#265 – The M.E.D. Masterclass #1: A Simple Approach to Programming

In 2019 Coach Matt delivered a series of lectures to the Barbell Logic staff on Minimum Effective Dose (MED) programming. MED is all about simplicity, identifying the smallest change you can make to a lifter’s programming to keep him or her progressing.

Of course, MED is not a new concept for Barbell Logic. Matt and Scott have discussed it as far back as Episode #53, and the idea underpins all of the programming episodes we’ve done since then.

Despite this, there is still much confusion around what to do after the novice linear progression. Many people see programming as a progression through a series of templates — Novice LP, Texas Method/HLM, Block, DUP, etc — and while you may make progress on these templates for a while, eventually things stop working. And without an understanding of how programming actually works, you’re left scratching your head for what to do next.

The MED approach essentially throws away the idea of templates, and asks you to first understand what the problem is — why exactly did you stop progressing? Is it because you need more stress to drive strength adaptation? Or are you under-recovered?

In the MED masterclass, you’ll get to sit in the coach’s seat and learn how to think more deeply about programming, identify problems, and formulate solutions based on logic and analysis — not just looking at templates.