A strength focus question

[Craig B.]

Hi Charles, I'm not seeing as much action here as I think should be, so here's a question:

I work out every other day either at home or in a small machine based gym. I tend to just use their squat rack and bench press set up, and dumb bells. At home I'm working with kettlebells (26#-72#) and two sandbags, 50# & 100#. I'm looking mainly at a strength focus- not that I'll complain if I gain some mass, but it's not a primary goal. Given the basic tools- kettlebells and sandbags at home, barbell, DBs, bench, chin bar at the gym how would you set up an EDT program? I do well currently training every other day for about an hour including warm up and stretching, cool down. I'm 41.

Thanks-

Craig

[Charles Staley]

Thanks for the question Craig!

Clearly there are many options in terms of what your weekly split might look like, but I tend to favor what I call an "A-B Split," meaning, you devise two workouts that you perform in alternating fashion on non-consecutive days, resting at least 1 but not more than 2 days between sessions.

As a secondary note, we use a few different forms of EDT for maximal strength that a lot of people are unaware of, so when you see unfamiliar-looking parameters below, that's the explanation

So with that in place, here's a possible option:

A Session (Gym)

First PR Zone

Barbell Hang Clean
Weighted Pull-Ups

Second PR Zone

Barbell Bench Press
Rack Pull

Loading: Using a 5-6RM load for each exercise, alternate between each exercise, performing sets of 2, resting 60 second between sets, for a maximum of 14 sets of 2 reps on each exercise. This means you'll perform a maximum of 28 sets of 2 in this PR Zone. It also means that the PR Zone will take upwards of 30 minutes. Also note the use of the phrase "up to 14 sets." Explanation: You perform sets of 2, alternating between exercises and resting 1 minute between sets, until you reach 14 sets on each exercise OR until you reach failure.

Progression: If you fail to reach 14 sets, seek to reach that landmark on subsequent workouts until you do. If you DO reach 14 sets, then next time out, add 5 pounds, or 5% (whichever is less) to the load, wipe the slate clean, and start anew.

B Session (Home)

First PR Zone

KB Thrusters
Sandbag Floor Slams (Up to kip, raise bag over head, slam down to floor. I have a video somewhere, this is tough to describe in text)

Second PR Zone

KB Jerk (Long Cycle)
Pistols (Use Sandbag for additional load)

Loading: Standard EDT, performing as many reps as possible in 15 minutes using a 10RM load.

I should also say that we LOVE strongman events such as tires, truck pulling, etc., however you didn't list these options.

This is getting a bit long so I'll crop it here and see if anyone would like to explore this further...


Hi Charles, I'm not seeing as much action here as I think should be, so here's a question:

I work out every other day either at home or in a small machine based gym. I tend to just use their squat rack and bench press set up, and dumb bells. At home I'm working with kettlebells (26#-72#) and two sandbags, 50# & 100#. I'm looking mainly at a strength focus- not that I'll complain if I gain some mass, but it's not a primary goal. Given the basic tools- kettlebells and sandbags at home, barbell, DBs, bench, chin bar at the gym how would you set up an EDT program? I do well currently training every other day for about an hour including warm up and stretching, cool down. I'm 41.

Thanks-

Craig

[JMT]

A Session (Gym)

First PR Zone

Barbell Hang Clean
Weighted Pull-Ups

Second PR Zone

Barbell Bench Press
Rack Pull



No squats? Mark will be pissed.

[Craig B.]

Thanks Charles- I'll certainly give that some play in the near future, looks like good fun. I will also be doing a few short pieces of sled work, sledgehammer, and hill sprints each week. Would you do these after, or hit them in the mornings (EDT sessions in the evenings)? We're talking perhaps 2-4 minutes of actual work.

Sandbag Floor Slams- I've done these with slam balls- I assume this is the same thing? Those will vicious little monsters with the sandbag!

JMT- I got the squats covered, it'll be OK.

Craig

[Charles Staley]

We actually love strongman events? I just didn't mention them in the context of this question. And I like 2-a-days where the second workout is very brief and also somewhat unstructured. I never really warmed up to sledgehammer work for whatever reason, but we're big on vehicle pulls/pushes, sled dragging, tire flips, farmer's walks, and hill sprints.


Thanks Charles- I'll certainly give that some play in the near future, looks like good fun. I will also be doing a few short pieces of sled work, sledgehammer, and hill sprints each week. Would you do these after, or hit them in the mornings (EDT sessions in the evenings)? We're talking perhaps 2-4 minutes of actual work.

Sandbag Floor Slams- I've done these with slam balls- I assume this is the same thing? Those will vicious little monsters with the sandbag!

JMT- I got the squats covered, it'll be OK.

Craig

[Craig B.]

Charles-

Ok, those are two fun workouts. It'll take some tweaking to get the loading right, and I made two changes to make it viable (ie, I can't do a single pistol yet (I'm balance impaired), so I am doing single leg deads with the KBs, using DBs on the bench so as to not hog the only flat bench set up in the gym).

The Kettlebell session is a sweat-fest, and the sandbag slams are seriously fun. I realized about halfway through that I can actually get enough upward motion on the bag to let go and get my hands fully behind/above the bag to drive it down- that's a crippler (and I mean that in a good way).

I'm doing the LCCJ as single arm to balance the single leg, feels right.

Thanks for the ideas-

Craig