Workout of the Week #37

Welcome to Workout of the Week number 37. So we have done the preparation period, the preparatory period, in the previous two videos – the general prep and the special prep. Now we have reached the pre-competition, the competition period. Yeah, and this is a program that a former athlete of mine, Anuka Bruton, followed in her season 2011 and 2012. And we are now working on strength and power.

Training Goals

So what are the training goals? Well, I guess I just said it – we maximize strength and power through a heavy-light approach.

Training Variables

Yeah, so what are the training variables? The one who has seen the previous video will say, “Well, we did the heavy-light approach previously.” Yes, we did, but now the intensity increases on the heavy loading. Yeah, we do 85% to 95% of the 1RM, and in the light loading we use body weight or light implements.

Rep Ranges:

• Heavy loading: 1 to 3 reps
• Light loading: 3 to 6 reps

Training Exertion:

• Heavy loading: Hard
• Light loading: Light

Effort:

• Heavy loading: Maximum effort
• Light loading: Dynamic effort

Exercise Selection

If we look at exercise selection, we see in our heavy loading we use Olympic lifts and fundamental movements, and for our light loading we use medicine ball throws and jumps.

Exercise Order: We progress from most complex to least complex.

Additional Training Variables

If we have a look at more training variables, so now in the competition period, the training frequency in the gym is reduced from three to two sessions a week – two days a week. The training organization is station training including some complexes. It’s a full body split.

Program Overview

Let’s have a look at how that looks. Here’s our workout, and we jump right into it.

So here we are inside of our pre-competition training program. You can see an overview of the program, the table of contents. Then you can see here two sessions a week on non-consecutive days, so preferably two days in between to two days and three days in between.

Workout 1

If we look at workout number one, this is how it looks. So we have complexes: 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, and so on and so on – so four complexes. We start with a quote-unquote heavy loading, being in this case hang power clean, followed by light loading, in this case being the non-counter-movement box jump. And then we do:

• The bench press and the medicine ball power drop
• The front squat and the drop jumps
• The single-leg squats on the box and the pull-ups (upper body complex – excuse me, there’s a complex with the so-called accessory exercises, if you would like to call them accessory exercises anyway)

So what I want to get into: In the previous program workout, we had an approach where we changed the heavy loading and the light loading using different biomechanical movements. Now we are going back to that contrast training approach where you use similar biomechanical movements.

Yeah, so the power clean is, you could say, somewhat of a lower body push jump movement. Yeah, so we do the power clean in combination with a jump. The upper body – the bench press – we do it with another upper body pushing movement, being the medicine ball power drop. And the third one, again, the squatting movement in combination with a jump.

Intensity: 85% of the 1RM, three sets of three, which equates to an RPE of 7.

Light Loading:

• Non-counter-movement box jumps: 2 repetitions
• Power drop: 4 repetitions
• Drop jumps: 2 repetitions

Workout 2

Let’s have a look at workout number two. Yeah, so similar setup here. We do:

• An Olympic lift with a jump
• The shoulder press with the push press
• The Bulgarian split squat (a single-legged squatting movement) with a single-legged jumping movement
• Also here we have upper body pull and for the posterior chain, the leg curls on the slide board

Similar to what we’ve looked at in workout number one: three sets of three at 85% for the heavy loading.

Light Loading Repetitions:

• 1, 2, and 1, 2, and 3 repetitions
• 1, 2, and 4 (excuse me)

So if you look at the hurdle jumps, why only one repetition? Well, you see it’s specified here – you start on a box and you jump over three hurdles. So one repetition is basically three jumps, and that concludes the workout.

Additional Resources

So if you download it, you can see the glossary explaining the terms from that program. You can also read about Anuka, who followed that program successfully. You can read a bit about myself. You can read what other people have to say about me. And then, last but certainly not least, you can join the membership.

In the membership, you get the four-week periodized training program. So that was just the first week of that 4-week program.

Next Steps

And now let’s move back and finish the presentation. So what are the next steps?

1. Number one: You download the program
2. Number two: You join the membership

Inside the membership, you get, as I mentioned, a 4-week periodized program. But considering we are in week 37, you get another 36 training programs ranging from strength development, power development, hypertrophy, and so on and so on – 2 days, 4 days, 6 days, anything you’d like.

Speaking about like – like the video, subscribe to it, grab all previous workouts here, look at the previous workout, and if you haven’t already, subscribe.

I see you next week when we go to the competition training program.