Oh, yes, we are heading into our 4th and final week of this 1st of 3 months in the Strength Training Block. You are now a master of RPE as well as some good, basic compound movements. This week we will be ushering in a slight deload as you consolidate some of the gains from pushing it last week. This means we will slightly downregulate both intensity and volume in the sessions.
Again, nothing super fancy here. Basic conditioning is plain vanilla and not too sexy, but it works. It’s always a challenge for me to resist putting in too much stuff in our programming, but I’ll do my best. You’ll notice now that the exercises are the same in every category, but we are changing how we do every single movement.
Week of 2022-02-21 (week 4 of month 1: Strength Block)
| WOW | PREP | PRIMARY | ACCESSORY | TIPS |
| A PUSH X2 | 1 x 15 Tubing All done on knees Shoulder press Chest press Pressdown Kickback | 5 x 10 RPE 6-7-8-7-6 Bench Press | AMRAP In 1 minute Pushups w/feet elevated Push press w/any implement | Bonus Jump rope 1 x 3’’ |
| B LEGS X2 | 1 x 25 Med Ball Thruster Giant swing Mock throw situp 1-leg balance bridge | 5 x 10 RPE 6-7-8-7-6 Goblet Squat w/heels elevated | Plyometrics 1 x 30” each Box jump Depth drop Mtn climber | Bonus Sprint 4 x 20” RPE 7.5 Max rests |
| C PULL X2 | 2 X 10 Sandbag High pull Bent row Clean to sky Horizontal press | 5 x 10 RPE 6-7-8-7-6 Deadlift | Finishers KB Swings 40 reps rest/pause Assisted Pullups 20 reps rest/pause Bodyweight Rows 20 reps rest/pause | Bonus Cardio Free Choice RPE 6/10 20-30’ |
Workout A Comments: You are doing your prep exercises with tubing off your knees. This is tall kneeling on both knees on padding. In the bench, you now move to 5 sets of 10, roughly. The RPE goes up and back down again so you don’t crush yourself on the last set. The AMRAP pushups and push presses are now done for a minute only. And the jump rope is a real calf and ankle challenge (plus wind) at a full 3 minutes straight.
Workout B Advice: The med ball moves go up to 25 reps each. Same sequence in the primary for the squat as in the bench. That’s 50 reps of squats so take as much rest as you need between sets. The plyos move to one round of 30 seconds each. Honestly, this is a long time to go hard, so going moderate is fine. Sprints drop to 4 reps of 20 seconds at an RPE of only about 7.5, so they are tempo style. Work on rhythm.
Workout C Suggestions: Sandbag work goes to 2 sets of 10 reps and you can do them as circuits. Then use the same primary sequence on deadlifts. Honestly, I don’t like to program high reps in the dead, so back off your weight estimates a little bit this week. It’s really important to maintain strict form and keep your back safe. Then, when you hit the finishers you go for total reps using rest/pause in each. This means you can bang out a few reps, wait a few seconds, and then you are off to the races again. Finish out with easier cardio this week by backing effort down a few notches.
MasterClasses have been equal parts enjoyment and challenge, at least for me. I have enjoyed presenting biomechanics information and exercise methodology and I’ve been challenged to demonstrate decent form. It’s all good. Just the other day our crew went through a ton of unilateral tubing UB warmup, then we touched on gait patterns in the three major LB lifts of squat, lunge, and hinge. Next up we discussed shoulder clicking, clunking, and discomfort with pressing movements, went into an anatomical approach, and cleaned up everybody’s movement. Plus movie and rock quotes, jokes, laughs, and dogs! Sometimes there is even a bunny rabbit in the class…no lie!
We also recently performed a MasterClass session in which connected all the major movement patterns with the developmental sequence positions, and freed up movement proficiency in the participants. The last few classes have been very academic and aimed at refining movement without a beatdown. Nobody has gotten sore. However, it’s good to push it once in a while, and that’s coming. Hope to see you in the next class!
| MASTERCLASS | DAY AND TIME | MEETING INFO |
| Training and Refining Movement Have your home gym ready to go! | SAT 9AM MT |  Join Zoom MeetingID: 87640683371 Passcode: VPyNMr62 |
As a preview to next month, which is March and month 2 of our STB, we’ll be utilizing Repetitions in Reserve (RIR). This is similar to RPE but just another way of grading effort in your workout. We’ll also be changing up our exercises and moving to an upper/lower body x 3 training split. This means in a six-day workout week, we alternate between UB days and LB days. There will be some agility and aerobic training mixed into these. The Running Demons will be getting extra programming as they begin to prepare for their outdoor seasons, and any other goals of Tribe members can be discussed and integrated. We’ll wrap up the Slash n’ Burn and talk about our body comp progress/plans as well. Thanks for being a Tribe member and for being so doggoned fantastic!