Squat & Overhead Press · Groove the Pattern

Week 3 · WedTarget 52 min
11 exercises · 22 sets ahead

Eat something in the last few hours before training — lifting under-fuelled measurably costs performance on every set.

General Warm-up5 min

cardio machine of your choice

5 min steady · zone2 conversational

Bike, row, or an incline walk — easy, conversational pace. Just raise your core temperature before the primer.

Mobility Primer8 min
World's Greatest Stretch

One flowing rep each side — hip opens, thoracic rotates, reach tall. Groove the range, don't force it.

Demonstration of World's Greatest Stretch, start position

5/side · rest 0:15

Cat-Cow

Slow spinal wave, inhale into extension, exhale into flexion — wakes up the whole spine before you load it.

Video thumbnail: Cat Cow - Exercise Library

External video — Cat Cow - Exercise Library by London Strength .

How to do it
Setup
Hands and knees. Wrists stacked under shoulders, knees stacked under hips.
Execution
Let your breath set the tempo, one full breath per position. Inhale into Cow: let the belly sink, lift the chest and tailbone, eyes look slightly up. Exhale into Cat: push the floor away, round the spine, tuck the chin toward your chest and the tailbone under, eyes look toward your navel. Flow smoothly from one checkpoint to the other for the prescribed reps.
Common error
Stopping in the rounded Cat position and holding it — the drill is the full alternation between both checkpoints, timed to the breath, not a static round-back stretch.
Feel
A smooth wave travels the full length of the spine each direction, checkpoint to checkpoint — eyes up and belly low at one end, chin tucked and spine rounded at the other. No sharp catching anywhere in the back.

8 · rest 0:10

Shoulder CARs

2 sets, 5 slow reps each direction, each arm — full, controlled circles, not a fast swing.

Video thumbnail: Shoulder CARs

External video — Shoulder CARs by Functional Bodybuilding.

How to do it
Setup
Standing tall, one arm out to your side at shoulder height, the rest of your body still.
Execution
Take at least 8-10 seconds to complete one full circle — count it the first time to calibrate your own pace. Hit two checkpoints every circle: at the top, your arm brushes past your ear; at the bottom, it reaches down and slightly behind your hip. Complete the full circle through both checkpoints, then reverse direction and repeat.
Common error
Turning it into a brisk, loose arm-circle warm-up — if a full circle takes less than 8 seconds, or you can't feel real tension at the ear checkpoint and the behind-the-hip checkpoint specifically, it has become a warm-up swing, not this drill.
Feel
Steady, controlled tension everywhere in the circle, including at both checkpoints — never a swung, momentum-driven arc. Any pinch means shrink the circle until it's gone, even if that means missing a checkpoint.

2 × 5/side · rest 0:10

Wall Slides

Back flat against a wall, slide the arms overhead keeping contact — 2 sets of 10.

Video thumbnail: How to Improve Posture with the Wall Slide

External video — How to Improve Posture with the Wall Slide by DR MATT FONTAINE.

How to do it
Setup
Stand with your entire back, both forearms and the backs of both hands flat against a wall, elbows and shoulders bent to roughly 90°, low back gently flattened (not arched) against the wall.
Execution
Slowly slide both arms up the wall as far as you can while every point of contact stays flat on the wall the whole time, then slide back down to the start. That is one rep — slow and controlled both directions.
Common error
Letting the low back arch or the forearms peel off the wall partway up — that fakes range that is not real scapular/shoulder control. Stop at the true point everything stays flat and build range over weeks, rather than pushing the arms forward off the wall to gain height.
Feel
Mild, controlled tension through the shoulder blades and upper back as they rotate and glide. This is control work, not a stretch — go slow. Any pinch, especially deep in the shoulder, means you've gone above the height where everything stays flat — slide back down until it's gone.

2 × 10 · rest 0:15

Band Pull-Aparts (primer)

Light band, controlled pace — this is activation, not a set to chase fatigue on.

Demonstration of Band Pull-Aparts (primer), start position

2 × 15 @ RPE 3–4 · rest 0:20

Main Lift — Back Squat10 min
Back Squat

Same squat as every session this week — feet shoulder-width, brace before you descend, drive through mid-foot.

Back Squat~200-400KB demo

3 × 5 @ RPE 7 · tempo 2-0-2-0 · rest 2:00

Main Lift — Overhead Press12 min
Overhead Press

Standing or seated, your call — brace the core hard, bar path stays close to the face, don't lean back to finish the rep.

Overhead Press~200-400KB demo

3 × 5 @ RPE 7 · tempo 2-0-2-0 · rest 2:00

Main Lift — Conventional Deadlift8 min
Conventional Deadlift

Warm up with a few ascending sets by feel, then this one set is the one that counts. Bar over mid-foot, flat back, push the floor away — full reset every rep, no touch-and-go.

Conventional Deadlift~200-400KB demo

5 @ RPE 7 · tempo 2-0-2-0 · rest 2:30

Accessories5 min
Dead Bug

Lower back stays flat on the floor the entire rep — anti-extension core control, not a sit-up.

Dead Bug~200-400KB demo

3 × 10 @ RPE 5–6 · rest 0:45

Mobility Finisher4 min
Couch Stretch

A tight hip flexor is the price of a day spent sitting — 60s each side, passive, breathe into it.

Video thumbnail: Couch Stretch

External video — Couch Stretch by Functional Bodybuilding.

How to do it
Setup
Kneeling lunge, rear shin up against a wall or couch/bench behind you, rear foot pointing up. Front foot flat on the floor, well out in front. Torso tall, ribs stacked over the pelvis.
Execution
Squeeze the rear glute to sink the hip forward and deepen the stretch. Hold completely still for the full prescribed time. This is a finisher drill only — never do it before lifting.
Common error
Arching the lower back to bring the torso closer to vertical instead of actually moving the hip forward — this fakes depth without touching the hip flexor. Keep the ribs pulled down and let the glute squeeze do the work.
Feel
A steady, building stretch through the front of the rear hip and thigh that should ease slightly the longer you hold it. Dull ache is normal. A sharp pinch in the hip means come out of the position, don't fight it.

60 s/side hold · rest 0:15

Wall Pec Stretch

45s each side — opens the chest after a pressing day, passive hold only.

Video thumbnail: Pectoralis (Chest) Stretch

External video — Pectoralis (Chest) Stretch by EmergeOrtho-Triangle Region.

How to do it
Setup
Stand side-on to a wall or doorway. Forearm flat against it, elbow bent roughly 90°, upper arm raised to that week's height — 90° (arm level with the shoulder) or 120° (arm angled up above shoulder height).
Execution
Keeping the forearm fixed on the wall, rotate your torso away from the wall until you feel the chest stretch. Hold for the prescribed time. Repeat at the second angle if the session calls for both.
Common error
Hiking the shoulder up toward the ear to fake more stretch — keep the shoulder blade pulled down and get the range from turning the torso, not from lifting the shoulder.
Feel
A steady stretch across the chest and front shoulder. Any sharp pinch inside the joint means back off the height or how far you rotate. Either shoulder sharpening at all is your signal to stop that side.

45 s/side hold · rest 0:15

RPE — lifting sets

Rate of Perceived Exertion — reps in reserve (RIR) is how many more reps you had left.

10
RIR 0
Maximal effort.
Never programmed as a target in this plan.
9
RIR 1
One more rep was there, barely.
8
RIR 2
Two clean reps left in the tank.
7
RIR 3
Three left — working hard, not grinding.
6
RIR 4
Solid work, far from failure.
≤5
RIR 5+
Warm-up / ramp effort.

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Effort — mobility & primer sets

Effort against your own end range — RIR ("reps in reserve") doesn't apply to a hold or an isometric, so this scale describes how hard the contraction felt instead.

8
Hard end-range contraction — right at the edge, just barely maintained for the prescribed hold.
The peak-week PAILs/RAILs target — held, never exceeded.
6–7
Strong contraction, real effort, comfortably sustained for the hold.
4–5
Moderate — a working ramp, noticeable but not straining.
2–3
Light ramp — could hold this all day.

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Tempo

What to do: pick a weight that lets you hit the prescribed reps at the prescribed RPE while moving at this tempo, then log what actually happened. That's the whole job — everything below is only for when you want to know why.

Reading the four numbers

3-1-1-0
Eccentric (lowering) · pause at the bottom · concentric (lifting) · pause at the top — each number is seconds. This example, this programme’s Week 1 back squat, is 3s down, 1s paused in the hole, 1s up, no pause at the top.
3-3-X-0
"X" in place of a number means move that phase explosively — as fast as you genuinely can, not on a count. This example, Week 6’s back squat, is 3s down, 3s paused at the bottom, drive up as hard and fast as possible, no pause at the top.

Why this programme prescribes it

It standardises the stimulus. A rep's difficulty depends on how fast it's performed, not only the weight and rep count — the same weight moved faster is an easier rep. Writing the tempo down is what makes “RPE 7” mean the same thing this week and next; without it, RPE stops being comparable week to week.

This is a measurement/programming argument, not a muscle-growth claim on its own.

It removes momentum. A controlled lowering phase and a real pause at the bottom take away the free elastic rebound a rushed rep gets from the muscle and tendon stretching and snapping back (the "stretch-shortening cycle"). Without that assist, the muscle has to start the lift from a dead stop — why a paused rep feels harder at the same weight, and why it’s obvious immediately if a rep gets bounced instead of controlled.

Evidence: solid, well-established muscle physiology (Komi PV, "Stretch-shortening cycle: a powerful model to study normal and fatigued muscle." J Biomech 33(10):1197–1206, 2000) — a mechanical fact, not a hypertrophy-specific finding.

Tendon and connective tissue load differently under a controlled tempo. Tendons adapt to how they're mechanically loaded, and a slower, controlled rep holds real tension in the tissue for longer per rep than a bounced one — relevant here because this programme leans corrective (the shoulder/hip work).

Evidence: real but broader than this exact prescription. Bohm S, Mersmann F, Arampatzis A, "Human tendon adaptation in response to mechanical loading: a systematic review and meta-analysis of exercise intervention studies on healthy adults." Sports Med Open 1:7, 2015 (27 studies, 264 participants) found loading INTENSITY was the strongest driver of tendon stiffness gains, with duration a smaller factor — applying that general principle to this programme's tempo choice is this programme's own reasoning, not a trial that tested this exact tempo.

What it does NOT do: make a set better for muscle growth by itself. A slower or paused tempo is not shown to build more muscle than a rep performed under your own, honestly controlled pace.

Evidence: the best current evidence points the other way. Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn DI, Krieger JW, "Effect of repetition duration during resistance training on muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Sports Medicine 45(4):577–585, 2015 found similar hypertrophy across repetition durations from 0.5 to 8 seconds each — and very slow reps (over roughly 10s) came out WORSE, not better.

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