Program Design Advice?

Training
1

Hey everyone,

I have been working on my strength and power through a program design that I made some years back but never really got to use due to a shoulder injury.

Now that my shoulder is working as it should again I have been using the program the last couble of months and although I like it alot and feel like it works I do want some input.

Its one day, on one day off and there are three sepereate days which looks like this:

A1. Pull ups, 5x5
A2. Klapping pull ups 5x3

B1. Dips, 5x5
B2. I call the medball drop throws, but I have someone holding a medicine ball over my torso while I am lying on the ground. WHen he drops it, I catch and throw back up. 5x3

C1. Zercher squat 5x5
C2. Squat jumps 5x3

A1. Power rows, 5x5
A2. Bar 2 bar rows, its a recline row where i catch a bar above the one i start out pull from. 5x3

B1. KB bridge press, 5x5
B2. Band resisted klap push ups, 5x3

A1. Single rows, 5x5
A2. explosive Single arm recline row

B1. Unilateral decline db press, 5x5
B2. Medball explosive push ups - one hand on the medball and the other on the ground, going from side to side, 5x3(6 total)

C1. Sumo DL, 5x5
C2. Bridges, 5x3

Thats it.

Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated!

2

Are you able to do any overhead shoulder exercises (ie DB press)? On a quick look, that looks like the only major gap in your workout, but if it’s for medical reasons I understand.

Only other thing I’d look at is squat volume, I’d think about maybe working a little more in. It may be just my powerlifter’s bias talking, but the squat is a great exercise muscle development, and I like to hit it hard. Love the explosive pushups and the pullups, both are great exercises. If this is working for you and your coach likes it it’s probably good to stick with until you plateau, then maybe mix up some exercises a little.

3

I agree on the squat volume but I have a small tear in my menisc, so it’s actually on purpose. not much I can do there at the moment.

Regarding the horizontal press it’s actually more of a time issue since the workouts already take a bit to long in my opp. The rest scheme I’m using is 60 sec between the first and second exercise and 90 sec between the second going back to the first… due to fatigue I then add 10s each set so it looks like this.

pull ups 5 reps

  • 60s rest
    Klapping pull ups
  • 90s rest
    Pull ups 5 reps
  • 70s rest
    Klapping pull ups
  • 100s rest.

On average it takes about 1½ hours

I have tried with smaller rest periods but I quickly run dry on fuel and the explosive exercises arent all that explosive anymore.

Maybe I could implement the press on the second day where I dont have the legs involved… Guess I’ll try and do that and see how that works out.

I’m thinking Db presses combind with clean and jerk or just the jerk portion. any thoughts on that ?

How about the generel set up of strength exercises followed by a power exercise, good bad and why ?

4

I’ll just add in that the program is designed for grappling purpurses.

5

Regarding the explosive exercises, I would recommend trying them first in the pairing: eg–explosive chin up x 3, rest, chin-up x 5, rest, repeat.

Depending on the person, this may or may not work well with the squat jump to squat. I believe box jumps are effective in the scheme I mentioned above. Personally I like to do jump squats after a heavy set.

Maybe a couple warm-up sets on regular chins just to ‘feel’ the exercise before the explosive movement. You will most likely find that doing the explosive reps first mean you need less rest between the 2 exercises. I would do 3 explosive chin-ups, rest 30 seconds, then do 5 regular/weighted chins and rest the full 90 seconds. Expect it to perhaps drain you a bit more because of the low rest period, but explosive movements in general should always be done prior to slower speed movements (rule of thumb, not a hard law).