After several months of training you should have created a resistance base for your exercises and routine sufficiently demanding so as to generate fatigue that will accumulate to a point that increasing the weight on the bar session after session will not be possible.

We are talking about a volume of training so high that your body can’t recuperate with the scheme of a typical week, resting a couple of days between sessions. The first sign, as we talked about in beginning training, is that you won’t be able to reach your objectives in reps for various sets in different sessions (once again assuming that nutrition, rest, and levels of stress are adequate).

Here is where plateaus occur, where no matter what we do we seem to have little to no progress. At this point it’s possible that you need to implement a progress system a bit more elaborate that will allow you to continue increasing your levels of strength and muscle size.

Deloads

It’s very common at this point to feel that if we lift less weight for a defined period of time is going to deteriorate our gains, some people don’t want to go to the weight room and lift less weight than what they’re used to, be that for pride, wrong idea of muscle atrophy, feeling of wasted time, or other reasons.

The truth is that for those that have achieved this level of adaptation, the need to take planned periods where the volume of training is intentionally reduced starts to be imperative, given that the effect of accumulated fatigue can reach a point where your progress not only stalls but you may even regress.

Deloads then are periods of time, generally a week, where the intention is to reduce the training volume with the idea of dissipating the accumulated fatigue. So far the only similar thing we have done is to reduce the weight on the bar when we fail for 2 consecutive sessions with the same intention of reducing fatigue and possibly reach our reps with the new weight on the next session.

Now we’re going to include this idea by default in our program, for 1 week we will intentionally decrease sets, reps and possibly even the weight. With this strategy we make sure to have a light week where we create enough stimuli to maintain our adaptations, at the same time that we reduce accumulated fatigue.

Periodizing for progression

Your first task is to find or elaborate a protocol of training where every week you vary the components that make up your routine (intensity, reps, sets) with the intention of creating an adequate overload through time.

Previously you were able to increase the weight on the bar almost every session, progressing weekly. Now your progress will be through the weeks and to achieve that we need to create a system where every week you have a particular goal.

One way to do this is to create blocks of training of a month each (called mesocycles) in which every week (called microcycles) will vary in reps and intensity. The changes through the microcycles will be reducing reps and increasing intensity until we reach the fourth week that by design will be a Deload.

Knowing your weights and rep ranges on each exercise, choose a weight that you know you can complete 10 reps close to failure, and using 3 sets with a 6-8 rep range (3×6-8) you’re going to plan your sessions. The first 4 weeks may look like this:

	Weight	Sets	Reps
Week 1	100	3	8
Week 2	105	3	7
Week 3	110	3	6
Week 4	100	2	6

In this example the trainee has achieved without problems the goals and is ready to advance, increasing the intensity and therefore the total volume.

	Weight	Sets	Reps
Week 5	105	3	8
Week 6	110	3	7
Week 7	115	3	6
Week 8	105	2	6

This system allows to progress through time, limiting fatigue and producing measurable results.

Isolation Movements

To progress exercises of isolated movements, like bicep curls or triceps extensions, first of all we have to remember that the intensity that we train them with can’t be too high for safety reasons. Assuming a range of 10-15 reps as safe, we know we’ll be using a relatively light weight that won’t put us at risk of injury.

Again, using a weight we know we can lift for 15 reps close to failure, we’re going to start our first week looking to perform 3 sets of 15 reps each. Once achieved we can advance in weight and start from the lower rep range.

The reason why we have such an ample range here unlike compound exercises is because percentage-wise the increments are higher. Consider that when we increase 5lbs on the bar when we lift 100lbs we’re talking about a 5%. When we do it on a dumbbell where we lift say 25lbs and the next one is 30lbs we’re talking about a 20% increase. Such increases in weight should be managed in a lower range of reps from the last one to be able to progress properly.

Regardless of your progress in these exercises, during the deload week you’re going to use the same reasoning, in this case eliminating one set and using the lower side of the range.

	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Weight
Week 1	13	14	14	35lbs
Week 2	14	14	14	35lbs
Week 3	14	15	15	35lbs
Week 4	10	10	N/A	35lbs

In the same way if you achieve those 15 reps in all 3 sets before the deload week, say on the second week, feel free to advance in weight for the third week but respecting the rule of lowering the volume during the deload with your previous weight in that mesocycle.

	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Weight
Week 1	13	14	14	35lbs
Week 2	14	14	14	35lbs
Week 3	14	15	15	35lbs
Week 4	10	10	N/A	35lbs

For the next mesocycle continue working with your new weight in the appropriate range until you get all 3 sets for 15 reps.

Effective Reps

The reason why we train with a challenging weight is to cause muscle fatigue in an efficient way. While we can use a light weight for an exercise and perform 30 reps or more before causing muscle fatigue and failure, it’s not the best time investment or optimal way to promote the adaptations we seek. Of those 30 or more, perhaps the last ones would be effective, and the rest wouldn’t be stimulating the muscle measurably.

In the same way using a weight too challenging that only allows you to perform 1-3 reps may not be the most optimal strategy (save for training for power and strength as in powerlifting), because even though you reach failure (or ideally 1 or 2 reps short of failure) in a few reps and they all can be considered effective, the rest between those sets tends to be longer, and due to that reaching the desired volume can be too hard. Additionally the risk of injury could be higher by not being able to maintain form with a constant heavy weight.

The studies here agree that the recommended ranges for hypertrophy are between 8-15 reps, in some exercises (mainly isolated ones) even up to 20. This range allows us to lift a relatively challenging weight and with sufficient control to perform many effective reps, besides accumulating an appropriate volume for our goals.

Training to failure

Bro culture has made a lot of people used to the idea that if you’re not training to failure, you’re not stimulating the muscle for growth. Not only is this false but it also causes suboptimal results where appropriately you could get better ones.

Now, it’s true that when you train to failure you recruit more muscle fibers and cause more tissue damage, however not only is it unclear if the additional damage is directly related to increases in muscle and strength, but fatiguing the muscle in each set to failure will reduce your capacity to create an appropriate volume that you otherwise could, given that on every set you’ll be more and more fatigued and will lift less and less weight.

Another reason, and perhaps more important, is that for compound exercises like deadlifts and squats, training to failure can increase the risks of breaking form and causing injuries.

With all this being said, training to failure has its specific utilities. One of the best ways to assess your strength in a particular exercise is performing a set to failure with a high enough weight. If you want to know how much you can lift in a bench press, you can pick a weight that you know you can lift for 4 reps close to failure and perform as many reps as you can until you reach failure. Don’t forget to have a spotter especially in this exercise so they can help you unrack the bar, assist on the last rep if needed, and rack the bar safely.

Monitoring progress

At this point you should know well that maintaining a constant log of your sessions is essential to know if you’re progressing or not. It´s not necessary to do tests to failure all the time to see if your strength has improved, this can turn into an ego check more than a measure of advancement. Maybe every 2 mesocycles you can do it if this is something that gnaws your curiosity.

Perhaps the most common way is to see if every mesocycle you’re increasing the reps, weight on the bar, or a combination of both. With time you should see an increment in strength with these factors alone.

Good days and bad days

Something worth mentioning is that you’re going to have, as I like to call them, bestial days and pathetic days. On pathetic days you´ll feel that you have no energy, that the bar moves slower than usual, and that you don’t recover as you normally do between sets. Don’t despair, we all have days like these and they are normal. It’s possible that you haven’t been resting well, your nutrition has been lacking, daily stress has been high, and many other reasons that could influence your performance in the weight room.

The least you should do is reduce the weight on the bar and go for your target reps in each set, a 10% reduction works well for most. In the worst case that you feel too disconnected from your session, take the day off and use that time to relax if it’s stress, eat if it’s nutritional, or sleep if it’s rest (I can almost guarantee this is it in the majority of the cases).

On the other extreme you’ll find days where you feel the weight on the bar is lighter, in your first sets you can lift with ease what in the previous sessions was challenging and you recover faster between sets, you’re a beast today! So decisions need to be made and you should increase the weight on the bar, right? Not so fast.

Resist the urge to lift more weight that day, to train to failure with your newly acquired strength, to add more sets than you’re supposed to do, and any other idea that derails you from your routine. In the best case scenario you can do as many reps as possible on your final sets of every exercise close to failure.

The idea is that you maintain the purpose of your program, carry out your sets and reps and rejoice on the fact that it felt like child’s play. Abusing your awesomeness that day may leave you destroyed that session, effectively sacrificing one day for the other.

Consistency

From now on your progress is going to be slower than when you started, where you could see changes in your capacity week after week. This is not something that should discourage you, to the contrary, you should see it as an achievement, you have graduated to an intermediate level in the advancement of your weightlifting career.

More than ever this is the moment to focus and maintain faith in your training program, because progress is dependent on a controlled and constant stimulus through time. Remember that every session has an objective, every week a purpose, and with time you will look back and see your progress as the months go by.

This is the point where you start to distinguish yourself from the average recreational trainees who are spinning their wheels, not progressing in strength or physique as the years pass. Consider yourself lucky that you are not one of them.

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