Designing an Intermediate Training Program

Designing an Intermediate Training Program I've given out quite a bit of information aimed at beginners or those looking for a starting point for an exercise or nutrition plan. This is for those who've been in the gym consistently for awhile now, have mastered the basics & made some good progress. You’ve perfected proper form on even the most difficult compound movements. You're dedicated and consistent, hard working and ready for the next level.

1. Since you're past the beginner stage you most likely know what your goals are so the design of your program should reflect those goals. Your work should focus on the ideal amount of volume, the correct rep ranges and proper length of rest periods to meet those goals. Low reps and more sets with longer rest periods are optimal to build strength. For muscle hypertrophy reps in the 8-12 range , 3-5 sets per exercise and rest periods between 1-1.5 minutes.

2. Ask yourself if there are areas that you want to prioritize? For example, if your arms are lagging behind your shoulders & chest they may need a day of their own and not be trained with chest and back which is common. Make sure they have sufficient rest between those larger bodypart days and their prioritization day. Separate your arms day from chest and back with either a rest day or training legs. 3. Even if you aren't prioritizing anything I recommend arranging your training split so that your recovery is optimized. If you deadlift you shouldn't train back and legs on consecutive days because whichever bodypart is on the second day is going to suffer. You need that day of rest in between or a different body part.

4. It's also time to begin incorporating some intensity techniques. One of my favorites is rest/pause. On that last set this technique allows you to use a heavier weight than you can handle for your target number of reps. Maybe you fail at 5 and you want to hit 9 so you rack the weight, rest for 10-15 seconds, get a couple more reps, rack it again for about 10 seconds and get one or two more. There are a multitude of intensity techniques that can be applied, but just be cautious not to overdo it. Intensity techniques put an immense amount of stress on the muscle as well as the central nervous system and create a greater need for recovery from the workout. This is where training really becomes fun. Some of my favorite intensity techniques besides rest/pause are drop sets, partials, forced reps and negatives.

5. This is a great time to get a training partner. Good training partners can provide motivation and assistance with some of those intensity techniques. Knowing you have a good spotter backing you up can give you the confidence to push your lifts to your limits. The key here is to have a “good” training partner. You don't want someone who's unreliable and shows up late or worse, doesn't show up at all. You want someone who's going to follow the same routine as you. It doesn't do much good if it's your leg day and your partner wants to train chest.

6. And last, but certainly not least important is recovery. By this point you should be able to push your body beyond what you ever thought possible. The intensity of your training is high, you're sore and loving it for days afterwards and you're addicting to the gym and loving the changes you're seeing in your body. This is when a common pitfall first presents itself in the form of overtraining. If you're still sore it's too soon to train that bodypart again. You might feel like days off are counterproductive, but that's definitely not the case. You need one or two per week to let the whole body and especially the central nervous system recover. If you don't adequately recover your progress will grind to a halt or even regress, you'll be tired and even get sick so don't neglect rest.

#Strengthtraining #Weightlifting