A Simple Program

Me too, it’s kind of a pain in the ass to be honest. Luckily the bench at the 24 I’m at has literally the chest supported row on the right, the dbs on the back, the cable rows in the front, and the pull-up bar in front as well. So it’s easy to superset rows/chins depending on how you feeling that day lol.

That sounds like an awesome set up

1 Like

I’d do it.

1 Like

I was chattng with a successful amateur Strongman competitor. He puts what he calls “hip corrective” movements into supersets with his lower body compound movements. I really like this, it’s similar to throwing in pull aparts after pressing.

You might do this:
1A. Deadlift 5x4
1B. Hip Circle Glute Bridge 5x As required

Bodyweight or band resistance superset exercises is how I would do it in a busy gym, it takes zero extra space. It’s how I’d do it for beginners regardless of gym busyness.

3 Likes

I’ve done the single leg glute bridges with just my bw in between deadlifts and man it REALLY wakes up my glutes/hams!

1 Like

I’m seriously considering running this. I’ll let it stew for a while and see where i land.

1 Like

Do it man! In 6 months you should have added 30lbs (upper) and 60lbs (lower) to your working sets and possible more. I think a pure beginner could add 120lbs to a lower lift and 60lbs to an upper lift in one year and that’s with working sets. That’s not even peaking, just your baseline strength for sure!

Hey man, I’ve been tossing around the idea of switching programs. Been running 5/3/1 FSL with PR sets for the past 8-9 months or so. Looking to change it up a bit as I have sort of plateaued (I think?) On bench and ohp. They’ve been pretty much stagnant for a while now. This program sounds interesting and I have a few questions.

How to find initial starting weight? Work up to a 6RM and go from there?

I work out at home, so no dumbbells… not sure how to work GHR, back extension etc. or if there is anything you’d recommend that would be a suitable replacement exercise?

Thanks for posting this btw, really awesome.

1 Like

Nope these are using straight sets.

I would pick a weight you can handle for the first 2-4 weeks that are easy. Just like 531 you want to start light. I’d pick something you can for 4x8 without struggling at all. That will be your baseline and you build from there. The first 2-4 weeks might feel easy but remember with all the supersetting and short rest periods you are doing a lot of work in a short time. Let your body adjust to the pace. The weights might feel light, but if you haven’t been conditioning prepare for your lungs to open up lol.

What are your FSL weights currently? I’d probably start with that or a little bit higher.

For the workout setup, what is all the equipment you have at home?

1 Like

Nutty thanks for posting this, I might try to run it.

This is an interesting coincidence for me, I’m on the second week of a double progression program. I’m basing my set/rep ranges mostly off this thread, which was presumably when you were designing this program (I searched double progression on the forums):
https://forums.t-nation.com/t/double-progression-sets-reps/257155

So you’ve already helped me out. My bastardized version has been full body, but my work schedule is changing so that I will probably train on consecutive days and take a few days off, so I’ve been pondering an upper lower split.
I’m not going to lie, I’m intimidated by those super sets and short rests. I have to think about whether I can handle that right now. Also I’d have to make some changes to work around some injuries and the equipment available in my very basic home gym.
I’ve been meaning to start a training log. If my program ends up resembling this I will have to give you a shout out.

1 Like

That post on CTs was just to make sure I didn’t give bad advice lol. It was close enough for me.

You can definitely handle it man! Just start a bit lighter. It will take your body 2-4 weeks to get use to the programming, but once you do, the short rests and the supersets will be no big deal.

FSL sets depends on the week, so on 5’s week the fsl 5x5 would be at 65% TM, 3’s week is 70% and 1’s is 75%. So I know for a fact I can hit 5x5 at those percentages on all of the lifts.

Right now all I have is-
2 barbells
Squat rack, which is also used for bench
Adjustable folding bench (flat/incline)
Pull up bar (the one you put in a doorway)
Stationary exercise bike

I have tried finding a way to do back extensions with my bench and squat rack before because I really liked doing them when I went to a gym a while ago but couldn’t find anything that worked.

Jeff Cavalier disapproves. Lol

On a more serious note, I think those should be kept if the person running it is also in a sport with a lot of overhead arm movement

I rarely do band pull aparts and face pulls but I don’t have weak rear delts lol. I think all the cleaning, rowing, pull-ups, front squats and deadlifts do more than enough lol.

1 Like

Awesome man! That’s plenty! 2 barbells make this easy lol. I would start with your 75% as your week 1 working weights and build from there personally.

If I were you this is how I would do set it up.

DAY 1
Deadlift (ss: Hanging Leg Raises or Ab Wheel)
Front Squat (ss: Chin-Ups)
Good Morning (ss: BB Lunges)
Bike Sprints for 10-15 Min

DAY 2
OH Press (ss: Pendlay Row)
Incline Press (ss: Bent Over Row)
Push Ups (ss: One Handed BB Row, BB Curls)
Bike Sprints 10-15 min

DAY 3
Back Squat (ss: Hanging Leg Raises or Ab Wheel)
Pause Squat (ss: Chin-Ups)
RDL (ss: BW Walking Lunges)
Bike Sprints 10-15 min

DAY 4
Bench Press (ss: Bent Over Row)
Landmine OH Press (ss: Pendlay Row)
Dips - (ss: Rear Delt Flys using plates, BB Curls) → For dips just put the 2 barbells next to each other on some chairs or get 2 sawhorses and you can do it. If not just do more push ups.
Bike Sprints 10-15 min

What’s the term for when you do a super set, but rest between exercises? I.e., A1… rest… A2… rest… A1…

It’s probably the only part of lifting lingo that never sticks with me because people use super set colloquially to describe both things.

I have no idea, but usually it looks like this:

Squat
Abs
Rest
Squat
Abs
Rest

So I guess it would be A1A2 rest lol.

Exactly, but I’m positive there is a term to differentiate the two. @Chris_Colucci, as the scholar that you are you might know this?

justlol

Scholar. Funny.

Alternating sets is the term generally used for “do a set of A, rest, do a set of B, rest, repeat”, but “supersets, resting between each exercise” would be a more wordy way to describe the same thing.

That’s definitely the default most common way of using “supersets”.

2 Likes

Awesome man thank you, I’ve never heard of double progression and it sounds great. PR sets are awesome but doing them over and over again really seem to burn me out. I was going to switch to 5’s pro but I think after my vacation in a couple weeks I’ll give this a shot for a few months and see how I do.

My conditioning definitely leaves something to be desired so I’ll have to find a way to not let it effect the main work with the super sets before I adapt to them a bit.

Really excited to make a change. Thank you again

1 Like