Just add farmers walk and hill sprints?

As of right now I have been doing F1 and H1 since January 6th. So far, so good! I was humbled on most of the exercises... I had no idea my back mobility+endurance was so terrible (think ABH). Anyway, to my question!

I have been doing squats and dead lifts after my F1 work. It has gone well, but soon enough I will not have access to the gym that I weight lift in (it's a college gym). I enjoy adding in some leg and grip strength to my F1 work, because those are important to me as a guy who does physical labor for work. I also like being good at hill sprints, because being good at hill sprints makes everything I do easier (hike, soccer, run around, frisbee, etc).

So my idea was to add in farmer's walks for grip/total body strength and some hill sprints to F1+H1. I believe farmers carry would be a good replacement for dead lifts, while hill sprints would be good for conditioning and working the same muscles as squats.

Thoughts? Too much work? I think it would work if I ate enough+only did the above exercise 1-3 times a week.

Sounds reasonable to me, as long as your traps can take heavy walks and bounce back for upper body training

I'd heavily prioritise hill sprints over farmer's walks myself, but whatever suits you.

Kettlebell and sprints.

Hang from a bar with one or 2 hands. That'll build your grip. As for the total body workout that's what foundation is for. Definitely keep the hill sprints as well.

ausswe said:

Hang from a bar with one or 2 hands. That'll build your grip.

For even more fun, throw a towel over the bar and hang from that.

Over-Training is Over-Rated - get out there and Run!

hill sprints sound good, what scheme would you use? how many sets and reps, which distance? maybe i will try this too if i have time

Ah yes! One arm (sometimes towel) hangs. Those are effective...and hard. Perhaps I will do that until I convince myself farmer's handles are worth the price... but man, I love grabbing some heavy weight and seeing how far I can carry it!

Sounds like hill sprints are ago! I think I'll start doing them once it stays above 20 degrees up here...I'm not a huge fan of running when it's quite a bit below freezing.

William, I would probably start off with 4-5 sprints up a 70-80 meter hill (my rest would be walking back down). My plan would be to work up to 8-10 sprints and not be totally dead, then I would progress to a small mountain and run that for 3-5 reps. Maybe working up to 6-8 reps, but 100 meter hill mountain sprints are killer, haha. I would probably sprint twice a week, after my lower body foundation workout.

I would probably do my grip traning after the upperbody foundation workout. I have yet to decide on this, because I'm still getting plenty of grip work from my dead lifts.

Thanks for the reply, so you already have a plan, good to know
Looks like a good volume, but if you want to be better at sprinting and not just having more leg muscles, you should try to get to near to your maximum for every sprint with long rest (3-5mins) between the sprints, because its the same like plyometric train and there you have to rest long, too for maximum effect.

But for volume training it should be fine with your schedule.

I just have a small hill like 20-30m...but i think thats good enough for football, i m never sprinting more than 30m in a match i think.

We have steep (beach) sand dunes around here... absolutely killer, but can't deny the effectiveness

We have the rocky mountains, nice to sprint a little but I'd rather make my horse do all the work when we go up
Running down shale slides however.. very fun

Jon Douglas said:

We have steep (beach) sand dunes around here... absolutely killer, but can't deny the effectiveness

we run first weeks in snow, different to sand of course, but the feeling the next day should be the same

Thanks William! That's very true, I used long rest periods when I was running track in high school, it worked very well! For now I'm just going to use them for conditioning and a little speed work. Maybe once my conditioning improves (and I have more time) I'll work more on speed rather than conditioning.

Jon, that's sounds brutally awesome! I don't have any sand dunes nearby, but when the snow was fluffy, snow hill sprints were awesome! Sadly, it's all icy now which just cuts up my shins.

Bill Clarke said:

Thanks William! That's very true, I used long rest periods when I was running track in high school, it worked very well! For now I'm just going to use them for conditioning and a little speed work. Maybe once my conditioning improves (and I have more time) I'll work more on speed rather than conditioning.

OK, so you're informed quite well, hehe  

You're doing absolutely right, first add volume than comes the high intense stuff, your joints will thank you!

Comparable in powder, yep! Each stride buried up to the shin and sliding downwards. In years of sparring and rolling for hours, never felt my system crying quite so much as trying for ten sets of dry dune sprints

Of course in the snow you have to deal with wearing more and stiff shoes too; different sort of challenge there

Btw-

F2 SLS IM work is hamstring intensive. You will probably want to take a few weeks off hill sprints while you adjust to these

Yup! I love sprinting. My seinor year I helped coach my track team... After the team found out that I made 80% of the workouts, they weren't super happy with me.

Man, this is making me want to go sprint! That pain, it's strange how I love it!

Yeah, I was going to see how my hammies felt after beginning the more intense leg work. I am going to start SLS SE1 next week. Pretty excited for SE2 iM! Looks fun/painful! If my hammies are feeling it, I would probably cut volume in half, then slowly ramp up again.

What you could do instead is kettlebell swings for long reps

Builds the grip strength like carries and the leg power like hill sprints (this is assuming you're buying kettle bells for the grip work)

But honestly grip work is already part of Foundation

I somehow doubt that kettlebell swings would work as well for grip strength as either farmers walks or dead hangs. For my goals, kettlebell swings wouldn't work as well as sprints. Although the up side of kettlebell swings is that I can do them inside! Also, I don't think buying kettlebells is worth it because they are set weights, so the only way to progress would be to add more weight or less rest, unless I bought more.

Hm, maybe a little bit. RC PE6 looks like a good grip challenge (I'm on RC PE3), but besides that I don't think there is much grip work for awhile.

Bill Clarke said:

I somehow doubt that kettlebell swings would work as well for grip strength as either farmers walks or dead hangs. For my goals, kettlebell swings wouldn't work as well as sprints. Although the up side of kettlebell swings is that I can do them inside! Also, I don't think buying kettlebells is worth it because they are set weights, so the only way to progress would be to add more weight or less rest, unless I bought more.

Hm, maybe a little bit. RC PE6 looks like a good grip challenge (I'm on RC PE3), but besides that I don't think there is much grip work for awhile.

Kettlebells are wicked good for grip endurance, perhaps not so much for max strength. I dare you to try 30 consecutive snatches @ 32 kgs using the same hand to see for yourself  .

The question is, when do you need your gripping strength? It should be built up slowly to avoid golfer's elbow, and, in any case, F4 will give you grip work to your heart's content. 

I'm following SFGs Simple and Sinister program with kettlebell. Right now I'm at 32 kg kettlebe ll. Very fast and fun workout. Ideal addition to F1 and H1 Training. You can train with kettlebells but you need to know what you're doing. I feel that they improved my Power production a lot, sprints and even long distance running are easier for me.I Just love to Play with something heavy sometimes

Mm, i enjoyed my time with kbs, but I don't think anything will build quite the same leg power as hill sprints-- maybe sled work.

Re grip, the later RC progressions do get quite grip intensive.

You could always simulate the upper body aspect of farmers walks with ring inverted hangs for time...

Jon Douglas said:

We have steep (beach) sand dunes around here... absolutely killer, but can't deny the effectiveness

I used to think you were hardcore, but now I realise you're just freaking crazy.

You do them barefoot, obviously?

In fact for leg Drive I would recommend one of Dan John's crazy workouts - Litwinov sprints:

8 reps of Front Squats, drop the bar

sprint for about 40-60 meters

4-6 sets and done

Easy? Nope, brutal but effective. You can add Hill sprints instead. Only if you love to suffer ;D

I somehow doubt that kettlebell swings would work as well for grip strength

You will be surprised how much brute grip strength Kettlebell Swings require. Just try 48 kg Hard style one arm swings . If you have never swung before you probably will have problems holding it even for 10 reps in a row unless you are a mutant