BASE BUILDING SPLITS (PART 4)

BASE BUILDING SPLITS (PART 4)

CONDITIONING 

Unlike Powerlifting, strongman generally requires that you be in some semblance of shape, Cardio wise. You have a few options here, in my opinion.

Use circuit or medley style events to get in both conditioning AND event work, or just do some conditioning work on off days. Like sprints, prowler or car pushing, or sled work. I will say this. From talking with two very high-level strongmen competitors, they both agreed with me that a very optimal way to work in conditioning is to simply place it on the backend of a training cycle AS you de-load. Here are the reasons why.

It takes far longer to get stronger than it does to get into shape. Therefore you should be spending the bulk of your training cycle simply working on getting as strong as humanly possible, and not worrying about anything else. It does not take long to get in fairly good shape, Cardio wise. A few weeks at the most. You can set your training cycle up so that you run your base-building work for weeks/months at a time, then de-load the last couple of weeks before a competition, and then spend that time working on conditioning while you work in the weight room to just maintain that base level you had been working on. Essentially you just readjust your priorities, or how much effort goes into those things so that you show up as strong as possible and in as good a shape as possible.

AN EXAMPLE OF A 12 WEEK CYCLE FOR A COMPETITION: 

• Week 1 - Strength Work BBM 

• Week 2 - Strength Work BBM 

• Week 3 - Strength Work BBM 

• Week 4 - Strength Work BBM 

• Week 5 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 6 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 7 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 8 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 9 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 10 - Strength Work Maintenance BBM Taper - Ramp Conditioning 

• Week 11 - Strength Work Maintenance BBM Taper - Ramp Conditioning 

• Week 12 - active rest, steady-state Cardio, total de-load 

• Week 13 - competition

The peaking work would simply be adjusting the overhead press, front squat, and deadlift to all use the peaking methods from the strong-15. At week 10 and 11 you would taper the BBM methods back to half the volume, and ramp the conditioning work over those two weeks. Whatever method you choose from that is fine. I think you can get into pretty solid condition by doing HIIT 3 times a week. The last week would be for complete rest, with only a couple of steady-state sessions throw in to aid in overall recovery.

FULL BODY SPLITS FOR BBM 

Full body training goes back to the genesis of weight lifting. In lifting, it was the most common way to train. It was this way for a very long time until some found that as they got stronger, or wanted to concentrate on improving specific areas, or movements, it has been often more efficient to work those on separate days.

Thus body part splits began. Full body training still has plenty of merits. Even for advanced guys.

From a base-building perspective, it can be very ideal as it forces you to narrow down your training in very simplistic terms and concentrate on the movements. This is all about what base building is. If you like full body splits, then I highly recommend using them during your base building cycles.

My personal preference for laying out a full body split is to squat three times a week, pull once a week, and press three times a week. I will also lay out a few variations of this where you squat twice a week, press twice a week, and deadlift once a week.

FULL BODY TEMPLATE 1 - SQUAT 3x week/PRESS 3x week/DEADLlIFT ONCE

DAY 1 - SQUAT/BENCH/ROW 

Squat - BBM 

Bench - BBM 

Row - 4x8 

Curl - 1x100

DAY2 - FRONT SQUAT/DEADLIFT/INCLINE

Front Squat - 5x5 @ 60% 

Deadlift - BBM 

Incline Press - 350 method 

Curl - 1x100

DAY 3 - SQUAT/BENCH/CHIN 

Squat - BBM 

Bench - BBM 

Chin - 5x AMAP 

Curl - 1x100

FULL BODY TEMPLATE 2 - SQUAT 2x week/PRESS 2x week/DEADLIFT ONCE 

This template is for guys who like whole bodywork, but may have trouble getting all the work in, or are a little stronger and need a bit more recovery. I’ve massaged around the movements a bit in order to lessen the workload of each training session.

DAY 1 - SQUAT/BENCH/ROW 

Squat - BBM 

Bench - BBM 

Curl - 1x100

DAY 2 - DEADLIFT 

Deadlift - BBM 

Barbell Rows - 4x8 

Lat Pull Downs - 4x8

DAY 3 - SQUAT/BENCH/CHIN 

Squat - BBM 

Bench - BBM 

Chin - 5x AMAP

By no means is this anything revolutionary, nor am I pretending for it to be. Whole-body training most certainly has a time and place in training. Beginners can use it (though it personally is not my preference for beginners), and intermediates can definitely benefit from it. From an advanced guy standpoint, it can have its place. For example, a couple of times I came off of major surgery I used full-body training in order to get back into the swing of things. I felt like it was very productive in that regard.

It can also be a great change of pace for the guys that have been going balls out on split routines for a while. A whole-body routine will sort of force you back down a little bit because you’ll be aware you’ll need to keep some gas in the tank in order to get all of the prescribed work in for the day.

The drawbacks to whole-body training are that essentially you neglect a lot of the “gap” musculature that gets filled in well with more rounded training. By that I mean you don’t get in enough movement variation to either keep injuries at bay, or you don’t “fill out” enough from a muscular standpoint. I’ve heard guys balk at this, but without fail when a guy goes from a limited movement style of training using a wider variety of movements, his base of mass does increase. This is exactly why bodybuilders train this way. More complete development from a muscular standpoint.

That is not the goal when using full-body splits, you probably aren’t worried about that when partaking in one.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON SPLITS 

I wrote in these splits for this book as a “food for thought” type of thing. Most guys get way too bound up in the details of a split without the understanding that it is only a guideline or framework. It is NOT gospel. It is not infallible.

Reread those last two sentences 1,000 before you decide you need to ask a question about a particular training split.