HEAVY AF VOL 11 Drop
Hello, all my strong friends!
Ok, not guna lie, I’m EXCITED for this one. We have 8 weeks of new movements, new rep schemes, and new strategies to help us in our endless pursuit of being the sickest gym in the land.
When it comes to HAF programming I tend to follow the idea that our exercise selection should be simple, boring, basic or whatever you want to call it. While our reps and sets prescription is where we should be creative.
This stems from the idea that the basic and boring exercises are the ones that work best - Exercises like squats, presses, and deadlifts have the highest ROI when it comes to strength and muscle building.
Alternatively, the more complicated an exercise, generally the less return that exercise has. Exercises like get-ups, thrusters, olympic lifts, or studio fitness exercises like “lunge to bicep curl” are fun, effective movements in different contexts, and aren’t “bad” but are certainly inefficient at building strength or inducing hypertrophy compared to the basics…
However, when it comes to reps and sets, the same rules don’t really apply. Yes, the simple stuff works, but as long as we are working hard and are consistent week to week, being creative is a great way to keep you guys engaged and provide a new stimulus that could help break a plateau or shoot you into a new PR without taking away from the effectiveness of our exercises.
With all that being said, through this cycle, we have lots of familiar movements and lots of new strategies to get us yoked.
FACE OFF
Most of this programming is preparation for the biggest event of the year, Summer Face Off 2025. The strength movements in Face Off are an AMRAP bench press (135lbs/85lbs) and a 3RM deadlift.
My goal is for everyone competing in these events to absolutely smash it. Then also for everyone who isn’t competing to have serious FOMO because they know they could have put on a show for team TGC.
Face Off falls at week 7 of the program and aligns perfectly with a four week build up and a few weeks of deload prior to event day. For those of you not competing in Face Off you’ll experience a familiar 8 week cycle split into two 4-week blocks.
Let's get into it!…
TRAINING SPLITS:
MONDAY MOVEMENTS
A1] BB BACK OR FRONT ANDERSON SQUATS
A2] JUMP
B1] DB REVERSE LUNGE|
B2] HORIZONTAL ROW
B3] SAGITTAL CORE
Never miss a Monday. As normal, we have squats paired with jumps for your main lift. Through the first 4 weeks of this cycle, we will be performing a variation called Anderson Squats.
BACK OR FRONT ANDERSON SQUATS
Anderson squats (also known as pin squats) start from a dead stop at the bottom, with the bar resting on safety arms set at or just below parallel. There’s no eccentric (lowering) phase to start like a regular squat, just a strong drive straight up from the bottom position.
You’re probably thinking: these sound hard and kinda uncomfortable.. Why are we doing this? Firstly, you’d be right, they are hard and uncomfortable, but also, Anderson squats are excellent for building starting strength. Much like the deadlift, they require force to be generated from a complete standstill, without any assistance from momentum or the stretch reflex. This makes them a highly effective accessory movement for improving your power off the floor in the deadlift. You’ll remember a great cue on deadlift day: “push the ground away”.
We’ll be using Anderson’s for TOP SETS ONLY, allowing you to focus on explosiveness from the bottom up before settling into some regular squats. If you are deadlifting for FACE OFF, I would highly recommend performing the back squat variation of this lift. With either variation, the outcome we want is improved power out of the bottom of our squats.
Expect to see these in your programme over the next four weeks before we switch to our traditional squats.
B BLOCK
The primary movement for your Monday B Block will be a reverse lunge. With a kettlebell in either hand, reverse lunges are a unilateral, compound exercise that primarily utilises the glutes, quads, hamstrings, and core stabilizers. I expect the use of wrist straps as this is a highly loadable exercise.
The more you hinge into your lunge, the more glutes you’ll bias, and the more upright you stay, the more quads you’ll bias.. Just in case you want to orient yourself to a preferred outcome!
Secondary movements on Mondays will be a coach-designated horizontal row - movements like TRX Rows, Kettlebell Rows, or band work. Then finally is a coach designated sagittal core exercise, so anything ab related like sit ups, roll outs, planks, and leg lifts to wrap up your Monday.
WEDNESDAY MOVEMENTS
A1] BB BENCH PRESS
A2] UPPER ANTAGONIST
B1] BB LANDINE ROTATIONS
B2] UPPER ISO
B3] LUNGE/STEP UP
This is going to hurt. IN THE BEST WAY. Our bench press journey has been pretty sick (IMO). You had 4 weeks of floor press building strength through the lockout position, 4 weeks of traditional strength work building overall strength and familiarity with the movement. Now, for the next four, we are getting into very specific work as it pertains to Face Off, with density sets.
DENSITY TRAINING
Density training is a method focused on increasing the amount of work (reps × weight) completed within a set time frame. Athletes will work up to a heavy set, then take a lower-than-normal percentage of their top set and attempt to perform as many reps as possible in the remaining time of the block (10–15 minutes).
Rather than fixed sets and reps, we’ll perform as many quality reps as possible, resting only as needed, and when doing so performing a coach designated antagonist movement (an exercise that targets the opposing muscle groups rather than the primary movement - i.e your back muscles).
This will improve muscular endurance by mimicking the high-rep fatigue of an AMRAP. For example, week 1 is: WORK UP TO HEAVY 6 then perform 60-80 TOTAL REPS @50% of the top set. You’ll be accumulating reps and whenever you stop, perform an upper body pull exercise to break up your efforts.
This high volume style is definitely a new stimulus for us (unless you've been to my tuesday STRONG X *best class of the week* as I tested this on that crew!) you’ll be incredibly sore for the first week or two!
We’ll perform density training for the first four weeks of the program before switching to our regular top to drop set method to finish.
B BLOCK
The primary movement in your B block will be a landmine rotation. We haven’t done these in a while! Landmine rotations are a core and shoulder rotational exercise that uses a landmine setup. The movement targets the obliques, shoulders, hips, and upper back, making it effective for rotational strength, power transfer, and injury prevention.
Secondary movements on Wednesdays will be a coach designated step up, movements that involve climbing off and on boxes while holding something heavy. Then finally is a coach designated upper body iso exercise so think anything single joint for the upper body, triceps, biceps, shoulders.
FRIDAY MOVEMENTS
A1] BB SUMO OR CONVENTIONAL DEADLIFT
B1] SA DB PUSH JERK
B2] VERTICAL PULL
3] FRONTAL CORE
Ok Deadlifts! We are getting high level! (credit to one of the best deadlifters in Chicago, our very own, Coach Eric, for collabing with me on this.) For the first four weeks of this program, we will be eliciting TWO high-level techniques to blow up our deadlifts: compensatory acceleration training (CAT) and cluster sets.
COMPENSATORY ACCELERATION TRAINING (CAT)
Compensatory Acceleration Training (CAT) is a strength training method where you consciously try to move the barbell as fast as possible throughout the concentric (lifting) phase of the movement. By intentionally accelerating each rep, CAT training improves the body's ability to generate force quickly.
This training specifically helps activate and develop fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are more powerful and explosive.
The Weight prescription for CAT training will be percentage-based from our previous test-out weight, or if an athlete didn’t test out, they’ll use 75% of their bodyweight!
CAT sets will be performed as an EMOM within the first ten minutes of the block. Generally if the bar is moving slow, you’re doing it wrong. We want to work on speed.
Also note that that means we will not be performing any jumps or sprints in our buildup sets. CAT sets basically achieve the same outcome we are looking for in these athletic movements.
CLUSTERS
Following the CAT sets, we’ll perform Clusters. Cluster sets are a strength training technique where a set is broken into smaller “mini-sets” (or clusters) with short rest periods in between, allowing you to lift heavier loads or more total reps than in a traditional straight set. For example:
Week 1 is written as 4x3x3
That’s: 4 Reps, 15 Seconds rest, 4 Reps, 15 Seconds rest, 4 Reps (1 cluster) 2 minutes rest. Repeat 3 times.
Weight: For the cluster sets, will be prescribed as a percentage ADD from the CAT sets. For example, x1.6 of CAT Set weight.
These two strength training strategies are highly effective but also very transferable to the demands required at Face Off.
B BLOCK
The primary movement for B Block on Fridays will be a single-arm dumbbell push jerk.
The single-arm dumbbell push jerk is one of my favourite exercises! It’s a unilateral variation of the Olympic weightlifting push jerk, emphasizing power, coordination, and overhead stability. (You can tell I love this movement because here is an overly thorough breakdown of how to do it)
Starting in a front rack position, the dumbbell rests on one shoulder with the elbow slightly forward in front of the dumbbell. This allows a more direct line of force from your legs into the dumbbell.
Then from a hip-width stance, you’ll initiate the lift with a quick vertical dip—knees tracking over toes, torso upright—loading the legs like a spring. Immediately following this with a violent drive through the floor to launch the dumbbell upward.
As the weight leaves the shoulder, you’ll rapidly drop under it, punching the arm into a locked-out overhead position while re-bending the knees to absorb the load.
dip, drive & and catch!
Other secondary movements will be a Coach designated vertical pull, so think pullups, chin ups, banded pull downs and then finally a coach designated frontal core exercise - side planks, side bends anything moving through lateral flexion of the spine. This wraps up a very fun Friday.
SATURDAY MOVEMENTS
A1] PAUSE CLEAN & PAUSE JERK
B1] PUSH PRESS
B2] WEIGHTED PULL UPS
B3] PARTNER ASSISTED NORDIC
Saturday squad!
We have a little change-up in your main block programming. For now, we are losing the EMOM and solely focusing on your constrained max outs. For the first four weeks of this program, we will be utilising pause reps for our Olympic movement.
PAUSE CLEAN & PAUSE JERKS
Pause rep clean and jerks are a variation where strategic pauses are added during the movement—usually in the clean, jerk dip, or both—to reinforce position, control, and strength at key points of the lift. We’ll be pausing at the knee in the first phase of the lift and then again in the dip of the jerk.
We’ll perform pauses for the first four weeks of the program, before removing the pauses and adding an additional jerk to the sequence, 1 clean + 2x jerk. Athletes choose if they split jerk or push jerk.
If you haven’t performed olympic lifting before, entering at this point would be great. The nature of pause reps don’t allow much in the way of load, therefore a great place to start and practice good habits with lighter weight.
B BLOCK
The primary movement in your B Block on Saturdays is going to be a barbell push press. Incorporating the barbell push press into our Saturday class will allow you to gain confidence with the bar in the overhead position. Therefore, if a Saturday class is new to you or performing a split jerk is new, completing the B Block first will put you in a better position for success when you head to the A Block.
Additional movements on Saturday will be a loaded pull-up and a partner Nordic curls.
SOME KEY POINTS TO IMPROVE YOUR FITNESS JOURNEY:
OKKKKK…. These are some myths that I hear or correct with many of you that I think should be shared with the group…
BULK UP
People often worry that lifting heavy will make them too bulky. It won’t. Especially for women, the fear of “getting too big” is one of the most common reasons people avoid strength training or avoid pushing themselves with certain exercises. But here’s the truth: building visible muscle takes serious time, like years and years, it takes consistency, and often specific nutrition. What lifting will do is boost your metabolism, improve your shape, and make everyday life easier. I've been lifting for over ten years and I'm yet to be too bulky! Don’t worry about it and show out!
ANABOLIC WINDOW
You probably don’t need that post-workout shake right away. This was teenage Ash. I would pound as much protein as possible straight after my workouts because I’d heard about the “anabolic window”. Thinking I’d get more gains, but research shows that as long as you hit your daily protein goals, the exact timing isn’t critical for most people. I think a post-workout shake is a great and convenient thing, but you have a bigger window than you think, so don’t stress if your shaker bottle isn’t in hand right after your last rep.
CLEAN OR DIRTY
‘Clean eating’ isn’t the magic answer. The idea of “clean” vs. “dirty” food creates guilt and confusion more than results. Food is fuel, and ALL foods can fit into a balanced, sustainable approach. It’s not about perfection, it’s about patterns. I love the 80/20 rule, dial in Monday through Friday, and then treat yourself on the weekends.
CHASING DOMS
Soreness isn’t always a sign of a good workout. Being sore might just mean you did something new—not that you got stronger. Don’t chase pain. Progress is better measured through increased strength, stamina, or consistency, not limping around for three days.
CARDIO AINT KING
Cardio isn’t king when it comes to fat loss. While cardio has benefits, fat loss is mostly driven by nutrition and strength training. If you want to start or add cardio, go for it! But the benefits are more for overall health and performance than they are for fat loss. The key is strength training as it boosts your metabolism and diet, it doesn’t matter what you eat, if you eat too much you’ll gain weight, if you don’t eat enough you’ll lose weight.
Squad, let me know if this email was helpful and if, in the future, there is anything you would like me to include or talk about.
Love ya’ll!
Coach Ashley Stephen
Director of Training
The Garage Chicago Gym
