Hey guys!
I’ve recently moved into the very early stages of intermediate training, and I’m sick and tired of the SS 3x5/5x5 model. It’s been good to me and I’ve made great novice progress, but I’d just like to mix it up a bit for a period of time.
I recently “competed” in a mock gym meet, and managed the following lifts just at the end of novice LP:
Squat: 1x160kg
Bench: 1x115kg
Deadlift: 1x190kg
Press: 1x80kg
I considered dropping some weight and just doing a regular HLM, but then I thought better of it and decided I want a 220kg DL, 180kg squat, and 120kg bench before I lose some weight. Maybe. Unless I want a 250kg DL etc. when I get to my current goals… nothing new under the sun.
What I’ve sort of concocted is a template based on Ed Coans programming (based off some bodybuilding.com forum post about Coans programming for intermediates).
10 week cycles, starting with 8s for 2 weeks, 5s for 4 weeks, 3s for 2 weeks, 2s for a week, a final week working up to a single, and then a “meet week”.
The thing is, I don’t like only training the lifts 1 time per week. I’m fairly certain I need atleast twice a week for squats and benches. So I thought, why not make a sort of HLM version out of this program?
Monday: Squats, Benches + assistance, weights as calculated according to Coans outlines
Wednesday: (Light squats very quickly done as warmups), Press, Deadlift routine (Coan/Philipi thing)
Friday: Squats, Benches + assistance, somewhere between 80-90% of Mondays weights
On Sunday’s I usually do some strongman training with a strongman group in my city, farmer’s walks, apollon’s presses, tyre flips, atlas stones etc. This is just for fun and not for entering competitions, I just really like the training style. This training is the first I’ll cut if I need more recovery.
It’s hard for me to spread the weight training over more days than Mon, Wed, Fri because of kids, family, work, all that regular jazz. I would like to bench on separate days from squatting if I could, but atleast for now it’d be optimal for the rest of my life to keep the two together.
What do you guys feel about this layout, any tweaks, changes or other thoughts?