Adaptive Strength: Sets to Target

What is Adaptive Strength: Sets to Target?

Adaptive Strength: Sets to Target is a 21-week program for the squat, bench press, deadlift and overhead press, plus close variations of them: front squats, paused squats, close-grip and incline bench, sumo deadlifts and push presses. You choose how many days a week to train, from 2 to 6. Fewer days put more lifts in each session, and the 2-day version keeps eight of the ten lifts.

Every lift runs the same way: sets of a few reps at one weight, and you keep adding sets until one ends with that week's cutoff of reps left in reserve (RIR). The plan shows four sets; tap + Set for each one after that. The program runs as three 7-week blocks. Each block is two 3-week waves and a lighter week, and each block is heavier than the last: the main lifts start at sets of 5 at 70% of your training max with a cutoff of 3 RIR, and finish block three at singles at 95% with a cutoff of 1. The variations run 10% lighter with more reps. In the lighter weeks (7, 14 and 21) you do sets of 5, four to six of them, and move on.

Is Adaptive Strength: Sets to Target right for you?

This suits an intermediate lifter who wants a long strength block that corrects itself, built on lots of good-quality sets rather than one hard one. You need to be able to judge your reps in reserve honestly; Durata asks you to turn on RIR tracking when you start. It also suits anyone whose week changes, because the same program fits 2 to 6 days. A beginner still adding weight every session will do better on a simple linear program first. Accessories are up to you; Durata adds one upper-back lift to each day (rows, pull-ups or pulldowns), aiming for about 40 reps over three sets before adding weight.

How progression works

The sets you make before one ends at the cutoff move your training max for next week. Four to six sets is on target and the max holds. Seven or more and it goes up 2%; three or fewer and it comes down 5%. A set counts when you tick it with all its reps; a set you leave unticked is not counted, and never counts as a miss. The change is to the exact max, so it adds up even when the bar doesn't change that week. Every weight is a percentage of that max, rounded to your plates. The lighter weeks never move it. Change a max by hand and the program carries on from yours.

Durata runs this progression for you — every session's weights are computed from your training maxes.

Adaptive Strength: Sets to Target — every set, every session

Percentages are of your training max (TM).

Adaptive Strength: Sets to Target — common questions

Adaptive Strength: Sets to Target side by side