Strength Training 3x per Week – Double Progression

About the plan

12-week strength training plan for people who have finished a beginner plan and only have three days a week to train — Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is the plan for people who have stalled: when the load stops going up every session, most people either give up or start repeating the same plan for months. Here the way out is the stage system. Each session has one heavy main exercise, one secondary volume exercise and three accessories in a high rep range, and the last set of each goes to technical failure. As long as you complete the prescribed sets, the load goes up in the next session. When you stall, the main exercise changes format instead of stopping: five sets of three reps in weeks 1 to 3, six sets of two in weeks 5 to 7 and ten single reps with short rest in weeks 9 to 11 — each format lets you load more on the bar than the previous one. Weeks 4 and 8 are deloads and week 12 restarts the cycle with the load recalibrated. The three workouts cover the whole body: squat and deadlift split the heavy days, the bench press appears twice a week with different stimuli and the back is trained in all three sessions. You don't need to know your max load to start: progression is guided by the reps you can do.