Programming a Smooth NLP | Scott Acosta

As simple as the Novice Linear Progression (NLP) is, there is an
awful lot of opportunity to mess it up. Mistakes usually come at
points when a slight program adjustment is needed, but either too
drastic a change is made or no change is made at all. This leads to
lots of preventable problems.

I’ve been putting
people through the NLP since 2012 and have made plenty of mistakes. In that time, I have learned from my lifters and other coaches. I
have refined my process to what you see here.

This article is a
roadmap made from what I believe to be best practices for running a
smooth NLP. This is certainly not the only way to do it, but I have
found it to be extremely reliable. This approach produces 16-weeks of
NLP at a minimum. I’ve seen men and women in their 40s go 6-months,
while virtually eliminating the common bottlenecks.

So, if you have
experienced frustration due to frequent stalls, resets, and injury,
just follow the path laid out for you here.

But
first, the ground rules.

I’m not going to
waste a bunch of space on rehashing what has already been covered
very thoroughly. Instead, I am going to point you to some resources
so you can get the most out of this. Do not make the mistake of
ignoring these articles.

Incremental Increases – This article discusses some of the key
variables in selecting appropriate weight increases for the lifts.

The First Three Questions – The most important questions a person
can ask himself during the NLP. Ask them every session. Make it a
habit. Do not make a program change before answering the questions.

Sleep – Some stuff you know and some stuff you may not know about
getting quality sleep.

Protein and Barbell Training – A great summary of muscle protein
synthesis, and practical advice for protein requirements.

Interpreting Failure – SSC Andrew Lewis gives practical advice on
what causes a missed rep and what to do about it.

Bench Press Safety – Do not die for the bench press. Have a
spotter, set your safeties appropriately, and do not collar the bar.
If you are benching alone and get stuck you want to be able to tilt
the bar so the plates slide off.  

The Phases of the NLP

Moving from one phase
to the next is like shifting gears in a car. As the RPM increase, you
are running out of room to reach a top speed. Shifting to the next
gear drops the RPM and buys more room for speed. As you reach the
upper limit of weight with a particular set/rep scheme you switch to
the next scheme to buy room for more weight on the bar.

Moving to the next
phase is indicated by a failed rep. An
exception to this is the bench press. It’s a bit easier to tell how
grindy a bench rep is than the other lifts. If you barely locked out
the 4^th
rep you should probably just rack the bar. Be sure to answer
the three questions! If you identify and make appropriate
changes and still miss reps, move to the next phase.

Each phase has its own
shelf life. You may get several weeks of progress on one phase, but
only several workouts on the next. Don’t try to set a strict time
frame for each.

Squat

Which track do I take? – As a general rule, men will use
track 1 and women will use track 2. There are times when this is
flipped, such as an above-average woman responding better to track 1
and a below-average man responding better to track 2. Don’t worry
about that now though. Men, track 1. Women, track 2. And if you are
offended by potentially being called “below average” you can
leave me a “Hater’s Comment” and I will get back to you in 3-4
business years.

Track
1: Men

Phase 1 – This
is the starting line. Unless very detrained, everyone begins here.
Heavy squats are done three times per week for 3×5 and weight is
added each session. An ideal schedule would be
Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday.

Phase 2 –
After a number of weeks, you’re now producing enough stress to
where you cannot recover in a 48-hour window. The
Stress/Recovery/Adaptation Cycle (SRA) has to be stretched out a bit.
The mid-week session becomes a light squat. This is approximately 80%
of the previous heavy day and still done for 3×5.

Phase 3 – The
next phase uses a top set of 5 with 2 back-off sets. Back-offs are
approximately 90% of the top set weight. Pay close attention to the
load on the back-off sets, as they should maintain approximately a
10% separation from the top set. This means sometimes the weight of
back-offs will remain unchanged for a couple of sessions.

Use the back-off sets
to calculate the light day squat.
So if you did 250x5x2 for your backoffs, then your light squats will
be 225x5x3.

Phase 4 – The
top set goes from 5 reps to 3 reps. The back-offs can stay at 2×5, or
go to 3×3. This is also a good place to remove the light squats from
the middle of the week, provided technique is dialed in.

Phase 5 – The
top set of 3 becomes a top set of 1 or 2 reps. Exercise some
discretion with including singles. They aren’t absolutely
necessary, or even desirable for some populations. It would be
totally acceptable to reset back to 3×5 at this point. But if you’re
feeling frisky and want to test yourself, go for it.

After Phase 5, I
recommend resetting back to Phase 2 and making another run. It’s
tempting to move to an intermediate template, but just know there is
still a lot of progress to be made by doing a simple reset. You
already have experience with this programming and know what to
expect. Switching to an intermediate template will add layers of
complication that may only derail you.

If you reset, just look
back through your training log and see where you finished Phase 2.
Let’s say it ended at 250x5x3. Start the new training cycle at
255x5x3 and leave out the light squats.

Track
2: Women

Phase 1 –
Women will begin with the same programming as men. Heavy squats are
done three times per week for 3×5 and weight is added each session.
An ideal schedule would be Monday/Wednesday/Friday or
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday.

Phase 2 – Sets
of 5 reps are no longer stressful enough. Sets of 3 are heavier, and
are needed to keep the neuromuscular system recruiting as much muscle
per rep as possible, while also keeping the total reps at 15. For a
more detailed explanation as to why, read Do Your 3s, Ladies.

A light squat day may
or may not be needed yet. If they are, a 20% reduction in weight
might be too much. I suggest starting with 15%.

Phase 3 – Two
top sets of 3 are followed by back-offs of 3×3. Initially, do a 10%
reduction from the top set. But if it’s too easy (be honest with
yourself) it may need to be adjusted to 7-8%.

Phase 4 – The
final phase uses 3 singles, followed by 4 sets of 3 reps. These can
be tough sessions. You are lifting near the edge of your current
ability, but the light at the end of the tunnel draws near.

The light squat may
have been omitted by now, provided technique is solid and consistent.

After Phase 4, reset to
Phase 2. If you have been doing a light squat, keep it for now. If
not, continue to leave it out.

Again, I know an
intermediate template looks really good right now, but you will have
more predictable progress with a simple reset.

Press

The press programming is straight forward. There are no
considerations made for genetic endowment. There are no light days.
Just a progression of sets and reps that allow for session-to-session
weight increases across the entirety of the NLP.

Unlike the squat, bench
press, and deadlift, missing reps on the press is less an indication
to move to the next phase. The press is very intolerant of errors.
Most of your misses will be due to floppy wrists, dropping your
elbows, and pushing the bar out in front of you. Be diligent in your
hand placement, elbow position, and bar path. And stay very
tight. These are not arbitrary. Give yourself the chance to correct
form errors before changing the program.

Phase 1 –
Start with 3×5 just like the squat and bench press. A lighter bar
will be needed if you cannot do 5s with a standard 45-lb bar. If you
don’t have access to a lighter bar, see if you can manage sets of 3
reps with the 45-lb bar. In this case it’s acceptable to start in
phase 2. The last resort is to do bench press every session until a
press can be done with the empty bar.

Phase 2 – Sets
of 5 become sets of 3, but the total reps are kept at 15 with 5 sets.
Be careful with your weight increases from this point forward. Small
jumps will yield more consistent results.

Phase 2B – The
primary goal is to accumulate the total reps without having to drop
weight. It’s perfectly okay if your session goes something like
3,3,3,2,2,1,1. And you will likely enter this phase by force, rather
than by choice. The downside of this scheme is it can result in a ton
of missed reps, which burns energy.

If you get tired of
this you can switch to phase 3 or 4 at any time.

Phase 3 –
Seven sets of 2 is my default after 3s. My lifters usually cringe
when they see this, but it works very well for producing consistent
reps.

Phase 4 – I
have seen people do singles for several weeks (mostly women) before
finally reaching a limit. For me, the decision to do 10 singles
versus 15 is mostly logistical. Sometimes there just isn’t enough
time. Sometimes it’s psychological. The lifter would rather eat
metal shavings than do 15 press singles – I completely understand.
Carve out the time to get at least 10, but more is better.

The press is a fickle
creature.

For some, the
Compressed Texas Method is the way to go after Phase 4. I’ve also seen great results by
resetting and running the NLP again, albeit more aggressively the
second time around. Hit a couple PR 3x5s and move back to 3s as
soon as possible.

Deadlift

This lift sees the greatest shift in exercise variation and frequency
of heavy and light days. Several examples are included to help
illustrate how the varied pulling programs can be organized. The
set/rep progression for the pulling exercises are as follows:

• Deadlift and Rack Pull:
  1×5, 2×3, 3×2, 5×1
• Power Clean: 5×3, 5×2,
  10×1
• Barbell Row: 3×8,
  3-4×6, 3-4×5
• Lat Pulldown: 3×8-10
• Chins: 3-4xFailure

Phase 1 –
Deadlifts start off being done 3-times per week for 1 set of 5 reps.
Around the time 2×3 is needed is also a good time to consider the
next change. If you are a low responder to training, I suggest
alternating deadlifts and rack pulls while keeping the frequency at
3-times per week. I have found this to be a very powerful training
stimulus for women. Here is what that looks like:

Phase 2 – The frequency of heavy pulling is reduced from
3-times to 2-times per week, placing them at the beginning and end of
the training week. You’re probably doing a light squat by now too,
making the middle training day a nice reprieve.

Here are a couple of
examples of what this can look like:

Example 1:
Deadlifts are on Monday and Friday. Notice how power cleans are
3-times per week. Monday and Friday’s power cleans are only done
for 3×3, as part of the deadlift warmup. When first learning power
cleans it is critical that the frequency be high. Including a few
sets before the deadlift allows for much needed practice. Wednesday
is for the full power clean session. If you cannot rack a power
clean, a power snatch may be more useful. As you get more proficient
the practice on Monday and Friday can be phased out, but it’s fine
if you want to leave it in.

Example 2: Along with adding the power clean, the deadlift is replaced with a rack pull on Friday.

Example 3: If you have excluded yourself from cleans and snatches, then this is your next move. But before you do that, read When to Omit the Power Clean.

Phase 3 – Technically speaking, once the heavy pulls are moved to once per week this is an intermediate program. I have included this phase as part of the NLP because there is a damn good chance every other lift will either still be on the NLP, or will be making a second run through the phases as I recommended. This addition will reduce confusion on programming the pulls.

This example has cleans being done at the beginning and end of the week, with deadlifts or rack pulls in the middle. Chins or lat pulls can be included at the beginning and end of the week.

The sets/reps can be reset as often as necessary. You may also choose
to cycle 5s, 3s, 1s week to week. Do not reset the pulling program
back to heavy deadlifts 3x per week.

Bench
Press

Which track do I take? Again, men, track 1, women, track 2. There are
exceptions to this just as the squat, but let’s keep it simple for
now.

Set your safeties so
you don’t die. Properly set safeties will prevent the bar from
making contact with your throat. Have a spotter, and don’t collar
the bar so that in an emergency you can unload the plates by tilting
the bar, thus saving your life at the expense of the floor.

Track
1: Men

Phase 1 – The
bench press starts with 3×5, and frequently needs a lighter bar. If
you don’t have access to a light bar, see if you can manage sets of
3 reps with the 45-lb bar. In this case it’s acceptable to start in
Track 2, Phase 2.

Phase 2 – One
top set of 5 is performed and back-off sets are introduced. Back-offs
are approximately 90% of the top set weight. Pay close attention to
the load on the back-off sets, as they should maintain approximately
a 10% separation from the top set. Micro-loading becomes very useful
if not absolutely necessary here.

Phase 3 – The
top set of 5 becomes 1-2 sets of 3 reps. Back-off sets should be able
to remain at 2×5 for a little longer, provided you have not been
loading too aggressively.

Phase 4 – The
top set of 3 becomes 1-2 sets of 2 reps. Back-offs of 2×5 become 3×3.
The total volume still needs to be around 15 reps.

Phase 5 –
Doubles become singles and the back-off sets remain at 3 reps. The
number of singles and back-off sets you do are dependent on your
tolerance to each. Aim for about 15 total reps. Once this phase has
run its course, do yourself a favor and just reset back to 3×5. You
will enjoy some PR 5s right off the bat.

Track
2: Women

Phase 1 – The
bench press starts with 3×5, and frequently needs a lighter bar. If
you don’t have access to a light bar, see if you can manage sets of
3 reps with the 45-lb bar. In this case it’s acceptable to start in
phase 2.

Phase 2 – Just
like the press, 3×5 becomes 5×3. It’s a smart move to start
micro-loading soon, if you have not done so already.

Phase 3 –
Back-off sets are included after 2 top sets of 3 reps. For the
back-offs, lower the weight by 5-8%. A 10% back-off might be too
much. The sets may be too easy and not generate enough stress.

Phase 4 – Ah
yes, 7×2 – what joy! This works just as well for the bench as it
does for the press.

As this phase comes to
an end it’s perfectly acceptable to reset and adjust programming,
but if you have the appetite for singles, move to Phase 5. Consider
it a bonus round. The press kind of needs the heavier singles,
whereas the bench press, not as much.

Phase 5 – Just
like the press, I usually limit singles to 10 because of time
constraints, but if you have the time and energy to do more it is
probably a good idea. After Phase 5 you can reset back to 3×5 for a
couple of sessions, but move back to 5×3 quickly.

There it is – a
roadmap for programming a smooth NLP. Give this a shot. I hope it
works well for you.

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