Repeating the last week of a block/program

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Docs

I’ve noticed in several replies that, while not explicitly instructed to do so in the templates I’ve purchased, it appears to be a general unofficial recommendation to (when appropriate) repeat the last week of a block or a program until it stops working.

Have I surmised correctly?

I’m thinking of applying this to the body building template currently and powerbuilding and hypertrophy in the future.

I’m mainly wondering how best to decide it has “stopped working”. I’m leaning towards two simple criteria: the main/first lift on any day stops progressing, or things are starting to feel a little stale, then it’s time to move on.

To help moderate expectations, I’m also wondering generally how many repeated weeks do you think would be reasonable?

2

This is a very reasonable thing to do if you have good evidence that you are responding to the training, as indicated by an increase in performance (load lifted, e1RM, etc.) without a commensurate increase in RPE. In other words, if you are continuing to hit the prescribed RPE targets with increasing loads, that is evidence that you are getting stronger. A general template obviously can’t account for all the variation among individuals and how they will tolerate/respond to the training.

However, you don’t necessarily need to move on at the first sign of something not progressing, either. With more training advancement, it takes more time and training to generate the adaptations necessary for a load increase, so it can be reasonable to repeat a weight (or even to decrease the weight) for a week, and in some cases you’ll see the adaptations emerge with load increases in the following week(s). For example, I have been using essentially the same weekly template in my own training for about 6 months now. Some weeks are heavier, some lighter – but the average/overall trend when “zooming out” is gradually upwards, so I’m sticking with it.

1 Like
3

Thanks Austin. Great info. I think it will help me enjoy my training (even more) if I don’t have a hard end to a program lurking in exactly X weeks. Cheers!