The fundamentals of training program design

There are two prerequisites for understanding programs properly. A great starting point is my previous post on the “holy trinity” of making programs but just in case I left a brief summary of that article below. The second prerequisite is the structure of a program and here we have to introduce 4 new concepts. Programs consist of microcycles, mesocycles and macrocycles. A microcycle is the shortest unit of time, usually a week, but it can be between 7 and 10 days. In a microcycle you will have off days and workout days. A mesocycle, also known as a block, is several consecutive microcycles, normally we’re talking about a period of 4 to 8 weeks. A macrocycle is the longest unit of time and it represents a period of 6 to 12 months during which you’re trying to achieve the main goals of your program. The fourth concept is the transition period between two mesocycles, and that is the so-called deload week during which you drop the amount of work (volume) and the load on the bar (intensity) in order to give your body a chance to recover and resensitize to exercise. How often you deload i.e. how long your mesocycle is will largely depend on your training experience as well as the purpose of your program (strength or hypertrophy, but more on that below).

Before we continue here’s a brief reminder of what we covered in the holy trinity piece:

Volume = sets times reps times weight (this is not the best definition, but we will discuss that in greater detail when we discuss volume in a separate piece)

Frequency = how often you go to the gym within a microcycle

Intensity = the weight you lift

If we want to really dive into the topic of proper program design we have to have a common definition of a repetition. We all know what a repetition looks like, but we cannot count every rep the same. For example, if we do a warm-up set with a weight we can get over 30 reps with, that probably isn’t sufficient intensity to provide adequate stress on the muscle.

That is why we’re introducing a new concept – effective repetitions. Effective reps are reps under adequate load and sufficiently close to failure. The best scale, at least in my experience and talking to the most qualified coaches in the world, is the so-called RPE scale, but that scale can be a bit confusing. Luckily, there is a very similar, sort of like a sister scale which is much easier to explain. That scale is called RIR (reps in reserve). Simply put, that means how many reps do you have left in the tank. If you are doing a set at RIR 0 that means that you went to failure. RIR 1 means that you left one rep in reserve. RIR 2 is two reps in reserve and so on. The important idea to remember is that an effective rep is sufficiently close to failure which means that you’re doing work at a RIR of 1, 2, 3 and sometimes 4. Whenever I use the word repetition in this or any future piece I will be using it as defined here.

Okay, so we now know that it is ideal to leave 1, 2, 3 or maybe 4 reps in the tank, but what’s the ideal intensity? In order to answer that question we have to understand the difference between a program focused on strength improvement and a program focused on hypertrophy.

The biggest difference comes from the principle of specificity which applies to strength training which is not the case for muscle growth. To illustrate, specificity means that in order to make progress in the domain of strength you need to be doing specific kind of work. In other words, if you want to get stronger you should probably choose a higher intensity and a lower number of reps (1-5). ¾ of your total volume in the program should come from this heavy weight, low rep style of training while the remaining quarter should come from medium intensity (6-12 reps) and low intensity (15 or more reps). Hypertrophy will happen in practically any case, doesn’t matter if you do high intensity low reps or if you do medium intensity work or even if you do low intensity work but it is marginally less efficient than the first two. This tells us that muscle growth does not require specificity in training, but that does not mean that every single option out there is available. In order to understand what is optimal in terms of hypertrophy we have to understand what causes it.

Firstly, we have to provide adequate stimulus to the muscle. In other words, we have to work heavy enough. Obviously there is a difference between 1000 reps of bicep curls with a pack of chewing gum and a 10-kg dumbbell. Secondly, it is necessary to provide adequate volume. Only one set of 3 reps with a 15-kg dumbbell on the shoulder press is not going to cause the same muscle growth response as 4 sets of 8 reps with the same weight. Thirdly, and this is key, it is absolutely necessary to progressively increase the load. This concept is known as progressive overload and, in a nutshell, it means that if you did 60 kg squats on the first of April 2017. you better be doing more than on the first of April 2018. Methods of ensuring progressive overload are numerous, but the effect is the same, the resistance the muscle is experiencing has to be greater than before. The fourth and the fifth aspect of muscle growth are things that actually happen outside of the gym – food and adequate recovery which means that you have to feed your body properly in order to provide high quality support for muscle growth and you have to sleep, avoid stress on the muscle and avoid stress in general when you are not in the gym.

These factors are common for both hypertrophy and strength, but there are two main differences. The first is that for muscle growth we should not sacrifice volume while strength demands that you keep up the intensity (the principle of specificity). The second difference is in fatigue and damage caused to your joints which happens due to high intensity which will bring about a greater need for recovery. Science and practice have shown that volume and progressive overload are the most important when it comes hypertrophy and one of the best ways to increase volume is to train more often. If we pair that knowledge with the fact that it is better to hit a muscle group 2, 3, 4 times a week than just once then we are left with a conclusion that we have to lower the intensity. That is because training under really heavy loads (high intensity) demands that we decrease both the volume within the training session but also we have to bring down the frequency because of the damage and fatigue which is less optimal for muscle growth. If we take all of this into consideration, the recommendation is to do ¾ of the volume in the domain of medium intensity, fairly close to failure (RIR 1 or 2) with 6 to 12 reps, while the remainder of your work should be spread between strength work (1-5 reps) and low intensity work (15 or more reps, sometimes called endurance work).

The reason why almost every leading expert recommends against going to failure with heavier loads is because that causes a lot of fatigue accumulation and it can lead to suboptimal performance within the workout and lower total volume as well as lower intensity on all subsequent sets after that set to failure.

Given the length and detail in this text I will provide a more elaborate summary:

• Every high quality program is made up of microcycles, mesocycles, deload weeks (between two mesocycles) and macrocycles. Don’t judge a program after only a couple of weeks because determining effectiveness takes time

• The variable components are volume, frequency and intensity

• RIR scale tells you how many reps you’ve left in the tank and you should try not to leave more than 3 or sometimes 4 reps in the tank in order to ensure adequate stimulus

• If you want to make progress strength-wise you should do strength-specific work, while there are multiple ways to achieve muscle growth

• Hypertrophy happens over a long period of time (a macrocycle for example) if you continuously add weight to the bar and thus increase the intensity as well as the volume

• Volume for each muscle group should be divided into multiple training session within a week (2, 3 or 4 sessions)

• It is easier to achieve more volume and recover properly with medium intensity work

• Please do not forget that nutrition and rest are equally if not more important than what you do in the gym because you spend more time outside of the gym. Unless you live there