Sadly I have a client that is finishing is 12 Weeks with me and he isn't in the position to continue working together. Now, I don't do this for every client but this guy works his tail off and he goes above and beyond when it comes to what I ask of my clients each and every week. He comes through ten times out of ten so as I've looked at him going out on his own I made sure to leave him with several idea on how to program himself...or at least a solid guide.

Now, this may not be for everyone but if you want to get far in The World of Lifting you have to learn to listen and be a student of the sport you are taking part in. I do believe that everyone is capable of doing this, my job just happens to be in reading the signs as fast as possible and making the correct choices for you when you can't risk making bad ones. I'm there to make the right decisions when wrong decisions just will not cut it.

So I sent him his Week 10 Programming which looked like this:

Log looks pretty solid! Make sure as you dip downwards you force your elbows up to create a better "shelf" for the log to sit on, so you can properly drive the log UP with your legs! You are 95% there!

I would really like to do a dynamic effort bench press cycle at some point soon as I think it would help to teach you to be tight and to push with speed and in a slightly more straight line. Is this possible? Do you have bands to bench press with?

Yoke, you look to be the same speed on both runs. Your warm ups should be a sprint. I'd like to see you this week do a sprint with around 100 and 150 kg (or whatever is close). We need to build the weights that you can sprint with before we push the over all weights here but I am surprised that you are not using more on the yoke. What do you think you could do for 20 meters if you had to in a contest?

I love the medley but next week we need the farmers to be 80 kg each, minimum! 90 would be better. You can do more sets if you feel like it but I don't want you too beat up to recover from AND quite often when we do too much in the gym it sends mania or depression into 5th gear! It does me and it does this to several of my clients who squat 300-400 kg raw as well. Does that make sense?

Day 1: Press Focused

Log Clean and Press
guesstimate your Training Max
50% x 2 x 3 sets , 1 minute rest between, this is just to get you fired up!
60% x 2
70% x 2
80% x 1
90% x 1 x 3-5 sets, 2-3 minutes rest between sets
(if this goes well we can go in the 95-100% range next week)

Bench Press
50% x 3
60% x 3
70% x 3
80% x 5+

JM Press (normal bar or SS Yoke Bar)
3-6 sets of 6-8 reps, the goal here this week is to really feel these and set a standard

Vertical Lats (reverse band chins)
1 set of 8+ reps, not super hard, focus on stretch and contract

ABS: 1-3 sets to reset the spine

Day 2: Squat Focused
Box Squats (around depth or 5-7 cm above), SS Yoke Bar (less stress on the bicep)
40% x 2 x 4 sets, short rest, great warm up, being explosive here.
50% x 3
60% x 3
70% x 3
80% x 2
90% x 1+ (I suggest not going past 3 or 4 though)

Remove Box
85-90% x 1, perfection, safe

Take a short break, drink 250-500 ml fluids (I prefer coconut water mixed with cranberry juice, electrolytes, carb powder, maybe BCAA/EAA)

Super Yoke (should be tired at this point)
2 sprints with 150 kg x 20 m (I need to see these on video)
From here I would love to see a PR weight (even something small) for 15-20 meters

Set up about 90% of that
90% x 15 m, immediately remove about 10-20 kg, go back 15 m
Rest 2 minutes
Take the 2nd weight again 15 m, immediately remove another 10-20 kg and go back 15 m
Rest 2 minutes
Take the last set down and back 15 m and then rest!
Example: 200 kg x 15 m, drop 10 kg, 190 kg back, rest, 190 kg down, drop 10 kg, 180 kg back, rest. 180 kg down, 180 kg back.

ABS:
1-5 sets to reset the spine

It will be very important to eat well, to do a lot of recovery, foam roll, hot/cold bath/shower after this session to help with recovery.

Day 3: Press Accessory
3 Board Bench Press:
full warm up
65% of your full bench press 1 rep max x 8 x 2 sets, 2 minutes rest between sets, slight pause on the boards, use the triceps

*
This is "building" so pause some, feel the movement, make each rep perfect and make them actually work for you!
*
Stay tight and chest/belly UP even on the pause, do not let your chest deflate or cave in

Shoulder Press in Rack, like before
Possibly look to do a seated press in the rack with the bar on the safety pins set about 3-10 cm over the top of your head, bottom position presses
we need 3-4 sets of 3-5 reps,
You have the option to take a heavy PR single or double AS LONG AS you do not get injured for any reason!!!! I'm serious! Next week a max 8-10!
high reps on these can cause more irritation on the biceps, so can max lifts under 3 reps!

Front Plate Raises
1-2 sets of 10-15 reps, pretend you are a bodybuilder, stay in control, build muscle

Lats, Triceps, ABS as you like

Day 4:
Dimel Deadlift
warm up only
1 plate x 3 x 3
Head up, shoulders behind the bar, belly full of air

Deadlift
50% x 3 x 2 very little rest is needed, 1 minute or so max
60% x 2 x 2 sets, these are all done to get you fired up, ready, and perfect!
75% x 2
85% x 2
If you want a PR, take it today as long as you feel great! Or anything over 175...
If you want to be safe you can:
1.
Stop at 85% and recover
2.
Take another double with 85%

Good Morning of Choice, anything! Continuing to rest on these this week
just play with 2 sets of 10-20 reps,
I suggest just using a band under your feet and around your neck, really try to fry your glutes and hamstrings and not your joints!

Horizontal Lats (rows of any and all kinds)
you need 3-8 hard sets of 6-10 reps
dbell rows, barbell rows, machine rows, etc...

Take a few minutes and consume fluids. Your body needs the nutrients to perform best on the strongman implements!

Sandbag/Farmers:
Sandbag down 15 meters, Farmers back 15 meters (anything in the 60-90 kg range is good here on all implements, more is fine also)
Farmers/Sandbag:
Farmers down 15 meters, Sandbag back 15 meters
If you feel the need to do another third or fourth set, you can!

ABS:
3-6 sets of 8-10 reps

Whew...that was a lot to say! Keep in mind that this is Week 10 and it is all based upon where he is at in his programming and what has been and not been working in previous weeks.

His weekly review in reply to me was as follows:

Day 1:
I did miscalculate the weight on the log so the first two sets where to heavy. They also where a good but wobbly as you see by me taking a step to get my stability back. After taking a small amount of weight off it was perfectly fine. In hindsight I maybe just adjusted to the weight at this point.

Benching was fine, haven't had much issues. I tried to make them work for me so the last reps got harder then usual.

I did record the jm-press but my gym was too dark and my sweater too black so you don't see anything in the video. I went for a couple of 8 rep set's with 45 kg. I can't say I had a nice tricep pump or anything after it. But also my elbows weren't bothered.

Squatting was good. I feel the box squat technique is back where it belongs and the squat depth was perfect. I might say I'm very pleased with my squats this week.

Yoke on the other hand was a catastrophe. The 125 kg sprints where nice but at 185kg the yoke slipped of my back. The center has an ridiculous gigantic diameter which makes it really hard to hold it in position. I recovered and finished the run but it was constantly on my mind. The pr of 225kg felt very wobbly. I guess part of it was that I was more focused on the center beam than anything else.

The board presses were good. I managed to make them real building work. The last rep on every set was really hard. Also I believe I did a better job at staying tight through the set.

Pin presses where a blast. I did 5kg more on my worksets and took a heavy double of 65kg. A lot of fun. And very challenging on the midsection, which I believe I can hugely benefit from.

Deadlifting was good even as I haven't felt 100% that night. I did the 85% x2 two times. Mostly because I forgot to record the first.....

The medley. It was fun and challenging. I did 80kg on farmers and 70kg on the back. Also dragging all the weights over on the sled always gives me nice little quad pump. The farmers felt good but the pick up was heavy. My handles are bit lower then most others I used before. Maybe 3-5cm over deadlift height. I also still struggle a good bit with the sandbag pick up. Maybe you can point to a good resource about the technique?
I have to confess that for the first time I skipped abs since I work with you. I was too tired and it was too late. But I'll try to at least do some sit ups or planks or something today at home.

Now, I read this and I see all the answers (between this and the video he sent with it) but he looks at it and only sees questions and holes that he doesn't know how to fill. Since you too may find yourself in a position where you need to start making serious progress and you don't know exactly where to go, here is my advice to you.

1) Write out a weekly plan, at least. I suggest typing it up and maybe going as far as writing out either a 4, 8 or 12 week PLAN and printing it out with tons of space to make notes.

2) Keep the plan with you as you train. After ever exercise, make notes about how the exercise felt. Felt good? Felt bad? Did it hurt one of your elbows or knees? Does this exercise feel like it is the Gold Mine you've been looking for? WRITE IT DOWN UNDER YOUR PLAN!

3) At the end of every session take notes of how you feel and how the entire training session felt to you. Be honest in your assessment and if you stunk up the place because you didn't eat or sleep enough, admit that it isn't the program's fault but it is your own. If lack of food and sleep seem to be something that happens a lot, adjust your training program to meet this!

4) At the end of the week, sit down and observe what is working and what you believe is not working and adjust the next week of Training Programming based on how you feel.

5) At the end of every month, or training block, make serious observations and notes about what is and isn't working and WHY you believe that is! THIS IS THE FREAKING TO SUCCESS IN OUR WORLD! Do what works, don't do what doesn't work, figure out WHY each does or doesn't and either exploit it or fix it!

This particular client pointed out that the JM Press didn't make his triceps blow up huge BUT they also did not set his elbows on fire! This is big and we need to look at if we can push them harder next week, add bands, use reverse bands, etc...to make the exercise work more for him while maintaining an pain free elbow zone!

His box squats are carrying over to his free squats so we now know that we need a rep or two of free squats every month to maintain technique. This is life long information that you need to know!

Yoke got into his head because it was slipping off of his back. While all he sees is a failure I see that he needs to wear a different shirt and put some strong grip tape on the neck bar of the Super Yoke and make sure that he is lined up better. Also, this is a great excuse to gain an extra few pounds of weight!

Board Presses are going well and they are teaching him how to stay tight on a full bench press and growing some serious triceps which will improve his Log Press!

Pin Presses were a challenge, set a PR, and they will help to improve his midsection stability...100% something that he needs to keep in varying rep ranges!

Deadlifts were solid even on a night where he didn't feel very good...which it is huge to pull 85% for 4 reps when you don't feel 100%.

Medley was fun, challenging, a lot of quad work (means we either need more or less quad dominant squatting!), and his strength cardio is improving! A lot can be manipulated here to make this work for him long term.

He finally missed ONE abs session even after I've programmed 4 sessions per week for the last 10 weeks. Not bad if you ask me and this is where we wait and see this next week if his lifts go up or if they go down and is that due to skipping a session of AB work or not?

So sit down and make a plan and take notes...this is how progress is made and it is easier than you think. It just takes a commitment to excellence.