Organizing Your Training: Principles and Frameworks, Not Templates
I get asked a lot why I don’t sell training templates in addition to my personalized online coaching services, so I can offer a lower price point option to those who either prefer to be more independent with just a little guidance, or those who don’t want to pay for the full service option. The simplest reason is that while I am an independent contractor, I do have an exclusive agreement to do online coaching only for Barbell Logic, which prohibits me from selling templates. And it’s true that absent this agreement, I would probably sell templates.
But that said, there is a downside to templates that, while not so bad as to be not worth doing at all, is a big issue in the industry that prevents people from reaching their full potential. And that simple issue is that most people will buy or read a template and try to implement it by rote, rather than learning and understanding the principles and frameworks that underlie it, and apply it with wisdom. This holds a lot of people back from training success and PRs, and also leads to endless “program hopping” wherein a lifter tries a program for a few weeks or a couple months at most, gets frustrated with his lack of progress, and then instead of problem solving and figuring out why it’s not working, just switches to the newest template from yet another Internet Fitness Influencer. Rinse and repeat the process multiple times per year.
My internet strength coach pal Sam Krapf, of Ground Zero Strength in Twin Falls, ID made this point recently and released a few frameworks, rather than templates. Since he did this publicly and for free, I want to amplify his work here, so it gets out to more people. Sam posted as follows:
To which I replied:
So that all said, let’s look at the frameworks for training that Sam put together. These are great frameworks for regular people to get excellent results with their strength training. Advanced lifters who want to push the limits on muscle mass and strength gains will need more intensive frameworks and possibly more individualized programming, but these are great for regular people who want real results.
The good thing about these is, they aren’t templates that you can just read and follow by rote. They are loose enough that they require you to think a little bit, and hopefully by doing so, start to understand more about how training works rather than just copy and pasting what your favorite infloooencer posted this month and wondering why it worked for his 24 year old, juiced up body but not your 48 year old, 55 hour work week and 3 kids self.
Framework #1: Two days per week
Here you have a very basic A/B style workout that you simply repeat weekly, with as much time between the days as your schedule allows, i.e. Mon/Thus or Tues/Fri. Since you’re only training twice a week, you need to make these sessions count - go hard and go heavy, push closer to the limit more than you would if you were training 3 or 4 days per week. You can add a bit of accessory work at the end, but prioritize the main work here. Accessories could be split upper one day and lower the other, or pick 1 or 2 each and do them each day.
Framework #2: Three days per week
This is a standard 3-day template, though if you’re more time strapped this will be difficult to complete as doing 3 big lifts, 3 days a week will eventually mean 90 minute workouts or more. I have successfully used the same template with the following adjustment: Squat on Days 1 and 3 in a heavy/medium pattern, and only deadlift once a week on Day 2, alternating weeks for heavy and medium.
So Day 1 is squat heavy, bench, chin-up/pulldown; Day 2 is press, deadlift heavy/medium alternating weeks, and curls; Day 3 is squat medium, bench (close grip), and chins/pulldowns or rows.
Framework #3: The four day upper/lower split
I love this framework for more advanced “regular people” lifters and most people who don’t have competitive or super serious aspirations will never need to advance beyond a framework like this. The details will change over time based on individual needs, but a solid framework like this can work basically forever, for a regular person.
I made great gains myself running a Texas Method style of this program in 2014, and love it to this day.
So there you have it: Some frameworks for organizing your training so you don’t just follow some online template by rote. Of course you should hire a coach (me, for instance) if you don’t want to think about any of this, need help with technique, or just want an experienced hand to make this all work for you without trial and error.
But for those who go it alone, this is a great start to organizing your training in a way that makes sense, and will get you to start understanding the principles underlying things, so that you can manage your own training successfully without being frustrated and doing endless program hopping.