The 45/25 Only is a great workout concept I learned after reading a Pavel Tsatsouline article. The idea is to eschew small incremental progress in favor of massive jumps to really stimulate the body. It’s about learning to “own” a certain weight prior to moving up to the next level. I’ve adapted his method, which is a little different than mine, into something that has really worked for me, and hopefully works for you as well.
This concept works best on big complex (many muscles) exercises. It’s going to be difficult to meet this standard with smaller lifts, i.e. biceps curls, and you might tear something. This is all about screaming at your muscles to reach another plane of effort, in order to stimulate growth. Some great lifts for this include:
- Bench
- Squat
- Standing Press
- Deadlift
- Power Cleans
- Pullups (use a chain)
- Hang Snatch
- Front Squats
In this concept, you may only use 45 and25-pound plates on the bar. Nothing else. Use nothing if you can only do the bar, although since we’re doing complex exercises, if you can only do the bar, Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength might be a better place to start. Warm up with a few light sets, and work up to a max of up to 10 reps (or as many as you can do at that weight). Then rest two minutes and complete another set of however many you can do. You’re likely going to be able to do less reps than the first set. Then rest 2 minutes, and complete a final set. With deadlifts, only do your one max set, don’t do any follow-up work. There’s something cosmic about the deadlift, you can’t handle too much.
Increase to the next plate level when 10 reps are reached on your first set. For instance, if you can do 8 reps max first set on the bench at 135, stay there until you can hit 10 reps. Then up to 185. The next interval would be 225. Remember, you can only use 45s and 25s. Don’t use 2 25lb weights in a row to cheat. Remember that you’ve got two follow-up sets, with only 2 minutes rest. With such a short rest interval, you’re really going to need a spotter on your lower rep exercises. Make sure you get at least one rep in your two follow-up sets, even if it’s assisted.
Perform each exercise you choose to do here once a week, with two exercises per workout. Stick with this concept for 8-12 weeks. Try to pick exercises that don’t really clash, like bench with deadlifts, pullups with squats, etc. What you’re doing here is increasing volume significantly for each exercise over time. If you workout 3 times a week, you can choose 6 exercises, 4 times up to 8. I like to follow these two up with a 5-minute “gasser” like a 5-minute max distance row, run, kettlebell swing, etc.
Some exercises will be high reps and some will be low reps. If you can do 8 reps at 185, your follow-up sets might be 6 and then 4, for a total of 18 reps. That’s a decent higher rep volume that should stimulate some muscle growth. It’ll probably take you a couple of weeks to get up to 10, where you can move on to 225. At that point, you’ll probably only be able to get 3, and then maybe 2 or even 1 on the follow-up sets (make sure you’ve got a spotter). You may be at 8-10 reps in the first exercise in a workout, and then struggle to get to 3 in the next. It’s a great way to really ramp up your intensity.
The 45/25 only is a great way of drumming up some serious intensity for an 8-12 week period, and I’ve found it really helps me develop some power in lifts. Definitely, worth a shot, it should lead you to some good muscle and strength gains.