teach a man to fish

I mean who really cares what I did for exercise today?  Or yesterday.  Or tomorrow.  A couple months ago? Sure.  Bless you all for being interested in my recovery.  But at some point we should just say "recovered." For most intents and purposes.  But I like hearing from you.  Kinda addicted to it actually.  I said I'd blog for a year and we're pretty close.  Gonna try to keep going but something's gotta give.  I've scared off or bored too many.  Maybe they'll come back.  Maybe we'll go viral.  Maybe Hollywood will call.  here is your last WOD.  I'm through posting workouts.  This is the last one.  Not saying no more exercise talk.  Just no more wod mail.  A template, if you will, of the next 12 weeks.  A little Westside, a little oly work, some gymnastics, some strongman, some wods, some Xfit. I can't really claim that this is the ONE path.  But I think it promises to be a good one.  It's not a stab in the dark.  It's the culmination of a couple years of training, experimentation, success and failure.  Huge citation to Matt at Chupacabra.  He's pretty insightful. And relentless in his search for virtuosity.  This is his handwriting but it's a conversation we've been having for a long time.

so give it a try:  add/delete/amend/abandon/ignore (or dont try).  adapt. improvise. overcome.  You're an adult you can take responsibility.  You can work at it.  You can improve.  Ask questions.  Let me know how it goes.  If you don't dilly-dally I think these can all be done in an hour. a huge upside in my book.

MONDAY
max effort squat.  get 3 reps at 80-90%. or set a pr.  Make it heavy.  Change the squat variation every week.  Some weeks do deads.  Some weeks do good mornings (3rm)  All sorts and styles and varieties.  make it heavy, physically and emotionally.  at least 3 reps north of 80% known pr.  if you can help it try not to miss.  sometimes you cant help it.

Do some assistance exercises.  Address your weakness.  Low back, hams, glutes, hips, mid back etc.  Think: DB lunges, reverse hyper, pistols, GHD raises.  Attack your weaknesses.  Do it like this: 10 x intervals. 15-20 seconds work, 20-40 seconds rest.  make it hard.  Don't be a bodybuilder, but build your body.

conditioning:  hard, fast, simple: 12min tops.  sled drags.  light non-stop squat cleans.  sprint repeats.  hard fast simple

midline:  GHD, L/tuck-sit, hollow.  Change it up.



TUESDAY
30 minutes of gymnastics practice.   You know what gymnastics are.  practice them.  methodically.  quit dicking around.

conditioning: rowing intervals.  min 2K - max 5K



WEDNESDAY
max effort bench or overhead.  Mix it up.  Change the lift.  Any bench, any overhead.  3 reps at 80% or above.

Assistance work:  shoulders.  10x intervals, like monday but shoulders, upper back, tris.

Conditioning: 8-12 minutes:  burpees, box jumps, or double unders.  Or all three.  see how many you can do in a period of time and then try to beat that number.  Like when you stuff envelopes.

Midline:  t2b, kte.  pick one.  5x max UB sets



THURSDAY
rest (or rest Tues and practice thursday)


FRIDAY (pay attention)
Dynamic effort squat.  The lift you did monday: do it fast with cut weight.  add bands or chains if you can.  Try to mini-cycle the %'s like this: 50-55-60+25% band/chain resistance.  go fast build force production.  12 x 2.  IN RE: the bands/chains: don't freak out if you dont have them.  They're worth it, trust me, but dont spend tuition money.  They're like extra 2 tbs of butter.  You're still good w/o, but so much better if you do.  Either way, work on being fast.  Remember Louie's parable of the baseball? Throw a wiffle ball, baseball, shot put at a window.  which one breaks glass?  Wiffle not heavy enough to be forceful.  Shot too heavy to be speedy.  throw(lift quickly) the baseball (properly weighted barbell).  Break glass.

Dynamic effort deads.  similar weights 10 x 1.  switch your grip: clean and snatch

Assistance work:  like monday, but different exercises or the same ones.  work hard.

Conditioning: stones, prowler or kb until gassed then 2 more minutes just to be sure


SATURDAY
rest

SUNDAY (pay attention to this too)
olympic lifts:
snatch then clean: 8-12  singles at 60-85%  no more than 45 seconds rest.  faster if you can.   start with 12 @ 60%.  Percentages go up each week, # of sets goes down.  after 6 weeks, retest, use your new pr to refigure %'s  start at 12 @ 60% again.

midline: GHD, HOLLOW, L-sit


Right now im at 215 squat (probably more), 175 c&J, 150 snatch, 215 jerk, 7:47 2k (maybe better).  Retest in AUG.  let you know.  Please do send us your totals whatever they are, following along or not (control group?) and we'll see who can make some gains.  Make a video, send it to me.  Type out a comment, post it.  The world is full of paper, write to me*


make sense?  Excelsior.

Look for new content on the Ides

Wild dogwood

*Agha Shahid Ali