Doug Hepburn’s Power and Pump Program

Doug Hepburn was one of the absolute strongest strongmen, powerlifters and weightlifters in the
1950’s. The first man to bench press 500 lbs raw. The man was doing freestanding
handstand push-ups at a body weight of a whopping 330lbs! A feat we cannot remain shy
of. Today we will dive into my favorite strength building program of his - ‘Program A’. What a
pretentious name for a program right?

*We will often take powerlifting, strongmen or weightlifting routines and give them our
calisthenics adaptation, since these fields are more thoroughly researched than
gymnastics/calisthenics (unfortunately).

Program A, also called ‘Power and Pump’, is a great strength building program which uses low
reps for a high amount of sets, and finishes with a few sets of higher reps. It is a great program
for anyone who primarily wants to gain strength but wants to add some muscle mass as
well. This is my preferred approach 9/10 times.

In short, you will perform 8x2-3 with a movement, all should be fast, explosive, strong and
techniquely-sound repetitions. Then, drop a progression (or weight) and perform 3x6-8 with the
same movement for pump.

The first workout will always start with 8x2 and 3x6, from there at each consecutive session
you will add 1 single repetition to only 1 set - 7x2+1x3 and 2x6+1x7, and so on.

Once you complete 8x3 and 3x8 (8 sessions), you will go on to the next progression or add 5kg.

For calisthenics, let’s take 2 push movements and 2 pull movement as our main goals:
Handstand Push-Ups and One Arm Chin-Up, Planche and Front Lever, for example. You have a
few options to lay out the program:

Option A: Bent-Arm/Straight-Arm Split

Workout 1 - Bent-Arm. Mondays and Fridays

A1. B2W HSPU 8x2-3

Rest 90-120 seconds

A2. Archer Chin-Ups 8x2-3

Rest 90-120 seconds

B1. Elevated Pike Push-Ups 3x6-8

Rest 90-120 seconds

B2. Ring Chin-Ups 3x6-8

Rest 90-120 seconds

Workout 2 - Straight Arm. Tuesdays and Saturdays

A1. Tuck Planche Push-Ups 8x2-3

Rest 90-120 seconds

A2. Tuck Front Lever Pulls 8x2-3

Rest 90-120 seconds

B1. Ring Archer Push-Ups 3x6-8

Rest 90-120 seconds

B2. 'The Perfect' Pull Ups 3x6-8

Rest 90-120 seconds

Option B: Push/Pull Split

Workout 1 - Push Workout. Mondays and Fridays

A. B2W HSPU 8x2-3

Rest 180 seconds

B. Tuck Planche Push-Ups 8x2-3

Rest 180 seconds

C. Ring Archer Push-Ups 3x6-8

Rest 180 seconds

D. Pike Push-Ups 3x6-8

Rest 180 seconds

Workout 2 - Pull Workout. Tuesdays and Saturdays

A. Archer Chin-Ups 8x2-3

Rest 180 seconds

B. Tuck Front Lever Pulls 8x2-3

Rest 180 seconds

C. Ring Chin-Ups 3x6-8

Rest 180 seconds

D. Ring Bodyweight Rows 3x6-8

Rest 180 seconds

How to apply the program:

1. For the 8x2-3, choose an exercise that you can perform 8 reps with.
2. For the back-off sets, choose exercise that you can perform 12 reps with.
3. I can not stress enough how important it is that you choose LIGHT enough
variations for this program, so I dedicated another line to emphasize this.
4. You can add 1 lower body day or mobility day. Add handstand practice to your needs.
5. Perform a deload session every 5th session of the same kind. To deload - cut the
number of sets by 60%, intensity remains the same.
6. You can perform the same exercise in an easier variation for the back-off sets (Archer
Chin-Ups--->Chin-Ups), OR a different variation of the same pattern (Archer Chin-Ups---
>Inverted Rows). It will work great too.
7. Do not be a hero and try to progress faster than prescribed.

You can play with the program quite easily once you understand the template and principles. It is
a smart program, built on a lot of quality practice and patience.

Train smart, go hard,

Refael.