Hello everybody. Welcome back to Calorie Barbell. I'm Bryce and if you're watching this video, either you've already downloaded the free 16-week program or you've just kind of come across this video. In which case, here's a little bit of context. We have a free 16-week program that you can download from calgarybarbell.com. If you're looking to get into powerlifting or just structure your powerlifting a little bit differently or better, that program is an option.
I think we've had probably close to a 100,000 or more downloads on it and we felt like it was about time to not only go in and update some of the stuff in there. I found some tempos and some formatting and stuff that I was able to make just a little bit cleaner as well as changing some of the things that just brought a lot of questions.
But what this video is today, we're going to go through and answer a number of those questions that continually come in to us so that this video can serve as a resource for people to watch ahead of time and maybe just have your answers, not have to wait for a reply from us. So Dylan's going to read out a number of questions that we've kind of compiled that are frequently asked questions.
So here are the answers to our frequently asked questions about the the Calorie Barbell 16-week program. Question number one is I didn't get the program. Where is the program?
All right. So, when you request the program, basically what happens is we send you an email and in the email is the link to a direct download to the program. If you didn't get the email for whatever reason, either make sure that your email address was spelled correctly. There's nothing stopping you from requesting another one, even if it was. And make sure you check your spam folder. A lot of the times our automated email gets filtered by people's inboxes, goes to the spam folder. So if you didn't get the program, check your spam folder. It's maybe there.
Question number two, how do I open and use the program?
Okay. So the program comes as an xlsx file which is a spreadsheet, right? So, you can open it using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets or any number of spreadsheet viewers and editors. Also, we've had a few people email in and they're only seeing the first screen where you enter your maxes and where you would find this video. If you're really unfamiliar with spreadsheets, there are these little buttons at the bottom that are tabs. The first one is kind of the intro and then it goes block by block, week 1 to 4, week 5 to 8, etc. Just look down at the bottom, click on those, and that'll get you through the program.
This is a question that has come up probably maybe one of the most and it's what are the Fs and Rs? What do they mean and how do I do them? So, we don't actually have Fs and Rs in the program anymore. Instead, we've changed it to a notation that should be more self-explanatory. If you're on an older version of the program, you see 1 + 2F or 1 + 3R, just go back to calgarybarbell.com, put in your email address, and submit. This will send you the new updated version of the program that coincides with the explanation that I will give you. What we have now are either a 5% load drop, which means you're going to hit your set of however many reps at a 9 RP, and then your back offsets are going to be 5% lower. So, you know, it's pretty self-explanatory. Whatever number you hit there, multiply by 0.95. That's where your back offsets are going to be. The other thing or sort of general prescription is just going to be number of sets at an RP.
If it says three sets at RP8, should the RP go up? Should I keep the RP the same?
Okay, so yes to both of those things. If it says multiple sets at a single RP, you want to either start an RP lower, repeat the weight to go up to that RP, start at the RP, you know, try to maintain that RP, maybe take weight off if the RP gets too high. The idea is that there's kind of a zone of plus or minus half to a full RP around those movements or around that intensity where I want you to put in the work. If it's three sets of six at an eight and you do your first set of six and it's an eight, probably do that set again. If it climbs up to a nine, take some weight off. Then you end up with 8 9 8.5, great. If you end up with 7.5, 8, 8.5 on your three sets, great. As long as we are close enough, that is close enough.
This would be a good spot for what is RP?
What is RP? Okay, we have a pretty good in-depth video that we're going to link in the description below as well as maybe we'll link in the spreadsheet to give you a bit of a primer on RP. Basically, real quick high-level look at what RP is. RP stands for rate of perceived exertion. It is a scale from usually about 6 to 10 where we're trying to teach you how to do what's called autoregulation. I want you, the lifter, to be able to prescribe your own load to an extent. There are RP charts that can help with this that give you a percentage based on the number of reps and the RP you're supposed to hit. And the idea here is an eight means we could have done two more reps. A seven means we could have done three more reps. A seven and a half means we could have done two, maybe three more reps. and there's sort of gradients within that. But again, just go check out our more in-depth video if you're not familiar with RP and you want a bit of a primer.
The next question is, I have a meat X weeks out. How do I adapt it to run into a meat?
Okay, so there's going to be a lot of different ways that you can organize the structure. Now, the most important thing is to try to get the last, I would say, six or so weeks of the program. So, from week 11 to 16 to line up previous to that. You can kind of pick and choose from the first few weeks. You know, if you have 12 weeks, you can just start a few weeks in, run the final 12 weeks of the program, or you can run the first four and cut out a section in the middle and then run the back end, the last eight, for example. So, the most important thing is that the last 5 to 6 weeks from the program are the last 5 to 6 weeks that you run. The trimming that I would do would be earlier in the program, assuming that you've probably done some kind of volume phase or building or whatever. And even if you haven't, probably okay to jump in at week 6 to 8 if you need to.
Can I repeat this program?
You can repeat the program. You absolutely can just put it on repeat. Put it on loop. I've known athletes who have done that. I've talked to a lot of lifters who ran this for 2 years and saw a whole bunch of progress the entire time. There are enough dedicated phases and enough variation within it that I think it's pretty easy to just start it over. Probably what I would do after a period of time if you really like the program, I mean number one go to calgarybarbell.com check out the Calgary Barbell training app. There's a 162 and a 163, all kind of built with the same philosophy as well as 50 whatever other programs on there. Or if you, you know, just want to monkey around with the program a little bit, right? Change some of the accessory movements around. You know, you can swap some of the days around. You can play with the sets and stuff like it's your own spreadsheet. It's a template. It's built to work for the widest swath of the general audience. And if there are any things in there that you feel like you can and should individualize to suit you better as an athlete, please by all means feel free to do some experimentation.
What RP should I use for accessories? There's none listed.
There are RPEs listed for pretty much everything in there. Now, that is actually something that I've changed in the most recent update of the program. There are now RP listed for every accessory movement.
How should I split the days of the program?
All right. So, splitting the days is a pretty individual thing. I would say you can kind of have some freedom with that. You can even go as far as to do 3 days a week and stretch the program out for longer. That is an entirely plausible thing. You can, okay, let me give you an actual example, right? Because the easy answer is it depends and do whatever you want. But here's the way that if I was, you know, had to prescribe it to somebody, here's how I would do it. I would do day one Monday. I would do day two Wednesday. I would do day three Friday and day four Saturday. Most people have a little bit more time on the weekends, a little bit more relaxation. So to do it that way and put those two days back to back on Friday, Saturday probably allows you enough recovery. But at the end of the day, like just make it fit your life. Whether you're doing four days in a row, take a 3 days off. Whether you want to do the comp sessions at the end of the week and swap the week around because that works better for you. You can really just just have the freedom to put the program days where they fit. You also don't have to do the same day of the same program or same day of the program the same every week. You can train Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday one week and then train Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday the next week or train on a Sunday, whatever.
Ideally, I think one of the recommendations I would have is to probably try to leave a day between day one and day two. Now again, not a hard and fast rule. Absolutely doable to do them back to back. But those are generally going to be your biggest, highest intensity competition lower body movement days. So putting those one day spaced out, I think, is going to allow you a good amount of recovery.
How long should a session take?
How long should a session take? This program is maybe a little bit more volume intensive than some of the more recent programs that I've done for more intermediate and advanced lifters. These sessions should take you anywhere from an hour and a half to 2 and 1/2 hours. I think if you're going beyond that, you probably need to work on, you know, setting a timer, maybe doing some of your work, especially accessories, a little bit quicker. I have recommended set rests in the program. Don't feel tied to those, but they're there if you want some help with timing your sets. I think a lot of the times powerlifters not only warm up way too slowly, right? Like, do a set with a bar, wait five minutes. Do a set with 70 kilos, wait five minutes. Like, that doesn't need to happen. Set with a bar, set with 70, set with whatever. Like, your warm-ups can go pretty quick and probably should. So yeah, it's it is maybe more of a time demand than some of the other programs, for example, on our app, but it shouldn't take you more than two and a half, maybe 3 hours on the outside.
The program is too easy. Should I adjust the one rep maxes?
So, this is a question we get a lot. The introductory phase of the program, the first four weeks, our competition lifts are all percentage-based prescriptions, and they are intentionally going to be RP 5, 6, maybe seven. There is RP and auto regulation on the more specific accessory movements in day three and four, but those competition movements are prescribed to be easy. It doesn't mean that your E1RM or the sorry, the 1RM that you put in on the first page of the program is wrong or too low. The first phase of the program should be easy. It's going to be easy. If it's easy, you're doing it right. There's no need to adjust or go above and beyond because those first four weeks are feeling a little easy. I promise you it will get more challenging.
How often should I test my maxes?
So, this again we've addressed a lot in a lot of different videos and content and stuff, but there's really no need to test your maxes within this program. The idea is that this program runs into a meat or mock meet or max test. So at the end of the program, there's a taper and that should end in a meat. 16 weeks should be a good time between testing maxes, like on the low end. Now, yeah, we've had a number of people like, "Okay, should I test my maxes on week eight?" No, you don't need to do that. Ideally, once we get more comfortable with RP, we're going to be able to take estimated one rep maxes off of that and all that kind of stuff. So, you'll have a good idea of tracking your max, but there's no need to do a max test in the middle of the program. It's just not necessary and generally speaking, probably not super productive.
Should I put my max in where it says one rep max? Should I use less? Should I enter the weight I want to hit at the end?
Okay. So, when you're entering your max into the program, I think you can probably use your true maxes. Again, the caveat there is that your true maxes were hit with competition squat depth, with a pause and your butt down on the bench, with a clean deadlift that wasn't hitched and ramped and strapped. So, if you're not meeting that criteria, I would take maybe 5 to 10% off. And I would say generally speaking, when you're putting your max in and running all these percentage based sets, it's probably a little bit better to to run 95% or 93% as a training max. A lot of the times, what I would tell people going into programs like this is put in something that you're very confident you could hit pretty much any day. Now, something that would be a 10, that would be hard, but something that you could definitely hit. Not, you know, I hit 170 on the bench when I was 20 lbs heavier 3 years ago after, you know, an 18-week peak. Maybe don't start with 170 as your max in that case, right? We want a rough approximation of what you're actually capable of at the time you're starting the program.
All right, final question, which is the biggest question of a bunch of questions.
That's my drum roll. Amalgamated into a question.
Can I modify the program? Can I add biceps? Can I add more rows? Can I change the squat variation? What if I can't set up for pin squats, etc.?
Okay. So, first off, yes, go ahead, modify the program if you have, you know, injury restrictions, if you have equipment restrictions, if you feel like a different exercise might be better for you, if you want to add some gun runs in and do a bunch of bicep and tricep work, by all means. This program is a template, right? It's just it exists as it is and I tried to make it to suit the widest amount of people possible. So this program is not necessarily individualized for you and this is one of the reasons we don't sell templates. This is one of the reasons we got away from spreadsheets. And one of the reasons that I think the Calgary Barbell training app is such a good product. If you have any of these questions or concerns or modifications that you want to make, not only does the app make it really easy to do that, but you can also just ask me or any one of the other members on the coaching staff or our incredible community members who've been running, you know, these programs for years and modifying them and getting to know the ins and outs of sort of different methodologies of my programming. as well as there are just like 50 plus programs on there that you have access to all of them. Plus, there's the whole check-in thing every week and blah blah blah. But the ability to actually give coaching, right? That's why the Calgary Barbell app is so good cuz it's not just like here's your spreadsheet, peace, have fun. Thanks for the 20 bucks or whatever. Yeah, it's more expensive than that, but it's also like hey, come on in. here's all our programs. If you need help, let's help you pick one. And then every week, let's do a little check-in. I can give you some thoughts on modifying things if necessary. Others in the community can give you their experience with modifying things. We can have conversations about injury and rate of progression and proper RP rating and all these kinds of things that I think just there's no context for if you just download an Excel spreadsheet, right? Or even a PDF. But I digress. If you if you are interested, head over to calgary barbell.com. You can check out the app there as well. But to answer the question, by all means, yes, modify it. If you like this video, leave a like. Make sure to subscribe. Thank you for getting on the Calgary Barbell training program, the 16e program if you have. If you haven't, thanks for watching the video. And if you have any further questions about the program, drop them down below in the comments. If we need to make an addendum or a part two to make sure we got all the questions covered, we will. Other than that, I'll see you in the next one. Bye.