The fist thing you do is picking a proper exercise that fits the slot of the template. You do this the first time you run the program, and also at the beginning of a new training block if necessary.

You'll notice that some of the exercises have an intensity prescription (heavy, medium, light). To give you a loose guideline, for a "heavy" exercise you want to be able to reach failure within the 5-10 or 5-15 rep-range, for a "medium intensity" one you want to be in the 10-20 rep-range, and for a "light" exercise in the 20-30 one. If the intensity is not specified, then use any rep-range you want that's within 10-30.

Let's use the first exercise of the Lower day as an example for the rest of the guide. This slot reads "Heavy quad compound", so to set up the program you go to the exercise list in the main post, look at the list of exercises for the quadriceps, and select a compound exercise that allows you to go to failure with around 5-10 or 5-15 reps (we'll use 5-10 for this example). Let's say the exercise that fits the criteria for you is the reverse lunges (quad compound level 2).

Your training block begins with a testing week: you're just going to do a single set to failure (AMRAP) for each exercise, and the amount of reps you get is going to be the metric to determine the working rep-range. It's important that you reach failure while using good technique and tempo. In the cases of the Full Body, Pull-Push, Upper-Lower and Pull-Push-Legs programs where you repeat the sessions in the same week, you test during the first sessions, and begin the regular training in the following ones that same week. And in the case of the UL-PPL program which doesn't have repeating sessions, you test the whole first week and begin the regular training the next one.

So you test the reverse lunges and let's say you get 8 reps. Now that you have your results, you determine the initial amount of reps of the working sets by subtracting 3 reps to that amount, if it's the first exercise in the session to target the main muscle group, or 6 reps if it's the second one. So for example in the Upper day of the UL program, you would subtract 3 reps to the vertical pull test result, since it's the first exercise in the session that targets the back, and 6 reps to the horizontal pull test result, since it's the second one for that muscle.

Going back to the example, since you got 8 reps in your test, then on your regular workout you're going to do 5 reps in your first set.

What does all this accomplish? Two things: 1) the testing week, which comes after a deload, is a nice way to gauge your progress and break some PRs, and 2) It calculates a real RPE 7 / RIR 3.

We're going to borrow from the RP model of set progression. So instead of doing the same number of sets every week, we're going to select an initial amount, the lowest that gives you some minimum of gains (what RP calls the "Minimum Effective Volume"), and as we progress through the training block we're going to progressively increase the amount of sets we do. I recommend you select the lowest end of the set-range in the Templates if you don't know what your MEVs are. In our example, the initial number of sets for the reverse lunges is going to be 2.

You start your first regular workout by doing the calculated number of reps for the first set, stopping at that target rep number even if it feels easy. Get a feel of how many reps you got left in the tank at the end of that set, and try to match that same proximity to failure in the rest of the sets (keeping RPE/RIR constant). As a result you're going to experience a drop in reps in some sets, or even every set, due to the accumulated fatigue.

So let's go back to our example. On tuesday, during the first Lower session of the week, you performed the test to determine the initial amount of reps, which resulted in 5 reps for your first set. Now comes friday and it's time to hit the Lower workout again, and now you're going to do the reverse lunges normally, for 2 sets as prescribed, starting with 5 reps and maintaining the same reps in the tank on every set. At the end you're going to get something like 5-4 or 5-3, or 5-5 if it was really easy.

From here you progress in two ways: adding reps and adding sets.

ADDING REPS

This is very straightforward, when the time comes to repeat the session, you do one more rep in the first set (even if you can do even more), and continue to try to maintain the same proximity to failure you get in that first set across all sets, whatever their rep count end up being. For example:

• Session 1: 5-5

• Session 2: 6-4

• Session 3: 7-6

ADDING SETS

The rules for adding sets go are the following:

• If for a given muscle group, last session you got a very small pump, your performance was excellent, the days after you barely got sore and you feel super fresh for the next session, then you can add 1-2 or even 3 sets total for that muscle group the next session. It's useful to add them to the exercises that caused the least disruption for you. So for example if you're training your back and the session felt like a breeze, but your pull-ups gave you quite a good workout while you barely felt the rows, then it's going to be more useful to add most of the new sets to the rows.

• If for a given muscle group, last session you got a good pump, felt a good workout, you got sore afterwards but you recovered in time for the next session, then add 1 or even 2 sets at most next time.

• If for a given muscle group, when you have to train it you're still sore from the previous session, or if you feel that the muscle is barely recovered, don't add any sets.

As you progress in both reps and sets, eventually you're going to get closer and closer to failure, until you eventually reach failure, your fatigue is going to rapidly accumulate and your performance is going to start to drop. At that point, you finish the block, deload and start a new block from the beginning.

So let's apply that to our example, and to illustrate it better let's select a secondary quad exercise (the UL program has 3, but for simplicity's sake let's say it's 2). So you're going to do the reverse lunges and as a secondary exercise an air squat. Your progress in the whole training block could go like this:

• Week 1, Lower 1: test day, a single set, lunges 8 reps, air squat 15 reps

• Week 1, Lower 2: Lunges 5-5, air squat 9-8. Felt easy, add 2 sets

• Week 2, Lower 1: Lunges 6-5-4, air squat 10-8-7. Felt good, add 1 set

• Week 2, Lower 2: Lunges 7-6-4, air squat 11-9-8-6. Felt tough, same sets

• Week 3, Lower 1: Lunges 8-6-6, air squat 12-11-10-9. Felt tough, same sets

• Week 3, Lower 2: Lunges 9-8-7, air squat 13-11-10-9. Felt good, add 1 set

• Week 4, Lower 1: Lunges 10-9-7-6, air squat 14-12-10-9. Felt good, add 1 set. Reached failure

• Week 4, Lower 2: Lunges 10-9-6-5, air squat 13-11-8-9-7. All to failure, reduction in performance, high levels of accumulated fatigue

• Week 5 (deload), Lower 1: Lunges 5-4, air squat 6-5

• Week 5 (deload), Lower 2: Lunges 5-4, air squat 6-5

The slot in the program for which you selected the reverse lunges read "Heavy quad compound" meaning you needed an exercise that allowed you to reach failure with 5-10 reps, and well, you got stronger and now you reached the top end of that rep-range, since you can already do it for 10 reps.

When you reach the limit amount of reps that was prescribed for the exercise, then it's time to replace it for a harder variation. You do that change at the beginning of a new block (not in the middle of an ongoing one).

In our example, since you were doing lunges, which is the quad compound level 2, then now that you maxed it out, you replace it for the quad compound level 3, bulgarian split squats.

Different muscle groups progress and get fatigued at different rates, so getting all of your muscles to reach failure and overreach in the same final week of the block is not something you're going to get right in the first few tries. Some times you're going to plateau with a given muscle in the middle of the block, not being able to do more reps, and some times a given muscle is going to feel like it has more gas to keep going for several more weeks after the end of the block.

So at the end of each block, you go through your logs and you make adjustments so that you progressively get to the point where everything is in sync: if some muscle group plateaued too quickly, then start with a lower number of reps per set, or don't increase the reps every single session; if some muscle group was super fresh during the whole block, start at a higher number of sets next time; if a muscle group was sore the whole block, start with a lower number of sets next time, or perform fewer set increments (or none at all); maybe the block itself needs to be shorter, or longer. So on and so forth.