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Nov. 18, 2025

How to Keep Getting Stronger After 40: The Truth About Progression - 19

In this episode of Driven For Health, Coach Brian Parana breaks down Level 3 of the Strength Pyramid: progression.

Coach Brian explains why progression is what turns random exercise into real strength gains and body transformation. Instead of just showing up and doing the same workout forever, men need a plan for adding weight, increasing reps, managing volume, and adjusting training as their body adapts.

This episode covers progressive overload, training age, beginner progression, intermediate progression, advanced lifting, rep ranges, volume, intensity, frequency, deload weeks, block periodization, daily undulating periodization, and how to keep training productive without burning out.

Coach Brian also explains why men over 40 need to think in principles instead of rigid rules. Progress depends on recovery, life stress, training history, consistency, and the ability to keep showing up over time.

This is a strong episode for men over 40 who want to get stronger, build muscle, train smarter, avoid plateaus, and understand how to keep making progress in the gym.

Show Notes
Transcript

Most men hit the gym but stop seeing progress because they never learn how to properly advance their training.

In this episode, Coach Brian breaks down exactly how to build consistent strength using the Progression layer of the Muscle and Strength Pyramid.

You’ll learn how to:

Match your training progression to your experience level
Use volume, intensity, and recovery the right way for long-term gains
Identify when to push harder and when to pull back
Apply proven progression models like block and daily undulating periodization
Avoid the common mistakes that stall strength after 40

This episode connects the dots between structure and results — giving you a clear path to get stronger without burning out.

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start progressing, this one’s a must-listen.

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👉 If you’ve been wanting to take better care of your health but don’t know where to start, I’ve got something for you.

It’s my 30 Tips in 30 Days series, a free email plan that gives you one simple, actionable tip every day to help you improve your nutrition, fitness, and overall lifestyle.

You’ll learn how to eat smarter, move better, and build small daily routines that actually last.

Just clear steps you can put to work right away.

Join for free at go.brianparana.com/30days

and start building a healthier, more confident version of yourself today.

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4-Day Strength Progression Plan (Coach Brian’s Prescription)

Goal: Build strength, maintain muscle, and recover well.
Program Duration: 4–6 weeks before deloading.

MONDAY – Upper Body A (Bench Press Focus)

Bench Press – 4 sets of 5–8 reps
Overhead Press – 3 sets of 6–8 reps
Barbell or Dumbbell Row – 3 sets of 8–10 reps
Incline Dumbbell Press – 3 sets of 10–12 reps
Triceps Rope Pushdown – 3 sets of 12–15 reps

TUESDAY – Lower Body A (Squat Focus)

Back Squat – 4 sets of 5–8 reps
Romanian Deadlift (RDL) – 3 sets of 8–10 reps
Walking Lunge – 3 sets of 10 steps each leg
Leg Curl Machine – 3 sets of 12–15 reps
Calf Raises – 3 sets of 12–20 reps

THURSDAY – Upper Body B (Pull & Overhead Focus)

Pull-Ups or Lat Pulldown – 4 sets of 6–10 reps
Overhead Press – 3 sets of 6–8 reps
Flat Dumbbell Bench – 3 sets of 8–10 reps
Seated Cable Row – 3 sets of 10–12 reps
Dumbbell Bicep Curl – 3 sets of 12–15 reps

FRIDAY – Lower Body B (Deadlift & Posterior Chain Focus)

Deadlift – 4 sets of 4–6 reps
Front Squat or Goblet Squat – 3 sets of 8–10 reps
Bulgarian Split Squat – 3 sets of 8 reps each leg
Glute Bridge or Hip Thrust – 3 sets of 10–12 reps
Standing Calf Raise – 3 sets of 15–20 reps

Progression Guidelines

Use a weight that leaves 1–2 reps in reserve (just shy of failure).
Each week, add 2–5 lbs to main lifts or one extra rep if form allows.
After 4–6 weeks, take a deload week: reduce load by 10–15% and volume by one-third.

👉 Sample Programs from the Podcast itself.

These are examples, not prescriptions. Use them to see how the pieces fit.

Example 1: Strength-leaning template

Monday (Upper)

Bench press 5×5
Overhead press 3×6
Row 3×8–12

Tuesday (Lower A)

Squat or Deadlift 5×5
RDL or Front Squat 3×6

Alternate which pair you run week to week.

Thursday (Upper)

Bench press 5×3
Flat DB press 4×6
Chin-ups or Lat Pulldown 3×8–12

Friday (Lower B)

The opposite of Tuesday
Heavy first lift 5×3
Second lift 4×6

Notes:
Chest, delts, and triceps get enough quality sets across the week.
Back volume comes from rows, chins, and the pulling demands of deadlifts and RDLs.

Want help applying this to your own health, weight, energy, or lab numbers?

Coach Brian Parana offers Health Hot Seat coaching segments for men who want a clear next step with nutrition, fitness, weight loss, blood pressure, cholesterol, A1C, or daily consistency.

Learn more about The Call To Rise, a 100-day coaching program for driven men over 40 who want to lose weight, improve their health, and rebuild confidence:

www.thecalltorise.com

To connect with Coach Brian:
brian@brianparana.com

Disclaimer: This podcast is for education and coaching support only. It is not medical advice. Always work with your physician before changing medication, treatment, or medical care.

Welcome back to Driven for Health, the podcast for men over 40, focusing on nutrition, fitness, flat stomachs, lose stubborn belly fat, and perform in multiple areas, especially showing up as a great husband, father, partner, and be there for themselves. I'm Coach Brian Prana. Now, I've been helping busy, driven guys for the last two decades find balance between all these areas of life and build the body they're excited about.
And today, we're continuing to dive deeper into the strength pyramid, a science-based framework that simplifies how to train for real lasting results. If you've been following along the last two episodes, 17 for adherence, episode 18 for volume, intensity, frequency, then we're just going to keep moving forward.
Adherence is the foundation of every successful program. Then volume, intensity, frequency, how to figure out what the proper workload and recovery rate is for you to see consistent growth. We're moving into the next critical layer, which is progression. Progression and overload are the basic principles of getting stronger, which is important to understand when we're doing exercise.
This is where you take all the structure, the planning, the effort, and put it into practice. Progression is what turns your training from just exercise into body transformation results. When you look in the mirror with your shirt off, you see muscle, you see physical body changes, and you're really excited about it.
Let's break it down so you know exactly how to move from where you're at now. Maybe you're not feeling so great with your body or maybe you are and this is just an easier way to dial it in to understand exercise a little bit better. Wherever you're at on the spectrum, happy to help you continue moving forward. We want stronger, leaner, more capable, functional.
Ultimately want you to make you harder to kill and die when you get older so you're functionally fit and live a long healthy life. Let's go through the pyramid recap. With the strength pyramid, we have a couple layers. Adherence one, volume, intensity, frequency two, progression is layer three covering today. Next episode is exercise selection followed by rest periods and then tempo.
Everything sits inside periodization though, which is important, which is the plan for how all of these variables change over time to produce results. We'll certainly continue to cover periodization and talk about it even more in depth in the future, more than just strength training, but in terms of endurance training as well.
I have a strong endurance background from running marathons. My fastest marathon was a 256 at Marine Corps. I had the pleasure of running Boston marathon and I don't know 12 yeah about a dozen more. A 50 mile run triathlon training a race Olympic and a half triathlon half iron man triathlon.
I've had my fair share of endurance training as well and of course CrossFit. I was in the thick of CrossFit for roughly shoot it was 20067ish. I started getting the gist of what it was. Then 2010, I opened my CrossFit gym and I ended up jumping into personal coaching 15. So 5 years or so owning two CrossFit gyms. Not too bad.
All right, back into talking about progression. Want to clear a few talking points up from the last episode, volume, intensity, and frequency. We're talking about principles, not hard rules. I like to build off of frameworks, concepts, off of foundational information, sciencebacked information to then make it pliable to how it works for individual lifestyles, individual bodies, individual time frames that they can clients can work in.
You got a ton of questions that came up from that. Just making sure we're not these aren't hard rules, okay? Principles guide you toward a good starting point. They're meant to get you in the ballpark so you can adjust for all those variables of your body goals, maybe injuries or your fitness, strength capacity, and ultimately your life.
When I say something like 40 to 70 reps per muscle group per session done two to three times per week, that range comes from research summaries that average across many people. Averages are useful, but they do not erase individual variability. Some people do better on low end with high effort. Others do better with more total work.
For me personally, I was always a a more total work type person. I think I shared in the last episode some of my strength gains and stuff, which is they're strong. Not crazy strong, not powerless strong, but strong for an endurance athlete. Do not think in black and white. 39 reps will not make you shrink. 71 will not wreck you and send you off an injury.
The question is not right or wrong. It's how to get closer to your most efficient progress. You can only do this over time, through experience, through putting in the work, the reps, the sets. You can also build successful programs outside of these rep ranges. when other variables are organized in an intelligent way for the programming you're doing.
An example, higher intensity can work with lower volume and vice versa. If recovery and frequency are managed, you're able to tweak those high intensity, low volume, or maybe lower intensity with high volume. Context matters and overlapping counts. If you're training a muscle group multiple times per week, you do not need to hit the exact per session target every time. Total weekly volume matters.
There's that overlap between, say, a bench press chains, a chest, front delts, triceps. Rows and delus contribute to overall back volume. Squats give calves a bit of work through planter flexction under load, trying to make sure that you stay upright. Use your head. Count what truly contributes and then fill in the gaps.
This could be with even auxiliary work. A simple way to organize training. We have targets. The volume we had 40 to 70 reps per muscle group per session. Intensity for strength about 3/4 of work from one to six reps with strength, right? with higher rest, say at least two, but probably more like three to five minutes, depending on how heavy you're going.
[snorts] Intensity for hypertrophy, that's muscle building. About 3/4 of the work was 6 to 12 reps. I even like that 8 to 12. This is work with heavier and lighter weights, depending on where you're at in that rep range. And then frequency. train each muscle group definitely once we're doing body splits, but even two or three times per week.
That volume will help build up those muscle groups, the strength from them. There are so many splits that can fit these routines. Two or three full body days, upper, lower, repeated, upper day, lower day, upper day, lower day. Push, pull, leg days. That's a very favorable sequence to go through. And again, even said back was even not necessarily a 7-day cycle, but a 10day cycle.
Say you get through pushpull legs twice each for 10 total days. You're doing amazing. Then choose a structure that fits your week and figure out where the volume needs to be. Some days you could probably go heavier in the gym because you have more time and other days you might have to get in, hit it hard, and quit it.
Now, simple programs. We'll put some in the notes, show notes at the at the end of this example would be more of a strength focus template for an upper day. This is a 4day split. Upper day. And you can pause this, but again, just check the show notes. Bench press 5x5, overhead press 3x six, and rows three by say 8 to 12 reps.
Then we have on Tuesday we have a lower effort where we do squats or delus 5x5 we do RDL's or front squats 3x six you can alternate which pair you work in one week to the next this week Tuesday's workout say lower eight then that works on squats and RDL's whereas the next Tuesday will be deadlifts and front squats perfect because you're hitting quads and hamstrings hips and each of those variables on say Thursday the third day it would be another upper body we could do bench press 5x3 flat dumbbell press 4x six and chin-ups or
lat pull downs 3x 8 to 12 and lastly wrapping this up we can focus on heavy lifts of doing say 5 by3 for squat or deadlifts and your second lift the RDL and the squat maybe four by six. Okay, so a little heavier on the first one, a little bit lighter, more moderate on the second.
So again, we'll put those in the show notes that you can make sure that we can get those weekly volume lands near the lower end of the recommended range, which is fine for that particular set because it's strength focused and its effort and the load and the quality of the reps are relatively high. Now, if we go to a different protocol, say hypertrophy, then we can look at again a 4-day split, very similar workouts, but we're going to start to vary these cuz this is going to bring in auxiliary or secondary muscles.
We have Monday. You can do a bench press, four by four to six reps, a row, three by six to eight reps, and incin dumbbell, chin-ups, triceps, biceps, lateral raises, three to eight sets each of those. So, it's going to be a pretty intensive, more say bodybuilder type split in a sense where you're going to cover a lot of chest, triceps, delts.
Tuesday, we're going to stick with that squat and deadlift. are kings. We're going to do four sets of four to six reps. We have leg extensions that fall between three sets of 8 to 12 leg curls the same and standing calf raises. All right, we're going to do around four sets of six to eight. If we get into Thursday, we got another upper body workout.
Got flat bench, lat pull downs, overhead press, and row again 3 by 8 to 12. Chest fly 2x 12. Triceps 2x 12. Biceps 2x 12. And a second lower leg. These are going to be subtly different. The first one leg press instead of squat or deadlift. Different angles for different muscles. 3x 8 to 12 again. And that hypertrophy range. RDL's for the glute hamstrings. 12.
Leg extension leg curls are 3x 12 to 15. and seated calf raises. Again, I will copy and paste those into the show notes for you to easily read. Most of the working sets are going to be in that 6 to 12 range with a little bit are going to be heavier and a smaller slice is higher reps. If a muscle lags, add a small amount of specific work for that muscle on the appropriate day.
Example being hamstrings. Let's maybe add an extra set or two on the RDL's and leg curls to focus on bringing those up a little bit. What progression really means is we're organizing volume, intensity, and frequency correctly to produce progress. We want incremental progress in 2 and 1 half, 5 lb or 10 lb jumps on the barbell and the dumbbells.
And this will ensure that your progress continues. That's literally what it is. Progress needs to match your training age as well. What I mean by that is we have different levels. We have beginners, we have intermediate level and advanced level lifters. If you're new to the game, a beginner, doesn't matter what age you are, you can always, always, always start, okay? If you haven't lifted weights, start now.
Please, your 70-year-old self will thank you. Add a small amount of load workout to workout on your main lifts. again for a beginner. So upping it by two and a half plates or five pound plates as you go week in and week out. If your gym lacks the smaller plates, consider just bringing your own pair. You could literally go out and buy 2 and 12 pound plates or maybe every other week you'll add more weight just to make sure that you move up in a timely manner.
So two week increments of okay this week I'm going to do say 100 pounds next week I'm going to do 110 or so excuse me two weeks from now that could work and that provides steady progress for you to keep moving forward intermediate we've got two practical workout routines here number one is a linear step loading for compound movements the example being three sets of six to eight range in your first week they'll choose a way that you can manage for that three to eight reps without a spotter.
All right? Or if you need a spotter, you can always use the bench and in various ways to apply the right type of load and not get hurt. Okay? Then on your last set, you'll approach near failure. Week two, you do the same weight. Maybe it's 3 by seven with a slightly higher load. Maybe add those two and a halfs or fives.
In week three, the same weight but 3x six and heavier than the load at sevens. And then you have a D lo week. Okay, so we can build up and working starting with the same weight in your first reps and then working higher up in the latter part of it. D load would just be doing one less set to keep it fresh. Then you're going to start over on week five and work on hitting eight with heavier weights.
So say you started 100 on that first week and you worked up to 105 on week two 110 on week three and then week four was back to 100. Then on week five we could try 115 to 120 and your body should be able to handle that. Now the second schedule here scheme of doing this or intermediate is a double progression for isolation work.
And what I mean by that is set a rep range for example three sets of 12 to 15. You're going to keep the load steady until you can hit 15 reps on all three sets. That means then once you can achieve that, you will drop back down to sets of 12 and with a heavier load. This makes the most sense for a lot of people is and I this is the way I like to do it with my clients.
Okay, three sets of 12 to 15 or 8 to 12. I like the 8 to 12 range the most. If you're at 12 reps, that means that you can and should go heavier. If you're at eight reps, you should stay there. If you're at six reps, then on the second or third set, you're going to lessen it. You're going to make it easier for you.
And then again, the fourth week or maybe fifth week, you do a de lo week and you keep this process going. Now, for advanced lifters, you're chasing a small progression that is you're fighting for whatever you can get your hands on. Now, you can certainly use AM wraps as many rounds as possible or test your true one rep max on key lifts every 6 to 12 weeks.
AMR wrap saying, "Okay, I'm going to deadlift 225 or 315 or or whatever for as many reps as I can to be a test and how much I can lift and see progression that way." or obviously the one red max I last time I deadlifted 375 and this time I deadlifted 405. Great progress as you test. If you feel beat up then you need to do a dload week. Okay.
If you're feeling fine but stuck, you add a little bit more targeted volume on those lists. Maybe an extra set or two. And if your technique is breaking down, we need to focus on practicing quality before adding more work, meaning you drop the weight down to refine technique because technique is going to win and keep you injuryfree, which is the most important thing.
You'll be testing every two to three months for these things. Are you feeling beat up? Is everything fine, but you're stuck? And is your technique working or not? When your session volume hits the upper limit of your recovery, consider adding a training day and spreading the workout.
So meaning that once you are at a high volume of workload, you may consider adding another day or again breaking it up in a way that allows you to maintain progress. Now periodization models at work, there is no best model. Periodization is a tool that builds you up. I was explaining this to Levi today. He was asking questions.
He's my oldest and he's really grown an interest in this. I don't know if he's been listening to my podcast or not, but he certainly sees me doing this every single day with my clients working out myself of figuring out periodization. We dig yourself deeper in a hole in a sense and then pull yourself out of it which is important.
So three, four, five weeks of making volume higher intensity harder, more total volume of work done in that time frame and then have a week or two where you take it back and rest. And remember, fitness is loss over a long time, okay? Meaning that even if you took two weeks off, you're still fine. We talked about that last time.
your fatigue and fitness ratio are going to be impacted. Okay, we need to manage that fatigue level to keep fitness going up. One form of periodization is block periodization. This is really hypertrophy or muscle building based. It's about a six week time frame where you're going to build from 40 reps on week one through week six.
So, you're doing 70 reps per session three times a week, leaving one to two reps in the tank on your final set. This allows for you to spend six solid weeks building and basically wearing down your body and your muscles and breaking them down with more volume and strength and and weights and and all to then rebuild. Now, if it's really hard and you're trying to do even a shorter time of intensifying this, you could drop the rep range to say four weeks and do 40 to 50 reps per session, two or three times a week. But you're going to really train
close to failure, one maybe two reps left in reserve. And then if we have to do say a twoe taper to figure out what happens with your new test, this would be a great time to do it. So you do the six weeks and maybe two week one is a taper where you cut the volume down by a third or even 2/3 of normal, but you keep the load similar or maybe slightly lighter.
Again, instead of doing say 70 reps, you're doing what? A third less. It's going to be back to 40, but keep the weights similar to where it was. So, you're still working on heavy weights, just going to drop down the actual volume. Then, week two would be testing your new strength with one rep maxes or as many reps as possible.
Say that I'm going to deadlift 315 for as many sets this time. And the next time I'm going to deadlift 335 as an example, as many reps as I can to see where strength is at. Now, there's also the daily undulating periodization. This is for strength base. And this is where you're going to have a hypertrophy phase that is more 6 to 12 reps.
You're going to have a power phase of one to three reps. That's more 75 to 90% of your one rep max. And then you have a strength that is more 1 to six, but this is more multiple sets for what we'd say is heavy exposure to lifting the weight. Now again, so we have hypertrophy, power, and strength in those each of those days to cycle through different movement patterns.
Okay, this one you have to have a little bit more of a focused effort on most people. If you're really into strength training, the daily undulating periodization is going to work really well. The other the block periodization is very typical, very common and has been around for decades. How we taper again, it's a one to two weeks.
We're cutting the volume down to a third or two/3 normal. intensity is going to maintain or drop just maybe 5 to 10% less, but we're just going to do less sets. And the schedule, do light singles at 70 80% early in the week, then take one to three days off before testing or competing. That's a proper taper with basically anything that you're doing exercise-wise.
Always want to have light efforts at best a couple days beforehand to be fresh. Just reminding you we don't want to max out every week. We're training to build strength over time and the plan when it's applicable will show the results in time. Bringing this all together, let's use principles, not rigid rules. Okay, these are principles, concepts that you can apply into your training.
count overlap and total weekly volume progress with small consistent steps that match your training age. Choose a periodization approach that fits your timeline. Again, most people are going to be easy to do that block periodization doing four, five, six weeks of intensity and volume building with one to two weeks of de loss.
And definitely D lost is when the body repairs itself, recovers. Now, we've covered a lot of ground. There's a lot of numbers here. Refer to the show notes. This is the probably the most dense effort of the series here. We'll try and keep it lighter as we go, but once you understand the periodization and the rep ranges and all, then it gets a lot easier.
Next, we'll talk about exercise selection, how to choose the right movements to get the most out of each session. Now, as we wrap up, if you've been wanting to take better care of your health, but don't know where to start, so many guys finally get unfortunately hit up across the head by a life event, a chronic illness, a picture they didn't like what they saw, or finally they didn't want to have a midlife crisis, especially around their health, then then consider this.
I've got 30 tips in 30 days. The series is free email. It gives you simple, actionable, easy tips to implement and improve your nutrition, fitness, your overall lifestyles. There's easy, tasty recipes in there. Simple workouts and tricks that I use with my clients every day. You'll eat smarter, move better, and build small daily routines that actually last.
It's just clear steps you can put into work right away. To join that, you'll type in go.brianpirana.com30days. Again, that'll be in the show notes along with the workouts that I talked about. Thank you for listening today to Driven for Health. If this episode really helped with understanding more structure on exercise and reps and sets, then share it.
Consider telling your friend about this. Don't keep it a secret. There's so many good things that I'm trying to provide here in all these episodes. This being episode 19 already, I can't believe it. I appreciate you in this journey and all the fun things. Comment below or send me an email brianbrianprano.com on what other topics you'd love me to cover and I will get to it.
I'm Coach Brian Piranha signing off. Stay consistent, strong, and I'll see you in the next