By BIll WAllERS
• Hanging Leg Raises: Three sets of ten of possibly my favourite abdominal exercise. There is no cheating permitted with this. The range of motion has the shins making contact with the bar from which you are hanging, with legs as straight as your flexibility permits.
• Go Home.
At the completion of the work day—during the fifteen or so minutes you get to relax—foam roll the legs, back, and traps, and do mobility exercises for known problem areas—you know what they are; stop living in denial. If it creaks, it’s probably a mobility issue of some description.
Thursday (Upper Body Day)
• Dynamic Warm Up: Once again, don’t spend too long on this. Get in some quality work and get started.
• Incline Bench Press: Two to three warm up sets followed by eight singles at something over 90% of your one-repetition maximum.
• Chin Ups: Eight sets of three supersetted with the Incline Bench Press. (I did mention time was at a premium, there’s no time to be wasted resting).
• One Arm Rows: Three sets of ten. If they are good enough for Kroc, they’re good enough for me. Keep the weight moderate and the rest between sets minimal.
• Dumbbell Triceps Extensions: Three sets of ten.
• Dumbbell Curls: Three sets of ten done in a superset with the Triceps Extensions. (Hey, summer is coming up in Australia, and I need to be prepared—Suns out, Guns out).
• Go Home and be sure to foam roll and complete mobility exercises whenever you get a chance.
Saturday (Cardio)
This day is normally a mixed bag depending on whether I am at the gym or whether the weather is nice enough to get in some exercise outside.
If I am at the gym, it’s strap yourself into the rower and go. A typical rower program would be to complete one of the following (after a warm up of course):
• 6 x 500 metre rower sprints with a 2-minutes rest in between. (Thanks to Brian Mackenzie for this); or
• The Olympic Sprints: You complete sprints of 1,500 metres, 800 metres, 400 metres, 200 metres, and 100 metres with decreasing rest periods in between (2 minutes, 1 minute and 30 seconds, 1 minute, 30 seconds).
If the weather is nice, I’m off to the local park for sprints. In normal conditions, I would try to get in two kilometres of sprints. How I got there depended on how I felt. Some days it would be 20x50 metres, while other days it would be 5x400. In all cases, the emphasis was on keeping the rest periods low and the heart pounding. The only problem I had with doing sprints was that the local park is also a leash-free dog park.
Many was the time that I added agility training to my sessions as I dodged dogs, dog turds, or their owners.
Happy days. (Oh, and end the day with more foam rolling and mobility work).
Sunday (Walk)
This was not really a training session per se, more of an opportunity to get out in the sun, chat with the wife, and stretch out any muscles that were sore from the week’s training. These walks lasted about an hour and averaged five kilometres, as I had no interest whatsoever in turning this into anything more than a social walk.
WEEKS 5-8
Tuesday (lower Body Day)
• Dynamic Warm Up
• Squats: Two to three warm up sets followed by eight triples at something over 80% of your one-repetition maximum. (Again, keep the rest between sets low, get the stars out of your eyes, get your breath back, and go again).
• Good Mornings: Three sets of ten to keep the posterior chain strong. (This is being done as an assistance/supplementary exercise, not a maximum effort lift. Focus more on the movement rather than the weight).
• Abdominal Rollouts: Three sets of ten of possibly my least favourite abdominal exercise.
The fact that it is my least favourite is why I do it—not for any special mental challenge, but just the fact that I hate it suggests that I probably need to do it.
• Go Home and get your rolling and mobility work in when time permits.
Thursday (Upper Body Day)
• Dynamic Warm Up.
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press: Two to three warm up sets followed by eight triples at some-thing over 80% of your one-repetition maximum.
• Chest Supported Rows: Eight sets of three supersetted with the Shoulder Press.
• Chin Ups: Three sets of as many as you can do.
• Triceps Pushdowns: Three sets of ten.
• EZ Curls: Three sets of ten done in a superset with the Triceps Pushdowns.
• Go Home and be sure to foam roll and complete mobility exercises whenever you get a chance.
Saturday (Cardio)
Same as for the previous cycle—boring I know, but hey, sometimes you just have to get it done without over-thinking it (and it is Saturday).
Sunday (Walk)
Once again, this is the same as the previous cycle.
WEEKS 9-12
If things look like they will be remaining out of control for a while longer, add in another cycle. It could look something like this:
Tuesday (lower Body Day)
• Dynamic Warm Up
• Squats: Two to three warm up sets followed by eight triples at something over 60% of your one-repetition maximum.
• Deadlifts: Eight triples at something over 60% of your one-repetition maximum.
• Power Cleans: Eight triples at something over 60% of your one-repetition maximum.
These exercises are done as a giant set—that is one set of squats followed by one set of Deadlifts followed by one set of Power Cleans. Keep the rest periods to a minimum and blast your way through it.
Thursday (Upper Body Day)
• Dynamic Warm Up.
• Kettlebell Snatches: Two to three warm up sets followed by four sets of ten.
• Kettlebell Swings: Four sets of ten.
• Kettlebell Rows: Four sets of ten.
• Kettlebell Turkish Get Ups: Four sets of ten.
• Go Home and be sure to foam roll and complete mobility exercises whenever you get a chance.
If you do this workout properly, you will also get in some serious conditioning work since you once again do the exercises as a giant set with minimal periods. If you use the same kettlebell for each exercise, you can try and do giant sets with no rest, which is one hell of a challenge.
Saturday (Cardio)
This is unchanged from the previous cycles.
Sunday (Walk)
This is unchanged from the previous cycles.
WRAPPING IT UP
This program is not designed to improve your strength levels or overall musculature. It is intended to minimize the damage one might suffer during an extended timeframe when it is difficult to train for long periods with a definitive goal in mind.
Given that I only do this program (or a variation of it) during crazy periods when there are all sorts of demands for on my time, try to keep the eating under control in an effort to further minimize the damage from your reduced training volume. This program will not save you from three trips a day through the Golden Arches.
About the Author
Bill Allars is personal trainer in Frankston, Australia.
This is an almost exact replica of the training cycle I used the first time I implemented the Block Periodization Concept, as Issurin lays it out, into my training. Rather than bore you to death with details, I am going to lay it out very simply—no technical terms or fancy titles. While the information it took to put this together could be an e-book its self, I will instead plot it out week by week for you—sets, reps, and percentages. I will also take a second to say thank you to Jeremy Frey. He helped me out a ton with setting up the initial program and putting the thoughts and concepts to paper. This is certainly not the only way to program using the BPC, but it is one of the ways that I have programmed my own training and produced successful results for myself.
For those of you who are unfamiliar to the Block Periodization Concept, there are a myriad of articles on www.
elitefts.com that really delve into the theories, concepts, and principles behind the programming. Rather than drag this article into the double digits page-wise, I’ll just say that if you want the science, buy the manuals, read the articles, and go from there. For those of you who just want the program, this is for you.
This is a 14-week pre-meet training cycle. If you don’t compete or aren’t close to a meet, you can simply rotate back and forth between the accumulation and transmutation blocks. If you don’t think you’re in good enough shape, you can also deload for a week and repeat the accumulation block again before advancing to the accumulation phase.
As employed for the multiply lifter, you are going to need three maxes for the squat, two for the bench, and three for the deadlift. A raw lifter will only need his 1RM for the three competition lifts. The multi-ply lifter will need a raw; a suit and briefs, straps down; and a suit and briefs, straps up—training max for both the squat and deadlift. You can guesstimate roughly what they are; there is no need to test them. In the bench, a raw and shirted max will do.
The week-by-week and day-by-day breakdown is at the bottom if you need to see how the training is laid out for the entire training cycle.
Accumulation Block
• For the main lift (sq/bp/dl), use the percentages of max listed.
• Rest between sets is one minute on all exercises.
• ALL bench work in this block is raw.
• Pick six accessory lifts to do after the main lift, five “weight” exercises, and one prehab/rehab.
Weeks Out
Main Lift Percentage Volume of Main Lift Volume of Accessory Work
12 65 (briefs) 18, (9 for low volume bench)
4 reps/set
45 (8-12 reps/set)
11 70 (briefs) 14, (6 for low volume bench
3-4 reps/set
40 (8-12 reps/set)