In the following video, I show a technique I created over the last 10 years as I’ve been perfecting, modifying, and optimizing the Ageless Athlete protocol. I explained the reasoning and details behind the Intraset Tempo Changes (ITC’s) in AA2.0, and now as I prepare to release AA3.0, I expand on the protocol.

The Ageless Athlete protocol is simply based on the need to continue creating adaptation and change as lifters and athletes age. The question becomes, as the training moves away from a weekly focus of maximal efforts OR as maximal efforts become more conservative (i.e., 3RM, 5RM, etc. or conservatives percentages – 90% of 1RM), finding the complement training to create metabolic stress, mechanical tension, microtrauma, and importantly, expanded time under tensions (TuT) for training sets – to further drive adaptation, improve movement quality, and continue developing and/or maintaining muscle mass and strength gains.

One advanced “extended set protocol” (Ageless Athlete) I introduce to drive this adaptation are intraset tempo changes. In the example above, you’ll see goblet squats on a 5/5/5 protocol. This means 5 reps are performed with a 5 sec. ISO-hold at the bottom position, 5 reps are performed with a 5-count eccentric, and 5 reps are performed as fast as possible (AFAP) – covering all phases of a repetition in one single set.

This protocol is not for the faint of heart, but it will drive change WITH sub maximal weights! Remember what Dr. Jordan Shallow has said, “The goal of hypertrophy training is to make exercises subjectively difficult, without being objectively heavy.” This is exactly the goal of the AA protocol and why it is so effective. Driving change with supplemental volume and conservative rep max percentages.