Please help critique my program

Jason Deane · 07-05-2011, 01:35 AM

I am a highland games athlete, also plan to compete in strongman and all the while improve my general athleticism. I am trying to get to level 2 and eventually 3 on the eatmoveimprove skills guideline. I would definately like to be able to do freestanding handstands, handstand walking, press to handstand, and be fairly strong on the rings. My plan is a combination of bodyweight (upper body) and Olympic (lower body). I lack explosiveness, and that holds me back in highland games and the jumping and sprinting on the skills guidelines. This program will go 16 weeks, 4x 4 week blocks. 3 weeks hard,1 week easy.

Mon/tues/thur/sat static holds: handstand, l-sit, german hang.
Then a simple push pull of handstand pushups, wide grip pullups, pushups, ring row.
only the static stuff on Tuesdays, no push/pull. Also do shoulder prehab- bandwork, wall extensions, dislocates on those 4 days. I have poor shoulder mobility.

Weds: snatch, overhead squats,back squat, snatch pull
Friday: cleans, front squat, clean pull, rdl/shrug
Sunday: snatch, clean + jerk, one leg/one arm dumbell clean + jerk, one leg rdl, one leg squat

mostly lower rep range, lower reps every week, 3rd week singles and the Sunday snatch and clean and jerk will be singles every week.

At the end of this I hope to be ready to cut the home workout down to just handstand, planche and front lever progressions and add in more pressing on the gym days like btn jerks one day, push press one day and log press or more jerks.

Not real detailed, but I do have it all written out as far as reps, weights, times etc but trying to keep it fairly short here. No cardio set but will do some events training as I feel up to and time permitting, mostly farmers walk or prowler runs, or some type of circuits involving most likely sandbags or strongman implements. I'm 34, 6'2" and about 230lbs. Looking to stay around this weight, need to weigh in at 230 or less to be a middleweight at strongman, I have no interest in looking like a heavy, I like to look forward to taking my shirt off in public. Also I am fairly new to oly lifts and really suck at them. Improving them is my main goal. I also throw 3 days a week until winter, then I'll try for 2 but I'm in Alaska and that will be quite a challenge.

Derek Weaver · 07-05-2011, 02:39 AM

Step away from the computer, the rings, and the handstand work and read this:
http://danjohn.net/pdfs/lift.pdf

and pretty much everything here: http://www.danjohn.net

edit:
ps, it's 2:39am and I'm hung over already from the 4th of July festivities. So, if I missed something in your post, sorry. Reading comprehension isn't my strong suit right now.

Steven Low · 07-05-2011, 05:43 PM

Eh program seems OK but if you wanna do strongman I'm not so sure that bodyweight is the way to go there

Still more power to you if you wanna try to integrate BW with that type of stuff. It may be decent at your bodyweight though

Arien Malec · 07-05-2011, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason Deane

I am a highland games athlete, also plan to compete in strongman and all the while improve my general athleticism. I am trying to get to level 2 and eventually 3 on the eatmoveimprove skills guideline. I would definately like to be able to do freestanding handstands, handstand walking, press to handstand, and be fairly strong on the rings.

Do you have any priority to your goals? Would you be fine moving down in HG to get better in strongman? Or in both to move up a level in the skills guideline or the gymnastics stuff?

Derek Weaver · 07-05-2011, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason Deane

Also I am fairly new to oly lifts and really suck at them. Improving them is my main goal. I also throw 3 days a week until winter, then I'll try for 2 but I'm in Alaska and that will be quite a challenge.

For everything you put in, something else has to come out. Want to get better at the olympic lifts (guessing the power versions?), doing planches isn't really conducive to that.

Throwing and lifting go well together. Throwing and a handstand, not so much. Throwing, lifting and a handstand at 230 lbs... not at all, IMO.

Jason Deane · 07-06-2011, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derek Weaver

For everything you put in, something else has to come out. Want to get better at the olympic lifts (guessing the power versions?), doing planches isn't really conducive to that.

Throwing and lifting go well together. Throwing and a handstand, not so much. Throwing, lifting and a handstand at 230 lbs... not at all, IMO.

I don't plan to work the power versions, I was thinking true snatch and clean.

Olympic lifts are my highest priority since I feel they have the most to offer and will help the most, aside from actually throwing. And it's important to me to achieve decent numbers in them, I'd like a bodyweight snatch and 1.25x clean by spring but the challenge to get good at the lifts exceeds my desire to improve my throwing from them. I am stronger at the power versions but want to only practice the actual movement. I need to improve my flexibility alot. My numbers aren't very good, power clean 225# and power snatch 155# and at my weight that is not nearly good enough. I can press 225 overhead, incline 275, but only squat 275 in the Olympic style squat. My snatch pull the other day was 350, got a btn jerk of 225 fairly easily. I could lose the bodyweight stuff but it just seems like it would be real good to strengthen my tendons and joints before moving on to heavier freeweights all the while really improve my lower body explosiveness.

Troy Kerr · 07-06-2011, 08:56 AM

Tailor your workout to your sport. Learn to properly execute the olympic lifts, add some squatting. My experience with gymnastics + o-lifts, is that it lead to a bit of overuse in my elbows a few sets in. However I feel like handstand and front lever can help with upper body strength without putting too much stress on the joints. Be sure to properly warm up your wrist as well as strengthen them. Get strong with your handstand pushups, make sure you stay hollow, focus on extending upward, and if your using the wall focus on your shoulders doing the work as opposed to your feet. You get better at fresstanding handstand by practicing balance work, you get better with hspu's by obviously getting stronger there. I am unfamilar with the Highland Games by the way.

Arien Malec · 07-06-2011, 09:27 AM

Here's what I'm hearing:

You want to improve HG and strongman
You think improving the quick lifts is going to bring HG and strongman
Independent of that, improving the full oly lifts is going to make you happy.

So oly should be the focus.

Next question: would you be OK losing strength/skill in the implements in the short term?

Steven Low · 07-07-2011, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troy Kerr

Tailor your workout to your sport. Learn to properly execute the olympic lifts, add some squatting. My experience with gymnastics + o-lifts, is that it lead to a bit of overuse in my elbows a few sets in. However I feel like handstand and front lever can help with upper body strength without putting too much stress on the joints. Be sure to properly warm up your wrist as well as strengthen them. Get strong with your handstand pushups, make sure you stay hollow, focus on extending upward, and if your using the wall focus on your shoulders doing the work as opposed to your feet. You get better at fresstanding handstand by practicing balance work, you get better with hspu's by obviously getting stronger there. I am unfamilar with the Highland Games by the way.

Yeah, front lever isn't actually too bad on the joints unlike back lever and planche.

That's more or less because front lever is very similar to deadlifting as you're pulling the bar towards your shins (or rather keeping it against your shins as you lift) which is the same thing with the front lever. So all in all most people are used to it somewhat.

Troy Kerr · 07-07-2011, 06:46 PM

In my experience with the front lever, it has always been easy to train compared to the other statics. Planche, back lever, etc are all designed to stress the tendons and connective tissue. I have injured my wrist and elbows training planche and back lever. However with the front lever I have never had an injury, and it feels a lot more like a "muscle based" static hold, as opposed to others that are based a lot on tendon and ligaments. I have used the front lever with a few of my crossfit athletes and they love training it as well. In my experience the FL has been great for my pulling strength. But don't waste your time trying to squeeze in movements that look cool, figure out what movements will give you the most bang for your buck and get good at em.