LSN Elite New year strength- Coach breakdown
The ball is dropping on the new year and it’s time to make some PR’s drop as well!
It’s time to shift gears and focus on STRENGTH! We just finished a muscle-building phase and now let’s put that muscle to use and spend the next 16 weeks building strength.
We will carry these strength gains into a peaking phase so you can hit all-time bests/new PRs! More muscle and more strength make you a better athlete!
This block follows the model of our other LSN powerbuilding programs by using our main compound movements for strength work followed by deliberately chosen accessory movements that will support strength gains in the main movements and grow muscle.
A bigger muscle has the potential to be a stronger muscle! And our conditioning work will make sure that you’re able to recover from your workouts and not get winded at the sight of a set of stairs.
Goal
Build strength
Prepare for peaking phase
Maintain conditioning and athleticism
Get juicy!
Structure
16-week strength block broken up into 2 8-week cycles
Overhead, deadlift, recovery/conditioning, bench, and squat
Deliberately chosen accessory movements for strength and hypertrophy
Exercise Selection
We are back to the main compound lifts that you are quite familiar with now: the OHP, Deadlift, Bench Press, and Squat. It’s time to refamiliarize yourself with these movement patterns and then maximize strength. On press day we follow
Here’s a basic rundown of what you’ll find on each day:
Day 1 - Overhead Press/Push Press: Whatever your preferred competition style press is, you can even jerk if you have the confidence and experience there. Or you could keep it a strict press if you are just looking for raw shoulder power out of this movement. We follow that up with a High Incline BB press, which I think is an excellent press builder, it allows you to get much more shoulder involvement and less chest than you get from a normal incline press. Then we follow that with lots of tricep work, rear delts, and abs! We will build a big base for a big press.
Day 2 - Deadlift: Back to your normal competition variation, or whatever you’d like to peak through this phase. After that, we move into an elevated deadlift variation for more emphasis on the posterior chain. Then you’ll finish the day with isolation work to target your back with pulldowns and rows, and of course, take advantage of all of this pulling and finish off with bicep work.
Day 3 - Bench day: All of the benches should be free since most jabronis spend International Chest Day there. After that we will hammer the triceps again with Close Grip Two Board presses (have you figured out how important strong triceps are yet?), then isolation work for your pecs and delts.
Day 4 - Squat day: Always a favorite. We like to place this at the end of the week so you have more time to recover before your next training session. We are back into Back Squats for the main movement, but you can also sub this for a variation like a high bar or SSB squat. But the point will be to stick with whatever variation you choose through this whole phase into the peak. There’s nothing wrong with using variations for full phases as ways to build the competition lift. After squats we are sending you home after lots of posterior chain work, your glutes and hams are going to be on another planet after this, so our apologies if you need new pants.
Intensity/Sets x reps
Linear progression of main movements
Top sets and backdowns for secondary movements - this lets you push to daily top sets for max effort on movements that you might normally set the cruise control on, and then we use backdown sets based on a percentage of your top set weight to get volume on the movement.
Accessory work is meant to be done “bodybuilder style” with most sets taken near failure. You’ll see instructions like: 3x10-15 with 1 RIR on each set. That means you stop each set when you have about one good rep left in the tank, in the 10-15 rep range. If you can knock out 20 reps before you get close to failure then obviously you’ve gotta add some weight. And on the other hand, if you are struggling to get 8 reps here then drop the weight to something more suitable to the intention. We want these movements to be done with good intent using controlled eccentrics into extremely explosive concentric, keep training your body to be explosive and strong.
Recovery and conditioning
Conditioning day during this cycle is also going to have an emphasis on recovery and mobility. We put this halfway through the training week as a way to get you moving and get blood flowing into your sore and tired muscles so you can finish the week strong.
Get ready for lots of sled work, which is great for getting blood into your legs without demanding an eccentric load, and then sled rows that do the same for your upper back. Then we finish with lots of hip and shoulder stability work. We want to keep you moving well so you can continue to make progress in the gym!
Come start the year strong so you can end it stronger than ever! Join Elite, do the work, and get results. Period.
