The other day, I found myself telling a few peeps via PM (private message) about my current workouts, and the newest workout template I was messing with. And since I know I’ve got a ton more peeps on my newsletter, that read my blog, on Facebook, and other random places, I figured “what the hell – I’ll just put it into a blog post for everybody to see”.
After all, I do like to give you cool stuff for free when I can, you know?
Anyway, a little background.
I’d been doing workouts like what’s in the 4-Week Ass Kicking Blast for quite a while – a few months (and at the highest level – not the lower volume, ramp-up weeks) without a break. I still loved the workouts, and I enjoyed them, but they had been getting a little stale. Besides, when I was doing the workout that involved pushup and row circuits, I was getting to the point that I was doing 500+ pushups in a workout, and doing that a few times/week was starting to wreak havoc on my shoulders.
(I’ve got past shoulder issues anyway.)
So, I decided to alter the 4-Week Ass Kicking Blast a little, and see how that worked. I’d actually picked up a couple new Kettlebells from MuscleDriver USA and wanted to work those into my workouts. It went Ok for a couple weeks, but I needed something different.
I went through all my old programs (yeah, I know – a guy selling programs who does his own programs…crazy, huh?), and decided that I wanted to do something that was a little more strength, volume, and work capacity based. But, I still wanted conditioning. I didn’t want to completely move away from complexes (y’all know I’m a huge fan of complexes), but I wanted something a little different. And I wanted to get the chance to work with my new KBs.
I went looking through Working Class Cardio, and it dawned on me – a version of some of the stuff I’d written into Phase 1 of WCC. I would use higher sets with more medium reps. It could let me focus on lifting (relatively) heavy, really focus on form/technique, and get a bunch of overall volume in. Plus, it would let me concentrate on just a handful of different exercises.
Then, I’d add in ‘active rest’ exercises after each set. This would really up the workload factor, and allow me to still work on work capacity and retain conditioning, without doing the hardcore circuits I had been doing. I’d split it into a two-day format, so I could train on a Mon-Tues-Thurs-Fri schedule, as I’ve found over the past year or so that type of schedule really suits me. And if I had to miss a day, making it up would be no big deal, as I wouldn’t be super-behind in my program.
(Though, I haven’t missed a day in…jeez…can’t remember how long. LOL. I’ve been downright consistent, I tell ya!
Here’s what I ended up coming up with:
Monday/Thursday (upper day):
1 – GPP Warmup (this should come as no surprise – LOL)
2 – KB Press: 8 x 6 each side
*follow each set with 50 jumping or seal jacks + 50 skiers
3 – DB Raise/Rows: 8 x 6
*follow each set with 50 jumping or seal jacks + 50 skiers
4 – Finisher
Tuesday/Friday (lower):
1 – GPP Warmup
2 – KB High Pull: 8 x 6 each side
*follow each set with 50 jumping or seal jacks + 50 skiers
3 – Double KB Swing (a KB in each hand, swing outside the legs): 8 x 6
*follow each set with 50 jumping or seal jacks + 50 skiers
4 – Finisher
Now, the ‘finisher’ for each workout can vary from workout to workout. On upper days, it’s usually something vanity related – maybe banded Barbell Curls, or DB Curls, or a biceps/triceps superset. Something along those lines. On lower days, it’s generally something conditioning related – as of late, it’s been Bench Jumps for 10 sets of 6 jumps + 6 breaths. But sometimes it’s hill sprints. Other times it’s 50 Burpees done as fast as possible.
(Some of you might wonder why I’m using KB High Pulls instead of KB Snatches. If you picked up the 4-Week Minimalistic Blast, you’ll know that I’m actually a much bigger fan of KB High Pulls than I am KB Snatches. Though, I do plan on switching them out with DB Snatches – which I’m a very big fan of – from time to time.)
The awesome thing about this program is how customizable it is.
You notice all the jacks + skiers. Sometimes I’ll swap out Mountain Climbers x 15 each leg for one or the other. Or Squat Thrusts x 10. Or Medicine Ball Woodchoppers x 10. Anything along those lines.
Now, how could you work this kinda program into what you do?
Pretty simple, really – just take the basic template, and swap in your favorite compound exercises. They could be barbell, sandbag, DB, kettlebell…whatever you want. Examples of sample upper days could be:
-Bench Press and Bent Row
-Push Press and Weighted Chins
-Sandbag Clean & Press and DB Rows
-Weighted Dips and Renegade Rows
-1-Arm DB Clean & Press and Reverse Grip Rows
That sorta thing.
For lower days, you could pick the usual suspects – Squats, Deadlifts, etc. – but also various Olympic lift hybrids or variations. Sample days could be:
-Cleans and Squats
-High Pulls and Rack Deadlifts
-DB Snatch and Racked KB Lunges
-Power Snatch and Trap Bar Deadlifts
You get the idea.
For weight, pick a heavy weight that you could get 6-7 good, clean reps with – maybe 8 (but that’s pushing the light side). You want to be grinding through all these sets – they should all be heavy. If you can’t quite gut out all 6 reps in a set by the end of the workout, then rest-pause your way out to 6 reps. Or, in other words, do as many as you can, rack the bar (but don’t let go), rest a couple breaths, do another rep or two, rack the bar, and keep repeating until you get all 6 reps for that set. Keep doing this for all your sets.
If you wanted to pick different exercises each workout (say have one pair of exercises for upper on Monday, then another pair of exercises for upper on Thursday; same with lower on Tuesday and Friday), then that would work, too. Just be sure to repeat each week.
Try this template out – it’s pretty simple, but damn if it doesn’t work. I think y’all will totally dig it.