Workout Overview / Instructions
The season is over, you’ve taken some time off now its time to get back to work! The Fundamental Strength program is workout reboot — your body has recovered from the demands of a long and cardio-heavy season, its time to reset and rebuild the foundational strength you will need to prepare for the next season.
The Fundamental Strength program is a 6-week, 4-day plan, broken into splits of upper body and lower body with unique emphasis each day. For example, Lower Body 1 focuses on single-leg strength to naturally maintain balance and control as you rebuild. This format allows for proper recovery each day as you work the other half.
Active recovery is essential. This is a high intensity, circuit-based workout so incorporating two recovery days is crucial to your overall recovery for the week.
How the workout is structured:
- Circuits: All of the workouts will consist of a series of exercises in which you will perform one exercise after the other with little to no rest. The purpose of this is to elevate your heart rate to increase the caloric burn. The overall goal is to move through the circuit or circuits as quickly as possible with excellent form. Make sure to rest between circuits, 60-90 secs should be adequate.
- Slow eccentrics: Some of the exercises will be labeled “Eccentric”. Eccentrics are a focus on the lowering or returning of the weight. When you lower a curl down, that’s the eccentric. When you curl the weight up, that’s the concentric. Slow eccentrics increase the intensity of an exercise by recruiting more muscle fibers.
- Weight selection: Choose a weight that is challenging, but not so heavy as to prevent you from completing each circuit and maintaining a steady movement tempo.
- Journal: Keep track of your load, reps and rest each week and try to increase load and reps, every other week. You can download and print the Fundamental Strength Workout Journal
A few other notes to help you along the way:
- All Strength exercises should be 5 sets, 5 reps with 2 minutes rest between exercises. Do not increase reps or sets, only load.
- All Circuit exercises should begin with 3-4 sets, 10-12 reps. Use the Journal to monitor your progress, increasing load, reps and/or sets as you become stronger. You can also reduce your rest times to increase cardio.
- If you see an exercise with a “/”, for example, “Pull-Up/Chin-Up”, alternate that exercise each week.
- DB = Dumbbell, BB = Barbell, RDL = Romanian Dead Lift
- RPE = Rate of Perceived Exertion. For reference sake, a “1” would be stationary and a “10” would be all out.
Download Workout Journal
