In a couple of previous programming related posts I wrote about Ed Coan’s training and from which I wrote a 10 week programme for training.  I had tremendous success using this 5 week block approach for both myself and others, it applied just enough training stress for bench press and deadlift for myself and I made consistent strength gains for a good 18 weeks before the approach broke down.  I am still running it for my deadlift.

The percentages the programme is based on are as follows

The programme can be used for pretty much any lift however there are one are two nuances that will make the programme more successful.

For lower body lifts 2 sets are sufficient especially if you are a stronger lifter, running the programme for Squat twice it broke down both times because I didn’t manage to recover fully enough to complete all of the workouts having successfully ran the programme for deadlift I think the problem was I was running 3 sets for squat the calculator at the end on this article takes this into account.

The programme will stall eventually, when this happens either run it again based off 95% of your current block or transition onto a new training programme.  5/3/1 is a really good bridging programme if your stuck for something to do between long peroids of training.

The calculator gives suggested jumps from blocks based off experiences I have had with lifters in the past however is you are a rank novice (i.e. benching under .75% of your body weight, squatting under 1x bw, deadlifting under your bw etc.) It would be wise to choose slightly lighter increases from block to block as the suggested jumps will be to heavy to progress past block 1.

The Calculator.

You can find the calculator here

To save a copy to your computer you can go to file download as, or to edit it in your browser you can go to file make a copy.

Laying out the programme.

Below I offer two different splits a 3 day and 4 day version of the programme.  The assistance exercises are pretty much just generic suggestions and you can plug in anything you want if you feel you have a particular weakness or want to work on a specific body part.  

Three Day Version

Four Day Version

Hope you find this programme to be as successful as I have.

Marc.