easy strength: loaded carries for rest + capacity

Some of the common questions Dan John's gets about easy strength are:

- how long do I rest between sets

- how heavy should my loaded carries be

His answers are always:

- whatever you need or as long as you can take

- different every session (distance, weight, and modality)

Ive got a great answer myself that I've weaved in - do sled drags in between sets. This gets variety, work capacity, rest, and EXPEDITED workouts all in 1 swoop. Weight doesn't even matter. Too light? Go. Faster. My quads have never felt so on fire than when im pumping my legs backwards uphill with 35lbs in tow.

Here's my example:

Superset 1: Rope pullups and ring leg curls

Sled drag after sets 1 and 2

Superset 2: reverse nordic and reverse plank

Sled drag after sets 1 and 2

In 20ish min I've hit damn near every muscle group (note: minus upper pressing, currently replaced by r nordic while I rehab right shoulder), and im out of breath doing it! Sled and easy strength is dummy easy to recover from. Its rare i have to take a forced off day. I typically opt to lift 2-3on and 1off to somewhat hit Dan's guidelines of rest.

How does one get variety in Sled drags? Easy.

- weight. Go up or down as needed. 

- speed. Lower weight and really drive up the momentum while keeping constant tension on the legs and hips.

- direction: drag backwards, forwards, sideways.

- attachment: hold by tow straps in hands, in crook of elbows, by a close grip handle, strap around the waist.

the gift of injury - reverse planks

I swear, everything has a reason and a season. Because of my back, im still not able to do any abdominal work. This being said, EXTENSION  movements are totally in scope. Enter a movement ive know about for years but never tried - the reverse plank.

I first read about this in convict conditioning. It is hailed as a way to train spinal erectors with calisthenics in a way that is safe and healing. I couldn't agree more. This, is the sauce my friends. I can say with absolute clarity that I will work on progressing this move as long as I live. No spinal loading and large progression possibility.

dan john isms

Paraphrasing cause I dont have the exact quotes in front of me.

(1)At some point, you've got to stop running your head into a wall to get stronger 

I have to keep coming back to this over and over. Fuck, it is written on the first page on my journal. It is so easy to get enamored with fitness pages and cool exercises that you either cant or won't do. I know I am truly lost when I am spending copious amounts of time weekly negotiating exercises sets and reps. You know what happens when you dont train methodically? Nothing. You gain close to nothing out of your work. 

This also applies to training around injuries. My right shoulder hurts and I can't contracr my abs. What is a better use of my time?

- pressing light weights with my left arm indefinitely

- trying to press baby weights with my bad right arm and nurse the pain

- work on mobility - often - and build up both shoulders while reserving my gas tank for body parts that dont suck

CHOOSE

(2)You cant volume your way to great strength

Short term this is half true. Long term this is VERY true. Ive found that pushing rep goals, rest pause, lifting to failure etc absolutely builds strength and it builds it quickly. It also builds muscle quickly which is very very nice. For me, what this type of training also does is increase the risk of injury and makes me feel TIRED all the time.

Taking a more moderate approach via density as opposed to increasing weight or proximity to failure takes longer to realize changes, but it sticks around longer.

simple, simple, simple training

This format works. Stop trying to improve it. 

Slow warmup

- activate muscles that are going to work for the day.

- slow speed, high control.

- 1-5 movements in a circuit for 10-20 reps and 1-3 sets.

- full body emphasis. 

Fast warmup

- low key, this is where some important volume can happen. I used to do this on accident by oly lifting first.

- can also use circuit training (5 circuits of 3-5 movements of low reps).

- oly movements, rotational movements (core, mace, sand, kettlebells).

- full body emphasis.

Main work

- 2 movements - 1 lower and 1 upper - performed as a super set.

- even if a clean is required to get the weight up, these movements are grinds.

- use ladders to wave volume. 

- progress is made by adding range, control, rungs to the ladder, and (LAST) weight. 

- Adding weight should take weeks or months. This is step loading.

- can use full body or Split emphasis (press + squat, pull + hinge is my fav).

Auxiliary work

- 1-2 sets of 1-2 movements.

- single joint or safe compound movements.

- work to failure to close to it.

- emphasis tracks main work split.

Stick with the same rubric for at least 6 weeks. If still making progress, dont change anything. A lot of gaps in frequency (i.e. repeating movements every 5 days) is made up for by both warmups. Body parts are being hit often!

Mobility days

- done after main work days.

- emphasize weak points - for me this is spinal movement. 

- smaller body parts also have a home here. 2-3 Tib and calf sets to failure.

Example

Press+squat

Mobility 

Pull+hinge

Mobility 

Repeat

chutes and ladders

I keep coming back to the same concepts cause they WORK for me.

Main work - ladders

Sets of 1,2,3,5 in waving volume 

Get in a ton of high quality volume quickly

Auxiliary work - chutes 

High rep balls out

Split

Anterior 

Posterior

mobility- what do you do when movement feels bad

Ive run into this with both upper and lower body mobility. Instagram is rife with people moving in different patterns with the headline - hurt (bodypart)? Do this!

Ya thats great. But what if you cant do the baby stuff? What id doing the baby stuff makes the problem worse? Personally I feel despair on contact. If I cant do the baby stuff im fucked. Proper fucked. This isn't true, but thats always the thought. Here's another option.

If movement hurts, work on holding different positions. These positions can be start and/or end ranges. Assisted or not assisted. This type of action got me from constant knee pain to sitting in full squats. It will also get me from shoulder pain to ring dips. Tension still drives adaptations in the absence of movement. The goal is to make it so these positions feel COMFORTABLE. What used to be hard is something you can do tired dying or dead. This makes a difference over time.

types of armor building

Schedule

Mobility Press

Mobility Pull 

Armor

Mobility Press 

Glutes

Scapula

Obliques

Hips 

Sled

Mobility Pull, with ring chinups

Glutes

Scapula

Obliques

Hamstrings 

Suitcase Carry

Armor 1

Kettlebell clean, press, and squat

Armor 2

Barbell clean, press, and squat 

Armor 3

Zercher cycle, ring dip 

ez strength feb 2026

Making notes so I can review later. This round has been more difficult determining the hinge. I know what my weak point is, but attempts to coax it up are not working.

Ez strength

Kb press - left arm only

Ring chinup

Hinge attempts

- sandbag dead

- landmine rdl

- stable rdl

- sumo dead next????

Hammer curl lol. Its been fun.

Carries

- keg

- kettlebells

- sandbag

Afterwards

Mobility

Neck nucleus overload

The issue with the hinge is my left hamstring mobility (i.e. the perpetual injured side). Where my right side gets full extension and contraction, my left side i can't get shit for range. Going to talk through with my trainer today. Might be better off working mobility for the ham and back and using easy deadlifts for the hinge.

wife training: sandbags and bodyweight

Day1: balanced

Warm up

10min sandbag curl to squat

10min ring pushups and sandbag rows

Cool down

Rest 1-2 days

Day2: thrusters and carries

Warm up

10min stable single leg rdl, ring row, sandbag clean and press

10min sandbag carry (on shoulder or bear hug) to grass and back.

Cool down

Rest 1-2 days

Day3: all bodyweight

Warm up

20min circuit

- Bulgarian split squats on bench 

- Ring pullups with feet on bench

- Hand over hand on sandbag

Cool down 

Rest 2-3 days

How to progress

Each week pick one of the following per workout.

- add 1min to work time (each interval if multiple 10min sets).

- add 1 rep per mini set on a movement.

- (last resort) add weight

Example progression

Adding 1min

10min --> 11min 1 curl and 3 sandbag squats

10min --> 11min 2 ring pushups and 3 sandbag rows

Adding 1 rep

10min 1 curl and 3-->4 sandbag squats

10min 2-->3 ring pushups and 3-->4 sandbag rows

Adding weight

10min 1 curl and 3 sandbag squats with 25lbs-->50lbs

10min 2 ring pushups (high) --> 2 ring pushups (low) and 3 sandbag rows 25lbs-->50lbs

Ideally, all other progression models are used first over 6-8 weeks. Take a few days off, then start to work in higher weight sets. Less is better than more.

this....is a good plan. armor and ez and mobility

I finished writing this out in my ph9ne notes and inadvertently said...nice. this is a good plan. For maybe forever.

ABF - 8 weeks - choose one

KB c, p, and s

Bb c, p, s, and curl

Sand 

- c, s

- Bw circuits. Start with set to failure.

EZ - 40 workouts

Lift and carry

MOBILITY - always

low back ability

Scapular motion and stretches

Wall movement 

Pelvic movement

Glute bridge

mobility that works. keep at it!

Always writing down shit that works so future me can (inevitably) relearn.

Warmup

- general joint rotations. Same as lift days.

- rope flow. 2-4 rounds of 1min.

Mobility - activate muscles 

Note: all sets super set with band pull aparts and band hip flexors.

Donkey kick

Glute bridge

Abductor extension

Band leg curl

Ring leg curl

Strength - choose 1 movement per mobility day. Treat like general strength (2-3min rest, stop set when form breaks or speed slows, shoot for increasing reps week over week by adding sets or reps in sets)

Lateral glute extensions 

Pike stretch. Use band resistance

Extreme wide squats

Stretch

Hamstrings 

Adductors

Hip flexors

bouncing back: managing load and volume

My biggest training regrets have always been linked to resting too long before training again. The issue was almost never my body wasn't ready. Conversely, I jumped back in trying to do the same volume as pre injury (note: even if weights used were light). Im finding more and more that thresholds for getting hurt are more attuned to volume and less to load. Yes, if you lift too heavy too soon shit is gonna break. But the more likely scenario is your body will shut that shit down. The nervous system will say nuh uh buddy. Not today Satan. Volume on the other hand, gives you all the rope you need to hang yourself and then some. Because anyone can do a lot of light reps. Dont get frustrated when you get reinjured with baby weights. Well, you tried to do 100 reps of baby weights.

Here is what is working for me.

- Load is light or very light. Always. For kettlebells im using my first warmup weight of 16kg.

- Rest periods are longer, even between sides. 1-2min instead of as soon as im damn well ready.

- Volume is very low. You can go by 10 reps total, OR the moment the impacted body part throws a warning sign. Just. Stop.

The hardest part of doing this is mental. You will 100% have tons of gas left. Just. Stop. This training session is not for making progress. It is a deposit. If each training session you can do slightly more then you are doing it right.

After the short main work, feel free to have some dessert.

- Mobility. Always. Work on the areas that are tight.

- Arms. Everyone loves arms yo. No reason why you cant train them as a secondary function, and they rarely will be the injured sticking point.

movement first, bodybuilding second

To be clear, this is not a prioritization scale. This is an order of operations. Im not a kettlebell purest and never will be. My roots are in conventional lifting and I see its obvious value. Its too easy when you discover a new (religion) to go all in as a defender, and i dont want to fall into that bucket.

To fit in both, training is organized as such:

- movement first (kettlebells, sandbags, kegs)

- bodybuilding second (cables, calisthenics, barbells)

The first done for higher sets of low reps. The second done for lower sets of high reps. The stable and loadable nature of conventional implements make them ideal candidates for hypertrophy work, but the advantage of using them second is the entire body is already ON from the primary work. Every rep feels locked the fuck in to substantiate a nasty pump. Joints are already warmed up by the unconventional work. This is a $ strat.

all my shit hurts workout

My neck is fucked. I dont know what i did or did not do, but my neck is locked up to the point where I need muscle relaxers. Learning from my past, im moving as much as I can. My biggest failure when injured was a lack of creativity and movement. Shit took way longer to heal than it should have because I was focused on what was not possible, or pushing movements that made the healing prolonged.

ASIDE

when I moved into my current house, I bought my first home gym equipment - a single 20kg kettlebell. I looked ar this weight with contempt. This is good for swings and nothing else. A few years later, im excited at the prospect of getting full ass to grass clean reps with this weight. How things change! If past me had focused on everything that was possible with this weight instead of seeing it as an obstacle to be overcome, what a wild future I could be living. The equipment is always secondary. 

/ASIDE

Neck injuries are brutal because they shut down everything! Well, almost everything. You know what is still in scope? Hip mobility, Hip flexor strength, rope flow. This means low cardio, abdominal strength, and general health on everything. Returning to normal workouts will be a matter of practice.

armor building formula- months 2 and 3

Im still making progress on the one arm kettlebell armor building formula, so im not stopping. If anything, im making better progress than when I started.

Ive made a bunch of changes in months 2 and starting month 3 that are working really well.

ABC day alterations

Instead of cleanx2, pressx1, squatx3

Do cleanx3, squatx3, ring dipx1-3

I really like the increased cleans - easily my favorite part of this whole deal. Pressing overhead feels better with a lower frequency, and training ring dips is a different and welcome stimulus.

Press day alterations 

Instead of clean + pressx2/3/5/10

Do clean + press in cascading reps per weight

With the OG I felt like I was getting too much lighter volume while tensing up my neck to compensate. Performing 1 clean and 1 press back to back is a ton safer for my neck while allowing me to work higher volumes with higher weights. Big fan of this.

Progressing on both variants is looking like step loading still. Adding a rep to the high and low weights every time I touch the bells.

Changes outside of abf

In the before times, I kept trying to find loaded carries and the like as finishers. There is nothing wrong with this approach, but I felt like I was saving energy in the tank for secondary work. Focusing on the primary for now is doing much more for me than adding other hard stuff. Thank you dan john for saying this explicitly in your books. No thank you to me for not...doing that.

Every lifting day has 3 sets of calisthenics arm movements to failure. Super set with post training stretches and mobility.

Non lifting days are pure mobility. The only lifting type activity has been sled drags. I question their utility, but I have noticed stronger contractors in my Hamstrings when they are in the mix. Good stuff.

Afternoon lifting is more or less gone entirely. Activity after early morning is now relegated to walking the dog or mobility. Anything to get me outside.

Eventually ill pivot to easy strength, but I see no reason to do so until my progress stalls with the current approach.

strap carry: the best worst idea

Today post press focused armor building formula day i ended with waiter walks. 

First set I used a kettlebell. The pressure against my wrist was the limiting factor.

Second set i used a dumbbell. The dumbbell rotated too much and I bailed to prevent getting beefcaked.

Third set, I fucked up real good. I attached a trx knockoff strap to a kettlebell and took it for a walk. What. Have. I. Done???

This addresses the pressure and safety issues of sets 1 and 2, but adds crazy instability the entire set. My shoulder was STRUGGLING to keep the weight still. This was amazing and im glad I found it. Also I hate it. 

light > rest, and about walking away

This weekend something amazing happened. I went to a blade rave and danced full intensity for 5 hrs. DONT WALK AWAY THAT ISNT THE COOL PART. The cool part is barring some tightness in my right (injured) leg, I walked away Scott free. When I've had to temper myself or expect injuries for the price of having fun for the last....decade...this is some mother fucking progress my dude.

The first 2 days back, I still trained. This brings us to the main topic of today- light days beat rest days and walking away is a learned skill I wish I had forever ago.

Day1 

Working off of no sleep and no food. Right leg still feeling tight.

My usual mobility day of sled and rope did not feel great. Instead of resting, I did 4 quick rounds of rope flow up and down my lawn. Probably not more than 10min total. Got some decent core contractions. Then, foam rolling tight lights. Walk away. Ill tell ya, light being a gradient isn't something I would have entertained even last year and now it is a core fucking value. 

Day2

Armor building formula ABC kettlebell work and backoff upper  bodybuilding. Right knee feeling better but still tight. Because my issues seem to be more rooted in volume than weight, I actually went up to the next poundage (20kg). It still feels very easy, but i quit after 2 sets at that weight.

And then

Walk

Away

I lost nothing and gained so much. My body is ready for the next weight up. Im not injured and dont have to take more time off. 

Extra: The mother fucking magic

Up until my week off on the cruise this month, I had been doing my ABC kettlebell work for a month. During the time on the cruise, all I did was 10min of rope flow + pushup EMOMs followed back light leg and hips mobility. When I came back, my kettlebell work was stronger not weaker. I credit the consistent motion over rest, and the fact that im not brow beating myself into fatigue like times past. I see value in the times where im not struggling to make progress. 

abf balanced approach

This mornings workout was an upper 20% day. Felt strong and locked the fuck in. Lessons from today will ECHO through the remainder of this training cycle and the END OF TIME. I AM THE MIGHTY THOR FJFJENDNFNRJRJFNSNS.

how we do, AM workouts 

1)ABC, 1xcarry, 3-5x rounds of calisthenics and rdls, 1xarms

2)Mobility and rope

3)Press, same as ABC

4)Mobility and rope

ABC

- work up to top weight. Get.1-5 rounds adding 1 round per workout.

- back off to medium weight. 2 sets at double ABC reps (4/2/6).

- back off to light weight. 1 set at triple reps (6/3/9).

Press

- aim for rep goals at top weight. No specific reps per set but stop 1-2 before failure. Increase reps goal every workout by 5-10.

- back off to medium weight and perform 2 sets.

- back off to light weight and person 1 set.

- every set ends with goblet squats.

Carry can be whatever implement. Just take it for a walk.

Calisthenics 

- Press (archer pu, pseudo pu, ring pu, ring dip, rto pushup)

- Pull (all ring rows)

- rdl (landmine, kb, whatever)

Mobility

- focus on hips and Hamstrings.

- include light pump work for all body parts.

- coassack training.

PM

- rope flow

you dont need to game the system

Despite what im about to write, I've truly enjoyed running keto in the past. But when i ran it I kept looking to it as the thing that would get me lean and mean. And...maybe it could have too. But the takeaway here is i didnt have to. My largest fault has always been doing way too much shit. High volume and conditioning is 100% something possible...IF you work up to it. If instead you decide you are going to do 300 pushups a day while learning to juggle knives you are likely proper fucked.

Here's the deal. Unless you are training for a purpose, you don't need a training or eating strategy. 

Summarizing the keys

- eat whole foods.

- consistent effort trumps intermittent intensity.

- add volume and weight SLOWLY. 

The most common infraction im guilty of is adding. More. Shit. In. And it isn't like there is no place for MORE. But does more fit into your program? 

Low frequency and high intensity seems to work well with more. If you are training 2x/week then going to failure is probably a great idea. Conversely if you are training 3-5x a week? Maybe and maybe not. Adding more at some point is just more.

abf: minor tweaks

Abc

- one kettlebell 

- when lower back or Hamstrings tap out, switch to 3x15 calisthenics movements

- ring arm work

Press

- one kettlebell

- every round ended by 3-5 goblet squats (can use heavier bell)

Keg carry days  or sets intermittently sprinkled in.

Off days are OFF for heavy work.

- high rep bands and mobility 

- mace swings

- sled drags

the fountain of youth is easy daily effort

Im seeing the fruits of my efforts bloom after a few weeks and it is niceeeee.

Besides mobility, the largest change I've made in my training in the last 6 months is cutting out difficult second daily workouts. Due to working from home, I need exercise to keep me sane. The 2x a day workouts were manageable in effect, but they made me tired as all hell, and did not under any circumstances give me any noticeable gains beyond what I would get training once a day. Endlessly quoting dan john, but sometimes more is Just more. Or...its 1hr or 10hrs. Everything in between is not making a difference. 

So, 1hr a day. This can still be 2 workouts, but the vast majority of work getting allocated to light tonic work is a boon I didnt know i needed. 

How we do

- 3-4x week, AM strength training. Simple and predictable. Slowly add load and volume over time. Using the armor building formula. If you are thinking of adding more, dont.

- 3-4x week, AM mobility. There should be some common movements based on what youre trying to improve.

- 7x week, PM daily work. This is the $$$. I did nothing but this on vacation and glad I did. This is easy to do, easy to recover from, and can still add hypertrophy and strength through accumulation.

The daily work is today's topic so ill elaborate. 

- 10min EMOM pushups.

- 10min EMOM swings and animal walks.

Rope flow done during rest periods. 

Pushups alter variations every set. Add 2 reps/set every 2-3 weeks. This gets really nasty without incurring a fatigue debt. 

For swings/walks

- start 2 sets swings and 8 sets walks.

- add a set of swings and remove a set of walks each day.

- start over with 2 sets of swings but add a rep per set.

- after you hit 10x10 swings, increase the weight and restart.

armor building - variations

To be clear, this is me making shit up. There is not a Dan John's program or suggestion to do this. Each variation keeps to the same tenet - 2 cleans, 1 press, 3 squats - but gets there in different ways.

How we do

- (1)(2)kb

- (1)kb but overhead squat

- (1)kb but bent press

- sandbag clean to squat to ring dips

- (2)(1)landmine clean to press and hack squat 

- (1)kb curl from squat, squat into halo

- (1)kb curl from squat, squat into thruster 

Other variation 

increase number of presses (note: especially for ring dips) and/or squats per set. 

results of daily activity, not daily training

Building momentum is what we are doing. My energy and sex drive are doing pretty stellar compared to when I poured my energy all into training. The downside? At least for the time being, my physique is not what id like. As I've alluded to in other posts, I am giving my all to avoid focusing on this short term valley so I can harvest long term benefits from what I've invested in.

What im doing

Training 3-4x a week. All ABC single kettlebell.

AM mobility 3-4x a week. The only 'lifting' in this session is mace/club/medicine ball lateral movements

PM 5-7x a week. This is my nucleus overload, rope flow, and animal walk training. Goal is to get some sun and active recovery.

armor building weeks 3 and 4

Not every day is stellar, but im seeing slow and steady progress. Considering my legs need the most work, I've cut the press only day out so im only running the ABC. Short term shoulder hypertrophy is suffering, but Considering how much pressing I am getting from daily pushups this is not a big concern.

Legs are finally growing again!!!! Even with light weight. My back is definitely the limiting factor, so will work on this with mobility coach.

Improvements are not necessary to weight (12kg --> 18kg working weight) but I get way more sets at the top range AND the weight is moving faster. My rest between sides and sets is also decreasing. Just overall great stuff. 

In my next post, I'm going to create a working list of ABC variations that could be fun in the future. I can see using this method for the foreseeable future, and using the cooked up variations at the end of each 8 week cycle.

tissue tolerance

Ive mentioned in previous blogs about how an early goal for me was to increase the amount of time before things hurt. This is still 100% the goal, but i want to take it further. If your shit ain't right, consider this before doing random shit. So says the guy who decided to do zercher squats and lunges yesterday and now has angry knees.

Progression

- static holds assisted.

- static holds unassisted.

- holds unassisted. Some motion.

- full movement. Multiple sets of low reps.

- Add sets.

- Add reps per set.

- Add weight or difficulty.

what is your turning point?

There is no one turning point for people for the most part (notable exception David Goggins). Its a spectrum of life changes made when we had no choice. These little forks in the road make us who we are.

For me, the latest was a narly back injury sustained from high rep deadlifting near my 40th bday. I've done high rep deadlifting in the past and loved it. The difference between then and now is then I was building on top of a solid foundation. Now, I was putting high fatigue on a lift i had barely trained in years and had sustained multiple injuries on from weaknesses in all supporting body parts. Big big difference.

The turning point is not the fact that I got hurt. It is that I got hurt when my wife and I needed to paint our future kids room. The work ended up being 20/80 me to her because I could not stay upright and mobile for very long. My wife was happy to take on the work. That isn't what this is about. It is about not being able to participate in things I hold to be important because I decided to train like an asshole.

Unless it is your JOB to look pretty or break heads, the main goal of training (important note: for people outside of the adolescent age band) is to become more resilient. This doesn't mean that muscle and strength isn't in the picture. Quite the opposite. But if you are not becoming more insulated from normal injury (see: throwing your back out from sneezing, stupid shit) or not able to do normal human things then you may want to rethink your shit. Dont be a war story bro. Train forever.

dont snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Lot that this can apply to, but in this case it's training ADD. If something is working. Dont. Change. It. 

The most common symptoms for me is I think im missing out on muscular gains by not doing X movement. In reality, if week over week I can stack more weight and volume safety then the process is working.

There is no world where more weight and volume on the same movements done consistently does not pay off. Stay with something until the program is done or you stop making progress.

to heal: target above and below, hold ranges

Full disclosure, my right knee is still a work in progress. But compared to last year im fucking superman. What helps my back more or less applies here too:

- strengthening the muscles above and below the impacted area.

- exploring ranges of motion by holding positions.

Strengthening above and below is something you should be doing anyways. I.e. normal ass strength training. You should not have weak or perpetually tight muscles. 

For the knee

- Above: quads, hip flexor, glutes, hamstrings. 

- below: tibs, calves.

My big hangup was that I could not FEEL the muscles listed even when I did exercises that targeted them. The wrong muscles would get tight and hurt trying to protect my knee. The panacea ended up being isolation or Banded movements. It isn't enough to spark major hypertrophy, but it is enough to get you from suck to kind of ok. And kind of ok is a great starting point when you are coming back from an injury. 

Apply the same logic to the back:

- above: t spine, lats.

- below: glutes, hamstrings, quads, hip flexor, ql

Holding positions is a little more art than science. You are SLOWLY getting your body used to deep ranges of motion. Do not be hesitant to use assistance. Getting in and out of a position pain free consistently is a major win. None of the Instagram mobility freaks you see were able to juat do that. They had to practice for years. So do you.

armor building formula - weeks 1 and 2

Tldr its been great. I started with 12kg for all movements and have graduated to 16-20kg for most at this point. Borrowing from the armor building formula 2, there is no reason why an entire workout has to be 1 weight. Its whatever you can do at that time. Even if it means dropping weight mid workout.

Results 2 weeks in...

- general energy is way up. Especially after I stopped adding sets to failure of other movements after the main abf work was done. 

- shoulders are slightly rounder. This is a genuine surprise given the low weight im using.

- my mid back is always sore. Always.

- im ravenous haha. Minus some fasting attempts im hungry all the time. I do my best to feed that impulse with whole foods.

Alterations

- im using the single kettlebell version. The double feels a little too sketchy right now. But its a good version to graduate to.

- every 5 days, I throw in 2 sets of nordic curls to failure. It costs little and feels amazing.

- if I have the energy mid day, I've thrown in a second kettlebell workout that consists of big whole body movements. I jealously protect my lower back if this is on the menu.

Alternatively, I get a walk in with my dog to get some sun.

Off days

Mobility, always. This consists of 5-10min sled pulls, glute work with bands, and a series of hip openers. Again if energy persists during the day, ill walk the dog to get more sun. Im not against getting in some horizontal pressing work via pusbups done for EMOM rounds.

training arcs, not mesocycles

Ask yourself. What did Naruto do when training for a rasengan? Yhe answer is not, a bunch of random shit. He spammed shadow clones who all practiced the same movement to cheat the frequency and time of what would normally take years. What happened when he was done with this arc? Did he keep training the same movement in the same way? Hell no. He USED it while learning other new techniques - often spamming the same high frequency strategy.

I digress. This is not a parable for frequency as much as sticking to a program until you have earned the right to deviate.

Case and point, the armor building formula is a lot of kettlebell clean, press, and squat. My first few weeks, I added hypertrophy work for dips and rows and nordics. And it was fine. Things were fine. But there is a cost to going to failure mentally and physically and I paid the troll toll. Versus, dropping those movements and focusing on the main story arc, I've been able to push more weight and more volume every time I step in my garage. 

I get weird vibes of I can do this forever meaning this is fun and safe. Will I? Prob not. Dan john himself doesn't suggest that you do unless you work in deloads. The arcs that dan outlines more so bounce between his different programs.

- armor

- easy strength

- mass made simple

Etc

assisted step up rdl = money

Every once in a while you try out an exercise that looks like it will fit your needs, and it far far exceeds your expectations. Today, we have the assisted step up rdl.

Steps up a weak point for me because of quad and knee tendon strength in certain ranges of motion, but unlike normal step ups this is almost entirely a glute and hamstring exercise. Kind of like a pistol on a platform, the step is allowing for more tension in the targeted area without the added complexity of balancing or positioning the opposite leg.

How to do

1)Get on top of a step/bench next to a power rack (or otherwise stationary object you can hold on to). Grab on to the structure with the hand opposite of the leg worked.

2)Hinge forward with a single leg. Let the other leg drop straight down. Continue until you cannot hinge through the stretch any more.

3)come back up and repeat. Switch legs. Go nuts.

Why this rules

Its a back safe machine like way to burn out your legs after something more dynamic or strength oriented has tapped out. I love that shit. By itself, this would be an easy hinge. Paired with other movements it is a golden way to build muscle. 

S tier movement (note under the conditions listed above).

Eugene Tao and barbells. the edge lord has a point

A few years ago, Eugene Tao released a video with a deliberately inflammatory title: i stopped using barbells and you should too.

CLUTCH. PEARLS.

The actual argument within is much more moderate. If he can replace a barbell movement for himself or his clients, he does. I've also found this to be thr case, but it isn't a baby and bathwater situation. Its user specific. A kettlebell clean is not 'better' than a barbell clean. Apples and oranges. Both movements have value and offer something unique.

How this came up for me was with the barbell floor press. For weeks, my right shoulder hasn't been feeling super batman. I adjusted by taking my grip in (i.e. close grip floor press) which bought me another week before that too felt wonky. So what now? The weight isn't heavy yet. My muscles have the capacity but the joint does not. I flipped the script and switched to a ring pushup. Sane overall movement pattern with a larger range of motion and larger freedom of movement. Immediate relief. My shoulder is still a little inflamed from the work I tried to do, but that is easily fixable with some rest and light movement.

So what is the lesson here? The same lesson as always - movement dogmatism isn't a good call unless your sport demands it. For most of gen pop, this means nothing is required. If barbell movements feel good, have at it. If they dont, there are a legion of options.