A good way to set up a strength program is to use your own body weight(BW) as a reference point.

For example if you weigh 80kg set up your program as such.

Bench press 30% of BW x 15reps - 50% of BW for 10reps - 75% of BW for 5reps
Now do body weight for 2-3reps in power lifting style.

Each workout add another power set with additional 10-20% more weight on the bar and do 2-3reps.

Do this workout Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Once you can no longer add more weight and sets start doing back off sets.
What are back off sets? I will outline these in the example below.

Now you must do flat or incline bench press for your chest. Squats or leg press for your thighs and dead lifts or seated rows for your back.

Now in the example I will only show you it for the chest but don’t forget to do the thigh and back exercises on training days also.

EXAMPLE:  for 80kg male

Week one
Monday: 25kgx15reps -  40kgx10reps - 60kgx5reps - 80kgx2-3reps
Wednesday: 25kgx15reps  -  40kgx10reps - 60kgx5reps - 80kgx2-3reps - 90kgx2-3reps
Friday: 25kgx15reps - 40kgx10reps - 60kgx5reps - 80kgx2-3reps - 90kgx2-3reps - 110kgx2-3reps

Week two
Monday:  25kgx15reps - 40kgx10reps - 60kgx5reps - 80kgx2-3reps - 90kgx2-3reps - 110kgx2-3reps -120kg-2-3reps (maxed out)
Wednesday: 25kgx15reps - 40kgx10reps - 60kgx5reps - 80kgx2-3reps - 90kgx2-3reps - 110kgx2-3reps - 120kg-2-3reps

Now add a back off set do 50% of max weight and try to get 20reps with it. In this example 60kgx20

Once you can get 20reps add 5kg to the bar next workout and try for 20reps again and so on until you can do your back off set with Bodyweight for 20reps. Once that is achieved go back to regular training.

You will need to adjust the starting weights depending on which exercise (bench press, incline press, squats, leg press, deadlifts or seated rows) plus your lifting experience. You are much better starting off with a conservative starting weight for the power sets. It is better to build up slowly than hit the wall early.

Plus remember to keep good form. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS PROGRAM IF YOU ARE TRAINING BY YOURSELF WITHOUT A SPOTTER FOR BARBELL PRESSES AND BARBELL SQUATS!!!!!

This program helps to develop power and strength which you can borrow some of that strength to use for sport and other weight training programs.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Newsletter Article Archive, Weight Training Programs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.