No matter what I’m training for at a particular time I almost always end up averaging 4 strength-oriented workouts per week. These workouts can take various forms–some being solely strength workouts, some are strength plus conditioning, but most of these are what we might call ‘power building’ which is a combination of strength plus hypertrophy (muscle building) work.
As someone who has found myself in the endurance athlete world, my aerobic conditioning work has become so crucial to my athletic success that my cardio sessions are now standalone workouts.
Yet the 4 strength training workouts always remain… This is in part because a foundation of strength is crucial to even the furthest end of the endurance athlete spectrum.
My four strength training workouts revolve around a primary strength exercise. Though I’ll rigorously perform back work during every workout, squat twice per week, and perform an overhead exercise daily, the main exercises shift in 4-week cycles.
These main exercises are always predicated on a squat variation (which I’ll define as an exercise where the knee angle changes to a greater degree than the hip angle), a horizontal press (such as a bench or floor press), a hip hinge (where the hip changes more than the knee), and a vertical press (an overhead press).
In my last training cycle, none of the four primary exercises were anywhere near classic barbell lifts. If you belong to a halfway decent gym you should have access to the requisite equipment for these. They are nothing ground breaking but may help you get out of a rut on the classic squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press.
Here’s the lineup:
- Anderson Zercher Squat
- This is a combination of two specialty exercises.
- The anderson squat, where you start your squat from the bottom of the squat position and squat bottom-up.
- PLUS the zercher squat where the bar is held in the crook of the elbows.
- You might hate how this feels, but it’ll toughen you up and who doesn’t need to be a little tougher?
- Football Bar Floor Press
- Normal floor press but with a football bar.
- If your gym doesn’t have one, either get one or find a better gym.
- Banded Low Handle Trap Bar Deadlift
- For our banded trap bar work, we wrap the band around the ends of the trap bar and stand on the band as we lift.
- The trap bar tends to be a better choice for athletes because there’s less bar deceleration during the movement.
- Trap Bar Z Press
- The Trap Bar actually makes for a good overhead pressing implement, the only problem is its high barrier to entry because of its advanced weight, particularly in this exercise where the loads are typically lighter than a normal overhead press.
If you’ve been spinning your tires in the sand lately with your training, these might be exercises worth trying. A good strategy is implementing these as accessory lifts to acclimate yourself to their particular pattern prior to loading them up as ‘A1’ exercises in your programming.
Best of luck.
