for the 6 years of my training life ive focused mostly on hypertrophy. worked in 6-8 and 10-12 rep range. most workouts started off with heavy compound movement, usually 5x5 or 4x6 then progressed to isolation movements in the 10-12 range. i never periodized my training, just went at it as hard as possible, changed volume and intensity in 4 week blocks, and took a few days off here and there.
but from now on im gonna throw in 4 week blocks focused exclusively on maximal strength in between my 8 or 12 week hypertrophy phases. im good at program design for hypertrophy, but im lost when it comes to the development of strength. figurerd this was the best place to come.
so i want to do a 4 week phase for strength based on wave loading. so far this is what i have planned out for my compound movements:
wk 1: 7/5/3 7/5/3 7/5/3
wk 2: 6/4/2
wk 3: 5/3/2 5/3/2
wk 4: 3/2/1 3/2/1
im thinking about a 4 or five day split, something along the lines of:
day 1: chest
day 2: quads
day 3: off
day 4: back/OH pressing
day 5: off
day 6: posterior chain
day 7: off
so for week 1 my chest day would look like:
a) incline barbell bench: 7/5/3 7/5/3 7/5/3
b) flat db bench: 3 x 6-8
c) weighted dips: 2 x 6-8
the other workouts would follow in a similar vein, i.e. wave loaded compound movement followed by a couple straight sets of 6-8 on auxilliary exercises, dropping the reps down to 4-6 in the last two weeks.
so for development of strength, is training a movement or muscle group once a week sufficient, given the low volume or do i need massive restructuring? what do you guys recommend? also, i cant do back squats or deadlifts anymore because of a lower back injury. im relegated to front squats, glute ham raises, and reverse hypers for those groups.
thanks a lot for the help.