The size tier. Twelve weeks, an A/B split across six main lifts, up to three accessories a session. Same 85% ceiling as Sentinel at roughly double the working volume, with conditioning pulled back to make room.
Ironhide is a tier-three protocol. It branches off Ghost in parallel with Sentinel — you don't need to run Sentinel first, but you do need the Ghost base.
Never test a true one-rep max. Six training maxes, all calculated from moderate working sets. There is no testing session anywhere in this protocol.
Ghost and Sentinel are strength protocols that happen to build some muscle. Ironhide inverts that: it's built for size, and it gets there by adding time under the bar rather than by adding load.
The intensity architecture is identical to Sentinel — same 85% ceiling, same rep floor, same tempo, same absolute ban on singles and doubles. What changes is the shape. Six main lifts instead of three, split across alternating A and B days. Twelve weeks instead of eight, giving you three blocks instead of two. And up to three accessory movements per session, run as giant sets.
The trade is conditioning. Ironhide caps you at two Hunt sessions a week and drops long cardio entirely, because steady-state work competes directly with the recovery this volume demands.
Six main lifts, divided into two sessions. You alternate them each time you train — not by day of the week, but in strict rotation. Over a three-day week that means A, B, A one week and B, A, B the next.
Default: back squat, bench press, weighted pull-up
Then up to 3 accessories as giant sets.
Default: front squat, strict press, deadlift
Then up to 3 accessories as giant sets.
Train on non-consecutive days — Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Both sessions use the same percentage and set scheme from the week's row; only the lifts change.
All six lifts are substitutable. Weighted pull-ups and dips need your bodyweight factored into the training max, which the generator handles automatically once you enter it.
Three four-week blocks, each running volume → moderate → intensity → deload. All percentages are of your training max.
| Week | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sets × Reps | 4×6 | 4×5 | 3×3 | 2×5 | 4×6 | 4×5 | 3×3 | 2×5 | 4×6 | 4×5 | 3×5 | 2×5 |
| % of TM | 70% | 80% | 85% | 60% | 75% | 80% | 85% | 60% | 75% | 80% | 85% | 60% |
| RPE Cap | 6 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 5 |
| Rest (min) | 3 | 3–4 | 4–5 | Any | 3 | 3–4 | 4–5 | Any | 3 | 3–4 | 4–5 | Any |
| Type | Volume | Mod | Intensity | Deload | Volume | Mod | Intensity | Deload | Volume | Mod | Intensity | Deload |
Tempo is 20X2–20X3 on every main lift, every week — lower over two seconds, no pause, explosive lift, two to three second hold at the top. Exhale and re-brace during that hold. At this volume the breathing discipline is what keeps intracranial pressure from stacking across a long session.
The table above is the shape of the cycle. This turns it into your actual numbers. Enter one recent working set per lift and you'll get every weight for all twelve weeks.
Up to three accessory exercises per session, run as giant sets — 3 to 4 rounds of 8 to 12 reps, moving between movements with minimal rest. This is the hypertrophy engine of the protocol and the main reason Ironhide builds size where Sentinel doesn't.
Minimal, and deliberately so. Ironhide is the one tier where conditioning gets sacrificed to the primary goal.
Short, hard intervals with rest between efforts. Ten to thirty minutes total: 30-second sprints with 60 seconds rest, assault bike intervals, kettlebell circuits, hill sprints. Short and intense is the entire point — you want the cardiovascular stimulus without the recovery cost.
Skip steady-state and extended aerobic sessions for the length of this cycle. Long cardio competes directly with muscle growth and with the recovery your six-lift volume already demands. If you find yourself missing the aerobic work, that's a signal you'd be happier on Ghost or Sentinel.
Between cycles, add 5 lbs to upper body training maxes and 5 lbs to lower body training maxes — the same increment as every other tier, applied across all six lifts.
Neuro-RPE at 8 or higher on more than two sessions in a cycle means you repeat the same training maxes. As on Sentinel, intensity weeks are supposed to reach 8 — it's an 8 on volume or moderate weeks that signals the load is too high.
More than two 48-hour rule triggers: drop training maxes 5–10% and repeat. If a twelve-week block triggers it repeatedly, the volume is the problem rather than the load, and Sentinel is the better home for a cycle or two.
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