College students usually like to relax on their winter breaks, right? They sleep in, avoid going out in the cold, and waste as much time as possible. I’m not the biggest fan of that long period of procrastination, so I’ve planned a lot during winter break. I’m taking a class during the intersession period, and plan on using the other free time to catch up on ‘required’ reading and professional development. I’m not sure who else will be using multiple library databases to track down some books this winter, but I am. Don’t worry though, I’m not that nerdy.
In addition to getting my learn on, I’m taking advantage of the extra free time with some extra training. (Yea, I bet you didn’t see that coming!) I won’t have to run around in methods classes for the next 6 weeks, so I’m dedicating time to a two-a-day training program. There isn’t anything cutting-edge or intense about it, it’s just following the format most commonly seen. I’ve convinced my friend Bryan Rosen to jump on board the madness, and we’re following the same program; the only differences will be the training loads. As for the program design, I’m combining a number of training concepts. Here’s a general outline of our next 5 weeks of training:
We’re using an upper/lower split. There will be two upper body days and two lower body days each week, and one of those days will be split into two workouts. Currently, these double workouts will be on Mondays and Fridays, meaning I’ll be heading back to the gym around 6pm after squatting at 9am. On Mondays, we’ll be performing our two lower body sessions, and on Fridays we double up on the upper body. Tuesdays are a single upper body workout, while Thursdays are a single lower body workout. Wednesdays and weekends are basically going to be recovery days, and we’ll addressing tissue quality (foam rolling, tennis balls, lacrosse balls, the Stick) and mobility. On our two session days, the difference is simple; the morning session has only 1 lift of high intensity, and the afternoon/evening session contains all of the accessory work. To lay it all out for you, it looks like this:
- Monday – AM- Lower Body Max Effort. PM – Lower Body Repetition Effort.
- Tuesday – Upper Body Dynamic Effort
- Thursday – Lower Body Dynamic Effort
- Friday – AM – Upper Body Max Effort. PM – Upper Body Repetition Effort.
We’d like the program to be as well-rounded as possible, so I’ve added in some ‘rules’ when it comes to exercise selection. For example, we’ll be using a number of unilateral lifts on the repetition effort workouts. Since I squatted this morning, I’ll use a number of single leg exercises when I head back this evening, such as a RFESS and a single leg deadlift variation. Actually, here’s the PM workout I plan on using:
- A1 Dumbbell RFESS
- A2 Valslide Body Saw
- B1 Single Leg Romanian Deadlift
- B2 Waiters Walk
- C1 TRX Hamstring Curl
- C2 Anti-Rotation Squat (Asymmetrical load)
- Finisher: Sled Drags.
As you can see, it’s a rather short workout. I’d like for it to take no longer than an hour, although I like to take my time warming up, so it may go longer. The sled work shouldn’t go longer than 10 minutes; I’ll use a variety of forwards and backwards pulling, not sure exactly what yet.
On Friday, our upper-body AM/PM day, we’ll be benching in the morning and then doing some lower-body work at 3pm. These workouts will be based in chin-ups, TRX Rows, and a variety of unilateral pressing and pulling. We’ll use dumbbell bent over rows over a barbell bent over row, and one armed dumbbell presses over a military press. The bilateral variations will be used on the dynamic effort day, after the speed benching or speed squats. This way, we’ll get in a healthy variety of exercises!
It’s going to be a fun month; I look forward to training hard, and having a training partner there with me along the way. I’ll scream at him, he’ll scream at me, and we’ll have a blast in the process. And then appreciate the deload week that comes after the madness. I’ll post some of the workouts if you’re interested in following our progress.
Harold Gibbons 