Here’s an example of a weight lifting program for strength. It’s a 3-day-per-week program, utilising compound exercises, low reps and heavy weight. Ideally you’d perform this for eight weeks straight, then take a week off and reassess your weight lifting goals. You can expect to gain a significant amount of strength in most of your lifts if you follow this routine and stick to the advice I give you.

The routine is an “abbreviated” program, meaning you’ll only need to train 20-30 minutes per session. It’s ideal for athletes who want to work in some weight lifting for strength around their normal training, or for anyone who wants to maximise their efficiency and gain well without spending hours in the gym.

Here’s the program:

Monday:

Squat - 3 sets of 5
Bench Press - 3 sets of 5
Close grip Bench Press - 3 sets of 5

Wednesday:

Power Clean - 3 sets of 5
Pullups – 3 sets of 5
Dips – 3 sets of 5

Friday:

Barbell Rows – 3 sets of 5
Deadlift – 2 sets of 5
Barbell Bicep Curls – 3 sets of 5

A couple of pointers:-

Warming up

Good warm-ups are an essential part of a weight lifting program for strength , because you’ll be sticking with low reps and going heavy. Before even touching a weight, hit the stationary bike for 5 minutes of cycling before your session to get the blood flowing.

Here’s how I warm up for each exercise:

• One very light warmup, 12+ reps with just the bar

(for pull-ups, do 12 reps of light-weight lat pulldowns, for dips, do 12 reps of pushdowns at a light weight)

• Two sets at 60-70% of your working weight for 3-4 reps
• One set at 80% of working weight for 2 rep
• One set at 90% of working weight for 1 rep

The last two sets are “acclimation” sets and get your joints and nervous system “in the groove” for the heavy lifts. This kind of warmup is very effective for strength training.

Another thing to remember is STAY WELL AWAY FROM FAILURE. This is essential for strength gain. Training to muscular failure with heavy weights will cause fatigue your central nervous system way too much, which basically stops your gains dead in their tracks. A good rule of thumb is to end the set as soon as your barspeed starts slowing down. If this is happening too early, lower the weight so that you can maintain the bar speed for five reps per set.

Progression:

Try and add 5-10lbs for 1 set of each exercise each week. That means you’re adding 5-10lbs to all your sets every three weeks, for any given exercise. If 5lbs is too much, just add 2.5lbs.

With this weight lifting program for strength, the most important thing is consistency. Expect yourself to be significantly stronger after 8 weeks with tighter, harder muscles from all the dense contractile proteins you’ve built.