re: The Greyskull Methods- A Primer

Part 2 –The intermediate reset- Why the GSLP is infinitely adaptable – See intermediate syndrome article and page 92-98 in the book

First off let me say this type of reset should only be performed after stalling in a lift at least twice. For the novice lifter, this would more than likely be applied after 3 or 4 resets.

So many of you reading this will be saying, yea well what happens after I reset and I get stuck again and then again…..WELL, WELL, WELL we have any answer for that also.

So if you read the Intermediate Syndrome article I asked you read to in the first section, you would have any idea of where this is going. When Daunte Trudal introduced his now famous DoggCrapp Training method he introduced the training world to the idea of switching out stalled lifts for variants of that lift, example subbing bench for incline. Daunte did so because he realized that in the presence of proper nutrition, he who makes the most strength gains also gains the most muscle. This wasn’t a new concept in the powerlifting world as Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell had been doing something similar for years, but it was never out in the open like it was once Daunte made the now in famous Cycle of Pennies thread and shared his training and nutrition program.

Daunte came on the scene at a time when everyone was light weight and insane volume despite Dorian Yates & Ronnie Coleman doing the opposite and dominating all of Bodybuilding at the time. This breath of fresh air is incorporated into what I call the Advanced Greyskull Reset.

For this type of reset, a trainee would have already completed at least one of the traditional Greyskull resets. So how do we perform this advanced reset?

Imagine Johnny Joe Blow from above works his way back through the reset and stalls out again, this time at 215 lbs. Johnny has a choice, perform another traditional reset or he can remove bench from the program for now and replace it with one of its variants. In this case let’s say he chooses to sub in Incline Barbell press. Well Johnny would back the weight off quite a bit and restart blasting away on incline pushing the last set until failure every time. Let’s say he pushes the incline and gets all the way up to 225 before he stalls on this lift. Now he performs a traditional reset and blast away again getting all the way back up to 240 while destroying the log book along the way and packing on quite a bit of muscle. After he stalls at 240, Johnny decides he likes using the variants for now and chooses to use close grip bench for this run. Johnny again lowers the weight and blast away, working his way up to 225 on close grip, he performs the traditional resets and gets to 235 before stalling again.

Now Johnny decides he was to go back to his ole trustee the barbell flat bench press. But he hasn’t performed the lift in months and last time stalled out at 215. Do you really think that after improving his upper chest and triceps that he is going to stall out again on 215? frick no he won’t, hell he already blew past that with variants that are considered more difficult. Sure he will have to start at 10% less than his last stall, but on his way up he is going to absolutely destroy the log book and blow way past 215, prolly to up to something like 260 or 270 before stalling again.

Ladies and gentleman that is progress no matter how you look at it. What an idea, right? Understand that the lift itself could be a variable that can be adjusted and that adjusting the said variable would allow for continual progress with such a basic setup. This might not fit what the experts consider linear progression and that’s ok, but to Johnny pain and myself increasing at least one performance variable in one training with each training session is in fact linear progression.

If you think I am wrong and that Johnny Joe Blow would lose tons of strength, then go listen to Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell talk about squatting. His trainees rarely perform barbell squats outside of competitions, instead they focus on box squats, good mornings, speed squats etc. Are you going to tell me that it’s good enough for the best power lifters in the world, but not Johnny Joe Blow on tigerdroppings….bullshite? Daunte Trudal trains some of the most advanced bodybuilders in the world, including Dave Henry and many of his trainees are walking around with 225lbs or more of actual muscle mass. Daunte has all of his lifters replace stalled lifts with variants and has them continue on like nothing happened. So again are you telling me it’s good enough for the top and strongest bodybuilders in the world, but not good enough for Johnny Joe Blow on tigerdroppings because he read a book? If you believe this then you are beyond help.


Look no matter the program, all training is essentially linear progression, at least it should be if you want to make real progress over time. Sure it comes in different forms, but the bottom line is if you aren’t progressing in some way, then you are just moving backwards. There is no maintaining or standing still in this Game. There just isn’t, either you are getting better or you are getting worse.

If you take anything away from this article, take away the fact that you have to learn to think for yourself if you want to be injury free, strong and fit for life. You have to make the program work for you and your goals, not the goals of a damn program created by somebody that has never even spoken to you. This is not a blessing to go bastardize the GSLP but if you are an older lifter (older as in lots of time in the gym, not age); then sure feel free to blast away in higher rep ranges. Just blast away and get strong as shite in those rep ranges. Flat bench hurts your shoulder, well by all means, get you some plate mates for micro loading and get after it with the dumbbells. You gym only has a leg press and smith machine, well by god make that smith machine your bitch to were people in the gym no longer refer to it as the Smith machine but as your machine.

For the intermediate reset you have 3 things to consider when choosing which variant to sub in. Like I said above, you have to think and make the program work for your goals, not the goals of the program. You are going to have to have some self-awareness in choosing what is best for you. There is nothing wrong with having confidence, but we can all improve in some way and you need to figure out where it is you need or want to improve and address this when choosing a variant.