The Modified Hepburn Method for the Less Patient Lifter

Doug Hepburn was a seriously impressive lifter, one who should probably be known by anyone who is interested in strength training. Not only was he the first man to bench press 500lbs and 550lbs, but he also won the Weightlifting World Championships in 1953 with a performance that included a 381lbs military press. Some of his other most notable lifts include a 450lbs military press (from a rack), a 500lbs push press and an 800+lbs squat and deadlift. Most of these being achieved before steroids were even being used by athletes.

Hepburn had a very strategic way of programing for strength, and it never failed to deliver results for those who stuck with it. Even today, 70 years later, his progression system is still being talked about and used. Which is the ultimate testament to its effectiveness.

If you followed Hepburn’s plan you got stronger, period.

But if it’s so effective then why is it not more popular? Because the core principle of the Hepburn method is to progress on a very slow and incremental basis on your main lifts. Which is not a popular message in our world of instant gratification!

People want the shiny program that promises to add 50lbs to their bench in two months, not a slow and steady progression model. Even if the later turns out to be a million times more effective over the long term.

HEPBURN HAD A POINT

The rate at which you can gain strength on a lift ranges from 0.25 to 2% per week depending on your experience level, the effectiveness of your program as well as your nutrition and recovery ability.

Beginners might be able to pull off a strength gain of 1-2% per week on a lift if they do everything right.

Intermediates could increase their strength by 0.5 to 1% per week, whereas advanced lifters will be closer to 0.25 – 0.5% per week. Elite level lifters are probably going to be progressing at an even slower rate than this.

Now, these numbers are averages; on some weeks you might gain a little bit more and on some week you might gain a bit less.

“But Thib, I’ve seen lifters add 20lbs to their bench in a week!”

Sure, I’ve done that myself and I’ve seen it plenty of times too. But that doesn’t mean that you added 20lbs of actual strength. For example, if last week you lifted 300lbs and this week you lifted 320lbs it doesn’t mean that you increased your strength by 6.7%.

There are other factors that contribute to your performance on a specific day that need to be considered:

1. Strength fluctuates on a daily basis depending on recovery, neurological state, level of arousal, mood, etc. You could be comparing a “bad” day to a “good” day.
2. Your technique might have been just a little bit more efficient on the second workout. Or maybe you cheated a bit to get the weight up.
3. The effort level/reps in reserve might have been different. For example, if you got 300lbs x 3 with 3 reps in reserve last week and then performed 320lbs x 3 reps with 1 rep in reserve this week, you might have not added much (if any) strength, you just pushed your set harder.

I’m not saying this to crush your dreams of achieving super strength. But I do want to give you a realistic assessment of how much you can progress on a weekly and monthly basis. By trying to add too much weight too fast you may well end up halting your progression.

That’s where programs like 5/3/1 by Jim Wendler and the Hepburn method shine. If anything, their rate of load progression is slower than your average rate of strength gains, meaning that you pretty much never hit a plateau.

IMPORTANT: The moment your rate of load progression exceeds your rate of strength gain is when you set yourself on the path to stagnation.

You might be able to sustain that load progression for a short while. Perhaps by gradually leaving less reps in reserve, slightly cheating, using a bit of momentum to get the weight up, or relying on adrenaline and psyching yourself to make the lift. But it’s not sustainable and it will catch up to you sooner rather than later.

This method also leads to a loss of technical efficiency, aches and pains as well as excessive neurological fatigue. All of which speeds up the process of “hitting a wall” with your progress.

One of the main reasons people fail to reach their strength goals is being impatient and trying to force those gains when the body is not ready.

WHAT IS THE HEPBURN PROGRESSION MODEL?

The original Hepburn model added 1 total repetition to a lift per session.

The strength workouts (there is also a size variation) had 8 work sets per lift.

Using a load you could get for 4 solid reps with (or an all-out 5 rep-max) you started out at one set of 3 repetitions and 7 sets of 2 repetitions.

Each session you added 1 total rep. So, 1 x 3, 7 x 2 becomes 2 x 3 and 6 x 2, then 3 x 3, 5 x 2, etc.

The whole progression is like this:

1 x 3, 7 x 2

2 x 3, 6 x 2

3 x 3, 5 x 2

4 x 3, 4 x 2

5 x 3, 3 x 2

6 x 3, 2 x 2

7 x 3, 1 x 2

8 x 3

Once you reach 8 x 3 you add weight to the bar and start over at 1 x 3, 7 x 2 with the new weight.

You typically performed each exercise twice per week, meaning it took you 4 weeks to add weight to the bar.

You can see why I mentioned that you need to be patient to use thus model!

Using the same weight for 8 consecutive sessions and accumulating plenty of volume has a lot of benefits for strength gains:

1. It allows you to work on technical efficiency
2. You master that load and only move up once your body is ready to handle the extra load
3. Your technique, muscles and tendons can progress at a reasonably equivalent rate
4. It builds confidence because you are never jumping up to a load that you can not handle

But it’s easy to see how the lack of variety and slow load progression could make less patient lifters overlook this great approach.

MODIFYING THE HEPBURN METHOD WITHOUT LOSING ITS CORE PRINCIPLE

I often use a variation of the Hepburn method that makes it more palatable to lifters who need a bit more variation and more frequent load changes.

I made three modifications to the system. One of the modifications was actually used by Hepburn in his later years whereas the other ones come from my own lack of patience!

Modification #1 – Slightly faster progression

Instead of adding 1 total rep per session. I add two.

So, rather than using the 8-session progression model mentioned above, it becomes:

2 x 3, 6 x 2

4 x 3, 4 x 2

6 x 3, 6 x 2

8 x 3

Now we are adding weight after 4 strength workouts rather than 8.

But I’m not doubling the rate of progression here. The next modification slows down the rate of load progression, but it’s still a bit faster than the original.

Essentially, we’ll had weight after 3 weeks rather than 4.

Modification #2 – Heavy/Light

The way I’m utilizing the Hepburn method is by grouping all the exercises I want to use it with in  to a single session. Because of the total number of sets I recommend sticking to 2-3 main lifts and maybe one smaller movement (I added curls myself).

Ideally the 2-3 main lifts you select would cover the whole body. So, it could be Squat, Bench Press, Pendlay Row; or Power Snatch, Dips, Zercher Squats (which is what I’m doing); or Deadlift, Overhead Press, Pull-ups… you get the idea.

This allows me to have 3 “Hepburn style” sessions in a week.

I then alternate between a heavy and a light session (light in relation to the heavy session, it’s still a hard workout).

The heavy session still uses sets of 2-3 reps as per the original.

The light session uses sets of 3-5 reps.

The progression for the “heavy” sessions is what I outlined in the “Modification #1” section above:

Workout 1: 2 x 3, 6 x 2

Workout 2: 4 x 3, 4 x 2

Workout 3: 6 x 3, 6 x 2

Workout 4: 8 x 3

Then add weight and start the cycle over.

The progression for the “light” sessions is as follows:

Workout 1: 2 x 5, 1 x 4, 2 x 3 (with a load you could get 6 good reps with)

Workout 2: 2 x 5, 3 x 4

Workout 3: 3 x 5, 2 x 4

Workout 4: 5 x 5

These workouts are then scheduled in an alternating fashion. So, our training week becomes:

Week 1

Monday: Heavy

Wednesday: Light

Friday: Heavy

Week 2

Monday: Light

Wednesday: Heavy

Friday: Light

Week 3

Monday: Heavy

Wednesday: Light

Friday: Heavy

Etc.

Modification #3 – Strength Circuit

Those who know my work, are aware of my love for strength circuits. I’ve written a lot about them in the past:

The Strength Skill Circuit Method

The Elimination Circuit

Built for Bad Strength Circuits (Tnation)

Built for Battle (Tnation)

I find them more motivating than doing all your sets of each exercise before moving on to the next, especially if you have a lot of sets on each.

I also find that you can significantly reduce workout time by training in this manner.

For example, if you have 8 work sets on 3 main lifts and rest for 3 minutes between each set that’s an hour and 15 minutes of rest periods alone. So, this is likely a 90+ minutes workout, not including the warm-up.

If you do the same exercises and sets as a circuit with 1 minute of rest between exercises, we are now down to roughly 24 minutes of rest time, meaning that workout can be completed in 35-40 minutes. Including my warm-up, my longer sessions last 45 minutes, which is more manageable than 90+.

If I use an exercise order that has very little interference (for example, I’m doing Power Snatches from blocks, then Weighted Dips, then Zercher Squats), there is no negative impact on my performance. 2-3 reps per set is not enough work to create enough metabolic or neurological fatigue that would hurt the next exercise. Sometimes I take 90 seconds rather than 60 between the squats and snatches, but that’s it.

Of course, with strength circuits, exercise selection is key. Even though I like the powerlifts (squat, bench deadlift) there might be too much crossover between the squat and deadlift to make it work well.

BONUS modification – After the circuit

Typically, once my circuit is done for the day, I will add 1 or 2 smaller exercises that are aimed more at hypertrophy.

For these I use an “effort-based” approach:

Set 1 – Warm-up of 10 reps with around 50% of my planned top set

Set 2 – Feeler set of 6 reps with around 80-90% of my planned top set

Set 3 – Top set 5-8 reps to failure

This allows for a bit more of a hypertrophy stimulus and gives me more variation as I can change those exercise whenever I want.

THE BENEFITS

To me, and people like me, who need things to change and be a bit more varied than the traditional Hepburn method the benefits of this adaptation are:

1. Slightly faster rate of load progression, but not so much faster that you’re likely to hit a plateau
2. The different stimulus from the heavy and light sessions reduces training monotony
3. The circuit format makes the 8 work sets of each exercise less boring and repetitive
4. The possibility to add a small amount of extra work at the end of the workout, and being able to vary that whenever you want, gives some breathing room and freedom which makes the whole thing more sustainable.

CONCLUSION

The original Hepburn format remains an extraordinary strength-building approach, especially for very patient lifters. But for those with a slightly shorter attention span and more need for variety, this variation of the model will allow you to get a similar result but using format that you can stick to in the long-term.