INTENSIFICATION VS ACCUMULATION.
As a reminder, we have 2 central training themes that we rotate between in during our strength block programming:
(1) Intensification: Power, Strength, Speed and Explosiveness
(2) Accumulation: Volume, Body Composition and Work Capacity (Endurance)
You get both strength and conditioning in both training themes. But we design our training this way because it's more sustainable and smarter.

GREYSKULL LP.
The theme of December's strength block is Greyskull LP (GSLP). This program is famous for its effectiveness at building strength and size rapidly. But what exactly makes it one of the best beginner weight lifting / power lifting programs? The answer lies in the name: "LP" aka LINEAR PERIODIZATION.


WHAT IS LINEAR PERIODIZATION?
Periodization actually comes in two distinct flavors: Linear periodization and Non-Linear periodization. Linear periodization prefers to a progression scheme in which you're progressing from week to week simply by adjusting training variables, which include load, volume, relative intensity, perceived intensity (RPE), and a host of others, to achieve the desired effect.


HISTORY OF GREYSKULL LP.
Developed by John Sheaffer, who also goes by the name Johnny Pain, Greyskull LP is considered one of the best linear progression programs available. It has several unique factors that make it stand out among alternatives like Starting Strength and StrongLifts 5x5, which we have used during previous Strength Blocks.
Greyskull LP was formed after Sheaffer completed Starting Strength and found himself quite dissatisfied with the results. His complaints were not unique, as many feel Starting Strength does not do "enough" towards muscle growth and hypertrophy and leaves too much progress on the table.


HOW DOES GREYSKULL LP WORK?
The base for the plan is actually pretty simple. Squats are performed twice per week, Trap Bar Deadlifts one time per week. Bench Press and Overhead Press are alternated. Chin-Ups and Barbell Rows are alternated too.

This provides the foundation for muscle and strength growth to be developed. A core tenant of the program, which each workout more weight NEEDS to be added. Here are the weight increase increments:
 Bench Press and Overhead Press - 2.5 pounds
Squats and Deadlifts - 5 pounds


DAY A:
Overhead Press / Bench Press (Alternating)
2x5, 1x5 + AMRAP
Chin-ups / Barbell Bentover Rows (Alternating)
2x5, 1x5 + 
Barbell Back Squats
2x5, 1x5 + 


Day B:
Overhead Press / Bench Press (Alternating)
2x5, 1x5 + AMRAP
Chin-ups / Barbell Bentover Rows (Alternating)
2x5, 1x5 + 
Trap Bar Deadlifts
2x5, 1x5 + 


Day C:
Overhead Press / Bench Press (Alternating)
2x5, 1x5 + AMRAP
Chin-ups / Barbell Bentover Rows (Alternating)
2x5, 1x5 + 
Barbell Back Squats
2x5, 1x5 + 


Rules:
Last set is As Many Reps As Possible (AMRAP).
Progress with 2.5lbs for upper body exercises, 5lbs for lower body exercises.
If final AMRAP set hits 18+ reps, double weight increase 2.5lbs to 5lbs, 5lbs to 10lbs.
If you cannot perform a proper chin-up, do not use band assistance. Perform negative reps.
If you fail to make 5 reps in the final set, deload by 10%.


ACCESSORY WORK?
Although it is not necessary to do to see results with this Strength Block. We will be incorporating accessories to accelerate progress towards any number of different goals. While this sounds complicated, there are simply additional accessory movements and other types of training added on top, aka Conditioning and Arm Farm.
We will be incorporating 2-3 accessory exercises per workout.

Training at home? We're going to make sure your ass is kicked on a daily basis. All you'll need is a kettlebell and consistency.

Perhaps the most well-known kettlebell program for general strength and conditioning, this program was presented by Pavel in his book by the same name, "Simple & Sinister." This program alone has taken many self-proclaimed zeroes to hero status.

"There are only two moving parts, the swing and the get-up. No her exercises offer as many all-around benefits in such a tight package."

1. Proficient in the Hard Style 1-Arm KB Swing
2. Proficient in the Hard Style KB Turkish Get-Up

The first week of this strength block will be focusing on technique and ensuring that all participants are proficient at these two necessary movements.

SIMPLE

• 16kg Get-Ups and 24kg Swings for Women
• 32kg Get-Ups and Swings for Men

SINISTER

• 24kg Get-Ups and 32kg Swings for Women
• 48kg Get-Ups and Swings for Men

These numbers should be seen as goals to work towards; not standards of your fitness proficiency.

This program will make you feel uncomfortable; it does not feel good and it's certainly not easy. What's harder than completing the program is sticking to it consistently.

THAT IS WHAT OUR GYM IS ALL ABOUT - CONSISTENCY.

Here's how it works:

• 10 swings left; 1 snatch left (to get the bell overhead); 1 reverse get-up left (start from standing, descend to the floor, return to standing); reverse snatch the bell into a swing to switch hands
• 10 swings right; 1 snatch right; 1 reverse get-up right; reverse snatch the bell into a swing to switch hands
• Repeat for 5 total rounds

The ultimate goal is to do all five rounds without the bell leaving your hands with as heavy a bell as possible, and as quickly as possible. But, almost in the words of David Whitley, “I don’t care how many times you can do something crappy.” We expect technical proficiency with each repetition.

Don’t train until you get it right—train so you can never get it wrong.

In the world of sports and athletics, being able to pay attention to detail and be technically proficient is cake. Being technically proficient and paying attention to details when you are tanked is where the line of separation between average and impressive lies.

We have a connection for kettlebells that is selling them for a reasonable price of $2.50/lb.
Please reach out if you need a kettlebell - they are mandatory for this strength block.

Here we are again: a full month of incredibly high volumes to shred fat. This block promises to deliver some spice.

We're entering an accumulation block. What does that mean?
The goal of an Accumulation block is to use as much total energy in a session as possible. This maximal energy expenditure increases muscle tissue and fitness levels while decreasing body fat.

You might be wondering what "maximum energy expenditure" means or what it's going to feel like It means these training sessions are going to be really fucking hard. No exaggeration.

Accumulation Blocks are broken up into two major themes:
1. Hypertrophy
2. Muscular Endurance / Work Capacity

These themes depend on factors like: time-under-tension per set, density, and work done in a session.

• Time-under-tension (TUT) refers to the time spent contracting under load per set.
• Density refers to the amount of volume in a given period of time or workout. Training density = amount of sets x amount of reps completed

For this accumulation block, we will be utilizing both but focusing more on density.
There are two methods for increasing density:

1. Increase the amount of work in the same time frame.
2. Keep your workload the same while decreasing your work time.

We're going to be increasing our training density by increasing the amount of work completed in the same time frame utilizing Escalating Density Training.

Escalating Density Training (EDT) is a training protocol developed by Charles Staley in the early 2000s. While most people tend to look at load (weight) and volume (sets x reps), EDT manipulates density.

To be specific, the goal of EDT is to complete more sets in the same amount of time; each successive workout, you aim to achieve more work in the same period of time.

How are the workouts going to be set up?
Each workout will consist of three series of exercises.

• Series A: Main, Compound Movements (15-Minute Time Frame)
  • Low Incline Bench Press, Heels Elevated Back Squat and Trap Bar Deadlift
• Series B: Accessories with Time-Under-Tension components
• Series C: Core Work / Finisher

For the A series of our main, compound movements. We'll put a prescribed weight on the bar. That weight stays the same for the next 4-weeks.

Week 1, the weight should be challenging enough to get around 10 sets in 15 minutes. After that, it's all about getting as many sets as possible in 15 minutes while maintaining quality of movement. 

When we say quality, we mean maintaining great position, technique and range of motion. More work in the same time. Rather than the same work in less time. This is an improvement in overall work rate, you will become more efficient.

Each week, you should aim to increase the number of sets performed within the designated 15-minute duration.

ACCUMULATION VS INTENSIFICATION
​As a reminder, we rotate our strength blocks between two central themes:

1. Accumulation: volume, body composition and work capacity
2. Intensification: strength, speed, power and explosiveness

You get both strength and conditioning in both training themes. But we design our training this way because it's more sustainable, smarter and has a better ROI.

We're finishing an accumulation block where the theme was the 6-12 method, where the primary focus to effectively build endurance and improve our work capacities. The improvements will be seen in the next strength block immediately.

For October 2020, we are shifting gears and heading into an intensification block. It will take us 4 weeks to go through this strength block cycle with a very straightforward linear progression model.

​Let's breakdown what that really means:

• According to the most recent State of New Jersey guidelines, we are not classified as a health club, but we're in the same category as yoga, pilates, and martial art studios.
• This means we can officially reopen at 25% capacity - which is zero problem given the size of our facility.
• We've been open for Individualized 1-on-1 Private Personal Training but we are pleased to inform you that we'll be kicking off in-person Semi-Private Personal Training starting next Monday, August 10th.
• In about a day, you'll see our new schedule on the MindBody app, which we'll update as needed to ensure you have a good experience coming back to workout.
• The State of New Jersey REQUIRES that masks be worn at the facility. If you're concerned about wearing a mask, we have breathable face coverings for you designed to be worn during workouts and are a lot more comfortable than standard masks.

To see what we're doing to keep you safe one you return to working out in person, check out our safety plan right here.

Below are a few cluster set/rep schemes we may program for you depending on your individual fitness goals.

Before we move onto that, it's important to note that you can utilize cluster training on most exercises, but seeing as we're looking for mostly strength and muscular gains, it makes sense that the best exercises to use are the bigger compound, barbell exercises,

Okay, let's look at some ways to set up your cluster training. The first thing you'll notice is that the sets/rep schemes for clusters are written in a weird way. Don't freak out, they're quite easy to interpret.

POWER FOCUSED CLUSTER: 5(4x2) - 10 sec w/ 5RM
In this set up, you'll do 5 total cluster (the first number), and each cluster is going to consist of 4 mini sets of 2 reps (the bracketed numbers). You're going to rest 10 seconds in between each mini set, and you're going to use around your 5RM load.

HYPERTROPHY FOCUSED CLUSTER: 5(3x3) - 15 sec w/ 6RM
Again, this follows in the process as the example above, except that in this set up you're going to do 3 mini sets consisting of 3 reps, with a 6RM. This will allow you to do 9 total reps with a 6RM, and skew the training effect more towards gaining muscular mass aka hypertrophy.

"THE SPICY CLUSTER"
3-4 sets of AMRAP until you hit 15 total reps - 30s w/ 85% of 1RM
In this example you're going to find a weight that's around 85% of your 1RM, and you're going to do as many reps as possible (without going to complete failure) before racking the bar and resting for 30 seconds. After the short rest you're going to again try and get as many reps as you can, before re-racking the bar and resting for another 30 seconds. Continue in this fashion until you hit a total of 15 reps. Repeat for 3-4 total clusters. Typically you should hit anywhere from 5-8 reps in your first mini set, and then have the reps slowly decrease for each subsequent mini set.

With this data, we can formulate strategies to bang out more out of our training if:

• We know our results are the aggregate of how much total weight we can lift in a period of time.
• We know there is a specific amount of weight we can hit per specified number of reps.
• We have a pretty good guideline to go off of on how much volume we can handle in a training session.​

​
Cluster Training allows us to push past fatigue.
Fatigue is the limiting factor when trying to hit and complete more reps. This is the basic premise as to why we cannot go on forever at a specific intensity. That fatigue could come from central nervous system (CNS) fatigue or from muscular system fatigue. Either way, we are going to have to stop at a certain point no matter how much we want to keep going, which is frustrating.
​
If we have 3 reps, adding more rest between reps is how we can squeeze 91% when normally we can only handle 90% for 3 sets of 3 reps.

Let's talk about Relative Intensity and see how it relates:

New Strength Block starts Monday, June 29th

New Weekly Training Schedule
Monday: Performance / Conditioning
Tuesday: Strength A
Wednesday: Performance/ Refine
Thursday: Strength B
Friday: Strength C
Saturday: Strength B Make-up
Sunday: Strength C Make-up

Welcome to our third #KSPHomeBody virtual strength block. As they say, "the third time's the charm."

Trust us, we've been paying attention to how compliant everyone has been with our virtual workouts and we're ready to make some positive adjustments to add a little more excitement. We want to be able to provide you with greater variation in what can be an otherwise monotonous quarantine experience.

That being said, progression is a key element of all of our programming at King Strength and Performance. Although we can't "go up in weight" necessarily because of at-home equipment limitations, we can still drive up progression in different ways...

Escalating Density Training (EDT) is really f*cking hard. Here's the scientific reason why...
The burning of energy through the storage forms of carbohydrates (glycogen and glucose), fat (adipose and fatty acids) and potentially proteins (amino acids) lead to an acidic environment, or an accumulation of hydrogen at the local level. This acidity corresponds with increases in anabolism (building proteins) post-training through natural levels of growth hormone and testosterone.

The most important takeaways you need for the next 4-weeks of this strength block:

With such demanding training, our progress is exclusively determined by how well we recover from week to week. Rest and recovery are absolutely necessary.

You will not get progress in this block without the appropriate rest and regeneration. We don't advise you perform any two-a-days during this strength block because over-training will hinder your results.

Recovery is key. It's fundamental. It's essential. If you report excessively high RPEs and your workloads increase drastically - your countermeasures have to match it. If not, your progress will not occur resulting in either a plateau or possibly worse performance.

Sleep, nutrition, and regeneration are the keys to success in this strength block. They must be placed at the highest priority if you want to maximize the benefits of EDT.
​
Rest reduction increases fatigue and leads to technique and strength decay. Our goal is to make our clients and athletes better, not tired.​

* A note on why we track your progress *
​
Assessing your progress week to week will be one of the core principles of our programming going forward. It's going to be the primary tool we use to assess if the load was appropriate from week to week based off how you adapt.

The term for this systematic tracking of progress and loading of the bar is called Progressive Overload.
​
A large misconception is that progressive overload only means increasing intensity or load. But with progressive overload, you can increase the number of sets at a specific load, you can increase the repetitions at a specific load, or in this case - you can increase the training density at a specific load.