Gant's Hybrid programs

[Brian Stone]

I was going to inquire about this, actually, and whether you still felt the same way about this program with more recent perspective. This looks similar to what Justin posted over on 70sbig recently. I felt that conditioning work was missing from SS but that 5/3/1 was a slow progression, since I'm still novice. This is more like SS w/ conditioning, so I'm going to attempt something similar to this going forward. Cheers!

[Gant Grimes]

Originally Posted by Brian Stone

I was going to inquire about this, actually, and whether you still felt the same way about this program with more recent perspective. This looks similar to what Justin posted over on 70sbig recently. I felt that conditioning work was missing from SS but that 5/3/1 was a slow progression, since I'm still novice. This is more like SS w/ conditioning, so I'm going to attempt something similar to this going forward. Cheers!

Justin's program evolved from training people in the gym by taking the retarded things out of CF. Mine evolved from training for strength, power, and conditioning for a sport with a lot of GPP overlap. We also see each other every day or so and agree on most aspects of physical training. It's no surprise that they look similar.

I still like my original program, but I was looking for something different then. The conditioning was short but demanding, so I developed a good conditioning base without wasting my muscle. The strength work was good but fairly low volume, so I was strong but not big.

Justin's program isn't designed to deliver any specific conditioning. The conditioning is intentionally limited to maximize strength gains. Mine differs because I have to have the conditioning. Because of my age and activity level, I'm not able to squat 3x5 (or the Texas Method stuff). 5/3/1 works for me because I can hit it once a week and still get good volume on the AMRAP set, thus I'm getting a little more growth than I was on my earlier program.

When designing a mixed program, you have to understand how volume and intensity--not just rep ranges--affect strength and growth. For the short course on periodization and design, go to TMuscle and read everything Jack Reape has written.

BTW, conditioning is not missing from SS. The program is designed to get you stronger and bigger, not fitter. Conditioning will stretch our your linear progression.

5/3/1 can be used for novices or intermediates, but it is not a linear program. You won't get as strong as fast. But, at this point, if I can add 50-60 pounds a year in each lift, I'm happy.

[Brian Stone]

BTW, conditioning is not missing from SS. The program is designed to get you stronger and bigger, not fitter. Conditioning will stretch our your linear progression.

Point taken. I didn't mean to imply it was missing so much that the agressive linear progression didn't leave me with any energy to do conditioning work without sacrificing energy for the big lifts, which were the main focus.

My experience with SS is that, after several week, I noticed that I was short of breath doing what for me has always been pretty rudimentary physical stuff, which I would imagine is the side effect of any linear strength-centric program. 5/3/1 allowed a lot more time/energy for conditioning, but in my opinion at too great a cost to progress in strength. I'm searching out a happy medium; I want to solid strength progression without wheezing every time I walk a few flights of stairs or help move a dresser.

The other observation, for me, is that SS is a lot of stress on my bones and joints without the deload. By week 8, my body was in rough shape, so a month of 5/3/1 following that was the reprieve that I needed. I'm going to make sure to do deload as needed here.

I'll check out the articles. Thanks for the info.
-Brian

[henry whitaker]

Gant,

What would be a good oly template to use in conjunction with 5/3/1 with this type of program? I have long been following the hybrid-type programming that you outlined a while back, but have always struggled with the oly portion of the program once getting beyond the novice stage.

Originally Posted by Gant Grimes

My log differed from the template because of some different things I was trying to do at the time.

I liked the program, and it did a lot of people some good, but I would offer an even simpler version at this point.

For GPP:

M: Snatch, Bench (or push press), Squat
T: Plyo, SM implements, sprints
W: rest
R: Clean, Press, Deadlift
F: skill, stretch, prowler/sled stuff

*for 5-days, add W: skill work, sprints; rest R and train F and S.

Use OLY progressions for the OLY lifts.

For the slow lifts, do 3x5 as a novice and 5/3/1 as an intermediate. If you get stale after a couple years, do 3x12, 3x10, 3x8, 3x6 for three weeks at a time and reset.

I never wrote the article for PM because I didn't want to add to the signal-to-noise ratio on the interwebs. CFFB and CFSB came out several months after the hybrid program and offered more specialized programming with more support.

[Gant Grimes]

Originally Posted by henry whitaker

Gant,

What would be a good oly template to use in conjunction with 5/3/1 with this type of program? I have long been following the hybrid-type programming that you outlined a while back, but have always struggled with the oly portion of the program once getting beyond the novice stage.

That depends what priority you put on the OLY lifts. Are you using them simply to develop more explosive power, or do you actually want to get good at them? We're talking about a time commitment here. E.g., I can move a decent amount of weight, but I don't do them well at all. They help with with explosive power, but not as much as if I spent more time on them.

[henry whitaker]

I'm trying to use them to develop explosive power. Sure, I'd like to get good at them, but I don't think I can spend more than one or so days a week training C&J and Sn respectively and recover from everything else I'm doing. I've seen some Oly periodization templates on their own, but they seem to be for people who just pretty much care about increasing their oly totals.

What interested me about the template you proposed is that it seems like a way to periodize for the slow lifts while maintaining GPP, hopefully with the goal of making slow steady gains in strength, which is just fine with me. I was just asking whether you (or anyone else) had a suggestion for a template that will do that for the oly lifts too in the context of the type of program you propose. I am a recovering CrossFitter and trying to get away from the "do random workouts and hope it works" approach to training.

Originally Posted by Gant Grimes

That depends what priority you put on the OLY lifts. Are you using them simply to develop more explosive power, or do you actually want to get good at them? We're talking about a time commitment here. E.g., I can move a decent amount of weight, but I don't do them well at all. They help with with explosive power, but not as much as if I spent more time on them.