Like 5×5, the program length is not set in stone. You begin at 90% of your 1 rep max and add 10 lbs. Per 4 week cycle for lower body lifts that include the deadlift and back squat. Per 4 week cycle for upper body lifts that include the bench press and the overhead press. My answer to you is to not stop as long as you are making gains. Using Prilepin's Chart to monitor volume and intensity in a powerlifting and strength program is easier than you think. Using a squat, bench, and deadlift as the primary metric of strength. Transmutation – submax percentage (80-89%), moderate reps, more dedicated strength base building, honing in on.

By Bryan Alger on May 2, 2016

Alexander Sergeyevitch Prilepin was a weightlifting coach for the Soviets during the 1970's and 80's. During this time, he analyzed the training logs of many athletes and devised the Prilepin table which breaks out optimal rep ranges for olympic athletes per set and across an entire workout according to his own research. While the numbers are based off of olympic weightlifters, this table is very popular in the powerlifting community as well.

The Prilepin Table provides guidelines for training in specific intensity zones.

A couple of problems emerge from Prilepin's chart that prevent it from being useful to the broader lifting community. First of all, it completely ignores sets with more than 6 reps. Secondly, it does not apply to workouts where your rep ranges change across sets. For example, if you performed a few sets at 5 reps, and a few sets at a higher weight using only one or two reps, your workout spans multiple rows of the chart and thus has two different suggestions for the optimal rep ranges.

The Prilepin Table has since been adopted by many powerlifters

Hristo Hristov noticed these problems and took the work of Prilepin a step further by devising the INOL (Intensity x Number Of Lifts) formula which gives us a relative measure of intensity across sets of different rep ranges. The formula is simply: Reps / (100 - Intensity) where Intensity is the weight lifted as a percentage of your one rep max. For example, if your max Squat is 300 pounds, and you performed 225 x 5 during one set, your INOL value is 0.2 computed as follows: 5 reps / (100 - 75). We use the value 75 as your intensity because 225 pounds is 75% of your max of 300 pounds.

The INOL formula is useful on it's own as a relative measure of intensity across sets, but it's real value lies when constructing new workout programs, or analyzing your efforts over time. Hristov provides very useful guidelines for your targeted INOL values per movement per workout and across an entire week:

Chart

Optimal INOL values per exercise for a single workout:

  • < 0.4 - too easy
  • 0.4 - 1.0 - optimal range for most athletes. An INOL value between 0.7 - 0.8 is a recommended starting point.
  • 1.0 - 2.0 - tough workout, but good occasionally, especially for loading phases
  • > 2.0 - very difficult and could lead to overtraining if performed regularly in most individuals

Optimal INOL values per exercise across an entire week:

  • 2.0 - easy, good for reloading, could probably benefit from greater volume occasionally
  • 2.0 - 3.0 - tougher, but doable, good for loading phases
  • 3.0 - 4.0 - very tough, good for shocking your body, but not recommended for extended periods of time
  • > 4.0 - not recommended

So you know how to compute your INOL values per set, and you have guidelines for the optimal INOL values you should target in your workout, let's walk through an example of how to apply these principles to your workout program. For this example, let's say we're on an Upper/Lower split and we workout 4 days a week so that we hit each muscle twice. We're going to target an INOL of 1.0 per workout and 2.0 per week per exercise when developing our program. Machineprofile mac machineprofile for mac os. We'll keep it very simple and say we're doing a very basic split of (Bench Press / Barbell Row) day 1 and (Decline Bench Press / Seated Row) for day 2. This gives us a horizontal pressing and horizontal rowing movement, of course we would likely add more movements to a real workout plan to hit the vertical plane of our shoulders and lats, but this is enough for our example.

To get our INOL values of 1.0, we have tons of options, here are a few examples:

  • 5x5 @ 75% 1RM
  • 3x8 @ 76% 1RM
  • 1x8 @ 60% 1RM, 1x5 @ 75%1RM, 1x3 @ 80% 1RM, 2x1 @ 95% 1RM

We could choose a rep range above, or devise an entirely different range that adds up to our target INOL of 1.0. To create a program, we just pick a rep range and apply it to each exercise in our program since we're only doing one lift per muscle group. If we had more exercises in our routine, we would group them by muscle group and then spread the load so that we hit each muscle equally and optimally. Since our program is very simple, our routine might look like the one below after we choose our rep ranges:

Upper A
Bench Press - 5x5 @ 75% 1RM
Barbell Row - 3x8 @ 76% 1RM

Upper B
Decline Bench Press - 1x8 @ 60% 1RM, 1x5 @ 75%1RM, 1x3 @ 80% 1RM, 2x1 @ 95% 1RM
Seated Row - 3x8 @ 76% 1RM

Some things to notice here are that we group exercises by their movement, so bench press (including incline or decline varieties) is grouped into one category whereas our horizontal pull movements are in a separate category that get's it's own INOL limits. In this way, you can target an INOL value of 2.0 for each muscle group during a single week to make sure you're targeting each part of your body with the optimal intensity levels.

While there is no perfect measure of intensity or mathematical formula that can work for everyone, we think this is a really interesting way to analyze your workouts. Learn more about Prilepin's chart or Hristov's methods from this reddit post, then be sure to let us know in the comments below how your workouts measure up to this formula. Are you already working out in the optimal range, or are you on the upper or lower end of the yard stick according to Hristov?

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Welcome to Programming 101! In this first installment, I want to introduce the concepts of intensity and volume as they pertain to writing effective programs for building strength and muscle. In particular, this piece will discuss1) why you should consider the average intensity that makes the most sense for your training goals and 2) howintensity influences the optimal volume you should use for your main lifts in the gym.

Firstly, let's define intensity. Intensity, in weight training, is a technical term – intensity basically means “How heavy a certain weight is”. In most strength programs, this is commonly expressed as a percentage of 1 rep max (1RM). Your 1 rep max is the heaviest weight you can move on a particular exercise. For example, the answer to “how much do you bench?” is your one rep max on a flat barbell bench press. A program you use to build up your bench press will use percentages of that one rep max as training weights.

Your training goals will determine which weights (or percentages of 1RM) you'll use most frequently in training, or your program's average intensity. For simplicity, I'm going to assume most training programs skew towards one of two desired outcomes. One aim of a training program is to build strength – specifically, strength at or around 1RM (“upper-end strength”) in compound movements like the squat, bench press, or deadlift. Another common aim of a training program is bodybuilding - promoting the growth of certain muscle groups, or hypertrophy, with a combination of compound and single-joint isolation exercises.

In general, most bodybuilding/hypertrophy programs, as well as many general fitness plans, work within rep ranges of 8-12 with 55-70% of one rep max. In other words, bodybuilding programs will use lower weights, or lower average intensity, for higher rep ranges. Programs designed to build upper-end strength, however, will prescribe higher average intensities (75%-90% on average) at lower rep ranges.

Why is this? This is a great question, and it's one that can quickly get deep into exercise science. Without getting too bogged down in that stuff, here's my best understanding of the difference between strength and hypertrophy programs.

Hypertrophy programs aim to induce a high degree of stress on the target muscles of a training session. With higher rep ranges and lower weights, you're able to direct more stress on the target muscle without assistance from secondary muscle groups, allowing you to take the muscle closer to failure on each set and ensure blood and other nutrients are engorging the muscle belly. These are all training conditions that, in theory, promote optimal muscle growth.

Strength programs, on the other hand, are intended to produce a specific outcome – an increased 1RM on a particular exercise. Lower rep ranges with higher weights allow the movement to be practiced and perfected in conditions that are similar to a 1RM. As an athlete develops more strength and proficiency with an exercise, muscle will usually be built incidentally. However, it isn't the primary desired effect in a true strength program.

Now that we've identified how our training goals affect our average intensity, how exactly do we determine how much work we should do given our average intensity? Prilepin's chart (shown below) is an often-cited figure demonstrating the relationship between intensity (percentages of 1RM) and the amount of work that should be performed at a given intensity, otherwise known as volume. The rest of this post will discuss why Prilepin’s chart makes sense and useful takeaways from it.

At first glance, you can see that Prilepin's chart prescribes higher rep ranges for lower intensities, and lower rep ranges for higher intensity. Bodybuilders typically live in the top row of Prilepin's chart, while strength athletes tend to live closer to the bottom row, at least when training competition-style lifts. Most strength athletes will perform accessory work (which in effect is basically bodybuilding work) with average intensities closer to the top row of the chart – this is because the intent in training shifts from perfecting a competition movement to training muscles to support the main lift.

The two columns closest to the right of Prilepin's chart - “optimal total reps” and “optimal rep range” - are the bridge between average intensity and the optimal volume of work at that intensity. As intensity rises, the optimal volume of total reps – that is, all the reps performed for a given exercise in a certain workout – decreases. Optimal volume, in other words, is the right amount of work with a certain weight to provide an effective training stimulus. In theory, this optimal range of total reps accounts for fatigue and recovery demands – it provides stress that is just recoverable enough.

For example, let's say I'm working with 80% of my bench press. Not that the number itself is important, but to give a tangible example, my projected 1RM on bench, in pounds (#), is currently 415# - 335# is 80% of this estimated 1RM. If we look under the “Intensity” and “Optimal Total reps” columns of Prilepin’s chart, we can track that intensity (80%) with a sum total of work I should do at that intensity. It seems that if I’m working at 80%, I should optimally perform 12 total working reps for this exercise. I can do as few as 8 or as many as 16, but performing 12 total reps should guarantee adaptations to this particular training stress. Remember - total working reps means the sum total of all work completed, NOT how many reps I should do in a single set.

Let’s break this down a little more. In other words, 8 total reps is the minimum volume I should aim for at this percentage – I may be undertraining at this volume, but it will at least allow us to maintain performance. 16 total reps is the maximum volume I should aim for – doing this many reps may interfere with recovery given other variables, but should induce training effects. 12 total reps is an estimated “optimal” range where a recoverable training effect is produced.

Now that we have an idea of the total volume we're aiming for, we need to prescribe that volume in a workable scheme. According to the “reps per set” column, I should perform 4 to 6 reps per set if I'm training with 80-89% of 1RM. Since I need to do at least 8 and at most 16 total reps of this exercise, I have a few options as far as rep ranges go. I can do 2 sets of 4 to achieve the bare minimum, or I can do 4 sets of 4 to achieve the maximum. However, to account for recovery, it makes sense to go somewhere in the middle – in this case, we can do 3 sets of 4 reps to hit 12 reps, which meets the optimal volume that Prilepin's chart suggests.

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Again, note that Prilepin's chart is an estimate – most strength programs will generally align to Prilepin's guidelines rather than strictly abide by them. However, Prilepin's chart effectively demonstrates the relationship between intensity and volume. As intensity goes up, overall volume and amount of reps per set must decrease to promote optimal performance and adaptation.

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