Weight Training

I'm doing the strength training mass express.But I would like to know, do I have…

Dan's answer

Dan Wirth, MA, CSCS

You can perform your strength tests anytime during week 5 (before or after really isn't crucial). It is more important to update your program continually rather than waiting until week 5 and 10. Here's a guide to workout updating that will explain the periodization model a little more clearly: The most important thing about changing the prescribed weights on your program is that you must be able to complete all the reps, in each set, for every exercise. If you cannot, you must decrease the weight. And, if you can easily complete everything for a particular exercise you can increase the weight. Easily completing the reps means that if the workout calls for 10 reps and you could have easily done 12 or more repetitions that you can increase the weights. However, if you could only complete 8 repetitions than you should decrease the weights. And, being able to complete only 1 rep more or 1 rep less than the prescribed workout is not significant to make any changes. This rule holds true for every week of your workout except for the "downloaded" workouts on weeks #5 and #10. I have written at the top of these workouts that you should not make any weight changes because everything is supposed to be easy! Let me be even more specific in order to give you a greater understanding of when to change your weights. On all the other workout weeks there are certain "indicator" sets for each exercise. Indicator sets are the heaviest sets for a particular exercise. These are the sets that will indicate to you whether or not you should increase or decrease the weights on a particular exercise. Take the bench press for example. The first couple of sets are lighter, warm-up sets. Obviously, you should not increase the weights on these sets. They are supposed to be easy! You must wait until you get to the heavier indicator sets to make a decision on changing the weights. On "very hard" weeks like #4 and #9 there will be 3 and sometimes 4 indicator sets on exercises like the bench press or leg press. Again, in keeping with the rule of changing weights, you must be able to complete all of these indicator sets and reps with relative ease before you should think about increasing the weights on your program. On "medium" weeks like #1 and #6 there may only be 1 or 2 indicator sets after the warm-up sets on the bench or leg press exercise. The same rule applies here as well, if you can easily complete these indicator sets then you can increase your weights. As you might have figured out, the number of indicator sets along with the total number of exercises on your program is how I designate the specific difficulty of a workout. The iWorkoutSmart.com programs are designed to allow for enough recovery for the next workout if you stay consistent in following the set and rep combination rule as outlined above. Finally, the periodization model that the programs follow will help you to avoid overtraining by incorporating the "very easy" or "download" weeks periodically throughout the length of the program. Hope this helps!