During the week I trained Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning due to an all-weekend event at the compound. John Rusin held his “Pain Free Performance Training System” seminar which I had the opportunity to attend. I put that in quotations not due to sassiness but because that’s what it is called.

His approach to training is based on optimal assessments, warm ups, and movement patterns. It is vastly different than a general powerlifting approach (and my approach since to me, optimal means shortest bar path ha). My approach to training is doing what I need to do to increase my main lifts, weak points, and occasionally rehab problematic body parts. His approach is based on assessing the body and its patterns and creating training and movement patterns that maximize longevity and quality of movement. Hot damn I feel like that sentence could sell a program.

One of the biggest takeaways for me was learning how to make the most out of my warm ups based on my needs. I have a pretty good warm up that I currently do but I learned how to get the most bang for my buck from them instead of just going through the motions.

I remember going to seminars and clinics when I first started training and working in gyms and at that point, most ideas were new and somewhat over my head so I didn't have the wherewithal to really assess the information being presented to me. The most I could do was just take it in and try to remember it. It’s nice now to be able to listen to ideas and roll them around in my head as they relate to or differ from my understanding of training. They aren’t just abstract words and concepts that I only partially understand the application of but methods that I can weigh the pros and cons of as they relate to my application of strength training. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

Training for the week

Ok I will be honest I didn’t write down what I did. I just put weight that feels like with the amount of reps I want to do, it will be difficult. If I write down any reps, sets, or weights, it is because I happen to remember it. I would be totally lying if I tried to write down my exact reps and weight for everything so if I omit them on anything you can just imagine me meticulously counting my plates and reps. I will keep better track from here on out. So I will do my darndest to give you an accurate representation.

 

Tuesday- belt squat 4x10, back attack 2 plates and a quarter (trying to hit my low back more than my hamstrings), reverse hyper, innie outtie machine (when I am doing adduction, I try to do the eccentric portion slowly), standing single leg hamstring curl, belt squat marching (1.5-2 min with 1.5 or 2 plates of whatever heavy plate denomination is on there), leg extensions, seated ab machine.

Thursday- Dumbbell presses on a slight incline 10-15 reps, machine shoulder press with 55 lbs on each side for 12-15 reps, low row, chest supported row machine, face pulls, tricep extensions, reverse curls.

Friday- Back attack, reverse hyper, glute ham raise (unweighted for higher reps), leg extensions, seated ab bench, belt marching, single leg standing hamstring curl.

Saturday- I was at the gym early to open it for the seminar so I trained while John and his crew were training. DB Press, cable tricep extensions, front and side DB raises, lat pull, T Bar row, face pulls, curls.

 

Dave decided to do some potentially dumb shit on Sunday after the seminar (spoiler alert it ended up being great) so I stuck around for a bit. I figured I might as well train while I was there so I did some heavy pit shark (and remembered why I don’t do it) and glute ham raises then I realized I had to go take my dog out and left and did my regular lower training on Tuesday.