What Questions Does This Article Answer?
How do you structure a 12-week HLM training cycle for yourself?
Should you even be training with time sensitive “training cycles” or should your approach to progression be more open ended?
I think by this time, everyone that reads me pretty much knows how I structure the basic template of a Heavy-Light-Medium training program for the training WEEK.
But just so this article makes more sense to you, I’ll do a quick review (you can also read other HLM articles on my blog, and watch the HLM videos on my YouTube Channel for greater detail).
We basically have a day for high stress (high volume, high intensity, or combo of both), a day of lower stress which is usually lower volume and lower intensity, and a day of medium stress which is medium in both volume and intensity). We can repeat the same movements over and over again each day, with just alterations in loading and volume, or we can use a variety of exercises that create a natural flow of heavy-light-medium (ex: Bench Press-Overhead Press-Incline Press or ex: Back Squat-Front Squat-Paused Box Squat).
As an example, a typical HLM week in one of my programs might look like this for the Squat:
- Monday: 5 x 5 x 80%
- Wednesday: 3 x 5 x 60%
- Friday: 4 x 5 x 70%
But what about setting up training for the longer term, outside of just the structure of a given week?
Or even more useful of a question, what about setting up a specific 12-week training cycle for yourself, using a Heavy-Light-Medium template?
An Aside………(skip if you just want programming X’s and O’s)
So let me back up a bit about my thoughts on “training cycles” and whether or not you should even be thinking about your training this way, as I believe this is a very important programming consideration.
So I’m mainly speaking from my own experience of 11+ years of gym ownership and coaching and 7-8 years of delivering online based programming to my clients. I’m doing my best to examine how and why clients under both formats either fail or succeed.
Here is what I have seen based on the behaviors and results of my clients and customers……..
When I am training a client in my gym and handling their programming for them on a day to day or week to week basis, I generally do not operate within the strict confines of a “time sensitive” program (unless they are prepping for competition, a sports season, etc). In other words, I don’t place them on a strict “12 week” or “8 week program” etc. The progression of load, the manipulation of volume, etc is all done on a more open ended week to week basis, as I watch how they are responding to the training.
In other words, I don’t generally make drastic alterations to their programming if we are cruising. Cruising basically implies the trainee is steadily increasing loads on a weekly or “most weekly” basis, fatigue is manageable, etc, etc. In short – if they are making progress I don’t change much.
I add or subtract volume as needed, alter exercise selection, etc, etc on a very individual timeline and quite frankly I am in a better position to do this than most of my clients are. My judgements aren’t diluted by emotion as much as theirs’ are, I have more experience coaching hundreds of people through similar programs, and I am there to either help push them through a particularly hard work out or week, or dial them back when they may want to keep pushing ahead.
People being people, personality influences training. Some people need to be pushed, some people need to be reigned in, and this is part of the “art of coaching.”
But not everybody is training in a private gym with a coach. In fact, most people are not.
Most of my online customers are training alone, in their garage or basement gym, or in a globo type gym, surrounded by people, but still very much….alone.
I have found that these types of trainees do better with a program that has a definitive start and end date. If you are running a race, it’s easier to know where the finish line is rather than just running until you feel like stopping, someone tells you to stop, or you collapse in a heap.
We KNOW that consistency is the key to progress (more important than all the intricacies of programming details) and my observation has been that trainees are more consistent when they have the entirety of the program laid out for them in advance.
This does not mean it can’t be tweaked or adjusted midway through, but at least you can tweak or adjust in a way that helps you reach the finish line as strong as possible, and maintains the spirit of the program.
So that being said, the programs I design for online customers and clients almost always have a definitive starting point and ending point, usually 8-12 weeks. I have seen more people have success with this system than if the entire program is open ended. After the program is finished the trainee can go back and tweak some variables if needed, or run it again as RX’d if the program provided great results.
Back to the Heavy-Light-Medium Nuts and Bolts……..
So basically I set up Heavy-Light-Medium Program two ways.
First is more linear. It’s not linear in the way the Starting Strength Novice Program is (a true linear progression), but more or less the weight simply goes up a little each week and towards the end of the program, volume starts to drop. Fairly standard stuff that has been around for decades.
I will start the program very traditionally with lighter weights and higher volume. The heavy days might start at 70% of 1RM, the light and medium days at maybe 60-65%. This allows people plenty of room to get adjusted to the volume and frequency.
I HAVE to assume that people are adapted to neither when throwing a program out there to the masses. I have to assume that the trainee using this program is not used to squatting 3 days per week for multiple sets across, as many are not. In fact, many who start one of my programs may have been training very sporadically or not all prior to starting one of my templates and it would be malpractice on my part to assume otherwise. So I need to give them something very doable for the first week at least.
The biggest mistake you can make is starting Week One way too heavy.
If someone is coming to this program adapted to the volume and frequency, then they may perceive the first week as very easy, but that is less of a sin than crushing someone in the first week.
In the linear HLM model, I will generally hold volume constant while increasing load steadily for about 6 weeks. It could be less or more, but 6 weeks is a good number for the average that seems to work well. So in the gym, I might extend a client out to 7-8 weeks if we are cruising, or cut them off at 4-5 weeks if they start to wear down. But 6 is a good place to start most programs.
At about the 6 week mark I usually drop the volume of the heavy day (slightly) and start increasing intensity a bit more. The light and medium days will maintain their volume but I often decrease the intensity a bit. So if in phase one, we had a 10% reduction in load for the light day and a 5% reduction in load on the medium day, now we might increase those offsets to 20% drops on the light day and 10-15% on the medium day. This will allow you to maintain the volume you need on the light-medium days as heavy day volumes start to wind down. This also serves to provide a bit of a mid-program deload without letting off the gas too much in any one area.
Over the next six weeks, I will continue to drop volume and increase intensity every 1-2 weeks on the heavy day while maintaining volume on the light and medium days.
The final 1-3 weeks of the program will have trainees handling loads around 90%ish of their previous 1RMs for sets in the 1-3 rep range on the heavy day. I usually build in some wiggle room here in terms of rep range and total volume. By the time an intermediate trainee gets to say Week 9 of this program, they are probably stronger than when they started so “90%” of their old 1RM is not really 90% anymore. It may be less. In this case, we may be doing multiple triples across with the prescribed weights, but if not, I may allow them just to push singles or doubles. I want HEAVY, but I don’t want MAX EFFORT yet. So I adjust the rep ranges, but not the load. The load stays unless something has gone wrong in the weeks leading up to the heavy weeks.
And on the final workout of the last heavy week prior to the deload, I will push their medium day pretty hard with multiple sets across in the 80-85% range. This can be a bit miserable, but it pays dividends in the end. We never fail reps, but during the last week or so the medium day gets “not so medium” and the program looks very much like a Texas Method template with one day dedicated to higher intensity singles and one day dedicated to high effort volume work.
Then we deload and test new maxes in week 12 or 13.
This type of program is very simple, very easy to operate and adjust, and works very very well. I’ve been using this method in the gym for over 10 years with lots of modifications over the years, but this is what I have settled on after much trial and error.
Method Two – Cyclical HLM
The second way I set up 12-week cycles is with multiple 3-week mini-cycles. This type of program is a bit more complex, but also works really well.
Each 3-week mini-cycle starts higher in volume and lower in intensity and slightly bumps up intensity and lowers volume for 3 weeks, and then restarts again with a drop in intensity and an increase in volume.
As an example a heavy day might operate like this for a 3-week cycle:
- Week One: 5 x 5 x 70%
- Week Two: 5 x 4 x 75%
- Week Three: 5 x 3 x 80%
In the next mini-cycle you’d simply rotate back to 5×5 and bump the weight up a little bit, like this:
- Week Four: 5 x 5 x 72%
- Week Five: 5 x 4 x 77%
- Week Six: 5 x 3 x 82%
After 2-3 of the 3-week mini-cycles I’d start to bring the volume down a little bit (on the heavy days) in prep for a testing date:
- Week Seven: 5 x 4 x 80%
- Week Eight: 5 x 3 x 85%
- Week Nine: 5 x 2 x 90%
You could rotate through another higher intensity mini-cycle like this, or simply deload and test.
So within each 3-week mini-cycle we have a move from higher volume / lower intensity to lower volume / higher intensity, but also each mini-cycle itself might follow this same pattern, leading up into a testing day in Week 12. It isn’t always good to necessarily drop volume at every 3-week mini-cycle, but usually there is an overall drop in volume at some point leading into a testing date.
So which one to use?
To be honest I don’t think it really matters that much. Unless you start the 12-week program way too heavy they both work really well so it becomes more of a personal preference.
If you like more variation week to week, then cycle. If you want super super simple – go linear. We know that training can get stale mentally and physically if you repeat the same program over and over again, so I would suggest using both models at various points during the year.
My Garage Gym Warrior Program has been available for several years now and I have nothing but positive feedback from the program. It’s my number one best seller (largely from word of mouth) and has proven itself to produce. It’s a Cyclical HLM Program.
I recently released a Classic HLM Program that is more of a linear type progression. I’m also currently using this program with my online coaching club and I have used it in the gym for the past 10 years with personal training clients. It’s also solid as a rock.
