Do This: LP Training

What is LP? LP means that you simply add a little bit of weight to each exercise every session. This is where the idea of the progression being linear comes from. If a programme is set up properly, and you pay attention to proper sleep and food, then beginners can make progress on linear progression training for up to 6 months or longer. It's no surprise that some of the most effective and popular beginner programmes like Stronglifts and Starting Strength both use this programming strategy. Trainees perform the basic lifts three times per week for sets of 5, and each session they attempt to add 2.5 - 5kg to each lift. Here's an example for bench press:

Monday: 40kg 3x5 Wednesday: 42.5kg 3x5 Friday: 45kg 3x5

By not changing things (i.e. rep schemes, exercises, etc.) until they NEED to be changed, results can be obtained for weeks on end. Training variety is a valuable tool but only when it's used sparingly.

LP is Not Just For Beginners A huge mistake that people make is assuming they're too advanced for this style of training. The majority of people are novices. If you doubt this, at least try an LP style of lifting to ensure you aren't missing out on the easiest gains you can make. Additionally, even when we advance to the intermediate stage of lifting and can't hit personal records every session, their will be times when we regress and lose strength. Examples include getting sick, injured, or anything else where the net result is an inability to train for an extended period of time. Often this will push us back to the novice stage of lifting. So when returning to training, why not run an LP programme for a few weeks to get your strength back nice and quick?

I'll conclude this email with a few images of sample linear progression programmes you can find on the internet. Hope that was helpful and as usual, if you ahve any Qs on Linear Progression or anything else, just pop me an email and I'll get back to you. In Strength, Cill