In part 1 of this series we looked at how to set up a rotation of max effort exercises and an assistance protocol using just the basic equipment of a standard home gym set up.
The max effort work is actually a bit more challenging to set up in a garage gym than is a dynamic effort day, due to the need for more exercise variation on max effort day.
On the dynamic effort day, we have the option to use specialty bars, bands, chains, etc but it really isn’t necessary. You can certainly get good results from the programming using just straight weights and straight bars.
As I outlined in my conjugate training whiteboard lecture here, I prefer to operate the volume across a 5-week wave that rolls from 60-80%.
The reason being is basically that I’m trying to capture the best of both worlds in terms of traditional speed work (i.e. weight is light and bar speeds are super fast) which occurs in the 60-65% range, but also more traditional volume work that occurs in the 75-80% range. So while the bar speed will certainly be slower at 80% vs 60% I don’t think it matters that much. There is value in very light, super fast work and there is value in heavier volume work. I think especially for raw lifters and lifters who need to gain muscle mass, they need some volume work in that 80%ish range, but it can be a challenge to maintain high volumes in that range week in and week out – especially combined with max effort work in the same week.
So we wave it.
If you want to keep it simple you can just use 8-10 sets of 3 each week with the only variable being load on the bar and also rest time between sets.
So a 5-week wave looks like this for the Bench Press:
- Week 1: 10 x 3 x 60% (30-60 seconds between sets)
- Week 2: 10 x 3 x 65% (60-90 seconds between sets)
- Week 3: 8-10 x 3 x 70% (90-120 seconds between sets)
- Week 4: 8-10 x 3 x 75% (120 seconds between sets)
- Week 5: 8-10 x 3 x 80% (120 seconds between sets) *sometimes take a 3-5 minute “halftime” after set 5 or 6 in order to recover if bar speed is getting real slow, then resume 120 second rests
As far as tempo of the reps. I prefer and controlled eccentric, a brief pause on the chest, and then a super fast concentric.
You can certainly experiment with faster eccentrics and no pause, moving the sets in a more ballistic style.
If you have bands and want to use them, add light bands on weeks 1 and 2 and then use straight weights for weeks 3-5.
If you want to use bands for every week, then use a wave that puts bar weight between 50-70% or 40-60% depending on the strength of the bands (i.e. heavier bands use less bar weight, lighter bands use more bar weight).
Assistance Work on Dynamic Effort Day
Usually after speed/volume Benching then I plug in high volume overhead pressing work. In the garage gym this would probably be mostly strict standing overhead pressing. But you could also work in seated overhead pressing (supported or unsupported), behind the neck pressing, or Z-Presses. If you have dumbbells you could also do overhead pressing with dumbbells.
Because we’re mainly trying to build muscle mass in the delts, then I mostly using reps in the 8-12 range for 3-4 work sets. However, sometimes I drop the volume down a bit, up the weight, and have lifters do like 3-5 sets of 5 reps.
Third exercise of the day is generally a back/lat exercise in order to give the chest/delts/triceps a bit of a break. Lots and lots of chins or pull ups. If you are in a home gym and can’t do chins or pull ups, then you’d use a rowing exercise here. There’s a list of garage gym row variations in part one.
After we’ve given the chest/delts/triceps a bit of a rest here with the lat movement, then I’ll have my guys move into Dips. One of the best assistance exercises we can do for raw pressing strength and upper body hypertrophy. Usually 3 sets in the 10-15 rep range or I’ll just have them do 30-50 total reps in as many sets as it takes to get there. If they can’t do Dips at all, then we do several sets of max rep push ups here.
Final exercise of the day is usually changing all the time. You can focus it on whatever you want really. Most of the time we’re either doing bicep work, or the inverse of what we did on exercise #4 on max effort day. If you did rear delt work on day 1, we might do traps today. If we did traps on day 1, then we might do rear delts today. In part one, there is a short list of easy to do trap/rear delt exercises.
So a full day would look like this:
- Dynamic Effort/Volume Bench Press 10 x 3 @ 60-80%
- Overhead Press 3-4 x 8-12 or 3-5 x 5
- Chins or Pull Ups 25-50 total reps OR Rows 40-60 total reps
- Dips 3 x 10-15 or 30-50 total reps OR Push Ups 3-5 x max reps or 50-100 total reps
- Barbell Curls, Shrugs, Upright Rows, Banded Facepulls, etc 2-3 x 10-20 reps
Coaching, programming, and guidance for conjugate programming is provided in my online coaching group – The Baker Barbell Club online. If you want to follow along with our “garage gym focused” conjugate routine you can join us at any time and begin training!
