This page is an edited presentation of Bill Starr’s published methodology, based primarily on The Strongest Shall Survive and his magazine articles on the heavy-light-medium system. It is not newly written material by Bill Starr.
Heavy-light-medium — HLM — is the load-management idea behind nearly every sensible three-day strength program: train the same core lifts three times a week, but make only one of those sessions truly heavy. The other two exist to recover, practice, and build work capacity without burying the lifter.
Bill Starr did not invent the arrangement, but he wrote about it longer, more practically, and for more kinds of athletes than anyone else. This page explains his version as published — and clearly separates it from the ways modern coaches have extended it.
Where HLM Came From
The idea is older than most lifters assume. Starr traced it himself: “In the early 1930s Mark Berry wrote about the system in his book Physical Training Simplified,” and around the same time Alan Calvert covered it in his magazine Strength. Those sources faded from print, and the concept largely vanished from the magazines of Starr’s youth — so he, like most lifters of the 1950s, found it on his own. Training in the Air Force, he noticed a pattern: strong and energetic on Monday, flat on Wednesday, strong again on Friday. The shorter Wednesday session was the difference. He began planning lighter midweek work on purpose — and later had the formal system laid out for him under Sid Henry while training at Southern Methodist University, the same coaching relationship described in our Sid Henry program article.
Starr kept applying the system from then on — for himself, for collegiate teams, and for professional athletes. Summing up its value late in his career, he wrote that “a less demanding workout should always follow a strenuous one so your body gets the opportunity to recover properly” (“Heavy Light, Medium: Taking the Confusion Out of the H-L-M Program,” 2006).
The Classic Week
In The Strongest Shall Survive, HLM is not a separate program from the Big Three — it is how the Big Three are loaded. The same three lifts run every session: power cleans first, then bench presses, then squats, performed as ramped five sets of five inside the circuit format, with preventive auxiliary work afterward (pp. 57–58). Only the loads change across the week:
| Day | Session | Power clean – top set | Bench press – top set | Squat – top set |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Heavy | 165×5 | 200×5 | 225×5 |
| Wednesday | Light | 135×5 | 160×5 | 180×5 |
| Friday | Medium | 150×5 | 180×5 | 205×5 |
Those are the book’s own worked numbers for one athlete whose tested best sets of five were 165 on the power clean, 200 on the bench press, and 225 on the squat. Each top set sits at the end of a gradually rising ladder, and the auxiliary exercises repeat identically all three days. Note Friday’s clean: 90% of 165 is 148.5, rounded up to 150 — exactly how the book handles awkward arithmetic.
How the Loads Are Set
| Day | Load rule | Squat example (best five = 225) |
|---|---|---|
| Monday – Heavy | Work up to top set of 5 | 225 |
| Wednesday – Light | 80% of Monday’s final set of five | ~180 |
| Friday – Medium | 90% of Monday’s final set of five, rounded up | ~205 (202.5 rounds up) |
The anchor point matters: percentages apply to the final set of five from the heavy day, which itself comes from a test performed in the very first workout — the same tested-max approach used in Starr’s original Big Three 5×5. The light and medium days use the same ramps and the same rep counts as Monday; only the ceiling moves. Progression follows the same completion-gated logic detailed in our Big Three page, and the cumulative effect of those small weekly jumps is what Starr measured with his workload calculations.
What the Light Day Is Actually For
A light day is a work day at reduced load — not a day off. The weights allow crisp, fast repetitions, which makes Wednesday the natural place to polish technique and move the bar with speed rather than strain. If a lifter finishes Wednesday worn out, the day was programmed too heavy, and the fix is dropping the percentage or the volume until Monday stops suffering. Our dedicated guide to Starr’s light-day principles covers this in depth.
Beyond the Classic Layout
Starr’s own extension (historical): for more advanced groups, he rotated which lift went heavy on each day — for example, power cleans heavy Monday, bench press heavy Wednesday, squats heavy Friday, with the other two lifts light or medium alongside (pp. 66–67). Every session then contains one hard effort, but no single lift takes two genuinely heavy beatings in a week. His in-season template applies the same logic for athletes competing on Saturdays (pp. 64–65).
Modern extensions (interpretations, not Starr’s prescriptions): contemporary coaches — Andy Baker, Barbell Logic, and Bodyrecomposition among them — widen the percentage offsets as lifters get stronger, set per-day volume targets, and deliberately choose lower-load exercise variants (front squats, pause work) so each day can be attacked hard while total stress stays managed. These are reasonable developments of the framework, but they are the coaches’ additions, not anything Starr prescribed in The Strongest Shall Survive.
Who HLM Is For, and When to Start
HLM is a post-novice structure. Starr implemented it once a lifter’s early progress — the stretch where almost anything works — began to flatten out, because that is precisely when hammering every session stops producing progress and starts producing fatigue. Complete beginners should build their base first (see our getting-started guide). Lifters already stalled mid-way into intermediate training will recognize their situation in our piece on overcoming sticking points — and HLM is usually the structural answer.
Common Mistakes
- Turning Wednesday into a second Monday. If the heavy day still has not recovered by Friday, the light day crept too heavy.
- Randomizing exercises and calling it HLM. Swapping lifts daily is variety, not load management — though Starr did document deliberate exercise-selection variants, chosen specifically because they permit lighter loads.
- Ignoring the anchor. Percentages mean nothing unless the heavy-day top set reflects an honest, recently tested best five.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage should the light and medium days be?
In the original system: light = 80% and medium = 90% of the heavy day’s final set of five, rounding odd results up to the next loadable weight (pp. 58). Modern coaches sometimes widen those offsets for stronger lifters — an interpretation, not part of the 1976 text.
Should I use the same exercises all three days?
The classic week does — squat, bench, and power clean every session, loads varying. Starr also wrote about creating the light and medium effect through exercise selection instead of percentages; either approach works when applied deliberately, but they should not be mixed carelessly.
Is HLM the same as the Texas Method?
No. The Texas Method is a much later derivative from Starr’s lineage that splits volume and intensity days differently. HLM is the older, broader framework: three full-body sessions with loads stepped heavy-light-medium across the week.
When should I switch to HLM?
When steady beginner progress flattens despite consistent effort and sound recovery. Until then, simpler progression continues to work.
Sources
Primary: Bill Starr, The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football — pp. 57–58 (classic week, 80/90 loads, sample athlete), pp. 64–65 (in-season adaptation), pp. 66–67 (advanced rotation). Starr articles: “The Light, Heavy and Medium System” (Iron Man, April 2015); “Heavy, Light and Medium” (CrossFit Journal); “Heavy Light, Medium: Taking the Confusion Out of the H-L-M Program” (2006), quoted via Barbell Logic. Origin sources cited by Starr: Mark Berry, Physical Training Simplified (early 1930s); Alan Calvert’s Strength magazine. Modern-interpretation layer, labeled as such: andybaker.com HLM series; Barbell Logic HLM articles; bodyrecomposition.com.
Last updated: August 2026 · Edited presentation of Bill Starr’s published methodology — not newly written by Bill Starr.
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