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40 Day Complex (Finished)

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Football Bat

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Hey Guys,

I came up with the following workout because I was pressed for time and I wanted to work on strength, hypertrophy and conditioning all at the same time. I had to change a couple of things due to pain in certain parts of my body, but I stuck to the core of the routine for the entire 40 days (which I just finished).

The exercises used were:
1. Whatever I felt like doing for a warmup (initially)
2. Ankle stretch using a step stretch/pro stretch
3. Gada 360 using a 14kg Macebell, which I made myself from bamboo and concrete.
4. Double 24kg KB complex consisting of (C&P x 2, C&J x 4, Front Squat x 2)
5. (I ended up trying 2 different exercises to finish the workout due to pain)


Day 1/40 - 24JAN2018 to Day 7/40 - 30JAN2018
- warmup of choice
- Gada (Macebell) 360 - Left side: 14kg x 20 - Right side: 14kg x 20
- Complex with double 24kg KBs (C&P x 2, C&J x 4, Front Squat x 2) x 5

Starting at Day 8/40 I added one arm overhead squats with a 24kg KB to improve my form and flexibility. My workouts from that point forward looked like this:

Day 8/40 - 31JAN2018
- warmup of choice
- Gada (Macebell) 360 - Left side: 14kg x 20 - Right side: 14kg x 20
- Complex with double 24kg KBs (C&P x 2, C&J x 4, Front Squat x 2) x 5
- One Arm Overhead Squat - Left side: 2 sets of 24 x 3 - Right side: 2 sets of 24 x 3

Starting at Day 9/40 I replaced my random warmups with ankle stretches using a stepstretch/prostretch (whatever you want to call it). I started doing 2 sets of 50 reps per side. The purpose of this was to fix the tightness in my ankles that was made apparent by the one arm overhead squats.

Day 9/40 - 01FEB2018
- Step Stretch - L x50 x2 - R x50 x2
- Gada (Macebell) 360 - Left side: 14kg x 20 - Right side: 14kg x 20
- Complex with double 24kg KBs (C&P x 2, C&J x 4, Front Squat x 2) x 5
- One Arm Overhead Squat - Left side: 2 sets of 24 x 3 - Right side: 2 sets of 24 x 3

At Day 30/40 I decided to replace the one arm overhead squats with the Bent Press using a 24kg KB. The reason for this was that I lacked sufficient flexibility in my left shoulder and right ankle to squat with good form. As such I was starting to feel pain in my left shoulder and I was starting to compensate by over-rotating my torso, which was starting to tweak my spine a little bit.

Day 30/40 - 26FEB2018
- Step Stretch - L x50 x2 - R x50 x2
- Gada (Macebell) 360 - Left side: 14kg x 20 - Right side: 14kg x 20
- Complex with double 24kg KBs (C&P x 2, C&J x 4, Front Squat x 2) x 5
- Bent Press - Left side: 2 sets of 24kg x 3 - Right side: 2 sets of 24kg x 3

This continued until day 32/40 when I decided to just do 1 set of 100 reps per side of the step stretch:

Day 32/40 - 01MAR2018
- Step Stretch - L x100 - R x100
- Gada (Macebell) 360 - Left side: 14kg x 20 - Right side: 14kg x 20
- Complex with double 24kg KBs (C&P x 2, C&J x 4, Front Squat x 2) x 5
- Bent Press - Left side: 2 sets of 24kg x 3 - Right side: 2 sets of 24kg x 3

At Day 34/40 I was honestly starting to get sick of the routine and I lost my resolve a little bit. So instead of doing 2 sets of 3 on each side for the bent press, I started just doing a straight set of 5 on each side with the same weight.

Day 34/40 - 01MAR2018
- Step Stretch - L x100 - R x100
- Gada (Macebell) 360 - Left side: 14kg x 20 - Right side: 14kg x 20
- Complex with double 24kg KBs (C&P x 2, C&J x 4, Front Squat x 2) x 5
- Bent Press - Left side: 24kg x 5 - Right side: 24kg x 5

I continued this until day 40/40 when I completed the last session on 11MAR2018

Results:

Strength: The weights started to feel significantly lighter as the days went on. However I had to force myself to complete the reps starting around the last 10 days of the program due to the monotony.

Conditioning: The first 10 days or so I felt like I had run a marathon at the end of each session. Around days 10 to 20 I no longer felt any burn in my lungs. The last 20 days I no longer felt any lactic acid burn whatsoever and I was able to maintain steady even breathing throughout each session.

Hypertrophy: Also I'm noticeably larger although I didn't weigh myself so this could be psychological (but I feel great! :) )

Technique: The overhead squats exposed mobility issues with my left shoulder and right ankle. The overcompensation in my spine when overhead squatting with my left hand started to tweak my spine a little, so I stopped the exercise and replaced it with bent press. The first 10 days or so I had issues with leaning back on the lockout on my presses and jerks. Around day 25 onward I started to adopt a more erect posture at the lockout. I still have more work to do but my shoulder and spine mobility are improving. Also I was bending too far forward while cleaning the kettlebells to the rack. This was starting to cause minor back pain around day 30ish. I have mostly fixed this issue but there is still more refinement to be done.

Other Notes: I think the combination of swinging the Gada around my head and leaning back in the lockout for the presses and jerks was starting to bother my lower back by the end of it. This seems to be due to inadequate shoulder mobility but my shoulders seem to be steadily improving.

Moving Forward: Now that I have found a routine that works and doesn't irritate my body I will rest for a few more days and start the same program using double 28kg kettlebells for the complex and bent press. Hopefully I will have the resolve to continue this program until I'm able to do it with double 32s.

Also I might start taking weekends off. I did this entire program with almost no days off and I think it started to impact my motivation near the end.
 
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