apre for strength & size

www.myosynthesis.com

October 7, 2011

All this talk about autoregulation and about

getting strong in more general ways has had me

APRE for Strength & Size • Myosynthesis

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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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