4 days per week – Rehab your body from broken bones. This program is good for bodybuilding, burning calories, and giving your joint break to be ready for a powerlifting or Olympic lifting program. You will maintain your strength levels while improving hypertrophy and cardio capacity. This program is good for when you have a series of injuries and need to rebuild to lift heavy again.
Phase 1
What are Phases?
These phases unlike other programs will not have a set end date. These phases 1, 2, & 3 will end when you can not complete your set and add more weight to the bar. See details in each phases instruction under main lift.
Tempo – C/I/E
Tempo is very important, especially in low-volume programs. If you are having trouble understanding the tempo for performing reps please see the Tempo Section in this guide HERE.
Concentric / Isometric / Eccentric
C/I/E = x/x/x
Concentric – The motion of an active muscle while it is shortening.
For example – you do a standing bicep curl, and your hands are traveling upward from your hip up to your shoulder.
1/x/x = C/x/x – Concentric
Isometric – The joint angle and muscle length do not change during contraction. Zero range of motion.
Example – Holding a Plank position or holding your hand at the top of a bicep curl near your shoulder.
Isometric is very easy to understand. It’s the point where you transfer from Concentric into Eccentric or Eccentric into Concentric.
x/1/x = x/I/x – Isometric
Eccentric – The motion of an active muscle while it is lengthening.
For example – you do a standing bicep curl, starting from at the shoulder your hands are traveling down towards your hip.
x/x/1 = x/x/E – Eccentric
RIR – Reps In Reserves – Accessories
If you are having trouble understanding RIR for performing reps please see the RIR Section in this guided video HERE. Buffer the video to skip to the RIR section.
RIR = Reps in Reserve. RIR 4-3 means you should only be able to get 4-3 more reps with the weight used. Week 1 – 3×12 – RIR 4-3. If I use 120lb and I feel like I could have done more than 4 reps at the end of my set of 12 then I need to go heavier. If I use 155 and I feel I can only get 4-3 more reps at the end of my 12 reps then that is the right weight.
RIR Example – Cable Machine Lat Pull Downs
Week 1 – 3×12 – RIR 4-3 – 155lb
Week 2 – 3×12 – RIR 3-2 – 160lb
Week 3 – 3×12 – RIR 2-1 – 165lb
Week 4 – 3×12 – RIR Failure – 170lb
RIR for accessories only. Scale this for each week ramping up. Use RIR to help select the weight. Each week follow the below.
Week 1 – RIR 4-3
Week 2 – RIR 3-2
Week 3 – RIR 2-1
Week 4 – RIR Failure
Week 5 – De-load
De-load Week
At the end of your four-week program, for the 5th week after the final 4th week of your program take a de-load week. There are two options to take a de-load week.
Option 1 – Taking 3-4 days of complete rest not going to the gym to workout at all.
Option 2 – Do only HALF of the sets for each workout. If the number of sets is odd round down. Three sets would turn into one set and five sets would turn into two sets. When you perform the de-load week, use the weight you started with at the beginning of the program at RIR 4-3. This should be a very easy week.