Pivot Blocks

I am wrapping up the 3-day Hypertrophy template next week and was considering inserting a 1-2 week pivot block into my training before moving on to the HLM template in order to re-sensitize my body to the main lifts. However, I am unsure on how to go about setting up a pivot block up other than to throw in a bunch of novel exercises that I don’t typically do. In general, how do you guys setup your pivot blocks? What are typical set/rep schemes you use?

I am also struggling a bit to come up with some good variations to use for some of the lifts. Competition squat is an easy one - I’ll just do some high bar squats. For bench I was thinking of maybe some tempo work, but what in the world do I substitute for the Press? Deadlift I could do some sumo pulls or maybe some banded work?

So maybe something like this?

Day 1 - High-bar Squats, Pin Press?, Pendlay Rows
Day 2 - Tempo Bench, RDL, Dumbbell Press
Day 3 - Deadlift w/ bands, Pin Bench, 2-count Paused High-bar Squats

I workout at home, so I don’t have access to anything too crazy. No leg press, GHD, Reverse Hyper, Camber bar, etc.

That could work, DMfreeman.

Some variations:

Press:
DB press
Pin press (shoulder)
Pin press (above head)
behind the neck press
wide grip press
Push press
Incline bench (any grip)
Paused press
Press + bands or chains
swiss bar press
log press
seated press

Bench:
DB bench
incline
tempo bench
feet up bench
paused bench
bench + bands, chains
swiss bar bench
close grip
wide grip
board or towel bench
slingshot

Squat:
high bar
low bar
front squat
wide stance
narrow stance
split squat
bulgarian split squat
belt squat
box squat
tempo work
paused work

DL:
rdl
sldl
tempo and paused variants of the above
sumo DL
deficit DL
paused DL
clean grip
snatch grip

3 Likes