HEAVY AF VOL 5 DROP IS HERE:
Time to Bulk Up!
Hello, all my strong friends!
NOVEMBER is here! We’re on to a new Heavy cycle. The marathoners have marathoned. The weather is changing & IT'S BULKING SEASON BABY. We’ve got a lot of new movements to work on, ANOTHER event coming up, and as usual a few things to discuss and refine. Plus, we finally dropped our Official Garage Gear here—check it out.
In this email, we’ll go over the plan, we’ll talk about our main movements, and then I’ll give you loads of helpful info and some things to think about. (Which now that ya boy is 30 is way more credible, right?)
THE PLAN
HYROX CHICAGO
It feels like I start almost every email to you guys referencing some huge event we’ve been working toward. Well, here I go again… Nov 16th marks the biggest HYROX Race in the US. Hyrox Chicago. It sold out in less than one month. We have 87! EIGHTY-SEVEN!!!! Athletes representing TGC at Hyrox this year. We are the mecca for Hyrox training in Chicago!
I can’t wait to see you guys represent our community and put on a show out there. And guess what? You can apply to be a Judge at the Ski Station this year—our very own Garage fam will be taking charge of it! If you're interested, apply here. I’m going to finish this email with a section to my Hyrox’ers.
Regarding HAF - Hyrox falls three weeks into our program. Just like Face-Off, these three weeks should serve as a really nice deload or taper, as we lower the percentages and reset our climb back up to heavy at the end of December.
I’ve selected exercises for this cycle with Hyrox’ers in mind (I’ll explain in my next point). So, stick to the HAF plan and you should be feeling good going into race day.
REDUCED TUT & ROM
Your primary exercises for this cycle will all bias shorter ranges of motion (ROM). Therefore giving less time under tension (TUT) and allowing for heavier load. For example, we will be performing Box Squats on Mondays. This will put a limit on your range of motion, hitting the box at parallel rather than going full ass to grass into deep knee and hip flexion.
A byproduct of this is less muscle soreness and faster recovery due to the reduced ROM. For my Hyroxer’s this will be optimal in the coming weeks while your priority should be on running and Hyrox Training; you shouldn’t be as sore and will be able to perform better in Hybrid classes and on your runs while still coming to HAF and maintaining a high output on your strength days. I know what you’re thinking, “wow Ash, that’s really smart”, I know…
For my non-Hyroxers, this is an opportunity to load heavier than ever, stimulate your nervous system and practice moving heavier weights.
REPS & SETS
We are repeating the top set to drop set method. So again, we’re working up to one heavy set, finding a representation of how you feel for the day, and then we'll use that top set to determine your drop sets. Will we do this forever? Maybe. For now I think this method is working great. So we keepin’ it going’.
PLEASE follow the percentages! It makes a big difference. Taking off an arbitrary amount of weight for your drop sets will limit your weekly progress. Also keep in mind, your top set is not a max out. It should be challenging (RPE 8-9) but you should have a rep or two left in the tank.
In this cycle we’ll work through the 8 weeks to eventually test a 3 rep max. We’ve had two cycles in a row of one-rep-max testing and it’s time for a little break. A longer duration spent working at higher volumes will benefit us all. We’ll test our 1RM again in the next cycle or two.
Ok, let's talk about your training split:
MONDAY
A] FRONT SQUAT TO BOX or BACK SQUAT TO BOX
B] KB SINGLE LEG RDL
No more than two HAF programs in a row on the same squat variation. A new training stimulus is always incredibly beneficial and allows you to be well-rounded as an athlete.
Additionally, different exercise types can bias different outcomes and may allow you to work on weaknesses more efficiently.
In this instance, we can use front squats as a tool to help maintain more extension in the upper back. Most of us fail to stay extended in the upper back when we squat really heavy, and find ourselves collapsing through the trunk. The position of the bar in a front squat will challenge your back extensors more than a back squat and allow us to work on the strength we need to stay upright under heavier weight.
Some of you are maybe thinking, “why does he say this every time? We get it, switch squats… ” - because, there are people that have taken HUNDREDS of HAF classes, that still haven’t front squat! FRONT SQUATS WILL ONLY MAKE YOU BETTER AT SQUATTING OVERALL!! I hope you’re reading this, and I want you to know that you need to stop being a nerd, and front squat - or I will bully you.
ANYWAAAAY…Box Squats.
Independent of bar position, box squats place most of the work on the hamstrings, glutes, hips, and low back. These are the muscle groups that do a very large percent of the squat work.
After sitting completely on the box, the glute and hip muscles should relax somewhat. Then you’ll forcefully flex the abs, hips, and glutes and fire off the box as fast as you can. The idea being to sit on the box with the hips rolling in a relaxed fashion, then switching to an explosive, or dynamic, concentric phase building explosive strength as well as absolute strength.
(“absolute strength,” measures how much you can lift, usually at slow speeds, and “explosive strength,” is the ability to produce force quickly or at fast speeds.)
So what I’m saying is.. Booties gon’ be poppin’.
Your secondary lift on Mondays will be a Single-Leg Kettlebell RDL.
With one or two heavy weights, you need to go heavy and you also need to load through an appropriate range of motion to get the most bang for your buck for this single leg exercise. I want load to be a priority in this movement so please do not hesitate to use something for balance i.e. a wall or sled to maximize stability. If you can go without and hold two weights, good for you.
I originally planned on making this a bilateral RDL, but ya’ll are too strong for that! Middle, and bottom shelf KBs only.
RDL’s are a hinge movement from the hips, and we need to make sure we are bending at the hips and not the spine. The definition of a hinge in a nutshell is to move the hips back in a horizontal pattern. So the focus, as it pertains to ROM, is how far back the hips travel, rather than how low the weights go to the ground.
I would highly encourage straps with these to maximize loading. You’ll know my stance on straps from my previous email, more load means more mechanical tension which means more hypertophyyyyyy. Straps facilitate more load.
Finally, we will continue box jumps on Mondays, you’ll have some upper body accessory work and some frontal core to wrap up the first training day of the week.
WEDNESDAY
A] BB BLOCK BENCH PRESS
B] LOADED COSSACK SQUATS
Bench Press is back. Just like your squats we are adding an implement to reduce the range of motion in this exercise. You guys will have a block (we’ve bought these funny looking blocks with bar-shaped grooves on them) to attach to your barbell which will stop the bar a few inches above your chest. We should be allowing the bar to rest in the bottom position before pressing back up with lots of force.
Partner up on bench press ‘cuz safety first. Be the best bench spotter you can be.
Here is some bench spotting etiquette:
Be a good spotter! Communicate thoroughly when spotting each other. How many reps are we doing? Is this a confident weight or a PR for us?… You are one.
Spotters, let your partner struggle with the bar! Let people fight gravity for a second or two on their own and don’t touch or grab the bar until you see it's on the way down! It’s not uncommon people grab the bar early and prevent their partner from getting a potential last rep on their own. Also, you don’t always have to yank the bar off people; you can help guide the bar, reducing the weight assisting with the final reps.
Your secondary lift on Wednesdays: Someone asked me last week, very pleadingly, if we were moving on from the Bulgarian Split Squats. You’ll be glad to know, we are. Your secondary main lift on Wednesdays will be Loaded Cossack Squats. Which kinda feels worse but hey.. This movement requires a massive amount of hip, ankle and knee mobility to perform correctly and will hugely benefit your overall squat mechanics when we go back to kissing the ground with ya booty #ATG.
With our primary lifts being reduced in ROM, I felt programming additional lifts where ROM is the priority, but loading is very difficult, would create the most well-rounded body of work.
Reminders here, to try to keep an even weight distribution across the entirety of your foot - in this context I don't love athletes lifting their heel from the ground to find a deeper single leg squat position. Instead, some of you might benefit from holding a plate out in front of you to serve as counterbalance, or elevating your heel for some artificial ankle mobility (or maybe both if this exercise is your kryptonite). Get behind this, commit to the movement and I’ll get the “you were right Ash” that I’m accustomed to, later on.
We will continue with medicine ball work on Wednesdays. We’ll be performing some more upper body accessory work and some sagittal core to wrap up a spicy Wednesday.
FRIDAY
A] BB HIP THRUSTS
B] SA INCLINE DUMBBELL PRESS
Yep.. Booties - poppin’.
Your primary lift on Fridays is going to be Barbell Hip Thrusts. THE PRIORITY should be keeping a neutral spine position and contracted abs throughout the entire range of motion.
Look, I get it, highly loadable movement, it feels really cool to load up all the plates and lift 3-4-500lbs up in the air. BUT at a certain point adding too much weight will force you to use your quads and low back to get the bar up - at the cost of that neutral spine position and use of your glutes.
If you can’t stay in a position for hip thrusts that mimics the squat or deadlift - bracing and holding tension in the spine - you shouldn’t be adding weight!! Let's work on your glutes and leg biceps, not your ego.
Your secondary lift on Fridays will be a Single Arm Incline Dumbbell Press. This is a great upper body movement for the chest, shoulders and triceps but also a great core exercise, fighting the urge to rotate under a single heavy dumbbell.
Finally, we’ll be switching the broad jumps on Fridays back to sprints, along with chin ups and some transverse core to wrap up your training before the weekend.
SATURDAY
A] BARBELL CLEAN COMPLEX
B] BARBELL RACK PULLS
Saturday HAF will continue to be Olympic lifting-focussed and cleans will continue as the primary movement.
During this cycle we are switching the format a little, we’ll perform a clean complex: LOW HANG SQUAT CLEAN + 2x Front SQUATS. We’ll work on this for the first 10 minutes of the block utilizing our constrained max outs. Then for the second 10 minutes, we’ll take out the front squats and perform an EMOM for the remainder of the time with your top weight you performed your complex with.
Constrained max-outs mean athletes will start at a very manageable weight and must complete their sets smoothly to move up in weight. If you miss reps or complete a sloppy rep you must drop back down to your last successful set before going up again. Once the 10 minutes is up, we’re sticking with whatever your highest successful max-out was for your EMOM.
What this does is allows us to perform multiple quality reps in the 60-80%RM range on our way up to the heaviest sets at the end, and the rules keep quality as a priority. Finishing with a 10 minute EMOM will allow us to accumulate lots of practice with some challenging but submaximal weight.
Your secondary lift on Saturdays will be RACK PULLS. This is such a fun exercise. If you like deadlifting you’ll love rack pulls! Rack pulls help with the lockout portion of your deadlift, as well as the fact that you can load up much heavier weights, similar to the box squats and block presses, than a typical deadlift and get you used to handling heavier weights.
Finally, you’ll be performing some upper and lower body accessory movements to finish out a heavy pull Saturday. TRAPS GON BE TRAPPIN’.
Make sense?
SOME KEY POINTS TO IMPROVE YOUR FITNESS JOURNEY:
OKKKKK…. This section drew some attention last time. A lot of people messaged me and had questions. In the words of the (formally) great Conor McGregor, I’d like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely no one. I regret nothing. My main points: I still think cupping, dry needling, and scraping are silly. I will use wrist straps and belts on every exercise I can and I think those who wore nasal strips during the marathon are weenies.
In fact, I’m doubling down. I’m going back in on a few of these topics and then added a few more I think should be shared with the group.
“ASH, ARE YOU SAYING PT’S ARE A WASTE OF TIME?”
Absolutely not. In my last email I went in hard on manual therapy treatments. I have nothing against PT’s and have had some great and incredibly helpful experiences myself.
I just recognise it's incredibly common for physios out there (also osteopaths, chiropractors and any other therapies that treat benign musculoskeletal pains) to over treat a lot of things. Or vis-versa for patients (you guys) to place the wrong expectations on their practitioners.
Sessions for general back, neck, knee and shoulder pain typically don’t need more than one single session and probably don’t need much in the way of manual treatment. Shit happens. It’s just the ebbs and flows of strength training. A couple days off and load management will usually do the trick. In this context, PT’s should be used for reassurance and guidance, not much more.
I found a recent systematic review that supports this. Literally took me ten seconds. I know. I’m getting serious. I told Erik Nelson I’d provide some support to my claims, so here ya are:
Dube et al. (2023) conducted a study examining the effectiveness of a single physiotherapy session compared to multiple sessions for patients with musculoskeletal disorders. They found that multiple sessions do not significantly improve function better than a single session.
So there ya go.
Most people with these pains just need ADVICE and to be told that it's SAFE to continue and REASSURANCE that it will IMPROVE over time. This also shows how TIME helps many things feel better and how many physio treatments don't add that much extra. Physiotherapy is MORE about advice, guidance, and reassurance of pain and LESS about treatments to reduce or remove pain!
Now don't get me wrong I don't think ALL things and everyone can be managed with just one session. But most people often don't need 6, 12, 24 or more sessions of cupping, scraping, massaging or manipulating to help them recover, quicker, faster or sooner! This is over treatment! And won’t make a difference.
PT’s are medical professionals. Not luxury recovery providers. If a PT is encouraging you to drop in for an irregular dry needling or cupping session. I’d suggest getting a new PT.
I’ll give you an example. A couple of years ago I went to a physio 4 times over 3 weeks. They encouraged me to keep coming back. While all they did each time was dry needled the shit out of my calf, hamstring and my quad, claiming all this agonizing pain would help with my Achilles tendinopathy. Obviously it didn't help because what I really needed was to reduce my activity (running) and appropriately load the tissue that was painful. So instead of some simple calf exercises I’m there wasting my time rolling around a treatment table in a fancy clinic trying not to scream too loud while a PT sticks needles in me.
Oppositely, last year I had some issues with my wrist. A different PT gave me some ways to gently load and stretch the areas that I’d damaged and told me to give power cleans and muscle ups (brag) a break for 4-6 weeks. Now, my wrist is fine! Great PT.
(Dr.michaelrisher on instagram FYI)
My point here is this. More treatment doesn’t mean faster recovery. Do whatever you want that makes you feel good, but the best healer for musculoskeletal pain is time and load management.
Ok, I’m done.
References
Dube, L., Smith, J., Johnson, R., & Brown, K. (2023). Effectiveness of single versus multiple physiotherapy sessions in patients with musculoskeletal disorders: A randomized controlled trial. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 104(10), 2045-2052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2023.09.013
“ASH, CAN I GO OFF PROGRAM IN HAF?”
This is a question or discussion I get a lot! Pertaining really to two things: Exercise Substitution and Maxing out.
Regarding exercise substitution. Generally, if there’s an exercise you really want to work on, that isn’t available on the program, and is similar to an exercise that is available. I’m happy for you to do whatever makes you happy. An example of this might be that you want to do zercher squats instead of front squats - or split jerks instead of push jerks.
Here are my requirements though. 1. Inform the coach. Do this to ensure they feel comfortable with your exercise choice and ensure that it won’t disrupt the rest of the class. Secondly, stick to it. We aren’t here to mess about with fun exercise you found online, we’re here to train. If day one you’re like Ash I’d love to Jefferson curl instead of deadlift, I expect you to do it every week, for all 8 weeks.
Regarding maxing out. Frequently some of you ask if you can go off programming and try a max out on a given day. My opinion is this: It’s impossible and unrealistic to assume that every test week you’re going to come in fresh and feeling ready to rip. Life happens. We’re stressed. Tired. Hormonal. Maybe test week just isn’t your week. If you come in week 5, 6 or 7, and you’re like damn I feel on top of the world. Take advantage of it. Go for it. But you better hit a PR!!!
I’ll leave it at that.
HYROX PLANNING
Hyrox’ers. I’m so excited! Join our Pre-Race Vibes here. I cannot wait to spend the day cheering ya’ll on, watching the sleds fly and being around all my favorite people outside of our gym seeing you all just crush it. Trust me, I’ve been to 8 Hyrox Races myself, you guys are going to do great.
At this point we’re around 3-4 weeks out. Your main priorities should be: Running. Hybrid Workouts. Building/Maintaining Confidence.
I’m assuming at the point you’ve been following your running program, accumulating miles and building up your endurance. With a short amount of time left. Most of the work has been done, and not much more adaptation can really happen. So at this point, finish out the programs, get familiar with your “race pace”, and figure out what kicks you’re wearing. (Hyrox is a runners race, you should be wearing running shoes!)
Expect your hybrid workouts to taper a little. The emphasis being on hype and confidence and less on simulating race conditions.
I’m proud of you all. Remember this:
Confidence isn’t about believing you can achieve something, it's about believing you can do the work required to achieve that thing. You deserve all the confidence in the world because you’ve shown up and done the work required. You’ve done the hard part. Now all that's left is to go and be the absolute beast that you are.
Let’s get it!
Coach Ashley Stephen
Director of Training
The Garage Chicago Gym