The one percent rule is a concept I came up with to work with the Luna Calendar to help me meet my weight training goals. With a really bad night job and as a Hard Gainer, I knew that the only way to make gains was in small increments, easier said than done. Training for small gains is a lot like panning for gold, in the weight room that’s filled with big egos floating on a cloud of Testosterone, where bad form and injuries was the norm as long as you are moving around heavy weight. No one I knew thought it would, I followed this concept for about 18mos I added to my bench 80lbs and 300lbs to my deadlift and 200lbs to my back squat. why did I stop, simple, peer pressure and I got a better job, guys would look at me with loathing because I would use the 1¼ lb plates to meet my goal. It got to the point that all the 1¼lbs and most of the 2 1/2lbs plates were gone, the guys were hiding the plates. When I stopped the 1% rule workout in concert with the Luna calendar my gains stopped and I regressed. At the time I did not know why it stopped, but I never said that I was smart.
The 1% rule, basically, I would schedule into my Luna Calendar a gain in either raw poundage or in repetitions for a given exercise per cycle usually weeks in advance. 1 cycle is a 28day period, which I call the Luna calendar. In the 28day period there 4 zones, light days followed by moderate days and heaver days which is followed by light days. I was learning as I went along but still 80lbs increase was very good me.
Example for mass and weight gain on the chest:
Start out with 2 exercises 2sets each high reps
1st zone, Light days: warm up with pushups 1set 15reps
· Flies with 20lbs 2sets 20reps
· Bench press 2sets
1st set 115lbs 15to20reps
2nd set 135lbs 10reps
2nd zone, Moderate day 2 exercises 2sets + 1extra:
warm up with pushups 1set 15reps
· flies w/25lbs 10reps
· bench press 3sets
1st set 115lbs 15reps
2nd set 135lbs 10reps
3rd set 135lbs 5to 7reps, using delayed return. At the top lower the bar for a count of 5 hold for a
count of 2
3rd zone, Heavy day at 1% gain, look at it this way: 135lbs *10reps=1350lbs*1%=13.5lbs
warm up with pushups 1set 15reps
3 exercises 2sets+1
· Flies w/25lbs 10reps
· Bench press 3sets
1st set 115lbs for 15reps
2nd set 140lbs for 10reps= this is a 1% gain 140*10=1400*1%=14lbs
3rd set 175lbs for 5reps
4th zone, I would use this time to run.
As you can see it is slow and yes there were days that I wanted to do more. Yet gains came easily and regularly when I followed the program.
Dan the Squat Sponge guy
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