Meet your trainer
Simon Ata (aka Simonster) is a world leader in bodyweight training. Starting gymnastics at an early age, he became passionate about mastering control of the body and immersed himself in the world of bodyweight strength training. Attaining a Bachelor of Physiotherapy degree alongside personal training qualifications, furthered his understanding of the body from an academic side and accelerated his training methods and skill.
About the program
This four-week program is to build back strength. If you’ve just finished the beginner back program, we’ll be utilising more challenging exercise variations in this program. We’ll only be using bands for the lever, all other pulling exercises will be performed unassisted.
Getting the most out of each workout
We need to continue applying all the principles we learned in the beginner back strength program. For those that missed it, this involves moving through a full range of motion (ROM) because strength is joint-angle specific and developing ‘packed shoulders’ through scapula control. Don’t worry too much about lowering tempo for now – that was just to help get a solid understanding of the technique. It will be hard enough to perform some of the exercises in this program as is.
In this program, we’ll be introducing slightly more advanced principles. There will be the idea of MVC (maximal voluntary contraction) to get the most out of every single repetition, the Valsalva Manuevre which is a breathing technique that strength athletes use and learning how to increase force production by performing the concentric part of repetitions quicker.
Intention.
You should now understand that strength development is more about increasing the intensity, rather than exercise variety. Much like the beginner strength program, we will continue to use a handful of exercises throughout the entire program, and make them more challenging each week. The above principle will also influence the movement intent; that is, we want to exhaust the maximal potential out of every single repetition.
Weekly overview
| Overload | |
| Workout One 1a. Chin-up 1b. Single leg hip bridge 2a. Tuck front lever 2b. Bulgarian split squats 3a. Feet elevated row 3b. Hollow body hold 4a. ISO pull-up hold 4b. Dips | +1rep +2reps — +1rep +1rep +5secs Max 5 |
| Workout Two 1a. Tuck front lever hold 1b. Single leg deadlift 2a. Pull-ups 2b. Squat jumps 3a. Advanced front tuck negatives 3b. Single leg hip bridge 4a. Feet elevated row 4b. Push-ups | Max — +1 — — +2reps +1rep +2reps |
| Workout Three 1a. Tuck front lever rows 1b. Single leg hip bridge 2a. Chin-up 2b. Squat jumps 3. Advanced tuck front lever negatives 4a. Feet elevated row 4b. Dips 5a. ISO chin-up hold 5b. Hollow body hold | +1rep +2reps +1rep — — +1rep +1rep +5secs +5secs |
Back exercises in this program
Rows (horizontal pulling)
Chins (vertical pulling)
Lever (straight-arm pulling)
Getting feedback
If you have any questions about the programming or exercises used in the program, please post them in the questions selection below and it will be answered within 24hours.
START WORKOUT ONE
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