With the release of the Garage Gym Warrior program a few weeks ago, I’ve gotten several questions from those who are curious about the set up of the program – which is a very traditional Heavy-Light-Medium training template.
It’s still not well understood that the Heavy-Light-Medium training template is NOT a specific program. It’s a means of organizing training. There is not one specific set/rep range or exercise selection that must be used for the program to work or to be called a “heavy-light-medium” program.
So the first “question” I’m going to answer is actually the summation of several questions I’ve received over the past few weeks on basically the same topic.
“What is the best set/rep/exercise organization for a Heavy-Light-Medium program?”
My favorite HLM set up uses a sets across approach for each of the 3 training days. The number of sets per day is varied according to the goal, as is the % intensity.
I most often set the heavy day at 4 sets across. 5-6 total sets could also be appropriate, especially if lower reps are being used, but for the purpose of illustration, we will assume 5-rep sets are being used. Remember, HLM programs are generally set up for populations that are a little older, are playing other sports, or just can’t recover from super-taxing barbell programs like the Texas Method. So for a heavy day 4 sets of 5 reps across is generally stressful enough.
Light Days are done for 2 sets of 5 reps across at a 10-20% reduction from the weight used on the heavy day. Medium Days are done for 3 sets of 5 reps across at a 5-10% reduction from the weight used on the heavy day. Example:
Monday: Squat 4 x 5
Wednesday: Squat 2 x 5 @ 80% of Monday
Friday: Squat 3 x 5 @ 90% of Monday
So yes, the Heavy Day (aka the “Stress” Day) is both the highest in volume AND load for any training day. This is a distinct difference from programming with the Texas Method, which separates out volume from intensity.
The % offset for light and medium days is lifter and lift dependent. The bigger and stronger the lifter the greater the % offset will be. Males will use bigger offsets than females, and lifts such as Squats and Deadlifts use bigger offsets than Presses for instance.
The 4 sets, 2 sets, 3 sets organization is used primarily when the same lift is done all 3 days of the week – for instance, back squats are typically used Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and we simply vary the load and the volume.
However, for pressing movements, I either have people as press-focused or bench focused, meaning one lift is done on Monday and Friday, and the other lift is done on Wednesday. In this case, I usually do something more like this:
Monday: Heavy Press 4 x 5
Wednesday: Bench Press 4 x 5
Friday: Light/Medium Press 3 x 5 @ 90% of Monday
For Deadlifts, I do something a little different if we are going to deadlift twice in one week. Heavy Day is usually just 1 top set, and the medium day is 2-3 sets at about a 10-20% reduction in load. In the middle we do a lighter pulling variant like an Olympic lift, a barbell row, or perhaps even just some chins or pulldowns. Example:
Monday: Heavy Deadlift 1×5
Wednesday: Barbell Rows 4 x 8
Friday: Light/Medium Deadlifts 3 x 5 @ 80-90% of Monday’s top set.
There are of course, other ways to do this and you can read more about HLM programming in Practical Programming for Strength Training or in my 3-part article series here: Simplifying Heavy-Light-Medium.
If you want a fully “done for you” Heavy-Light-Medium program that has been proven to work download this: Garage Gym Warrior.
Question #2: “My Starting Strength workouts are bordering on 2+ hours per day, sometimes 3, should I change my programming up? I don’t have this much time to spend in the gym 3 days per week? Any tips?”
There are a number of things you can do to speed up workouts and still get in the requisite amount of exercises and volume for a productive full body barbell training session.
However, for me, the biggest time saver of all is fitting your warm up sets for the next exercise in between the 2nd and 3rd work set of the exercise you are currently performing. This obviously fills up some downtime between sets (should be minimum 5-8 minutes between work sets) but it also eliminates some dead time that occurs between exercises. Time you might otherwise get on your phone, chat with a buddy at the gym, or otherwise just fuck around between exercises. (As an aside – put your phone away while you train. You won’t die if you don’t text, email, or watch a video for 90 minutes. If you HAVE to have it for the use of the Starting Strength App or for videoing yourself, fine, but have the discipline to stay out of texts, email exchanges, or video watching. This will save time for most people as well).
The way this will look in execution is something like this:
Squat (warm ups + 1st and 2nd work sets)
- 45 x 5
- 95 x 5
- 135 x 3
- 165 x 1
- 195 x 1
- 225 x 1
- 250 x 5 (5 min rest)
- 250 x 5 (5 min rest)
Start Bench Press Warm Ups……
- 45 x 10
- 95 x 5
- 125 x 3
- 145 x 1
Finish Squat (3rd work set) 250 x 5
Start Bench Press Work sets (1st and 2nd work sets)
- 165 x 5 (5 min rest)
- 165 x 5 (5 min rest)
Start Deadlift (warm ups)
- 135 x 5
- 185 x 3
- 225 x 1
- 255 x 1
Finish Bench Press (3rd work set) 165 x 5
Deadlift Work Set 285 x 5.
Done.
