x50m)

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For his program I would just ramp weight with what makes it easy on the bar and not necessarily percentages. For OHP probably 5lb per side increments. Bench press 5-10 depending on what your doing. For example if the top set will be 185lb you can just do 135/155/165/185. There is probably a way to get percentages for this but you’d need to do the program a few times to figure it out properly, I don’t think Brian used them otherwise he would have gave them in the video.

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@littlesleeper you’ve recently done some Neversate programming, input?

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You could head over to the training log section on this site and ask him directly. He also has some videos in his log here from his YouTube channel that talk about how he sets it up too, though Im unsure whether you’ve seen those videos or if they cover your exact questions.

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@sufiandy gave a better response than I would have. I never really get stuck on these kind of details, so I’m not the best resource to try and help on specifics.

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Thanks for the advice. Does the overall program look okay? Anything you’d recommend subbing out?

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Looks fine its just a basic upper/lower split with groups of superset movements. The actual lifts can be your preference like pendlay row can be any row as long as they hit the same muscle groups as the program lays out.