GSLP Strength Bias

By Jordan Feigenbaum MS, CSCS, HFS, USAW Club Coach

Greyskull Linear Progression (GSLP) by Johnny Pain is a great novice to intermediate program.
It is geared somewhere between a pure strength and pure hypertrophy program as it involves
both higher rep sets and isolation movements, as will as including heavy sets across of the big
exercises. You can purchase his e-book on the technique off his website. What I’ve done here is
modified it for a strength bias, that is for someone who aims to get much stronger and gain
muscle, but with an emphasis on strength. Here is how it goes:

Setup:

The setup for this program is very similar to setting up the Texas Method and original GSLP.
We’ll base all your working sets based on your previous 5RM’s and go from there. This is a 3-
day per week setup where you train on non-consecutive days. It also follows linear progression
in that weight is added to the bar in a weekly fashion, thus it is an intermediate program. It can
also be adapted to an advanced athlete, as I’ll cover in the modifications section. Based on the
following 5RM’s:

Squat-205 x 5

Bench-225x 5

Deadlift-245 x 5

Press- 115 x 5

Day 1- Volume Day for Pressing variant and Squats

A) Press-5-5-5+ @105lbs

B) Bench Press-5-5-5+ @ Day 2’s weight + 2.5lbs-5lbs

A) Body weight Chins x max reps x 3 sets

B) Curls x 12-15 x 2 sets

C) Squats x 5-5-5+ @ 185lbs

*5+ means go for maximum reps. Week 1′s 3rd set of 5 should be somewhere north of 10 reps,
choose the weight appropriately.
**Alternate A/B based on week. On a “A” week the lifter will press on Days 1 and 3, while they
will bench press on Day 2. On a “B” week the lifter will bench press on Days 1 and 3, while
pressing on day 2. The same alternating schedule of curls and weighted chins/body weight chins
holds true here.

Day 2- Volume Day for 2nd Pressing Variant and Deadlifts

A) Bench Press x 5-5-5+ @205lbs

B) Press-5-5-5+ @ Day 3 from week 1′s weight + 2.5-5lbs

C) Power Clean (as warm up for deadlift) x 3 x 3, x 2 x 1, x 1 until a miss

D) Deadlift x 5+ @ 245

Day 3-Intensity Day for Press Variant and Squat Variant

A) Press x 4-6 @ 120lbs, 12-15 @95lbs

B) Bench Press -4-6 @ 235lbs, 12-15 @ 185lbs

A) Weighted Chins x 6-8 reps x 2 sets

B) Curls x 12-15 x 2 sets

C) Squats x 4-6 @ 205, x 12-20 @ 170lbs

Accessory Work:

Pick two non-overlapping (i.e. one upper and one lower body) accessory exercises MAX on each
training day. These are to be done after the main work has been done and the lifter should keep
in mind that there is training to be done in 48 hours, so these shouldn’t wreck the lifter.

Lower Body:

Good Mornings x 6-8 x 3 sets

Paused Good Mornings x 5 x 2 sets

RDL’s x 8-15 x 3 sets

SLDL x 5-15 x 1 set

Deficit pulls x 5-15 x 1 set

Power Shrugs x 5-15 x 2 sets

Upper Body:

Lying Triceps Extensions x 8-15 x 3 sets

Chin-Up Ladders

Dips (bodyweight) x 12-15 x 3 sets

Dips (weighted) x 6-8 x 2 sets

JM Press x 5-10 x 2-3 sets

V-Grip Pull Down x 12-15 x 2-3 sets

Plug-Ins:

Plug-ins can be done daily with the caveat that there is one day of complete rest per week,
usually on Sunday. These methods are used to increase muscular size, strength, and capacity
while exposing the lifter to increased volume of very submaximal movements over the course of
weeks, months, and years. Take for instance the venerable push-up. While the push-up is a great
movement to build the chest and pressing strength or capacity, it requires obscene amounts of
volume to be effective for anyone who can actually knock out 40+ legit push-ups. So what we’ll
do is multiple submaximal sets spread throughout the day of say 15 reps x 4 sets for a total of 60
pushups per day. This gives us 240 pushups a week (one day of rest, remember?) and 960
pushups a month. Do you think this will increase or decrease your capacity to push against
something? Do you also think this might help develop the musculature of the chest, shoulders,
and triceps? The same holds true when pairing the submaximal (not to failure) sets of pushups
with multiple sets of chin-ups to failure or chin-ladders on a daily basis.

Here are some good ideas to “plug-in”:

Frequency method Push-ups (must be accompanied by FM chins)

Frequency method Chin-ups

Frequency method band pull-aparts

Frequency method triceps extensions

Neck Work with neck harness

Don’t try and do all of these at once. I find that most get good mileage out of doing the push-ups
and chin-ups at SUB MAXIMAL sets, that is, there is never a failed rep. If you don’t have access
to a chinning bar during the day just do chin ladders at the end of each workout to accompany
the pushups.

Progression:

The most important aspect of any program is progression. Add weight weekly to the lifts, 2-5lbs
on upper body and 5-10lbs on lower body, and if you only get the requisite reps (5-5-5) on
volume day, or on intensity day (4 and 12) keep the weight the same for the next week/session
until you crush the rep range into submission.

Odds are this program can be run a long time. Stalling will either occur from too aggressive of
weight increases too frequently or from a lack of recovery due to incorporating too many other
things, given that form is correct.

Modifications:

As the lifter progresses, a DE setup can be employed on the squat and pressing volume days. The
squats will use 10 sets of 2 on a minute clock (getting under the bar at the 30s mark) with 50-
60% of the lifters raw 1RM. This percentage is an estimate and the reps must be explosive. On
bench and press the reps will be 8 sets of 3 on a minute clock with the same loading protocol.
Keep Wednesday’s volume the same for upper body as using straight weight will still be useful,
especially the money-maker 3rd set. Speed pulls can be subbed in for traditional deadlifts as well
when deadlifts creep up towards the mid 400’s and above. At that point pulling 1-3 heavy singles
that are progressed weekly after Friday’s squat workout will be useful.

About 4-6 weeks out from the meet switch the setup for 2x a week bench pressing with
Wednesday being the press day, Also, switch the intensity day to paused singles (1-1-1-1-1) for
bench press and five singles for squats before the back-off sets.

Failure:

If/when failure occurs you are at a crossroads. You can switch the movement for a closely
related one that you believe carries over (i.e. bench press subbed out for incline bench or press
switched for seated press or dumbbell press) or switch the rep range (5-5-5+ to 3-3-3-3-3+). I
find that taking a 3-4 week break on the movements is useful to get things moving again on the
main lifts. Here are some useful substitutions:

Stalled Lift>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Subbed Lift

Bench Press Incline Bench Press

Press Standing DB Press

Deadlift Deficit/Snatch Grip Deadlift

Back Squat Box Squat/ Front Squat

Weighted Chin Ups Weighted Pull Ups

Overall, this program should get you figuring out what works for you as far as progression,
volume, intensity, and frequency goes when planning your workouts. If you have any questions
post them to the comments!