I came across a couple of exciting methods for training in the last few years that I was interested in trying. The first was HST and thus here I am. The second was DUP (Daily Undulated Periodization). I plan on giving this a shot after HST. Although HST has been easy to live with so far I want to have an open mind to other training protocols. We will see the results of HST in another week for me.
The basic premise behind DUP is to modify the stimulous on a workout by workout basis. Not so much as a shocking technique but as a means of simultaneously maintaining the benefits of the various repitition and intensity ranges.
Here are a few links for the curious and to clarify my fumbling attempt at explaining this...
http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/periodization3.php
http://www.leanbodyrx.com/a-005.php
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11991778
DUP can be applied full body or with a two day split or whatever the imagination may bring. I have done a similar program many years ago on a two day split but not long term. The results were promising according to my logs but a longer term experiment would be needed to see the true results.
Below is an example of a full body routine using DUP that I have been toying with. As with HST I will set target PR weights for the third week of a six week program. There is some research suggesting that six weeks of training is optimal before a rest period so I will build on this premise. Week seven will be a week of active recovery, low intensity cardio or complete down time if needed. My thoughts here are that the number of reps used during the daily undulations can be adjusted to fit the goals of the lifter. Below is an outline of what each day would look like and the goals for that days undulation. My example goal is to target muscle endurance, hyper-trophy and strength. You would simply shift the rep ranges up or down from this to place a higher precedence to your specific goal. The rep ranges typically used would be anywhere from 4 - 20 per set but there are cases where a higher or lower range might be used for specific movements. My example is only one of a myriad of possible applications.
Some Example rep layouts:
Endurance / Hypertrophy: Day One - 16 reps, Day Two - 12 reps, Day Three - 8 reps.
Endurance / Hypertrophy / Strength: Day One - 14 reps, Day Two - 10 reps, Day Three - 6 reps
Hypertrophy / Strength: Day One - 12 reps, Day Two - 8 reps, Day Three - 4 reps
As you can see I am using a rep variance of four reps per undulation but there is nothing wrong with using a closer variance if you like. The key being an undulation of intensity and volume each day.
Also of note, I assume a proper warmup for each undulation which I have not noted in my examples.
Sample DUP routine:
Monday, Day One - High volume / low intensity - Reps 12 - 20
Notes: I will not work to failure on this day. The focus is to work on muscular endurance in a high rep range. Progression will still be made over the course of the six week cycle by setting the starting weights at 70 - 80% PR of the rep range and reaching 100% PR on the third or fourth week. The goal for the two or three weeks once the PR has been reached is to increase the number of reps each set. Once you reach two or more reps beyond the desired rep range the weight would be increased marginally still avoiding failure.
I have chosen to use a large variety of movements for this day instead of multiple sets. I am sure that multiple sets of a few movements would also be benificial to the trainee but I feel that the variety in angles of resistance is optimal to activate as many muscle fibers as possible given the low intensity of the work. I have chosen a single working set per movement. You could just as easily remove movements and increase the number of sets per exercise if you like. This is a high volume of work but remember that we are avoiding failure during this phase and a well conditioned athlete should be able to do this many movements. This is not intended for a beginner.
Example exercises for day one:
Bench Press 1 X 14
Decline Dumbell Press 1 X 14
Incline Dumbell Fly 1 X 14
Barbell Row 1 X 14
Lat Pull 1 X 14
Dumbell Row 1 X 14
Squat 1 X 14
Straight Leg Deadlift 1 X 14
Reverse Lunge 1 X 14
Barbell Calf Raise 1 X 14
Military Press 1 X 14
Side Shoulder Raise 1 X 14
Barbell Shrug 1 X 14
Lying Tricep Extension 1 X 14
Dumbell Trycep Extension 1 X 14
Barbell Curl 1 X 14
Dumbell Concentration Curl 1 X 14
Reverse Barbell Forearm Curl 2 X 14
Weighted Situp 2 X 14
Wednesday, Day Two - Moderate Volume / Moderate Intensity - Reps 8 - 16
Notes: It is ok to work to failure on this day and to use a small amount of extension techniques to reach your reps ranges. The focus is to work on hyper-trophy and endurance in a moderate rep range. Progression will be made over the course of the six week cycle by setting the starting weights at 70 - 80% PR of the rep range and reaching 100% PR on the third or fourth week. The goal for the two or three weeks once PR has been reached is to increase the weight used each set. If you are able to complete every rep in all the sets, you would then increase the weight marginally. You would use extension techniques such as rest pause, drop sets, cheat reps etc... to achieve the prescribed number of reps once you reach concentric failure. If you cannot complete all sets with the prescribed number of weights you would then repeat that weight the following weeks until you can complete the work.
The number of exercises has been reduced for this day to reduce the overall volume. Again even fewer exercises could be used with more sets per movement if you desire. Note that I have chosen to retain a core set of exercises from the day one routine. There is no reason why you could not chose a whole different set of exercises if you like. Treat each day as its own routine if you like and make progressions for that day individually. I chose to duplicate movements across each day to facilitate a greater amount of familiarity or neural conditioning to the exercises that I feel are most productive.
Example exercises for day two:
Bench Press 2 X 10
Decline Bench Press 1 X 10
Barbell Row 2 X 10
Lat Pull 1 X 10
Squat 2 X 10
Reverse Lunge 1 X 10
Barbell Calf Raise 2 X 10
Military Press 2 X 10
Barbell Shrug 1 X 10
Lying Tricep Extension 2 X 10
Barbell Curl 2 X 10
Reverse Barbell Forearm Curl 2 X 10
Weighted Situp 2 X 10
Friday, Day Three - Low Volume / High Intensity - Reps 4 - 12
Notes: It is ok to work beyond failure on this day and to use extension techniques to reach your rep ranges. The focus is to work on hyper-trophy and strength in a low rep range. Progession will be made over the course of the six week cycle by setting the starting weights at 70 - 80% PR of the rep range and reaching 100% PR on the third or fourth week. The goal for the two or three weeks once PR has been reached is to increase the weight used each set significantly beyond your PR maximum weights. You will be increasing the weight by 2 - 4% (or more) and using extension techniques such as negatives, rest pause, Max-Stim, power partials etc... to achieve the prescribed number of reps once you reach concentric failure. You should try and work with a weight close to your 2 - 6 rep range depending upon the rep range you have chosen for this day. In my example I have chosen a rep range of six per set so I would try and lift with a weight that I would hit a PR of three reps in this case. If you are capable of performing more than one set with the selected weight above your lower PR for this phase, you should then increase the weight marginally.
The number of exercises has been reduced for this day to reduce the overall volume. Note that I have chosen to retain a core set of exercises from the day one and two routines. There is no reason why you could not chose a whole different set of exercises if you like. Treat each day as its own routine if you like and make progressions for that day individually. I chose to duplicate exercises across each day to facilitate a greater amount of familiarity or neural conditioning to the movements that I feel are most productive.
Example exercises for day three:
Bench Press 3 X 6
Barbell Row 3 X 6
Squat 3 X 6
Military Press 3 X 6
Barbell Shrug 3 X 6
Lying Tricep Extension 3 X 6
Barbell Curl 3 X 6
Weighted Situp 3 X 6
************************************
As you can see I have progessively reduced volume while increasing intensity with each daily undulation. The volume may be too high and I will have to adjust it if necessary once I begin the experiment. I intend to log this routine and will probably run this cycle at least twice to determine the results much as I am doing with HST.
What do you think?
The basic premise behind DUP is to modify the stimulous on a workout by workout basis. Not so much as a shocking technique but as a means of simultaneously maintaining the benefits of the various repitition and intensity ranges.
Here are a few links for the curious and to clarify my fumbling attempt at explaining this...
http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/periodization3.php
http://www.leanbodyrx.com/a-005.php
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11991778
DUP can be applied full body or with a two day split or whatever the imagination may bring. I have done a similar program many years ago on a two day split but not long term. The results were promising according to my logs but a longer term experiment would be needed to see the true results.
Below is an example of a full body routine using DUP that I have been toying with. As with HST I will set target PR weights for the third week of a six week program. There is some research suggesting that six weeks of training is optimal before a rest period so I will build on this premise. Week seven will be a week of active recovery, low intensity cardio or complete down time if needed. My thoughts here are that the number of reps used during the daily undulations can be adjusted to fit the goals of the lifter. Below is an outline of what each day would look like and the goals for that days undulation. My example goal is to target muscle endurance, hyper-trophy and strength. You would simply shift the rep ranges up or down from this to place a higher precedence to your specific goal. The rep ranges typically used would be anywhere from 4 - 20 per set but there are cases where a higher or lower range might be used for specific movements. My example is only one of a myriad of possible applications.
Some Example rep layouts:
Endurance / Hypertrophy: Day One - 16 reps, Day Two - 12 reps, Day Three - 8 reps.
Endurance / Hypertrophy / Strength: Day One - 14 reps, Day Two - 10 reps, Day Three - 6 reps
Hypertrophy / Strength: Day One - 12 reps, Day Two - 8 reps, Day Three - 4 reps
As you can see I am using a rep variance of four reps per undulation but there is nothing wrong with using a closer variance if you like. The key being an undulation of intensity and volume each day.
Also of note, I assume a proper warmup for each undulation which I have not noted in my examples.
Sample DUP routine:
Monday, Day One - High volume / low intensity - Reps 12 - 20
Notes: I will not work to failure on this day. The focus is to work on muscular endurance in a high rep range. Progression will still be made over the course of the six week cycle by setting the starting weights at 70 - 80% PR of the rep range and reaching 100% PR on the third or fourth week. The goal for the two or three weeks once the PR has been reached is to increase the number of reps each set. Once you reach two or more reps beyond the desired rep range the weight would be increased marginally still avoiding failure.
I have chosen to use a large variety of movements for this day instead of multiple sets. I am sure that multiple sets of a few movements would also be benificial to the trainee but I feel that the variety in angles of resistance is optimal to activate as many muscle fibers as possible given the low intensity of the work. I have chosen a single working set per movement. You could just as easily remove movements and increase the number of sets per exercise if you like. This is a high volume of work but remember that we are avoiding failure during this phase and a well conditioned athlete should be able to do this many movements. This is not intended for a beginner.
Example exercises for day one:
Bench Press 1 X 14
Decline Dumbell Press 1 X 14
Incline Dumbell Fly 1 X 14
Barbell Row 1 X 14
Lat Pull 1 X 14
Dumbell Row 1 X 14
Squat 1 X 14
Straight Leg Deadlift 1 X 14
Reverse Lunge 1 X 14
Barbell Calf Raise 1 X 14
Military Press 1 X 14
Side Shoulder Raise 1 X 14
Barbell Shrug 1 X 14
Lying Tricep Extension 1 X 14
Dumbell Trycep Extension 1 X 14
Barbell Curl 1 X 14
Dumbell Concentration Curl 1 X 14
Reverse Barbell Forearm Curl 2 X 14
Weighted Situp 2 X 14
Wednesday, Day Two - Moderate Volume / Moderate Intensity - Reps 8 - 16
Notes: It is ok to work to failure on this day and to use a small amount of extension techniques to reach your reps ranges. The focus is to work on hyper-trophy and endurance in a moderate rep range. Progression will be made over the course of the six week cycle by setting the starting weights at 70 - 80% PR of the rep range and reaching 100% PR on the third or fourth week. The goal for the two or three weeks once PR has been reached is to increase the weight used each set. If you are able to complete every rep in all the sets, you would then increase the weight marginally. You would use extension techniques such as rest pause, drop sets, cheat reps etc... to achieve the prescribed number of reps once you reach concentric failure. If you cannot complete all sets with the prescribed number of weights you would then repeat that weight the following weeks until you can complete the work.
The number of exercises has been reduced for this day to reduce the overall volume. Again even fewer exercises could be used with more sets per movement if you desire. Note that I have chosen to retain a core set of exercises from the day one routine. There is no reason why you could not chose a whole different set of exercises if you like. Treat each day as its own routine if you like and make progressions for that day individually. I chose to duplicate movements across each day to facilitate a greater amount of familiarity or neural conditioning to the exercises that I feel are most productive.
Example exercises for day two:
Bench Press 2 X 10
Decline Bench Press 1 X 10
Barbell Row 2 X 10
Lat Pull 1 X 10
Squat 2 X 10
Reverse Lunge 1 X 10
Barbell Calf Raise 2 X 10
Military Press 2 X 10
Barbell Shrug 1 X 10
Lying Tricep Extension 2 X 10
Barbell Curl 2 X 10
Reverse Barbell Forearm Curl 2 X 10
Weighted Situp 2 X 10
Friday, Day Three - Low Volume / High Intensity - Reps 4 - 12
Notes: It is ok to work beyond failure on this day and to use extension techniques to reach your rep ranges. The focus is to work on hyper-trophy and strength in a low rep range. Progession will be made over the course of the six week cycle by setting the starting weights at 70 - 80% PR of the rep range and reaching 100% PR on the third or fourth week. The goal for the two or three weeks once PR has been reached is to increase the weight used each set significantly beyond your PR maximum weights. You will be increasing the weight by 2 - 4% (or more) and using extension techniques such as negatives, rest pause, Max-Stim, power partials etc... to achieve the prescribed number of reps once you reach concentric failure. You should try and work with a weight close to your 2 - 6 rep range depending upon the rep range you have chosen for this day. In my example I have chosen a rep range of six per set so I would try and lift with a weight that I would hit a PR of three reps in this case. If you are capable of performing more than one set with the selected weight above your lower PR for this phase, you should then increase the weight marginally.
The number of exercises has been reduced for this day to reduce the overall volume. Note that I have chosen to retain a core set of exercises from the day one and two routines. There is no reason why you could not chose a whole different set of exercises if you like. Treat each day as its own routine if you like and make progressions for that day individually. I chose to duplicate exercises across each day to facilitate a greater amount of familiarity or neural conditioning to the movements that I feel are most productive.
Example exercises for day three:
Bench Press 3 X 6
Barbell Row 3 X 6
Squat 3 X 6
Military Press 3 X 6
Barbell Shrug 3 X 6
Lying Tricep Extension 3 X 6
Barbell Curl 3 X 6
Weighted Situp 3 X 6
************************************
As you can see I have progessively reduced volume while increasing intensity with each daily undulation. The volume may be too high and I will have to adjust it if necessary once I begin the experiment. I intend to log this routine and will probably run this cycle at least twice to determine the results much as I am doing with HST.
What do you think?
