My workouts from Halloween to Easter

This is a thumbnail sketch of the goals that I’ve set myself for the wintry period from Halloween to Easter. It feels odd to be finally moving on from my previous goals of a double-bodyweight chin, a double-bodyweight dip and a half-bodyweight pistol as I’ve been chasing them for most of 2009.

My goals

For what it is worth, my new goals are:

a double bodyweight pull up (bodyweight plus 75kg / 165lbs)
a 2.5x bodyweight conventional deadlift (187.5kg / 415lbs)
bench 100kg (220lbs)

There is other stuff that I want to do but I don’t really allow myself to focus on more than 3 goals at a time. I find that if I allow myself to accumulate too many goals then I don’t really achieve anything worthwhile. Dan John has written well on keeping your goals to a minimum so I won’t say any more. What I will say is that the overall purpose of the whole programme is to build another layer of work capacity to support my 2010 goals and (hopefully) build about 5kg of muscle too.

A more chilled approach

The first thing to say is that these are not very adventurous goals for me! The second thing is that I’m hoping that I can take a more chilled approach to training for the next 2 months, especially as I have a tendency to get beaten up by deadlifts if I do them too frequently. I suspect I will have to go 3 weeks on and 1 week off when it comes to pulling from the floor. I just want to eat well, lift heavy and get stronger without killing myself.

The main reasons behind the goals are as follows:

a double-bodyweight pull up – I need to get closure on the whole weighted pull up thing as it’s been dominating my life for too long;
a 2.5x bodyweight deadlift – I’d like to go back and finish what I started last year. Having said that, I’d also like to set myself up hitting 3x bodyweight some time in 2010 (I can get just as fanatical about deadlifts as I do about pull ups). And anyway, it bothers me that there are people out there who can pull more than twice what I can at the same bodyweight;
bench 100kg – this is another staging post on the way to 1.5x bodyweight, which is definitely going to be on my 2010 goals list. 1.5x bodyweight is the qualifying weight for the British Drug Free Powerlifting Nationals. I’m not sure I can commit to entering as I probably won’t have the recovery time to back squat regularly as well as fulfill my other goals but it’s a good benchmark, none-the-less.

A sketched out workout plan

Saturday – Upper

Bench press 10 sets of 3 reps on 1min
Pull up 10 sets of 3 reps on 1min
Military press 5 sets of 8 reps on 1min30s
Elbow flexor pull ups 5 sets of 8 reps on 1min30s
Dumbbell triceps extensions 5 sets of 8 reps on 1min30s
Front lever practice 3 attempts

Sunday – Lower

Lumberjack squats 10 sets of 3 reps on 1min30s
Pistols 5 sets of 8 reps on 2mins (both legs)
Glute-ham raise 5 sets of 8 reps on 1min30s
Hanging leg raises 5 sets of 8 reps on 1min30s
Heavy sandbag carries 5 carries

Tuesday – Upper

Dips 5 sets of 2 reps on 2mins
Assisted one arm pull ups 5 sets of 2 reps on 3mins (both arms)
Military press 5 sets of 8 reps on 1min30s
Close grip chins 5 sets of 8 reps on 1min30s
One arm rows 5 sets of 8 reps on 2mins (both arms)
Front lever practice 3 attempts

Thursday – Lower

Conventional deadlift 10 sets of 2 reps
Pistols 5 sets of 8 reps on 2mins
Glute-ham raise 5 sets of 8 reps on 1min30s
Hanging leg raises 5 sets of 8 reps on 1min30s
Heavy sandbag carries 5 carries

So will it work?

I think that so long as I eat enough to support the extra volume, it should work.

I am hoping that the double-bodyweight pull up will look after itself. I think I have built enough work capacity to support an increase in strength on most vertical pulling movements.

I think that my deadlift will go up quite quickly to where it was before (c. 170kg). After that, I honestly don’t know what will happen. My gut reaction is that so long as my lower back holds out, I will pull 2.5x bodyweight before the end of March. I am pretty sure I have the leg strength and upper back strength already. The problem is the bit in-between. So this programme is designed to put on whole-body functional mass to support this goal (higher reps, lumberjack squats and sandbag carries). I will hate it but I have to do it or my body will break.

For my bench, I’ve added in some triceps extensions to build pressing power and I’ve added some rowing to help balance it all out.

Chris Beardsley's Garage Gym