Sets, Reps, Intensity, and Frequency...OH MY! Programming Basics for Improving Muscular Strength.
If you have been following along with this article series you have a very good grasp on many concepts around strength training. You know resistance training is important for your health, you understand what strength is, you are starting to grasp the science of how we get strong, you are comfortable with the principles of becoming stronger and how to pick the best exercises, but the burning question remains…
How do we actually piece all of this information together into a program?
What are the practical takeaways?
What do?
To begin, the most important thing when designing your own program, or at least assessing a program your trainer gives you, is to ensure that there is a sufficient amount of progressive overload occuring (Think back to Programming Principle #1). Remember, we need enough stimulus above your baseline strength levels, but not too much, to become stronger. Often people struggle to create enough of an overload in their program, thus failing to make progress, because they do not understand how to manipulate training variables.
What follows are the most common training variables that we can manipulate in a program to progressively overload an individual to drive strength adaptations, as well as some general recommendations for each if your goal is to become stronger.
Frequency of training sessions - 2-3 days/week
Number of exercises per training session - 3-5 exercises/session
Number of sets per exercises - 3-5 sets/exercises (not including warm-up sets)
Number of repetitions per set - 4-10 repetitions/set
Load/Intensity used - >70% 1 Rep Max (meaning quite challenging...again, throw out those pink 3lb dumbbells!)
Rest Periods - 2-3 minutes between heavy sets (ensures you are using a challenging enough weight and are recovered enough to do it again)
Exercise Selection - this is highly individual, based on the training outcome desired
**Note - these are general guidelines, not hard rules. An experienced strength athlete, for example, may need 4 days of training with 5+ minutes of rest and many more sets to provide sufficient progressive overload, due to their higher baseline levels of strength. The stronger you are, the more resistant to training you become, requiring greater and greater training stimulus. Think back to our sun tanning example, someone who is well-tanned needs more and more exposure to the sun to get even the slightest bit more brown, compared to someone who hasn’t tanned as much.
Said differently, what we are trying to do with an intelligently designed strength training program is gradually increase your weekly, monthly and yearly Training Volume (TV) over time, which is basically the amount of work you can perform. A newer trainee can easily increase their TV week after week, whereas stronger people need to take a longer time to do this due to their advanced training status but the goal is that year after year they can perform more work, thus becoming stronger. TV is calculated from your ‘sets x reps x weight’ for either a particular exercise (i.e., bench press), muscle group (i.e., pectorals), or movement pattern (i.e., horizontal pressing). For example, if someone’s working sets in a particular session for the bench press are 3 sets x 5 reps x 100lbs, their TV for the bench press that day is 1500lbs. The way we can progressively overload this exercise is by manipulating 1 variable to gradually titrate up the TV by the smallest degree possible above our baseline level of strength, which will allow us to recover quickly before our next training session.
The goal isn’t to create the most amount of overload possible, but the smallest amount so we can recover adequately and do it over again every time we train. In our bench press example, to create an overload, we could either change the number of sets (4 sets x 5 reps x 100lbs = 2000lbs or 33% increase in TV), the reps per set (3 sets x 6 reps x 100lbs = 1800lbs or 20% increase in TV), or the weight used (3 sets x 5 reps x 110lbs = 1,650lbs or 10% increase in TV). Since we generally want the smallest change that drives adaptation (though too small isn’t ideal either), in this example, we would probably go with increasing the weight used as it caused the smallest overload that will still make us stronger while allowing us to recover quickly. A mistake would be to increase all variables in the next session, for example, 4 sets x 6 reps x 110lbs = 2,640lbs or an increase in TV of over 75% from the last session. That would probably lead to excessive soreness, performance decrements, lack of enjoyment, or could lead to injury if this happened many times over.
**I should note, before the Gym-Bro’s come after me, this is for simplicity’s sake and educational purposes and in the real world, with more advanced trainees, more than 1 training variable may be changed!
The biggest thing I see when assessing people’s programs prior to working with me is that they are actually underdosing their strength training program. Meaning, they aren’t creating a big enough training stimulus to get past their baseline levels of strength on a consistent basis. They violate the previously mentioned training variables in some way; train too infrequently each week (or way too much for their current fitness levels), use too light of weights, rest too little, perform too many reps, complete too few sets etc. If you want to get stronger and reap the health benefits strength training can provide, you’ll actually need to lift heavy at some point and do it consistently.
Below are 2 examples of hypothetical beginner strength training programs (both based on what I’ve seen in the past and online), and to make this example more specific let’s say the potential trainee is a middle-aged female, with no underlying medical conditions, who is interested in getting stronger and improving her bone mineral density. Program A is a typical program I see this demographic doing (though the vast majority wouldn’t be doing any strength training unfortunately), and Program B is one I would be more likely to recommend as it adheres closer to our programming principles and training variables for strength.
Now I must say, the point of comparing these 2 programs is not to say Program A is wrong or incorrect to do, but rather, to show how Program B is set up in a way that is more aligned with getting stronger in the most efficient way possible. I would much rather someone perform Program A compared to not strength training at all, as this will still give you some benefit and definitely fits the criteria for the recommended Physical Activity guidelines for health, but Program B will provide greater strength and bone health improvements, and for a longer period of time. We can see how Program A, for the most part, has lots of isolation exercises, very high reps (which forces the trainee to use lighter weights), very short rest periods and a low number of sets per exercise. A program set up this way does not allow the individual to use heavy enough weights in the proper rep ranges to actually get stronger.
Program B, in comparison, is made up primarily of compound barbell exercises, uses lower reps, employs longer rest periods, and a proper amount of sets. Our hypothetical trainee can actually use weights that are heavy enough to challenge her muscles and increase strength. This style of strength-based programming will allow our middle-aged lady to adhere to our programming principles and consistently overload her body over time. This is a much more intelligent way to structure a program compared to just going to the gym without a plan and randomly trying out a few machines and exercises you saw on Instagram.
**To reiterate, Program A isn’t bad, as I would much rather have someone perform this regularly than nothing at all, but the reason you are reading this article is to become much more educated on all things strength (i.e., a smart meathead), thus Program B is perhaps a bit better.
A Note on Non-Barbell Strength Exercises…
There are many tools that can be used to increase muscular strength, muscle size, and bone density. Things like resistance bands, your own bodyweight, machines and other tools. Though the purpose of this article series was to highlight the benefits of using barbell training methods to get the highest ROI and in the most efficient way possible, this is not to discourage or dismiss using other types of resistance. My #1 goal for individuals is to participate in ANY SORT of resistance training 2-3 times per week. This will ensure people are meeting the Physical Activity guidelines for health, which will decrease their risk for many chronic illnesses and help maintain their independence late into life. However, my #2 goal is to get people doing this with barbells as I feel, based on my arguments in this and previous articles, it is the best way to become strong over time.
* * *
Closing Thoughts...
Well that was a heck of a ride. Over 15,000 words written on the WHY and HOW of basic barbell strength training. Please, if this was informative or helpful in any way, please fire me an email (nick@coachnickgies.com) to give me your feedback as I would love to know what people think. But more importantly please share on your Social Media feeds or email these articles to a friend that needs to hear this info. I would also be grateful if you left me a Google Review!
With any luck, we can spread the good word about Barbell Training and its importance on health.
~Coach Gies
**Shameless self-promotion below**
If you are interested in getting stronger, losing weight, or adding more muscle mass I would highly encourage you to check out my store. There are a variety of free and paid training templates that are designed around specific fitness goals. They are set up into phases, so as you complete one stage you can seamlessly transition into another program that builds off of the previous one as you become stronger and more fit.
I will continuously add more templates (because I love writing and editing them!), but I also have a custom programming service if the templates in my store don’t fit your goals or you need something specific. I also provide Online Coaching (for clients and athletes) to help provide technique feedback, accountability, and constant program adjustments. If either of these services interest you, please complete an online application form indicating which service you are interested in and we will go from there!