Reading a workout plan, one line at a time

Take a single line from a typical strength plan and read it piece by piece. Every other line in the plan uses the same building blocks in the same order.

If a coach writes your programme, ask them to walk you through the first session line by line before you train alone. That conversation is part of what personal training at RPM is for, in the Mixed section and in the women-only Ladies section.

• 3 × 8: three sets of eight. The number before the sign is always the sets.
• 3 × 8–12: a range. Pick a load you can lift at least eight times, and work towards twelve.
• 3 × 10 /side or 3 × 10 each: ten on the left and ten on the right in every set, for one-arm or one-leg exercises.
• 3 × 30 s: a timed set, common for holds such as planks and for carries.
• AMRAP: as many reps as possible with good form, usually on the last set.

Ranges exist because the right load changes from week to week. The American College of Sports Medicine's 2009 position stand recommends loads people new to resistance training can lift 8 to 12 times. It suggests adding 2 to 10 per cent to the load once you can do one or two reps more than the target. So when a plan says 8–12 and you reach 13 or 14 with good form on every set, that is the signal to go heavier next session.

RPE (rating of perceived exertion) and RIR (reps in reserve) describe how close a set came to the point where one more good rep was impossible. A 2016 study by Zourdos and colleagues used a resistance-training version of the scale in which RPE 10 means no reps left, RPE 9 means one left, and so on down. So RPE 8 and RIR 2 ask for the same thing. A companion paper by Helms and colleagues explains why coaches like the approach: the load adjusts to how you are performing on the day, set by set.

The same study found that novice squatters rated a true one-rep maximum as less hard than experienced squatters did, which is a reminder that judging reps in reserve takes practice. Early on, err towards stopping a rep sooner than you think you need to. To turn an effort target and a known maximum into a weight on the bar, use the RPE calculator, which explains the scale in full.

A tempo of four numbers usually reads in this order: the lowering phase, the pause at the bottom, the lifting phase, and the pause at the top. On a goblet squat, 3-1-1-0 means three seconds down, a one-second pause, about one second up, then straight into the next rep. An X means move as fast as you can while staying in control.

• Not every coach writes tempo in the same order. If the first number is small and the third is large, ask which phase comes first.
• Slow lowering makes a weight feel heavier, so expect a lighter load than you would use without a tempo.
• The ACSM position stand describes heavy strength sets at a moderate speed, roughly one to two seconds for the lifting phase and one to two for the lowering, so long tempos are usually a technique or muscle-building choice.

• A1 / A2: a superset. Do one set of A1, then one set of A2, then rest, and repeat until the sets are done.
• A1 / A2 / A3: a giant set, the same idea with three exercises.
• Circuit: several stations done back to back, usually with a short rest after the whole round.
• EMOM 10: every minute on the minute for ten minutes. Begin a set as each new minute starts, and rest for the seconds left over.
• Finisher: a short block at the end, often conditioning.

The order of the page is part of the plan. The ACSM position stand recommends doing large muscle groups before small ones, exercises that use several joints before single-joint ones, and higher-intensity work before lighter work. If your plan opens with squats and ends with curls, that is why. Compound lift training explains the big lifts that usually come first.