5/25/23
Easy Strength - W5/D4
Those DB over head carries were rugged. I probably overshot how much weight I needed to use, considering I did them with an axle a couple weeks ago loaded with 100. 10 more pounds and more unstable implements, yeah that’s going to be harder.
5/26/23
Easy Strength - W5/D5
KB swings: 32kg x50, 25
Axle press: 100x2x5
Over hand chin: +15x2x5
Axle dead lift: 230x2x5
Ab wheel: 2x5
Burpees: x25
Shoulder is barking today. My front delt is just a mess, everything else seems to have calmed down around it though which is a good sign.
5/31/23
Easy Strength - W6/D1
KB swings: 32kg x75
Axle press: 100x2x5
Over hand chin: +20x2x5
Axle dead lift: 240x2x5
Ab wheel: 2x5
Well, that felt like something that was missing. Softball tonight, so should hopefully get some sprints and throws in.
Had myself a little long-weekend bender and felt absolutely railroaded by it. @flappinit You mentioned it the other day when you started your new log. It was way too easy to slip back into my mid-20s form and get to boozin’. It was a fun time but it’s hard to believe I was okay with that being the usual for so long.
Haha yeah, those all-weekend drinkfests can put you off your game for 3-4 days. No way am I ever thinking of my 30’s as “old” but I swear the SECOND I hit 30 my body was like “hope you enjoyed the ability to recover seamlessly after a night of drinking and/or crappy sleep because that shit’s over with.”
Got my sprints in, I can still haul ass when I need to. Little bit of heel pain afterwards, but if I do have a heel spur, I suppose that’s just life now and it’ll probably feel normal eventually.
I did however absolutely detonate my buggy shoulder during my second swing at bat. Rear delt is smoked and I’d be surprised if I can move my arm properly tomorrow.
@flappinit I made the decision at 27 to back it off when I decided that a) I was sick of being hungover all the time, and b) I met my fiancee and decided I wanted the relationship to work out haha. All in all I’d call it a winning trade.
6/1/23
Easy Strength - W6/D2
Well, what a strange day. Started off rough when I woke up in pain. I knew my shoulder was gonna be hurting, but damn did it still take me by surprise when I put some weight down. Heel was also pissed off, but that’s far more manageable.
Had a fine morning otherwise, then about the worst day possible at work. Between everything going wrong, and then everyone donning their dunce cap for the ride home I was seething.
Then my dog greeted me SUPER stoked and we played fetch for a while and everything seemed to melt away. Aside from this damn shoulder pain. God bless her.
Decided that I needed to go see what was possible from a lifting perspective, and it turns out, everything. I had some really uncomfortable pinching in my rear delt area when I locked out the presses or fully hung from the bar, and getting the press into position initially wasn’t too fun on the front delt area. Strength was not inhibited at all though, so that’s reassuring from a structural standpoint. I almost came the closest to passing out from a press as I ever have today. Had a full on world spin, volume change, cold sweat experience.
I’ll be able to finish out this program thankfully so I can give it a proper write up.
6/2/23
Easy Strength - W6/D3
Dropped a set of 15 swings between each set of lifts and got this done in about 10 minutes. Training isn’t much these days, but it’s a great mindless reset.
6/3/23
Easy Strength - W6/D4
Penultimate workout of this initial run of the program. Body is feeling halfway decent today which was sweet. Felt strong on everything.
6/5/23
Easy Strength - W6/D5
Last workout was a good one! I don’t think that double on the press was a PR, but, that double felt easier than any effort at 130 I’d done prior to today which was sweet.
Same deal with the chins, I don’t think that’s a PR weight wise, but considering how full the ROM was I’d chalk it up to being its own thing.
Nothing special about the deadlift but thumbless mixed grip on the axle held up fine for it which was cool.
Ab wheel is feeling good right now. Going to keep it at this incline a while longer and really nail it in but I’m getting close to another drop.
Did all 75 swings in one set at the end. That was the hardest challenge of the workout but I got it.
I’ll do a full write up of my Easy Strength experience either later tonight or sometime this week. My forearms are a little too pumped from the swing set right now.
Now that I’m stuffed with a reverse seared (on the smoker) porterhouse and balsamic tossed brussel sprouts, let’s get this program review written up.
The Program: Dan John’s Easy Strength
I bought his Omnibook based on glowing reviews from @T3hPwnisher. Truth be told, you can definitely do this program using only the free articles here on Tnation, but the book is great and really helps you buy into the whole idea of the program.
Before Easy Strength
Prior to my Easy Strength run I had just finished up a really successful run of Jim Wendler’s Boring But Big Beefcake, followed by an “anchor” of widow-makers. While I set some great training PRs, particularly in the squat, that program took its pound of flesh as well. I walked away with a buggy shoulder by the end, more on that later.
Needing a change
As we all know, training gets stale. My modus operandi is generally to do programs or workouts that simply suck. Not that they’re bad or ineffective, but that they’re miserable experiences. The reward is being done with that workout, and also being more awesome than the other guy when the going gets tough. After years, basically, of doing that, everything about training sounded awful. I needed to change things up to keep my head in the game or I’d start half-assing it in the gym. We full-ass things here.
Enter Dan John
As I finished up reading Easy Strength during a burpee and running based deload week, I had some renewed vigor for training. The idea of getting my strength training done in 15-20 minutes was massively appealing to me. I detest sacrificing our brief summer for gym sessions. I want as much outdoors time as possible. It’s rained 80% of the time since then of course.
I had some ideas about how I wanted to execute this program. I was going to get my lifting done in the morning, so my afternoons were available for either a second training session or something fun. Without going back and checking, I’d guess I got about 30 out of the 40 lifting workouts done in the morning. That 15-20 minute window was easily achievable. I did them fasted for the most part upon waking, then had my breakfast and coffee. I didn’t really even sweat during the workouts, so I didn’t feel the need to shower, just some fresh clothes and I was good to go for the day.
The program is meant for athletes, and athletes do things other than lift. That meant I had to too. The plan initially was conditioning sessions and trail runs, but life had other plans for me.
C’mon Life, Let Me Live
So that buggy shoulder I mentioned earlier. That became my mortal enemy during this program. My quality of life was impacted quite a bit by this thing, and I still don’t know exactly what’s going on with it. I had to cut out a lot of movements that were aggravating it while putting effort into the things I could do.
I was having a hard time getting creative on ways to do conditioning without a lot of shoulder involvement, but Dan John came to the rescue. Swings and carries supersets became a go-to for me. Dan you marvelous man. The program calls for either/or daily, but I decided to do swings every day no matter what and do the carries as my conditioning work. I included a bit of assistance work after the carries because my plan for bodyweight work went up in flames before it every really got started.
What about those trail runs I mentioned? Well, it turns out I may have developed a heel spur and I haven’t figured out how to work around that yet. It’s not a big deal day-of, but the day after a run is tough. I need to figure out a shoe solution or something because from what I understand, I’ve got that little sucker for life.
Luckily I could carry things without any worries. I did a lot of those workouts outside when I could in my driveway. Again with the whole raining a ton thing, opportunities were limited.
The Rest
Not squatting for an entire program is so weird to me. I did as Dan said, and included goblet squats in my warmup to keep the pattern trained. I also did belt squats on most Mondays in the afternoon.
Not squatting for an entire program has my lower body feeling great right now. I can pull all day long without issue but squats beat me up.
If you run this program, make sure you spam the ROM on your chins. For a few years now I’ve cheated away from the very bottom and top of the ROM when doing chins. That’s worked well for building muscle, but it becomes too easy to cheat your way to bigger numbers. I got noticeably stronger at the terminal positions and that’s probably a good thing for my long term health.
The sets and reps are pretty solidly laid out for you for most of the lifts, but not the swings. I took a lot of liberties with how I approached these. Mainly sets of 10, 15, and 25. On I think two occasions I ran the numbers up higher and got them done in two sets. For the final workout I knocked them all out in a single set. Most of the time I did the swings in the warmup, along with goblet squats and band pull aparts. I’d finish them at the end with the ab wheel. Other times I’d super set them with the lifting movement throughout the workout.
My appetite wound down as the program went on. I suspect that was due to adapting to the training, and the total volume coming down as I eliminated things seeking shoulder relief. I lost about 2-3lbs over the 6 weeks without making any effort to change things.
I followed Dan’s “eat like an adult” guidelines for the most part. I wasn’t training in a manner that would support a gaining phase, but I made no effort to cut. I ate when I was hungry and stopped when I felt satisfied. I was not a perfect human for these six weeks. I drank a little too much, rediscovered my love of kettle cooked potato chips, and probably had a bit too much cheese and bread for a “clean” lifestyle. All that said I rode that 80/20 line on the razors edge.
My physique was actually more satisfying than I thought this type of training would provide. Multiple times in the last couple weeks my fiancee has made comments that I’m “jacked”, “yoked”, or my favorite “whoa”. I think it’s mostly because my arms and shoulders filled in a little, at what feels like the expense of my quads and lats. I don’t know how real any of that is, it’s just a feeling, but the external feedback is there in droves right now.
What Next?
I haven’t decided completely on what to do next, although I’m currently leaning towards switching up the movements and running this right back with some lessons learned.
I have two lift options that both look good to me: BTN press, NG chins, BB deads, ab wheel, or DB press, NG chins, trap deads, ab wheel. I have a week to decide.
I used the 6th week of the program as a pseudo deload by only doing the strength work. I don’t feel like I need a deload for the mind or body, but I do want that shoulder to keep mending up.
I think the rest of this week will be silly workouts that shouldn’t stress that joint too much and then I’ll get back to it.
I have some ideas about how I can better implement the afternoon conditioning sessions I wanted this next time around.
Just found this log thanks to @simo74
Along for the ride now. Nice write up on the easy strength program too. As Simo mentioned im running it now also…1 week in.
Need to add more to the strength days I think. Most of mine have been mornings also due to the ease of fitting them in. Time to add more stuff to the arvos, because I can…
6/6/23
Conditioning
Sticking with the Dan John theme for todays workout. Planned on riding that EMOM out until the clock beat me, but it didn’t shake out that way. I was pretty smoked and lost all pop in the swings during the ninth round. I did the tenth as a formality because 10 is a better number, but those swings were pretty lazy. Doesn’t really meet the intent, and I could have kept getting sets of lazy swings in within the minute so figured that was that. Holding the KB in the goblet position sucked towards the end with the forearm pump.
Made sure to get a pull in, then skipped rope for a couple songs. Only stopped when I kicked the rope and started right back up.
@wiseman83 Hey thanks dude! Enjoy the program, it’s a good one. Definitely room to add a second workout, call it “athletic training” and you’re golden haha.
With fast/explosive stuff like swings or sprints etc, Dan John does recommend, that the workout is Done when speed declines. So you did good stopping after ten. Because you were done, and further benefit is unlikely in that workout.
6/7/23
Squats Mostly
SSB squats:
45x10
135x5
185x3
205x2
235x2
255x2
185x10x2 EMOM
Modified planks:
6 sets
All kinds of shoulder rehab stuff
Not doing any kind of real squat in 6 weeks left me wondering what it would be like to do them again, so I did. They still suck. Went with the SSB for my shoulder. My legs were screaming by the end of that EMOM. Funny how things can change in such short order.
I consumed a ton of AthleanX videos about shoulder stuff to try and get to the bottom of this thing. He does a pretty good job of helping people find ways to keep training around injuries. Did a lot of band stuff to try and build up that rotator cuff. Going to get some free ultrasound done on it tomorrow and see if that reveals anything. Just a handful of pushups yesterday and some bodyweight rows and it feels brutalized today.
@wiseman83 Yeah man I totally get why he (and other coaches) advocates for that approach. If the goal is build explosive power, there’s no point getting sloppy reps in. I often go for the goal of maximum misery, but I seem to be achieving that just putting my seatbelt on these days so maybe rethinking that method is good for me haha.
6/8/23
Conditioning
For 30 minutes alternate between 4-count burpees and jump rope
Nothing crazy for this workout, kept it fairly simple. Legs are sore after those squats yesterday. No rhyme or reason to this, I’d just do one movement until I got pretty tired then move to the other.
Went with 4-counts to spare my shoulder, was able to do them without any issues. The pushup is problematic.
Had an ultrasound done on it, and an x-ray to confirm what was suspected to be a calcium deposit swimming in the middle of one of my tendons. X-ray was inconclusive, so the mystery continues. Doc didn’t see any tears, but the amount of swelling and fluid was, apparently, never before seen, haha. The x-ray was pretty cool, you could see the clear lines where my muscles delineated. Apparently that is also uncommon.
Taking off for my bachelor party tomorrow so want the body to be fairly fresh for it, I’m sure we’ll be doing something active.
6/12/23
Easy Strength W1/D1
“Des” WOD
While wearing a 24lb weight vest:
Had an absolutely killer weekend with the guys. Absolutely exhausted today. Lived it up pretty hard, mountain biked pretty hard, shot some guns pretty hard, ate pretty hard, slept almost not at all. Took a quick nap after work and knocked this out.
Taking another run at Easy Strength. I like how well I can get these workouts done in the morning (I did not do one today) and make progress. Afternoon mountain biking is 100% on the ticket for me going forward, I’m hooked again.
That WOD was a killer. The rain rolled in during my 5th round so I shut it down to get my equipment back inside. Something like this for a longer form workout would be ideal. Shoulder didn’t seem to flare up which is cool. That’s only 10 burpees but still, I haven’t had much luck lately. I think the weight pucks limiting the ROM helped.
I was pretty bummed to find out there’s already a WOD named “Hacksaw”. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I think my idea is better.
Taking one out of @T3hPwnisher’s book, you can tell a story with it. Get down to dodge incoming rounds, drag your buddy to safety, sprint back for some ammo cans, drop down again, carry the cans back. Repeat.
Little recap of the weekend while I’m here, cause it was awesome.
Got to a beautiful cabin in the woods with a big group of my best buds. Friday night we grilled burgers, drank beers and whiskey, crashed late.
Lots of coffee and breakfast sandwiches in the morning, then to the shooting range where we burned through a ton of ammo. Lots of .22, 9, and 5.56 down range. Had some serious heat coming off the barrel of my AR.
Two of my friends took a trip to a butcher shop while the rest of us shot, and they came back with some amazing stuff. Oh yeah, that butcher shop is attached to a bison ranch. Pics below.
Quick break for some coffee and sandwiches then got in about 2.5 hours of intense mountain biking. Absolutely gassed afterwards. My little bro pushed himself to the limit, puked, and had to tap out. Solid effort on his part.
Sitting by the fire later that night, I got the most hilarious Charlie horse in my quad. It looked like an alien took residence in my upper leg with the way it was moving and pulsing. Wild and hilarious, the reactions were priceless.
The lineup:
The monster:
Before:
After:
This bison tomahawk was like 2.2lbs or something. I ate the entire thing without any silverware. Grabbed that rib bone and got to work. Incredible steak. It was an undertaking, but one of the finest dining experiences of my life.
6/13/23
Easy Strength - W1/D2
Had the day off work and spent it getting caught up on some chores. Did everything at once instead of breaking up the day.
Added some weight to some lifts already. Those DB presses are standing, in case anyone reading is wondering.
Shoulder made it to rep 18 or 19 on the burpees before it started getting a little angry. Pushed it to 25 and called it there. Burned out the muscles with band stuff after that.
@ChongLordUno I was surprised at how much more gassed I was counting the 6 points of the burpee out loud and deconstructing the movement, compared to doing 25 one-pumps.
Yeah the counts turn it into a different beast altogether
Once you move up to 8 and 10 counts then you have the extra workload that is trying to focus mentally on the numbers and not lose count
Keep going brother
6/14/23
Easy Strength - AM Workout - W1/D3
Solid first AM workout in a minute. I was hungry during this. Probably a good sign. Going to need to figure out how to add 2.5lbs to my power blocks after the weights ending in “0”. A little meathead engineering should get me there.
@ChongLordUno Once I get this shoulder playing ball again these are going to be a great addition to the base program from Dan.
