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Other/Mixed Base Building for Strength

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
silveraw

silveraw

Level 9 Valued Member
If you have been lifting with the idea that "anything over 5 reps is cardio" for a while and hit a wall you can't quite seem to overcome it might be time to build out your base a bit.
If you have been running the same 5/3 or 5/5 program over and over again and not making gains, while also dreading whenever it starts to get heavy, it is probably time to build out your base a bit.

What is base building?

Basically it is building your work capacity, coordination, and hypertrophy in order to increase your strength potential. It takes a lot of work to get strong, don't handicap yourself by ignoring your base. You will need the ability to do more, you will need to be really good at your lifts, and you will need some meat to move the weight.
Some might even call it GPP. This is the general training you do to prepare yourself for more specific training (in this case getting stronger).

Think of this like your zone 2 cardio you would build up before diving into some more high intensity work before you peak for a snatch test.

How does it work?
There are a lot of ways to do this. But generally if you have been doing less than 10 reps a workout for years, it is time to add some volume. In the traditional Soviet model coaches would program waves where each one increases volume 10% for a few months before dropping down 20% and starting again.
A good way to do this if you don't want to program with a spreadsheet is the classic "add sets" method.

Basically start out with a decently heavy 8/3, then next week do 8/4, then 8/5 on each of your main lifts. Then start a new "wave" use a bit heavier but keep up the theme of higher volume for example 5/5, 5/6, 5/7. Your first week should be easy, second week you should feel it, and third week is when it gets hard.

Hit each lift 2x a week with the second time lighter than the "heavy" day. do a set less as well if you feel like you need it.
Follow it up with some "bodybuilding" movements to get some extra meat on your bones and to address any weak points you might have.

So what does it look like all put together?
MondayTuesdayWendesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday
Squat heavyBench heavyDeadlift HeavyPress Heavy
Deadlift lightPress LightSquat lightBench light
front squatsdb incline pressRDLpin press
leg extensionslat pull downsnordic curlstricep extension
This helps you increase volume, build work capacity, and also lets you get much more exposure to the lift. Don't get too hung up on exact reps and sets. The important thing is to add volume every week.

But can I change XYZ?
Yes,
if you want more or less days per lift, go for it.
If you are spending too long in the gym, start cutting from the bottom up.
If you are super beat up after the first wave, go ahead and take a full deload week before starting the next one.
I'm not sure about doing more than five reps? If you haven't done more than five reps in a set, it is a good time to expand your horizons.

Do what you need to make it work for you. Just make sure to focus on adding more volume than you have been doing. It will get hard and you will get some fatigue built up. But thats OK and supposed to happen. You are building up more potential for strength.

Did you steal this program?
Kinda... It draws from basic strength training principles with heavy inspiration from 5/3/1, RELOAD, The System by Jonny Parker, Purposeful Primitive, and Alex Bromley's content. But also it is hardly original ground breaking stuff. Lifters like Doug Young were doing this sort of thing 50 years ago. It just seems that the pendulum has swung from the extreme volume bodybuilding of the 90s to super specialization today and the value of good ole extra reps kind of got lost along the way.
 
Great post @silveraw ! If you don't mind I'd like to add on a couple things, with the caveat that ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THIS is my original work.

The Double/Triple Progression Method

If you're afraid to "full send" a base building cycle, try the classic old fashioned Pavel-approved Double Progression Method! Also sometimes known as the Triple Progression. Find a rep max of between 5 and 12, substract two reps, and on your next session do 3 sets of that. On the next session (4-7 days later), add a set. On the next session, add a set. Now, drop back to 3 sets and add a rep. In several weeks, you will be do what was your XRM for 5 sets! This set up works perfectly fine for a once-a-week schedule, but really shines on the Monday - Friday - Wednesday three times in two weeks schedule.

Here is an example for someone who wants to try this but is still scared of sets over 5:
Session 0: 8RM
Session 1: 3x6 (that's only one rep more than 5, not too scary!)
Session 2: 4x6
Session 3: 5x6
Session 4: 3x7
Session 5: 4x7
Session 6: 5x7
Session 8: 3x8
Session 9: 4x8
Session 10: 5x8
Session 11: Retest rep max at that weight OR find a new RM to play with
(I'm American and list everything Sets x Reps)

If you are feeling pretty "done" after Session 10, feel free to take what would have been Session 11 "off" and do it the following training day. Or, if you don't want to take it off, cut your volume in half (5 sets of 8 becomes 5 sets of 4) and leave your intensity (weight on the bar) the same, and do an "easy day" and then come back (now Session 12) and test.

Why is this called The Double Progression Method? Because you are progressing both reps and sets!

Why is this called The Triple Progression Method? Because after you progress reps and sets, you then progress weight!

How many days a week is this? It is highly advisable to NOT train multiple lifts using D/TPM in the same session. Of course you can do more work after your D/TPM - for instance, chest flys or rows after D/TPM benches.

Base Building While Specializing

Let's face it. Chasing multiple rabbits can be really hard. Even if you have a sweet little suppressed 22 mag, you gotta pick one to shoot before transitioning to another target. Well, training is often the same. This isn't a knock on concurrent training (attempting to train and elevate more than one skill or quality at a time), but is an endorsement of it!

Maybe you've been eyeballing that run program for a while...

Or that Strong Endurance program...

Or even *gulp* *gasp* that Hypertrophy program!

But you don't think you have the time to fit it in with all your current Strength Training...

Or you don't have the ENERGY to fit it in after your Heavy 5x5! I mean, let's be honest, a heavy 5x5 squat session not only takes a while but also leaves you feeling pretty wiped; you don't have the time OR energy to whip out the Secret Russian Science Backed SEE Plan 025 and start swinging or snatching for up to 50 minutes!

The solution: Put your strength lifts in "base building mode" while you develop or specialize another attribute.

This little idea is like the OG Powerlifting Version of Paul Carter had a training baby with the Super OG Dan John's Easy Strength who happened to read EDT by Charles Staley!

Pick a weight around 70-80% of your 1RM, or something like an 8-10RM. Do 5x5 with it for your sessions, once a week. When you can cut the total time your 5x5 is done down to 15 minutes, increase the weight. That's it. The rest of the session or week - do that snatch program, or that run program, or *gulp-gasp-le horror!* hop on the leg extension machine and go to Quadzilla Gainz Town!

The idea, to borrow a phrase from Jim Wendler, is to "raise the floor." You make that 5x5 SO EASY you HAVE to add weight! But, you're also doing that while your body is learning and adapting to the Main Focus. Your Strength is not only on the back burner - but is also still simmering and growing!

This makes sessions short and, relatively, low fatigue, allowing plenty of time to work on the needed, desired, or neglected quality. You can even do this to a couple lifts while you run a couple cycles to bring up a lagging or desired lift.

For example, you are sick of squatting as much as you bench, so you put your bench on "base building mode" while you run a hard squat-focused program. Your bench won't get weaker - but your bench sessions contribute very little weekly fatigue.

Another example is if you have decided to start running - or maybe you've been running a little, but your significant other has convinced you to do a marathon in 6 months - you can put your squat and deadlift in "base building mode" while you ramp up the miles. This gives your legs time to adapt to the running with minimal fatigue interference on your squat. You'll largely maintain your strength and size while also increasing the capillary density in your legs (which will actually help you in the future when you ramp up your squats).

This "base building mode" is a little different from what @silveraw talked about in his post, but I think still fits in the same "box." If you hate anything more than 5s (*cough* @Hung *cough*) it might be the basebuilding you're looking for. However, the downside is that you don't build a lot of the qualities that @silveraw's style can build, as this is version is a lot more about easily raising your floor while you also focus on other attributes.

Why do you call this basebuilding if it is so different? Simple - I originally learned about it from Paul Carter at least a decade ago, and he called it base building! His idea was that you had a large part of your year where you trained relatively easily, raising this relatively easy 5x5, and then have a broad base from which to peak for a powerlifting meet. So while it might not be the same as the "base building" that is coming in vogue, I still feel it qualifies.

Can I combine this with X or Y program? YES! That's a huge "pro" to this style of training. After your squat or bench or press for 15-25 minutes, you still have a HUGE amount of time available to train (depending on your schedule) or a MINIMAL amount of fatigue to effect your next "focused" session. Example - a "normal" squat program might leave you exhausted the next day, far too fatigued to do the new shiny SEE Plan 025; you switch to base building, hit a quick 5x5 on squat and bench on Monday, come in Tuesday fresh and ready to hammer SEE Plan 025!

Strength, Power, Cardio, Hypertrophy, and Long Life To You!
 
John K said:
If you hate anything more than 5s (*cough* @Hung *cough*) it might be the basebuilding you're looking for.
Click to expand...
I don't buy to the idea that doing high rep main lift variation or main lift itself is the only way to do base building.
If I do a heavy, rpe 9 good morning for set of 5 to build the weak link, isn't that based building?
Why higher rep is good? Instead 8 reps, why not 5s with pause, or tempo, or both?
Why not multi sets of 2 with short rest?

I don't like higher reps because I don't generate lots of force with it. Or at least that's what I feel. And I feel unmotivated by doing it.
 
Now I don't say that higher reps with main lifts are not work. But for me, it does two things:
- It brings new stimulate
- It desensitize stimulate from heavier, lower reps work.
And I think I can get it by doing something else.
 
Look at Patrick Maguire (full_primal_power)..in the past he followed Greg Panora and Greg used a modified 5th set method. Basically 4 sets of 2/3 and an Amrap set at a specific intensity. Then accessories at higher rep range. Greg also uses something like doing x reps in least set as possible. The conditioning aspect is high based on the rep count.

Then Patrick moves to Joe Suvillian and his girlfriend 's coaching. Moderate rep range, but limiting rest time, different type of tempo, different bar, adding accommodations resistance. Also more machine/isolate work but with a specific instruction. Patrick moves much better now and in able to express his strength better.

I would say that the second approach is better. Based building should be focusing on the quality that you lacked of, and it doesn't really correlate with rep range.
 
And some lifters, even the advance ones have a strange correlation between higher reps work and 1rm.
Brett Gibbs, for instance, had 8-rep set with deadlift right before the peaking block.
I would not call it base building just because it's higher rep range
 
John K said:
Great post @silveraw ! If you don't mind I'd like to add on a couple things, with the caveat that ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THIS is my original work.

The Double/Triple Progression Method

If you're afraid to "full send" a base building cycle, try the classic old fashioned Pavel-approved Double Progression Method! Also sometimes known as the Triple Progression. Find a rep max of between 5 and 12, substract two reps, and on your next session do 3 sets of that. On the next session (4-7 days later), add a set. On the next session, add a set. Now, drop back to 3 sets and add a rep. In several weeks, you will be do what was your XRM for 5 sets! This set up works perfectly fine for a once-a-week schedule, but really shines on the Monday - Friday - Wednesday three times in two weeks schedule.

Here is an example for someone who wants to try this but is still scared of sets over 5:
Session 0: 8RM
Session 1: 3x6 (that's only one rep more than 5, not too scary!)
Session 2: 4x6
Session 3: 5x6
Session 4: 3x7
Session 5: 4x7
Session 6: 5x7
Session 8: 3x8
Session 9: 4x8
Session 10: 5x8
Session 11: Retest rep max at that weight OR find a new RM to play with
(I'm American and list everything Sets x Reps)

If you are feeling pretty "done" after Session 10, feel free to take what would have been Session 11 "off" and do it the following training day. Or, if you don't want to take it off, cut your volume in half (5 sets of 8 becomes 5 sets of 4) and leave your intensity (weight on the bar) the same, and do an "easy day" and then come back (now Session 12) and test.

Why is this called The Double Progression Method? Because you are progressing both reps and sets!

Why is this called The Triple Progression Method? Because after you progress reps and sets, you then progress weight!

How many days a week is this? It is highly advisable to NOT train multiple lifts using D/TPM in the same session. Of course you can do more work after your D/TPM - for instance, chest flys or rows after D/TPM benches.

Base Building While Specializing

Let's face it. Chasing multiple rabbits can be really hard. Even if you have a sweet little suppressed 22 mag, you gotta pick one to shoot before transitioning to another target. Well, training is often the same. This isn't a knock on concurrent training (attempting to train and elevate more than one skill or quality at a time), but is an endorsement of it!

Maybe you've been eyeballing that run program for a while...

Or that Strong Endurance program...

Or even *gulp* *gasp* that Hypertrophy program!

But you don't think you have the time to fit it in with all your current Strength Training...

Or you don't have the ENERGY to fit it in after your Heavy 5x5! I mean, let's be honest, a heavy 5x5 squat session not only takes a while but also leaves you feeling pretty wiped; you don't have the time OR energy to whip out the Secret Russian Science Backed SEE Plan 025 and start swinging or snatching for up to 50 minutes!

The solution: Put your strength lifts in "base building mode" while you develop or specialize another attribute.

This little idea is like the OG Powerlifting Version of Paul Carter had a training baby with the Super OG Dan John's Easy Strength who happened to read EDT by Charles Staley!

Pick a weight around 70-80% of your 1RM, or something like an 8-10RM. Do 5x5 with it for your sessions, once a week. When you can cut the total time your 5x5 is done down to 15 minutes, increase the weight. That's it. The rest of the session or week - do that snatch program, or that run program, or *gulp-gasp-le horror!* hop on the leg extension machine and go to Quadzilla Gainz Town!

The idea, to borrow a phrase from Jim Wendler, is to "raise the floor." You make that 5x5 SO EASY you HAVE to add weight! But, you're also doing that while your body is learning and adapting to the Main Focus. Your Strength is not only on the back burner - but is also still simmering and growing!

This makes sessions short and, relatively, low fatigue, allowing plenty of time to work on the needed, desired, or neglected quality. You can even do this to a couple lifts while you run a couple cycles to bring up a lagging or desired lift.

For example, you are sick of squatting as much as you bench, so you put your bench on "base building mode" while you run a hard squat-focused program. Your bench won't get weaker - but your bench sessions contribute very little weekly fatigue.

Another example is if you have decided to start running - or maybe you've been running a little, but your significant other has convinced you to do a marathon in 6 months - you can put your squat and deadlift in "base building mode" while you ramp up the miles. This gives your legs time to adapt to the running with minimal fatigue interference on your squat. You'll largely maintain your strength and size while also increasing the capillary density in your legs (which will actually help you in the future when you ramp up your squats).

This "base building mode" is a little different from what @silveraw talked about in his post, but I think still fits in the same "box." If you hate anything more than 5s (*cough* @Hung *cough*) it might be the basebuilding you're looking for. However, the downside is that you don't build a lot of the qualities that @silveraw's style can build, as this is version is a lot more about easily raising your floor while you also focus on other attributes.

Why do you call this basebuilding if it is so different? Simple - I originally learned about it from Paul Carter at least a decade ago, and he called it base building! His idea was that you had a large part of your year where you trained relatively easily, raising this relatively easy 5x5, and then have a broad base from which to peak for a powerlifting meet. So while it might not be the same as the "base building" that is coming in vogue, I still feel it qualifies.

Can I combine this with X or Y program? YES! That's a huge "pro" to this style of training. After your squat or bench or press for 15-25 minutes, you still have a HUGE amount of time available to train (depending on your schedule) or a MINIMAL amount of fatigue to effect your next "focused" session. Example - a "normal" squat program might leave you exhausted the next day, far too fatigued to do the new shiny SEE Plan 025; you switch to base building, hit a quick 5x5 on squat and bench on Monday, come in Tuesday fresh and ready to hammer SEE Plan 025!

Strength, Power, Cardio, Hypertrophy, and Long Life To You!
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing this info!
 
silveraw said:
If you have been lifting with the idea that "anything over 5 reps is cardio" for a while and hit a wall you can't quite seem to overcome it might be time to build out your base a bit.
If you have been running the same 5/3 or 5/5 program over and over again and not making gains, while also dreading whenever it starts to get heavy, it is probably time to build out your base a bit.

What is base building?

Basically it is building your work capacity, coordination, and hypertrophy in order to increase your strength potential. It takes a lot of work to get strong, don't handicap yourself by ignoring your base. You will need the ability to do more, you will need to be really good at your lifts, and you will need some meat to move the weight.
Some might even call it GPP. This is the general training you do to prepare yourself for more specific training (in this case getting stronger).

Think of this like your zone 2 cardio you would build up before diving into some more high intensity work before you peak for a snatch test.

How does it work?
There are a lot of ways to do this. But generally if you have been doing less than 10 reps a workout for years, it is time to add some volume. In the traditional Soviet model coaches would program waves where each one increases volume 10% for a few months before dropping down 20% and starting again.
A good way to do this if you don't want to program with a spreadsheet is the classic "add sets" method.

Basically start out with a decently heavy 8/3, then next week do 8/4, then 8/5 on each of your main lifts. Then start a new "wave" use a bit heavier but keep up the theme of higher volume for example 5/5, 5/6, 5/7. Your first week should be easy, second week you should feel it, and third week is when it gets hard.

Hit each lift 2x a week with the second time lighter than the "heavy" day. do a set less as well if you feel like you need it.
Follow it up with some "bodybuilding" movements to get some extra meat on your bones and to address any weak points you might have.

So what does it look like all put together?
MondayTuesdayWendesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday
Squat heavyBench heavyDeadlift HeavyPress Heavy
Deadlift lightPress LightSquat lightBench light
front squatsdb incline pressRDLpin press
leg extensionslat pull downsnordic curlstricep extension
This helps you increase volume, build work capacity, and also lets you get much more exposure to the lift. Don't get too hung up on exact reps and sets. The important thing is to add volume every week.

But can I change XYZ?
Yes,
if you want more or less days per lift, go for it.
If you are spending too long in the gym, start cutting from the bottom up.
If you are super beat up after the first wave, go ahead and take a full deload week before starting the next one.
I'm not sure about doing more than five reps? If you haven't done more than five reps in a set, it is a good time to expand your horizons.

Do what you need to make it work for you. Just make sure to focus on adding more volume than you have been doing. It will get hard and you will get some fatigue built up. But thats OK and supposed to happen. You are building up more potential for strength.

Did you steal this program?
Kinda... It draws from basic strength training principles with heavy inspiration from 5/3/1, RELOAD, The System by Jonny Parker, Purposeful Primitive, and Alex Bromley's content. But also it is hardly original ground breaking stuff. Lifters like Doug Young were doing this sort of thing 50 years ago. It just seems that the pendulum has swung from the extreme volume bodybuilding of the 90s to super specialization today and the value of good ole extra reps kind of got lost along the way.
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting this!
 
Hung said:
I don't buy to the idea that doing high rep main lift variation or main lift itself is the only way to do base building.
Click to expand...
I would like to see others' opinions as well, but these are my thoughts. First, I generally agree that there's not necessarily just one way to build your base.

Hung said:
Now I don't say that higher reps with main lifts are not work. But for me, it does two things:
- It brings new stimulate
- It desensitize stimulate from heavier, lower reps work.
And I think I can get it by doing something else.
Click to expand...
The main thought I have here is that novel stimulus can help break plateaus. If you are only using lower reps ranges, then I would think that you would need to cycle how much weight you are using, as well as overall volume. If you hang out around one intensity, volume, and rep range for too long, the body will just "get used to it."

The human body is always trying to reach homeostasis. It wants things to be as easy as possible. So if you don't change things up, those things get easier because the body is able to do them more efficiently. It's why greasing the groove works.

Thus, if you are trying to break through a plateau, changing things up forces the body to make new adaptations. If you reduce the weight and do higher reps, it might not feel like you're getting as much out of training as you were with heavier weights and lower reps. If you stick with the lower weights and higher reps long enough, however, then when you go back to the higher weights and lower reps, it will be a "novel stimulus" again. That is, your body will (at least partially) have "forgotten" what the heavy weight feels like. So it will be a way to "trick" it into adapting again.

Anecdotally:
I have been mostly doing higher weight, lower rep for the last few years. When I was exclusively doing calisthenics, I used to train pretty much only sets of 8-10 for almost everything.

Recently, I have done some training sessions of the following:

1-2 sets of everything listed, numbers in parentheses () are reps per set, listed in no particular order

- OS rocking on knees (10), elevated rocking (10), single arm rocking on knees (10), single arm elevated rocking (10)
-Scapular shrug series: (10-15) each of: scap shrugs, hanging shrugs, horizontal shrugs (like a ring row), handstand shrugs, top support shrugs (the top position of the dip, without bending the elbows)
-Kickstand hinge (10 per leg), short split squat (10), both with only bodyweight
-Cossack squats (10) each leg
-Core sereies: hollow rocks (20), arch rocks (20), twising planks (10 per side), side arch ups with stiff arm (10 per side), L-sit (~10-20 seconds)


This used to be a light, easy workout when I was heavily into calisthenics. It was a prehab-level workout. When I did it recently, I was wrecked. I thought to myself, "no wonder I used to be so much stronger at bodyweight stuff." When I used to teach, I would have handstand students (I taught a shoulder prehab as well) do serratus slides with a light band around the wrists. This exercise, while done with a light, almost non-existent external load, absolutely crushed people.

The old Gymnastic Bodies approach started people with building to pretty high volume of easier exercises before tackling anything harder. For example: 5 sets of (15) pushups with good form, the only rest being mobility drills, before doing any dips. Similar approach with ring rows and pullups. Coach Sommer regularly commented how people coming to seminars were unable to complete basic prehab for any reasonable volume.

So I know I use calisthenics and gymnastic strength training as my examples, but I think there are lessons to be learned. There was a reason Christopher Sommer's book was called Building the Gymnastic Body. It was about how to develop the physical attributes needed to express strength through high ranges of motion, as well as tolerate the high strain demands of higher level skills.

So my two cents are:
- You get better at what you train. If you get stuck, changing things up might help reset the body's reaction to the stimulus you give it.
- Don't underestimate the power of high reps. There are oodles of calisthenics athletes who are incredibly strong and jacked, who basically live on 1-2 day per week splits, where it's all about sets of 8-15 reps. If you can do high rep sets of a weight for many sets, you can probably lift a much heavier weight
- Lower weight and higher rep means it's easier to dial in form. It's not so heavy that you risk compensatory movements, and you get lots of practice. You also build endurance in those muscles.
- This kind of training can teach you about the importance of recovery. As the gentlemen above posted, these sessions are not high frequency.
- I would argue that "base building" is also injury prevention. It's also a way to make the body move better, if done a certain way. Just look at the approach used in Original Strength. Ten minute leopard crawls? The move isn't that difficult (relatively speaking), but a volume of ten minutes straight? What about all the anecdotes of people being able to do one arm pushups after doing volumes of loaded crawling?

I have more thoughts, but I've already typed a lot and have to run. Will be watching the thread though!
 
silveraw said:
I would! But not just because the rep range. It is more increasing work capacity and preparing to do a peaking cycle.
Click to expand...
The modern peaking block is like 3-6 weeks or so...not the whole 12-16 weeks. Doing set of 8 4 weeks before competition doesn't sound like a base.
 
the hansenator said:
Would more sets of 5 accomplish the same thing?
Click to expand...
Yeah, one of the rep/set examples I gave was increasing sets of five over a few weeks.
Antti said:
I like variety. But I mainly handle it through exercise selection, load and rest periods.
Click to expand...
I'd assume you are still going through phases that increase hypertrophy and or work capacity.
Volumizing is just one of the easier to program methods (for me at least).

Probably should mention that since I do both strongman and powerlifting, work capacity is a bigger issue for me than someone who is training exclusively for heavy singles.
 
silveraw said:
Yeah, one of the rep/set examples I gave was increasing sets of five over a few weeks.

I'd assume you are still going through phases that increase hypertrophy and or work capacity.
Volumizing is just one of the easier to program methods (for me at least).

Probably should mention that since I do both strongman and powerlifting, work capacity is a bigger issue for me than someone who is training exclusively for heavy singles.
Click to expand...

I think it's best to at least to maintain all necessary attributes at all times. Focus changes, of course.

I just recently had a thought, of how much dedicated hypertrophy work really helps a powerlifter. There's so much skill practice and neural adaptations etc, that the training of which also causes hypertrophy. So, if we focus on those, do we get to bigger numbers later, than if we spent some time doing hypertrophy work? Or could it be the other way around? Which is harder to come by? How much meaningful hypertrophy for 1RMs we get after a few years of lifting?
 
Antti said:
So, if we focus on those, do we get to bigger numbers later, than if we spent some time doing hypertrophy work?
Click to expand...
My theory is that spending more time in the 60-80% range for higher volume (measured in number of lifts) will improve your coordination in those lifts which will support the more specific 80% + strength work that necessitates a lower volume of reps while incurring a higher recovery cost.

It is a lot easier to recover from 3 hard sets of 8 than 8 hard sets of 3.

If you want to maintain strength practice it isn't even a bad idea to work up to a heavy set of 5, drop 10-20% and do 3x5, repeat same thing next week with triples and the week after that with singles (probably drop down to a triple). (I'm at risk of just straight up stealing a 5/3/1 template at this point though)
 
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