Sharing My Current Training Program

I wanted to share my currently training split with you guys. I’m currently training 4 days/week - 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days. I’ve always found 4 days of lifting to be my sweet spot. On my days off, I will either rest or do other activities like boxing, yoga or mobility work.

My main goals are performing pain-free, being strong, mobile, capable and of course looking like it too. My main focus right now is bringing up my KB Press strength and adding quality muscle onto my frame. 

Day 1 - Upper

A1. Paused Renegade Rows - 3 sets x 5 per side

A2. KB Windmill - 3 sets x 5 per side (60s rest between sets)

B1. KB Clean and Press - 5 ladders x (1, 2, 3 reps)

B2. Ring Pullups - 5 ladders x (2, 3, 5 reps)
*Rest as needed

C. KB Snatch - 3 sets x 15 per side (60s rest between sets)

Notes

  • The renegade row and windmill are pretty new to me so I’m enjoying them because of that. They are also both excellent mid-section / core exercises. I will progress these by adding a rep each week until I get to the 12 rep range, then I’ll move to the next weight up

  • The press and pullups are my main upper body work and they’re done in a ladder style. I do 1 press, 2 pullups, 2 presses, 3 pullups, 3 presses and then 5 pullups. That’s one ‘ladder’. Then I start again at the bottom of the ladder. I took this scheme from Pavel’s program ‘Rite of Passage’ in which you press 3x/week. I found that to be a bit too much volume and a little monotonous so I’m now doing this 2x/week. The pullup reps will increase every few weeks. (2,3,5) eventually turns into (3,3,5)...then (3,4,5), etc.

  • Lastly, the KB snatch is the ballistic, conditioning and endurance work all in one

Day 2 - Lower

A1. Turkish Getup - 2 sets x 1 per side

A2. Split Squat Jumps / Jump Variations - 2 sets x 3-6 reps

B1. Double KB Squats - 8 sets x 3 reps

B2. Double KB Swing - 8 sets x 5 reps
*Rest 60 seconds each exercise. Squat, rest, swing, rest, until all 8 sets are done

C. SA KB Swings - 3 sets x 15 per side (60s rest between sets)

Notes

  • The ‘A’ series is my extended warm up. A bit of getup practice mixed in with lower body plyometrics to stay athletic. With the jump variations, the priority is always on the quality of my landing versus how high/far I can jump

  • The ‘B’ series is my main lower body volume work. I got this scheme from Mike Mahler’s KB size and strength program. I will be adding 1 rep each week until I hit the 10-12 rep range. At that point, I’ll move up in weight

  • The swings have the same function as the snatches from day 1. Just a quick 5 minute finisher to get in some swing/snatch volume while working my conditioning

Day 3 - Upper 

A1. Plyo Pushups - 3 sets x 5 reps

A2. Dragonflags - 3 sets x 5 reps 

B1. KB Clean and Press - 5 ladders x (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 reps)

B2. Ring Pullups - 5 ladders x (2, 2, 3, 4, 5 reps)
*Rest as needed

C1. DB Chest-Supported Rows - 3 sets x 10-15 reps

C2. Face Pulls - 3 sets x 15 reps (60s rest between supersets)

Notes

  • This is very similar to the first upper body day. As I said, the main focus right now is the press and pullups. This day is a higher volume day though. 5 ladders done this way totals 75 reps

  • I do the plyo pushups or something like ball slams to get some explosive work in for my upper body to stay athletic, just like the jumps I do on my lower body days

  • The ‘C’ series is just for some extra upper back / horizontal rowing work to keep the shoulders healthy

Day 4 - Lower

A1. Turkish Getup - 2 sets x 1 per side

A2. Lateral Bounds / Bounding Variations - 2 sets x 3-6 reps

B. DB Reverse Lunges - 3 sets x 6-8 reps (60-90s rest between sets)

C. BB Squat - 3 sets x 5+ reps (2-3 minutes rest between sets)

D. SA KB Swings - 5 sets x 6 per side (60s rest between sets)

Notes

  • Getups and bounds to warm up. I like the mix of slow and controlled paired up with something fast and explosive

  • Going pretty heavy on all of the movements on this day. Heavy lunges, heavy squats and heavy swings

  • For the squat, I rep out the last set and if I can do more than 7-8 reps, I will add weight next week. If I can’t, I’ll stay at the same weight

  • For the swings, I decided to go a bit heavier since I’m doing the higher rep work on the other days

That’s my current split right now. As you can see, the main focus is the press, pullups, squats and swings. Then I mix in a bunch of work for the mid-section and upper back. One of the biggest things I’ve learned over my lifting career is to keep the main focus the focus. It’s a common mistake to want to improve at all of the lifts at the same time but we only have so many resources (time and energy). 

As you may have noticed, I’m currently not doing any deadlifting or horizontal pressing but I am swinging, snatching and overhead pressing frequently. As I said above, my goal is to increase my KB Press strength. More specifically, my goal is to press the 40kg kettlebell. Of course I want to see everything else move up as well but I know what my main priority is right now. Keep the goal the goal. 

TrainingTheodore Limtraining, program, upper, lowerComment