How to design a strength program
Intro
This article focuses primarily on strength training. It may also benefit those staying in the hypertrophy range but this is not the focus. Most people who lift weights will want to get stronger at some point. People want to hit a new PB (personal best) on a certain lift. Perhaps they are close to hitting a nice round number like 60kg as opposed to being on 57.5kg.
Strength training doesn't mean you won't build muscle it just means the main focus is on training the central nervous system (CNS) to contract the muscles you have harder. Too much work means you'll 'fry' or fatigue your CNS and you could get injured. Too little work won't give you enough stimulus to improve, so how do you know how to plan a program to give you the right amount of stimulus or how do you know if the program you're doing is really good or not?
How To Plan.
Two things to consider; ''Prilepins' Table'' and ''INOL''.
Prilepins' Table, acts as a guide as to how much volume and how many reps should be used at different intensities.
Looking at the table you can see for the 80%-89% intensity, reps should be kept at 2 - 4 per set. The range of the volume should be from 10-20 in total and the optimal number is 15. This shows if you want to use 80% of your 1RM (rep max) you could do 5 sets of 3 to give you 15 total reps without reps going over 4 each set.
INOL is the intensity and number of lifts. This is a formula created to show how difficult the workout will be so you know if it's too hard or easy etc.
Number of lifts
________________ = INOL
(100 - the intensity)
For example. 5 sets of 3 is 15 total reps. Working at 80% you get, 100 - 80 = 20.
Therefore the equation is: 15 / 20 = 0.75.
Then you look at the single session INOL chart which shows a score of 0.4-1 is a fairly sustainable exercise, this is where the most of your sessions should be. If the score is lower then 0.4 it should be considered a deload which can be used to give you a rest or help recover. A score of 1-2 should not be done often or very long periods of time as they are very fatiguing. It is best to work up to these harder workouts before scaling back down to easier workouts so you can build back up again. The harder workouts will help push you to a new PB but they are too hard to do for more than 2,3,4 weeks at a time. Looking at the weekly INOL chart you can see how it can be used to guide week to week progressions and de-loads. For example, 5 sets of 3 at 80% is .75 per session, done twice a week this is 1.5. This can be used as a start point or a de-load week. 5 sets of 4 at 80% scores 1 per session or 2 if done twice a week. 5 sets of 5 reps at 80% scores 1.25 per session or 2.5 if done twice in a week. as 5X5 at 80% pushes beyond Prilepins Table it may be advised to scale back down after this week with a deload of 3X3. The weeks could then be repeated with a very slight weight increase. It is advisable to periodise workouts to build up to difficult sessions which give a lot of stimulus and then taking a step back to recover before building back up again.
This could also be done with 6X6 at 70% twice a week for one week. 7X6 at 70% the next week, 8X6 at 70% the third week and 4X6 at 70% the fourth week to scale back and de-load. Check out our work out plan page to download a free periodised program beginning with hypertrophy which moves to strength before preparing for a 1 rep max attempt.
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