Dan John is a legend in strength sport.  He has been coaching collegiate, Olympic and professional for nearly as long as I have been alive.  And not just coaching.  He has competed in throwing sports (discuss, shot put, hammer throw), Highland Games, Powerlifting, Weightlifting, Strongman, football, wrestling and many more sports.  Now in his 60’s, he still clean and jerks well over 300lbs.  What I’m trying to communicate is that when Dan John speaks, it is worth listening.  He knows more than a little bit about training strength and conditioning.

Currently I’m enjoying his audiobook, Never Let Go, a treasure trove of insights and lessons learned the hard way through decades of experience.  Dan John is not afraid to try new things like CrossFit or running a marathon or kettlebells or Original Strength (incidentally he is a big fan of the latter two and both feature prominently in his weekly training regime, something you might want to consider if you’ve been dodging the Original Strength resets because they look like they are for wussies and fera they won’t have athletic carryover).

In a week consisting of 5 training sessions, Dan John says he may have one amazing training day that leaves him believing he is on the road to setting a new world record.  In that same week he will typically also have a training session that leaves him feeling like his athletic days are far behind him and he ought to just hang it up and resign himself to slowly decomposing on his couch.  The other 3 workouts of the week will generally be middle of the road and forgettable.  This is not the plan, it is just how life and training goes.

The takeaway is that out of 100 training sessions only 20 will be great, 20 more will suck and the remaining 60 will be just putting in the work.  The weekly grind looks and feels nothing like a Rocky training montage.  There’s precious little glory and more than a little bit of humiliation.  But most of the time there’s no highlights worth noting.

Ratios may differ.  For example, I note a similar trend in my weekly training except only about 10% of my training days leave me feeling like a champ.  And for every workout of champions I enjoy there is inevitably a corresponding day of suck.  The other 80% of my training days are utterly unremarkable.  They are just the work put in.

That’s the journey.  For everyone.  At every level.  Every day can’t be the best day.  I already know this from experience, I’m sure you do too.  But sometimes it's reassuring to hear it from one of the greats.  Grind on!

Friday Make Up Day

1) Empower Reset #37
1 min Breathing
30/30 sec Head Nods/Rotations

6 mins:
20 Deadbugs
10 Shoulder Bridges
10 Windshield Wipers

4 mins:
10 Glute Raises
10 Table Raises
10 Egg Rolls

3 Rounds:
1 min Rocking Chairs
1 min Bird Dogs

3 Rounds:
1 min Backward Breakfalls
1 min Sit Throughs

3 Rounds:
1 min Sideways Breakfalls
1 min Leopard Crawls

3 Rounds:
1 min Get Ups
1 min Cross Crawl March

3 Rounds:
1 min Roll Ups
1 min Slow Pull Up/Pull Up Negative

2) 3 rounds for time of:
10 hang power cleans
1-minute hang from the pull-up bar
10 push jerks
1-minute handstand hold

3) Dirty 30 with Row

Complete as many reps as possible in 15 minutes of:
75/100-calorie row
30 box jumps
30 jumping pull-ups
30 kettlebell swings
30 lunges
30 knees-to-elbows
30 push presses
30 hip extensions
30 wall-ball shots
30 burpees
30 double-unders