How to add weight to the bar for years, not weeks
Beginners add weight every session. Then it stops. Here is how we program strength so the numbers keep moving long after the easy gains.
Freja HolmHead coach, 1 min read
Everyone’s first months under the bar feel like magic. Five kilos more every week, a new best every Friday. Then, somewhere around month four, the bar stops moving and people start looking for a new program.
The program was never the problem. The plan was.
Small jumps, on purpose
Our strength blocks run for six weeks. We add weight in the smallest steps the plates allow, usually one or two kilos on upper body lifts and two to five on squats and deadlifts. It feels too easy in week one. That is the point: week six should feel hard, not impossible.
Write it down
Every member gets a card, paper or in the app. You write the weight, the reps and one word about how it felt. Six weeks later that card tells us more than any test.
Deload before you need to
The last week of every block drops the weight by a third. Nobody likes it. Everybody lifts more the week after.
The boring truth
Strength is built by showing up three times a week for years with a plan that is slightly harder than last time. That is all Strength base is. It works because it is boring.
