Damascus Steel
A strength program for three days a week: with each stage, the heavy lifts get fewer reps and heavier weights
For experienced lifters who train in the gym and want to lift more in the barbell squat, presses and rows. 3 full-body workouts a week, 6 exercises each, 15 sets a week for legs, 12 for chest and 13 for back. Rest between sets is 150 seconds on the heavy lifts and 120 on accessory exercises. Three 4-week stages: in Base the load rises week by week; in Build it moves in a wave, with a step back in week 3 and the heaviest week in week 4; in Peak 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, squat and bent-over barbell row in the third. The sets on the heavy lifts stay the same in every stage, and the reps change: 6 in Base, 5 in Build, 4 in Peak. In Base the weights are moderate, with a few reps in reserve; after that the reps go down and the weights go up. Four accessory exercises follow at 2 sets each, covering dumbbell presses, rows for the back, triceps, biceps and abs over the week. The weighted ones are done for 10 reps in Base and 8 in Build and Peak. Every weighted set ends at least 1 rep short of failure.
Method: Stage-based periodization.
The three stages follow one another, and each has its own rep count on the heavy barbell lifts with the same 5 sets: 6 in Base, 5 in Build, 4 in Peak. The weights get heavier from stage to stage. The load also changes within each stage: in Base it rises week by week, in Build it moves in a wave with a step back in week 3, and in Peak it drops in week 4. Your maxes carry over from stage to stage. Every weighted set ends at least 1 rep short of failure.
What studies found:
- A review of periodization: stages follow one another, each with one main goal (Issurin, 2010)
- Programs that vary the load from period to period raise max strength more than programs with a flat load (Williams 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.
