By John Scott Stevens, SFGII
Once again, I’m not a fan of W.O.D.s or Workouts of the Day. Instead I prefer to stick with a few movements and hit them hard for several weeks using a program then use a “WOD” as an occasional test to measure progress.
What follows is a nice challenging & heavy change of pace workout inspired by Dan John’s “Big 55” featured on T-Nation. My personal twist is to use slightly heavier weights and either use this as an occasional test or as a 6-12 week program. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.
- This workout uses heavier weights and has a 45 minute time limit.
- Pick three lifts and choose a 5RM – 8RM weight for each and complete 25 total reps of each movement using sets of 2,3 or 5 reps. Example: 5,2,3,5,2,3,5
- Two lifts should be grinds
- One lift should be an explosive or ballistic lift
- One of the three lifts should intentionally be a lift that is not your favorite. In other words, it is particularly challenging for you and addresses a weakness.
- Pick lifts that compliment each other in such a way that each lift is a form of active rest from the other two. Sample technique selections:
- Barbell Military Press + Double Kettlebell Clean & Front Squats
- Bent Press Left + Bent Press Right + Double Kettlebell Snatch
- Barbell Deadlift + Kettlebell Clean & Press Left + Kettlebell Clean & press Right
- Double Kettlebell Push Press + Renegade Rows
- Bench Press + Zercher Squats + Double Kettlebell Swings ( feel free to use a 10RM weight on swings and double the reps for the swings)
- Rest enough between sets to feel strong and complete the next set with excellent form but no so much as to cool down.
- Don’t be a slave to the numbers. Stop each set short of failure and leave at least one perfect rep in the bank.
- When you can complete the workout progress to one of the following:
- repeat the workout and compress your rest periods
- When you can’t compress the rest periods any more…
replace one or more sets of 2,3 with one set of 5 until you can complete 5 sets of 5.
- When you can do 5×5 compress the rest periods again.
- When you can’t compress the rest periods, move up in weight and start anew.