How I Program My Own Training

As many people know as I have written about this topic extensively, when I was 28, I was in a really bad car accident. For over five years, my body was completely screwed up, I was pretty depressed, and felt like a complete imposter. I dealt with a wide array of symptoms, and was living in a chronic state of dysfunction and extreme discomfort. When somebody finally figured out what was causing all of my issues, because I had been compensating so badly for all of those years, and was not able to work out properly, I had become incredibly weak, and was not able to move properly. As a result, I basically had to start from scratch and train my body how to move again, and I systematically rebuilt my body from the ground up. I focused on mastering all of the fundamental movements. I also did a lot of research and studied a lot of Stu McGill’s work, and really prioritized core stability/developing spinal stiffness. This helped me build a very solid base, and I was able to really take off from there. While some people might argue that my plan has flaws, what I do works extremely well for me.

While my training is relatively loosely programmed, make no mistake, I absolutely own 100% of my movements, 100% of my reps, follow very regimented progressions, and essentially coach myself the way I would when I’m working with my clients. My focus is on making myself better, and doing everything properly. This is why I have been able to achieve a relatively high level of strength, overall fitness, and health.

Before I get into the specifics, I want to be very painfully clear. I am not suggesting that this is how you should organize your training. This is what I do, and is what works well for me. I have spent many years fine-tuning my workouts and programming, and learning what works best for me. I am always refining what I do, and you should do the same. There is no cookie cutter, or one size fits all approach. Your training program should be individualized, and should fit your unique needs, goals, equipment, schedule, lifestyle, and so forth.

With my training, my main purpose (vs specific goals) is to:

• Get stronger
• Improve my conditioning (stay match/soccer fit year round)
• Improve my athleticism
• Be able to do/master many cool/crazy exercises
• Have fun and feel empowered
• Feel healthy (mentally and physically)
• Add muscle

While the first six points have been a huge focus of my training since I came back from my 5+ years of body issues, I have also added in wanting to get more muscular as I love how being muscular makes me feel. While my training style allows me to add muscle without even focusing on it, I have added in a little more volume for my shoulders. This is the only tweak I have made. I pay very little attention to my aesthetics as I’ve learned that if I train the way I want to, and consistently, the aesthetic part will occur pretty automatically. After struggling with body image issues for much of my 20’s, and this was extremely mentally and physically exhausting, and counterproductive, my focus is on improving my performance and health, having fun, and feeling pretty badass. This is what motivates me. Working out is a huge passion of mine, and is part of my daily routine.

Here is an outline of the components of my training program.

Strength Training

When it comes to my strength training, I aim to train my lower body 2/week, and my upper body 3-4/week. I perform 2 full body workouts per week where my main focus is on my legs, and I’ll do an additional 1-2 sessions for my upper body where I’ll focus on a combination of bodyweight exercises, barbell and dumbbell exercises, and ”play” exercises. I usually perform one of my upper body workouts after a conditioning session, or on days when I have an evening soccer game.

Generally, when I train my lower body, I start my workout with an exercise where the purpose is to gain strength. I usually opt for a lower rep range (3-6 reps), and perform this exercise alone, or pair it with an ”active rest” exercise (usually a scapula stabilizer exercise). When my priority is squatting, I often start my workout with a barbell front squat variation. I have always preferred front squatting over back squatting, and back squat very infrequently. Lately, I have been doing a lot of negatives, or double pause front squats. If my priority is hip hinging, I will often start my workout with trap bar deadlifts, or barbell RDL’s. For the past year, I haven’t been doing many conventional or sumo deadlifts. I enjoy these lifts, but prefer trap bar deadlifts.

Once I have completed 3-5 working sets of my main strength exercise, my remaining exercises are typically in the 8-12 rep range, and I usually pair a lower body exercise with an upper body exercise. For the past year or so, I have been opting for full body workouts as they give me a much bigger bang for my buck and free up my schedule to do more conditioning workouts. Because my conditioning level is very high, I’m able to perform supersets without getting gassed or needing a lot of time to recover.

When it comes to training my upper body, I am much less regimented, and rarely go into a workout with a set plan. I admit, I pretty much go with the flow, and end up performing a lot of exercises. I do a lot of bodyweight exercises, exercises with dumbbells and barbells, and quite a few of my ”crazy/play” exercises. When I train my upper body, I really like to have fun and be creative, and this works for me as my strength and ability to perform more advanced exercises continues to increase. I’d estimate that at least 50% of my upper body exercises are done with just my bodyweight. Most of my upper body exercises are in the 8-12 rep range, although I sometimes go for 15 or more reps, particularly during some of my bodyweight exercises. I also like to add band resistance to some of my exercises, particularly to different Landmine variations, and bodyweight exercises like push-ups.

Exercise Variation:

I am a huge believer that if you want to continue to make progress, you need to perform the same exercises, and consistently. I do not switch up my workouts, or most of my exercises. What I do is perform different variations of the same exercises, including some of my more innovative but effective variations, and I vary the tempo, reps, sets, and exercise order. I don’t get bored, but I always entertain myself by performing my ”play” exercises, and my very basic training style allows me to be able to do so.

Form:

While I am not very rigid when it comes to my workouts, I am extremely rigid and meticulous when it comes to my form. No matter what I am doing, I make sure that my form is as close to my perfect as possible. Keep in mind that form will vary on an individual basis, and no two people will look identical when they are performing the same exercise.

Talking about technical vs absolutefailure is also extremely important. When I perform any form of strength training, or conditioning that is technical, I ALWAYS stop when I reach technical failure. In other words, when my form breaks down, I stop. If I need to adjust the weight so I hit a particular rep range, I will. But my priority is using good form 100% of the time as my goal is to make myself better, and improve my health. When I perform less technical conditioning, I will go to absolute failure, but am still mindful of my form at all times.

Sets/Reps:

I usually perform 3-5 working sets of each exercise. This does not include a warm-up set.

Length Of My Workouts:

I used to spend up to 2 hours working out, but now both due to time constraints, and efficiency, my workouts are just over 60-75 minutes in length. On some days, I will only spend 30-45 minutes working out. Over the years, I have learned that more isn’t always better.

Tempo:

I like to mix up my tempo. Sometimes I perform my exercises very explosively (but with control). Much of the time I use a 1-0-1-0 tempo, and I am a huge fan of performing pause, double pause, or negative reps (3-5 second eccentric).

Rest Intervals:

When I squat, deadlift, and am using lower reps/heavier weight, I often rest for 90 seconds to 2 minutes between sets. During this rest, I like to perform a ”filler” exercise (often a scapula stabilizer exercise). When I perform bodyweight exercises, I usually rest for just 60 seconds between rounds. When I perform supersets (often a superset of a lower body and upper body exercise) I rest for 60-120 seconds. As my conditioning level is very high, I recover very quickly so I do not need that much rest. This allows me to accomplish a lot more in much less time.

Number Of Exercises:

When I train my legs, I usually perform 5-6 exercises, plus a glute exercise either during my warm-up or at the end of my workout. As I often do full body workouts, I perform 5-6 supersets of a lower body exercise plus an upper body exercise. When I train my upper body on its own, I often perform 10-12 exercises, but I rarely keep track of my overall volume. I just pay attention to how my body and mind are feeling. I usually do 1 core stability exercise per workout, 1 band resisted glute exercise/bodyweight glute exercise 2 days per week, and 1 scapula stability exercise 3-4 days per week.

Ratios I follow:

When I train my lower body, I follow a ratio of 1:1 quad dominant to hamstring dominant exercises. Because my hamstrings used to be a weak link, I was doing 2:1 hamstring to quad dominant exercises, but am back to the 1:1 ratio. I make sure that at least 50% of my lower body exercises are unilateral. So many people get caught up chasing numbers with the flashier bilateral squats, hip thrusts, and deadlifts, and I won’t make this mistake. Single leg exercises matter!

When I train my upper body, I aim to follow a ratio of 2:1 pulling to pressing exercises, and I try my best to follow a ratio of 2:1 horizontal pulling to vertical pulling exercises, but because I love doing pull-ups and chin-ups so much, this doesn’t always happen. I’d guess that about 25% of my upper body exercises are unilateral.

Rest Days:

I legitimately love working out and would 7/week if I could as it is a miracle tonic for me, and helps me as much mentally as it does physically. However, I know the importance of rest and recovery. Right now, I work out 6 days per week, but listen to my body and give it what it needs. If I feel like I need to take off 2 days per week, or even 3, I will. But 6 days is working for me, especially when I make sure to take an additional day where I do no lower body or conditioning work. This allows me to always feel fresh and let’s mereally push myself versus just feeling heavy and going through the motions. And usually, I have one ”play” workout per week where I do nothing more than my fun/crazy upper body calisthenics exercises. While these exercises are tough, they are not overly taxing on my body and allow my legs to recover.

Warm-Up:

I admit, I don’t do a huge warm-up before I work out as I like to conserve my energy for my working sets, and I like to be efficient. I find that so many people waste an abundance of time and energy performing too many warm-up sets, or spending a ridiculous amount of time using a foam roller before they work out. If I am doing a lower body workout, my first set of each exercise will be with a lighter weight, or possibly just my bodyweight. From there, I will build up my weight as I go. If I am doing an upper body workout, if I perform bodyweight exercises, I will not warm-up. If I perform exercises with dumbbells or a barbell, my first set will be with a lighter weight, and I will increase the weight as I go.

Body Maintenance:

For maintenance, I have actually found that the stronger and more stable I’ve become, and the better I move, the less maintenance work I have to do. I confess, over the past while, aside from doing a few static stretches post workout, I have not been doing any maintenance work, and my body feels better than it ever has. When I was dealing with my 5+ years of body issues, I spent so much time doing maintenance work, not so much because it was helping me, but because it was the one time when I felt mental relief. It was more about coping and distracting myself from the stress I was feeling versus actually helping me feel better. Even after my body felt better, I was scared to stop doing this. I realized that I was wasting so much of my time, and that my body actually feels better now I am doing much less of this.

I do 1 bilateral hip hinging exercise each time I train my lower body. On one of the days I will perform this exercise first and will opt for a lower rep range (3-6). On the other day when a squatting exercise is my main priority and is performed first, I will do 8-12 reps.

If I perform a unilateral hip hinging or other posterior chain dominant exercise, I usually opt for a rep range of 8-10 reps/leg, but sometimes go as low as 6, or as high as 15.

• Trap bar deadlifts
• Barbell RDL’s
• Single leg RDL’s (barbell and dumbbell)
• Landmine deadlifts
• Band pull-throughs
• Ball/roller/TRX hamstring curls
• Slider hamstring curls (often band resisted)
• Single leg hip thrusts

When it comes to my own workouts, I’m not a huge fan of heavy hip thrusts or glute bridges. Without consistently training this exercise, I have a PR of 500 lbs for the glute bridge, and 425 lbs x 9 reps, and can do 8+ reps of 300 lb hip thrusts. While I worked at this for years, I now have very strong glutes and they are no longer a priority of mine. Most of my hip thrusts are done with just band resistance, and I usually perform between 10-15 reps. I do these as part of my warm-up, or at the end of my workout as a ”glute finisher.”

#9) Play Exercises: 6 days/week

All of the basic training I do on a very consistent basis, and the fact that I have mastered the fundamentals, makes doing my extremely advanced crazy/play exercises possible. I do at least 1-2 of these exercises every time I work out. They are extremely fun to do, and are incredibly empowering. Feeling empowered and badass is a huge reason why I train, and love what I do so much.

#10) Accessory Exercises: 6 days/week

While most of my training consists of the fundamental movements and is compound in nature, I will add in 2-3 accessory exercise per workout. Here are some of my favourites:

1. Core Stability

Anti-extension: 2-3 days/week

• Ab wheel rollouts
• Dead bug (many variations)
• Hanging leg raises
• Different RKC plank variations

Anti-rotational: 1-2 days/week

• Pallof presses (many variations)
• Landmine anti-rotational exercises
• Contralateral or ipsilateral bird dog + single arm rows