Enter the 3-Hour Workout Week for Strength (Complete Program in THIS email...PRINT)
Published: Thu, 06/11/15
“I don’t like going heavy. I only end up getting beat up…”
“My gym is far too busy to get a strength workout in…”
“There’s no way I can spend hours in the gym because
of the long rest periods…”
All the above are excuses people give for why they can’t
get strong.
Heck, most of these people haven’t even TRIED a strength
training program – they’ve given up before they’ve even started.
One of the main reasons people often give for not wanting
to follow a strength-specific program is time. And it’s true
– strength-training routines CAN be time consuming.
Take something like Sheiko – we’re talking squatting or
benching twice in the same session, performing a high
number of sets, and handling loads that require long rest times.
What about Smolov? That 10×3 day? Wow – that’s a lot
of gym time. Add in accessory work, and you could be
talking a two-and-a-half to three hour workout.
But these programs are the exception. The average guy
can use them, but it’d need to be the average guy with a
lot of time on his hands.
You and I can’t spend all day in the gym. We’ve got other
stuff to do.
Sure, we love training – there are few better feelings than
ripping a heavy barbell off the floor, seeing chalk dust fly
into the air as you clap your hands before a heavy lift, or
the look on your training partner’s face as you smash your
previous PR.
But we’ve got jobs, families, friends and commitments. This
means we need a routine that gets us seriously strong, without
requiring hour upon hour in the squat rack and around the bench press.
Enter the 3-Hour Workout Week
Here’s the battle – get in the necessary volume, frequency,
and loads to build freakish strength, but in only 3 hours each week.
What’s a guy to do?
Here’s a big tip – if strength is your goal, then make strength
your priority.
Fitness and bodybuilding magazine workouts are crammed
with filler – their workouts may take 90 minutes, but little of that
is really of much use to you, my iron-loving friend.
If you strip these routines back there’s maybe half an hour of
“good stuff.” When it comes to building brute strength, you
want the bare minimum.
And that’s where The DUP Method comes in.
DUP is the little-known strength training method used by the
strongest lifters in the gym that will get you stronger without
ever hitting a plateau.
You can get all the details right here:
==> $70 discount on the DUP Method for Critical Bench Fans←- Expires Tonight at Midnight
Would you rather design your own DUP Program?
Here’s a detailed article from Mike Samuels, a former fat boy
turned personal trainer and a competing powerlifter who currently
holds the Under-23 bench press record for the South East of England.
How to Get Strong as Hell in Only 3 Hours A Week
By Mike Samuels - Co-Creator of The DUP Method
Mastering the Basics
A finely-tuned strength routine needs only a few exercises.
We’ve got the “Big 3” –
– Squats
– Bench Presses
– Deadlifts
These alone are awesome, but not quite enough to get optimal
results, so we also need
– Squat accessories
– Bench press accessories
– Deadlift accessories
Go with these six and you’re nearly there. There’s just one
final component that you need –
– Prehab work
Between these 7 categories, you have EVERYTHING you need
for the perfect strength routine. Let’s take it a bit further –
Breaking Down the Categories
The Big 3. The big 3 are fairly straightforward.
Squats, bench presses and deadlifts – there’s not much more to it.
You can squat high bar or low bar, deadlift with a conventional or
sumo stance and bench with whatever grip you find most comfortable.
However you do them, the big 3 are the big 3.
Accessories
Accessories aid with your strength on the big 3. Your best options are:
– Squat
– Paused Squats (with a 2 second count in the hole)
– Front squats
– Box squats
– Safety bar squats
– Bench Press
– Paused bench press
– Close-grip bench press
– Board press
– Incline bench press
– Deadlift
– Deficit deadlift
– Paused deadlift
– Snatch-grip deadlift
– Block pull
(Other exercises can be used, of course. Above are the ones I’ve
found to be most beneficial because they have the most carryover
to strength gains.)
Prehab
Prehab work covers a number of different exercises which aid injury
prevention, and target areas that the big 3 and the accessories miss.
– Direct hamstring/ lower-back work – back extensions,
glute ham raises, barbell hip thrusts, heavy kettlebell swings.
– Upper-back work – any row variation (dumbbell, barbell,
machine, chest-supported) any vertical pull (chin-ups, pull-ups or
pull-downs.)
– Core work – rollouts, planks, leg raises.
The Format for How to Get Strong
That’s enough exercise chat. Here’s how your 3-hour week
will run down
– You’ll do 3 one-hour sessions each week.
– Every session will have one main lift, two accessories, and
two prehab exercises.
– You’ll hit each main lift once a week.
– The big 3 lift will always come first and be the focus of your
session.
– Your two accessories will be for the other 2 of the big 3.
– The two accessory and two prehab exercises can be any that
you choose, but aim to vary them as much as possible.
– You’ll work in 4-week periodised cycles, with volume
increasing each week.
Sample Session
Here’s a sample session from week 1 to give an idea of how a
session might look:
|
Exercise Category |
Sets |
Reps |
Load |
|
Big 3 |
5 |
4 |
80% 1RM * |
|
Accessory |
4 |
6-8 |
RPE 9 ^ |
|
Accessory |
4 |
6-8 |
RPE 9 |
|
Prehab |
3 |
10-15 |
RPE 8 |
|
Prehab |
3 |
10-15 |
RPE 9 |
recently hit a PR in a competition, take 90% of this to use for your
1RM. If you’re unsure of what your current max is, take an educated guess.
^ RPE refers to Rate of Perceived Exertion –
RPE 10 = All out maximum effort – this was a seriously tough rep
and you had to grind through it.
RPE 9.5 = Still really tough, but the form was good and smooth.
RPE 9 = You had 1 more rep left in the tank.
RPE 8 = 2 more reps in the tank
RPE 7 = 3 more reps left
The Weekly Cycle
The above table will remain the same for each of your three workouts
every week. What will change is your exercise selection.
For instance, you may decide that your first workout of the week
will be –
– Big 3 – Squat
– Accessory #1 (Deadlift) – Deficit Deadlift
– Accessory #2 (Bench Press) – Paused Bench Press
– Prehab #1 (Upper back) – Wide Grip Pull-ups
– Prehab #2 (Core) – Weighted vest ab wheel rollouts
After a day or two for rest, your second session would be –
– Big 3 – Bench Press
– Accessory #1 (Squat) – Front Squat
– Accessory #2 (Deadlift) – Paused Deadlift
– Prehab #1 (Upper back) – Chest supported dumbbell rows
– Prehab #2 (Glutes/hams) – Heavy kettlebell swings
Your final session of the week would then be –
– Big 3 – Deadlift
– Accessory #1 (Bench Press) – Incline Bench Press
– Accessory #2 (Squat) – Safety Bar Squat
Prehab #1 (Glutes/Hams) – Glute-ham raise
Prehab #2 (Core) – Hanging leg raises
Programming the Big 3
The foundation of this program, and the key to success, is
properly programming your big 3.
Each week, the goal with the big 3 exercises is to increase
the intensity from the week before. Week 1 should be relatively
straightforward, week 2 is a little more challenging, week 3
gets serious, and week 4 is where things are tough.
Take a look at the loading guidelines for each lift –
Week 1 – 5 sets of 4 at 80% 1RM
Week 2 – 5 sets of 6 at 80% 1RM
Week 3 – 5 sets of 3 at 85% 1RM
Week 4 – 3 sets of 3 at 90% 1RM
If you picked your loads correctly, you should hit every single
rep of every set in every week.
Programming the Accessory and Prehab Work
For the accessory and prehab work, you’ll use the RPE scale,
as outlined earlier.
Be smart about this – the accessory and prehab exercises should
be tough, but not brutal. They are there to assist you, build strength,
hit weak parts and increase your main lifts. If you’re going all out
on them, it will negatively impact recovery, you’ll miss lifts, and
strength will start going backwards.
I encourage choosing different exercises throughout a cycle,
and aiming to beat your previous reps or weight on an exercise
each time you perform it.
This is similar to the method used for main lifts at Westside
Barbell, wherein you don’t train a lift too frequently, but each
time you do perform it, you beat your previous performance.
For example, we’ll look at your accessory work for the bench
press. Here are two 4-week cycles, utilizing 4 exercises, and
sticking to an RPE of around 9 –
Week 1
Paused Bench Press – 185lbs – 4 sets of 6
Incline Bench Press – 195lbs – 4 sets of 6
Week 2
Flat Dumbbell Press – 70lbs – 4 sets of 8
Board Press – 225lbs – 4 sets of 8
Week 3
Paused Bench Press – 185lbs – 2 sets of 8, 2 sets of 7
Incline Bench Press – 195lbs – 2 sets of 8, 2 sets of 7
Week 4
Flat Dumbbell Press – 75lbs – 4 sets of 6
Board Press – 235lbs – 4 sets of 6
Week 5
Paused Bench Press – 185lbs – 4 sets of 8
Incline Bench Press – 195lbs – 4 sets of 8
Week 6
Flat Dumbbell Press – 75lbs – 4 sets of 8
Board Press – 235lbs – 4 sets of 8
Week 7
Paused Bench Press – 195lbs – 4 sets of 6
Incline Bench Press – 205lbs – 4 sets of 6
Week 8
Flat Dumbbell Press – 80lbs – 4 sets of 6
Board Press – 245lbs – 4 sets of 6
This gives an idea of how you can increase a lift fairly substantially
in just a few weeks, while remaining in your given set and rep range
and incorporating the RPE scale.
The same method can be used for the prehab exercises, though
these require an RPE of 8.
Should you stall or plateau on an exercise two times in a row,
switch it out for something different. On the above example,
this could mean changing to incline dumbbell presses, pin presses,
chain bench presses and decline bench presses.
Cycle to Cycle Adjustments
Progressing on the accessory and prehab work from one 4-week
cycle to the next is incredibly easy using the above guidelines,
but the big 3 exercises take a little more planning.
The idea is to increase your 1 rep max weight each 4-week cycle,
then use the same percentages (80, 80, 85 and 90) so that you’re
lifting a little heavier than the previous cycle each time.
How much you increase your max depends on how you found
the previous cycle –
- Hit every rep and found the program “easy” – add 15lbs
to your squat and deadlift max and 10lbs to your bench press
- Got all the reps and found it do-able – add 10lbs to your
squat and deadlift max and 5lbs to your bench press.
- Really struggled and only just about got every rep, or
missed the odd one here and there – keep your maxes the same.
- Missed more than 1 rep, or had some poor sessions –
reduce your maxes by 10-15lbs for the squat and deadlift and
5-10lbs on the bench.
What Else Do I Need to Know?
Not much really.
If you stick to the given rep ranges, sets, RPE guidelines and
choose your exercises wisely, you’ll make better gains in strength
than ever before, all in just 3 hours per week.
I’d advise deloading after two 4-week cycles, though you can
deload more or less frequently should you feel the need. On a
deload week, the easiest template is to simply pick exercises as
you usually would, but perform just three sets of eight to 10 reps
on everything at an RPE of 6 or 7.
Eat big, train wisely and get strong as hell in only 3 hours per week.
--------
END OF ARTICLE
Got all that?
In case you’re busy like me and not interested in designing your
own strength training program, I have good news.
You can automate long-lasting muscle and strength by grabbing
a copy of the newly released DUP Method to get you stronger in
less time:
==> $70 discount for Critical Bench Fans ←- Expires Tonight at Midnight
Keep training hard,
Mike Westerdal
CriticalBench.com
P.S. Maybe you don't want to deadlift, squat and bench press.
Maybe you want to do overhead press, bicep curls, and hack squats...
Or maybe chin ups, leg press, and incline bench press.
The cool thing about DUP, is that you can use it with ANY exercise.
But check it out now because the sale is ending in hours.