The Only Strength Program That Ever Worked
Takeaway Points:
I spent a decade of training that progressed a lot slower than it could have, because it turns out that one of the first strength programs I ever tried is (still) the best program I’ve ever used.
I spent a long time trying out every strength training program under the sun, only to come back to this because it kept working.
Here’s what sets this program apart from the rest, and why it works so well.
Here’s A Fun Story Of How I Wasted Ten Years of Training
When I first started out powerlifting, I was a fresh-faced kid straight out of university with a personal trainer certification and not much experience. I loved working out and wanted to get more serious, and got interested in powerlifting because I wanted to be strong as hell.
Up until that point, most of my training had been either completely unstructured, or I’d just vaguely followed programs from bodybuilding.com and similar. So, I started out by following powerlifting programs online.
More specifically, I followed ONE particular program. I don’t even know where I originally found it, just that it was something that I had seen online that some powerlifter had recommended.
I saw incredible results on this program, and got to a squat of 375, and a bench of 325, and a deadlift of 425 within my first six months or so of training. These numbers are SHOCKINGLY CLOSE to my all time maxes - 425 squat, 345 bench, and 550 deadlift.
I’m not going to tell you what program this was to start off because here’s the kicker - I entirely forgot what program this was, for about ten years.
When progress started to slow down, I made the mistake of assuming that I must need a new program. So I dropped that original program, and I tried out every other program under the sun - Westside, 5/3/1, Smolov, Starting Strength, etc. - nothing really worked, and all of them resulted in my strength staying the same, or decreasing.
After that point, I had enough experience working with clients that I had figured out how to make programs of my own. So, I started relying more on my own programs, progressed in methods that seemed to work well for me, and I started to see progress again.
The Return
After a while, I looked back on that initial period where I was on that one magical, nameless program. I realized that yes, a lot of those results had been due to beginner gains, but also I recognized that the method, the style of progression was slow and steady, and made the most sense to me of any programming style I had ever attempted. It was essentially a linear periodized program, but with very slow linear periodization, and a heavy focus on sets of 2-3, with lots of training at a high intensity.
Even funnier, I realized that my own programming, over time, had slowly come to converge back on that style. My exact style of preferred programming wasn’t exactly the same, but it borrowed heavily from the influence of that original program.
And even better, this was when I started seeing results again. I had spent a solid decade of training, learning, and experimentation to discover that maybe - the best training program for me was the very first one I had ever tried, and I had never even known how good I had it!
After I shifted my training to focus on bodyweight/calisthenics training in 2020, I started to hit the gym again in 2022, and from that point my training was very similar to that magical program. As a result, I quickly regained all the strength I had lost in the intermediate years, and I started setting PR’s again for the first time in maybe 5 years or so.
The Rediscovery
Finally, I eventually rediscovered the program, thanks to a post from another trainer on Instagram: this program was Doug Hepburn’s strength program.
Doug Hepburn was a famous Canadian strongman who blew numerous records out of the water. His program followed a very simple, “slow and steady” format. The version that I originally followed was this:
Train for strength 2x/week, with bench, squat, and deadlift in the same session.
Start off with 8 sets of 2 at a challenging weight (probably around 80% of your 1RM).
Each time you train, you add one single rep (yes, just one rep). This means that the progression looks like this:
Workout 1/Week 1 - 8x2
Workout 2/Week 1 - 1x3, 7x2
Workout 1/Week 2 - 2x3, 6x2
Workout 2/Week 2 - 3x3, 5x2
Etc.
This progression is used the same for all three lifts, then followed up with accessory exercises as desired.
This progression is followed until you hit 8x3 on all lifts, then you add an increment of weight (5-10lbs), and repeat.
This program is very slow! This means that you would spend 1 month at the same weight before adding 5lbs, for example. Most people would not be happy with 5lbs/month of progress. But at the same time, this adds up seriously if done consistently - 5lbs/month is 60lbs/year, which would be an incredible rate of growth for an advanced lifter. If you’re taking bigger jumps in weight (10-15lbs/month) you can see many times that rate of progress as well, and this is what I did early on in my training, often adding 20-30lbs/month as a beginner (boy, those were the days!).
I’ve seen a lot of variations of this program online, and I don’t know where I found this original version anymore. I see versions where you only train heavy 1x/week, and you add 2 reps each time you train rather than training 2x/week and adding 1 rep each time you train. I’ve seen some programs that recommend more accessories, some that recommend less. I’ve seen “A” and “B” versions of the program, and versions that recommend splitting up the main lifts differently, or incorporating overhead press, and so on. I don’t think that matters too much because the core progression - adding 1 rep per training session while working with the same weight for a month, and then adding weight and reducing reps again - is the important thing here.
This progression is the core of a lot of my own training now, and I’m surpassing old numbers in training, soon to hit true PR’s again.
Never Give Up A Good Thing
I think the important thing is never to become impatient. As a result of my impatience, I spent a lot of years making mistakes and learning the hard way, that the program that was best for me was actually the very first one I ever tried. I only lost that, because I had a “grass is always greener” mentality. I got fascinated by all the programs that people insisted were the best, and ignored the one that actually worked well for me.
If what you’re doing is working - don’t stop, and don’t let yourself get off track.
About Adam Fisher
Adam is an experienced fitness coach and blogger who's been blogging and coaching since 2012, and lifting since 2006. He's written for numerous major health publications, including Personal Trainer Development Center, T-Nation, Bodybuilding.com, Fitocracy, and Juggernaut Training Systems.
During that time he has coached hundreds of individuals of all levels of fitness, including competitive powerlifters and older exercisers regaining the strength to walk up a flight of stairs. His own training revolves around bodybuilding and powerlifting, in which he’s competed.
Adam writes about fitness, health, science, philosophy, personal finance, self-improvement, productivity, the good life, and everything else that interests him. When he's not writing or lifting, he's usually hanging out with his cats or feeding his video game addiction.
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