Choosing a Program/Built by Mike Offseason Without All the Equipment

Hi everyone, I’m coming to the end of a 16 week program and have been thinking about what to do next under a particular set of circumstances. I think Mike Westerling’s offseason program might be a good fit, but there’s a few things to work around and I’m hoping some of you have some valuable input.

First of all, my current situation:
I’ve got a six month old kid, taking care of whom is taking up most of my available free time. Normally, I like having four longer training sessions a week but right now, lifting is not my top priority and three sessions a week of around an hour is about the most I’m willing to commit to over the next few months. Things will ease up in October. I’m training at home in my yard, training very early in the morning before work or late at night when the kid is in bed is not an option because of neighbours/noise.
I’m currently wrapping up a 16 week, three days per week program which has been sort of successful (small deadlift pr, final session for log still to come), but I’ve had to cut stuff out of the original program to meet my time constraints. Consequently, I’ve been looking for a program that I could use “as is” under these circumstances without having to drop some of the work.
Additional info: There are no competitions available at the moment due to the pandemic, but I’m hoping for opportunities to become available in the second half of the year and if they do, it might be on rather short notice.

Given these circumstances, I’m drawn towards Mike Westerlings 12-week offseason program. It’s three days a week, one overhead/upper body day, one day for squats and deadlifts and one event day. The volume is low so I could absolutely make it work in the timeframe available and much of the assistance work is optional, which would give me some wiggle room for more or less stressful days. Only problem I would need to work around: I don’t have all the equipment required. My issue is the event day:

  1. For carrying and loading, the program rotates through sandbags, kegs and stones. Of these, I only have one sandbag. Getting stones and/or kegs is not an option because of space, my shed is filled to the brim as it is. For this, my plan is to just use the sandbag for all of this, but maybe some of you have better ideas.

  2. There’s also a sled drag or vehicle push in there. Sled dragging is out because of noise, vehicle pushing is out because I train alone. Any ideas on how to approach this?

As I’m writing this out, I realise that it’s two very marginal issues that are not really going to stop me from doing the program, but I’m still going to post this. Maybe someone has some good ideas. Does anyone have experince with this or any other of Mike’s programs? Or would anyone recommend something completely different in this situation?

Bonus question: If anyone has experience doing board presses without a training partner, I’d be interested in your approaches. I figure my options are stuffing stuff under my shirt or strapping it to my torso.

For carries:
-Can you acquire a large rock from anywhere?
-Look up Dan John’s slosh pipe - PVC is durable, you can leave it outside (try to avoid direct sun)
-If $ is not an issue, Mike Bartos has a plate-loadable keg (and atlas stone) that will not require much space

Sled:
Make one of these, but use treated wood, a galvanized flange and pipe, and stainless eye hooks & lag screws so you can leave it outside:

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Here’s a site that explains some of it, particularly the straps to buy:

I use a large carabiner for the belt portion.

Board presses:
Use a resistance band.

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Thanks for the tips. Hadn’t really thought about it, but the homemade tire sled might be a lot quieter than the regular ones, I might have to look into that.
For stones, I remembered I have a loading pin lying around so I’m just going to use that stone trainer setup.
Bartos’ stuff is not really an option, it’s expensive as it is and shipping across the Atlantic would likely be a bit much :wink: