Tip The 8-12-8 Method Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip The 8-12-8 Method Here' s a crazy-simple way to consistently build size and strength No fluff just results by Paul Carter April 22, 2019August 26, 2022 Tags Bodybuilding, Tips, Training I was lucky in my early years because I picked up some really basic principles about how I was going to grow. These principles got carved into my brain. Pick this weight up and do reps with it. Next week, do more reps with it than you previously did. Do this with a handful of basic movements. Do this for years on end and you'll get bigger. And that's what I did. Simple. Pick a weight you can do 8 reps with. Next week, try to do more than 8 reps with it. When you can do 12 reps with it, add weight until you're back at 8 reps. Repeat until big and strong. That's all I did for 90 percent of the time during my first decade or more of training. I might have switched out a few things here or there, but for the most part that was all I did. My go-to lifts during those years were: Squat Deficit Stiff-Legged Deadlift Supinated-Grip Pulldown T-Bar and Barbell Row Incline Dumbbell Press Bench Press Overhead Press (Dumbbell and Barbell) I threw in the usual mix of curls, triceps work, dips, chins, etc., but I really stayed with progressive overload on those movements. I knew that if I could go from the 80-pound dumbbells for 8 reps on the incline bench to the 100-pound dumbbells for 12 reps, I'd get bigger. I knew that if I could go from 245 x 8 on the barbell row to 315 x 8, my back would be bigger. That was it. A decade or longer. These days, you'd be hard pressed to get a dude to adhere to a set program for two weeks. If you want to grow, and I mean really grow, then you need to grok some tried and true principles about muscle growth and select a few movements you intend on pounding into the dirt for about the next decade. There's no magical routine out there that's going to suddenly transform you into a beast. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Massive Force This six-week program breaks some of the currently accepted rules for workout volume and duration. That's why you'll do more than 20 sets per workout and you'll train for 60 to 75 minutes. Arms, Training Erick Minor October 21 Training 6 Weeks to Great Abs Most ab exercises are garbage. But do these 4 types of ab movements each workout and those babies will pop through. Abs, Bodybuilding, Training, Weightlifting Eric Bach May 3 Training Tip Strengthen Your Ankles Prevent injury, perform better. Three exercises to try out. Mobility, Tips, Training Alexander Nurse Bey May 12 Training The NExT Arm Experiment One workout, 10 negative exercises, and the deepest pump you've ever felt — followed by two days of brutal soreness, then long-lasting growth. Ellington Darden, PhD June 21