Lift & Read Book Club, Issue 19 (April Lifting Club Program Included)

Fiction

"The Brothers K" by David James Duncan.

About halfway through this family saga about baseball, religion, politics, humor, drama, etc. What a delightful read so far. 

Physical Culture

I finally finished "C-Mass" and can officially close the books on ever reading another Paul Wade story again. Like I said in the last issue, though, this "C-Mass" book is by far the best of the 3 Paul Wade books I've read. The writing, prose, tone, and verbiage may be the most cringe of the 3, but the program templates, hormonal profile, and Q&As sections are actually pretty solid. There's A LOT of unnecessary, wordy filler in this book (as with all his books), but overall, I'd say the content is decent enough. If you're a beginner looking to get involved with calisthenics training, I'd skip the first 2 convict conditioning books and just check this one out.

Next up in my bodyweight training book series is the classic, "Naked Warrior" by Pavel Tsatsouline.

Nonfiction 

"Unhinged Habits" by Jonathan Goodman 

Still working through, and enjoying the advice, from this one.

April Lifting Club Program

If you've been following The Lifting Club for awhile, you'll recognize that I often go back and forth every month or 2 between PPL, Full Body variations, and Upper/Lower split.

This is largely because they're my 3 favorite training splits for strength and muscle and because they all allow for time efficient, productive training.

PPL allows me to do 3-4 exercises per session in 20-30 minutes while Upper/Lower allows me to do 5 exercises per session for 2 sets apiece and be done in about 30 minutes (give or take). 

Yet, if I structure full body workouts as simply as: pull, push, leg, arm isolation, I also get just 4 exercises – including 1 for all the major muscle groups (arms are also a major muscle group for us tank top bros, obviously, and respected as such within this structure) – I can also complete 4 exercises in a 20-30 minute time period while also hitting a little bit of everything every session. 

The main difference is frequency. If you want to hit each muscle directly 2 or more times every 7-9 days (which you should aim for if you're wanting to make the best possible progress), this will lead to 5-6 sessions per week or so (6 every 7-9 days) if doing PPL and 3-4 sessions per week or so (4 every 7-9 days) if doing Upper/Lower. Meanwhile, you could cover down on this with full body workouts in as little as 2 sessions per week, or, easily double up on frequency – hitting everything 3-4 days per week, even – by training 3, 4, or even 5 days per week on an intelligently designed full body program. 

Right now, with everything going on (working full time with clients in-person, transitioning and growing my business online, and, of course, sleep deprivation, and the time consuming activities that come along with trying to sell my current house while also preparing to move clear across the country at the end of the month...and let's not overlook that moving into a new house isn't the least stressful, time consuming habit, either) means I must be as efficient as possible with my training. Because of this, I'll be doing a simple full body training split for the next month or 2 (possibly a while longer).

I call this plan, Full Body 4X (FB 4X)

This is a great full body program that takes 20-30 minutes per session.

Train 2-5 days per week with this plan (I like doing 4-5 days per week because I'm a frequent freak, but sometimes I'll simply train every other day, giving me 3-4 days per week).

Each session has a quick warm up (something for the calves, abs, and glutes) followed by 4 exercises. 

1 exercise for pushing muscles (chest/shoulder dominant). 

1 exercise for pulling muscles (back dominant).

1 exercise for the leg muscles (quad/squat or posterior/hinge dominant).

1 exercise for the arms (either tricep or bicep isolation).

Optionally, you have the option for a 5th exercise – which is always done for 2 sets of 10-15 reps – which can be (again, optionally) anything to target a specific weakness or muscle group you want extra attention towards. 

Typically this is traps or some sort of ballistic hinge, but it could also – as it often is in my case – be extra arm work, specifically targeting the antagonist of the main arm muscle we're working that day. Yes, this means I may end up working biceps and triceps, both, every workout, even on consecutive days. That's okay, though, because the arms respond well to frequency and so long as I'm not training to failure every set of every bicep and tricep exercise, I should be able to train the muscles often, even on consecutive days. Heck, the glutes, back, and shoulders get trained directly every session in this program already, and the biceps and triceps are both trained directly and/or indirectly every session. So take advantage of frequency with this plan.

The general template:

Warm up: 1-2 rounds of calf raise or jump rope, abs, glute bridges or clam shells. Optional rear delt flyes or Indian clubs 

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Session A

Ex 1: row variation x 2-3 sets

Ex 2: horizontal push (chest) variation x 2-3 sets

Ex 3: squat/lunge variation x 2-3 sets

Ex 4: tricep isolation variation x 2-3 sets

Optional bonus: bicep curls, shrugs, swings, kettlebell/dumbbell high pulls, or kettlebell cleans x 2 sets

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Session B

Ex 1: pullup variation x 2-3 sets

Ex 2: vertical push or shoulder variation x 2-3 sets

Ex 3: hinge/posterior chain variation x 2-3 sets

Ex 4: bicep isolation variation x 2-3 sets 

Optional bonus: tricep pushdowns, shrugs, swings, kettlebell/dumbbell high pulls, or kettlebell cleans x 2 sets

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Here's a template with specific exercise variations I especially enjoy (feel free to alternate between specific exercise variations session to session, or just stick with 1 or 2 variations per exercise and ride with it for awhile until you plateau/get bored, then swap it for another variation from the list):

Warm up: 1-2 rounds of calf raise or jump rope, abs, glute bridges or clam shells. Optional rear delt flyes or Indian clubs 

_

Session A

Ex 1: single arm rows or inverted rows-2-3x8-15

Ex 2: pushups or dumbbell bench press variation-2-3x6-12 or Amrap if pushups (weighted pushups in 10-15 range are great)

Ex 3: Bulgarian split squats or standard split squats or box step ups or reverse lunges or single leg box squats or heel elevated squats-2-3x6-12

Ex 4: cable pushdowns or cable overhead extensions or skull crushers or rolling tricep extensions-2-3x8-15

Optional bonus: bicep curls or shrugs or swings or kettlebell/dumbbell high pulls or kettlebell cleans-2x10-15

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Session B

Ex 1: pullups or neutral pullups or wide grip pullups-2-3x5-10

Ex 2: lateral raise or upright row or overhead press variation-2-3x10-15 or 2-3x5-10 if overhead press

Ex 3: single leg RDL or single leg landmine hip thrust or wall kickstand RDL or 1 hand kettlebell swing-2-3x6-12

Ex 4: incline dumbbell curls or concentration curls or spider curls-2-3x6-12

Optional bonus: tricep pushdowns or shrugs or swings or kettlebell/dumbbell high pulls or kettlebell cleans-2x10-15

You can superset exercises to save time if you'd like.

I love this program because, depending on your volume (2 sets or 3 sets), intensity (how close to failure you train), and exercise selection (what exercises you do), you can train anywhere from very low frequency (2 sessions per week) up to very high frequency (as much as 5-6 days per week), and everywhere in between. 

This program is flexible.

You can easily adjust it based on your needs and wants, but no matter what, you're hitting everything – either directly or indirectly – every session.

This is a classic punch the clock and make gains protocol that adjusts to you!

It's not too terribly fatiguing because we don't do 2 big leg movements (squat and hinge) in the same session. We separate them. This allows us the flexibility to train very frequently if you adjust volume and intensity, per your recovery needs. I also tend to prioritize shoulder movements like lateral raise or upright rows 2 out of 3 "B" sessions and do overhead press variations only once every 3rd "B" session. So the front delts don't get too fried from a pushup/chest press variation and a shoulder press variation several times per week.

But again, it's not necessary to do high frequency. But it is fun – and rare – to have such an option when doing full body training. But these simple antagonist push, pull, leg, arm sessions allow for it. (How lovely).

Just make sure to nudge up your reps and weights over time (no need to rush this process) and you will make fantastic progress while doing a very fun, efficient plan to boot.

Enjoy a month of lifting well and reading enjoyably.