End of Summer Strength and Power Program

[Soheil John Ward]

Sorry for my absence, I’ve been active but with limited access to a computer.

For the past few weeks I’ve been back in the lab, but I think I have a fairly solid program to work with. I wanted a program where the primary goal was strength and power. The next cycle will focus on higher reps and less rest, and the following cycle will focus on muscular and cardiovascular endurance. My idea is that if I build a solid foundation of strength, I will be able to use heavier clubbells in these future programs.

The other half of the current program is compensation for heavy Clubbell® movements, and to open up my hips which are limiting my form in yoga and martial arts practice.

Days one, three, and five are devoted to clubbells swinging and bodyweight exercises such as pull ups, and one legged squats. Day one is mid intensity, day three is light, day five is high intensity. The weight is not varied; intensity is determined by total volume. The overall goal is to increase volume within the same time period for the first three weeks, then increase sophistication and volume in the following three weeks.

Days two, four, and six I focus on yoga working on opening the hips, high intensity days I will practice forest, the lighter days I will focus on its components and work on bends and standing poses. I’m going to use this time to work somewhat intuitively and see how it goes. These sessions are personal practice and do not include lessons.

Day seven is a day of active recovery. Hopefully getting some swimming in. If not, then walks and Intu-Flow.

Day one:
Bruiser torch presses: 3 sets of 1, 2-3 minutes rest
Bruiser shield casts: x1, x2, x3, x4, x3, x2, x1 long rests about 3 minutes based on perceived recovery.
Inward pendulums: x1, x2, x, 3, x4, x5, x4, x3, x2, x1 shorter rests, about 1-2 minutes
Commando Pull ups (x4) + two handed parry casts (x4 each side) super sets 10-15 seconds rest.

Day two:
Light Prasara and Intu-Flow

Day three
Morning: yoga class

Afternoon
Bruiser torch press: 5 sets of 1
Bruiser shield casts. X1, x2, x3, x3, x2, x1
Planned on doing the other exercises but I let the monkey brain win this time.

Evening:
Sambo class.

Day four:
Light yoga, Intu-Flow.

Tomorrow is my heavy day. I must admit I’m dreading it, post how it went. In the next few days.

[Adam Steer]

Hey Soheil,

Good to see you posting man! Hope you'll be working those Bruiser Pistols into this program.

I taped this for you a few weeks ago... (scroll down to second module)

Cheers,
Adam

[Soheil John Ward]

Adam, I hate you...

Just kidding brother I wish mine looked that pretty.

Day 5 September 8th:

Bruiser torch presses: 3 sets of 1

Shield Casts: x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, x3, x3, x 2, x1
RPE was close to 10 on the set of 5, focused on exhalation throughout the movement.

I tried one handed pendulums with the Bruiser but I couldn’t translate the force because my grip was so fatigued. Instead I did 2 handed inward/outward pendulums 3 sets of 10.


Circuit: 6 Pull-ups, 6parry casts (each direction) with about 10 seconds rest

Day 6, September 9th:

Light Prasara, four corner pistol, leg at parallel.

Day 7, September 10th:

Lake Swimming, walked about 12-14 miles throughout the day. (I probably average 3-5 daily) I just had a lot of energy.


Week 2, Day 1, Tuesday September 11th:

I incorporated lighter but more sophisticated movements to prime myself and cool down from the heavy movements. It increases my overall work volume and hopefully will translate into a higher work capacity. I feel my technique immediately improved as a result of this practice.

Double 25 lb Clean and press: x1, x2, x3, x2, x1

Bruiser torch press: 4 sets of 1

Double 25 lb Clean and press: x1, x2, x3, x2, x1

25lb Drumming shield casts: 3 sets of 3

Bruiser shield cast: x1, x2, x3, x4, x3, x2, x1

25lb Drumming shield casts: 3 sets of 5

I was able to do some 1 handed inward pendulums (x1, x2, x1) but realized I would have to step it back a notch, I proceeded to do 2 handed inward/outward pendulums, 3 sets of 10.

Did the following circuit: Pull-ups x4, Parry casts x4 each direction, Quad hops x8

For some reason I ended up jogging about 2 miles and walking a total of about 8 throughout the day, rather than riding the bus.

[Coach Flanagan]

Soheil,

You're a beast. Inspirational work, brother.

[Soheil John Ward]

Thanks for the kudos my friend. I have a lot of work ahead of me.

I forgot to mention Yoga class on Tuesday. Wednesday I did some light Prasara and Intu-Flow®. Thursday I went to class and it was pretty brutal. Yoga can be like submission wrestling yourself, and it never gets easier, it’s always harder. Asana that I once thought were easy gentle stretches have become torturous. The marked improvement in skill, the tension release, the feeling of healthy well lubricated joints, the increased mobility, the leaps in strength at ridiculous ranges of motion, are what keep me practicing. Somehow I forgot to do my strength session yesterday. I did a light session this morning.

Friday, September 14th: Week 2, light day

Warm up with 15’s double mills and taskmasters

Double 25 lb Clean and press: x1, x2, x3, x2, x1

Bruiser torch press: 6 sets of 1

Double 25 lb Clean and press: x1, x2, x3, x2, x1

25lb Drumming shield casts: 3 sets of 3

Bruiser shield cast: x1, x2, x3, x2, x1

25lb Drumming shield casts: 3 sets of 5

Bruiser 1 handed inward pendulums (x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, x4, x3, x2, x1)
Did the following circuit: Pull-ups x4, Parry casts x3 each direction, Quad hops x6 for three rounds

The whole thing took about 80 minutes, 70 if you don’t count warm-up. I’m starting to get bored of this high weight low volume cycle but I have 2 more weeks and the day after tomorrow is the last heavy day before I increase sophistication I’m going to try to keep total work less than one hour as best I can. After this strength cycle I’m going to focus on the Bruiser Jr’s and on hypertrophy. The goal is 6-12 reps on the minute or with no more than one minutes rest between sets.

After that its back to circuits for a few months

[Soheil John Ward]

I'm too exhausted to go into the boring details of my progression, but basically I was (and am) doing yoga 4 to 6 days a week, and I cut the strength training program to every 2 days. I was beginning to burn out. I also began tapering down the volume of lighter movements as I increased the volume of primary exercises.

My last day was Saturday September 9th. After warm up I did 10 sets of 4 Mills with the Bruiser in less than 15 minutes.

I've already begun my new program which I will post in a new thread.

[Coach Gostnell]

Yoga can be like submission wrestling yourself

So funny because SO TRUE!

it never gets easier, it’s always harder

Amen to that. As soon as it starts to seem easier, it usually means one of two things:

1.) You're not doing it right
2.) Time to amp up.

[Soheil John Ward]

1.) You're not doing it right
2.) Time to amp up.

Agreed!