For me personally, it’s a toss up between Tactical Barbell and low volume work from Brawn.
TB especially now that @kleinhound and @antiquity have expressed an interest. Always good to get on board a program when you know other folk are doing it.
Deep Water is always going to be beckoning me. The program may have given me legit PTSD, but it also transformed me.
I’ll also always hear Super Squats calling to me. The simplicity, brutality and single mindedness of it suit me too well, and the feeling of growing stronger by the rep and by the sip can’t be replicated.
I’m excited to give Tactical Barbell a run. It’s a bit hard for me to move away from 531 since nearly all my training has been based around it for years, but wanted a change and TB shares much of the same philosophy.
I’m running my first week of the Operator template with BP, Squat, and weighted pull ups as my cluster. Added a strength/endurance workout at the end. It’s mentally tough to just rest for at least 2 minutes between the Maximal Strength sets! I’ve so used to supersetting, but the strength endurance portion allows me to get that out of my system.
Before all this COVID shit, I’d been doing a Sheiko program template in pursuit of a 200lb squat and 300lb deadlift.
It was absolutely mindnumbing (7 sets of deadlifts and 8 sets of bench was a “low volume” day), but I strangely looked forward to each session despite wanting to quit after each one.
Somehow, every time I felt really horrible, the workout that day was lighter.
I feel like that’s a term of art for a particular lifting philosophy rather than the name of a specific program, eg, Deep Water, The Colostomizer, etc.
I pick my programs based on cool names, so I’d be screwed with that philosophy. But, have you ever thought of naming them yourself? Like, “I just ran “the Christopher”, or “the Mildred”?
Not sure what exactly meant by Siren’s Call, but the program that got me serious into lifting was Built for Show from Nate Green. It’s a full year split into 4 seasons: Hypertrophy in Fall, Strength in Winter, Speed and conditioning in Spring, and Fat Loss in Summer. I wasn’t aware of it at the time but it also effortly built in undulating periodization from day 1 with the sets/reps different every day of the week.
It’s sad this program doesn’t get more discussion. It’s far superior to Starting Strength in every way for a beginner.
It’s the notion of a program/method of training that you keep feeling compelled to do, irrespective of if it’s the right call or not. In fact, in many cases, it’s completely NOT the right call to do it, but it keeps calling you.
Much like how people will be on a very well put together program that’s building up their lifts incredibly well, yet they’ll still just stupidly max out one day and violate the program. Maxing calls out to them.
Athlete Lean, Athlete Strong is one of my favourites too. Unlike his other blitz programs it can just be restarted anew. It’s a lot of fun, high-paced.
I’d like to name it something along the lines of:
Satan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Flaming Gobs of Kung Fu Fury
Death, Do Not Tarry
But it likely deserves to be named something along the lines of:
Sugar Britches
My Little Ponyboy
The Austrian Twee
Thanks. Wish I could say it was original. Was the name of a punk band (out of Austin TX IIRC) from way back in the day. I’ve always thought it was pretty awesome.
5/3/1 has been my go-to for several years because of it’s simplicity and ability to deliver, however, I think I’m getting burned out on it. Anybody want to offer up some recommendations to try?