Applying The Basic Concept of Triphasic Training

Chris Merritt
About the author

Strength Coach/ B.S. Kinesiology, Pennsylvania State University/ FMS/ Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist/ Certified Kettlebell Instructor/ Owner of Beyond Strength Performance and Beyond Strength Performance NOVA
7 Responses
  1. Cameron

    Thank you so much for explaining this. In the video it said day 1 85% day 2 90 & above and day 3 80%. Can you tell me the rest in between, does this apply to all the other exercises as well (or just Olympic and powerlifts)? Also, should you always be training the concentric explosively and how often should you work hypertrophy and other aspects

    1. Chris Merritt

      Cameron, this is my response of how I use it… it’s funny, as we apply things we tweak them more and more over time. Cal has the convenience of at least partially controlling his athletes’ schedules, where as I do not. So, for me to say that day 1 is x%, 2 is y%, and 3 is z%- I may not see them across the week as I would like. So, I use more of a RPE approach on a day-to-day basis with my application. As for every lift, no. I use this one to two compound movements early on in the training session. Hope that helps!

  2. Ian

    Chris, what percentages are you performing your eccentric and isometric work at? I’m assuming the percentages must be slightly different from the book because I believe Dietz keeps his reps on the lower side. Or are you just keeping a close eye on quality of movement and selecting the weight based on that? I’ve found that the percentages in the book seem to be a bit high for many athletes to safely handle.

    In my opinion the quality can drop off very fast when using the percentages listed in the book. In order to handle the percentages in the book it seems as though athletes need to have great core and low back strength to be able to handle the extended eccentrics and the force of a fast eccentric followed by a sudden isometric contraction.

    1. Chris Merritt

      Depends on the individual… Like you said, we watch the quality of movement and happen to have a goal for a set number of reps. Hopefully through the warm-up sets and tracking progress over the previous blocks of training (I’m not doing this with beginners) we have a solid idea of where they will be for the day. You may have also noticed I’m keeping a pretty basic rep scheme across the month in the example. So, we may in actuality slightly underestimate week one, set one, but I’ve got two more sets to figure it out, as well as the rest of the month to progress the load.

      We also obviously use feedback from the athlete… If they are one to three reps in and it feels too light, I have no problem stopping the set, adjusting fire, and writing it off as another warm-up.

      On top of all of that, I run a semi-private training environment, seeing up to six people at a time, with at least two coaches on the floor at a time. I probably have the luxury of seeing a little more of what each and every individual is doing as compared to the collegiate setting that Dietz is in…

      As for reps, it depends on the goal. I’d be perfectly fine with the percentages/reps they recommend in the book for a somewhat advanced lifter, being that the whole point is to learn to control serious forces. If I wasn’t doing the example over 10-12 weeks I would probably be more comfortable sticking to 3-5 reps at greater than 80% of each triphasic phase for 2-3 weeks each.

    2. Chris Merritt

      And to answer the core strength question… They absolutely do. We are using the FMS on every single individual that comes through our doors, and the most basic goal would be symmetrical two’s across the board with very general GPP before we are moving on to anything like this.

      We used tempo prior to reading Triphasic Training with just about everyone and I believe the eccentric should still be slow for a beginner to learn controlled movements/patterns when proper mobility/stability are present…

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