Some of my best gains in the gym have come during my busiest and most stressful times.
I distinctly remember hitting two big personal bests on the front squat and trap bar deadlift during finals week of my junior year of college. I had low expectations going in because for the three weeks prior, I'd been forced to pare down my program to the bare minimum because I was holed up reading and writing papers.
I'd gone from training 4-5 days a week to three. Workouts went from two hours down to 30-35 minutes tops, including warm-ups. There was no accessory work. No hitting the muscles from all angles. Just a few concentrated hard and heavy sets on the basics.
I wasn't sleeping much, or eating particularly well, and I wasn't obsessing at all about my workouts. In fact, except for the half-hour I spent in the gym, I wasn't thinking about lifting at all.
I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I'd managed to get stronger. Then the same thing happened again during midterms of my senior year, and that's when it dawned on me.
I was getting stronger because I wasn't obsessing about my workouts. I'd been spending too much time over-thinking and over-prioritizing the minutia.
Lifting is tricky because it's not that time consuming. It's not like video games or chess where you can do it all day every day because you'll quickly burn out. That leaves a lot of time unaccounted for to think about lifting – and that can be dangerous.
The more you think and the more you read, the more you start to mind-screw yourself and start worrying about the little things that don't really matter.
To that end, here's a template based around the premise of getting back to the basics. I'd recommend it for the following audiences:
It doesn't have to be something you follow for a full 8-10 weeks, but it certainly could be if you wanted to. I've had success using it for 2-3 week spurts when particularly swamped with work, or during times when I feel like I've lost sight of the bigger picture and need to refocus my training.
The beauty of the program lies in its simplicity. Don't get it twisted though; this is not a de-load and it's not meant to be easy. I call it the Power of Three.
The program consists of three workouts: A, B, and C. Try to spread them out over the course of the week with at least one day off in between. It doesn't matter if your workouts fall on the same days each week; just get them done.
Each workout will consist of three main exercises, one from each of the following categories: lower body, pull, and push.
The actual exercises should be different for each of the three workouts, but the categories stay the same throughout. That means you need to pick three lower body exercises, three pulling exercises, and three pushing exercises.
For each exercise category there will be a heavy day, a medium day, and a light day. So if you do heavy lower body one day, the next workout would be medium, then light, etc.
This way, you hit all the major muscle groups three times a week – giving you the benefit of increased frequency – yet you're modulating the intensity to avoid crushing yourself.
The weekly split looks like this:
Note that heavy, medium, and light refers to the rep ranges and the weight, not the effort. Full effort is expected on everything.
The ideal reps per set will vary slightly depending on which exercises you choose, but in general:
The heavy exercise of the day will be done for six sets while the medium and light exercise each get three.
To save time, the entire workout will be performed as paired sets. I say "paired sets" rather than "supersets" because for many, a superset implies moving between exercises with no rest.
The primary goal here is strength, so I want you to rest – but I realize you're also busy and don't have time to sit around the gym.
With paired sets, you move back and forth between two different exercises, but you'll take as long as needed in between each set to fully recover.
The first three sets of the heavy exercise will be paired with three sets of the medium exercise, while the last three heavy sets will be paired with the light exercise.
Confused? Here's how it breaks down for Workout A as an example:
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
A1 | Heavy Lower Body | 3 | 3-6 |
A2 | Medium Pull | 3 | 6-9 |
B1 | Heavy Lower Body (A1 continued) | 3 | 3-6 |
B2 | Light Push | 3 | 10-15 |
Remember, you only get three exercises for each category for the entire week, so choose them wisely.
I've provided you with some loose guidelines for exercises, but I've deliberately left most of the work up to you. Here's why:
Here's a sample workout. This should give you an idea of the framework of the program, but feel free to plug in different exercises as you see fit.
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
A1 | Deadlift | 3 | 3-6 |
A2 | Dumbbell row | 3 | 6-9 |
B1 | Deadlift | 3 | 3-6 |
B2 | Ring push-ups | 3 | 10-15 |
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
A1 | Bench press | 3 | 3-6 |
A2 | Front squat | 3 | 6-9 |
B1 | Bench press | 3 | 3-6 |
B2 | Inverted row (weighted if necessary) | 3 | 10-15 |
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |
A1 | Chin-up (weighted if necessary) | 3 | 3-6 |
A2 | Alternating overhead dumbbell press (neutral grip) | 3 | 6-9 |
B1 | Chin-up | 3 | 3-6 |
B2 | Walking lunge | 3 | 10-15 |
Don't make this overly complicated. There's no need for calculators or complex equations.
Your success (or lack thereof) with this template will hinge on two things: wise exercise selection, and brutal effort. I hope I've given you an idea of how to pick the best exercises to suit your needs. The effort part has to come from you.
Remember, there's a reason that the big and strong dudes are labeled "meatheads" and skinny guys are called "geeks." It doesn't take a whole lot of brainpower and fancy programming to get strong. What it does take is persistence, a tenacious work ethic, time, and a brass set of balls.
Get er' done!
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