Hi just wanted people’s thoughts in doug hepburns method and any experiences people have had.
search for the former username twiceborn here on Tnation forums or google his name with Doug Hepburn. He had personal experience with Doug and his methods which are slightly different than the book.
I like Dougs methods or a variation of for my main strength exercises. It keeps me fresh with absolutely no burn out. Some find it boring.
I dont know that one
I’ve used it about 5-6 years ago. I committed to a 6 month program .
Worked for strength gains, fairly simple program so it was low stress.
Got a little boring after 3-4 months. Also I found it lacked in work for accessories . Face pulls, shrugs, curls etc…,
What was your diet like during. Plus what we’re your results at the end of it? Strenght,size etc
My diet stays fairly constant 2000-3000 cal/per day
My upper end ranges stay between 405-425/275-325/495-515
I pick a goal and work towards it. I’m a little older and have been training for years.
With the right calorie surplus , I think it’s an excellent program for strength gains and lean mass
Good luck if you run it. It works. I think the minimum time is 12-16 weeks.
I have started it today and I myself have been training for years and now I have 2 kids I’m going to commit to this and see some steady strength gains.
Good luck!
I think it’s a solid program for drug free strength gains. Easy to follow and it will work. Good solid strength gains can take time. Let you diet reflect your goals.
Balancing work, family and training is my biggest challenge, still.
Yeh exactly the same with me with 2 kids. Did you start off with your true 1 rep max or a big lighter to make sure form is perfect. My squats at 80% were at 100kg and felt quite comfy. Is this what u found
I started around 80-85% of my 1RM. Once I get around 90-95%, it’s a grinding rep or reps. Starting a bit light is always good.
Il do that then and commit to it for at least 6nmonths. Do you have any other tips
I kept my rest between sets pretty short, and during my warm up sets also, pretty much the time to load the plates.
Don’t add extra to the program, just follow as he describes it. Focus on the main sets. Good form counts , but there are grinding reps as you increase, that’s ok in my book
Eat for your goals.
Keep your balance in life, training is a lifetime pursuit, but put the work in regularly , don’t freak out if you miss a session, make it up the next time you lift
Good luck and enjoy, you will be living a little history as you train.!
Just a.last question. What did you find was the best split of sessions. I’m thinking of running squats and bench and then deadlifts with overhead press.
Great question.
Everyone has a personal experience with this and needs to find what works well for them.
I like now squats,bench,DL then press. Rest repeat. I’ve done squats and DL on the same day, but with a low volume of DL, I needed minimal warmup to get to the work sets.
I don’t recall exactly how I went when I ran the Hepburn. But I do like squats as the first day ,first exercise always then BP and DL ,with press last.
Brooks Kubik has an excellent publication on Doug Hepburn. Well worth the money.
Seem like these would be really long sessions.
I did the A program and trained 4/week.
I would do 1 main exercise per day a squat day, BP, DL and press.
8x2, then 3x6 for the programming and progression as described. I added very little extra, some ab, rows , chins and curls. A few sets at the end if I felt up to it and time allowed. I don’t think Hepburn meant for this program to be applied to all your lifts.
The training time is spent on the main lifts and my workouts lasted about 1 hour max. I’m a little older so my warmup is about 10-15 minutes before starting with the bar. I keep my reps low and rest short till my work sets. 8 sets at 2 minutes is 16 minutes. 5 minute rest while changing weight on th bar then bang out the next 3 and done. You get good at squats,BP,DL, and if you want press.
Hey guys! I just wanted to chime in and keep Doug Hepburn’s incredible program alive. Just like someone said up there, I don’t know how I found it, but someone mentioned Twiceborn in the forums and I found my favorite new program. So you start with ABOUT 90% of your one rep max on 2 lifts ( I chose BP and Incline BP ) and start with 4 sets of 1 rep on each. No super sets, no bs. Just 4 challenging singles with a weight you can lift for 3 reps. The next workout you simply add 1 more set, so 5 sets of 1. Once you reach 10 sets of 1, add 10 lbs and start the cycle over. I’m about 14 weeks into my first cycle and my top lifts have never felt easier. I’m gaining strength and size at a ridiculous rate. The best part is, the strength portion will only take 30-45 minutes, so you can add in some athletic style training or a little hypertrophy work (Hepburn didn’t like to mix strength and pump work later in life, but I do).
SAMPLE -
Bench press - 8x1 @ 305 (2-3 min rest between sets)
Incline Bench (45 deg) - 8x1 @ 255 (2-3 min rest between sets)
Cable flys - 1x10 @ 125
Rear delt rows - 1x10 @ 220
Overhead tricep Ext - 1x10 @ 140
Bicep curl - 1x10 @ 95
Once again, the other stuff is optional, but it keeps it fun. I’ve been focusing on intensity over volume, so I just do 1 balls out set of the hypertrophy stuff. Idk if it’s just because I’m older or what, but I love the simplicity and the fact that you will get stronger every training session, either one more set of 1 or 10 more lbs.
Once you’ve run this “A” routine for 3-4 months, you will switch to the “B” routine. You’ll drop the weight another 10% (ABOUT 80% of your max) and do 4 sets of 3, adding another set of 3 until you hit 10x3. Add 10 lbs until you’re lifting your old 1 rep max for triples. You can switch between A and B (or even C, seriously, check out Twiceborn’s thread on this) until you’re smashing old pr’s easily. Anyway, I hope this catches someone’s eye and the legend of Doug Hepburn will keep living!
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Do you have a link to Twiceborn’s program? I can’t find it on here.
Boom! I just bookmarked the page with the workout so you might to jump back a page or 2 for the full story. Have fun man!
That’s great. Thank you very much!