THE FORGOTTEN HEPBURN ROUTINE–THE "C" ROUTINE

THE FORGOTTEN HEPBURN ROUTINE—THE "C" ROUTINE

By Shane Robert

Doug Hepburn was an immensely strong Canadian weightlifter whose training programs are now somewhat infamous on the internet. He used these routines, of which there seem to be three, to set world records at the time in a number of lifts, including becoming the first man in history to bench press 400, 450, 500, and 550 pounds over the course of three to four years.He is also credited as the first man in history to squat 600 pounds, which he achieved in 1951, and eventually went on to squat 800 pounds.

The most well known of his programs, called the “B” program or the “Power and Pump” routine, features a simple double progression going from 8x2 with a weight you can complete for around 8 reps in one all out set, roughly 80% of a 1 rep max, to 8x3 with that weight by adding 1 rep per workout over 4 weeks of twice weekly training sessions. For those with high training stamina, this could be followed by 3 sets of 6 reps with a weight that is about 20% lighter and that progresses in the same fashion to 3x8 reps. Make no mistake, this is a lot of work and many people, including, apparently, Doug himself in later years, felt that it was too much work and should be split up. You’ll have to decide for yourself.

After the 4-week progression is complete, 10-20 pounds are added to the lift, and the process is repeated. Doug was of the opinion that this program could be run for 3-4 months before needing to be changed to one of his other programs.

Another of Hepburn’s routines, creatively called the “A” program, is a straight strength-building workout. It also uses a double progression, but this time progressing sets over subsequent workouts. You pick a weight that you can complete for a heavy, but very doable single rep, something like 90% of 1 rep max, and do 4 sets of 1 rep with that weight. Every training session, you add 1 set until you complete 10 singles, at which point you add weight and repeat, just as in the “B” routine. Just like the “B” routine, this can likely be run for 3-4 months before needing to be changed. Doug believed that his routine should be run first, hence calling it A, then moving on to B when progress stalls.

When progress for B starts to stall, you move onto the final routine, which, as you might by now guess, is called the “C” routine. The layout of the routine that has made its rounds online differs from the routine that Doug presented in a series of videos that he recorded in the late 1990s. Since both seem to have come from Doug, it’s hard to say which is canonical to the era in which he was strongest. However, I think that the benefit of hindsight and the wisdom of aging may have influenced the change. Whatever the cause, both will be presented.

The routine, sometimes called the “C” routine, starts with 5 sets of 3 reps with a similar load that is used in the “B” routine, perhaps a tad lighter. Add 1 rep per workout until you complete 5x5 with that weight. Some people have called this the “unloading” Hepburn program. Since the volumes of this and the “B” routine are essentially the same, albeit perhaps with slightly lighter weights, it seems like an odd designation.

The OTHER “C” routine, the one that was presented in Hepburn’s videos, differs quite a bit from the one above. You start with a weight at which you can get 8-10 reps, which is a consistency in these routines, and you do 1 set of 5. Then 3 sets of 4, 3 sets of 3, and finally 3 sets of 2. Each workout, you add 1 rep to ALL SETS. This is a very important distinction between the “C” routine and all of the others. Hepburn's other routines only add 1 rep to one single set each workout. Adding 1 rep to each set each workout continues until you complete 1x8, 3x7, 3x6, 3x5. That’s 62 reps with the same heavy weight. If that won’t slap some muscle on you, nothing will.

There is a lot to be learned from the success of others. Doug Hepburn was incredibly successful and should be viewed as a reliable source of training information. Though his programs weren’t meant to bring fast gains, they could reasonably add anywhere from 60-120 pounds to a lift in a year if you are willing to commit to a long-term training strategy of hard and heavy lifting. That’s pretty remarkable for an experienced lifter.