We are now into Block 7 of our group Session program for 2024 and I thought I'd take a look at some of our current programming, namely our secondary lifts.
We of course have our staple lifts the Squat, Bench and Deadlift which we do every Monday, Wednesday & Friday respectively. These are the best bang for your buck movements that build muscle and get people super strong. That's why they are in locked in there for each block. But our secondary movements, movements that will help build up our weak spots or add much needed volume, allow us to have a bit more fun and variety within each block.
I like our secondary movements to mimic our big 3 patterns (Squat, Hinge, Push). For this block I've chosen the following three:
Hang Power Clean
Tempo Paused Bench Press
Front Squat
Let's start with Tempo Bench as it's very easy to see how it's going to help us get strong. This is performed identical to a normal bench press however we take 4 seconds to slowly lower the bar to our chest, pause for 1 second and then press. From a technical point of view slowing down the eccentric portion of the lift, with a lighter load, leads to more precision and control of the barbell during the descent allowing us to grease the groove and make each rep more replicable. Then we have both increased time under tension and eccentric load both mechanisms by which we can stimulate greater muscle building. It's a tough lift and after week 1 we had a few of the crew mention a good soreness through their pecs and triceps.
Our other two secondary lifts have a bit of a weightlifting flavour to them. It's the first time I've programmed Hang Power Cleans into our Monday session, we are using them as our secondary hinge movement which isn't typical, normally this would be more of a Deadlift movement. However the HPC will help train our explosive triple extension which we use a lot throughout our workouts with things like KB Swings, DB Snatches, MB Over Shoulders, Ground to Overheads etc. Most of our crew are relatively new to this one so we will make sure we are focusing on our positions, grooving the movement pattern and starting to develop the front rack.
Speaking of Front Rack. On Friday's after Deadlifts we have our Front Squats. The front squat is not only great to develop lower body strength but also strength through the upper back/thoracic region as we attempt to stay upright in the front rack and fight that bar as it wants to pull us forward. The carryover to Weightlifting is obvious but again it makes sense for our workouts that involve things like Wall Balls & Thrusters. A fair number of the crew will struggle with the front rack position so a bit of wrist, tricep and lat mobility will be needed. For those who are really struggling we also have the option to front rack dumbbells or nail some heavy KB Goblet Squats.
Ultimately, our secondary lifts breathe a bit of life into what can sometimes seem a mundane but very necessary menu of strength movements. It gives us a chance to further challenge ourselves, add strength where there was once weakness and progress forward.
Keen to give it a crack?
Below are our session times.
No need to book.
Group Session times:
M, W, F at 6am
Weeknights at 5:30pm
Thurs 5:30pm is Weightlifting only
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