#workout programming

My plan is to revisit the workout that got me the strongest:

A) squat, press, deadlift

B) something fun and sweaty

I'm unexpectedly nowhere, with no weights, for a month. So I focus on running and calisthenics.

For runs, I'm sticking to long runs (5k and greater) and hills. There are great hills to hate here. It’s fun to run in the cold without “proper” gear. Above 0°C, without rain, I find I don’t actually need warm clothing.

Calisthenics workouts usually involve a short run—maybe a mile, maybe a slow hill run or two—before or after high volume squats, dand push-ups, and as much of everything else I can think of. My push-ups are improving. I'd like to fit some Kurz work in. I'm re-reading my Ross Enamait.

So, one workout is a long run or medium run with hill sprints, and the other is calisthenics with a short run. I've been alternating daily between those two workouts, only taking rest days when forced to by social or travel responsibilities. It's not so taxing. There's a gym nearby, but it's expensive. Maybe I'll treat myself and go once to deadlift, squat, and press heavy. Heavy for right now, at least.

When I have access to kettlebells, I'd like to try this girevoy sport workout a try:

Warm up with 10 each side: swings, cleans, jerks, snatches

4 minutes each, with breaks between: long cycle, jerk, snatch

To review, the old was:

“A” Days

front squat (3 sets of 5)

pull-ups (started with 3 max sets or max-rep sets until 50 total; more recently a ladder up and down (totaling 100) worked better)

other stuff, maybe

“B” Days

deadlift (3 sets of 5)

overhead press (from floor, 2 sets of 5)

dips (started with 2 max-rep sets, switched to ladders totaling 100)

other stuff, maybe

Other stuff included mobility, grappling movements, abs, conditioning circuits, and such.

Now that I hit my benchmarks, I’m cleared to put these basic strength movements on the back burner and focus on other lifts that develop explosiveness, flexibility, and awesomeness. So:

“A” days

overhead press (from floor, not sure of set/rep scheme)

power cleans (singles totaling ~10)

romanian deadlifts

other stuff, maybe

“B” days

weighted lunges (this is exploratory but I’m starting with 5 sets of 5 left, 5 right)

pendlay rows (also exploratory but I’m more confident in 3-5 sets of 8)

other stuff, maybe

Other stuff is as before.

Morning workouts continue to be dynamic stretching and yoga.

First, I’m being serious about running. Longer runs, more often.

Second, the mobility work. Every time I focus on mobility and flexibility I see tremendous movement-quality and feel-good gains. I’m on that track. Hips, shoulders, thorax, neck.

Non-gym summer workouts:

Ocean ziggurat climbing

Backflip and frontflip practice

Ramazan-closed-gym leads to hill sprints in 39ºC heat

Marathon snorkeling (not pictured)

After my gym became literally unable to accept my money, I am reduced to home workouts. I am grieved about the regress this absence of a barbell means. But there is no time for tears. I have said many times that a pull-up bar and a kettlebell is the minimum one needs for a solid general fitness. I bought a kettlebell to see if I’ve been right.

After some exploratory workouts, I’ve discovered the following template works well for me right now:

Dynamic warm-up

Kettlebell snatches

Superset, with rest: [Single-leg deadlifts / Overhead press]

Lunges, with and without the ‘bell

Pull-ups

The largest kettlebell I could find was 20kg, so that’s what I have. I kind of want a second one for overhead pressing and squatting, but for external reasons that doesn’t make sense right now. 

My aim with these sub-maximal exercises is to simultaneously increase total volume and reduce the number of sets and time. So, I’m doing 100 snatches, with the arbitrary goal of beating the RKC snatch test standard of 5 minutes. (I’m a ways away.) Rest times between pressing sets are getting shorter without compromising the number of reps. The 1LDLs are fairly static, so they may or not be useful—hopefully they stretch my hamstrings. I aim for 50 total pull-ups and an uncounted mess of lunges, and both seem to work well. 

I’m seeing the best improvement from the snatches and the lunges. I don’t doubt the utility of the other exercises, though I am on the lookout for ways to make them more useful and challenging given my constraints.

Three lifting workouts a week, each centered on one of the classic Olympic lifts. 

Clean-and-press day

Clean-and-jerk day

Snatch day

I’d of course do power variations on the cleans and snatches, and some of the jerks. 

This maps quite well to the three-way hip complex split I’ve been mulling: squat/deadlift/glute-bridge. I also have found that in the midst of a workout, I very much enjoy flowing from one exercise to its logical “overload”, for example, progressing from clean-and-X to power cleans. Incorporating both ideas might look like:

Clean and press, squat

Clean and jerk, power clean, deadlift

Snatch, overhead squat, snatch-grip deadlift, glute bridges

Left to its own devices, as on walks or in the shower, I think of strength programming. If I were training for general athleticism right now, which I’m not, I might feel like doing something like this template 3 to 4 days a week:

A days

Clean-and-jerk

RDL

Overhead Press

B days

Snatch

Front squat

Pull-ups and muscle-ups

C days

Handstands 

Barbell hip thrust

Dips and muscle-ups

Each strength/gymnastica portion of the workout would have the option of being followed up by a bodyweight conditioning circuit and/or mobility time, as time and energy levels dictate.