Cronos Program
What is old school is powerful and proven for muscle gain
The Cronos Program
By AJAC
The Cronos Program I wrote in 2021 and wanted to devise a “blast” program that was high volume, simple, and intense.
Ignored all the trendy “science and evidence” talk that makes everything think they are training wrong, and designed a program around old school methods and focus.
Hence the Cronos name. What is old school is powerful and proven for muscle growth.
The Cronos Program
This style of training was critiqued for a few years by the “science and evidence” dummies as “suboptimal” despite being used for decades by scores of lifters.
The ultimate truth about lifting is that ENJOYMENT drives progress more than any other factor
The power of the MIND in driving the bodys own biodynamic adaptation and rhythm cannot be ignored.
If you ENJOY your workouts, if the experience of them is satisfying to the mind and body, and provided they used the essential principles of intensity and progressive overload, you WILL make progress.
This is why many different training styles work, and why arguments over optimal are pointless.
Your genetic, biochemical, and biopsychological profile all integrate together.
Training proceeds in Waves and Rhythms
Changes in training volume and stimulus are necessary at times. This does not mean “change it up!” and train with randomness, but rather adjust training as necessary to suit your particular state of mental and physical readiness.
Sometimes this might be double frequency.
Other times, it might be once a week.
Growth comes through experimentation and self discovery.
High volume training can promote more strength and muscle growth, until it eventually does not.
Then a low volume higher intensity phase can keep progress going, until that becomes stale and you feel you could be doing more.
Then a higher volume phase begins again.
The Cronos Program is a high volume phase of training. Follow this program for 8-12 weeks. At the end of 8-12 weeks, you could keep it going, or adjust the program as you see fit.
Learning how to train yourself is part of the journey. Your evolution must be conscious.
Cronos is 4 Days Weekly
The program is as follow
Day 1-Legs
Day 2-Chest/Shoulders
Day 3-Rest Day (40-60 Minutes of Zone 2-3 cardio)
Day 4-Back
Day 5-Rest Day (40-60 Minutes of Zone 2-3 cardio)
Day 6-Arms
Day7-Rest Day (40-60 Minutes of Zone 2-3 cardio)
So you have 4 days of lifting, and 3 days of not lifting and doing cardio. Nothing crazy here, I never claim to be reinventing the wheel with training schedules.
Its a classic Bro split of Legs, Push, Pull, Arms. Each muscle group is trained once a week with a lot of sets and reps.
Essential Principles
Heavy weights-because we need meaningful mechanical tension
Progressive overload-applying mechanical tension in practice
Ramping sets (same number of reps each set, but adding weight until you reach a top set)-This autoregulates your volume and combines warmups and work sets into one
Drop sets-because they are FUN and you get awesome mind muscle connection
Back off sets (high rep sets to burnout)-because they deliver a wicked pump
You will see that abs are not included in the regular workouts. You can add them as you see fit to any of the training days, before or after your regular workouts. Or you could even do them on the Rest Days
What about REST PERIODS?
I suggest 2-3 minutes between sets. If you want to go faster, you definitely can. But longer rest periods are better for strength gains.
