15/09/2017 Cutting Edge: RTS Generalized Intermediate Program Review | PowerliftingToWin

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The Cutting Edge: RTS Generalized Intermediate Program Review

Well, well, well, we’ve come to the very last program that I’m going to review: Mike Tuchscherer’s
Generalized Intermediate Program using RTS principles. After this, I’m going to be writing and
releasing the rst real eBook from PowerliftingToWin: Programming To Win. The book will contain an
updated and revised version of the PowerliftingToWin Novice Program as well as the highly
anticipated PowerliftingToWin intermediate program. Multiple templates and options will be
presented in the book. Stay tuned for that.
 
Tuchscherer’s Generalized Intermediate Program is one of the most thoughtful and complex
programs that we’ve taken a look at thus far. If you haven’t already taken the time to check out my
review of the RTS system, please do so now. You will not understand a damn thing in this review
without that background knowledge. Even so, this program is dense enough that I will not be able to
unravel all of its complexities in a simple review. Hold on to your hard hat because this is going to be
tough sledding.
 
If you want to get the details on RTS straight from Mike Tuchscherer, grab a copy of the RTS Manual.

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If you’d rather watch than read:

The Cutting Edge: RTS General Intermediate Program Review

RTS Generalized Intermediate Program: Context and Background

For those who don’t know about Mike Tuchscherer, in my opinion, he is probably the single best
powerlifter in the world. He has totaled over 2100lbs/950kg in the 264lbs/120kg weight class. He did
this on the strictest platform in the world under the toughest drug testing conditions in the sport.

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2110 Total as a guest lifter

Not only that, but Mike runs one of the single most successful powerlifting coaching services in the
industry. He doesn’t have one or two national record holders under his wing; he has multiple world
record holders and world champions. That’s right; the RTS system has produced MULTIPLE world
champions.
 
Now, the Generalized Intermediate Program was produced for a very speci c type of lifter and is not
a plug and play type program like so many others. In Mike’s own words, here is who the Generalized
Intermediate Program is for:

“This program is written for David. David is 30 years old and weighs 215 pounds.
He has been lifting for 4 years and has posted Class 3 numbers in the Russian
Classi cation Chart. He comes from a background of various 5×5 programs
and has done a short stint of 5/3/1. He is able to continue his transition from a
3x weekly template to a 4x weekly template. He has read enough articles on
the RTS site to be familiar with RPE’s and Fatigue percents. He has no
signi cant injuries and no signi cant time restrictions. He has basic
equipment. David trains and competes raw (no knee wraps). He deadlifts
conventional style and his sticking points are all at the bottom of the lift.”

There are at least three critical points to pull from that paragraph:
1) David is a lifter of intermediate classi cation; he is neither novice nor advanced
2) David is currently transitioning to four times per week frequency but isn’t quite there

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3) The assistance exercises are carefully chosen for someone who is weak at the bottom of all three
competition lifts
 
The closer you are to “David”, the better this program is going to work for you. If you already train
four times per week, or more, this program is a step backwards. This is a transition program. This is a
program you’d run to move on from something like StrongLifts 5×5, Madcow’s 5×5, Starting
Strength, or the Texas Method. If you’re already doing the Bulgarian method or some other form of
training full body four times per week, this program is not for you.
 
With these facts rmly established, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of the program.

RTS Principles: Reviewing Fatigue Percents and RPEs

Before we get too deep into the actual program discussion, I’m going to provide a very quick review
of Fatigue Percents and RPE. If you want a more in-depth look at these concepts, please refer to my
original RTS Review.
 
RPE stands for rate of perceived exertion. For lifting, RPE tells us how “easy” or “hard” a set was in
terms of how many reps we feel we had left in the tank. For example, an RPE 10 would mean zero
reps left in the tank; RPE 9 would mean one rep left; RPE 8 would mean two reps left; RPE 7 would
mean three reps left and so on and so forth.
 
Fatigue percents are a little more complicated. Say you work up to a set of 5 at 100lbs with an RPE
9. If you take the weight down to 95lbs, and do ve more reps, the RPE might only be RPE 8. If you
keep repeating sets until you get to RPE 9, well, at that point you’ve accumulated “5% fatigue”
because your performance from your initial set has dropped ve percent. On good days, you might
take six or seven sets to hit 5% fatigue. On bad days, you might only take one set! In this manner,
volume is autoregulated. We don’t judge how many sets you do; we judge what e ect those sets
have on your performance! This is far more precise.

The RTS Generalized Intermediate Program

Now onto the actual program! I cannot lay out the program in its entirety because there are a full
nine weeks of training included and not a single week is the same. If you want to see the entire
program, check out it here. I highly encourage you to take a quick look before reading the rest of
the review.
 
Now, while I cannot lay out the whole program, I can provide you with the general structure of the
program.
 

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During the rst four weeks of the program, you’re going to be lifting four times per week on a full
body schedule. During the latter half of the program, you’ll be switching to three times per week
frequency. Remember, this is because “David” is still transitioning to higher frequency training.
 
You’ll notice that, for the most part, the competition lifts are always performed early in the week.
This is perfect because you are freshest early in the week after taking the weekend to rest. You
perform your primary “assistance” exercises, such as de cit deadlifts and pause squats, in the latter
half of the week when you’re a bit more fatigued. The competition lifts take precedence.
 
Though it isn’t shown by the table, the competition lifts and main assistance movements are
generally not performed for more than 5-6 reps at any point in the cycle. However, the
supplemental movements are always performed at 5-6 reps or higher. This has to do with their
purpose: competition movements, and their close variants, are in the program to build movement-
speci c strength. The supplemental lifts are for general strength and overall hypertrophy. This
makes good sense.

Planning

The entire program is designed to lead you into a peak in Week 9. Let’s take a look at what that looks
like:
 

As you can see, you’re maintaining frequency, squashing volume, and keeping intensity relatively
high. Monday, you work up to your openers. On Wednesday, you do all your warm-ups up to your
openers, but you don’t go over 80%. You’d then compete on Saturday or do a mock meet that
Friday to test your new 1RMs.

Periodization

This program uses a rather complex mixture of periodization schemes to be honest. There are
elements of traditional linear periodization and concurrent periodization.
 
For one, the supplemental exercises target primarily hypertrophy and you’ll notice that they are all
higher rep ranges. You’ll occasionally have very low rep assistance movements. And, often times,

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the main competition movements are done for volume in moderate rep ranges.
 
For those of you who are familiar with the concept, this is similar to undulating periodization which is
a type of periodization where you train for strength, power, and hypertrophy speci cally all on
di erent days of the week. In other words, this is a form of concurrent periodization where all
important attributes are trained within the context of a single training week.
 
However, the program isn’t truly a concurrent periodization scheme because, as you’ll clearly see in
a moment, the program progresses from high volume and higher reps to lower reps and lower
volume as time goes on. This is more akin to basic linear periodization or what I’ve often referred to
as pendulum style periodization – my favorite form for the vast majority of trainees.

Programming

The RTS Generalized Intermediate programming is broken up into a volume phase and an intensity
phase.
 
Take a look at the number of reps you perform on the competition lifts and the total amount of
fatigue you accumulate from week to week:

Referring to the above chart, it should be obvious that we’re dealing with rich programmatic variety
here. There isn’t a single week where intensity and volume aren’t manipulated relative to each
other.
 
The rst week of the program is what you could call an introductory week. Because “David” isn’t
used to four times per week frequency, he is exposed to that level of frequency with no added
fatigue. This gives him time to make some basic adaptations before we start beating the hell out of
him.
 
However, in Weeks 2-4, the beating commences. In RTS, 30% fatigue is generally considered the
maximum amount you can recover from inside of one training week and is thus classi ed as medium
stress. You’ll notice that the pattern goes: medium stress, high stress, medium stress, which means
that in those 3rd and 4th weeks you are not going to be fully recovered. You’ll accumulate fatigue in
Week 3 and, because you’re performing a maintenance dose of fatigue in Week 4, you won’t be fully
recovered at the end of the week either.
 
You do get SOME relief in Week 5 with a 25% fatigue week as you switch back to three times per

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week frequency. This should allow some, but not all, of the fatigue from Week 3 to dissipate. Too bad
you get hit with another strong dose of fatigue in Week 6 at 37.5%. So, at this point in the cycle,
fatigue levels are still elevated.
 
It isn’t until Weeks 7 and 8, where the intensity block draws to a close that you get two weeks in a
row of relatively reduced fatigue at 25%. Even still, you should have some fatigue accumulated. Do
the basic math: 45% + 37.5% – 30% – 30% = 22.5%. And you’ve only had three weeks at 25% for a
total of 15% recovery surplus into that 22.5% debt. In other words, you’ve done ~7.5% more fatigue
throughout the cycle than you can reasonably expect to recover from inside of eight weeks.
 
So, realistically, it isn’t until the end of Week 9, meet week, that you’re truly fully rested and ready
to go.
 
This is masterful programming – just absolutely masterful. Look, as an intermediate trainee, the
only time you should be truly peaked is at the meet! In Mike’s program, that is exactly what
happens.
 
Now, this program also features intelligent variety inside of each training week as well. Though you
don’t get variations in fatigue from workout to workout, you do get important variation in absolute
intensity through movement selection. The competition movements are always performed early in
the week after your two days of weekend rest. This allows for improved performance on the lifts that
matter most. In the latter parts of the week, you don’t use your belt and you do primarily assistance
work. This reduces the total poundages you deal with and thus recovery is promoted.
 
And, of course, because volume and intensity are fully autoregulated on this program, you’ll get
variety on both of those variables throughout the cycle and throughout each training week.

Specificity

There isn’t a single program that we’ve looked at thus far that beats this one in terms of speci city.
As you can see, Mike programs absolutely ZERO u bodybuilding movements. Everything has a
de nite, clear purpose; everything is ultimately highly speci c. This is a glimpse into proper
programming.
 
I honestly have nothing to say because of how good the speci city is on this program. Again, two-
thirds of your volume is coming from the competition movements and close variations carefully
chosen to attack your personal weak points. That is the way to do it.
 
The last third of the volume comes from muscle building exercises that still retain a great deal of
speci city as well. Your supplemental work on this program isn’t tricep pushdowns or leg extensions:
it is closegrip bench press with a barbell in your hands and front squats.
 
In my opinion, this is how it should be done. This is training speci city employed to its fullest
potential.

Overload

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This program uses progressive overload. As the weeks march on, you go from doing medium weights
at higher volumes to heavy weights at medium volumes. The program is fully autoregulated, but
you should be handling heavier and heavier weights as the program progresses due to the fact that
the reps you perform will be lower and lower.

Fatigue Management

This program is explicitly designed to transition a lifter from three times per week frequency and/or
lower volume programs like 5/3/1 into more serious styles of powerlifting training.
 
So, with that said, it doesn’t exactly feature optimal fatigue management for the lifter who is
already accustomed to such training. A well-conditioned lifter doesn’t need a 0% fatigue week at
any point outside of a planned deload or a peak week. A well-conditioned lifter doesn’t need to
restrict himself to four week “pulses” of higher frequency. He can use the higher frequency
throughout the entire cycle.
 
Remember, this was designed for “David” who is still transitioning to higher frequencies. If you don’t
t this description, if you don’t t the avatar, the fatigue management wasn’t individualized for you.
 
That said, if you look at my own training, you’ll quickly realize this is my preferred set-up for
intermediate trainees and beyond. In general, I prefer full body templates for natural lifters.
Splitting the workload apart allows for better recovery on higher volume programs and higher
volume programs eventually become necessary for the natural to continue to progress. You’ll
notice that you’re doing upperbody work four times per week, squatting three times per week, and
pulling twice per week in that rst month of training. That is how I like to see things set-up and it is
how I personally do it as well.
 
I would note that older lifters (35-40+) often bene t from split templates rather than full body
templates. For masters lifters, I don’t think this is an optimal fatigue management model.

Individual Differences

Well, we can’t exactly criticize RTS on autoregulation, can we? This program is fully autoregulated in
terms of intensity and volume. This is the second strongest aspect of the whole program (because
speci city takes precedence over EVERYTHING else).
 
With a fully autoregulated program like this, you don’t merely give everyone a cookie cutter
prescription for volume and intensity. However well prepared you are that day is however well you
will perform. On good days, you’ll be able to hit higher weights because the RPEs will be lower at
your usual weights. On days where you’re particularly resistant to fatigue, you’ll get more volume in.
And the exact opposite will be true on bad days. You’ll do less volume in order to hit your fatigue
percents.
 
Unlike so many other programs which give static volume recommendations, the RTS Generalized
Intermediate conforms to YOUR volume needs and not the other way around.
 
This is what sets RTS apart from other training systems.
 

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Now, the one criticism we can make in terms of individual di erences comes down to exercise
selection. If you’re not weak at the bottom, well, the assistance exercises aren’t really appropriate
for you, are they? That is the problem with any cookie cutter template. If the person receiving the
template doesn’t t the “avatar”, the program won’t be optimal for them. This is why having a coach
personally select your assistance exercises based on your personal weaknesses can bene t you so
much. That is one of the most bene cial services o ered at PowerliftingToWin. Nonetheless, Mike
couldn’t very well give away his entire system in a short article, now could he?

Final Thoughts

For those of you who have nished out the easy gains from novice and early intermediate training, I
highly recommend RTS. The RTS Generalized Intermediate Program is the perfect transition
program for you if you’re close to the “David” avatar.
 
However, this isn’t a program you can simply repeat over and over again. You can’t run this program
for long term progress. This program was designed to give people an idea of how Mike does things.
First of all, it is only nine weeks long, features an introductory week, and is explicitly designed to
transition a lifter to Mike’s actual style of coaching. Again, this is not a long term program. You need
to either personally develop a long term plan or get a powerlifting coach to help you do so.
 
All this said, I really can’t recommend the RTS system more highly. You can apply the
autoregulation principles to ANY program. And I damn sure hope you apply the lessons in speci city
and exercise selection as they might be even more important than the autoregulation aspects.
Mike’s website is one of the single most informative resources on the entire internet for lifters who
are serious about powerlifting.
 
I cannot say it any more clear than this: Tuchscherer’s Reactive Training Systems is currently the
single best programmatic system in powerlifting today. I feel that strongly about it. This is the best
of the best; this is the cutting edge. Do yourself a favor and learn as much as you can from Mike
while he’s still o ering so much info for free. Visit his website at www.reactivetrainingsystems.com.
 
Alternatively, you can grab a copy of the RTS Manual to get all of the information directly in one
place.

Moving Forward

Alright, ladies and gentleman that wraps up the programming review series! I will probably
sporadically review programs here and there in the future when something particularly juicy comes
up, but as we head forward the next release is going to be: Programming To Win – the rst real
PowerliftingToWin eBook. As I said, this is going to be a more substantial product than the
PowerliftingToWin Novice Program eBook. I cannot say how long it is going to take, but please do
stay tuned for the release.
 
Spread the word, PTW fam! The eBook will be 100% free. Programming To Win will contain step-by-
step instructions with full guidance on how to take yourself from the true novice stage all the way
through to the end of your early intermediate gains. In other words, you’ll have my full, personal
blue print for how best to spend the rst 1-2 years of your training; you’ll have my full plan to
making optimal gains as a relatively new trainee.

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Table of Contents

Powerlifting Programs I: Scienti c Principles of Powerlifting Programming

Powerlifting Programs II: Critical Training Variables
Powerlifting Programs III: Training Organization
Powerlifting Programs IV: Starting Strength
Powerlifting Programs V: StrongLifts 5×5
Powerlifting Programs VI: Jason Blaha’s 5×5 Novice Routine
Powerlifting Programs VII: Jonnie Candito’s Linear Program
Powerlifting Programs VIII: Sheiko’s Novice Routine
Powerlifting Programs IX: GreySkull Linear Progression
Powerlifting Programs X: The PowerliftingToWin Novice Program
Powerlifting Programs XI: Madcow’s 5×5
Powerlifting Programs XII: The Texas Method
Powerlifting Programs XIII: 5/3/1 and Beyond 5/3/1
Powerlifting Programs XIV: The Cube Method
Powerlifting Programs XV: The Juggernaut Method
Powerlifting Programs XVI: Westside Barbell Method

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Powerlifting Programs XVII: Sheiko Routines

Powerlifting Programs XVIII: Smolov and Smolov Junior
Powerlifting Programs XIX: Paul Carter’s Base Building
Powerlifting Programs XX: The Lilliebridge Method
Powerlifting Programs XXI: Jonnie Candito’s 6 Week Strength Program
Powerlifting Programs XXII: The Bulgarian Method for Powerlifting
Powerlifting Programs XXIII: Brian Carroll’s 10/20/Life
Powerlifting Programs XXIV: Destroy the Opposition by Jamie Lewis
Powerlifting Programs XXV: The Coan/Philippi Deadlift Routine
Powerlifting Programs XXVI: Korte’s 3×3
Powerlifting Programs XXVII: RTS Generalized Intermediate Program
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