Notorious 12 — Notorious Training System

Notorious Training System — Forge Protocol

Notorious 12

I built the first version of this 12 weeks fourteen years ago, in Afghanistan, with whatever equipment and time I could find between missions. It wasn't much — but it's the program that got me hooked on coaching. Everything I've learned since is in this rebuild. The bones are still the same 12 weeks.

A blacksmith doesn't do one thing to steel — raw ore gets heated, worked, and quenched, in a specific order, or the result fails. This 12-week program runs on the same order: Ore (Days 1–2, Hypertrophy) builds the raw mass. Temper (Day 5, Control) keeps it durable instead of brittle. Edge (Days 3–4, Performance) is where all of it gets converted into something that actually cuts. Delete the names and every session still reads as exactly what it is — sets, reps, and RPE, planned for all 12 weeks.

The metaphor, and why it stops there

OreRaw material. Days 1–2 — pure volume, building the tissue everything else draws from. Nothing to convert yet, just accumulation.
TemperThe controlled reheat/cool that makes steel durable instead of brittle. Day 5 — lower load, slower tempo, making movement durable before it gets loaded hard again.
EdgeThe finished, functional part of the tool. Days 3–4 — the same patterns as Ore, expressed as strength, speed, and power. Output, not a separate quality.

Three words, mapped 1:1 to real training qualities. No forge-gods, no separate lore layer, no meter replacing RPE — the theme adds flavor, it doesn't rewrite the system underneath.

Goal & level

General hypertrophy with a performance carry-over, for an intermediate lifter with 12+ months of consistent training and no unmanaged injury history.

Weekly schedule (concurrent)

  • Ore — Upper Body, Hypertrophy
  • Ore — Lower Body, Hypertrophy
  • Rest / active recovery
  • Edge — Upper Body, Performance (same patterns as Ore Upper)
  • Edge — Lower Body, Performance (same patterns as Ore Lower)
  • Temper — Control + Conditioning
  • Rest — or, every other week, Legacy Day

Legacy Day & the Trials

Every two weeks, the second rest day becomes Legacy Day — supersets, giant sets, circuits, and pyramid sets, lifted directly from the notation in the original 2012 program. It doesn't touch the Ore/Edge/Temper progression at all; it's a callback, not a phase. Week 12 replaces it with The Trials of Hercules — a six-labor benchmark day that closes out the cycle.

Program shape across 12 weeks

  • Weeks 1–5 — Forging. Progressive overload, one dial per week.
  • Week 6 — Cooling the Forge. Volume down ~50%, RPE capped at 5–6. Optional mid-program retest.
  • Weeks 7–11 — Forging, second heat. Resumes just above where the first heat left off.
  • Week 12 — The Finished Edge. Taper hard, then The Trials of Hercules.

Warm-up (every training day)

  • 5 min easy cardio — bike, row, or incline walk
  • Band pull-apart × 15, bodyweight squat × 10, world's greatest stretch × 5/side
  • 2 ramp-up sets on the day's first main lift (~50%, ~75% of working load)

Load management

Everything runs on RPE rather than fixed percentages — it autoregulates for how you actually showed up that day. A percentage plan doesn't know you slept 4 hours; RPE does.

Readiness adjustment (daily)

  • Readiness 4–5 → run the session as written
  • Readiness 3 → cut working volume ~20%
  • Readiness 1–2 → keep the movement patterns, drop to Temper-level loading

Tracking

  • Load, reps, and RPE on every working set
  • Body weight weekly, same morning conditions
  • Benchmark check-ins at week 1, week 6, and week 12

Program key

Vocabulary for every notation you'll see in a workout drawer. If a term below doesn't show up anywhere in Notorious 12 as written, it's still here because you'll see it in a future block.

Sets × Reps e.g. 4 × 8
4 working sets of 8 reps each, after warm-up sets. A single rep number is the target for every set unless the drawer says otherwise.
RPE Rate of Perceived Exertion
How hard a set actually felt, on a 1–10 scale, anchored to reps left in the tank. Notorious 12 runs on RPE instead of fixed percentages because it adjusts for how you showed up that day — a percentage doesn't know you slept 4 hours; RPE does.
RPE 100 reps in reserve — true failure
RPE 91 rep in reserve
RPE 82 reps in reserve
RPE 73 reps in reserve
RPE 64+ reps in reserve — working, still comfortable
RPE 5 & belowLight, technique-priority work
Rest
Time between working sets of the same exercise, before the next set starts.
Tempo e.g. 3-1-1
Each number is a phase of the rep, in seconds: 3s lowering (eccentric) — 1s pause at the stretched position — 1s lifting (concentric). "Controlled" means no strict count — just no bouncing or momentum to move the weight.
Speed / Power sets "max intended speed"
Load is moderate; the RPE describes how much intent and velocity you put into the rep, not how close to failure you are. If speed drops on back-to-back reps, that's the signal to stop the set — not to grind it out.
Maintenance sets
Low-volume sets on Performance days that carry a Hypertrophy-day exercise just to hold on to what you've already built. Not meant to be pushed hard — RPE stays moderate on purpose.
Superset SS
Two exercises performed back to back with no rest in between, then a full rest before repeating the pair. Appears on Legacy Day, once every two weeks — straight out of the original 2012 program.
Giant Set GS
Same idea as a superset, stretched to three or four exercises in a row with no rest between them, then a full rest before repeating the chain. Appears on Legacy Day.
Circuit C
A short list of exercises done as one round, minimal rest between them, then a real rest before the next round. Usually a finisher — core, calves, small joints. Appears on Legacy Day.
Full Pyramid Set FPS · 10 sets: 10,8,6,4,2,2,4,6,8,10
One exercise, ten sets. Reps step down while load climbs — 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 — peak at the two heaviest sets, then reps climb back up as load comes back down — 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Up the mountain and back down. That's the "full" in Full Pyramid. Appears on Legacy Day.
Half Pyramid Set HPS
Two exercises paired together, each one covering half the mountain — the first climbs to the peak (10,8,6,4,2), the second descends back down from it (2,4,6,8,10). Together the pair traces the same shape the Full Pyramid draws alone. Appears on Legacy Day.
Drop set
After hitting the listed reps, immediately reduce the load (typically 20–30%) and keep going with no rest, for one or more "drops." Not used in Notorious 12 as written.
Control circuit notation e.g. 2 rounds · 20s holds / 8 reps per side
Two full passes through the listed drill list on Temper day — hold isometric positions for the time given, or perform the listed reps per side, for each drill.

Heat-treat schedule — the program's load curve across 12 weeks

Forging (Wk 1–5, 7–11) Cooling the Forge (Wk 6) The Finished Edge (Wk 12)
Notorious Fit — Notorious 12 — Forge Protocol · concurrent model, three qualities trained every week. Fourteen years from the first draft to this one.