Juggernaut Training Method Base Program Spreadsheet

If you are an intermediate to advance level lifter or even a beginner with fairly good form and knowledge about lifting and wish to follow a single training methodology instead of changing it every few months for continual strength gains, let it be the Juggernaut Training Method.

Not only a lifter but any athlete can benefit from applying the principles of the Juggernaut method into their training.

With the progression protocol utilizing your current actual strength to compute the training weights for your next monthly training wave you are ought to get faster results than many other programs.

Along with the pace of strength gains, this program simultaneously helps improving muscle hypertrophy through high volume training. This methodology provides a guideline around which you can derive customized programs that can suit to your particular strength gain or powerlifting goals.

What Is The Juggernaut Training Method?

The owner of the Juggernaut Training System, Chad Wesley Smith has compiled the Juggernaut training method. This method has helped many powerlifters, including Chad himself to push their limits. Chad had set some national records in the shot put and a world squat record too.

The Juggernaut Method is an open template that can be used as a foundation to create a workout program to focus on your strength and muscle building goals. This flexibility makes this training method suitable for every athlete or powerlifter who wishes to get bigger, stronger, or faster.

The program borrows some wisdom from Wendler’s 5/3/1 method and Doug Young’s training style. It follows simple block periodization and utilizes Doug Young’s style of progression.

How Does The Juggernaut Method Work?

The Juggernaut Method takes you through different weekly phases and monthly blocks or waves to systematically promote your strength gains.

• You start your month with accumulation week, followed by intensification week and realization week. The last week of a monthly wave is a deload week. These four weekly phases form a monthly block.

The first monthly wave is called the 10s wave, where your top sets include at least one 10+ rep set except in the deload phase. In the subsequent monthly waves, you go on reducing the number of max reps in the top set and increase the intensity.

• The base RM weight for each monthly wave is calculated based on your top AMRAP set performance in the realization phase of the previous month and not based on your starting rep max.

The base program has four monthly periodization waves namely, 10s, 8s, 5s, and 3s. You can add the fifth peaking month if you are training for a competition or wish to test your true RM.

Juggernaut Method Books

If you are going to do Juggernaut Method, first read the two books by Chad Wesley Smith.

1. Juggernaut Method 2.0
2. Juggernaut Raw Squat Handbook

This spreadsheet intended for automating & tracking the workout progression of Juggernaut Training. It is not intended to teach you about training methodologies for which you should read the books by Chad Wesley Smith.

Juggernaut Method Training Program

The intermediate or advanced lifters can’t keep working out at their RM on every session. They need time to recover and rebuild. The Juggernaut method thus focuses on producing neuromuscular adaptation needed for maximal strength gain through high volume moderate to heavy weights training.

The method avoids excessive use of heavy lifts and focuses on lifting high volume and progressing systematically using the AMRAP set results.

Related: Inverted Juggernaut Method

The Juggernaut method training program is spread over 16 weeks that consists of four waves of four-weeks each. The heaviest lifts you will perform during the whole training program are at 90% of your training max.

Monthly Waves

The program spread over four monthly waves.

1. 10 Wave
2. 8 Wave
3. 5 Wave
4. 3 Wave

In each wave the number of reps you need per set will change, and so will the weight. Before starting of each wave, you recalculate your rep max based on the AMRAP set performance of the last wave.

The first among the four waves is called a 10 wave because you will be performing sets of 10 or more reps during this wave. In the second wave, you perform sets of 8 reps or more. In the third and fourth waves, you perform sets of 5 and sets of 3 or more reps respectively.

Weekly Phase

Each wave in the Juggernaut method program consists of four weekly phases.

1. Accumulation
2. Intensification
3. Realization
4. Deload

The first week is the accumulation phase, in which you perform light-weight high volume work. In the accumulation phase of the 10-wave (or first wave) you perform four sets of 10 reps and one AMRAP set of your main lift on each session.

The second weekly phase is intensification; here you perform medium volume work at moderate weights.

The third week is the realization phase, where you do more volume work at high intensity. You don’t hold anything back while doing the AMRAP set in this week. It is this set, on which the rep max for the next wave will be calculated.

The fourth and final phase in each wave is deload week. It is reserved for recovery, you won’t do any AMRAP sets in this week, only low intensity, low volume work to assist the muscle recovery.

Exercises

The main lifts in the Juggernaut method program are the big four exercises. Every workout session is reserved for a single main lift. You have to perform some accessory work, warm-ups, and cooldowns, but the main lift for the day will be only one exercise.

The following are the main lifts in the Juggernaut program:

• Squats
• Bench press
• Deadlifts
• Overhead press

Considering only one main lift per workout session, you would have four workdays in a week.

Workout Schedule

The program needs you to spend four days per week at the gym. That gives you the option to choose any four days to work, but you need to choose the days to accommodate rest days in between the workouts.

You can use any of the following combos as your weekly workout schedule, just make sure that you stick to one and don’t keep switching from one to other frequently.

Workout Program

Before getting into the program you need to determine your current training max. That would be around 90 percent of your current 1 RM. All the training weights for the first wave will be calculated based on this training max.

If you look at the program below, you’ll find that it is not an everyday schedule like many other programs. It is a matrix that guides you for making a 16-week schedule to follow for your main lifts. You have to consider adding appropriate warm-ups, cooldowns, and accessory work to your workouts.

The program suggests the percentage of training max in the week to week progression from high volume to high intensity and also for the block to block progression.

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Juggernaut Training Method Base Program Spreadsheet

The weight progression and week to week or month to month changes in sets and reps in the Juggernaut training method base program can be a little difficult to memorize, follow, and keep track of.

The already tough to comprehend program also needs you to find your training max at the end of each block based on your performance in AMRAP set in the realization phase of the previous block, which makes things more complicated.

Here is a spreadsheet that will make all these calculations and tracking easy for you. Open the google sheet, make a copy of it and get a customizable spreadsheet for the Juggernaut base program.

Input the values of your current 1RM for the main lifts in yellow cells of the sheet at the start of 10-wave. You will get the weights auto-calculated for the complete program. Before starting the next wave calculate your new 1RM using one rep max calculator given in the spreadsheet.

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Juggernaut Training Template for Powerlifting Peaking

The 16-week cycle of the program doesn’t end with you trying to lift your true 1RM weights. The program for sure improves your strength, and it provides a peaking plan to be followed after the completion of all four waves. You can plan the meet or the testing week at the end of the peaking.

Peaking plan template:

Built around the tried and tested methods, the Juggernaut training method is a scientific way to improve your strength, speed, and size. As it utilizes moderate weights at high volume, it possesses a lower chance of injuries.

The base program might not be suitable for everyone, but due to the flexibility it offers, it works as a foundation for custom programs to be built around it for your specific fitness level and goals.