SECTION 1: CLEANED TRANSCRIPT
Pete Wright:
Welcome to Build for Health, where we pull back the curtain on what it takes to build a strong, healthy body and a fitness routine that sticks. I’m Pete Wright, right here with Srdjan Injac today. We are going to be doing Programming 102.
Srdjan Injac:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
All right. We had questions come in after our Programming 101 show, and you said we could do a whole show on this.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, we can talk more about that.
Pete Wright:
So here we are. Let’s start — can we start with the easy ones? How do you program for strength when your goals are primarily aesthetic, or does that distinction even matter?
Srdjan Injac:
The distinction matters less than most people think. Strength and aesthetics overlap a lot, because the training that makes you stronger also builds muscle density and shape that improves your physique. So if your primary goal is aesthetic, you can still train like a strength athlete as your foundation. Focused on getting stronger in the key lifts, then adding hypertrophy work to bring up specific muscles.
A strong, aesthetic-focused plan usually includes heavy compound lifts in a low rep range to drive strength, and hypertrophy work in the higher rep range to shape and balance your physique. Progressive overload across all lifts — it’s the same. Getting stronger is one of the most reliable ways to improve your physique.
Pete Wright:
Okay. All right. Now we get into the big compound question. I’m going to read the whole thing and then we’ll break it into parts. What do you do if you miss a week mid-cycle? Do you pick up where you left off or restart the phase? Also, can you run two different periodization styles at the same time — say linear for legs and non-linear for upper body? And how do you know when you’re ready to graduate from beginner linear programming to something more advanced? I’ll add: what even is more advanced?
Srdjan Injac:
Okay. [laughter]
Pete Wright:
Let’s start at the beginning. What do you do if you miss a week? Do you pick up where you left off or restart the phase?
Srdjan Injac:
One week doesn’t really change anything. You’re not going to lose much progress — strength or muscle mass — in a week. If you weren’t sick or drained, pick up exactly where you left off.
If you were sick or injured, or if the weeks leading up were really stressful and your sleep, food, and hydration were off, then it would be good to repeat the previous week before moving forward. And if you miss more than two weeks, I’d back up one or two weeks in the program and start from there to rebuild what you’d gained. But one week — you’re probably very well recovered and you’ll be fine.
Pete Wright:
Okay. That leads right into the next piece. Can you run two different periodization styles at the same time — linear for legs and non-linear for upper body? What would that look like?
Srdjan Injac:
Yes, you can. Many advanced athletes do. I still do that. You can focus on multiple things at the same time. You can do a strength emphasis for lower body while you’re working on hypertrophy emphasis for upper body. What that’s called is concurrent periodization.
What that means is training multiple physical qualities at the same time within the same week or training cycle — strength, hypertrophy, power, endurance, things like that. Instead of focusing on just one quality per training block, you develop several qualities together at the same time.
It’s useful when your goals span different domains. Most of my programs are like that — I want strength, but I also want to see some muscle growth. Different body parts sometimes progress best with different approaches, and if you want a more balanced physique, concurrent periodization makes a lot of sense. Athletes in many sports use this approach.
I’ve had training phases where I focused on certain muscle groups — maybe I wanted bigger shoulders, but I wanted to keep everything else the same because I was going for symmetry. I felt my arms were too big compared to my shoulders. And while working on that, I also wanted to work on muscle endurance. So you can do multiple things and it works very well.
Pete Wright:
Okay. So it’s okay.
Srdjan Injac:
Totally okay. Many of us do that.
Pete Wright:
Crack open the spreadsheet. Start tracking.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Okay. So how do you know when you’re ready to graduate from beginner linear programming to something more advanced? And what the heck is advanced?
Srdjan Injac:
It’s just taking it to the next level. If you understand what beginner linear progression is — it’s the simplest and fastest way for new lifters to get stronger. You do the same core lifts each workout, and every session you add a little weight to the bar. That’s why it’s called linear: progress goes up in a straight line.
As a beginner, your body adapts so quickly that you can make progress every single workout. It’s straightforward, predictable, and extremely effective for the first several months of training.
After that, once you can’t add more weight every single workout, the next step is moving to a program where progress happens week to week instead of session to session. This is usually called intermediate programming — it includes slightly more volume, weekly jumps in weight instead of daily ones, and more variation to keep progress moving.
You’ll know when to graduate. You’ll feel like you can’t add any more weight each session. Your technique stays consistent but progress stalls anyway. You might need two or three full days to recover from a normal workout, or your lifts require more warm-up.
Pete Wright:
I just noticed this coming back — I was out for two weeks before because of an injury, and we did legs on Tuesday and today has been brutal. I’ve been so sore. Like, sore the way I was when we first started working out. I feel like a little old man wandering around my house trying to lift each leg.
Srdjan Injac:
That’s how sore you want to be. That soreness is okay.
Pete Wright:
But before I left, before I took that little break, it would take a lot to be sore for two straight days. I felt like I was able to do more and not stay sore as long.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, and that’s when you need to make some changes and shake things up. You have to shock the muscle. You don’t have to change every single day, but now you can’t just add more weight every day. Now you stick with the same workout for a week, and then you change the exercises or the order you do them.
That’s why when you come in each week, I try to do something a little different. I ask you: are you sore from the last workout? If you are, then whatever we did last time worked. So I don’t need to change anything yet. We can keep it because you’re still sore. Next week, if you say you weren’t really that sore, then we know it’s been a week and we can change something — the volume, the exercises, all that stuff.
You’ll definitely know when you’re ready for the change. At the beginning, everything is going to be hard, and it’s really easy to see progress those first two or three months. I’d start thinking about changing things after about three months. That’s usually when you’re ready to move into a different program, because your body starts getting used to the same thing over and over again.
Here’s how I explain it to new clients when they ask when they’ll see results: the first week, your body is just trying to figure out what it’s going through. Everything is a shock. Then after about two months, you start feeling the difference — you feel stronger every week, you’re getting better sleep, you’re more hungry. You’re feeling the results.
After the third month, you start seeing it. We say you feel it before you see it. And of course that’s assuming your diet is on point — you have to be consistent on that end too. But you’ll start seeing little definition in the shoulders, arms, legs, back. And that’s when your body starts getting used to that stress. That’s when you know you’re ready to move from the beginner stage into something more advanced.
Pete Wright:
Okay. You’ve said a few times it’s time to “shock the muscle.” For those who haven’t heard you use that term — what does it mean to shock the muscle?
Srdjan Injac:
Your body hits a plateau because it gets used to doing the same thing over and over again. It almost expects what’s coming. You stop feeling like you’re getting much out of the workout, and you’re not really sore anymore.
So you change things up. Sometimes shocking the muscle means changing the complete workout. I’ll come in planning to do arms, and right before the workout I’ll switch to legs — something totally unexpected. Sometimes I have to trick my own mind too. And I’ll do it, and it’s a quick but solid workout and I feel it afterward.
So it’s not just shocking the muscle — it shocks your mind too. You surprise yourself. If you’re used to doing the same exercises for your back or chest in the same order every time, that’s when you need to shock it. You switch the exercises, you change the order, maybe you go a little heavier than you did the first week. That’s how you shock the body. You start actually feeling that soreness again.
Pete Wright:
I’ll tell you — from my experience working with you, the constituent elements of shocking the muscle have been: coming in expecting one set of exercises and getting something completely different. Or being asked to move so slowly that it completely changes how I have to focus on isolation and patience. That has been a massive shock. It’s almost more of a calorie burn for my brain than actual muscle-building. I come out of these things more tired than before.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, and that’s the challenge. That’s what I like about it. My goal is to get you feeling exhausted and like you gave everything you had. I try to get a hundred and ten percent out of you every time. I already know what you like, what you don’t like, what your comfort zone is — so I’m always trying to give you something you’re not expecting or not used to. A different kind of stress.
It doesn’t always have to be more weight, or a balance challenge, or more core work. It can be any of those things. That’s what I mean — there are lots of ways to shock the muscle.
Pete Wright:
That’s the thing. My very simple understanding was that moving to something more advanced just meant going heavier. And what I’m hearing is — that’s not really the point.
Srdjan Injac:
No, not always. Sometimes it’s the order of exercises. Sometimes it’s supersets — combining two different exercises that hit the same muscle group from different angles. Or doing the same exercise but now with dumbbells instead of a machine, so you have to engage your core and stabilizers more.
A lot of people don’t use bands, and I love the bands. You don’t see them in a lot of gyms, but they’re great. Sometimes I’ll add a band to chest press, and people ask what that’s doing — and when I explain the overload principle, it’s like a lightbulb goes on. There are different ways and different things. You have to think outside the box sometimes.
And it doesn’t always have to be heavier. If you keep chasing more and more weight, eventually your form breaks down and you get hurt. There are different ways to challenge your body.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. At some point gravity will have words with you.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, it will win eventually.
Pete Wright:
So there you go. Not always heavier. Shock the muscle. Lots of good ways to think about how you’re approaching your progress in building strength. There are lots of ways to improve and move through the progression cycle.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah. And you’ll know once you graduate from the beginner stage — you’ll feel ready to do more. You’ll have your form down and understand everything. It just becomes too easy, too predictable, and then you’re ready for a different type of training.
Pete Wright:
This is great. Thanks, everyone — keep those questions coming in. We’ve got a couple more on the list for a future episode, so we’re ready. Load us up. Swipe up in your show notes — there’s a link that says “submit a question to the show.” That’s how you get it on the list. Very easy.
We’re so glad you joined us today. If you’ve got any questions about training, recovery, or how to stop chasing quick fixes, tap that link. And don’t forget to subscribe and share — that’s how we grow stronger together. Thanks for listening to Build for Health. On behalf of Srdjan Injac, I’m Pete Wright. We’ll see you right back in the gym next week.
