Old Forum Thoughts on Minimalist Programming

[LoneRider]

I recently encountered this jem of advice recently when it came to minimalist programming from Mountain Athlete.com and couldn't help but be reminded of PTTP when I read it:

A total body, lower body and upper body exercise like Hang Squat Clean, Back Squat and Bench Press.

The context of the quote was a time constrained individual who only could get into the gym occasionally because of military commitments. A recommendation of bodyweight training and the lifting advice above were given to him.

It inspired my own thoughts on the matter and I thought it was a decent bit of advice. Just curious if it's overkill to add a full body lift (i.e. squat clean + push press) to a minimalist routine?

 

[Journeyman]

Not necessarily. Depends on how little time you have, how much you're specializing, how good your recovery is (or whether your current circumstances afford good recovery) etc. etc. etc... as always.

I think that there are a good number of 'two lift solutions' out there that, combined with some 'extras' in a minimalistic warmup/cooldown, would afford an excellent strength based routine overall.

If you want to go a step beyond the 'two lift solution', a press and two pulls or press/pull squat, as ditillo recommended, is a good idea.

 

[LoneRider]

How I might tackle this would be along the lines of two alternating sessions (A and B) with the most technically complex move (i.e. the full body lift) as the first lift.

Session A would look like this:

Squat Clean + Push Press

Bench Press

Deadlift

Session B:

Squat Clean + Push Press

Front Squat

Bench Press

The sets and reps would be something like a 3x3, 4,3,2, or 4x2 type scheme, sticking with high weights but low reps. And if circumstances only allowed me a couple free periods in a day to train then I could even do one exercise in the morning and two more in the afternoon for instance.

 

[Pavel]

Lone Rider, to make you think, when Russian wrestling coaches "divide" up muscle groups for training, the obliques get a separate billing.

Full contact twist as one of the drills on the minimalist list?

 

[LoneRider]

Lone Rider, to make you think, when Russian wrestling coaches “divide” up muscle groups for training, the obliques get a separate billing.

Full contact twist as one of the drills on the minimalist list?

That was most certainly quite some substantial food for thought. I have done full contact twists in training before (mainly on variety days to make sure I had the form dialed right), but never considered having them as a standalone drill in their own right.

A week's worth of minimalist training might look akin to this:

Monday:

Squat Clean + Push Press

Bench Press

Deadlift

Tuesday:

Full Contact Twists

Pullups

Wednesday:

Squat Clean + Push Press

Front Squat

Bench Press

Thursday:

Full Contact Twists

Pullups

Friday:

Squat Clean + Push Press

Bench Press

Deadlift

Monday/Wednesday/Friday would use a 4x2 or 3x3 rep scheme where my Full Contact Twists/Pullup days would be more along the lines of a 5x5 rep scheme (with pullups possibly being weighted).

Initially I had thought my core would get plenty of work by the deadlifting and front squatting, so I didn't really think about any other core work other than those two drills, but then I recall a few training sessions where full contact twists were used and looked through my old logs on them.

Also each week would be a natural backoff for the lower body lifts since the next week I'd be deadlifting twice as opposed to front squatting twice.

 

[Dan John]

Rob Schaul, the Mtn. Athlete guy, spent a lot of time with us at JDCHS. He has a great ability to combine the least "here" with the needs of the goal "there." He is very good. I think I spelled his name wrong...

 

[LoneRider]

Dan, I agree, I do follow Rob's Base Fitness programming myself. The websites Q&A portion is also quite good for information sources.

That recent post on minimalist lifting inspired my own plan for when time is limited for me.

 

[bencrush]

Mountain Athlete sells a "Peak Bagger" training program that an ex-coworker of mine bought and followed to the T.  He was very, very impressed with the results.  And he was a hard guy to impress.  He was already in decent shape, but he tried one of the Colorado 14ers (don't know which one, even though my in-laws live in Denver, so they would kick my butt for not knowing, lol) a few years back, and even though he was in overall good shape, it totally kicked his butt. 

He did some research and went with the Mountain Athlete program that I mentioned above.  And I believe it was 3 months later when he went back to the same 14er and "dominated" it (those were his words).

 

[LoneRider]

Definitely not surprised there, Ben. However I would classify Mountain Athlete as a somewhat more advanced program, one best not begun until one has built sufficient strength. Rob does have some killer strength programs for sale on his site too. The Rat 6 and 357 readily come to mind.