Creating a Training Program Part II: Intermediate

Creating a Training Program Part II: Intermediate

You've been training for a couple of years. You've been training each body part once a week. You've been staying within the 8-12 rep range. But you just aren't seeing any significant gains. Hey, the improvements you saw as a beginner aren't going to keep happening forever. Maybe you are impatient. Or maybe you need to push yourself a little further.

Progressing in your weight training means pushing yourself harder. It also means varying your training style. Your body is not new to training anymore. You can't just pick a rep range and a few exercises, train a couple of days a week and expect to keep getting awesome results. Your body will adapt. You have to fight for your gains now.

Train Everything Twice A Week

Remember how nice it was when you were just training everything once a week? Welcome to the next level. Here, we train everything twice a week. Why? Because your muscles don't really need an entire week to recover before they are ready to be trained again. In fact, they really only need around 48hours. 

That's right. When you train a muscle, it triggers elevated protein synthesis in the muscle. This repairs the muscle and builds some new muscle (hopefully). However, after about 48hours, the level of protein synthesis returns to normal levels. That means, it's ready to be hit again.

We can take advantage of this by training each muscle twice a week and potentially doubling the amount of time protein synthesis is elevated for each muscle. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? Well, it is!

Vary Your Rep Ranges

Research has shown that the human body adapts much slower to the actual exercises performed than it does to the rep ranges performed. That means, if you want to trigger an adaptive response then you should vary your rep ranges. How often should you vary your rep ranges? Daily, or within the same week. This is a form of undulating periodization and it really works.

Example Training Routine 

• Day1: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
• Bench Press: 4sets of 12-15reps
• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 4sets of 10-12reps
• Flys: 2sets of 15-20reps
• Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3sets of 8-10reps
• Side Lateral Raise: 3sets of 12-15reps 
• Triceps Pressdown: 4sets of 15-20reps
• Skull Crushers: 4sets of 10-15reps
• Push-ups (hands close together): 1set to failure
•  Day2: Legs
• Squats: 4sets of 12-15reps
• Hack Squat: 4sets of 8-12reps
• Dead Lifts: 4sets of 8-12reps
• Leg Curls: 3sets of 10-12reps
• Leg Extensions: 3sets of 10-12reps
• Seated Calf Raise: 4sets of 12-15reps
• Donkey Calf Raise: 4sets of 15-20reps
• Day3: Back & Biceps 
• Lateral Pulldowns: 4 sets of 12-15reps
• Dumbbell Rows: 3 sets of 10-15reps
• Hammer Strength Rows: 3 sets of  8-12reps
• Dumbbell Curls: 4 sets of 12-15reps
• Cambered Bar Curls Overhand Grip: 4 sets of 15-20reps
• Preacher Curls: 1 set to failure
• Day 4: Rest
• Day 5: Lower Body
• Box Squats: 4 sets of 8-12reps
• Lunges: 3 sets of 15-20reps
• Good Mornings: 4 sets of 10-15reps
• Leg Extensions: 3 sets of 15-20reps
• Standing Calf Raise: 6sets of 8-12reps
• Day 6: Upper Body
• Incline Bench Press: 4 sets of 6-10reps
• Pec Deck Flys: 3 sets of 12-17reps
• Push-Ups: 1 set to failure
• Cable Rows: 4sets of 8-12reps
• Pendlay Rows: 3sets of 6-10reps
• Wide Grip Pull-Ups: 1 set to failure
• Triceps Overhead Rope Extension: 4 sets of 10-15reps
• Weighted Dips: 4 sets of 8-10reps
• Cambered Bar Curl: 4 sets of 8-10reps
• Hammer Curl: 4 sets of 10-15reps
• Day 7: Rest

Some of you may be looking at the above training routine and thinking, "Man, that's a lot of volume!" And if you're not used to it then it is a lot of volume. You might be able to get away with less, but you can certainly do more too. This is just an example that illustrates how to create a 5-day split that hits all the major muscle groups twice in the same week and that varies rep ranges using a form of undulating periodization for hypertrophy training. It's not the Bible. It can be changed to better suit you and your needs. For example, I train slightly higher volume than the example above on some days and I use some more advanced training methods which I will cover in the final post in this 3 part series, Creating a Training Program Part III: Advanced. However, if you are currently working off of a 2 or 3-day split then something like what I described in this post should help take you to the next level.

Posted by Clayton Long