Phase 2|DELOAD FORGE| Week 4 Day 2| Chest, Back & Core

Week 4: Deload & Reset 🎉 You’ve earned this! This week we’re scaling back to week 1 loads with a 5% decrease and reducing sets to let your muscles and nervous system fully recover. Think of it as strategic rest that sets you up for an energized phase 3, athleticism and power! Note: I’s crucial to rest 2-3 minutes between sets to let your nervous system fully recover. While it might feel like you’re not working hard enough during these rest periods, adequate recovery is essential for maintaining maximum effort and lifting the heaviest weight possible in each set. Rushing through sets without proper rest will actually limit your strength gains and reduce the weight you can handle. Welcome to FORGE Phase 2: Strength & Growth You’ve built your engine, now it’s time to build serious strength on that foundation. 👉🏽Phase 1 laid the groundwork with volume and endurance. You’ve proven you can handle the work, push through challenging sets, and build that muscular stamina. Now we shift our focus while keeping what you’ve built. Phase 2 is where we forge your strength. We’re working in the 3-12 rep range with your main compound lifts capping at 7 reps maximum. This puts you in that sweet spot of building serious strength while maintaining the muscle and endurance you’ve developed. You’ll still see hypertrophy and endurance elements woven throughout, we’re not abandoning what made you stronger, we’re building on it. This phase will challenge you differently, heavier loads for your compounds mixed with the volume work your body now craves. The endurance you built in Phase 1 becomes the foundation that allows you to handle these strength demands with confidence. 👉🏽 Phase 2: Strength & Growth Overview: • 4 weeks of strength-focused training with hypertrophy & endurance elements • Rep ranges 3-12, with compound lifts maxing at 7 reps for strength focus • REST increases and is IMPORTANT for your strength compound sets • Same 5-day structure: 2 Lower, 2 Upper, 1 Fullbody • Your main lifts remain: Squat, Deadlift, Bench, Overhead Press, Pull-ups/Chinups • Blended approach: strength as the priority, growth as the foundation 👉🏽👉🏽RIR (Reps in Reserve) Guide: • 3-4 reps (87-95% 1RM): 0-1 RIR (maximum strength) • 5-6 reps (80-85% 1RM): 1-2 RIR (strength focus) • 7-8 reps (75-80% 1RM): 1-2 RIR (strength-hypertrophy) • 9-12 reps (70-75% 1RM): 2-3 RIR (hypertrophy focus) 👏🏼👏🏼Critical for Success: Your last rep should be extremely challenging with only 1-2 reps left in reserve for most exercises. If you don’t have appropriate weights to challenge yourself and reach that RIR threshold, slow down your tempo and increase reps to achieve the same intensity. The challenge must be there for strength gains. Ready to discover how strong you can become? Let’s forge ahead.