STRENGTH SENSEI 101: INTENSITY BRACKETS

Strength Sensei 101

Intensity Brackets

 

More insights into the pioneering training methods of Charles R. Poliquin

 

No matter how carefully they plan their workouts, a strength coach or personal trainer can’t predict precisely how much an individual can lift at a specific time on a specific day. That’s where intensity brackets come in.

Before defining intensity brackets and showing how they work, let’s look at a typical workout designed by a college strength coach. With the help of a software program (such as Excel), a training session for a college-level athlete will contain prescribe weights that are percentages of their 1-repetition maximum (1RM). The following is an example of an approach used by a Division I college football team that won several national titles. This is a three-week cycle of the working sets for a bench press performed after a football season, thus a focus on higher reps to increase muscle mass:

Week 1: 50% x 10, 60% x 3 x 10

Week 2: 50% x 10, 65% x 3 x 10

Week 3: 50% x 10, 70% x 3 x 8

Thus, if an athlete can bench press 200 pounds for 1 rep, on Week 1 they would use 100 pounds for their first set and 120 pounds for their next three sets.

Fast forward to Weeks 9-11, and you’ll see the exercise prescription focuses on lower reps to develop maximum strength:

Week 9: 86% x 4 x 5

Week 10: 88% x 4 x 3

Week 11: 90% x 4 x 3

Translated into “Strength Sensei Speak,” Weeks 1-3 would be an accumulation phase (overload by volume) and Weeks 9-11 would be an intensification phase (overload by intensity).

Focusing on Week 11, how does a strength coach know this athlete will be able to perform exactly 90 percent, no more and no less, of their 1RM for four sets of 3 reps? If the athlete completes all the reps, maybe 90 percent was too light and their muscles were not optimally trained? If they didn’t complete all the reps, 90 percent was too heavy and they may not be working the intended strength quality. How can a coach refine their exercise prescription to ensure their athlete is working on the precise strength quality? The answer: Intensity Brackets.

About 35 years ago, weightlifting sports scientist M.S. Okunyev wrote about using intensity brackets that provided a range of repetitions to use for a workout. (It’s called an intensity bracket because the repetitions determine the intensity; lower reps = higher intensity.) So rather than this:

86% x 4 x 5

You might see this range of repetitions:

86% x 4 x 4-6

Thus, if an athlete is feeling strong, they might perform all four sets of six reps. If they are feeling not-so-strong, they might just do four sets of four reps. Either way, the athlete was able to stay within the repetitions range. You might say there is no such thing as failure when using brackets! [Preparation and Participation of Juniors and Youths in the World and European Championships and Junior Friendship Tournament, M.S. Okunyev, 1985 Weightlifting Yearbook, Sportivny Press, Livonia, Michigan, 1987)

Weightlifters are known to carefully plan their workouts to prescribe the optimal amount of weight for each workout. (Photo by Viviana Podhaiski, LiftingLife.com)

 

The Strength Sensei tended to keep the repetition ranges in his workouts within 2, as in 2-4 reps or 4-6 reps. He said that if the intensity spread is too wide, the body doesn’t know what it is supposed to adapt to. However, for hypertrophy protocols that use a higher repetition range, the repetition spread could be slightly wider, such as with 12-15.

To add even more flexibility and precision to the workout, you can even provide a range of lifting intensities, like this:

84-86% x 4 x 4-6

These protocols are especially valuable for technically complex exercises such as the Olympic lifts. With these lifts, if an athlete’s technique is off during a specific training session, they would need to decrease the weight to complete the prescribed reps. (However, it’s important to note that although percentage-based systems work for the sport of weightlifting, the Strength Sensei usually just let the repetitions determine the load.)

Finally, you could also create brackets for sets prescribed, as follows:

84-86% x 3-4 x 4-6

This last variation is especially valuable. The Strength Sensei believed it generally wasn’t so much the intensity of a workout that caused overtraining, but excessive volume. If an athlete is not at the top of their game, dropping 1-2 work sets might enable them to still get in a quality workout without sacrificing strength. In fact, he would often recommend that athletes significantly reduce the training volume during the season (i.e., total sets) but still go heavy. Such an approach enables athletes to get stronger during the season, rather than maintaining or getting progressively weaker.

While percentage systems are convenient, especially when training large groups, using intensity brackets provides a more precise approach to achieving optimal results. (TSS)

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