Workout of the Week #9

Welcome, now we are at workout of the week number nine. So now it is a so-called anatomical adaptation workout.

The name anatomical adaptation is coined by Tudor Bompa, other people also call it structural strength. And there we are immediately at the training goal, so it’s anatomical adaptation also known as structural strength. The idea is to balance the whole body, so basically working on the muscle tendon connection, and therefore we’ll look at that in a minute.

The training variables. We use 40 to 70% of the 1 RM as the training intensity, for 12 to 20 reps. The exertion is medium to hard and it’s a repeated effort.

So now we’re getting to what is a bit special about the anatomical adaptation, let’s talk about exercises. So it’s mainly based on fundamental movements, but it’s compound multi-joint, that is nothing special, but it’s multi-planar, so we’re trying to work in two or maybe three planes.

All of the three existing planes at the same time, and it’s also combined movements, so the idea is balancing the entire system whatever that means, but we want to use as many links in our kinetic chain as possible, through as many planes as possible, and we’re using bilateral and unilateral movements.

The exercise order, we are moving from most complex to least complex.

And if we look at a few more training variables, the training frequency is 2 days a week, the training organization is mainly a station training and we have some complexes included. It’s a full body split.

And before we jump into the program there were a few points I wanted to mention.

When it comes to providing an RPE it is difficult for combined movements. You will see that in a minute, when we look at for example the first movement in the workout is based on an Olympic Lift, but it’s a complex movement, so that means for example, you do a pull, a Clean Pull, followed by a Power Clean, followed by a Front Squat.

So obviously, if we work at a certain percentage of the Power Clean, the RPE will be accurate for the Power Clean, but it will not be accurate for the Clean Pull or the Front Squat.

So these are difficulties. Other difficulties are that the guiding principle or providing intensity is a

Difficulty, because some exercises again go through multiple planes and multiple movements. Therefore athletes tend to struggle at times with entire coordination, and then the guiding principle  is that you get the movement done first with good movement quality, and then look at the intensity second. Because, again we want to have a high movement quality, before we look at intensities.

So how does it look?

Here, we have our anatomical adaptation workout and let’s jump into it. So here we are inside the strength workout, and you can see the workout number 9, the two-day full body anatomical adaptation workout, and you will see an overview of how you can arrange the two strength training days. This is one way of doing it Monday and Thursday, or Tuesday and Friday.

Let’s have a look at the strength workout number one.

So here we see the first exercise, as I outlined is the clean pull, muscle clean and front squat. Then the next two exercises you see 2A and 2B, they are complexed, and then we have another complex 3A and 3B.

For example if we look at our first exercise, it’s a clean pull, a muscle clean and a front squat, and that is done for three repetitions. So a clean pull is one repetition, the muscle clean is the second repetition, and the front squad is the third repetition. And then, if you see here nine repetitions, that means you do the entire circle of clean pull, muscle clean, and front squat three times. Then here you have the rest, 3 minutes of inter serial rest and then you move to the next exercise, which is the dumbbell squat to shoulder press. You do a full squat with the dumbbells on your shoulders and then into a press.

And here you see again the difficulty, because it’s based on the RPE and the intensity of the shoulder press ,so it might feel at the end as an RPE of 7, but that is for the shoulder press not necessarily for the squat. Because you could probably squat much more than what you can shoulder press.

At least that’s what I’m hoping for you.

Inverted row, simple and straightforward but then for example here we have a dumbbell single-legged RDL to forward lunge. So you do have two dumbbells in your hands and you do a single-legged RDL, you go down, and stand back up and then you do a forward lunge.

That is one repetition, and this you do six times each side, and then the last exercise, a push-up to Star hold. Also pretty simple and straightforward, you do a push-up and then you go into a star hold.

Let’s have a look at session number two.

A similar setup here, we have this time a combined exercise based on the snatch movement, so we do a snatch pull, a muscle snatch and an overhead Squat. And the same here, you use the percentage of the power snatch, and then you can see you have the nine repetitions, the RPE.

And then we go exercise number 2A and 2B. So it’s a dumbbell deficit bulgarian split squat into a shoulder press. So a deficit bulgarian split squat is, where you have the front foot elevated, so you can get into a deeper squat position and then important here, it’s contra-lateral, meaning you have the left leg forward and the dumbbell in your right hand. And if you have the right leg forward, you have the dumbbell in your left hand.

Then we do an RDL to bend over row, so we stand upright hold the barbbell in our hands do an RDL, hold the bottom position, do a bend over row, and back into the end position and start position of the bend over row, and stand back up and complete the RDL.

And then chin up to hand or the typewriter, so you pull yourself up pull the chin to one hand back down chin to the other hand back down. Most likely you have to do that band-assisted, so this is the program.

Then you have a few more explanations here, you can read a little bit about me what my athletes have to say about me.

And then this question I have received is, what’s four week customizable program?

So what you see here this is the first week of the entire 4-we program. So if you sign up for the membership, you get the four-week program. You do not only the first week, but also week number two, three and four. And that is customizable, so you can change the exercises, you can change the repetitions, you can change literally anything, until a point where it’s not the same program anymore.

It also has the opportunity for you to fill in the weights, fill in your own RPE and so on.

Let’s finish this and move back.

So what are the next steps?

I just outlined, you can download this strength workout here, the PDF, you can join the membership there you get the entire 4-week program, and you like this video, subscribe to the channel, so you get more workouts each week.

Until then I see you next week, with a new strength workout.