Two compound movements a day. Two working sets to absolute failure. A long recovery. Everything else is noise.
Per exercise: two warm-up sets, two working sets to absolute failure, one bodyweight finisher. The starred sets are the ones that drive progress — take them to genuine failure with clean form.
Warm-up sets: 3–4 min · strength working sets: 4–5 min · muscle-growth working sets: 5–7 min. Long rests are deliberate — full recovery between sets lets you bring maximum effort to each one, which is the whole point of a low-set method.
Pick a weight that brings you to failure around 10 reps on Working Set 1. It may take one or two workouts to dial in — that's expected.
Everything keys off Working Set 1 reps. Simple and strict:
| Set 1 Reps | What it means | Next session |
|---|---|---|
| 10+ | Strong enough for more | Add 5 kg, move up |
| 9 | Weight is right, nearly there | Stay, hit 10 next time |
| Under 9 | Too heavy for the range | Drop 2.5–5 kg |
Adding 5 kg drops your reps sharply, then you climb back. A real weighted pull-up run looks like this:
| Session | Weight | Set 1 | Set 2 | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 kg | 9 | 8 | Stay at 20 kg |
| 2 | 20 kg | 10 | 8 | Hit 10 → move to 25 kg |
| 3 | 25 kg | 8 | 7 | Stay at 25 kg |
| 4 | 25 kg | 10 | 9 | Hit 10 → move to 30 kg |
| 5 | 30 kg | 7 | 6 | Too heavy → drop to 27.5 kg |
| 6 | 27.5 kg | 9 | 8 | Stay |
| 7 | 27.5 kg | 10 | 9 | Hit 10 → 32.5 kg |
3 days a week — one Push, one Pull, one Legs — each muscle group once weekly, every working set to failure. The off days are for recovery, stretching, and more cardio. Lower frequency than before, prioritizing recovery and the cut while still building strength and muscle.
Training only those two leaves some back and chest muscles undertrained, risking imbalance and injury over time. That's why rows and other movements are built in.
When all you have is a hotel room, a calisthenics park, or a vest and a sturdy edge — here's how to hold the two horizontal-plane lifts (incline press and cable row) without a gym.
Counter-intuitively, an incline press (torso up) is matched by feet-elevated push-ups (torso down) — elevating the feet shifts load onto the upper chest and front delts, the same emphasis. Higher feet = more load and more upper-chest bias.
Enter your bodyweight and vest load to see the pressing / pulling resistance for each variation. Percentages are population averages — treat them as estimates, or measure your own with a bathroom scale under your hands.
| Variation | % of BW | Bodyweight only | + Vest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat push-up | ~65% | ||
| Feet-elevated push-up (incline-press analog) | ~72% | ||
| High feet-elevated push-up | ~75% | ||
| Inverted row (feet down) | ~70% | ||
| Inverted row (feet elevated) | ~85% |
Row percentages vary more with body angle than push-ups — the flatter your body, the closer to 100% of bodyweight. Values shown are for a moderate angle.
Ian's core principle: the training breaks muscle down; recovery is when it rebuilds bigger. Below, his basics plus the protocols I actually run.
Aim for 8–9 hours. Most physical recovery and muscle-protein synthesis happen during deep sleep, and growth-hormone release is concentrated in the first slow-wave cycles — so protecting sleep quality, not just duration, is what drives the rebuild.
The single most useful signal for whether to push or pull back. Track the 7-day rolling HRV average rather than reacting to any one morning — a single low reading is noise, a multi-day downtrend is signal.
When HRV sags or I'm beat up, I don't cut whole days — I trim exercises from the bottom of the day's list upward. Anchors (dips, pull-ups) stay sacred; accessories and HIIT finishers are first to drop. Never cut the heavy failure sets — those hold muscle through a cut.
Movement that promotes blood flow and tissue quality without adding fatigue — the point is to aid recovery, not create more to recover from.
Ian's rule first — don't under-eat on rest days; the body needs protein and nutrients even when you're not training. On a cut, that means the deficit shouldn't get deeper just because you didn't lift.
Poor sleep. Missing workouts. Not eating enough. Drinking or smoking. Recovering poorly. Not staying consistent. Not holding yourself accountable.
Almost any good program works if you follow it consistently for months and years.
This is what I was running previously — kept here for reference. My current program is the 3-day Push / Pull / Legs shown in Method Split, with more emphasis on recovery, stretching, and cardio on the off days.
If 7-day HRV sags or I'm beat up, trim from the bottom of Day 1 and Day 5 up — anchors stay sacred, accessories and the HIIT finisher are the first to drop. Never cut the heavy failure sets.