Hey all. Is anyone familiar with the old Doug Hepburn routine where you do 3 sets of 1 w. approx. 95% of 1RM, then 5x5 with approx. 75 percent of 1RM, then each subsequent workout adding another set of 1 until you are doing 8 sets, and adding weight when you can hit all 5x5? Poliquin talked about it in an old Q and A. Not asking if it works, but I was curious as to what the split and frequency was. All they had was an example for bench press. Many thanks! Shout out to Timbo, how’s lifting going, pal?
I’ve read an article about him in MILO. I think he benched five times a week!!! But I’ll need to find the article and reread it to be sure. I’m about to move right now, so it’s packed up. But I’ll be unpacked soon and will skim through my old issues for you. As far as I remember, Hepburn trained often and with heavy weights. And he was extremely strong.
No, he pressed up to 5 times per week, as in overhead press, which was an olympic lift back when Hepburn competed. 450lbs STRICT overhead press is his best (and the best ever). He almost never benched, seeing as how is was useless for him. He only benched to demonstrate he could.
Greg
The Hepburn way was to keep the weight fixed & increase the number of reps. The ‘patient lifter’ method Poliquin outlined in that arm article is like that. His goal was to do 3 workouts per week starting with 5X3, then 5X4, then 5X5. The program outlined in the MuscleMedia q&a adds a single each workout so that’s how Hepburn fits in. The split & frequency would probably be the same as any other one.