Hard Core Home Gym Tour

If you don’t know who Jujimufu is, let me assure you that he is an entertaining character with a unique set of athletic skills.  Recently I stumbled upon his Hard Core Home Gym Series in which he visits the home gyms of 11 legendary strength athletes.

All of these athletes have been in the training space for a long time and have accomplished a lot athletically.  Most of them are also acknowledged as elite coaches.  The tour includes legends such as Donnie Thompson, Kyriakos the Greek Grizzly, Pat MacNamara, David “The Solar Athlete” Herrera, and Phase Six.  As such, each gym tour offers rare nuggets of knowledge and history. 

Each of the hosts has a different specialty and background, and yet, success leaves clues.  Touring their gyms you will find each one has some unique toys but you will also note some critical commonalities.  Every gym visited possesses a few key ingredients: a pull up station, adjustable barbell and plates, dumbbells, kettlebells and bands.  

So while every successful athlete may have a few fun bells and whistles uniquely their own, the basics remain unchanged.  The takeaway: for elite fitness, the basics are essential.  And they're not all that expensive.  Many of the gyms visited are equipped with old, second hand or home made versions of these common training implements.  You do not need to be rich to get elite fitness.

One other interesting commonality I noted was the fact that most mentioned the importance of training the transverse plane.  Something I will explore more in an upcoming blog post.

As Einstein said: “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

Friday Make Up Day

1) 7 sets:

Accumulate a 30-second L-sit hold

3 heavy deadlifts

Rest 2 minutes between sets.

2) 1,000-meter row

30 dumbbell thrusters

20 pull-ups

5 legless rope climbs to 15 feet

1,000-meter row

5 legless rope climbs to 15 feet

20 pull-ups

30 dumbbell thrusters

1,000-meter row

3) Make Up Day Special
Snatching from the Launch Point
Banded shoulder mobility

Barbell weightlifting warm up

Snatch deadlift, snatch pull and snatch from launch point

Snatch pull + Snatch from LP

1 pull + 1 LP @ 50% of snatch weight, 2 sets

1 pull + 1 LP @ 60% of snatch weight, 2 sets

Snatch from LP

4 snatches @ 60%, 2 sets

3 snatches @ 70%, 2 sets

2 snatches @ 80%, 2 sets

Accessory

Bent-over row 12 reps, 4 sets