My Four-Week Summer Program

In my last fitness post I promised that I’d give you my current program. It’s a program that should be relatively easy to scale for just about anyone. But hit it hard enough and you’ll enjoy some solid gains without (A) dreading your training sessions or (B) sabotaging your schedule!

Well, with no further ado, here you are. I’ll offer some explanation below.

Monday

Bodyweight:

One-arm pushup progressions: sets of 12, 11, 10 (each side)
Hanging leg raises: sets of 6, 5, 4
Bridges: sets of 6, 5, 4

Kettlebell:

Double 53# KB Swings: 10 minute countdown, 11 reps

Tuesday

Bodyweight:

One-arm pull-up progressions: sets of 5, 4, 3 (each side)
Pistol squat progressions: sets of 5, 5, 5
Handstand pushup: sets of 2, 2, 2

Kettlebell:

53# Turkish Get-ups: 10 minutes, alternating 1 per side

Wednesday

Active recovery (e.g., Yoga or a walk)

Thursday

Bodyweight:

One-arm pushup progressions: sets of 12, 12 (each side)
Hanging leg raises: sets of 8, 8
Bridges: sets of 1, 1 (30 second hold each rep)

Kettlebell:

Double KB Clean/Double KB Front Squat (53#): 10 minute countdown, 4 reps/4 reps

Friday

Bodyweight:

One-arm pull-up progressions: sets of 6, 6 (each side)
Pistol squat progressions: sets of 6, 6
Handstand pushup: sets of 3, 3

Kettlebell:

Double 70# KB Clean and Press: 10 minute countdown, 1 rep

This has been my program for the month of June 2013. The reps have changed a bit in order to wave the load, but the sets have largely been the same. I’m sure you get the basic idea.

As for my “progressions,” they are as follows:

• Currently on the pushups, I’m doing lever pushups (pictured above), with one hand on a basketball extended to the side, the other hand directly beneath its shoulder.

• For the one-arm pull-up progressions, I’m doing uneven pull-ups. This involves grabbing the bar with my left hand and my left wrist with my right hand. Then reversing the grips for the opposite side.

• For the pistol progressions, I can pretty consistently do pistols with my shoes on, but I’m trying to develop the strength and flexibility to do them barefoot, which is considerably harder. So, my current progression has me working on full squats with my heels together. I’m the only person in my family who cannot do this effortlessly. That’s humbling. (Notice how my toes are wanting to come up off the deck in the picture.)

It’s been a bit of a mental shift for me to think in terms of using bodyweight alone for strength training. Like most people, I’ve tended to view bodyweight training as primarily high-rep conditioning stuff. Well, I can’t do pistols, handstand pushups or one-arm pushups for high reps. This has been sort of nice. I told Sonja the other day that I figure I exert about the same effort on two handstand pushups as on a set of fifty basic pushups…and in a fraction of the time. They’re a great way to get stronger, regardless of your current fitness level.

You can see that on this program I’ve generally been exercising four times a week (M/T/Th/F) with some active recovery thrown in on Wednesday and Saturday, usually in the form of yoga stretching or going for a walk. Each training session contained a bodyweight and a kettlebell component. I don’t schedule exercise on Sundays, but if my family wants to go on a walk or something, we go.

Training four days per week gives me an opportunity to hit every major bodyweight movement twice each week. I like this, though training three times per week would be good, too (in fact, ’tis my plan for July!).

June was a good month, but I’m ready to tweak my program for July. As I said above, I’m planning to train three days per week (because the summer is crazy!!) with some more active recovery on the off days. I’ll let you know how it goes.

As always, I’d love to field any questions you have in the space below.

Happy training!

Have you checked out these posts?

Exercise Update! What I’ve Been Up to the Last Six Months
Favorite Fifteen No. 4: 200 Swings for Time
Why I Don’t Do CrossFit