The 1x20 Program

The benefits and application.

A Brief History

Dr. Micahel Yessis developed the 1x20 program. He has vast experience as a biomechanics and athletic performance coach.

That's it. I told you it would be brief…

Here’s a link to the book if you are interested.  All of the information below comes out of the book or from the experiences of myself and other coaches.

What is 1x20

Yes, you assumed correctly, 1x20 is exactly what it sounds like, 1 set of 20 reps of many exercises. Some compound, some isolation.

Completed 3-5 times per week. The number of sessions per week will determine the number of exercises per day and the type of exercises, compound or isolation - more on that later.

The original use case was for younger athletes with little physical development and training experience. However, this description applies to a much larger group. Many people lack training experience, general strength and aerobic capacity. 1x20 does all that, in less time, with less total stress on your body.

Benefits of 1x20

1. Lower Intensity & higher reps

   1. Better aerobic development of the tissue

      1. Increased capillary development of muscles and connective tissues (ligaments & tendons)

         1. Results in greater strengthening of these connective tissues

            1. More blood flow = a higher exchange of nutrients = more strength

   2. Trains muscular endurance, throughout a full range of motion

   3. Less soreness - As we know soreness does not equal gains.

      1. If you can, why not get results without feeling like you got hit by a truck?

   4. Less total stress on the body - allowing your body to fully recover and adapt

      1. As an adult this concept is crucial to understand, because you have so many no physical stressors to consider (work, family/kids, financial, adult responsibilities, this list is endless)

2. Develop Strength - The book lists 11 categories of strength. I won’t bore you with the details

   1. What matters - 1x20 develops a combination of muscular endurance, muscle mass, and strength. This makes it a perfect GPP program

      1. You will get stronger using this program - There are thousands of people to support that claim. But you will also get stronger doing just about anything, as long as you increase the weight over time. Is this the best method to get you to deadlift 500 lbs? No. But it is a program that can produce results for a long period of time and develop the foundation of training and strength to set you up to deadlift 500 lbs (If that’s what you want to do)

3. More Exercises

   1. Because you are only doing 1 set of everything you can still do 10 -15 exercises and be done in 30 minutes

   2. Widens your movement competency.  You can train more movement patterns and focus on developing holistic performance, instead of neglecting patterns like rotation.

      1. Another reason why 1x20 is great for GPP. A lot of movement variation that can remove weak links in the chain to make you more durable as a human. 

4. Better opportunity to learn exercise technique

   1. There are 3 methods I use to teach movements, besides normal coaching cues and instruction

      1. Isometrics

      2. Long Eccentrics, 7-10 seconds

      3. High repetitions with light weights, at a controlled speed

   2. I use these methods because they allow you as the lifter to get a better feel for different positions within a movement.  This is critical for learning great exercise technique but also important as an experienced lifter to occasionally revisit the positions in a more specific way.

      1. Moving slowly or not at all also helps you find your “sticking points”, possible areas of weakness that you need to address.

      2. Higher repetition sets give you more time within a set to learn and correct technique.  This has impacts on motor learning and conditioning the neuromuscular system.