Wolverine

What is Wolverine?

The Wolverine Workout is David Kingsbury's program, published on his own site, for improving strength and size while keeping body fat to a minimum. It runs five days a week. Four of them open with one of his main lifts (barbell bench on day one, back squat on day two, weighted pull-ups on day three, deadlifts on day five) and day four is upper chest work. The rest of each day is his own accessory list: shoulder presses, a Cuban press and a four-move shoulder circuit with the bench; front squats, single-leg presses, calves, leg raises and ab wheel roll-outs with the squat; rows, curls and a three-move curl circuit with the pull-ups; incline dumbbell drop sets, cable flys, narrow bench and a triceps circuit on day four; and Romanian deadlifts, Zercher squats, weighted sit-ups and landmines with the deadlift.

The main lifts run his 4-week wave off a working max of 95% of your 1RM: week one is four sets of 5 at 60, 65, 75 and 75%; week two four sets of 4 at 65, 75, 85 and 85%; week three four sets of 3 at 70, 80, 90 and 90%; and week four is the lighter week, four sets of 10 at 40, 50, 60 and 60%. In the first three weeks the last set is as many reps as you can, as Kingsbury suggests training to failure on the last set; the 10s week has none. Main lifts rest 150 seconds, the rest of the session 60.

Is Wolverine right for you?

Pick it if you can train five days a week and want strength and size from the same plan: a percentage wave on four big lifts, then a full session of bodybuilding work behind each one. You need a 1RM for bench, squat, weighted pull-up and deadlift to set the working maxes, so it suits lifters with a year or more under the bar. The pull-up max is the weight you add, not your body weight, as Kingsbury counts it; if you cannot add weight to a pull-up yet, this is not the plan to start with.

How progression works

After each 4-week block your working max goes up: 10% for a lift where every set of the block made its reps, 5% for a lift where any set fell short. That is Kingsbury's own rule, five if progress is slow and ten if you hit your reps comfortably, and Durata suggests the new number at the end of the block for you to confirm. Durata works out every set of the wave from the working max and rounds it to your plates. The accessories are his fixed sets and reps (mostly four sets of 10 or 12, eights in the circuits, sixes in the drop sets): when every set makes its reps the weight goes up 2.5 kg next time, and a short set holds it. Dips, rows on your body weight, leg raises, roll-outs and push-ups log your reps only.

Durata runs this progression for you — every session's weights are computed from your training maxes, and your logged AMRAP sets are what move those maxes.

Wolverine — every set, every session

Percentages are of your training max (TM). AMRAP = as many reps as possible on the final set.

Wolverine — common questions

Wolverine side by side