apre for strength & size
TRANSCRIPT
www.myosynthesis.com
October 7, 2011
All this talk about autoregulation and about
getting strong in more general ways has had me
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doing a lot of thinking. This workout scheme in
particular was inspired by this post of mine
(http://www.ampedtraining.com/exercise-science
/research-review-autoregulatory-training-linear-
periodization) and the paper it references.
Autoregulated Progressive Resistance Exercise
(APRE) is similar to plain old PRE, which some of
you may know as linear progression. You show
up, do a workout, and next time you throw more
weight on the bar. Pretty simple. It also has a
tendency to build you up to a plateau that is very
hard to break through. Usually you have to go on
some more complicated and varied workout to
keep improving.
That’s where the A-for-autoregulated part comes
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in. Instead of just mindlessly adding weight each
workout, the APRE protocol introduces a little
testing and adjusting. Which means I’m a fan.
I’ve discussed elsewhere
(http://www.ampedtraining.com/strength
/raw-lifting-linear-periodization) how I think some
kind of linear progression is probably the best
idea for most people looking to get strong. The
problem is in finding a smart linear progression. I
laid out a few options in that post which are worth
a look.
At the same time, the results of the comparison
between APRE and that simple linear progression
are intriguing. This fits with a long-held belief of
mine: an autoregulated program that has built-in
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ways to adjust itself will prove superior to any
pre-planned workouts. Despite what we’d like to
believe, the body doesn’t like to fit itself into
nicely planned weekly schedules and monthly
training blocks. A program that can account for
that fluctuation will be a step ahead.
I’ve gone over other options for this process
of autoregulation
(http://www.ampedtraining.com/workouts
/autoregulating-workouts-bodybuilding-general-
strength) in another article. Here I want to discuss
this particular protocol and some ideas I’ve had
on incorporating it into a strength-oriented
workout routine.
The APRE system is not a workout in itself. This is
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more like a set of guidelines that you follow to
determine your work sets. In quick summary:
3RM
Protocol
6RM
Protocol
10RM
Protocol
50% of 3RM –
6 reps
50% of 6RM –
10 reps
50% of 10RM –
12 reps
75% of 3RM –
3 reps
75% of 6RM –
6 reps
75% of 10RM –
10 reps
Reps to failure
with 3RM
Reps to failure
with 6RM
Reps to failure
with 10RM
Adjusted reps
to failure
Adjusted reps
to failure
Adjusted reps to
failure
And to adjust after the test set:
Reps in third set Adjustment for
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(6RM protocol) fourth set (kg)
0-2 -2.5 to -5
3-4 0 to -2.5
5-7 No change
8-12 +2.5 to +5
> 13 +5 to +7.5
The adjustments vary slightly for the 3RM and
10RM protocols, but this is the basic idea.
As you can see, that’s not a workout. That’s just
some suggestions. But they’re powerful all the
same, so what we have to do is decide how to use
them in a gym-friendly routine.
The templates are influenced by a lot of things.
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First Option – More Frequency, Less
Volume
This arrangement has you training four days a
week with each major movement pattern being
trained each session. You’ll be alternating
between A and B workouts, so that each exercise
will be trained twice a week. This is very
compatible with the heavy-light setup I’ll describe
below.
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
Overhead
Press
Back
SquatFront Squat
Bench
Press
Front SquatBench
Press
Overhead
Press
Back
Squat
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Deadlift
Now let’s take a look at what to do here. First
things first, I’d group this into two days on, one
day off. That is, train Monday-Tuesday, rest
Wednesday, then again Thursday-Friday and take
the weekend off.
This is designed for a heavy-light rotation
between the lifts so that everything gets one heavy
day and one light day, except the deadlift which
doesn’t seem to like that much volume. The top
lift is the main lift for the day to train hard, the
bottom lift gets the easy work.
Finally I’d make it a point to add in an upper-back
movement on each day for shoulder health and
overall balance of development. You can get away
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with skipping this on the day you deadlift. I
wouldn’t do much assistance work beyond this;
maybe a few sets of abs or arms would be about it.
The pros: you’ll get a lot of practice with and
exposure to the lifts.
The cons: if you aren’t conditioned to frequent
training, if you have a lot of real-life stress, or
both, this will probably beat you up pretty good
and may not be the best choice.
Second Option – More Volume, Less
Workouts
If that template isn’t your cup of tea, here’s an
alternative.
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This is a more traditional type of upper/lower or
body-part split arrangement that will probably be
familiar to most of you. Each day will focus on a
big lift and then follow up with assistance work,
much like any old powerlifting workout or the
5/3/1 template.
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
Push PressBack
Squat
Bench
PressDeadlift
Close-grip
Bench
Front
Squats
Military
Press
Barbell
Row
This is straightforward and should be pretty
familiar. You do the big lift, do some lighter
assistance work on another lift, then whatever you
feel like after that. You can throw in some pump
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‘n tone body-part work, you can do more
specialized assistance, you can just go home.
Pretty much your call.
I’d make the usual suggestions of getting lots of
upper-back work for shoulder health, some kind
of loaded ab work, and I’m partial to back raises
and glute-ham raises. Not mandatory, but can be
helpful.
The pros: pretty basic and effective template
that’s hard to screw up. Compatible with other
kinds of training and can be modified to include
more or less work.
The cons: not many. This template doesn’t have
many drawbacks.
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Other Options
As with any of these templates, you’re free to
adjust them as needed as long as you don’t screw
up the intent behind them. If you can only train
three days a week, then rotate through the four
workouts in order. If you don’t like an exercise I
picked, then replace it with something else. Use
your head: if you want to replace a bench press
with weighted dips, that’s fine. If you want to
replace back squats with leg extensions, never
speak to me again.
Which protocol?
The APRE gives us three options to choose from:
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3RM, 6RM, and 10RM. The paper by Mann et al
said they used all three over the six weeks of the
study. The paper didn’t go into a lot of detail
regarding how they used the three, except to say
that they used the 6RM option most frequently as
it was most compatible with the goals of their
football players (i.e., strength and muscle mass).
In Supertraining, Siff suggests using the 6RM
option for the first 6-8 weeks, then switching to
the 3RM version. He suggests that the 10RM
version can be used at any point as a way of
stimulating hypertrophy and local muscular
endurance. It’s also noted that the 3RM version is
best for strong athletes interested in increasing
maximal strength.
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So there’s your answer. If you’re after size, stick to
the 10RM version most of the time and toss in the
6RM protocol for a little variety. If you’re after
strength gains, focus more on the 3RM.
Fine-tuning the test sets
The APRE protocol calls for training “to failure” in
order to establish your RMs. If you’re using one of
the once-a-week options from above, that’s
probably going to be okay assuming you have
reasonable recovery ability.
If you’re using one of the high-frequency options
and you take your test sets to real grinding failure,
you will die. As the frequency of workouts
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increases, the stress and workload of each
workout must decrease. If this doesn’t happen,
you will know it quickly. I think that given time
and training, most people could adapt more than
they realize.
Because of this, you have to grade your effort. I’ve
not been explicitly logging RPE numbers, but
rather making it a point to pay attention to the
feel and execution of the lift. I, personally, can tell
the difference in a lift that stays fairly smooth &
explosive, versus a lift that was a holy-shit
grinder. The more often you train, the less often
the holy-shit grinders need to show up.
If you’re using the Mike T RPE scale, then you’d
want to cut your sets around a hard 8 or easy 9.
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Leave a rep or two in the tank, for the rest of you.
Having tested the 5/3/1 in the past, you’re going
to find that this won’t be terribly different. You’ll
spend most of your time doing higher reps than
suggested by the protocol, and this is a good
thing. The key difference is that there are no
percentage-planned work sets (although there is a
pre-planned workout) and no planned out cycle.
This may seem dodgy, but remember that cycling
is built in to this program automatically. Your
work sets and your weights for the next session
are determined by how well you do on any given
day.
You’ll only wind up working as hard as you’re
good for, and the actual workload of a session will
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auto-magically adjust itself based on that. So
there is cycling involved; it’s just not a
month-long cycle sitting in a spreadsheet.
Heavy and Light days
The heavy day will obviously be the protocol as
written: train to a RM or as close to it as you’re
comfortable going.
If you have a light day, that’s easy to draw up: take
90% of your heavy day’s work weight and cut the
reps in half. If you’re using the 3RM, do singles;
6RM, do triples; 10RM, do fives. Yes, I know that
one isn’t half of three. If you want to do 1.5 reps,
go right ahead. You could do doubles also, I guess.
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If I hit 200×5 on my 3RM heavy/test day, then
I’m going to use 180 for singles on the light day.
Look too easy, you say? Good. That’s what a light
day is for.
Back-off sets for more volume
I can see this question coming already so I’ll go
ahead and tackle it.
If you’re doing the high-frequency arrangement,
do your sets and go home. If you feel great, then
take 80% of your top weight and half the reps. Be
aware of the workloads, however, and don’t whine
to me if you wreck something.
If you’re doing the less-frequent template, you’ve
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got more room for backoff volume. The way I have
it written, you’ll be following the main lift with a
second compound exercise, and in most cases you
may be content to use that as your backoff work;
that’s how I intended it, anyway. That doesn’t
mean you have to listen to me.
Regardless of what you do for the second exercise,
I’m going to suggest keeping it to fast and snappy
work for higher volume. That is, sets of 3-6 reps
and leaving a lot in the tank. The goal is to do a lot
of sets and keep a reasonable rest interval, rather
than “all you bro” sets.
If you want to back off with the main exercise,
then I’d suggest either 90% of your top weight for
half the reps, or 80% of top weight for the same
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reps. So if you hit 100 as your top weight on the
6RM protocol, then either do 90 for triples or 80
for sets of six. If you switch to the different
exercise I have listed, then follow the same idea.
You should have a reasonable idea of where you
stand on those lifts, and if you don’t, you can
figure it out pretty easily.
How many sets? Why are you asking me? Go until
you feel fatigue set in. Or if you don’t want to
trash yourself, just do one. Or don’t do any. Use
your best judgment.
Another option worth looking at if you’re
bodybuilding is this cycle by Barry Merriman
(http://www.weightsnet.com
/Docs/barry.period.html#routine). Combine Barry’s
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approach to backoff sets with the 10RM APRE
method and you’ve got a winner. That is, do the
10RM set and the adjusted 10RM set, then two
backoff sets as he describes.
Examples
It’s push press day with close-grip bench as the
second exercise. I’m starting the cycle with a push
press of 80×3, so the warmups are 40×6, 60×3,
and then the 3RM test set with 80. I hit 6 reps
with 80, which means that I should go up to
82.5-85 on the next set. I go to 85 and knock out
three reps, so that’s where I’ll start on the next
workout.
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If I’d only hit say 2 or 3 reps, then I’d probably
clock it back to 77.5 or even 75 on the fourth set,
and use it for the next workout. You see how this
is not at all unlike 5/3/1, only the number of reps
you get determines the weight you use next time.
For backoffs – it was a good day, so I decide to
take 90% and do a few doubles. Top weight was
85, so I’ll use 75 for doubles. Since I’m still doing
close-grips, I don’t want to go to fatigue so I do
two doubles and call it done.
For close-grips, I know I’m good for 110 for 6
reps, so I’ll stick to around 80% (90) of that for
six reps.
Upper back work is weighted chins, so I start
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throwing them in between the backoff sets of push
presses and the close-grips. Do a set of pushing,
then a set of chins.
And that’s it. I would add that if you want to do
more bodybuilder-ish work, there’s nothing
stopping you. Do your big lift, maybe the second
light lift if you care, and then have fun with
chest/shoulders/triceps as you see fit. I’d still
limit that to a few quality sets of 8-10 reps on a
few solid exercises, rather than the usual 5-set
pyramids on eight different kinds of curls, but hey
that’s your call.
Sources and Further Reading
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The APRE protocol is from Supertraining, 5th
edition (2003).
Inspiration for using this in a real protocol, and
evidence that it works in real athletes, came from
The Effect of Autoregulatory Progressive
Resistance Exercise vs. Linear Periodization on
Strength Improvement in College Athletes. Mann
JB, Thyfault JP, Ivey PA, Sayers SP. J Strength
Cond Res. 2010 Jun 10. PMID: 20543732
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20543732)
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