Here’s the routine from Hepburn’s Law.
Upper/lower split: upper, lower, rest, upper, lower, rest, rest.
Exercises: squat, standing press, push press, bench press, bent row, standing barbell curl, deadlift. (There’s no actual split listed, just the upper/lower pattern above.)
Warmup: 4 sets of 8, progressively heavier, don’t wear yourself out with these
“Power” group: 8 sets of 2-3. Start with 1x3, 7x2 the first session; next session, 2x3, 6x2; work up to 8x3 over 8 sessions.
“Mass” group: drop the weight, do 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3. These don’t change from session to session.
“Flush/Pump” group: drop the weight, do a set of 10 where your goal is to get a good pump by the last rep.
Progression:
When starting, use a weight heavy enough that the last set of 2 in the power group is quite difficult; the most you can handle safely. Likewise, drop the weight so that the mass group is comparably difficult.
Keep the weights the same as you work toward 8x3 in the power group. Once you do that, add only 2.5lbs to the upper body lifts, and 5lbs to the lower body lifts, and repeat.
This is a very very slow progression, that, per the book, will prevent you from ever going “stale” or into any state of overwork. The work weight is supposed to function much like the “training max” in 5/3/1, where your actual max can be significantly higher.
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I’m not sure I buy into the super slow progression personally, especially given his switch to the A/B routines later in life, and some of his other stuff mentioned in interviews and articles.
I have been using this routine with my overhead press over the past few weeks. It’s too early to say how well it works though, but (obviously?) the work weight feels lighter and lighter after you’ve been using the same weight for a few weeks.
