Thoughts on Stage System?

What do you think of Cressey’s new Stage System article? Its an interesting system and definitely shares some principles with the layer system. I built some muscle and progressed a great deal on my high pull using the layer system a while back and was thinking about going back to it, after a break, after finishing the Power Look. (High pull has totally stagnated since!) Thanks.

[quote]lotsi81 wrote:
What do you think of Cressey’s new Stage System article? Its an interesting system and definitely shares some principles with the layer system. I built some muscle and progressed a great deal on my high pull using the layer system a while back and was thinking about going back to it, after a break, after finishing the Power Look. (High pull has totally stagnated since!) Thanks.[/quote]

Any program based on doing heavy work followed by volume work on the same lift will work. The science is there. It is similar to the layer system in its principles but I prefer my application but we all have our own methods.

I have been recommending the 3 x 3 followed by 3 x 6 (and sometimes 1x10 on top of that) for years. Mentioned it in one of my livespills a few years ago.

Doug Hepburn had a number of routines that used the same principle, combining “power” work (heavy stuff) with “mass” work (volume stuff), and sometimes with a final “pump/flushing” set of 1x10. E.g., his A, B, C routines; the routine in “Hepburn’s Law”; “The Hepburn Routine” article by Bill Starr.

Those are probably the earliest clear references I’ve seen for training like that, although I vaguely remember seeing some stuff in very old manuals discussing how lifting something heavy first makes lifting something lighter feel easier.

I think it’s only been fairly recently that we really had any understanding of the science why this works, but the idea’s been in use for a very long time.

hey CT,

im interested in the approach of 3x3, 3x6 and possibly adding 1x10 on the end. I was wondering if this would be used for just one movement per workout or possibly more than one. if just using one movement would that allow for more assistance work following the main lift or do you see it as enough just to do the main lift? just curious how to implement this method into a full program and hoping you could help :slight_smile:

Thanks!