Warm-up - 4 rounds of:
200m jog (1/2 speed)
1 min sit squat hip mobility
4 rounds of:
10 power squat cleans (med)
burnout set of squats
90 s rest
Daily Extras -
800 m run
400 m run (x2)
rest :60 s between each run.
Workout Notes:
A 10 r set of PSCs is high rep stuff. Err on the side of too light with these.
We are using medium resistance for weight today. When considering the weight you will use, be sure to take into account the high fatigue factor of those burnouts and the relatively low rest times.
Each rep is touch and go. Dropping between reps negates the purpose and some of the benefits.
That said, never wrestle a PSC. If you jump it to the catch only to discover you are out of position - bail! Live to PSC another day. Wrestling with any high momentum move can injure.
The point of this burnout squat is to fully fatigue the legs. If done right, burnouts can help to more fully develop the muscles of the squat (Yes, I meant squat. It would be an incomplete statement to say squats develop legs.). It can also improve your strength, stamina and balance. Result = LOOKS GOOD ON + more go!
To get the most out of these squats - slow down & form up. Look for ways to fatigue your muscles faster. Going deeper into the squat and eliminating little rest cheats will help. You may also consider holding in the bottom of the squat for 1-2 sec per rep.
If you are doing more than 30 r per burnout - reconsider your form. Ask a trainer to help. If you are off-site, publish video to FB page. We can have a look from there and give you some feedback.
Ash (below) was one of the first people I talked into do the GPP Stage IV shaping bias protocol this year.
Doing the shaping bias is tricky proposition. Most of us have reservations about how this stuff will look ON.
Rightfully so.
The Shaping Bias mimics bodybuilding to some degree. To be frank, bodybuilding is sketchy. The bodybuilding mentality is mostly unhealthy (read: messed up) and body building results aren't ideal for most of us. It is our experience, in most cases, that bodybuilding just doesn't live up to any of our expectations - for 3 primary reasons:
- It looks funny ON
- Wastes a lot of time
- Isn't functional
Of course the GPP Shaping Bias protocol it isn't BB. It's more refined. It's more specific to our needs. It's an additional protocol which we developed for enhancing the shape of your muscles while keeping the healthy aesthetics and multiple benefits of GPP. It uses BB techniques, but is very different.
How is it different? Instead of making you HUGE, or "thick," it more nicely shapes and hardens the muscle bellies. Instead of wasting your time with 2 hour + workouts, it adds only about 5-15 extra minutes to your day (4x/wk) for a few months. Instead of leaving you with mostly non-functional, unnaturally skewed aesthetics, the Shaping Bias is used ON TOP of your GPP creating fully balanced and functional lifestyle enhancement.
Right now is the best time to do the Shaping Bias. This time of year, your body naturally wants to add muscle density to stoke metabolism. Probably has something to do with keeping you warmer. Careful now, it also wants to add fat (to keep you warmer). Coincidentally, adding muscle density helps to prevent additional adiposity (couldn't help myself there - I love alliteration).
The cool thing is, once March comes around, GPP will shift gears and go back to our summer protocol. This will help skin us down and harden us up. This, on top of the Shaping Protocol you've been doing all winter looks good, man. Real good. Want an example?
Ash did about 6 weeks of the protocol. She punched out last week and switched over to slimming mode (displaying some amazing discipline). The results speak for themselves. Just astonishing abs! This is a mother of 2 ya'll. Note the shoulders. Note the arms.
Admittedly, Ashley has always been in incredible shape. It's not like she needed to change anything about her fitness, or appearance. But there is health in changing your body. No matter where you are in the spectrum of things, accomplishing goals of the physical has transfer. IOW the skills and abilities we learn while improving our fitness can be applied to ALL other aspects of our health (mental, emotional, spiritual, social, financial).
For those of you looking to do the GPP Shaping Bias, I'm working out how to put it out there in a succinct and efficient way. I wrote it up a couple of months ago. No good. It was gobledygook. Looks like we'll have to figure out how to do a video. Look for it by the end of this week. For those of us doing it now - Ash has proven, good things are ahead of us!
Shazam!