So today were going to talk about a program that i have already discussed a lot on and thats Layne Norton’s PH3. As you all know from my other blogs on this program
I really did enjoy this program but getting injured at the end of this program made me really rethink how this program was structured and maybe there was some things to integrate to make this even a better program or maybe a more long term program. So Today I'm going to discuss with you 5 ways that you can incorporate into PH3 to make it even a more effective and hopefully safer routine. Now I'm not Layne Norton I'm just speaking on my opinion and what i witnessed my self as i went through this program. You may agree or you may disagree and thats fine. Layne Norton is my biggest fitness idol in this modern day and age so nothing is meant to be targeted toward Layne in a negative matter this is just my honest opinion and thoughts that one could try incorporating.
The Pros and Cons of PH3
So i kind went into this before on my other blogs about PH3 but i thought i might as well sum that up in this post as well.
The Pros
- You will get strong
- You will gain serious size and muscle density
- Your mental strength will improve greatly
- You will learn how to push through the hardest challenges
- You will get really efficient at doing the Big 3
- This program is fun! and theres never a boring moment for the most part
The Cons
- These workouts are long and they take even longer if you want to get your bodybuilding accessories in as well.
- AMRAP's while fun and effective can increase your chance of injury if not taken with a smart approach
- Doing PH3 makes you so focused on your lifts in the gym that other life duties and jobs will suffer, specially in Phase 3
- The Overreaching block (Phase 3) while its extremely effective will take literally everything out of you
- After a while doing the Big 3 in normal positions will begin to drag since your doing them all the time
- The overall schedule is a little flawed having your heaviest squat session after your heaviest deadlift day.... This was one major thing that led to my back injury and sciatica issues.
- This program autoregulates with your current maxes and somedays you just don’t have that type of strength in you and you might miss a rep or two and just that missinng of a few reps will really bring down your mental game.
Lets Fix These Issues and Make PH3 Even Better! ....Not better just with different variations :D
1. Adjust The Schedule
So like i mentioned before the schedule while it looks good on paper and is actually a great schedule for the majority of the program can really be dangerous in that third month. Like mentioned above the normal schedule has you hitting your heaviest deadlifts the day right before your heaviest squat session. Now in the first 2 phases of the program this is not a real big issues but that 3rd month when you start to overreach.- thats when things can get dangerous. That 3rd month is the overreaching phase and its the phase that will really test you mentally and physically. While overreaching you are easily hitting well over 85% of your max. When your working at such a high percentage it will really increase your chances of getting injured but in that 3rd month is not only high percentages but the volume increases each week during those last weeks all the way right into the taper. My experience with this is what stopped me from completing the program the way it was designed. That last overreaching week i had my heaviest deadlift session of the program and i killed it. Then that next day on my heaviest squat session of the program on the second set is when i suffered my back injury that took me out of squats and deadlifts and all flexion exercises for the next 3 months. Following my injury i started to think what had caused such a bad injury and it was pretty clear to me that the combination of that last phase of the high volume, High intensity, and percentages all increased my chances of injury till something just fell. Its like a Jenga tower in some sense. The taller you build it the easier it will fall and that last phase is when to many things are approaching max height and the tower fell leading to my injury.
Lets Fix It or At Least Modify It
Understand that anytime you get under a weight your going to have a chance of injury but hopefully with some minor schedule adjustments we can hopefully correct this issue and make it safer to go through. So the schedule as the program laid out is;
Monday - Squat. Bench, Deadlift (light)
Tuesday - Upper Accessories
Wednesday - Squat, Bench Lower Accessories (Medium)
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Deadlift, Bench, Upper Accessories (Heavy)
Saturday - Squat, Lower Accessories (Heavy)
Sunday - Rest
So that schedule works really good through most of the program but that last phase when those heavy days are around 90% are when problems can arise.
How about trying this modified schedule
Monday - Squat (Heavy), Bench (Light), Deadlift (Light)
Tuesday - Upper Accessories
Wednesday -Squat (Medium), Bench (Medium), Lower Accessories
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Squat (Light), Deadlift (Heavy), Lower Accessories
Saturday - Bench (Heavy), Upper Accessories
Sudnay - Rest
This new modified schedule will allow you to be recoverd for heavy deadlifts and squats beacuse the program reverses each one. Squats start heavy at the beginning of the week while your fresh and then they get lighter as the week goes on, Deadlifts are then the opposite, your first deadlift day is light and then later on in the week after your light squats on Friday is when you have your heaviest deadlifts “but Shawn wouldn't squatting and deadlifting on the same day be worse then separate days?” Nope not really, The reason is that because after your light squats on Friday you will be nice and warm all ready and prepped for deadlifts. This is the same way i designed my SHDUPA program. By the time you get to your deadlifts your lower back and hips will be warm and ready to pull heavy. Don't Believe me? Try it ;)
Its a pretty simple fix for PH3 but that one tweak on the schedule could have saved my back if i would have implemented it so i recommend throwing in that method and let me know if it just feels more safer and more smooth of a program.
2. Use A Conservative Max
The second method to improve PH3 i want to talk about is how you should go through this program or at least the first round of this program with a conservative max and not your all out max. The
way it stands PH3 uses your all out 100% max for the percentages and calculations for each week of training. So this means that say on a day where your planned to use 75% of your one rep max your
going to be using 75% of your true all out max. This can be a problem later on when your training in that 80-90% range. For this reason i recommend using a conservative max while going through
this program. Lets say on your test day you hit a 450lb squat, 250lb bench, and a 500lb deadlift, Those are all total MAX numbers. Thats what you hit when you were at your very best and when you
were "peaked" so does it make sense to train like your peaked through a whole program? Not really if you think about it. So when going through PH3 i would plug in a weight that you could hit for
2 pretty clean reps. So instead of 100% i would drop your maxes to around 93-95% and run the program with those. By doing this yes you might have some easier workouts but the weights will
move faster, you wont have so many grinding reps, and your form will be cleaner, all that translates to more effective, safer, and long term training. Remember that whatever can increase
the longevity of your training is what you should be striving to do. During my first round of PH3 the same one i got injured on. I really think that if i would have went off 95% instead of 100%
for the program i think i probably could have avoided that injury.
Still trying to understand Daily Undulating Periodization? Check this out!
3. Use Variations Occasionally
So like i said above PH3 is a fun program and since it is a daily undulating system you are always doing different rep ranges and intensities each day but with that said i noticed after my first round i was really getting bored of doing the same lifts all the time and i just pushed on till i then got injured. Variations i think can be a good way to mix things up and keep things interesting. Back in my days of using a more conjugate approach to my training i really enjoyed back then switching it up to different variations. The problem with so many variations tho (as i talked about in this podcast) is that the more variations you have the less specificity you are incorporating in your training and specificity as we remember is doing a specific lift toward what you will be doing in competition so for that reason since PH3 can also be used to prep for a competition i have different theories of thought on how you can incorporate this. Also i did a podcast you can listen to here where i discuss my thoughts overall on the conjugate style of training
First Theory
- If you are using PH3 to peak for a specific competition then i would not include any variations for the 13 weeks. Just follow the nomal reps and sets ( i think i would still lower overall intensity to working off 95% though).
Second Theory
- If you are just doing PH3 for a program to do with no competition set then here is how i would approach PH3.
Squat variations
- Front Squats
- Pause Squats
- Low Bar Back Squats (or your preferred competition lift)
Bench variations
- Close Grip Bench
- Floor Press or Slingshot Bench
- Regular Bench
Deadlift Variations
- Conventional Deadlifts (if you reg pull sumo)
- Competitions Stance deadlifts
In this theory you can pick which variation for what rep scheme you want but i would recommend doing your competition lifts on the heaviest days to maximize specificity even while in a period of using variations. during the second phase of the program i would just drop to having one variation day and then on the 3rd phase just stay with your competition lifts to maximize specificity.
Using this method you can still program using PH3 but it allows you to include a lot more variety to keep things interesting but not so much variation that you loose skill at your main lift.
4. Take Away The AMRAP's
You may be thinking “how on earth can you do this program without the AMRAPS since thats how the program determines what you do each week????”
Calm down if i mention something chances are i have a solid reason why. Lets first break down the pros and cons of AMRAP’s and if you don’t know what an AMRAP is, It is the last set on your heaviest days where you take that set to failure or at least an RPE 9.5.
Pros
- They are a great indication of strength gains
- They allow you to program following weeks intensity's on how well you do
- They build mental strength
- Its one all out set that you can get amped for and just destroy shit, They are just plain fun
Cons
- In my case anytime i use them i end up with an injury
- They can really drain you mentally throughout the day. There were times on my squat AMRAP days i could not even concentrate at work that day because i was just nervous about that one all out set
- You have a tendency to push harder and harder each week which is good to a degree but if your not careful your form will fall to pieces and its almost a sure fire way to an injury then.
So How Do You Do PH3 Without Them?
So you have 2 choices here
First Choice
- Do a conservative AMRAP and cap it at 10 reps - Simply put you do as many reps as you can get with clean form but nothing more than 10.
Second Choice
- Eliminate them completly and just plug in numbers you think you could hit if you did do the AMRAP now understand this method has a lot of room for error but for people that have trained a long time then you can certainly guess close. Here is an example how i would go about it.
Example Training Notes
Squats - 210lbs for 4x5 last set AMRAP.
first set - 210 x 5 RPE 8 (Rate of Perceived Exertion- Learn About That Here)
Second Set - 210 x 5 REP 8
Third Set - 210 x 5 RPE 8.5
Fourth Set (AMRAP) 210 x 5 RPE 8.5 (Predicted AMRAP 6 or 7 Reps)
As you can see on that last set i just hit the normal 5 reps as planned but then i take 10 (the maximum amount of RPE and subtract the RPE i had from that last 5 reps in this case it was 8.5 so that told me that i maybe had 2 reps in reserve and if i would have went all out i probably would have gotten 6 maybe 7 reps if i would have went all out.
Using this approach like i said is not an exact indicator but if i would have used this myself in PH3 i would have never had the back injury i sustained..........
5. Add More Assistance Lifts
This last method to make PH3 even more effective and a better overall program is to simply include more assistance lifts if time allows you too. PH3 has lots of accessory stuff but i found that including a few more sets or a few more exercises just made for an overall better and more fun program. These are the lifts i would do more sets of than the original program calls for;
- Shoulder Side Laterals
- Rear Dealt Fly's
- Face Pulls
- Shrugs
- Throw in a few extra cable or supportive back exercises if time allows.
So as you see while the program is balanced it lacks some upper back shoulder and rear dealt direct work. Now I'm not saying do 10 sets of each of those but you could up it to 3 or 4 sets. Doing a little more accessory lifts will not hurt and can maybe even help you in not only strength but also overall hypertrophy.
There We Have It
So To Recap what we went through today
- Use my safer modified schedule to allow your lower back to recover better for squats and deadlifts.
- Base the program off 95% of your total numbers not 100%
- Try incorporating other variations of the lifts if your not using PH3 to prep for a current meet. That will keep things interesting and keep you from getting bored.
- Take way the AMRAP’s and just start using an RPE system to gauge how much you had left.
- Try doing a little more assistance lifts if your gym time allows for it.
Like i said at the beggining of this blog i am not saying that PH3 the way its designed is bad. I had great results! But at the same time after going through it i deffianatly had some thoughts on what i needed and wanted to change. This blog was just to share my approach that i will be using in future rounds (hopefully) that will hopefully not allow for so many injuries either. Have you done PH3 yet? if so in the comments below below let me know of something that you liked about the proram and something you would change as well. Thanks for reading guys and if you enjoyed and got something out of this weeks blog then all i ask is that you click those share buttons to let me know that you appreciate these. Till next week guys....
Stay Strong,
Shawn Fausey
Looking for a coach that understands you and your goals?
look no further and sign up for Fausey's Fitness Coaching Here!
• Custom Programming
• Custom Macro Calculations
• Weekly Check-Ins
- Shawn Fausey is the Founder and CEO of Fausey's Fitness. With Over 6 years experience in Bodybuilding, Powerlifting and Nutrition. Shawn offers services of online fitness coaching, programing and consulting. Shawn is also a Graphic Designer and can be reached for graphic services on www.rev-graphics.com
- Follow me on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Google +
You Might Also Be Interested In Checking Out
