Cluster Sets: From Allsup’s to Enlightenment

by- Josh Bryant

Josh smashes the great Tyrus Hughes with cluster sets.

Some chase nirvana in a monastery.

I found mine behind an Allsup’s, sipping pre workout coffee out of a Styrofoam cup, watching the sunrise over a gravel lot—thinking about pain, purpose, and why most lifters train like poodle dicks.

This isn’t just another training tip. 

This is about training with purpose driven intention that drives results. 

 Cluster sets bring purpose to your effort. They turn mindless reps into progress with meaning. Where there was just routine, now there’s results. A higher law—written in sweat and steel.

Enter the Cluster Set

For over 70 years, strength superstars have used cluster sets to bulldoze through plateaus. Cluster sets aren’t just about sneaky rest intervals or gimmicky rep schemes—they’re about bringing intention back to training. In most gyms, lifters move through cookie-cutter sets like mindless sheep marching toward the slaughter—racking up sets with no purpose, no focus, no urgency, and no results. Just 3x10s  and half-hearted spotting from some car scrolling TikTok.

Cluster sets fix that.

By breaking sets into smaller “chunks” with brief rest between reps, you’re lifting heavier, longer, and with laser focus. It’s density training with direction. Not just gutting out reps—becoming the rep. Fatigue doesn’t lead the dance anymore—you do.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the key cluster styles:

• HSSC (Hypertrophy Specific Cluster): Pick a 10–15RM. Do 5 reps, rest 15 sec, and repeat for 5 minutes. Lower reps if needed. If there’s anything left, AMRAP the last round.
  
• JSCS (Jailhouse Strong Cluster Set): Start with a 15-rep weight. Do 5 reps, rest 20 sec, and keep going until the bar says no. No time cap. Just effort.
  
• Poliquin Clusters: 5 sets of 5 reps at 90% 1RM. Rest 15 sec between reps, 2–4 min between sets. Build elite-level strength—if you survive it. (Most can’t)
  
• Carl Miller Clusters:
  
  • Volume: 5–7 reps, 30–45 sec rest, 85–92%
    
  • Intensity: 2–3 reps, 45–60 sec rest, 87–95%
    Old-school iron wisdom, built for both powerlifting and Olympic lifts.
    
• Mentzer Clusters: Start at 100% 1RM, then step down in intensity each rep (98%, 95%, etc.) with 15–30 sec rest. Pure brutality. Maximum intensity, minimal fluff.
  
• Maximal Singles Cluster: 90% for singles, rest 60 sec between reps, stop at technical failure. Just one big, savage set.
  
• Double Clusters: Use your 5–8RM. Do 2 reps, rest 15–30 sec, and repeat for 6–10 sets. High-volume with built-in bar speed and recovery.
  
• JoshStrength Powerlifting Clusters (CAT Style): After your top set, drop the weight and hammer 2–4 rep submax sets with max force and bar speed. Builds power, speed, and technique under load.
  

Each method has a place. Each one is a weapon. But the real power comes when the reps aren’t just counted—they’re lived with focus and purpose.

I personally developed the Hypertrophy Specific Cluster Set, Jailhouse Strong Cluster, and JoshStrength Powerlifting Clusters. The others—Poliquin, Mentzer, Carl Miller—have produced results for many, though some are extreme and not suited for everyone.

I’m sharing them here not to advocate or discourage, but to educate, so you can apply what works best for your goals, experience, and mindset.

Take what serves you. Leave the rest. But never train without intention.

The Journey Begins

My cluster pilgrimage started at 19. I was living in Southern California, driving 137 miles each way to train with my powerlifting mentor Paul Leonard and the wild, wonderful Yorba Linda Barbell crew—including the immortal Art Labare. Paul made me a cluster deadlift program that slapped nearly 50 pounds on my pull in just 12 weeks. No fluff, no gimmicks—just iron, intent, and intraset rest.

From there, it was Baton Rouge with Garry Frank—world-record deadlifter. Garry had me doing 6×2 @ 80% with 60 seconds rest. Brutal. But I grew stronger, mentally and physically. That heat, that pain, that rhythm—it was spiritual, like a redneck Zen riddle.

Bench Press, Breakthroughs, and the Call to Coan

Later, I chased 600 on the bench. I used CAT-style submaximal clusters—lightweight, max intent. Bench flew up like an oil derrick in boom season.

I called my mentor Ed Coan. I told him about my bench gains. He said, “Try that for your deadlift too.” I did. Hit 700. Then 800. Then I wrote a program for Ed’s training partner, who shattered his own record. A moment of enlightenment in the temple of iron.

The Contest That Changed Everything

In 2005, I had bills, cravings, and something to prove. I signed up for the Atlantis Strongest Man in America—five max-effort lifts. Twelve weeks out, I missed 700 on the trap bar. Could barely press 350.

I trained like a monk with a vengeance—cluster sets and CAT work daily. No distractions, just discipline and digestion (thanks to daily Waffle House + Chinese buffet runs).

Twelve weeks later, I smoked 840 on the low-handle, thick-bar, no-straps trap bar deadlift and pressed 445 like it was PVC. Took the title. Put cash in my pocket. Put purpose in my soul. I had more in the tank, but I wasn’t there to show off—I was there to win. Five events, five moves ahead. Strategic lifting, not ego lifting. The mission was money and dominance, not burnout.

The Metroflex Rebirth

Then came Metroflex. The second I walked in, I felt it. Like entering Valhalla on leg day. Paul Leonard had moved to Texas, so we reunited and trained like maniacs. I leaned down under Brian Dobson’s eye for bodybuilding training. We did cluster-style machine presses—failure, 30 sec rest, repeat for 10 minutes.

This wasn’t training anymore. This was a transformation.

I used what I learned to help IFBB pros earn their cards and turn would-be lifters into walking tanks. Cluster sets weren’t just tactics—they were tools for transcendence.

The Name, the Science, the Calling

I had no name for what I was doing until I heard Dr. Jonathan Oliver speak. He laid out the science behind cluster sets. I saw everything I’d been doing spelled out in data. He even invited me to lecture at TCU. Finally, the metaphysical had met the empirical!

Dr. Oliver’s work filled in the blanks. His research was done on Marines and trained athletes—real ones, not influencers doing TikTok lunges.

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Global Gains 

From 2015 to 2017, I hit the road with the late, great Dr. Fred Hatfield. We ran ISSA seminars for lifters—not keyboard warriors. We taught cluster sets from Oklahoma to Okinawa.

When Fred passed in 2017, I was devastated. He was more than a mentor—he was family forged in iron. But I knew he’d want the torch carried, not mourned. So I kept it lit. The mission didn’t end—it changed. And I know he’s watching from above, proud that the fire never died.

In Beijing, I ran a brutal cluster set demo—locals shouted “QIANGU DU!” (intensity in Chinese) as the iron baptized them. In a Delhi basement gym, after a sweat-soaked session, I raised a Kingfisher beer and a lifter looked me dead in the eyes and said, “This is the king of training methods.”

Since then, I’ve brought cluster sets to Australia, England, hipster gyms on the West Coast, and rural iron pits across the South. Wherever there’s steel and a lifter hungry for more—I bring cluster sets!

From Allsup’s parking lots to temples of iron in Asia, I’ve used cluster sets with the strongest lifters on Earth, elite tactical units, and even the fastest arm in the MLB.

The Enlightenment

This journey’s taught me more than just reps and rest intervals.

It’s about escaping the trap of mediocrity. You’ve got to suffer with purpose, bleed with direction, and rest with intention—just like a cluster set.

Sometimes the best ideas don’t hit you in a lab or a lecture.

They hit you behind an Allsup’s, sipping a pre workout coffee out of a Styrofoam cup, watching the sunrise over a gravel lot, knowing the only thing standing between you and greatness is a barbell and some damn rest intervals.

That’s where Cluster Sets found me.

And I’ve been paying it forward ever since.

The Bottom Line

Cluster sets aren’t trendy—they’re timeless.

They work for building strength, power, size and even conditioning if applied correctly. Whether you’re trying to break records or just break plateaus, clusters are a battle-tested tool in the iron arsenal.

Don’t be a prisoner to stale programming.

Free yourself—and your gains—with the cluster set revolution.

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