Foreword
Weeklifts is a mix and match of numerous programs that I created for myself in my intermediate stages of lifting.
It takes inspiration from 531, Cube method, and RPT (Leangains).
The goal was to keep things relatively simple, allow for non-linear progression, and have some flexibility to 'fail' if I wasn't feeling great that week.
I created this when I was relatively new to lifting, which was probably a bad idea. But looking back, I think I still hit some fairly fundamental principles, and it's not a terrible program, though it does have flaws.
I made some great progress on this around my 3 year mark lifting.
Structure
Each target lift is done once a week - I tracked Squat, Bench, Deadlift, OHP.
For each main lift, we track 3 rep ranges and our current working weights with those ranges. Each will progresses independently.
Rep ranges can vary, but they should be consistent for a defined training block.
The original implementation of this program used the following target rep ranges:
1-3, 3-5, and 5-7 - If this looks familiar, it's based on 5/3/1.
A later variation used:
2-4, 5-7, 8-10
In any given week, you're dedicating a day to each lift. Let's assume we work out Mon/Wed/Fri.
Each week, you work on a different rep range for the lifts. If we stuck with the 5/3/1 structure, that might look like this:
W1
Monday - Squat - 5-7 rep work
Wednesday - Bench - 5-7 rep work
Friday - Deadlift - 5-7 rep work
Saturday - OHP - 5-7 rep work
W2
Monday - Squat - 3-5 rep work
Wednesday - Bench - 3-5 rep work
Friday - Deadlift - 3-5 rep work
Saturday - OHP - 3-5 rep work
W3
Monday - Squat - 1-3 rep work
Wednesday - Bench - 1-3 rep work
Friday - Deadlift - 1-3 rep work
Saturday - OHP - 1-3 rep work
W4
Deload
From there, we rejig things a bit.
First, instead of 5/3/1/d, we go with 3/5/1/d. This spaces out your heavy weeks nicer.
On top of that, we make each week have different rep ranges for each lift - this is kind of like the cube method / conjugate.
We end up with something like this:
W1
Monday - Squat - 3-5 rep work
Wednesday - Bench - 1-3 rep work
Friday - Deadlift - 5-7 rep work
Saturday - OHP - Deload
W2
Monday - Squat - 5-7 rep work
Wednesday - Bench - Deload
Friday - Deadlift - 1-3 rep work
Saturday - OHP - 3-5 rep work
W3
Monday - Squat - 1-3 rep work
Wednesday - Bench - 3-5 rep work
Friday - Deadlift - Deload
Saturday - OHP - 5-7 rep work
W4
Monday - Squat - Deload
Wednesday - Bench - 5-7 rep work
Friday - Deadlift - 3-5 rep work
Saturday - OHP - 1-3 rep work
Progression
Each lift is tracked and progressed independently.
Finding these doesn't have to be very scientific. Take a weight you're comfortable hitting at the lower end of each rep range, for each lift, at around an 7RPE.
That might look like this as a starting point:
Squat
Reps - Weight
1-3 - 300
3-5 - 275
5-7 - 250
Bench
Reps - Weight
1-3 - 225
3-5 - 210
5-7 - 200
Deadlift
Reps - Weight
1-3 - 405
3-5 - 375
5-7 - 345
OHP
Reps - Weight
1-3 - 185
3-5 - 165
5-7 - 140
For each lift, you will try to hit the the rep range on the prescribed day and progress based on that.
If you miss the rep range entirely, or hitting the minimum is more than RPE 9, drop your weight for that range.
- If you miss it by one rep, drop 10 lbs for squats/deadlift, or 5 lbs for bench/ohp
- If you're completely off and missing it by multiple reps, drop the weight significantly.
If you hit the minimum, or middle rep range, keep the weight the same for that rep range.
If you hit the upper rep range, add 10 lbs or 5 lbs to that rep range.
What does this look like in practice?
Let's follow squats for a full cycle using our previous examples.
Summary of the previous data for squats:
W1 Squats - 3-5 - 275 lbs target
W2 Squats - 5-7 - 250 lbs target
W3 Squats - 1-3 - 300 lbs target
W4 Squats - Deload
W1, squats are 3-5 reps. Our target weight is 275.
We work up to to our target weight, and do 275 for 4 reps. It was around 9 RPE.
No changes to our targets.
W2, squats are 5-7 reps. Our target weight is 250.
We work up to our target weight and easily hit 7 reps.
We can adjust our target for next time:
1-3 - 300
3-5 - 275
5-7 - 250 + 10. New target is 260.
W3, squats are 1-3 reps. Our target weight is 300.
We work up to our target weight and hit 3 reps.
We adjust our target for next time:
1-3 - 300 + 10. New target is 310
3-5 - 275
5-7 - 260
W4, deload week. We do some accessory work. More on this later.
W5, we're back at 3-5 rep range. Our target is still 275 for 3-5.
W6, we're back at 5-7 rep range. Our target is now 260 for 5-7.
W7, we're back at 1-3 rep range. Our target is now 310 for 1-3.
Rinse, repeat.
Accessory
I generally ran accessory following 5/3/1 Big But Boring
I didn't feel like I had particular weaknesses to address at this point in my training, and really just wanted specificity and to learn the movements perfectly.
For those unaware, BBB is essentially doing 10 reps for 5 sets of one of your lifts after the main lift. Around 50% of your max.
You can do this one of two ways:
- Do your main lift for the day as prescribed above, then do the same lift again for 10 reps x 5 sets.
- Do your squats as prescribed above, then do an alternate movement for 10 reps x 5 sets. Do deadlifts after squats, squats after deadlift, bench after ohp, and ohp after bench.
I think 1 is fine to start, as frequency isn't that important when you're newer. However, option two gives you more frequency, doing each lift, or a variation, twice a week.
You can do the exact same lifts every time, or have your accessory lift be a variation (front squat instead of squat, for example)
After BBB, you can do a little extra ab or back work, alternating.
More information on this is available here
That said, you can run any variation of 5/3/1 accessory, or really any other accessory you deem fit.
Deload days
Since I did my accessory using the competition lifts and not alternate variations, I did variations on my deload weeks, usually with the same 10 reps x 5 sets rep scheme.
These days are meant to be a break from your regular programming. They're a chance to work on some other stuff you neglect.
Arms, Calves, Upper back, etc...
Quirks and notes
This really relies on you being honest with yourself about form, form breakdown, and RPE, since we're generally avoiding percentage based training and set-in-stone progression.
If you're lying to yourself , you're going to hit a wall (though it will self adjust when you start missing sets).
If you're over exerting yourself and having to go to 10 RPE to hit the rep ranges constantly, you're going to burn out. If you're feeling good one day, of course go for it. However, be cautious about moving the weight up in these scenarios.
On the other hand, you could find yourself with fuckarounditis and not driving or pushing yourself. The only way to progress is to push yourself and your limits. You're chasing some sort of rep or weight PR constantly. If you're not doing the sets with that in mind, you're not going to progress.