1. [Home](https://www.workoutsmart.com/) 2. [Ask Dan](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan) 3. [Weight Training](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training) Weight Training # I am a college football player who last summer used a four times a week… The question I am a college football player who last summer used a four times a week lifting program very similar to yours. The program, which I followed down to the last detail, left me no stronger or faster than I was before. After the season finished this year, I have been doing a 3 times a week program similar to what I did in high school. I have made surprising gains in my strength. The program goes as follows:\ MON- BENCH, HANG CLEAN, DIPS, AB WORK\ WED-INCLINE BENCH, SQUAT, NARROW GRIP CHIN-UPS, AB WORK\ FRI- BENCH, HANG CLEAN, WIDE GRIP CHIN UPS, AB WORK\ My question to you is that because I'm making gains with this program should I stick with it or go back to the 4 day a week program? What else can I be doing to make me faster and stronger? Dan's answer Dan Wirth, MA, CSCS It is always hard to say why a program did or didn't work for one particular individual. However, with a little investigative work a good strength coach can usually figure out what went wrong or right in a program. First of all, everything has to be looked at. By everything, I mean things that are outside of the actual workout itself. Things like sleeping patterns, quality of diet, chronological age, training age, daily stress levels, outside work commitments (school, various deadlines) supplement intake, injury status, mental focus level, a quality training partner, etc. Also, being an athlete yourself, you have to look at the time of the year that you are engaged in a particular program. Sometimes a lot of additional physical work such as running sessions or spring practice schedules can have a huge impact on how your body responds to a program.\ If you look closely, you can see that everything I have listed has an impact on one very, very important and relatively simple to understand thing. That thing is RECOVERY\! Now, having a great training partner or being really focused on your program doesn't affect recovery directly. Being really focused and intense throughout your workout or having a partner or coach push you harder than you could yourself will, however, drive your body's need for recovery. One program will kill you if you don't sleep or eat well. That same program will make your body respond like never before if you do\! Maybe if you evaluated the "everything" that I mention above you will find the reason why your recovery level could have been compromised and ultimately why the 4 day program was not as effective. More about your particular program:\ The program that you mentioned in your mail is going to be ok for a 3 to 4 week period if your one and only goal is to create a preparatory base for your bench press\! Where is the shoulder work? Are there any single leg movements? As an athlete, everything is done off of one leg unless you are hopping around the field like a rabbit\! What about any form of isolation work for the triceps, rotator cuff, neck and hamstrings? This is the difficult thing with 3 day programs. When I start developing a program that has "all the basis covered", it is difficult to do in just 3 days per week unless I am only focusing on one particular area (but I would not do this with an athlete, especially a football player\!) You need to drop that upper body pressing workout to twice per week and think about adding another day of leg training\! I need to say that I have never had a person who had more than 1 year of consistent training under their belts respond well to a program that does some form of upper body pressing movements 3 times per week as your example showed. You can create a pretty good base by doing this much pressing but eventually (after 3-4 weeks) you will have to drop the volume load in order to maximize your strength and power output. It can almost get to a point where you would want to drop this to 1 time per week for the really heavy max strength and power workouts. Finally, if you are responding well to the 3 day program, you should stick with it. It is simply crazy to go to another program that you do not respond as well to. But\!\!\! In order to maximize your physical development you will eventually need to go to a 4 day program and it seems the only way to be able to do this is to make sure that your recovery levels are maximized. Dan designed the periodization models the Wave Engine runs. See how the Wave Engine turns his programming rules into your workouts. [How the Wave Engine works](https://www.workoutsmart.com/wave-engine) ## More in Weight Training - [I currently am working my muscles to failure one day, and doing alternating sets the other. I have read may not be as good I previously thought. Yet, if I do actual pre-determined sets for each exericse, won't my muscles adapt to what I'm doing? I want to keep my workout spontaneous and keep my muscles growing to their full potential. Any help is appreciated, thanks.](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/i-currently-am-working-my/739) - [I will be starting the 4-Day Get Lean Program and had a quick question. I know the weights for the sets are calculated from our strength tests, but are we supposed to basically reach failure by the end of each set. For example, if it says 15@25lbs. should I barely be able to do 25, and if it seems easy, do I increase the weight or the number of reps?](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/i-will-be-starting-the/265) - [All of a sudden my reps have been reduced to 12-15. In the past, they have all been 20 or so. Is this correct? I am doing the "get lean" program, and have had good results so far. I am in week 5. Why the sudden reduction in reps, when the weight amount has stayed the same??](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/all-of-a-sudden-my/1777) - [I've been using your programs for about a year, and have seen some results. A problem I've been having lately is on some exercises with a large \# of reps (ex. 3 sets, 20 reps, 15 reps, 10 reps), I can handle the weight, but I cannot do the full \# of reps in a set without resting for a minute or so. So, to complete an exercise, instead of doing 20,15,10; I end up doing 10,10,10,5,10. Is this what I should be doing, or should I lower the weight and do the complete sets with no rest? I feel I can easily handle the weight for the 1st 10 or so reps of each set, but then it is impossible to continue without rest. After the rest, I have no problem handling the weight for the remainder of the set.](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/ive-been-using-your-programs/1542) - [Does squating, Leg pressing, or Deadlifting stunt your growth in any way?](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/does-squating-leg-pressing-or/330) ## Train on the programs Dan writes. [Start 14 days free](https://www.workoutsmart.com/signup)