Advanced Training Programs: What Changes After Intermediate
An advanced workout program is often pictured as an intermediate one turned up: more days, more sets, longer sessions. The 19 advanced programs in the depot.fitness library, out of 101, don't look like that. Counted set by set, they are only slightly bigger than the intermediate ones. The clearer difference is that more of them plan the weight on the bar in advance.
Who counts as advanced
The levels in the library follow how fast you can still add weight, not how strong you are or how many years you have trained.
- Beginner: the weight goes up session to session.
- Intermediate: it goes up week to week. Intermediate training programs covers that switch.
- Advanced: weekly jumps have stopped working too, so progress has to be planned across a block of weeks.
The test: you ran an intermediate program as written until the main lifts stalled. You were eating and sleeping normally. A reset did not get you past it. If all three are true, a planned, slower progression is the next tool. If not, you are not there yet.
An advanced program won't make you progress faster
Rating a program advanced does not make it more effective. On the main lifts, it adds weight less often than a beginner program, or on a plan set in advance.
Eight beginner programs add weight every session. None of the 19 advanced programs does, and none adds a set number of pounds or kilograms each week. 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake adds weight to its 5×10 sets every two weeks; the percentage-based programs below set the load from a max instead.
Advanced programs also ask for more work: a median of 67 sets a week, against 47 for beginner programs. Run one while you can still add weight every week and you get more work for slower increases. That is a bad trade. When in doubt, run the level below.
The week barely grows
| Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced |
|---|
| Programs | 30 | 52 | 19 |
| Most common week | 3 days (22 of 30) | 4 days (20 of 52) | 4 days (12 of 19) |
| Median length | 8 weeks | 8 weeks | 10 weeks |
| Median sets per session | 15 | 16.5 | 17 |
| Median sets per week | 47 | about 60 | 67 |
| Prescriptions of 5 reps or fewer | 15% | 8% | 15% |
| Percentages written into sessions | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Adding a fixed weight every session | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Deload planned in advance | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Tagged for strength | 15 | 23 | 16 |
| Listing a full gym | 11 | 37 | 17 |
- Sessions are the same size. The median has 5 exercises and 17 working sets.
- The week is a little bigger. 67 sets against about 60, over the same median of four days.
- Mostly strength, mostly gym. 16 of the 19 are tagged for strength. The two without a full gym are Bodyweight Advanced Calisthenics and Smolov Jr. Bench, whose accessories still use dumbbells, cables and a dip station.
- Low reps come back, and go lower. Beginner programs owe their 15% to sets of five: 67 of their 68 low-rep prescriptions are fives. In the advanced programs, 15 of the 58 top out at three reps or fewer, in six programs.
What changes: some of them plan the load
Seven of the 19 replace the fixed jump with a plan written in advance: percentages, waves or a scheduled deload. Seven of the 52 intermediate programs also write in percentages, waves or a scheduled deload, but three of them, Texas Method, Upper Lower — Strength Focus and 5/3/1 Boring But Big, keep a fixed jump alongside it. None of the 30 beginner programs does either.
Percentages. Four of the 19 write percentages into their sessions. Smolov Jr. Bench benches four times a week: 6×6 at 70% of your one-rep max, 7×5 at 75%, 8×4 at 80% and 10×3 at 85%. Powerlifting Sheiko-Style Peaking gives all seven of its squat, bench press and deadlift prescriptions a percentage range, from 60–75% up to 80–90%. 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake runs its 5×10 sets at 50–60% of a training max, and Conjugate (Westside) Intro its speed squats and benches at 50% plus bands. Powerlifting Peaking Program's note says to follow percentages, but its sessions give none, only rep ranges and notes to work up to a heavy top set, so you choose the loads. Percentages are only as good as the max under them; the 1RM calculator estimates one from a recent set.
Waves and phases. Powerlifting Peaking Program builds strength in weeks 1 to 8, then focuses on singles and doubles, with less volume and a deload, in weeks 9 to 12. Two programs call their rule undulating periodization: PPL Strength Volume suggests heavy, moderate and light weeks for its main lifts, and Upper Lower Advanced Power & Hypertrophy varies intensity and volume week to week.
Planned deloads. Three advanced programs name a deload, and all three plan it in advance: 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake in week four, Powerlifting Peaking Program in its last four weeks, and Sheiko-Style Peaking as part of its wave loading, without saying when. The four beginner programs with a deload or reset use it after a stall.
Heavy and light days. Six of the 19 name their days by intensity or volume, such as Conjugate's max-effort and dynamic-effort days. This is not new: by the same count, 12 of the 52 intermediate programs do it, Madcow 5×5 and Texas Method among them.
Each program lists one week of sessions, repeated for its full length. The waves, phases and deloads live in the progression notes, so you apply them yourself. Log every set; the tracker keeps all of them.
The other 12 use rules also found in intermediate programs, such as double progression in Advanced Bodybuilding Split and PPL Arnold-Style 6-Day, harder variations, or more rounds and less rest.
Which advanced program fits which goal
Only 10 of the 19 are general strength or muscle programs. The other nine have a narrower job: a powerlifting meet, one lift, a sport, or conditioning. Volume splits by goal too: the nine tagged for muscle gain have a median of 95 sets a week, the other ten 63.
| Goal | Program | Days | Weeks | Sets a week |
|---|
| Meet peaking | Powerlifting Peaking Program | 4 | 12 | 63 |
| Powerlifting Sheiko-Style Peaking | 4 | 12 | 80 |
| Bench press only | Smolov Jr. Bench | 4 | 3 | 50 |
| Maximal strength | Conjugate (Westside) Intro | 4 | 12 | 67 |
| Strength and size | GZCLP Advanced | 4 | 12 | 44 |
| 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake | 4 | 8 | 52 |
| Upper Lower Advanced Power & Hypertrophy | 4 | 12 | 77 |
| PPL Strength Powerbuilding | 6 | 10 | 95 |
| PPL Strength Volume | 6 | 12 | 104 |
| Muscle, high volume | Advanced Bodybuilding Split | 5 | 16 | 100 |
| Bodybuilding Classic Split (High Volume) | 5 | 12 | 107 |
| PPL Arnold-Style 6-Day | 6 | 8 | 130 |
| Power and sport | Athletic Power 4-Day | 4 | 8 | 73 |
| Football Pre-season Strength | 4 | 8 | 74 |
| Strength Olympic Weightlifting Prep | 3 | 8 | 49 |
| Conditioning | Combat Athlete Conditioning | 4 | 8 | 38 |
| HIIT Advanced Metabolic Circuit | 4 | 8 | 63 |
| Full Body Strength & Endurance (Advanced) | 3 | 10 | 59 |
| Bodyweight | Bodyweight Advanced Calisthenics | 4 | 12 | 64 |
- Peaking for a meet: both run 12 weeks, so count back from the meet date. Of the two, only Sheiko-Style writes percentages into its sessions.
- One lift: Smolov Jr. Bench lasts three weeks, and 31 of its 50 weekly sets are the bench press. Its description says to run it only when you can recover from it.
- Strength and size on four days: Upper Lower Advanced Power & Hypertrophy, or 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake. The 5/3/1 calculator works out the main-lift sets from your one-rep maxes.
- Muscle: the three high-volume programs run 100 to 130 sets a week. PPL Arnold-Style 6-Day, at 130, is the most in the library.
- Sport and conditioning: Athletic Power 4-Day puts the priority plainly: speed and quality first; never grind reps.
FAQ
How many days a week do advanced programs train?
Four, in 12 of the 19. Two run three days, two run five and three run six. All three six-day programs are push/pull/legs tagged for muscle gain. More days is not what makes a program advanced.
How long should an advanced program last?
The median is 10 weeks. Eight of the 19 run 12 weeks and seven run 8. The extremes are Smolov Jr. Bench at 3 weeks and Advanced Bodybuilding Split at 16. Run the block to the end before judging it: Powerlifting Peaking Program saves its focus on singles and doubles for weeks 9 to 12.
Is 5/3/1 an advanced program?
The library rates 5/3/1 Boring But Big intermediate: it raises the training max once every four-week cycle. 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake is the advanced variant: the same main lifts, 5×10 sets that go up every two weeks, and a deload in week four. It has fewer sets than the standard version, 52 a week against 61, because its accessory work is 20 sets a week against 29. 5/3/1 Boring But Big covers both. Run the standard version first.
Try one
Day 1 of every advanced program runs without an account, with every set, rep and rest written out. Start Powerlifting Peaking Program's squat day.
If you can still add weight every week, stay on an intermediate program. If you can still add it every session, Classic 5×5 Strength is free in full: start day 1, no account needed.