The core strength framework. 85% ceiling, three days a week, heavier triples. As much intensity as DarkWolf ever prescribes, and the tier everything else in the system bridges into.
Sentinel is a tier-two protocol. The prerequisites are not a formality — the 85% weeks assume a neurological tolerance you build in Ghost and nowhere else.
Never test a true one-rep max. Your training max carries over from Ghost with the standard between-cycle increase. There is no testing session and no max attempt anywhere in this protocol.
Ghost proves you can tolerate structured loading. Sentinel is where you find out how much strength that tolerance is worth.
The change from Ghost is narrow but real: the ceiling moves from 80% to 85%, sets of three appear in weeks 3 and 7, and you add a third lifting day. Everything else holds. Same three main lifts every session, same tempo, same rep floor, same absolute prohibition on singles and doubles. The safety architecture doesn't loosen as you advance — only the numbers move.
Sentinel adds an intensity week, which Ghost doesn't have. Weeks 3 and 7 are the only weeks in the DarkWolf strength system where you'll see triples at 85%, and they're capped at RPE 8. That's still two reps in reserve.
Two four-week blocks, each running volume → moderate → intensity → deload. The second block starts 5% higher than the first. All percentages are of your training max.
| Week | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sets × Reps | 4×5 | 4×5 | 3×3 | 2×5 | 4×5 | 4×5 | 3×3 | 2×5 |
| % of TM | 70% | 80% | 85% | 60% | 75% | 80% | 85% | 60% |
| RPE Cap | 6 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 5 |
| Rest (min) | 3 | 3–4 | 4–5 | Any | 3 | 3–4 | 4–5 | Any |
| Tempo | 20X2–3 | 20X2–3 | 20X2–3 | 20X2–3 | 20X2–3 | 20X2–3 | 20X2–3 | 20X2–3 |
| Type | Volume | Moderate | Intensity | Deload | Volume | Moderate | Intensity | Deload |
Note the rest column on weeks 3 and 7: four to five minutes, not three. Intensity weeks need the extra recovery between sets, and cutting it short is the most common way people turn a good intensity week into a bad one.
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 eight weeks.
Three days a week, every other day — Monday, Wednesday, Friday is the standard arrangement. The rest day between sessions is structural, not optional.
All main lifts, every time. Same as Ghost, one more day per week.
Rest 3–4 minutes on volume and moderate weeks, 4–5 on intensity weeks.
Unchanged from Ghost. Lower over two seconds, no pause at the bottom, lift explosively, hold two to three seconds at the top. Exhale and re-brace during that hold.
The tempo matters more here than it did on Ghost, not less. At 85% the temptation to hold your breath through the sticking point is much stronger, and that's precisely the pressure spike this protocol is built to avoid.
Percentages tell you what to load; the cap tells you whether to keep it. On intensity weeks the cap is 8 — two reps in reserve. If a set of three at 85% feels like RPE 9, the weight is wrong for that day. Drop it 10–15% and finish the session.
Remember that Neuro-RPE is dual-track: muscular effort and neurological symptoms, whichever is higher. A set that feels easy in the legs but produces head pressure is not an easy set. Full scale in the training guide.
Two to three sessions a week. Less room than Ghost, because the third lifting day takes some of it — but Sentinel is where interval work enters the system.
Steady-state aerobic work at a conversational pace, 120–150 BPM. Thirty to sixty minutes. Use it on all weeks, including intensity weeks — it's the one conditioning mode that never comes off the table.
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.
Volume weeks only. No Hunt on intensity weeks (3 and 7) — stacking hard intervals on top of 85% triples is how you find the ceiling the hard way.
Between cycles, add 5 lbs to upper body training maxes and 5 lbs to lower body training maxes — the same increment as Ghost, regardless of tier.
Neuro-RPE at 8 or higher on more than two sessions in a cycle means you repeat the same training maxes. On Sentinel this needs a little interpretation: the intensity weeks are supposed to hit 8. It's an 8 on volume or moderate weeks that tells you the load is too high.
More than two 48-hour rule triggers in a cycle: drop training maxes 5–10% and repeat. If it happens twice in a row on Sentinel, go back and run a Ghost cycle. Dropping a tier isn't a demotion, it's a recalibration.
Sentinel is a protocol you can run indefinitely — it's the framework, not a waypoint. Most people cycle it for a year or more. When you want something different:
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