Gen S&C 2 Questions (the first of many)

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey team,

Very excited to start up the new General Strength & Conditioning II template this week. I think it may finally the program needed for me to commit to improving my conditioning without feeling like I’m compromising strength and hypertrophy. I have a number of initial questions as I glance through it:

  1. Any reason I couldn’t switch it to Lower/Upper instead of Upper/Lower, or is this by design?
  2. Arms - do you think it’ll be too detrimental to increase the arm isolation volume up to ~8 sets per week? Could I add in calves, shoulder isolation too?
  3. Speed work - I understand that the concentric of speed reps should be maximum, but what about the eccentric/isometric phase of the lifts? Should I be aiming for a controlled lowering/slight pause/stretch reflex/fast eccentric, etc.?
  4. What conditioning-related outcomes do you think this template is appropriate for training towards? (Run a 5K?)

Thanks in advance.

2

Conor,

No problem at all if you swap the days around. I also don’t think the arm volume matters too much, just remember we’re doing a lot of pressing and rowing when considering total volume. I would. not add in additional isolation work without pressure testing yourself with the conditioning volume. The eccentric phase in high velocity work is normal, e.g. fast, but under volitional control to maintain positioning.

I programmed the conditioning to target a ~20- min effort, so a 5K would work fine IMO.

-Jordan

3

Is this the previously mentioned “Endurance II” template or is that still in the works?

4

Still in development. I’ve got a few people testing it right now and am waiting for some additional feedback before publishing it. It’s close!

5

For the accessory work, any major issues if we super-set these exercises OR… perform them (all?) on a different day altogether (e.g., like the GPP day(s) from the original S&C or BB II templates)?

6

What exercises are you talking about specifically and how are you planning on structuring it?

7

Was thinking about the following options:

  1. superset each pair of accessories on their respective days; seems reasonable given the kind of opposite nature of the exercises

  2. do all of the accessories from each of the 3 days on a 4th day (e.g., M/W/F main lifts; Saturday do all accessories); the one exercise that seems questionable here is the leg curl since all of the other exercises are stuff we’ve done on GPP days from other BBM programs.

As just a general question: what was the motivation behind the shift from 3 days of lifting and 1-2 days per week of GPP to this just 3 days a week style with GPP-style accessory work? Is it mostly a compliance/time issue to get people to do the actual conditioning work? I get that not everyone wants to lift 5-6 days per week, but for me personally, this was one of my favorites parts of BBM templates (having 3-4 days of hard lifting and 2 days of GPP), and I also like having slightly shorter sessions.

8

Next Q,

I was considering including some low volume copenhagens, curtsy squats, single leg RDLs, etc., for (p)rehab purposes of some foot and hip things I’ve been dealing with. Where would you suggest plugging these in, if at all? I’m doing the 3-day for now to help manage the new stresses.