The One-Two
A strength program for two days a week, with two heavy barbell lifts in every workout
In boxing, the one-two is two punches thrown back to back. “The One-Two” is built the same way: two workouts a week, each with two heavy barbell lifts for 5 sets. Set aside two days and start with the intro week.
For experienced lifters who have two days a week for the gym and want to lift more in the squat, press and pull. 2 workouts a week, 6 exercises each, 12 sets a week for legs and 10 each for chest and back. Rest between sets is 150 seconds on the heavy lifts and 120 on accessory exercises. Two 4-week stages: in Base the load rises week by week; in Peak there are fewer reps, and the load is highest in weeks 2 and 3 and drops in week 4. The app calculates the weight for each set from your max, and your maxes carry over from stage to stage.
Each workout opens with two heavy barbell lifts for 5 sets: squat and bench press in the first, Romanian deadlift and incline bench press in the second. Each lift comes up once a week and gets 5 heavy sets: 5 reps in Base, 4 in Peak. Four accessory exercises follow at 2 sets each: pull-ups and rows for the back, leg press and abs; the weighted ones are done for 10 reps in Base and 8 in Peak. Every weighted set ends at least 1 rep short of failure.
Method: Strength work twice a week.
The core is four heavy barbell lifts, two per workout: squat and bench press, Romanian deadlift and incline bench press. Each one comes up once a week, 5 sets of 4–5 reps. With the same number of sets per week, training frequency has little effect on strength gains, so the strength work fits into two days. In Base the load rises week by week; in Peak there are fewer reps and the load drops in week 4. Every weighted set ends at least 1 rep short of failure.
What studies found:
- Frequency affects strength through volume: with volume equal, the difference is small (Grgic et al., 2018)
- Strength grows more with more sets per week (Ralston et al., 2017)
- Muscle growth does not depend on the weight used; max strength improves more with heavy weights (Lopez et al., 2021)
The studies tested the principles; the program itself has not been tested in this form.
