A training plan that helps you progress again
A training plan is only good for as long as it actually works. If months go by in the gym and the weights don’t go up and your muscle mass doesn’t grow, the problem may not be your willpower but the fact that your body already knows what’s coming.
Translated by Janar Rückenberg
Why a training plan can stall your progress
It’s easy to spot in the gym: someone does the same exercises year after year, in the same order, with almost the same weight. Habit is comfortable. I’ve been stuck in it too. When I liked a routine, I held on to it for a long time, even after the results had stopped moving.
The problem isn’t that your favorite exercises are bad. Squats, deadlifts, presses, rows and extensions can all be very good tools. But the body adapts. If the training load, repetitions, sets, exercise selection and split between muscle groups never change, the training loses its fresh stimulus.
A simple truth: any plan works for a while, but no plan works forever. That’s exactly why you shouldn’t get too attached to a training program. A good program isn’t sacred text, it’s a tool.
How to divide your training plan into cycles
Cycling your training means that at set intervals you change its emphasis. Sometimes the focus is on strength, sometimes on muscle mass, sometimes on intensity and sometimes on recovery. This keeps both your body and your head fresh.
I used to ignore the so-called MUSCLE CONFUSION principle. My muscles no longer got any surprises. I didn’t use drop sets, rest-pause sets or negative sets. I also never changed which body parts I trained together. My split stayed the same the whole time.
I’ve tried Arnold’s 6 days a week split, Skip La Cour’s one body part a day version, and a weekly setup built around three big basic exercises: the deadlift, the squat and the press. Stuart McRobert discusses a similar idea in his book Brawn. Later, Dorian Yates’s Blood & Guts gave me a new direction: less random experimenting, more deliberate cycles.
Cycle 1: the Blood & Guts routine
- DAY 1: chest, biceps, abs
- DAY 2: thighs, calves
- DAY 3: rest day
- DAY 4: back, rear delts, traps, abs
- DAY 5: shoulders, triceps, calves
Dorian used 3 – 4 exercises for large muscles and 2 – 3 exercises for small ones. Working sets were taken to failure, followed by forced reps, drop sets and rest-pause sets. After 6 – 8 weeks, he took an easier week and then started the next cycle.
Cycle 2: one body part per workout
- DAY 1: back
- DAY 2: chest, abs
- DAY 3: thighs, calves
- DAY 4: shoulders, traps
- DAY 5: arms, abs
When you train one muscle group at a time, you can give it more attention. For large muscles you can do 4-5 exercises, for small ones 3-4 exercises. This can suit arms especially well, because your triceps and biceps don’t end up as an afterthought tacked on after a big muscle group.
Cycle 3: the Power-Bodybuilding routine
- DAY 1: squat, barbell bent-over rows, standing barbell biceps curl
- DAY 2: rest
- DAY 3: bench press, seated dumbbell press, lying French press
- DAY 4: rest
- DAY 5: deadlift, dumbbell shrugs, standing calf raise
This suits a busier period of life well. The workouts are shorter, the core is heavy basic exercises, and 1 – 2 assistance exercises are added to each workout. The goal is simple: base strength together with muscle mass.
A training plan week by week
One practical approach is to use the different routines one after another. That way you don’t have to give up your favorite plan; you just give it a definite place within a bigger, year-long way of thinking.
- WEEK 1: Blood & Guts routine
- WEEK 2: one body part/muscle per day routine
- WEEK 3: Power-Bodybuilding routine
- WEEKS 4 – 6: the cycle repeats
- WEEK 7: recovery week
If the cycle is working and you’re gaining strength and mass, there’s no need to cut it short blindly. You can make it 1 – 2 weeks longer. But if you feel bored and tired and the weights aren’t moving, it’s time to shift your focus before a plateau truly sets in.
Training plan and recovery week
After a serious cycle, it’s worth taking one week off for active rest. That doesn’t mean sinking into the couch. It means lighter movement, better sleep and eating in a way that lets your body recover.
During a recovery week, food matters especially. If you fall short on calories and protein, muscle can’t grow or recover well. Honestly, this is where many people ruin otherwise solid work.
Listen to your body. If it’s working, keep going. If you’re mentally drained and a workout feels like an obligation, change something. Your training plan should serve your goal, not your ego.
FAQ
Does a training plan have to change every week?
No, it doesn’t. Changing it too often makes it hard to track progress. It makes sense to keep the main focus in place for several weeks and switch cycles when progress slows down or recovery gets worse.
When is it time to change your training cycle?
If the weights aren’t going up, your repetitions aren’t improving and your motivation is dropping, that’s a clear sign. The same goes if you feel constantly tired even though you’re still following the same training program.
Does a recovery week mean a complete break?
Not always. Active rest suits many people: lighter movement, mobility work, walking and a lower training load. The idea is to give your body a chance to start fresh again.
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Come and train! ArtGym
