Welcome to the second edition of Program Chatter! This is our ongoing series talking about programs we’re creating for athletes. I’ll shoot you straight: I love the barbell. Squats, deadlifts, bench, cleans, snatches, jerks. It’s such a simple and effective tool for creating positive physical and mental adaptations. So what do we do when that tool isn’t in the athlete toolbox or goals for the time being? We work without it. So lets talk about this program:
Athlete 1
Background Info:
25 year old female, ~75 kg. 2 years of crossfit, 2 years of weightlifting experience, but hasn’t trained consistently in about 1 year. She has tracked macros for 3 years. History of wrist pain that has improved with extensor strengthening and shoulder stability work in past. History of back pain that has improved with core/hamstring strengthining in the past. S
Goals
Short term: 5 dips, 5 pullups.
Long term: Lose 6 more lbs very gradually, get better at bodyweight movements like: 10 pullups, 10 dips, 10 pistol squats each leg. Return to regular strength training.
Roadblocks:
To quote the athlete she is struggling because: “Being lazy, not wanting to spend the money.” Upon further questioning it was, the gym she would like to go to is about a 20-30 minute drive from her house and the opposite direction of her work. She’s also saving for her first home purchase so she’s trying not to spend a lot on gym memberships. She does have a membership at a facility slightly closer that doesn’t have barbells or gymnastics rings, but it is closer and available so that’s where we’ll start. To me that doesn’t come acrossed as someone who is lazy, but as someone struggling to balance new priorities with old passions, so we’re going to write a plan that is simple, time effective, and can be done when she has time for it.
Plan Outline
So with improving bodyweight movements, we want to build general strength because it will be easier to do a pistol squat if your legs are stronger, and specific strength because even if you’re legs are very strong your balance can still be terrible. What this works out to will be breaking the movements down into specific components to work on what the athlete is struggling with, and coupling that with general pressing. pulling, lunging to build general strength. Our schedule is going to include 4 training sessions per week to start to allow her time to build her work capacity back up. Lets outline an example below:
Day 1 (upper body)
12 minute EMOM. Minute 1: Bench Dips x 10. Minute 2: 3 count eccentric Pullup x 5 (jump asssist if needed).
4 Supersets of 5 DB Shoulder, 8 Lat Pulldowns
4 RFT: 12 pushups, 12 ring rows, 50 m farmer carry.
15 rounds of: 30 seconds fast, 30 seconds moderate on exercise bike
Day 2 (Lower Body)
Pistol squat to bench - 4 sets of 10 each leg
4 Supersets of: 10 DB russian Step ups each leg, 10 Hip thrust
4 RFT: 10 KB Swing, 15 V-Ups, 25 m walking lunge
2000 m row
Day 3 (upper body)
3 rounds: Max Rep Dips, 60 second plank
3 Rounds: Max Rep Pullups, 30 second side plank each side
Superset of 5 DB shoulder Press, 8 DB row each arm
Bike 3 miles for time.
Day 4 (Lower Body)
3 Rounds of 5 Self assissted pistols quats each leg
3 Rounds: 10 Reverse Lunges each leg, 10 DB RDL’s, 25m Statue of Liberty carry each arm.
4 rounds: 8 Poliquin Side squats each leg, 8 Nordic Curls, 16 Med-ball deadbugs.
3x500m row. Negative split each round. 90 seconds rest between rounds.
Explanation:
So this would be our week 1. With bodyweight movements we’re going to focus on progressing to full versions of each of the movements over about 4-6 weeks depending on athlete feedback, and then progressing volume. This is a general phase to help the athlete progress at movements they’d like to improve at and build work capacity/stamina. One concept that may not be familiar to all of our readers is the negative splits on the rows on day 4. All that means is we would like each 500m to be faster than the one before it. So if your time on the first 500 m is 2:00, then your target for the second one might be 1:55, and 1:50 the third. The goal is to try to work harder as you accumulate fatigue and get tired.
So there’s our general plan for this athlete’s first week of training. If you’d like to talk more about your goals, then book a consult for free!