One of my favorite workouts is the 6-15 workout. I wrote about this workout in the last blog post and included a lot of details that I will not repeat in this blog post. However, I will review the basics of the 6-15 workout which can be summarized according to the following four important points:
1. Select 3 Basic Strength Building Exercises
When selecting exercises for your workout, choose three basic strength exercises. This should include one pressing exercise such as, bench presses, incline presses, or overhead presses. In addition, include either the squat or the deadlift, and make sure to do a pulling exercise consisting of either lat pulldowns, T-bar rows, or seated pulley rows.
2. Do One to Three Sets of 6 Reps for Each Exercise
Each exercise is performed for one to three sets of 6 reps. The reps must be even paced reps using perfect form. Rest three minutes between sets of the same exercise.
3. How To Choose The Correct Poundages
If you are using a poundage that forces you to decrease your rep speed for more than one rep at the end of a set, the weight you are using is too heavy. At the same time, if you can do more than six reps using a steady even rep speed, the weight is too light. Select a poundage that either allows 5 even paced reps with one slower rep at the end of the set, or a weight that allows 6 even paced reps.
4. Finish Each Exercise with One Set of 15 Reps
After completing one to three sets of 6 reps of an exercise, do a set of 15 reps using a weight that allows you to maintain a steady even rep pace for 14 reps, but forces you to slow down a little when you hit your 15th rep.
To put it simply, the 6-15 workouts means to perform one to three sets of 6 reps plus one set of 15 reps for every exercise.
How to Include Speed Work into the 6-15 Workout
For the rest of this article, I would like to focus on those who have the desire to include explosive speed training in order to develop explosive speed. You can do this by modifying the 6-15 workout; specifically, by dividing your set of 15 reps into 3 mini sets consisting of 5 reps each. Rest 45 seconds to a minute between sets and lift with as much force and speed as possible when performing each rep of these sets. Use the same weight that you would use if you were doing a set of 15 reps. This will generally be somewhere between 60% to 63% of your single rep max.
If you want to get the benefits of doing 15 consecutive reps plus the benefits of doing the speed work, my suggestion is to alternate workouts in which you do 15 consecutive reps for your last set of each exercise, with workouts in which you do 3 sets of 5 reps in place of the set of 15 consecutive reps.
How to Add Even More Speed Work
If you don’t think 15 reps is a sufficient amount of speed work for one workout, include two speed sets of 5 reps when working up to your heavy sets of 6 reps. Use 60% to 63% of your single rep max for these two sets. After completing these sets, do one to three sets of 6 reps, followed by three more speed sets consisting of 5 reps each. If you add the speed sets that you do before the sets of 6 reps to the speed sets that you do after the sets of 6 reps, you will be doing a total of 5 speed sets for 5 reps each within the same workout.
Include Speed Sets at Least once per Week
By including the speed sets into your workouts at least once per week, you should experience an increase in explosive speed and power. When the weights feel as though they have become easier to lift for at least three consecutive workouts, you can add five pounds to the lifts that you feel are becoming easier.
Modifying the 6-15 workout to include speed work does not take a complex adjustment, it just takes the simple adjustment that was discussed in this article. If you are not currently doing the 6-15 workout and your training is going great, keep doing what you are already doing until it stops working. On the other hand, if you are stuck at the same strength level and need to try something new, you can try the 6-15 workout, and you can also consider including some speed work with it. May God bless you with the best of training.
.
Additional Resources
Previous article Regarding the 6-15 workout
.
.
Videos Demonstrating Speed Work
.