For those of you who have been following my writing for many years you know I’m a big fan of the heavy-light-medium training system. I”ve written extensively about the training system on my own blog, in Practical Programming for Strength Training, and on the StartingStrength.com website. Currently, I have the members of my online coaching group following a heavy-light-medium training system as part of the basic barbell track.
It’s a great system for basic strength training for a whole host of reasons but ultimately it boils down to the fact that it is simultaneously very simple and basic in it’s structure, and at the same time almost infinitely flexible in the coach/lifters ability to manipulate and fine tune all the key variables (intensity, volume, exercise selection, etc) to the needs of the trainee.
Way back in 2014, I wrote an article for Rxmuscle.com about using the heavy-light-medium system for trainees purely interested in hypertrophy. Ultimately the article was not well received by the Rxmuscle.com editors and audience (although it’s still up on the site) because I didn’t include 42 different bicep exercises and 24 different variations of cable flyes…..but that was the point of the article at the time. For many of the 155 lb wannabe bodybuilders that frequent the site – I felt like many of them would benefit from stepping back from the traditional bro-split and pursuing a routine that was more focused on progressing their strength on a handful of basic exercises.
I presented a sample training routine that looked something like this:
Monday Wednesday Friday
Back Squat Front Squat (quad emphasis) Box Squat (ham emphasis)
Bench Press Strict Overhead Press Incline Bench Press
Barbell Row Deadlift / Rack Pull Pull Ups
I can’t remember the exact sets and reps I laid out and it doesn’t matter as the point was that progressing one’s strength on a routine similar to this for a couple of years would ultimately get the novice bodybuilder bigger than the typical bro-split that was top heavy on small muscle group accessories and less focused on progression in the heavy basic compounds.
However, as I presented here (Evolution of the Training Split for Hypertrophy) over the course of time, there generally comes a time when trainees are going to gravitate away from full body training routines when hypertrophy / physique is the primary goal.
As the trainee advances in “training age” there is a need for more stress to be directed at individual muscle groups in order to elicit more growth and it simply becomes impractical (and difficult to recover from) to try and cram all of that stress into a full body workout.
As trainees evolve the first adjustment in the split is usually to an upper-lower type split – separating the Squat / Deadlift movements from the upper body training program which is generally going to require a higher volume of exercise selection…and it’s simply easier to get all that extra work in an upper-lower split vs a full body routine.
Once again, over time, trainees might further split the body part up into segments with something like a Legs-Push-Pull split (i.e. Legs – Chest/Delts/Triceps – Back/Biceps) as perhaps more exercises and volume per body part is again required for further growth (trainees can train 3-6 days per week on this routine).
Lastly this brings us to the body part split which is simply a natural evolution of trainees need for delivering more volume per body part in a practical and time efficient manner. Bro splits get a bad rap on the internet these days, but as with all things – context matters. What might be less than optimal for the 155 lb novice is perfectly suitable for the 225 lb trainee with a decade of training under his belt.
And as I stated in my last article – the way in which you arrange your exercises throughout the week is far less important than (1) the movements you perform (2) how well you execute those movements (3) progression on those movements.
Your quads only know that you added 50 lbs to a properly performed high-bar squat. They don’t care whether you did that as part of a full body workout, a “lower body day” or a “Quad Day.” Only The Internet cares about that.
Getting back to the point of the article……Heavy-Light-Medium & Hypertrophy……I want to talk about a cool way to apply this concept to the more advanced training scheme or body part split.
My favorite way to organize a 5-day body part split is the way in which I presented it in my Power Building program:
- Sunday: Chest/Biceps
- Monday: Lower Body I (Hamstring emphasis)
- Tuesday: Off
- Wednesday: Shoulders, Triceps
- Thursday: Back, Traps
- Friday: Lower Body II (Quad emphasis)
- Saturday: Off
I currently run this exact training split myself because I enjoy it so damn much and find it so effective. The only change I’ve made to the split is running it in a 2-on-1-off format so it goes like this:
- Chest/Biceps
- Hams, Calves
- Off
- Shoulder/Triceps
- Back, Traps
- Off
- Quads, Calves
- Chest/Biceps
- Off
- Hams, Calves
- Shoulder, Triceps
- Off
- Back, Traps
- Quads, Calves
- Off
Applying the Heavy-Light-Medium concept to programming like this was something that I kind of evolved and fell into over time, I didn’t necessarily plan it all out in advance. But basically it came out of a need for increased variation in movements because of the way that I train and the way that I train many of my clients – which is at a very high RPE / low RIR. In other words – taking most of my work sets right up to failure or within 1 rep of failure. Sometimes “beyond failure” through the use of myo-reps or DC style rest-pause sets.
I prefer lower volume training and that facilitates the need for pushing just a handful of sets very hard as opposed to performing lots of sub-maximal sets.
But in doing so, I found that I got more steady progression over time, better growth, and less build up of fatigue, and less nagging aches and pains by very frequently switching up my main exercises for each body part – as opposed to red-lining the same exercises over and over again each week.
It’s the exact same concept as to why we rotate Max Effort exercises every week in a Conjugate / Westside style power lifting program. You can max out a new 1RM every week on a Conjugate training plan, but you can’t do it on the same exercise every week. You must rotate out new movements every week or you’ll stall hard and fast.
I settled onto a rotation of 3 major exercises for each major body part – basically set up in a Heavy-Light-Medium fashion (I’m not including secondary assistance movements that are also done in addition to the one major lift of the day or exercises for smaller body parts like biceps, triceps, calves, etc).
The “Heavy” “Light” and “Medium” is determined by the max loads that each of the major exercises allows you to handle. In a hypertrophy based program this basically means max loads in the 4-12 rep range, not 1-rep maxes. I personally do only about 2 main work sets for each major exercise – one main heavy set in the 4-8 rep range, and one big back off set in the 8-12 range although sometimes that varies by the movement.
So for some examples as it relates to each individual body part:
Hamstrings
- Week 1: Stiff Leg Deadlift
- Week 2: Camber Bar or Safety Bar Goodmorning
- Week 3: Stiff Leg Deadlift from 4″ Deficit
So in this particular example the loads vary by the nature of each movement……creating an almost perfect heavy-light-medium “flow” to a 3-week block of training. Using my most recent workouts, the heavy work sets (6-10 rep range) were 425 lbs for the Stiff Legs, 320 lbs for the Goodmornings, and 375 lbs for the Deficit Stiff Legs.
This structure has allowed me to push each of these exercises maximally every week (0-1 RIR) with increases in weight or reps every week for the last 5 months without having to take deload weeks.
The weekly variation in loading has been enough to keep fatigue from building up too high, along with the fact that I keep my volume relatively low. And my hamstrings have exploded with more growth than I’ve seen in the last 10 years of training, even when I was squatting and deadlifting much heavier loads for power lifting.
After the two top sets of the heavy hip extension movement I finish with 2-3 higher rep sets of leg curls and then calves and I’m out the door in about 45 minutes.
For Quads, I’ve been doing work sets in the 6-8 range for the heavy sets with:
- Week 1: Camber Bar or Safety Bar Squats 385 – 425 lbs
- Week 2: Front Squats 315 lbs
- Week 3: Pre-exhausted High Bar Pause Squats 340-365 lbs
Again, the movement selection creates a natural “heavy-light-medium” effect over a 3 week period, while each week is still a maximal effort. After the main heavy work set, I perform a back off set in the 10-20 range.
The third week is something I’ve been experimenting with for a few months…doing regular high bar pause squats in a state of very high fatigue. In these sessions I begin the workout with 2-3 all out sets of Leg Extensions or Leg Presses in the 10-20 range to “pre-exhaust” the quads……and then I squat. This is an amazing stress on the quads while allowing for me to use much less weight. In the future I can remove the pre-exhaust movement and perhaps the pause and the High Bar Squat would then become my “heavy” movement in the rotation as I’d anticipate being about 100 lb stronger.
For Back Training…..
- Week 1: Rack Pulls or Deadlifts or Deadlifts w/ Bands
- Week 2: Barbell Rows
- Week 3: Dumbbell or T-Bar Rows
With back training the heavy-light-medium effect is created both with absolute load but also the fatigue created on the lower back. Rack Pulls and Deads are done only when I have a rest day scheduled afterward and the row variation is selected based upon which squat variation I have planned at the next training session. Dumbbell and T-Bars don’t create much if any low back fatigue and those are generally done when I have Safety Bar Squats the next day, the rest of the time it’s Barbell Rows. Back sessions also usually include some pull ups and/or pulldowns, rear delt and trap stuff.
Shoulder Training…..
- Week 1: Strict Press
- Week 2: Behind Neck Press
- Week 3: Dumbbell Press
Chest Training……
- Week 1: Barbell Inclines (heavy 3-6 range)
- Week 2: Barbell Inclines (8-12 range)
- Week 3: DB Bench Press (slight decline)
For chest training I’m limited by a shoulder injury and can’t flat bench press anymore otherwise I probably would. I can incline and I can perform DB Bench Presses at about a 20 degree decline which I prefer anyways to flat. So this is my rotation for chest movements, using the Incline Press twice but hitting it at different rep ranges in order to vary the loading pattern.
A few points to close with……
- This HLM system does not apply to every exercise you do. Just the main big exercise for each day. After the main exercise each day, 1-2 “smaller” exercises are performed for that body part, usually a total of 2-3 exercises per body part. And I don’t really apply it to triceps, biceps, calves, etc. We rotate exercises all the time, but with less thought to loading and more just variety in general.
- I’m not necessarily recommending this approach for any one person. It happens to be working really well for me for the last 5-6 months and I have no plans to change this overall structure in 2020.
- Typically if an exercises starts to stall out (2-3 workouts in a row with no progress) I’ll pull it out of the rotation and replace it with something else, but still keeping it within the HLM format. Only change up the exercise that is stalling and keep running with the others if possible.
Again….this is one of those thought pieces that is more along the lines of “I just thought I’d share it with you” as opposed to “everyone needs to do this now!” type of articles. I thought it was cool that almost by accident I kind of fell into a training approach that is better than something I would have pre-designed myself – but actually falls right into line, conceptually, with something I’ve designed hundreds of times for others. Pretty cool.
