Tools: Lifting

Strength Programs — Pick One, Run It, Stop Thinking

A reasonable exercise program is one where you can track progress over time. That's it. Most people overcomplicate this beyond recognition.

The biggest mistake I see — and I see it constantly — is people not following a structured strength and conditioning program. They do roughly the same thing for years, then wonder why they're no stronger, no leaner, and nursing the same shoulder they were nursing in 2019. Doing the same workout on repeat isn't training. It's a hobby with extra steps.

Below is a list of programs I've found genuinely useful, with some commentary. I'm not telling you to run any specific one. I'm telling you to pick one and actually run it. Most of these, if you Google the program name plus "Excel," you'll find a template where you plug in your training maxes and follow along. That's the whole game. Stop thinking. Follow the program. Twelve to sixteen weeks later, you're stronger. Magic.

If you're a patient of the practice and any of these interest you, I've already built most of them out — I can send you the Excel sheet.

General Strength

Stronger by Science — Free. I'm a huge fan of Greg's programming. His Average to Savage 1.0 and 2.0 produced probably the most progress I've ever made as a lifter. Those specific programs don't appear to be online anymore, but Stronger by Science has a free download with strength and hypertrophy templates that are excellent starting points.

New Rules of Lifting — $6. Nine programs in one book: three for fat loss, three for hypertrophy, three for strength. Easy to follow. At that price it's almost criminal.

5/3/1 — $27. Jim Wendler may have written the best efficient-strength program ever made. You can run this more or less indefinitely. He has versions for general strength, powerlifting, and the 5/3/1 Forever book, which adds significant variety once you've burned through the basics. Start with the second edition. When you get bored, move to Forever. The 5/3/1 for MMA variant is excellent for anyone who plays a sport or trains hard outside the gym and doesn't want their lifting to take over their life.

Tactical Barbell — $9. The strength program in the Black Book is excellent, and I'm honestly amazed at the price. If you like hybrid training — strength plus cardio — or you do any kind of sport or functional work outside the gym, this is the book for you.

Complete Human Performance — $90 per program. These are pricier than the rest, but the value is real. When I bought the original 1.0 programs years ago, they were closer to $20. Alex Viada's Hybrid Athlete (now in its second edition) is the single best book I've read on concurrent training — how to actually pursue strength and cardiovascular fitness at the same time without one sabotaging the other. One warning: be conservative with your training maxes, especially if you've never trained this way before.

500 Swing Challenge — Free. A 20-day challenge from Dan John. I've run it four times since it was originally written and I treat it as a reset. If you have limited equipment and train at home, this is a wonderful program.

StrongLifts 5x5 — Free. A great beginner strength program at the perfect price. There's a passionate cohort that loves this program. I ran it for one cycle years ago. It's very basic — but basics are what matter in strength and in life.

Cube Method — Brandon Lilly's pseudo-conjugate program, blending strength, dynamic work, and hypertrophy. This is not a beginner program. It's high volume and tough to recover from unless you're "enhanced." Plenty of people misjudge their recovery capacity here and end up injured. Earn your way to it.

Easy Strength Omnibook — I ran this on deployment and it worked well. It builds on the concepts from Dan John and Pavel's Easy Strength. It's the perfect nudge program: you get stronger over time without ever feeling like you're killing yourself. For most adults with real jobs and real lives, this is closer to the right answer than they realize.

Hypertrophy

Westside for Skinny Bastards — A classic for a reason. Gets people who don't respond well to bodybuilding splits actually growing. This is a great program for high school, collgegient and off season professionals who are looking to put on mass.

The Body-Part Split (a.k.a. the Pittsburgh Program, a.k.a. the Bodybuilder Split) — This is how the overwhelming majority of people in commercial gyms train, whether they realize it or not. Chest day, back day, leg day, arms day. The goal is to maximize total volume per muscle group to drive growth. It works. It's just not the only way.

Beginner Programs

Barbell Medicine — Free PDF. Includes versions using only dumbbells or only machines, which makes it a great entry point for anyone new to the weight room or training in a hotel gym.

Recovery

Hypertrophy and Recovery Program — Dan John. I ran this post-COVID when every gym was closed, and I run it any time I feel completely overtrained and beat up. I had my wife run it after she had neck issues postpartum. It incorporates mobility work between sets — and frankly, I'm a little dumb for not just baking original-strength movements into all of my programs. It also includes weighted carries, which provide the kind of dynamic stability most people are completely missing. If you've been hammering yourself for a year and feel like you're falling apart, this is where I'd go.

Peri-Partum

Girls Gone Strong — Free. Training around pregnancy is something most providers know nothing about. The general recommendation is that you can continue your current program until you can't. What happens in practice is that most women default to walking and lose substantial muscle mass during pregnancy — which is a much worse outcome than continuing to train sensibly. This program fills a gap the medical system has largely abandoned.

Apps

HYBRD — Solid app with AI built into the programming. Roughly $99/year. For most people, an app that nudges them to show up and tracks progress automatically is worth the money.

Just read this article

The Real Point

There are hundreds of strength programs on the market. They aren't all equally good — but most of them are good enough. The best program is the one you'll actually follow.

Stop program hopping. Pick one, run it to completion, then evaluate. This is no different than investing. The person who buys an index fund and holds for thirty years crushes the person who jumps between strategies every six months chasing the next thing. Compounding requires staying in the trade. Strength is the same.

Jim Wendler's line is the one I keep coming back to: train consistently for ten years before you ask questions. That's sage advice. It's also the advice almost nobody wants to hear, because it implies that the answer isn't a better program — it's more time under the bar.

That's because it is.

3-Point Summary

• Not following a structured program is the single biggest training mistake. Doing the same workout on repeat for years isn't training — it's why people stay weak and accumulate overuse injuries.

• The best program is the one you'll actually run to completion. Every program on this list has produced results for real people; what kills progress is hopping between them.

• Strength compounds like an index fund. Consistency over a decade beats optimization in any given twelve-week block. Wendler's rule — train ten years before asking questions — is the actual answer.

3 Practical Takeaways

1. Pick one program and commit to a full cycle. Don't switch mid-block. Don't add a second program on top. Run it as written, evaluate at the end, and only then decide what's next.

2. Be conservative with your training max. Especially if you're new to structured programming or running a hybrid (strength + cardio) plan. The most common reason people stall or get hurt is starting too heavy. You can always add weight. You can't un-tweak a back.

3. Audit the program once it's done, not during. At the end of a cycle, ask honestly: did I get stronger, did I stay healthy, and did I actually follow the program? If the answer is yes, run it again or progress to the next logical block. If no, figure out which of those three failed before blaming the program.