The Classic 8-6-4-2-2 Weight Workout for Squats, Cleans, Bench

COVID UPDATE: UK Indoor leisure facilities, such as gyms & swimming pools, may re-open 12 April, 2021.

I can hardly wait to get back into the weight room. It’s been over 1 year now, and I’m really getting tired of doing pushups, even though I own kettlebells and a 20Kg weight vest.

When I do go back, even though it will be April or May, I will treat the early sessions at a GPP block.

One of my classic weight training workouts in the Fall GPP season is the 8-6-4-2-2 for large muscle groups, like Bench Press, Squats, and Power Cleans. The Ancillary exercises, like hamstring exercises or core/ab exercises, are usually higher volume as they are less “intense”.

Remember, training is all about Volume X Intensity.

Do these 3 primary exercises with 2 other fellow athletes, and you get twice the recovery for every exercise. You also hog the station for a while, too!

We would normally do this routine of 8-6-4-2-2 for about 2 months (2 cycles), then change.

Before starting, you need to know your Maximum One Rep Max (or “1RM” in short) and the approximate percentages at the lower weights. Below are my guidelines on weight percentages that worked for me for my different lifts, assuming 1RM = 100%

• 8 reps = 70% (usually the warm up set, especially after a track workout)
• 6 reps = 85%
• 4 reps = 90%
• 2 reps = 95%

The problem with testing the 1RM is you can get injured testing an athletes. Nowadays, we only test for “doubles or triples”… that is 2 or 3 rep sets. You can read more about this in the article below, or watch the video with Ryan Banta & myself:

Joe Kovacs 4 reps at 870lb or 395Kg

Joe Kovacs is an American shot putter with a PB of 22.91m. Respect!

On a recent post on Twitter, he showed:

So if he can do 870 lbs for 4 reps, and assuming that’s 90%, that would make his 1RM at 966 lbs!

Impressive.

Note how he has 5 spotters (yes, five!) and the rest of the gym are watching in awe. Just like the corporate office world… 3 managers and 5 people on standby to do the work. And no credit to the single person who actually does the work!