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I have two passions (apart from my wife and dogs of course), training and
Get Stronger history. And ever since I started lifting weights I was interested in learning how
Get Bigger
Get Leaner the truly big and strong people before me trained. For example, at the age of 13,
I read Bill Pearl’s Keys to the Inner Universe. At the time, my English was limited
Get more and we’re talking about a 600-page book! But I devoured it. For some reason, I
always believed (and still do) that despite much less scienti c knowledge, old-
Knowledge
Seminars & Webinars school lifters knew a lot more than we do about building strength and gaining
Free Resources muscle. Back then (40s and 50s) there were no steroids, or at least their use for
About Us performance enhancement was extremely rare. I’m not a steroids hater, but it is a
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FAQ fact that when you use them (especially from a young age), it is di cult to learn
what really works because they will give you rapid gains even if your training is
not optimal.
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I also think that the internet and social media has made things worse. Nowadays,
people are more interested in what looks good, cool and falsely innovative (to
get more followers) than what actually works.

One my biggest in uences is an old-school strength athlete named Doug

Hepburn. He’s a Canadian lifter from the 1950s (go Canada) who won a gold
medal in Olympic lifting and was lifting big weights on the powerlifts
(powerlifting competitions didn’t exist yet). He was the rst man to bench press
500lbs and was also squatting and deadlifting 800lbs.

He had a very simple and methodic system revolving around doing only the big
basic lifts using the most conservative form or double progression. Basically,
Hepburn believed in progressive overload, so he wanted to have some
progression at every session but also wanted to avoid burning out which would
kill his gains. So, he resorted to the smallest possible measurable progression
from session to session. This allowed him to progress continuously for much
longer than everybody else.

In that regard, he is similar to Jim Wendler who believes in slow, gradual but
constant progression while avoiding digging yourself into a hole.

Add One Rep: The Hepburn Model

Hepburn’s system was simple: at every session, you do one more total rep on
each exercise. Not one rep per set, one rep total. Once you reach a certain total
number of reps, you increase the weight.

Let me illustrate this using his favorite scheme, the 8 x 3.

He would start with a weight that was challenging, but not an all-out e ort for 3
reps. Let’s say 87.5% for illustration purposes. His rst workout would be 2 x 3
and 6 x 2 with the selected weight, for a total of 8 sets.

The next time he would hit the same lift (normally each lift was trained twice a
week), he would keep the same weight and add one total rep; so he would now
do 3 x 3 and 5 x 2 with 87.5%.

The following workout he would add another rep using the same weight, now
going up to 4 x 3 and 4 x 2 with 87.5%.

He continued this way until all 8 sets were done for 3 reps. Once that was
achieved, he would go increase the weight for the next session (by 10-20lbs
depending on the lift) starting back at 2 x 3 and 6 x 2, and building the reps
back up the same way.

The same can be done with other rep numbers, but Hepburn was a low rep man
(so am I). The highest he would go in reps per set was 5. Since he liked to add
weight every 4 weeks or so, if he did sets of 5 he would do less total sets (5
instead of 8) and the progression would look like this:

Session 1

1x5

2x4

2x3

Session 2

1x5

3x4

1x3

Session 3

1x5

4x4

Session 4

2x5

3x4

Session 5

3x5

2x4

Session 6

4x5

1x4

Session 7

5x5

Session 8

Add weight and go back to 1 x 5, 2 x 4, 2 x 3

Yes, progression might seem slow compared to some methods which promise to
add 50 lbs to your bench in one month. But this type of progression can be
sustained for a very long time because it allows all the tissues (muscle, tendons,
nervous system, etc.) to fully adapt before increasing the load. Whereas if you
add weight sooner you might be lagging in one (tendons most of the time) and
they will never be able to catch up, leading to stagnation and even injuries.

But even if progress seems slow and the training repetitive it should allow you to
add 60-120lbs to your lifts in a year (of course, advanced lifters will not be able
to sustain that progression, I will explain how to adapt the system for them in a
later part of the article).

It will work every time. The only drawback is that it doesn’t t all the neurological
pro les. Someone who loves variety and needs to change things around to stay
motivated will not do well on this program. Someone who loves to feel a pump
will not get what they are looking for either.

Layers

Those who have been following my work for some time are aware of my layer
approach (also see: https://thibarmy.com/boost-lift-fast-strength-layers/).

The basic layer concept is simple: you only do one main lift per workout and use
3-4 di erent training methods with that lift. You do all the sets for one method,
then move on to the next. You start with the heaviest layer to activate the
nervous system and work your way down.

For example:

Layer 1: Ramp up to you 2RM

Layer 2: Using 90% of your 2RM, do 3 sets of clusters for 5-6 reps

Layer 3: Using 75% of your 2RM do 3 sets of 5 with a 5 seconds eccentric

Layer 4: Using 65% of your 2RM do 2 sets of max reps

Myself and the people who tried it reported amazingly fast gains in strength with
layers.

The problem is that it cannot be sustained for long because it is so demanding

on the nervous system. Most people could do it for 3-4 weeks before hitting a
wall.

We can address this by using a “Hepburn” approach to layers.

Hepburn Layers
We will use four di erent intensity zones. 87.5%, 77.5%, 72.5% and 62.5%. Note
that those percentages are just recommendations for good starting points for
all the zones. Some might be able to use a bit more while others will need a bit
less, but it’s better the start conservative. The Hepburn system (like 531) was
designed to allow someone to progress for as long as possible.

First layer

The rst layer uses around 87.5% of your maximum for sets of 2-3 reps. Just like
we saw earlier, the goal will be to build up the reps so that all the sets are done
with 3 reps. Do that by only adding one rep per workout even if you feel like you
could do all sets of 3 right o the bat. This is very important.

We will do 5 sets.

Week 1

2x3

3x2

Week 2

3x3

2x2

Week 3

4x3

1x2

Week 4

5x3

Week 5

Add weight and go back to 2 x 3, 3 x 2

Second layer

Here the starting weight is around 77.5% and we will do sets of 4-5 reps. Again,
adding one total rep per workout until all sets are done for 5 reps. 4 sets are
done.

Week 1

1x5

3x4

Week 2

2x5

2x4

Week 3

3x5

1x4

Week 4

4x5

Week 5

Add weight and go back to 1 x 5, 3 x 4

Third layer

In this third layer the starting weight is around 72.5% and sets of 6-8 reps are
done. You perform 3 sets.

Week 1

1x8

1x7

1x6

Week 2

1x8

2x7

Week 3

2x8

1x7

Week 4

3x8

Week 5

Add weight and go back to 1 x 8, 1 x 7, 1 x 6

Fourth layer

Here we use 62.5% and we will do reps di erently: you will start by holding the
mid-range position on your lift (90 degrees on squats, just below knees on
deadlift, eyes level on overhead press, 90 degrees elbows in the bench) for 15
seconds then you do as many good reps as you can (stop before technique
breaks down). You only perform one set and try to get one more rep than the
week prior, but if you can’t, it’s not a big deal.

OVERVIEW OF THE WORKOUT

You have four main sessions per week:

Day 1 – Squat

Squat using the Hepburn layers

Barbell curl 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps

Day 2 – Overhead press

Overhead press using the Hepburn layers

Chest-supported T-bar row 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps

Day 3 – Deadlift

Deadlift using the Hepburn layers

Seated row 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps

Day 4 – Bench press

Bench press using the Hepburn layers

Seal row 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps

Note that you can replace the secondary exercises by loaded carries for 3-4
sets of 40-50m.

Very little assistance work is done because those four big lifts cover pretty much
the whole body. Biceps will not get as much stimulation so I added curls and you
need a strong back to be strong on those big four so it is emphasized. Note that
I recommend some back exercises, but you can use any back exercise that you
like. I don’t like to use the bent-over row since the lower back is already taxed a
lot with this program.

How Much Weight To Add?

After 4 weeks, you will increase the weight used for the big lifts. The question I
always get is “by how much?”.

The answer is: “it depends”.

You can add more weight on the bigger lifts. For example, you can more easily
add weight to the deadlift and squat. It’s a bit harder on the bench and a lot
harder on the overhead press.

Second, you have to factor in how close you are to your limit. While you can’t
really know what your limits are; if you are squatting 700lbs you likely have a lot
less room for improvement than if you can squat 400lbs.

Since strength levels also come into play (20lbs on a 200lbs squat is 10%, 20lbs
on a 400lbs squat is 5%. 5% is an easier step than 10%) you must factor in both.

It looks like a bell curve. If your strength is low you cannot add a ton of weight
because it represents a high percentage of your max. But if you are very strong
adding 20lbs per 4 weeks is likely not going to be possible. The “sweet zone”
would be when you are decently strong but not what would be considered “limit”.
For example, overhead pressing 0.75x bodyweight, bench pressing 1.25x
bodyweight, squatting 2x body weight and deadlifting 2.25x body weight.

In that zone you can likely add (every 4 weeks):

– 20lbs to the squat and deadlift

– 15lbs to the bench

– 10lbs to the overhead press

Out of that zone you might be more in the following progression:

– 15lbs to the squat and deadlift

– 10lbs to the bench

– 5lbs to the overhead press

So, you can use these as a starting point. I know if doesn’t seem like a lot, but
this is a long-term program and its core principle is slow, gradual progress for
many months. Heck, even adding 10lbs to your deadlift every 4-5 weeks would
give you 100lbs on that lift in a year! Honestly, even though the program is great,
at one point you cannot continue this linear progression; otherwise, we could all
squat 700-900lbs in 5 years! Most can progress for 5-6 months after which they
should change their training or the focus exercises.

But really, you have to be smart about how much weight you add. If your sets
were really hard on week 4, don’t add 20lbs the next week, your body won’t be
able to keep up. Remember, the weight should feel challenging, but no set
should be an all-out e ort.

Conclusion

This program is not for everybody. It requires someone who has the discipline to
stick to the plan for some time without losing motivation. But it works and it
works well.

-CT