How to run the Coolcicada PPL program

Who Is This Program For?

Coolcicada PPL is for the late beginner or early intermediate lifter who already knows how to bench, squat, press and row, and who wants to train six days a week for size with a real strength base underneath it.

The program focuses on:

• Frequency: every muscle group gets hit twice per week across 6 training days
• A strength base: the barbell presses, rows and squats sit at 3x5 and 4x5-6
• Size: everything after the main lifts is bodybuilding volume in the 8-12 range
• Simplicity: the same three workouts, repeated, with no AMRAP sets and no percentages

It is a step up from a pure beginner linear progression. If you have already run something like StrongLifts or a basic beginner routine and want more volume without abandoning heavy barbell work, this is it.

Program Structure

The Main Lifts

The Weekly Schedule

Three workouts, each run twice per week:

The original post gave two layouts: P/P/L, rest, P/P/L or P/P/L/P/P/L, rest. Both work. Put the rest day where your schedule actually allows it. If you can only train five days, keep the workouts in order and let the cycle drift across the calendar rather than skipping a session.

Workout Details

Push (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps)

Pull (Back, Biceps)

Legs (Quads, Hamstrings, Calves)

Both Push days are identical. Both Pull days are identical. Both Legs days are identical. There is no A/B variation in this program.

Understanding the Set Schemes

Main Lifts: 3x5 and 4x5-6

Bench, overhead press, incline bench and bent over row are all 3 sets of 5 reps at the same weight. Squat is 4 sets of 5 to 6 reps, also at the same weight. These are straight sets, so the load does not change from set to set.

There are no AMRAP sets in this program. When the prescription says 5 reps, you stop at 5 reps. That is deliberate: the volume elsewhere in the week is already high, and grinding out max-rep sets six days a week burns recovery you need for the accessories.

The Optional Deadlift

The original routine listed the deadlift as optional, at 1 set of 5 reps, placed at the very start of Pull day. You are already rowing twice per week and squatting twice per week, so one heavy hinge set is enough for most people.

Three ways to run it:

• Skip it entirely and start Pull day with rows
• Every Pull day, 1x5 before rows
• Alternate, deadlifting on Pull day 1 and skipping it on Pull day 2

Accessories: 8-12 Ranges

Everything after the main lifts is a rep range, not a fixed number. A range means you have room to add reps before you add weight, which is what makes the double progression below work.

Progression: How Weights Increase

Main Lifts: Linear Progression

Coolcicada PPL progresses the barbell lifts once per week, not once per session. You perform the same weight on both Push days in a week, then add weight the following week.

The weight added is to the total bar weight, not per side. Only add weight if you completed every prescribed rep on every set with good form on both of that week's sessions.

If the standard jump is too big, especially on overhead press and incline bench, microload with 1.25 kg (2.5 lbs) total using fractional plates.

Accessories: Double Progression

Every exercise with a rep range uses double progression. You progress reps first, then weight. Two variables, in a fixed order.

1. Pick a weight you can complete at the bottom of the range on all sets
2. Each session, try to add reps, staying inside the range
3. When you hit the top of the range on every set with good form, add weight
4. At the new weight you drop back to the bottom of the range, then climb again

Example on lateral raises (3x10-12):

Session 1: 7.5 kg (17.5 lbs) x 10, 10, 10
Session 2: 7.5 kg (17.5 lbs) x 12, 11, 10
Session 3: 7.5 kg (17.5 lbs) x 12, 12, 12  (top of range on all sets)
Session 4: 9 kg (20 lbs) x 10, 10, 10      (add weight, restart at the bottom)

Use the smallest jump the equipment allows. On dumbbells that is usually 2 to 2.5 kg (5 lbs) per hand, which is a big relative jump on small movements, so expect to spend several sessions rebuilding reps after each increase. On cable stacks and machines it is usually one pin, around 2.5 to 5 kg (5 to 10 lbs).

The rep ranges are not all the same, so read them carefully:

• 3x8-10: lat pulldown, seated row, leg press
• 3x10-12: lateral raise, pushdown, overhead extension, shrug, face pull, leg extension, leg curl, secondary curl
• 4x10-12: barbell curl
• 5x10-12: standing calf raise

Get Your Form Right First

Everything below assumes your form is already solid. Finding your working weight, adding weight, chasing reps, all of it only works if you can perform the lift correctly. While your form is not locked in, that is your only job. Make good form the goal of every set, not the weight on the bar. Drilling the movement with an empty bar beats loading plates onto a lift you cannot control yet.

To learn, don't hesitate to search Google and YouTube (there is a lot of good free material) and record yourself from the side to compare against a proper demonstration. In general, good form means a full controlled range of motion, a braced neutral spine, no bouncing or momentum, a consistent setup every rep, and ending the set when technique breaks down rather than grinding sloppy reps.

Finding Your Starting Weights

For the barbell lifts, if you do not know your starting weights:

1. Start with just the empty barbell (20 kg / 45 lbs)
2. Perform 5 reps
3. Add 5-10 kg (10-20 lbs)
4. Perform another set of 5 reps
5. Repeat until bar speed noticeably slows or form starts to break down
6. Subtract one increment. Use that weight as your starting weight

For the deadlift and bent over row, start at 40-60 kg (95-135 lbs) so the bar sits at the correct height on the floor.

For the accessories, pick a weight you can complete at the bottom of the prescribed range on every set while leaving 1 to 2 reps in reserve on the first set. If you hit the top of the range on all sets the very first session, the weight was too light. Add and move on.

Because this program progresses weekly rather than per session, starting too heavy costs you more here than it would on a beginner routine. Start light.

Warming Up

Before each of the barbell main lifts, perform 3 to 4 warm-up sets with increasing weight:

Example: If your working weight for bench press is 80 kg (175 lbs):

• Set 1: 30 kg (65 lbs) x 5
• Set 2: 47.5 kg (105 lbs) x 3
• Set 3: 62.5 kg (135 lbs) x 2
• Work sets: 80 kg (175 lbs) x 3x5

Warm-up sets should feel easy. They are not work sets. The second and third barbell press of the day need fewer warm-up sets since the muscles and joints are already warm. Accessories generally need none, though one light feeler set on the first machine exercise of a body part is fine.

Rest Times

The original post did not prescribe rest periods. These are the times the program is commonly run with, and they are what you should default to:

Take as much rest as you need to hit the prescribed reps with good form. A 5-rep set at the top of your range needs real recovery. Cutting the rest short on the main lifts is the fastest way to stall a lift that was not actually stalled.

When You Stall

You have stalled on a lift when you fail to complete the prescribed reps on every set for two consecutive weeks at the same weight.

Work through these in order before you do anything drastic:

1. Rest longer on the main lifts. Go to the full 3 minutes.
2. Microload. Move from 2.5 kg (5 lbs) per week to 1.25 kg (2.5 lbs) per week using fractional plates. This alone buys most people several more weeks, especially on overhead press.
3. Repeat the week rather than adding weight. A repeated week is not a wasted week.
4. Check recovery. Six training days per week is a lot. Sleep 7 to 9 hours, eat in a surplus if you are trying to grow, and get 1.5 to 2.2 g of protein per kg of bodyweight (0.7 to 1 g per pound).

If none of that works, deload that lift:

• Reduce the weight by 10%
• Rebuild from the deloaded weight at the normal weekly increment

Example:

Overhead press stuck at 55 kg (120 lbs) for two weeks:
  New weight: 55 x 0.90 = 49.5 kg, round to 50 kg (110 lbs)
  Rebuild from 50 kg adding 2.5 kg (5 lbs) per week

Each lift deloads independently. A stall on incline bench does not touch your squat.

For accessories, a stall means you cannot add a single rep to any set for three sessions. Drop the weight one increment and rebuild reps from the bottom of the range. Accessories should almost never need a formal deload, since the double progression already gives you a soft landing.

Program Duration

This program is designed to run for 12 weeks (12 cycles of 6 workouts, 72 sessions in total).

Why 12 weeks?

• Weekly linear progression on the barbell lifts holds for most intermediates for roughly this long
• It is enough time for the accessory volume to produce visible size changes
• By week 12 you will know exactly which lifts are progressing and which ones need a different approach

The original recommendation was to run it as written for at least 12 weeks before changing anything. Resist the urge to swap exercises in week 3 because a lift feels slow.

Access the Original Program

If you would like to read the original program post:

Coolcicada PPL Original Forum Post

The Bodybuilding.com forums are no longer reliably reachable. The most faithful public mirrors of the routine are:

Coolcicada PPL on Lift Vault

Coolcicada PPL on Liftosaur