Intermediate WLC
A Balanced Body

Intermediate WLC is the continuation of Beginner WLC and takes your muscle development to the next level. If you've been lifting weights for a while and you can judge your own muscle development well, then you might be ready for Intermediate WLC. If much of this information goes over your head or you have even development overall, then please keep progressing with Beginner WLC. Beginner WLC is a great program.

Contents of This Page

• What's your Weakness?
• Planning for your Weakness
• Warm Ups for Intermediate WLC
• Weight Selection for Intermediate WLC
• Summary of Intermediate WLC

Intermediate weight lifters will address concerns with less than ideal development in weaker areas on WLC. Most people will have some body part that they weren't genetically gifted with. We will start to address those weaknesses more in the WLC for Intermediates Program.

First we're going to see what you believe is the weak area of your body, and we're going to work on bringing it up equally a little at a time while growing muscle in the rest of your body on this Intermediate WLC! We're not going to cut back on any other muscle groups because we want them growing too! Many programs focus too much on one area and ignore others. Not WLC.

We're going to select exercises that carry over more to your weaker areas. I'm going to need your help a little more in this section. You need to start thinking about what will work better for you. I will be your guide but your help is required to get you where you want to be.

Intermediate WLC is about giving you a body that looks good. Everyone should strive for a visually appealing physique and this will always be a balanced physique. We will focus on balance here. No one wants a huge upper body and little chicken legs! Or vice versa! Your strengths can make your weaknesses even worse, so this is why Intermediate WLC puts so much focus into bringing up your weaknesses.

I want you to focus on a single weakness at a time. We will work on this weakness over a few workout cycles or more and then move onto other weaknesses if you have any. I am going to discuss every weakness possible and show you how to attack it logically! I have never seen one website that gives you this kind of information! I want to make clear that you should focus on one weakness at a time and not make changes until the start of your next cycle. Do not continually change your exercises around while in a WLC cycle.

Here's how we're going to attack a quad weakness logically. First, I need to make sure you've been doing squats. If not, simply adding squats will address that weakness. If you haven't been doing squats, you probably shouldn't be doing Intermediate WLC yet!

We will select exercises for other body parts that address your quad weakness. I would still like you to be doing barbell squats over front squats even though front squats focus on the quads more. We will address the weakness by selecting other exercises in your Intermediate WLC cycle. For example, choose Barbell Lunges for your hamstrings exercise. Any type of lunges will work your hamstrings very well while adressing your quads weakness. And since you won't be doing a stiff legged deadlift variation, we will choose a deadlift variation that works your quads well. A great choice would be Trap Bar Deadlifts that will work your quads wonderfully while adding depth to your back.

Those two simple changes to your exercise selection will build your quads up more than before without changing anything else. The best thing about this method is that the rest of your body is still building muscle equally.

I further want to discuss a few things concerning overdeveloped hamstrings. If your hamstrings are huge from doing squats compared to your quads, I want you to replace barbell squats with front squats, hip belt squats, or barbell hack squats. All of these are great quad exercises that will slightly take stress off of your hamstrings. Then do barbell lunges for your hamstring exercise. Small changes will lead to big differences over time! I only want you to do this if you have seriously overdeveloped hamstrings.

Example Exercise Changes for Quad Weakness
1. Quads - Squats
2. Hamstrings - Barbell Lunges
3. Back Depth - Trap Bar Deadlifts

If you have a hamstring weakness, hopefully you've already been performing a variation of stiff legged deadlifts. If you haven't, simply add stiff legged deadlifts for your hamstring exercise on your planned Intermediate WLC cycle.

If you've been doing stiff legged deadlifts, and you're sure you have a hamstring weakness I want you to choose Barbell Lunges for your quad exercise. Don't worry about losing squats because heavy lunges will work your quads just as well while addressing your hamstring weakness. If you're hamstrings are only slightly behind, I do not want you to get rid of squats. I want you to make sure you're doing barbell squats powerlifting style. That simple change will bring your hamstrings up from a slight deficit.

If you've chosen to change your squats to barbell lunges and you're doing stiff legged deadlifts, I want you to do Sumo Style Deadlifts for your back depth exercise. Since we replaced squats, you're lower back shouldn't have any problem doing two different versions of deadlifts.

Example Exercise Changes for Hamstring Weakness
1. Quads - Barbell Lunges
2. Hamstrings - Stiff Legged Deadlifts
3. Back Depth - Sumo Deadlifts

If you have a chest weakness, surely you've been doing a version of the bench press. I want to also make sure that you've been doing your dips with no lean for your triceps exercise. If you haven't, simply change your exercises to a bench press for chest and dips with no lean for your triceps. This will fix the problem.

If you've already been doing these exercises, I want you to make one simple change to fix your chest weakness. I want you to do your dips with a forward lean instead of no lean. If you have an upper chest weakness, make sure you're doing incline bench press. If you have an inner chest weakness, change your triceps exercise from dips to close grip flat barbell bench press. These Intermediate WLC changes will work wonders for your chest areas.

Example Exercise Changes for Chest Weakness
1. Chest - Bench Press Variation
2. Triceps - Dips with forward lean

If you have a weakness with back depth, I want you to change your back depth exercise to rack deadlifts at knee level or slightly above knee level. With the higher height of the bar, you will be able to lift much more weight and stress your back even more without as much lower back stress. I want you to make this change no matter what your other exercises are.

This is the only change you should need to make. If heavy rack deadlifts don't do the trick, then something else is wrong. They will do the job!

Example Exercise Changes for Back Depth Weakness
1. Back Depth - Rack Deadlift at knee level or above

I've got something special for your back width weakness! I want you to be doing Rack Chin Ups. Now, when you hit the bottom of the range of motion, I want you to stretch as hard as possible and hold it there for a good 3 second count at the bottom of every rep. This alone will improve your back width! That's it.

I do want to mention that you should probably be doing a row variation for your back depth exercise as this will add some width to your back also. But I do have enough confidence in the method I mentioned above that it will do the job on its own for your Intermediate WLC!

Example Exercise Changes for Back Width Weakness
1. Back Width - Rack Chin Ups with 3 second pause at stretch
2. Optional Back Depth - Row Variation

If your shoulders are a weakness, I want you to replace your chest exercise with a higher incline bench press. I want you to use a fairly high incline. This simple change will give your shoulders another good exercise for growth. I also want to ensure that you are doing rows as your back depth exercise as rows will add development to your rear shoulder muscles. I also want you to be doing a push press for your shoulder exercise to add more stress to your shoulders. I want you to use your legs along with your shoulders to drive more weight and make sure you're controlling the negative portion of the reps.

Example Exercise Changes for Shoulder Weakness
1. Shoulders - Push Press with Controlled Negative
2. Chest - High Incline Bench Press
3. Back Depth - Row Variation

A tricep weakness can be fixed by ensuring you are doing dips with no lean as your triceps exercise. If not, this simple change will do the job. If you have been doing dips with no lean, I want you to keep them as your triceps exercise. For your chest exercise, I want you to change it to more of a triceps oriented bench press. This means I want you doing a reverse grip bench press or a closer grip bench press for your Intermediate WLC cycle. Your chest will still get very good work, but your triceps will explode!

Example Exercise Changes for Tricep Weakness
1. Triceps - Dips with no lean
2. Chest - Reverse or Close Grip Bench Press

Many people might think they have bicep weaknesses, but they don't. I want to make sure you have a weakness before you make these changes. If you do have a weakness, I want you to change your biceps exercise to a high incline alternate dumbell curl. This exercise provides a very good weighted stretch to one arm while your doing the rep with the other arm. I want you to grip the dumbell on the outer most part of the grip so you have to use more effort when you contract your bicep muscle. Then I want you to change your back width exercise to chin ups with your palms facing towards you. Your biceps will get great overload from a chin up with your palms facing towards you. I also want you doing rows for your back depth exercise.

Example Exercise Changes for Bicep Weakness
1. Biceps - Alternate Incline Dumbell Curls with outer grip
2. Back Width - Chin Ups with palms facing
3. Back Depth - Row Variation

Calves are my specialty. They were always a weakness of mine, and I know how to bring them up! I view calves as different from every other body part because they are so much tougher. For those of you who have weaknesses with your calves, you simply have stubborn calves. I know how to fix them, though. Don't worry too much about reaching failure with calves. I will tell you one thing about calves. To get them to grow, you will have to go through some pain. Until you realize that, they will most likely never grow. Your calves will always grow along with the rest of your body, so one way to make them larger is to gain overall mass. I always seem to get a good growth spurt when my squats reach a new max weight.

Like I said, I approach calves a little differently than other muscles. If you have a calf weakness, I am going to add two more exercises to your WLC Intermediate Program along with two more stretches. I want you to change your Standing Calf Raise exercise to a donkey calf raise variation, which could be the Leg Press Calf Raise. If you don't have access to a Leg Press, I want you to get you a Hip Belt and a triceps bar so that you can easily do hip belt donkey calf raises. I then want you to add a seated calf raise by either using a seated machine, a barbell and a power rack, or a smith machine. I also want you to add a reverse calf raise with a hip belt. I love the hip belt because you add no extra lower back stress. If you don't have a hip belt and don't want to purchase one, then simply use a barbell in a power rack.

With these added exercises, you will work the entire lower leg region and attack it from the back, sides, and front on this Intermediate WLC Program! The stretches will also help more than you can imagine. I want you to perform a seated stretch after the seated calf raises. After the reverse calf raises, I want you to do a tibia stretch.

I also want to make sure you've been doing the WLC method of calf raises. I want you to get a peak contraction for 3 seconds, lower slowly, hold an extreme stretch for 3 seconds, and then explode up for each and every rep. You'll need a good calf block to do the WLC method.

Example Exercise Changes for Calf Weakness
1. Calves - Donkey Calf Raises variation
2. Add Seated Calf Exercise and seated stretch
3. Add Reverse Calf Exercise and tibia stretch

A forearm weakness can easily be corrected. I want your forearm exercise to be pinwheel curls, and I want you to perform dumbell wrist curls for 10-20 reps before your forearm stretch. Directly after you finish your forearm wrist curls, I want you to perform the forearms stretch at the bottom of the wrist curl position. Hold the stretch for the normal amount of time. After an Intermediate WLC Cycle with these changes, you will see a huge difference in your forearms.

Example Exercise Changes for Forearm Weakness
1. Forearms - Pinwheel Curls
2. Add Wrist Curls for 10-20 reps before Wrist Curl Stretch

By now you should be using heavier weights. I want to go through a great method of warming up that I've developed over the years and helps me to lift heavier weights by the time I get to my working set. I do not want you to do warm ups for every single exercise unless you feel that it helps you. If you do too many warm ups, your workout will be affected negatively and you'll end up lifting less weight.

I want you to always do a 5 minute full body warmup by getting on the treadmill, jumping rope, jogging, or anything that gets you warmed up without wearing you out. I then want you to do a thorough warm up for your first exercise. Let's say your first exercise is Barbell Squats and you're supposed to be doing 225 pounds today for your working weight. Do the following:

1. Empty Bar for 10 reps
2. 95 pounds for 8 reps
3. 135 for 6 reps
4. 185 for 3 reps
5. 205 for 1 rep

Then do your working set. I always want you to do the first warmup in this manner on the Intermediate WLC Program. After that, take a few less sets to get where you need to go on exercises that use similar body parts. For example, when you get to bench press I want you to thoroughly warm up your upper body since you haven't yet. But when you get to overhead press and you're working with, for example, 145 pounds. I want you to do a warm up with 95 pounds for 6 reps and then another warm up with 125 pounds for a rep or two. I hope you understand the point I'm trying to make. On exercises with smaller weights, you won't need as many warm ups.

Weight selection on Intermediate WLC is going to be similar to weight selection on the Beginner WLC program. I am going to go over some guidelines that I want you to follow for your program.

• Rise, Weeks 1-3
  • Slowly work up from 6 reps in the first workout to 12 reps in the final workout of Week 3.
  • Slowly increase weight to above your 12 rep max for the final workout of Week 3.

• Recovery, Week 4
  • Drop weight significantly from 12 rep max.
  • Work back up to 12 rep max weight for 10 reps by the end of the week.
  • Weight increases from workout to workout should be significant.

• Intensity, Week 5
  • Work up to a weight greater than current 10 rep max by the last workout of the week.

• Recovery, Week 6
  • Drop weight significantly from 10 rep max.
  • Work back up to 10 rep max weight for 8 reps by the end of the week.
  • Weight increases from workout to workout should be significant.

• Intensity, Week 7
  • Work up to a weight greater than current 8 rep max by the last workout of the week.

• Recovery, Week 8
  • Drop weight significantly from 8 rep max.
  • Work back up to 8 rep max weight for 6 reps by the end of the week.
  • Weight increases from workout to workout should be significant.

• Intensity, Week 9
  • Work up to a weight greater than current 6 rep max by the last workout of the week.

• Awakening, Week 10
  • Increase weight slightly from workout to workout as the week goes on.
  • Continue increasing as long as possible until you reach failure on most of your exercises.
  • Week 10 can go as long as possible. Longer is better.

• Retire, Week 11
  • Keep weight constant from last workout of Week 10.
  • Do not increase weight as week goes on. Keep weight constant for entire week as reps decrease.

After reading the guidelines, you're going to understand what you should be doing throughout your WLC Cycle. You can see that we will rise up to a 12 rep max at the end of week 3. We then drop the weight back during every recovery week. From the start of each recovery week, we work ourselves back up to a weight beyond our current rep maxes for each rep range. We follow this cycle until we get to the Awakening in Week 10. During the Awakening, you will further increase your 6 rep max for as long as possible from workout to workout. You will move on to Week 11 when you start reaching failure on most of your exercises before you reach 6 reps.

You will probably start to realize that you may need smaller increases than 5 pounds on your exercises that don't use a large amount of weight. Dumbell Curls could be an example. You should probably look into Plate Mates for smaller weight increases. I love Plate Mates for the smaller increases during Awakening.

As you've seen, Intermediate WLC is all about addressing specific weaknesses in your physique so you can have an overall balanced physique while not holding anything back for the rest of your body. You should make sure you have a weakness before addressing it. If you're not sure, you probably don't have a big enough weakness to specifically address it.

You should continue doing the Beginner WLC even though you're not a beginner any more. There is no reason to change your layout if you are developing evenly. Most people probably won't develop evenly due to genetic weaknesses in their physique. Intermediate WLC will come to the rescue. Consider yourself lucky if you do develop evenly.

The next step will be Advanced WLC and you should only leave Intermediate WLC if you're very experienced and you feel like you are an expert in weight lifting. Make sure you have done at least a few years of the WLC Intermediate before moving on. And those who move on too early would have been better served to stay at the Intermediate Level much longer because overall body development is higher due to less focus on specific areas. So, don't let the Intermediate WLC label fool you just because you want to be an advanced lifter. I still love Intermediate WLC!

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