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With the third week of the mesocycle, the relative intensity starts to pick up. There are two types of intensity (at least that I worry about). Absolute intensity is the weight on the bar. Relative intensity is how close to failure you go, regardless of how much weight is on the bar. Current research strongly suggests that as long as you are training with between 30% and 80% (or so) of your 1 rep maximum weight AND you are going reasonably close to failure, you will see similar hypertrophy (muscle growth). In other words, if you continue a set to the point where you could do maybe 2 more reps it doesn’t make much difference if you used a weight that took you 25 reps to get to that point or a weight that caused you to reach that point after just 8 reps. The growth will be similar.

In this program both types of intensity increase over time. Every week the weight on the bar goes up about 2% and every 2 or three weeks the relative intensity goes up. Where it starts at taking sets until you could maybe do 3 more reps, in the third week that drops to 2 more reps. By the last accumulation week I’ll be down to 1 rep from failure. Sometimes this will mean you add a rep and sometimes just maintaining the same reps is all you can manage.

Workout:
Incline Bench Press: 114 lbs x 15, 11, 8
Dumbbell Incline Flyes: 21 lbs x 19, 15, 13
Bench Press: 140 lbs x 10, 8 (went closer to failure on these than I wanted)
Assisted Dips: Green band x 12, 11, 9, 8
1-Arm Dumbbell Row: 47 lbs x 15, 11, 11
Slant Board Situps: 16 lbs x 24, 15, 11, 9 (Funny thing. If you watch the video clip it looks like my back isn’t going all the way down but when I do them I feel my back touching the bench. Weird.)

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