Hey kids. I had a thought: just for shits and giggles, why don’t we use all the collective knowledge we’ve gained from T-Mag and put together a full, 12-week periodized training program? It’ll be along the lines of Ian King’s 12 week-programs, except we’ll use info, exercises, etc. from all of our favorite authors in creating it. I think it’ll be fun, and if at least a few people are willing to go in on it from the ground floor with me, it’ll make for the long-term mother of all support groups. I’m down to start a week from tomorrow (Monday, October 13th, that is). Let me know if anyone’s interested. Oh, and of course we need to build in a certain amount of flexibility to allow people to accomodate their various dietary goals, contraindications, preferences, etc., etc. As a starting point, I recommend a 4-day split with upper body trained Monday and Thursday and lower body trained Tuesday and Friday. Any takers?
Sounds like fun to me! Actually, I’m in the middle of trying to get going again after a pretty long rut, so something like this would be a lot of fun. As a side note, I’ve been putting together a routine with a mix of WSB, Renegade training and a lot of King, not to mention bits and pieces from everybody else.
I'm in!
Forgot to mention the inclusion of some sections that would include EDT work.
sounds usefull…um how do we work together?
In the words of one Henry Rollins, “I’m up for it.”
MBE: “Gettin’ Hybridizized since 2002.”
-Eric
cool idea!I’m up for it.It would be cool if we could make the program,then right an article about it and get it published on T-mag as an article.
How about switching the upper body and lower body days depending upon which part needs more work? I’m thinking lower body and legs on Monday and Thursday, then upper body on Tuesday and Friday. This way a person with more upper body needs would have more rest time immedaitely post workout? They could possibly put more into those workouts accordingly for greater gains and symetry. I’m in but I may not be able to contribute much… also, is there room for optional “cycles” in this support group?
How about including a diet in there too…this is my forte. I’m in for that part. I agree w. the 4-day split. I’ll be working my ass off today so I won’t have time to post until late, but I’ll keep checking in periodically.
Ok, everything sounds good so far, but I think we need two different tracks - muscle gain and fat loss and sure we could throw in a complementary diet. I think we should get the training part done first and then add the diet part second.
How is everyone going to communicate? In this thread or e-mail?
Right on! For the next week I’m going to do active recovery consisting of weighted and non-weighted GPP (wheelbarrow and farmer’s Walks, Sled Dragging, and jumping rope), a few of Coach D’s complexes (primarily squats and push presses) done light, and some practice on hang and power cleans (since my technique on these is nonexistent). I agree with Jason that putting together a lifting program should be primary and putting together a diet program should be secondary. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I find that unless I’m dieting or bulking REALLY severely, any program will pretty much work at any level of caloric intake; thus, I’d say that as long as everyone who joins up is somewhere between don’t diet and massive eating calorie levels, the same workout protocols should more or less apply to us all. As far as the actual routine goes, I like the Ian King model of gradually progressing from isolation and unilateral-type non-specific work in the early stages of the program to heavier compound-type work in the latter stages. Thoughts?
what is the goal of the program?I would like a program that has a priority on increasing ones strength?any opinions or thoughts?What is are priority?
I’ve got something to add: keep in mind also if the trainee has a lifting platform available, so that they could include O lifts into their program. And if not, provide options. Ko and I talked about this the other day, so I began thinking, “what would I do if I didn’t have a platform available?”
Lifting platforms are great, but they are not necessary. I rarely have acess to a lifting platform, so I clear some space in the gym and go to town. Sure, I’d love one, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Zev - Although I like Ian’s model in general, I don’t want to just rehash or slightly modify one of his programs. With his Bring the Pain series, he basically lays it all out for us.
I was hoping that we would pull from all of our sources and come up with a monster of a program with influences of all sorts.
Also, I agree that the program should have a focus on strength, size and structural balance. We already have enough cutting style programs to keep most of us busy. And I think diet should come secondary due to the wide personal variation that accompanies that issue.
I've got some ideas, but it will take a while to format, so I'll get it up eventually today.
RS: As long as you’re doing 2 days each of UB and LB spaced more or less evenly throughout the week, I see no reason why you couldn’t move the days around (i.e., do UB Tue/Fri. instead of Mon/Th). If you wanna “cycle” I say go for it, but in that case wouldn’t you want to jack up your volume a good deal? Unless I’m misunderstanding what you mean by “cycle”.
Ryno: I think we can do all our communication via this here message board without the need for email. Can you think of a reason why it won’t work?
Terminator: I’m down for a strength component to the routine, but I’m after some hypertrophy too. Maybe alter the focus a bit from hypertrophy in phases 1 and 3 to strength in phases 2 and 4? That’s more or less how IK lays out his programs I think.
Pat: I agree options are key, but I don’t know how much any of us are going to want to do full-on O lifts anyway. Maybe a bit of their variations (say, power cleans), but at least speaking for myself, I’m not technically proficient enough to incorporate the full O lifts into a routine. I imagine there’s a place to do at least power cleans in every gym, yes?
Ah, true. I guess I was thinking more of the bumper plates. I’ve been in a O-lift phase of late. Which is why my preference has been turning to Renegade Training and an greatly interested in the recent “Money Exercises”. Incorporate such things into this “program in the works” and that would be great.
We’re in total agreement. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. I’ll do some thinking too and try to post something tonight when I get home from classes.
Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, here was my intial thoughts: I have 8 distinct workouts (4 a week with only slightly different rep ranges and either a dynamic or max effort foucs. Here is day 1. I’m only posting that much to make sure that all my tags work correctly. Then I’ll have the format right and go from there. The lower body days are a bit different, - no EDT stuff I’m thinking and a bigger focus on unilateral exercise options if needed. Let me know if you like the intial ideas and then I’ll post the rest. Be patient cause it takes a while. Thanks! Here it is:
Week 1
Day 1 – Horizontal Push/Pull, Tris, Abs - Lateral Flexion
A1)Max Effort Exercise – done for 3x3, or wave loading or something like this, I just don’t think 1RM’s are vital for hypertrophy based work. This would only be a bench type exercise as we will be doing max effort work with deadlifts that should negate the need to do max effort horizontal pulling.
EDT Superset – 15-20 minutes ????
B1)Horizotal Push
B2)Horizontal Pull
Accessory Work
C1)Tricep focused press of some sort (dips, close grip bench) done for high reps (8-12)
C2)Rear delt work or shoulder retraction (8-12 reps)
C3)Rotator cuff work (10-15 reps)
Abdominal Work
D1)Lateral Flexion exercise (high reps)
Finisher
This may be unnecessary, but this is a good place to insert a complex, strip set, or something along those lines.
I’ve got a good warmup setup for lower body days, but any thoughts on upper body days would be nice. Also, whether pre or post workout stretching should be included.
I would love to see some O-lifts in there, as I have just “discovered” my gyms platforms haah,
what about a 3-phase split with a focus on strenght in one phase, hypertrophy, in a another, and endurance/vascularity (as I always find that the higher reps help me with vascularity) in another phase…kinda O/T but in designing programs would endurance go first, to build larger blood supply flows, (like 100 reps to bigger biceps?), so the other phases “feed” off of it?