Building Mass, Strength and Power

A Four Month Training Program to be Unbreakable

This is a no frill, old school, cold steel, hard work program. Traditional lifting, done over and over again. There are fitness guru’s out there that have their hands in everything. They are the “Jack of all Trades”. As the saying goes, Jack of all Trades — Master of None. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with being fluent in various forms of strength and conditioning. Having knowledge is never a negative and allows for creativity and improvement. I would rather be able to do a handful of things as an expert rather than everything as a novice. Furthermore, I would prefer to spend my time and energy on techniques that are proven to work. By completing this program, you will be well on your way to becoming a master. Remember…this takes work. Doing something once does not make a master. There needs to be a continued pursuit in any art, and lifting is an art. If you are looking for a quick workout regimen and return to the gym on an irregular basis, good luck with that. Remember — day in, day out regardless of how you feel. We cannot be perfect, but we can give a perfect effort. This is not just a quick fix. This is a lifestyle of lifting. You will return if you truly want to find out about your abilities. You will return if you want to be forged of iron and unbreakable.

This program is broken into four phases with four weeks per phase. Each phase builds off the other. Do not skip ahead. Phase 1 lays the ground work for Phase 2, Phase 2 for Phase 3 and Phase 3 into Phase 4. Every fourth week, you will move to the next phase. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are mostly preparatory phases and they help the body prepare for Phase 3 and 4 which concentrate on power, strength, and hypertrophy.

PHASE 1 — HAMMER AND NAILS

The idea around the first phase in maximum work, with little rest. I use this as foundation work for what will come later. I try to use as many compound moves as I can. Stay away from power cleans and lifts of that nature because as stated earlier, form is key. With high reps for timed Olympic lifts, form has a tendency to go right out the door. Lifts that are easy to explain are best for this phase. This will be taxing, as most HIIT training should be. Stick with it. As soon as your body becomes used to this phase, we shift things. Remember, in order to adapt, we must apply resistance.

This phase in broken up into two days (Day 1, Day 2; Day A, Day B; Day Hammer, Day Nails). Name them what you want, it doesn’t matter. Pick 20 exercises that make sense for the space that you are working in. Work with what you have available. There will be a place for curls, abs and all the showpiece muscles later, but for now, keep it simple and think big muscle groups. No single leg, balancing, or unilateral exercises. Remember, the easier to explain the better. No alternating dumbbell bench press. Just make it a bench press. Make sure also to choose multiple exercises for the same muscle. That means that there is a high possibility that you will do multiple exercises for the same muscle group back to back.

Make of list of the exercises that you want to do (GO BIG). No more than 20. For example, I have a full home gym with barbells, kettlebells, dumbbells, and a TRX Suspension System. I mostly built it so I never have to go to a gym again, but having limited space, I had to go bare bones and still have options available to me. My list would look something like this:

1. BB/DB Bench

2. BB/DB Incline

3. Pushups

4. TRX Row

5. TRX Pushup

6. Pullups

7. BB Squat

8. Trapbar Deadlift

9. Double Kettlebell Front Squats

10. BB Front Squat

11. Ball Slams

12. Goblet Squat

13. Kettlebell Swing for Time

14. Weighted Walking Lunges for Distance

15. Farmers Walk for Distance

16. Battlerope Slams for Time

17. Box Jumps for Height and Time

18. Kettlebell Deadlift

19. DB/KB Thrusters

20. BB Row

These exercises work for my own personal space. Choose ones that best work best for you and where you will be doing this phase. Obviously, a crowded gym will be tough for this phase, so do what you can. Swap out exercises if you have to and don’t worry about it too much. It will work out in the end. I also purposely separate them when I list them to break up muscle groups. That means I don’t list all the chest exercises together, all the back exercises together, etc. On Day, 1 I choose 10 exercises. I have a random number generator on my phone that does this for me. Random numbers in a random order (i.e. 10, 4, 19, 12, 1…), choose how you like, but I suggest that you don’t look at the exercises when choosing. This eliminates any bias because your brain will purposely avoid something that you don’t want to do or put exercises in an order that will make it easier. Throw numbers in a hat, throw darts at them, whatever, just make it random. When you have your ten exercises, set up the circuit. This is a 1:1 work to rest ratio in the set. We are doing 30 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest with a one minute break at the end. Let’s say these are the ten exercises:

1. Box Jumps for Height and Time

2. BB Row

3. TRX Pushup

4. Trapbar Deadlift

5. Kettlebell Swing for Time

6. Farmers Walk for Distance

7. Pullups

8. DB Bench

9. Ball Slams

10. Goblet Squats

I would do exercise 1 for 30 seconds and rest 30 seconds before moving to exercise 2. I would continue this pattern until I completed all 10 exercises, and after the 10th exercise, I would rest for 1 minute. Repeat this circuit for a total of 3 times. I would perform bodyweight exercises for the duration of the 30 seconds as well as anything for distance. Any weighted exercise (i.e. bench) I would do for 15 reps. If I get all 15 reps for all 3 circuits, I would increase the weight for the next time. This means that if I benched 100lbs for 15 reps in every circuit, I would go up to 110lbs the next day. For Day 2 either repeat the selection process or do the other 10 exercises that were not chosen on Day 1.

Do this phase four days a week for four weeks. Because of the nature of this phase, heavy weights are not going to work. If anything, about 50% of your 1RM, if you know it. There is also a huge possibility for multiple compound sets which will affect the amount of weight that can be used when loading. We are throwing everything at your body forcing it to adapt and change. Remember, if we work below our limit, there will be no change. Challenge yourself.

There are a ton of options when choosing the workouts for the day/week. Day 1 and Day 2 can be done twice a week and changed every week, or a new exercise selection can occur every day. There is a multitude of possibilities. The point being, if you choose your exercises correctly, you will hit the big muscle groups in every workout. Also, if you hit a station and are blown out and can only get one rep, fine. Just keep going. It will happen every once in a while. We are making your body durable and tough.

If you want to do an ab workout afterwards, feel free. I would do something similar to the above program, pick three or four ab exercises and let it fly until they are burning so bad that you can cook eggs and bacon on them.

Phase 2 NEXT MONTH!