T-folk/Coaches, I would like your advice. I am laid up with the flu at the moment, and have just finished my last training cycle, and am designing a new one in bed. I have decided to hybridise a few ideas, and need your opinions. I am going to do the upper body 12 weeks of pain by ian king(which i hve never done), as my upper body is dis-poportionately smaller than my lower body(28" thighs, to a 45" chest, waist 30"). Essentailly i want to increase my core strength, and maintain the leg mass that I have, and ideally have some carryover to the ian king/upper body workouts. Due to this, I dont want to use the ‘limping’ series, and am going to train once a week with the 1st part of ‘booming biceps’ to incerease/concentrate on my kinetic chain/core strength. My plan is to train 4 times a week, and I now have 3 workouts covered. I dont want to hit upper body again too hard, but I need something else for the other day. Maybe some form of dinosaur training, functional strength, speed, the equivalent of a ‘metabolic day’ from ‘construction of a T-man’ article, or perhaps some westside speed training, or very specific core work or recovery day. Please give me some advice, as I
am (if i get better) starting on the weekend.
Coach Davies(if you get this), I have been following your workouts and ideas, and although i do not compete athletically, i really respect what you do and the level of effort you put in, if you could suggest something i could do for this final workout, I would be grateful as I would really like to incorporate some of your ideas.
Also, this goes out to all the people who’ve done the ian king upper body workouts, their advice on how it went(gains, size, etc) would be minty.
Thnaks to anyone who can help, sorry its a long post, but an active mind in a currently incative body is a pain in the ass! Please post as many opinions as possible, as it will numb the boredom!!
Thnaks for replying coach. I am training Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Sunday and Wednesday I am completing the 2 ‘bring on the pain’ upper body workouts(cest, back, bi’s, delt’s, tri’s), on the monday when i will be doing the 1st part of don alessi’s article , which focuses on core/kinetic chain strength (deadlifts, pelvic work, calves). I have a power rack, olympic bars/dumbells and and adjustable bench, pull up bars, and some various high tensity stretch bands. Ideally i would like to aid the growth of my upper body, and add some speed/agility and strength in there somewhere over the 12 weeks, but this is where i get a little lost. I would love to mix up some of your functinal strength drills, but need some advice on a good workout, the more pain/variety the better!
Just bumpin this one up for Coach Davies and the rest of the T-mag massive. Post your thoughts guys, all help appreciated. Coach, is that enough information above^?
Well I like your general ideas of the training programs (both are great examples) but I think you need to address your placement of training sessions as well as long term goals. To explain further, you mention you wish you address speed and agility. However you also said you would like to another upper body session in during the week. Do you see what I mean? I look forward to hearing from you and it looks like we’re the only one on this thread. In faith, Coach Davies
Thanks for the speedy reply Coach, at least Im getting some expert advice. I am well again now, so am eager to crack on! I think in my heat addled state i confused myself in the last post! I am using the 2 upper body workouts of ‘bring on the pain’, and the don alessi first part for the strength carry-over. I dont need to hit upper body again (unless you think its wise) as these two workouts should take care of growth in that aspect, and the other workout(don alessi) should take care of the core strength element, and maintain my thigh size(which is larger compared to overall torso, my problem!). The 4th workout im looking to use a mix of your renegade principles to increase my speed/agility, and perhaps either aid recovery or increase strength in other aspects - which is where i need your help, as this style of training seeems to be ideal, but i have no idea which principles to use. You help as always is gratefully recieved, Dannyboy
Coach, any more thoughts on this one? I checked out the the sample GPP routine back in an old T-mag, and that is the kind of thing i am after - should i adapt it or just do that? Dannyboy
Hey Dannyboy, in my opinion it sounds like you are covering your core(which I highly commend, not to many people put enough emphasis on this as they should) your upper body on the Ian days,(I’ve done and continue to incorporate his ideas and they are top notch, great gains) so the only thing you have left is speed and agility. Now since you will have 72 hours in between core and the 4th day, this might be a good day to add this on. Since you said you don’t compete athletically and would like to add some speed in, I think one day could fit your needs. I would also like to see you add some GPP in, not necessarly SPP since no sports are required, so this will also help with speed and agility. I think Coach Davies’s work on GPP are wonderful. They should really get you in great shape. Hope this helps.
I think you may want to consider using that other workout to enhance recovery. If you wish to work on general speed and agility by simply adding the rope workout from the tmag article will do wonders. Non-weighted GPP could be used in 6-12 minute periods to enhance work threshold as well but I would keep it relatively modest intensity to start. In faith, Coach Davies
Thankyou coach, and siscokid - im glad my general core principles are sound, its a relativly new type of routine im planning. Siscokid, Im glad you’re still having gains on ian king style, i did my first upper body workout this week(Sunday) - i had no idea the pain from so few sets, intense beyond belief! Coach, I have printed off the workout(also featured on renegadetraining.com) and think i will give that a go, minus the pull-ups and the wheelbarrow work, but and determined to bust my ass on the rest. I am keeping a careful eye on my body generally to check it doesnt send me into overtraining, but with 2 days rest I should be fine, if i can cope with the volume, the ladders will be on a another night, or if i cant, ditch the weighted GPP for these. Tops ideas guys, i’ll let you know how it goes - renegade style on thursday!