Three sets for strength

If you are at the beginning or intermediate stages of lifting, you will probably be able to do a basic three set per exercise workout while adding a small amount of weight to your lifts every seven to twenty-one days. The longer you lift, the more difficult it becomes to keep adding weight on a frequent basis which means that you will eventually need to change your strategy for progressively adding weight.

For those who have been lifting for a year or more, I believe that the heavier you lift, the less often you should try to add weight. In contrast, when doing sets that are lighter and less intense, you should add weight or reps more often. This is the basic idea behind the three sets per exercise plan presented in this article.

First Set: Work up to 85% of your Single Rep Max for 1 rep

The plan lasts for nine weeks. Each exercise starts with working up in weight to 85% of your single rep max for one rep for your first work-set. This should be done in each workout. When performing a given exercise for a single rep, you should use the same weight for all nine weeks with the goal of being able to lift the weight with greater ease by the end of the ninth week.

Second Set: Three Weeks Each For 6 Reps – 5 Reps – 4 Reps

The plan also consists of a second set in which the weight is changed every three weeks. During the first three weeks, use 77% of your single rep max for one set of 6 reps. The idea is to use the same weight in every workout for three weeks with the goal of being able to lift it with greater ease by the end of the three week period. This means you should stop about two reps short of failure at the start of the three-week period, but by the end of the three week period, you should be closer to stopping three reps short of failure with the same weight you started with the first week. The fourth, fifth, and sixth weeks are done with 80% of your single rep max for 5 reps, and the seventh, eighth and ninth weeks are done with 82% of your single rep max for 4 reps.

Third Set: Lighter Weights and Higher reps

So far, the workout consists of a single rep consisting of 85% of your max, and a second set consisting of either six, five, or four reps depending on where you are in the cycle. The third and final set is done with higher reps. When doing the third set, you will be using about 60% of your single rep max the first three weeks and you will do 13 reps the first week, 14 reps the second week, and 15 reps the third week. For weeks four, five, and six, you will be using 65% of your single rep max and will be doing 10 reps for week four, 11 reps for week five, and 12 reps for week six. For weeks seven, eight, and nine you will be using 70% of your single rep max and will be doing 8 reps during week seven, 9 reps during week eight, and 10 reps during week nine.

If you look closely at the workout, you will notice that there is no progression planned into the first set except to allow the weights to become easier to lift. The weights for the first set are not increased during the nine-week cycle, but can be increased at the start of the following nine week cycle. At the same time, the second set is lighter and consists of three different percentages that grow heavier across nine weeks. The third set is the lightest set and consists of three increasingly heavier percentages while the reps are increased from week to week for each percentage listed.

When you consider the design of this training strategy, it is based on bottom up progression and top set acclimation. This simply means that the lighter sets are designed to grow progressively harder over time, and the heaviest set should grow easier over time as you acclimate to the same weight for a single rep.

Three Sets for Strength

Each week of the program consists of three sets per exercise. The sets, reps, and percentages for each week of the program are presented week by week for the nine-week training plan that is presented below:

Week 1