Planning The Lifts (with Examples)

Putting a resistance training session together

• More information on Exercise Selection can be found in this blog here.

• Start with 3 exercises if you are brand new. Add more over time in the following fashion

  • Start with these

    • Knee dominant exercise, horizontal push, and horizontal pull

    • Why start with these

      • Knee dominant exercises mostly require the use of the hips as well, so the selection of knee dominant exercise such as the squat or the split squat/lunge will exercise more muscles in the lower body than a hip dominant exercise such as the deadlift. Knee dominant movements also show up very often in every day life such as sitting down into and standing up from a chair (looks like a squat), getting up off the ground (often uses a similar pattern as a split squat or lunge), and walking and running (similar to a split squat or lunge).

      • Horizontal pushes and pulls are very accessible and can be done with resistance bands with an anchor, or using most cable crossover machines and functional trainers available in most gyms. The motion of the arm in the single arm press and pull also closely resembles the motion of the arm during running. Single arm presses and pulls will also develop the muscles of the core (notably the obliques and hips) due to the rotational input from having only one side of the body loaded.

• Once those can be done consistently with good form, add these next, introducing them in a progressive manner or simply adding them in to your rotation/super-set

  • Hip dominant exercise, and twist

  • I would recommend adding both, though if I had to pick just one I would add a hip dominant exercise such as a Romanian or stiff legged deadlift because you are already getting some twisting of the core in the push and the pull.

    • I typically recommend single leg varieties of these for the added benefit of challenging stability. There are reasons to select either.

  • Adding a twisting or chop exercise such as the cable chop with a single handle, tricep rope, or a bar/dowel attachment will further develop your core and accelerate your strength gains in the push and the pull by lessening the limitations of core strength

    • I would progress through the chop exercises in the order listed mastering first the chop with a single handle and both hands together, before progressing to a tricep rope where the hands are separate, and then to a dowel where the hands are even further apart and the distance between the hands and the length of the dowel between the hands and the attachment point become even more variables to account for.

  • Then vertical push and vertical pull

  • I recommend adding these in last because they can be difficult to do (many cannot do pull ups) and can be the riskiest to perform (overhead press is safe until your ego wants to lift more than your shoulders allow) and these exercises are more challenging to perform at home (though many objects could be lifted overhead) but mostly because these patterns don’t show up often in everyday life.

    • I still recommend adding these patterns in to a workout, perhaps during the accessory work at the end of a session, even if they are not a focus of strength development because it is good and healthy to maintain the overhead capacity of our shoulders (if you don’t use it you lose it).

• How to group them

  • The first three can all be done in a single super set and repeated several times (3-5 or more) in a workout.

  • While you are performing another pattern, the muscles in the previously done pattern are resting and will likely be ready to go again by the time you get through the set.

    • For example: Lunge, Press, Pull

      • After lunges are done, then do presses, and the legs will get some rest, then move on to pulls and the legs continue to rest as will the pressing muscles, then the legs have had their rest and its time to lunge again.

      • The legs don’t get complete rest because you may be standing during your press and pull though it will be enough to allow them to continue to work.

    • You can add in a hip dominant exercise and twist and do a 5 pattern superset though it may require a lot of equipment

  • 4 patterns can also be done in a superset, still requiring a fair amount of equipment

    • If the press, pull, and twist are all done on the cable machine, this minimizes the required equipment as you can grab dumbbells for leg exercise in between sets on the cable machine, and the weights can be changed quickly on a cable machine.

  • Alternatively you may split the 5 patterns in to two groups. You could split four patterns in to the same groups and remove the twist.

    • Group 1: Knee dominant, pull, and twist/chop.

      • I recommend pairing the knee dominant exercise and the pull, because the pull will recruit more muscles in the posterior chain that would be required for the hip dominant exercises. If the pull and hip dominant patterns were paired together, it could lead to the posterior chain getting fatigued early.

    • Group 2: Hip dominant, push, and twist/chop

      • I recommend pairing the hip dominant exercise and the push for the same reasons stated above. The push and the knee dominant exercise as well as the pull and the hip dominant exercise will have more overlap.

    • The groups could also be flipped for the exact same reasons that I paired them the way I did. Having the hip dominant exercise paired with the pull will provide an excellent stimulus for the posterior chain and the knee dominant exercise paired with the push would provide an excellent stimulus for the anterior side of the body. What you choose depends on your goals. There is also a possibility that the lower body exercise of this pairing provide a potentiating effect on the upper body exercise.

    • Twist/chop can be limited to either group of exercises, done in both, or done in both but in slightly different patterns, such as changing the handle used or the angle of the chop.

      • Sightly different patterns will help to prevent fatigue and overuse, as well as building a more robust core.

      • Using the same pattern will accelerate progress as long as recovery is managed.

      • Limiting the twist/chop to one group will allow more time for your core to recover, if needed.

• When to split up your exercises to different days and which ones to do together

  • Once you start exercising 4 or 5 patterns, you may decide to split the groupings up in to separate days.

    • Initially it may be possible to continue to work all of the patterns in the same session, though as you progress in strength it will be difficult to recover from such sessions.

    • Additionally, as you progress in strength, you will be adding sets and reps to each exercise so it could be time consuming to perform so much volume in one day, depending on how the plans for each pattern coincide.

  • High volume paired with low volume exercises could be done in one session but high volume paired with high volume could take too long to do and be challenging to recover from.

    • Despite that you may occasionally (or frequently depending on your ability to work and recover) decide to pair many high volume patterns on the same day specifically because it is challenging.

      • This is called variable loading and is an advanced technique and not recommended until after years of training and tolerating high loads, and is best done with planning and precision.

  • If you decide to progress in strength in more than 5 patterns you will almost certainly need to split up the patterns in to separate days. The following are some combinations I recommend:

  • Two day split (4-6 sessions per week, fewer can be done as well, though this ensures equal amounts of training for each pattern each week. Some weeks a pattern will only be exercised once if fewer than 4 sessions are done.)

    • Group 1: Hip dominant, horizontal push, vertical pull, twist/chop

    • Group 2: Knee dominant, horizontal pull, vertical push, twist/chop

    • Twist/Chop can be done just once if desired

  • Three day split (6 session per week, fewer can be done as well, though this ensures equal amounts of training for each pattern each week. Some weeks a pattern will only be exercised once if fewer than 6 sessions are done. Three sessions per week could be done as well, though progress in the upper body exercises will be slow or require a lot of effort and recovery)

    • Group 1: Knee dominant, Horizontal Pull

    • Group 2: Hip dominant, Horizontal Push

    • Group 3: Twist/Chop, Vertical Push, Vertical Pull

  • Four day split (at least 4 sessions per week. Even at four sessions per week you run in to a similar problem with the upper body exercises as in the 3-day split. These would be best for maintenance of the upper body patterns rather than serious progress, though progress is possible.)

    • Group 1: Heavy Hip dominant, Vertical Push

    • Group 2: Light Hip Dominant, Horizontal Push

    • Group 3: Heavy Knee dominant, Vertical Pull

    • Group 4: Light Knee Dominant, Horizontal Pull

    • Twist/Chop: Add in where desired.

  • Other combinations are possible these are just the ones that make sense to me for reasons similar to what I stated above.

Examples

One Session Repeated Multiple Times Per Week

Two to four sessions per week is probably optimal for these selections of exercise. Other combinations are possible.

Three Lifts

Split Squat

Cable Press (cable at or around chest height)

Cable Row (cable at or around chest height)

Four Lifts

Example 1

Split Squat

Cable Press (cable at or around chest height)

Cable Row (cable at or around chest height)

Single Leg Romanian Deadlift

Example 2

Split Squat

Cable Press (cable at or around chest height)

Cable Row (cable at or around chest height)

Cable Chop (downward)

Five Lifts

Split Squat

Cable Press (cable at or around chest height)

Cable Row (cable at or around chest height)

Single Leg Romanian Deadlift

Cable Chop (downward)

Generic - Five Lifts (can also be easily adjusted for fewer lifts)

Knee Dominant Exercise

Pressing Exercise

Pulling Exercise

Hip Dominant Exercise

Twisting Exercise

More than five lifts in a single session is possible but not very practical.

Two Sessions Repeated One to Three Times Per Week

These selections and groupings of exercises can be done in as few as two sessions per week (progress will be slower due to performing each lift only once per week) and as many as six sessions per week (which will require performing each lift three times per week and take lots of energy and recovery).

Two Lifts Per Day - Four Lifts Total

Day 1	Day 2
Split Squat	Single Leg RDL
Cable Row	Cable Press

Two and Three Lifts Per Day - Five Lifts Total

Day 1	Day 2
Split Squat	Single Leg RDL
Cable Row	Cable Press
Cable Chop

Day 1	Day 2
Split Squat	Single Leg RDL
Cable Row	Cable Press
	Cable Chop

Three Lifts Per Day - Five Lifts Total

Day 1	Day 2
Split Squat	Single Leg RDL
Cable Row	Cable Press
Cable Chop	Cable Chop

Generic - Three Lifts Per Day - Five Lifts Total (can also be easily adjusted for fewer lifts)

Day 1	Day 2
Knee Dominant	Hip Dominant
Pull	Press
Twist	Twist

Generic - Four Lifts Per Day - Seven Lifts Total (can also be easily adjusted for fewer lifts or accessory lifts, more on accessories below)

Day 1	Day 2
Knee Dominant	Hip Dominant
Pull - Horizontal	Press - Horizontal
Press - Vertical	Pull - Vertical
Twist	Twist

Adding In Heavy and Light Days

Generic - Two Sessions

Day 1	Day 2
Heavy Knee Dominant Exercise	Light Knee Dominant Exercise
Heavy Pressing Exercise	Light Pressing Exercise
Heavy Pulling Exercise	Light Pulling Exercise
Heavy Hip Dominant Exercise	Light Hip Dominant Exercise
Heavy Twisting Exercise	Light Twisting Exercise

Day 1	Day 2
Heavy Knee Dominant Exercise	Light Knee Dominant Exercise
Light Pressing Exercise	Heavy Pressing Exercise
Heavy Pulling Exercise	Light Pulling Exercise
Light Hip Dominant Exercise	Heavy Hip Dominant Exercise
Heavy Twisting Exercise	Light Twisting Exercise

The combinations go on. Use your imagination.

Generic - Four Sessions

L = Light, H = Heavy

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4
Heavy Knee Dominant Exercise	Light Knee Dominant Exercise	Heavy Hip Dominant Exercise	Light Hip Dominant Exercise
Light Press - Vertical	Heavy Press - Vertical	Light Press - Horizontal	Heavy Press - Horizontal
Heavy Pull - Horizontal	Light Pull - Horizontal	Heavy Pull - Vertical	Light Pull - Vertical
Light Twisting Exercise	Heavy Twisting Exercise	Light Twisting Exercise	Heavy Twisting Exercise

The combinations start to get close to endless here. You can alternate heavy and light. Change the order of the days. Change combinations of exercises. Use your imagination.

A light day before a heavy day will allow for heavier weights to be used because the pattern will be potentiated. A light day after a heavy day will create more hypertrophy.

Adding In Accessory Movements

Accessory movements is another area that creates near endless possibilities. The possibilities of combinations might actually be endless. Accessories can be added in to the end of any day and or done on their own days.

An example using one of the templates above; instead of doing both horizontal and vertical presses and pulls you may decide to focus on horizontal presses and pulls, and use the space provided for the vertical variations for accessory or alternate lifts.

An similar example could be made of the heavy and light days, where instead of a light day of your main lift you perform accessory movements for that lift.

Accessory movements in my mind include isolations/single joint movements or variations of a lift that are different enough to be considered a different exercise.

Bicep curls, face pulls, and pull overs could be considered an accessory to pulling exercises. Tricep extensions, shoulder raises, and chest flies for pressing. Again this list borders on endless. Many of these exercises can be found from sources related to bodybuilding and physical therapy. See my information on internal training for more ideas.

If you aren’t focused on progressing your pull-ups, they could also be done as an accessory to your horizontal pulling exercises. Similar with overhead presses and horizontal presses. Doing these relatively heavy exercises as accessory movements would keep your joints healthy by using them in more ranges of motion without overloading your ability to recovery by doing too many heavy lifts.

Generic - Three Lifts Per Day plus Accessory

Day 1	Day 2
Knee Dominant	Hip Dominant
Pull	Press
Pull Accessory	Press Accessory
Twist	Twist

Day 1	Day 2
Knee Dominant	Hip Dominant
Pull	Press
Press Accessory	Pull Accessory
Twist	Twist

Day 1	Day 2
Knee Dominant	Hip Dominant
Pull	Press
Knee Accessory	Hip Accessory
Twist	Twist

Day 1	Day 2
Knee Dominant	Hip Dominant
Pull	Press
Hip Accessory	Knee Accessory
Twist	Twist

Because accessory movements are typically less intense you may be able to include more of them in your program.

Day 1	Day 2
Knee Dominant	Hip Dominant
Pull	Press
Press Accessory	Pull Accessory
Hip Accessory	Knee Accessory
Twist	Twist

What I have found is that over time I do not need to plan my accessory movements and I end up doing them as I FEEL what muscles and joints motions need more work as well as what I have the energy to perform.