Tower House
A heavy lift, compound exercises and isolation in every workout
For beginners who want to get stronger and build muscle at the same time. 3 full-body gym workouts a week. Two 4-week stages: in Base the load grows week by week, in Build it moves in a wave with a step back in week three. The next step after this program is “Traffic Light”.
Every workout has three tiers. The first exercise uses five sets: 5 reps in Base, 4 reps in Build. Two compound exercises use three sets: 12 reps in Base, 10 in Build. The isolation exercise uses three sets: 15 reps in Base, 13 in Build. Early in each stage the heavy lift leaves plenty of reps in reserve before failure; by the end of the stage the reserve gets smaller.
Method: Tiered scheme.
Low reps build strength, higher-rep work adds the volume muscles need to grow, and three tiers combine both in one workout. The first exercise uses five sets of 5 reps in Base and 4 in Build, two compound exercises use three sets of 12 and then 10, isolation exercises use three sets of 15 and then 13.
What studies found:
- With equal volume the strength scheme gave more strength; muscle growth was the same (Schoenfeld et al., 2014)
- Low reps build strength, high-rep work builds muscular endurance (Campos et al., 2002)
- Muscle growth does not depend on the weight; max strength grows more with heavy weight (Lopez et al., 2021)
The studies tested strength and high-rep schemes separately; three tiers in one workout have not been tested.
