From being an intern to having a long-lasting career, these success stories haven’t happened only once at Runtastic.
In the tech industry, senior talent is always in high demand. While this is true at Runtastic, we also nurture and support people who are starting their careers by offering internships that allow them to gain valuable professional experience.
We know that the junior employee of today could become the senior employee of tomorrow. For this reason, all of our internships are designed to be as hands-on as possible. At Runtastic, we believe that learning comes from action and that it is imperative to embrace mistakes made along the way—this is why learning from failure is also one of our values.
Bianca, one of our Talent Scouts, started her Runtastic journey as an intern and shares her personal experience that led her to become a permanent member of the team.
Bianca, Talent Scout
“I started my journey at Runtastic as an intern. While looking for jobs after finishing my master’s degree, I stumbled upon a job ad for Runtastic. Unfortunately, I learned shortly before my second interview that the position got filled, and I was asked if I would also be interested in an internship.
Honestly, I was not so excited at first as I wanted a permanent position, and I had already done several internships throughout my studies. However, I had such a great candidate experience. I could really see myself working with the people I met, and I felt that the culture of Runtastic would fit perfectly with my personality and interests/values.
So, I decided to join the company for a 4-month internship in their Talent Acquisition team. I was super excited and motivated as it was the first time for me to work in an international work environment and also because I wanted to show my potential for a permanent position.
During the internship, I was regularly talking to my team lead about the possibility of joining Runtastic permanently, however, there was no open position until one of our team members decided to pursue another opportunity. Because of that, there was finally the chance for me to stay.
When my team lead asked me if I’d be interested in taking over this position, I was so overwhelmed by joy and relief as I didn’t want to work anywhere else, so that was really like a dream come true for me.
I am working at Runtastic as a permanent team member for more than a year now and I am still super happy to be part of the team. Doing the internship and going the extra mile was definitely worth it!”
Bianca is not the only intern whose experience led her to be a valued member of our team. Here are three more former Runtastic interns whose journeys not only led them to have long-standing careers with us but also allowed for supportive collaboration with teammates along the way.
Ivana, iOS Engineer
“When I just joined Runtastic as an intern, I got a buddy, who is the person that is a mentor for the intern. He explained to me all the processes and ways of working in the company. There was a lot of new information to catch up on, but it was quite easy as we have great colleagues who are always ready to help if needed.
I was using the apps personally even before joining, and that was already a good motivation for me to want to stay as a full-time employee. Even though I knew that internship does not promise a full-time position, after some months at Runtastic, I hoped to stay on, and thankfully as someone left I got the opportunity. The uncertainty was stressful but worth it.
The best thing for me was the team and the company culture in general. Of course, it helps when you work in a field you’re interested in but having great people around you creates a perfect work environment.”
Tatiana, Social Media Manager
“When I applied for an internship, the role I was interested in was not available, so I wanted to be added to the talent pool. It took a couple of months, but eventually, a position suitable for me was opened and I was able to join the Social Media Team. As I studied in a completely different field, I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to switch to another, more interesting area. During my 4-month internship, I deepened my existing knowledge and learned a lot of new things. My team was extremely supportive and open to answering any questions, so, naturally, when the option to continue full-time came up, I had to say yes! Thanks to the internship I went from someone with no education or experience in the field to a trusted Social Media Manager of global channels on various platforms, with plenty of opportunities and freedom to explore new ideas and trends.”
Raphael, Backend Engineer
“I did my studies-related internship as a backend engineer with Runtastic in February 2021. One aspect that I really enjoyed about it is that I never felt like an intern at all. From day one onwards, my mentor treated me like a full-fledged developer and assigned both exciting and challenging tasks to me.
After finishing my bachelor’s degree, there was an open position and I have now returned as a full-time employee! As I have been through the process before, I could pretty much pick up with my work where I left off.”
Join the team!
Ready to learn and grow? Check out our job openings where you might find a perfect match. , Or if you don’t see the right opportunity for you there, apply to our Talent Community as Tatiana did.
Let us know in your Motivational Letter why Runtastic is the perfect place for you to gain hands-on professional experience and why you love what you are doing. To find out more information regarding our hiring and application process and how to prepare for an interview with us, visit our career page.
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The powerlifting sphere would do well to pay attention to Shahram Saki any time he steps into a squat rack. His latest strength feat demonstrating his leg power is one of the athlete’s best yet.
On August 21, 2022, the Iranian athlete shared Instagram footage of himself capturing a raw 460-kilogram (1,014.3-pound) back squat during a training session to notch a new personal record (PR). Saki utilized lifting straps, wore a lifting belt, and had knee sleeves on while capturing the squat figure.
According to Open Powerlifting, if Saki were to transfer this raw squat to an official competition, it would be the third-heaviest all-time, surpassing Craig Foster (457.5 kilograms/1,008.6 pounds). Only Jezza Uepa (470 kilograms/1,036.1 pounds) and Ray Williams (489.9 kilograms/1,080.2 pounds) would have higher official raw squats.
460 kilograms raw, I was born to break equations.
Saki’s new raw squat figure is 20 kilograms (44 pounds) more than his raw all-time competition best. The competitor squatted an Asian powerlifting record 440 kilograms (970 pounds) at the 2022 Iran Bodybuilding Federation (IranBBF) National Classic Powerlifting & Bench Press Championships in mid-April. That same contest saw Saki eventually score a 1,025-kilogram (2,259.7-pound) total — the highest in Asian powerlifting history.
As impressive as Saki’s raw squat is, it doesn’t seem related to any upcoming competitions. At the time of this writing, Saki hasn’t given any indication of when he’ll appear on a sanctioned lifting platform next.
That said, the powerlifter usually makes a habit of showing off his progress and achievements with regular updates over his Instagram profile. Of late, Saki appears to have centered on improving his squat especially. Recent noteworthy sessions include a 430-kilogram (947.8-pound) raw squat double from mid-August and a 470-kilogram (1,036.1-pound) squat raw with wraps from earlier in the month.
Among a litany of accomplishments, Saki captured a 510-kilogram (1,124.36-pound) squat raw with wraps in an early May 2022 workout. While some might have found the depth of Saki’s squat questionable because he didn’t necessarily reach the powerlifting competitive standard of below parallel — that achievement was five kilograms (11 pounds) more than Daniel Bell’s current all-time raw with wraps record.
At the rapid pace Saki continues to make with his back squat and overall leg strength, he may make that record official whenever he competes again.
On August 21, 2022, over Instagram, powerlifter Amanda Lawrence shared footage of herself working through a raw paused deadlifttraining session. At the end of the routine, after completing pulls of 235, 240, and 245 kilograms (518, 529, and 540 pounds), the American athlete captured a 250-kilogram (551-pound) paused deadlift fora new personal record (PR).
Lawrence’s paused deadlift PR is just 10.5 kilograms (23.3 pounds) off her all-time best with a traditional raw deadlift. The competitor used a sumo stance with a mixed grip and donned a lifting belt for her paused deadlift strength workout.
Lawrence’s paused deadlift training and PR aren’t connected to any upcoming contest. Per the caption of her Instagram post, the powerlifter is smack dab in the middle of her off-season as she prepares for her next slate of competitions.
In that respect, 2022 has been a productive year for the world-class powerlifter. Lawrence came in first place in the 84-kilogram division at the 2022 International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) World Classic Powerlifting Championships in early June. It is Lawrence’s fourth IPF World title in the last four years (2019, 2020-2021). A few months earlier, in April, she took home first in the same weight class in her debut at the 2022 AMP Classic Open Nationals.
Dating back to June 2019, Lawrence hascome in first place in eight straight competitions. Here’s a rundown of Lawrence’s latest running streak of excellence while the athlete prepares to tack on more accomplishments down the line. Note: In her six-plus-year career, Lawrence has only ever performed raw on a sanctioned lifting platform.
Amanda Lawrence (84KG) | Recent Noteworthy Performances
IPF World Classic Powerlifting Championships — First place | 2019, 2021-2022
2019 USA Powerlifting (USAPL) Raw Nationals — First place | Juniors and Open
2020 USAPL Gainsgiving Open — First place
2021 USAPL Raw Nationals — First place
2022 AMP Classic Open Nationals — First place
Note: Lawrence’s status as a Junior athlete and in the Open at the 2019 USAPL Raw Nationals are both factored into her winning streak.
While she’s not preparing for any pending competition, Lawrence’s Instagram post of the paused deadlift PR has a hashtag of #Roadto600. It would appear the athlete is trying to achieve a 272.1-kilogram (600-pound) deadlift in the near future.
Notably, Lawrence is the IPF deadlift World Record holder with a pull of 260.5 kilograms (574.3 pounds) from the 2021 IPF Worlds competition. In the event that Lawrence successfully deadlifts 272.1 kilograms (600 pounds), the figure would unofficially exceed her IPF World Record by 11.6 kilograms (25.7 pounds).
Judging by the ease of her paused deadlift training session, it seems Lawrence is well on track toward achieving her ambitious goal.
The 2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals will take place on Oct. 8, 2022, in Glasgow, Scotland. As a major contest on the strongman calendar, the respective elite athletes will show off their strength, conditioning, and power as they vie for the victory in Scotland.
On August 18, 2022, the Giants Live Organization Instagram page revealed the five events during this year’s single-day Giants Live World Tour Finals.
Here are the events for the 2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals:
2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals Events
Shortly after the official events reveal, former Europe’s Strongest Man (ESM) Champion (2016) Laurence Shahlaei and co-host Liz Mason broke down the expectations for each event on Shahlaei’s YouTube Channel.
Here is the current roster for this year’s competition:
2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals Roster
Luke Stoltman is the defending champion of the Giants Live World Tour Finals. The rest of the field will try to dethrone the athlete.
2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals Event Rundown
Here’s a short rundown of every event during this year’s competition.
Dumbbell Press
Ever since the 2021 Rogue Invitational last November, Novikov has been consistently proficient with a heavy dumbbell press. However, Iron Biby, the current Log Lift World Record holder, could challenge Novikov. In an event with a time limit, Novikov might be the overall favorite.
Nicol Stone Carry
Potential contenders for the Nicol Stone Carry event victory include Andy Black and Kevin Faires. When Shahlaei possessed the similar Dinnie Stones World Record, Black was a training partner. Meanwhile, Faires possesses the current World Record on the Dinnie Stones (25 feet, eight inches) and Nicol Stones (22.2 meters). Some of the strongmen have never performed a Nicol Stone Carry, so Faires could sit in an especially strong position.
Many of the athletes on the Giants Live World Tour Finals roster possess some measure of proficiency as deadlifters. As the Axle Deadlift starts to roll into the second half of the contest, endurance could become a factor. In an event where everyone can excel, some of the competitors could elect to save their strength for the closing segments of the competition.
Anchor Carry and Chain Drag
The penultimate event of these Giants Live World Tour Finals will be a medley between carrying and dragging the anchor and chain. Speed and time will likely ultimately decide the victor of this event. For context as to potential winners, Evan Singleton (38.85 seconds) and Novikov (41.75 seconds) moved quite well during the 2022 Giants Live World Open medley variation. The pair very well might find themselves in a close battle during this portion.
Power Stairs
In a changeup from common strongman norms, the Atlas Stones will not close the 2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals. Instead, it’s the Power Stairs.
Maxime Boudreault could be considered the favorite for this event after taking first place during the 2022 World’s Strongest Man’s (WSM) Power Stairs. Boudreault made it nine steps in 39.07 seconds, while eventual WSM champion Tom Stoltman wasn’t far behind (nine steps in 41.04 seconds). How Boudreault fares at this version of the Power Stairs will depend on its structure, but he might be an early safe bet for the win.
The 2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals present an intriguing number of storylines going in. For example, can Luke Stoltman defend his title from last year? Can Novikov continue a recent string of relative podium success dating back to Summer 2021? The strongman world will find out on October 8 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Today, we’re answering both of them (and much more).
Walking is a great form of exercise and something we often recommend to folks starting our coaching program. Some have had great success walking, including Megan, who has a daily practice to maintain her weight loss journey.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Without further ado, let’s step right in.
How Many Calories Does Walking Burn? (Calorie Calculator)
In true Nerd Fitness fashion, we scienced the crap out of this, and even created a handy calculator for you – simply put your stats in the calculator here:
A few things to remember about the above equation:
There’s a difference between gross calories (total calories) expended and net calories (additional calories) expended! Your body burns most of its calories every day JUST by existing.
Gross calories: calories burned while walking PLUS the calories burned just existing
Net calories: ADDITIONAL calories you burned thanks to exercise.
Also, our calculation is an ESTIMATE. You’re a unique snowflake, and no box or formula can capture your awesomeness/uniqueness. This equation below is JUST a starting point!
Also, if you don’t feel like playing with our calculator (boo), here’s how many calories you burn walking:
On average, a mile burns about 100 calories when walking.
Another point: ANY exercise pales in comparison to a much more important part of the weight loss equation: nutrition.
If you’ve come this far, and you want to learn more about why walking is so amazing, continue reading.
And you’re damn right, I’ll show you exactly how to walk to Mordor too.
What Are The Benefits of Walking?
We are designed to walk. It’s in our DNA, and it’s a huge part of our emergence as the dominant species on this planet (along with opposable thumbs, big brains, and Nintendo).
Let’s get the basic stuff out of the way:
Every day, it’s recommended by the CDC that we walk around five miles, or 10,000 steps.[1]
Hence the reason why your Fitbit – which I’ll get to shortly – has that 10k step goal as its default number.
Unfortunately, we Americans tend to average HALF that: 2.5 miles or 5,000 steps.
And I’d imagine that people who work outdoors or have more physically active jobs drag that average wayyyy up.
Which leaves us desk jockeys, who don’t walk nearly enough.
We use our feet to get us from the front door, to our car, to our desk, to our car, to our front door, to our couch… where we put them up while watching four hours of TV before going to bed.
Not walking enough can be a big factor in the creep-up of weight gain over the years.
You might have questions like:
Can I walk more to lose weight?
Is walking REALLY good for me?
Do I need to do more intense exercise?
Long story short:
You should walk more and it can help you lose weight and be healthier.
Short story long…
Here’s why walking is important:
#1) Walking burns calories without exhausting you.If you walk the recommended mileage each day (5 miles instead of just 2.5), it can lead to a tremendous amount of weight loss over time.You’ll burn an extra 100 calories walking just ONE more mile each day than normal: When that’s multiplied out, it’s an extra 700 calories burned per week, which results in approximately a pound of fat lost every five weeks, or 10 pounds in a year. You can scale up your distances to get your desired results!
#2) Walking doesn’t add to training stress. If you are strength training regularly, adding in more weight training or running can lead to burnout, breakdowns, and injuries. If you are trying to look like a super-hero, extra cardio sessions (or long-distance cardio sessions) might kill your gains. But you can just walk. You can walk great distances, provided you’ve built up your body’s physical ability, and not get tired or sore – walking (especially outside while soaking in some sunlight) can make you feel better, not worse.
#3) Walking is low impact. Unlike running, which can wreak havoc on people’s joints if they run improperly or are severely overweight, walking doesn’t have those impact issues. If you go for a walk and your feet or joints hurt, you’re doing it wrong – read the next section!
#4) Walking can burn fat. Because walking is low impact and low intensity, your body doesn’t need to pull much glycogen and glucose stores to fuel itself, which happens when you strength train or push yourself into “aerobic training” with higher intensity cardio. Proponents of intermittent fasting suggest walking in a fasted state in the morning before eating anything in order to help burn extra fat. It’s a little controversial, so this will have to be something you attempt and measure for yourself.
#5) Walking relieves stress. Seriously! Put on your favorite playlist, and go for a pleasant walk around your neighborhood or through the woods as the sun is going down. It’s a recipe to forget the worries of your day.
Bonus points if you can get someone to follow you with a boombox:
#6) Walking improves mental health (especially in older hobbits). Walking can improve mental health, increase brain size, improve memory, and is correlated with improved, longer lifespans.[2]
How Walking Can Change Your Life
If you are severely overweight and can’t run or strength train, walk on.
If you are building muscle and bulking up, walk on.
If you are trying to lose weight, walk on.
If you struggle with following a routine, or have failed in the past with weight loss, walk on.
Why? I’m a HUGE fan of small habit change and tiny victories – walking is the PERFECT habit builder. If you’re brand new and starting out, go for a walk TODAY and begin your journey to Mordor.
This afternoon, go for a five-minute walk. Tomorrow morning before work, before breakfast, as SOON as you wake up, put on your shoes, and go outside for a five-minute walk. No snoozing, no lying in bed, no checking email or Twitter. Put on your headphones, pick your favorite song, go outside, and start walking.
Here’s why:
Walking for just five minutes a day is the start of a new habit.Every morning for a few weeks, you’ll have to force yourself to walk. Initially, it will take effort and willpower to walk instead of snoozing. However, with each passing day of success, you’ll need to use less effort and willpower to get out the door. After all, it’s only five minutes, right? Once it’s something you do automatically without thinking, you can add on to it by increasing your walk time.
Walking briskly outdoors in the fresh morning air can be a great caffeine-free wake up call! If you make walking the FIRST thing you do in the morning, especially if you’re doing it before anybody else is awake, there will be zero distractions and no reason to say “sorry, I didn’t have time.” Of course, we like caffeine too (in moderation).
Walking will give you a chance to gather your thoughts and clear your head before the day begins. We’re constantly distracted at home: TV, iPads, smartphones, etc. Walking is so primal – no gadgets, just walking. Many people cite walking as the impetus for their creative or intelligent breakthroughs.
Walking and successfully building a habit will give you a habit blueprint to follow for anything else you’d like to accomplish: “Hey, I was able to make walking a habit, what else can I tackle in the same way?” Slow and steady wins. One foot in front of the other, my friend.
How to Walk Properly
“Uhhh, Steve, I know how to walk. I do it every day!”
Welp, if you’re starting from only walking from your car to the office, we need to make sure you’re walking the right way for when you push that mileage up.
Let’s start with your feet, provided you’re not gonna glue hair to your feet and go barefoot to become a hobbit.
I recommend walking in shoes that have a wide toe box and minimal drop (height at the heel vs height at the toes), as we discuss in our monster post on healthy feet and footwear:
You might not be used to walking with minimal cushioning under your heels, so walk slowly and land softly. Walking on softer surfaces to start isn’t a bad idea either.
We were designed before the invention of big clunky shoes… thus, we should be able to walk without big clunky shoes.[3] If you are interested in going barefoot as a runner, get started by walking short distances first. Your feet will toughen up (though they probably won’t grow hair quite like Frodo and Sam), your joints and muscles around your feet and ankles will strengthen, and your knees will deal with less stress.
When going for a lazy stroll, focus on landing softly, which is much easier when you don’t have thick-soled shoes to cushion your stride: land softly with your heel barely touching before rolling onto the middle (ball) of your foot, and then push off. You might need to take shorter strides than you’re used to if you were a big heel striker with a long stride.
If you’re aiming to walk quickly and up the intensity, shorten your stride and aim to land in the middle of your foot while pumping your arms. This is more easily done when walking uphill (which is also a great way to burn extra calories).
Is Walking Enough for Weight Loss?
Can walking help you lose weight?
You’re darn right it can!
The above photos are from Don, one of our coaching clients. Don credits his daily walking practice with helping him lose 85 pounds!
He’s not our only example of walking for weight loss:
Megan, who I mentioned earlier, is another client who walks daily to maintain her weight loss.
Case closed?
Of course not!
Both Don and Megan also made adjustments to their nutrition to reach their amazing results.
One of the Rules of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion is that we know “you can’t outrun your fork.” No amount of exercise can counter a bad diet, as your nutrition will be responsible for 90% (not an exaggeration) of your success or failure.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you go for a 5-mile walk, which takes you 90+ minutes.
If you then consume a 20 oz Gatorade and a small bag of Fritos (a typical snack for many here in America), you will have already undone all of the calories burned while walking.
Depending on your nutrition and love/hatred for exercise, this is either great news or bad news!
The BAD news: you can’t eat very badly in mass quantities and then expect to lose weight with a bit of exercise every week, even if it’s strenuous.
The GOOD news: Even if you dislike exercise, you can avoid exercise and still lose weight! Instead, put ALL of your focus instead on fixing your nutrition, and then go for a walk every once in awhile.
I’d also consider reading the following:
Oh, and if you want to see if a Nerd Fitness Coach can build you a program to lose weight while doing movements you enjoy (like walking), click on the button below:
The Best Practices for Walking (Tips and Tricks)
Here’s how to improve your walking technique:
#1) Focus on posture! Head up! Shoulders back! Walk with a confident stroll – practice this one in the morning if you’re not used to walking like this. It’s also a great way to appear instantly more confident; we nerds and hobbits need all the confidence we can get! Look around at your surroundings with your head up, arms swinging in rhythm.
You can also do some well-placed neck swings and jacket removals:
#2) Walk uphill to burn more fat. If you are walking on a treadmill, set it to an incline to increase the intensity and thus increase the amount of fat burned. Just don’t be that person who sets the incline way up, then holds onto both sides and leans their body back to be perpendicular with the incline. Keep good posture, lean forward into the incline, shorten your stride, and pump your legs.
#3) Hiking is a great way to practice walking, enjoy the scenery, and play Lord of the Rings in the woods with plastic swords and capes. Not that you should do that (you totally should). Here’s a beginner’s guide to hiking!
#4) When walking downhill, especially while barefoot (or wearing minimalist shoes), keep that stride short and be careful on how you are walking. Make sure your knee is bent when you land and absorb the impact rather than jamming the impact through your heel, knee, leg, hips, and lower back.
#5) Consider going for fasted walks in the morning. When you wake up first thing in the morning, your body has burned through most of the carb-fueled energy stores during the night. Which means when you go for a walk first thing in the morning, your body is more likely to have to pull from the only fuel source available to it: fat! This is the entire philosophy behind things like Intermittent Fasting or really low-carb diets like the Ketogenic diet.
#6) Get yourself a sturdy walking stick, if only so you can use it to battle imaginary ogres, goblins, cavetrolls, etc. It can also make you feel far more adventurous than if you’re just walking, and help you get up hills and land softly when going back down.
#7)Try Temptation Bundling. Load up an audiobook or your favorite podcast, and tell yourself that you can ONLY listen to the book or podcast while walking.
Is a Fitbit Helpful for Walking? (Which Fitness Tracker Is Best for Me?)
If you’re somebody who has been interested – or is getting interested – in walking, you’re probably familiar with step-tracking devices:
Personally, I’m a huge fan of fitness wearables, but not for the reasons you’d think.
For starters, you’re wearing a constant reminder that you are prioritizing movement, which can only be positive. You can even trigger it to remind you to get up and move every hour.
It can also allow you to see how many steps you normally take, and thus allow you to prioritize moving MORE.
Although Fitbit has a history of being sued for the inaccurate heart-monitor portion of its devices, I’m less concerned about heart rates and 100% accuracy of step distance, and instead think in terms of personal improvement.
Just like with tracking your bodyfat percentage or your weight, “that which gets measured gets improved,” and that carries over to your total steps. The fact that you’re tracking it means you’re going to be more aware of it, which means you’re going to be more likely to be able to improve it.
And that’s why, in a weird way, I’m not very concerned about the total accuracy of these devices. Even if your scale is off by 5 pounds, or your body fat caliper is inaccurate by 1%, as long as you use the same device and measure in the same way under the same conditions, you can track trends and paint the picture of your health and whether or not it’s improving!
And that’s what these fitness trackers should be used for: a reminder and a trend tracker!
What you SHOULDN’T do: take your fitness tracker as gospel, and use that to calculate down to the calorie and macro how much food exactly you can consume.
What you SHOULD do: track your trend over time, and see if you can improve your average. Use the technology to aid your fitness quest. Use the community portion of the band to compare your stats against friends and get some positive friendly peer pressure to get you off your ass.
Okay, if nerdy fitness technology isn’t nerdy enough for you, let’s go full-nerd.
How to Actually Walk to Mordor
Did you know it’s 1779 miles between Hobbiton to Mount Doom? [4]. We can actually determine how far Sam and Frodo walked, and then set out on the journey ourselves! It’s one thing to go for a stroll around your neighborhood. It’s another to know that, “If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.”
So let’s take a look at how far we need to walk first:
458 miles: Go from Hobbiton to Rivendell.
462 miles: Set out with the Fellowship from Rivendell, through Moria, to Lothlorien.
389 miles: From Lothlorien, down the Anduin, to Rauros Falls.
470 miles: Follow Frodo and Sam on the quest from Rauros to Mt. Doom.
535 miles: From Minas Tirith to Isengard
693 miles: From Isengard to Rivendell.
397 miles: From Rivendell to Bag End.
467 miles: (bonus!) Follow Frodo to the Grey Havens and return home with Sam.
Following this path, you need to walk a total of 1779 miles to get from Hobbiton to Mt. Doom. Then it’s time to destroy the ring and get carried to Minas Tirith by the Great Eagles.
Then you’ll walk 1625 miles back to Bag End (and an additional 467 miles if you’re interested in doing a round trip to the Grey Havens).
Obviously, you don’t need to move at the same speed as the hobbits (18 miles on the first day is no joke! Damn, those hobbits covered some ground!), but it’s still fun to track your walks and your total miles to see where you’d be on your journey.
However, like Frodo and Sam, it starts with the first step.
I’ve created a Google Doc that you can copy for yourself to track your distances to follow Frodo and Sam on your journey to destroy the One Ring.
Here’s how to do it:
Open the document, and then click on “file,” “save a copy,” and then you can edit your own copy of the document.
Track your distances with a pedometer, Fitbit, your iPhone or Android phone.
Input your distances and work towards completing each section of the journey over months. As you input your distances, it will automatically let you know when you reach each destination so you can get you started on the next one. 5 miles a day on average will have you destroying the Ring within one year.
Oh, and if you’re curious, according to my rough gorilla math, Frodo burned at least an additional 61,0000+ calories (100,000+ gross calories) by walking “there and back again” – you’re welcome[5].
What’s that?
You want some help getting out the door?
You got it – but only cause you asked nicely.
Here are three ways to level up alongside Nerd Fitness.
#1) Our Online Coaching Program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.
You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you. Just click on the image below for more details:
#2) If you want an exact roadmap on how to get in shape, check out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
We even have fun missions that will help you walk more, all while you earn XP! Righteous.
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Perhaps you’ve seen a lifter pressing, twisting, or rowing a barbell by rotating it on end. Appropriately named, these landmine exercises produce lethally effective workouts. Landmine training is performed in settings from Division 1 college weight rooms to bodybuilding gyms to injury rehab clinics.
Credit: Breaking Muscle / Youtube
The barbell is used for lever-based resistance — one end pivots on the floor or in a purpose-built sleeve as the lifter moves the loaded end through space. Make no mistake, this is not flashy “training for the ‘Gram” or some gross misuse of equipment.
The landmine provides opportunities for exercises with characteristics distinct from traditional free-weight training. The best part? Landmines offer versatility to train the entire body along with multiple components of fitness. Here, you’ll find the best landmine workouts for building serious upper and lower-body muscle, along with elite-level conditioning.
Best Landmine Workouts
Benefits of Landmine Training
Landmine training (literally) leverages a simple piece of equipment for a wide range of exercises. Traditional barbell training is already versatile, so why use your barbell as a landmine?
Landmines provide a more predictable bar path than a barbell moving freely through space. In motor learning — the scientific field that studies movement and skill acquisition — this predictable bar path represents a “constraint.” That is, the landmine is constrained to move along an arced path.
This constraint helps a lifter to master the form of technical multi-joint lifts, such as the presses, rows, and cleans used in the workouts below. It also promotes more consistent movement performance. Constant movements, when performed under load, stimulate the target muscles exceptionally effectively. The result is a fast-learning curve and predictable gains in strength and size.
The arced bar path also alters exercise form compared to barbell training. Landmine presses keep the shoulder out of end-range flexion, an area of common restriction. Landmine rows encourage ideal shoulder blade movement “down and back.” Landmine squats virtually ensure we sit back into our hips with an upright trunk position, which demands textbook form.
Landmine exercises also appear to stress our joints differently than traditional free weight lifts. (1) Altogether, the landmine may be helpful if you have banged up knees or shoulders. Set your landmine and get ready for a different angle on barbell training.
Best Landmine Workout for Upper Body Muscle
The upper body landmine workout below is like a multi-course meal — a feast for your muscles. The meat and potatoes are compound exercises followed by isolation movements.
Compound exercises, or those involving multiple joints, are efficient because they train many muscle groups simultaneously. They’re also very effective for building strength because they allow you to move heavier loads than exercises training a single joint in isolation.
Upper body compound exercises are broadly categorized as either “pushes” or “pulls.” Pushing exercises involve driving a resistance away from the body and training the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Pulling exercises involve drawing a resistance toward the body. These exercises train the back and biceps.
The compound exercises in this workout are structured as a series of push/pull supersets for efficiency. The final two movements are isolation exercises like a satisfying dessert after the main course. They train the glamour muscles that stretch our sleeves and broaden our frame.
Upper Body Training, One Arm at a Time
Due to the lever-based resistance of the landmine, your typical free weight loads and percentages will not be appropriate. It would be best to determine appropriate working weights that result in “hard” sets within the recommended repetition range.
To determine working weight for each exercise, perform two or more progressively heavier “work up” sets. Once you land on a weight that challenges you within the set rep range, stick with that load for your working sets.
Half-Kneeling Landmine Press
How to Do it: Assume a “half-kneeling” position with the working-side knee down. Hold the bar above your shoulder, brace your torso, and drive the bar up and forward along the natural arc of the landmine. Lower to the starting position.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-10 per arm.
Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.
Meadows Row
How to Do it: Stand perpendicular to the landmine. Hold the bar sleeve with an overhand grip and brace your non-working arm on your thigh. Lift the bar by driving your elbow out as you squeeze your shoulder blade toward your spine. Lower to full extension until you feel an intense stretch behind your shoulder. Be sure to load the bar with small diameter plates (five, 10, or 25-pound) to allow an extended range of motion.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12 per arm.
Rest time: Rest two to three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.
Standing Landmine Press
How to Do it: Face the landmine with a staggered stance, keeping your working side leg behind you. Press the bar forward and up until your elbow reaches full extension. Lower with control.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12 per arm.
Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.
Landmine Row
How to Do it: Stand parallel to the barbell. Hinge forward at the hips and grip the barbell just before the sleeve. Pull your shoulder and arm back to row the weight toward the outside of your hip. Lower with control.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12 per arm.
Rest time: Rest two to three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.
Landmine Lateral Raise
How to Do it: Stand with the end of the barbell just in front of your working side hip, quarter turned toward the landmine. Lift by pushing the bar forward and out until your wrist is higher than shoulder. Lower with control.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16 per arm
Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.
Landmine Concentration Curl
How to Do it: Drop into a wide-stance quarter squat and brace your upper arm against your inner thigh. Grab the end of the bar sleeve. Without moving your upper arm, curl the landmine barbell. Notice how the bar path forces you to keep your palm turned up and out as you curl. This enhances biceps stimulus. (2)(3) Lower with control.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12 per arm.
Rest time:Rest 90 seconds to two minutes before repeating the previous exercise.
Best Landmine Workout for Lower Body Muscle
Wheels, lower extremities, jets, getaway sticks — whatever you call them, most people want strong, muscular legs.
Like the upper body, the basic compound movements of the lower body can be categorized as push and pull or, more commonly, squats and deadlifts, respectively. Squats and squat-derivatives train the glutes, quadriceps, and calf muscles. Deadlifts and deadlift-derivatives train the hamstrings and also hit the glutes.
Leg-Building Landmine Workout
This workout combines heavy, double-legged exercises with single-leg lifts to promote athleticism, and it finishes with a loaded mobility exercise for the commonly-neglected inner thigh muscles.
The landmine provides a small amount of balance assistance, which may allow single-leg variations of squats and deadlifts to be loaded heavier than free-weight single-leg versions.
To ensure adequate recovery, the lower body landmine exercises are structured as straight sets. Take two to three-minute rests to ensure intensity is maintained for maximum strength gains. (4)
Landmine Squat
How to Do it: Cradle the end of the barbell atop your sternum with your arms pulled in toward your ribs. To account for the arced path of the bar, place your feet farther from the plates so that your body is inclined forward in the top position. Squat down as far as your mobility allows, and return to standing.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-10
Rest time: Rest two to three minutes between sets.
Modified Single-Leg Landmine Romanian Deadlift
How to Do it: Unlike the standard single-leg landmine Romanian deadlift, which is performed facing the landmine, (5) the modified version provides more stability, which lets you lift more weight. Stand perpendicular to the landmine. Hold the sleeve palm-down with your inside hand. Hinge forward at your hips and allow your inside leg to travel behind you, while that foot rises into the air. Keep a slight bend in your standing knee and descend until you feel a strong sense of tension in your hamstring. Return to standing and repeat.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-10 per leg.
Rest time: Rest 2 to 3 minutes between sets.
Landmine Hack Squat
How to Do it: Ensure you landmine base is secure and will not slide. Face away from the landmine and rest the sleeve on your upper trapezius, just inside the point of the shoulder. Position your feet well in front of your body. Keep your feet flat as you descend into a deep squat, reaching your hamstrings to your calves if possible. Drive up and back to the starting position. On your next set, rack the landmine on your opposite shoulder.
Sets and Reps: 2 x 12-16
Rest time: Rest two to three minutes between sets.
Landmine Cossack Squat
How to Do it: Face the landmine with a wide stance and hold the landmine in front of your sternum. Sit down and back, sinking into your right hip while allowing your left foot to pivot onto the heel. Push through your right leg to return to center. Perform all repetitions to the right, then repeat to the left.
Sets and Reps: 2 x 8-10 per side.
Rest time: Rest two to three minutes between sets.
Landmine Workout for Conditioning
Barbell complexes are commonly used for metabolic conditioning. Complexes are sequences of lifts performed in continuous succession. The lifter finishes all reps of one lift before moving on to the next, using the same piece of equipment and the same weight for all movements.
Complexes can be designed to tax every energy system — the phosphagen system provides quick bursts of power. The glycolytic system becomes prominent as the complex drags on for more than the first few reps. Finally, if you string multiple complexes together in a fashion popularized by many notorious CrossFit workouts, the aerobic system helps you recover.
Every Two-Minute On the Two-Minute Landmine Complex
The landmine is a wonderful tool for complexes. The workout below uses repeated landmine complexes to promote metabolic conditioning. For simplicity, a time-based rest strategy provides most athletes an approximate 1:1 work to rest ratio. Every two minutes, you will start a new complex and complete it as quickly as you can.
How to Do it: Place a moderate amount of weight on the landmine. First perform the Landmine Hang Clean & Jerk — Stand perpendicular to the bar and hold the sleeve in the hang position (palm down with your hand near your hip). Extend your hips, knees, and ankles as you shrug and pull the bar along its natural arc. As the bar is in motion, pivot to face the landmine and receive the bar with your other hand. Perform a split jerk by dropping down and immediately driving back up with your legs as you extend your elbow and switch your footing. Control the bar back to the hang position with both hands.The next movement is the classic standing Landmine Rotation — Hold the bar with both arms outstretched above you. Lower the bar to the left, allowing your hips to rotate and your feet to pivot. Rotate the landmine back up and across to the right, again allowing your feet and hips to move smoothly.The third and final exercise in this complex is a Landmine Push Press — This exercise begins similar to a shallow landmine squat with a ballistic concentric (“up”) phase. Transfer the energy from your leg drive into both arms as you press the bar up and forward. Repeat the process for for each repetition.
Sets and Reps: One “set” of the complex consists of 3 reps of each movement — 3 per side landmine hang clean & jerk, 3 rotations in each direction, and 3 push presses. Perform one set every two minutes for a total of 12 to 16 minutes.
Rest time: Perform one full set and rest the remainder of the two minute block. This rest strategy is a variation on the much more popular EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute), but “E2MO2M” doesn’t have the same ring.
How to Warm-Up for Landmine Workouts
Before you detonate these workouts, perform a high-quality warm-up to ensure your body is primed for performance. Options for effective warm-ups are innumerable, but for those who can’t spare the bandwidth to conjure one up, here’s a simple plan.
Start with five or six minutes of low intensity aerobic exercise (jump rope, bike, or cardio method of choice), then grab a light resistance band and move through the following sequence:
Landmine Workout Warm-Up
Deep Squat with Trunk Rotations: Drop down into a deep squat. Keep your chest up and reach toward the ground with both arms between your legs. Use one arm to “pry” your same-side thigh outward as you reach up with the other arm. As you reach, keep your eyes on your overhead palm by rotating and extending your trunk. Repeat with the other hand. Perform 8 rotations in each direction, alternating sides each repetition.
Backstep Lunge to Hip Flexor Stretch: Take a large step backwards and lower your knee to the ground. Squeeze your rear-leg glute muscles to feel a stretch in the front of the hip or thigh. If you are unable to achieve a stretch, attempt to tuck your pelvis under your body by bringing your belt buckle toward your chin. Hold the position momentarily. Return to standing and repeat with the opposite leg. Perform 8 reps per leg.
Plank to Pike: Assume a tall plank or “top of the push-up position” supporting your body on your palms and forefeet. Move into a pike position by pushing forward with your hands and driving your hips back and up, Keep your spine, arms, and legs straight. Return to the plank position. Perform 8 reps.
Dynamic Hug: Wrap a light resistance band around your back just below your shoulder blades. Stand with arms outreached straight ahead at shoulder-height. Reach forward in a “hugging” motion. Imagine you are wrapping your arms around a gigantic tree to maximize the space between your arms as you reach your hands together. Reverse the movement, allowing your shoulder blades to move toward your spine as you open your arms. Perform 8 repetitions.
Band Pull-Apart: Hold the resistance band straight ahead with your arms in front of your shoulders. Stretch the band by pulling your arms apart without bending your elbows. Initiate the movement by squeezing your shoulder blades toward your spine. When your hands are sideways in-line with your shoulders, return to the starting position. Perform 8 repetitions.
An Angled Approach to New Gains
The landmine is a fun and versatile tool for training all major muscle groups. Landmine lifts promote a balanced physique while hammering the core, and may actually result in superior gains in on-field or on-court athleticism. (6) Bookmark these landmine workouts and blast your next high-quality training session.
References
Collins, K. S., Klawitter, L. A., Waldera, R. W., Mahoney, S. J., & Christensen, B. K. (2021). Differences in muscle activity and kinetics between the goblet squat and landmine squat in men and women. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 35(10), 2661-2668.
Murray, W. M., Delp, S. L., Buchanan, T. S. (1995). Variation of muscle moment arms with elbow and forearm position. Journal of Biomechanics, 28(5), 513-525.
Kleiber, T., Kunz, L., & Disselhorst-Klug, C. (2015). Muscular coordination of biceps brachii and brachioradialis in elbow flexion with respect to hand position. Frontiers in Physiology, 6, 215.
Schoenfeld, B. J., Pope, Z. K., Benik, F. M., et al. (2016). Longer interset rest periods enhance muscle strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 30(7), 1805-1812.
Weaver, A. N., & Kerksick, C. M. (2017). Implementing landmine single-leg Romanian deadlift into an athlete’s training program. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 39(1), 85-90.
Zweifel, M. (2017). Importance of horizontally loaded movements to sports performance. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 39(1), 21-26.
Featured Image: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube
On August 17, 2022, just four months post-injury, Ryjov performed a 225-pound (102-kilogram) bench press for 90 reps. The athlete performed softer lockouts of each rep and wore elbow wraps, but those might have been precautions to avoid further injury.
Ryjov called his AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) conditioning feat a “new World Record” in the caption of his Instagram post. However, it is unclear whose World Record mark he previously surpassed. (Larry “Wheels” Williams bench pressed 225 for 70 reps in 2018.) Ryjov also noted that he intended to capture 100 reps but racked up his barbell because he “miscounted” his number.
For context on Ryjov’s achievement, the 225-pound bench press AMRAP is a standard evaluative test of strength for professional football draft prospects during the annual NFL Scouting Combine. In July 2020, professional strongmen Brian Shaw and Robert Oberst tried their hand at the Combine record of 51 reps that Justin Ernest set in 1999. Oberst eventually locked out 42 reps while Shaw bettered his peer with 44. Even with his quicker lockouts in consideration, Ryjov has now roughly doubled both athletes on his bench press AMRAP.
While Ryjov usually shares footage of himself completing noteworthy pressing achievements — such as a 605-pound bench press with a five-second pause from November 2021 — he does have formal powerlifting experience.
Here’s a rundown of his first-place performance in the 110-kilogram division at the 2017 United States Powerlifting Association (USPA) SMG’s March Mayhem.
Daniel Ryjov (110KG) | 2017 USPA SMG’s March Mayhem Top Stats
Before he tore his triceps tendon, Ryjov was in a long-term pursuit of a 317.5-kilogram (700-pound) bench press, per his social media. Shortly before his injury occurred in May, the athlete attempted to bench press 306.1 kilograms (675 pounds) but could not lock out the weight.
At the time of this writing, Ryjov has not confirmed he would push for that milestone again. Additionally, even with this AMRAP bench press in the account, it’s unclear where Ryjov stands with his recovery. Nonetheless, just months after suffering a potentially devastating setback, it looks like the athlete is already pushing himself to be back on track and press eye-opening weight once more.
In mid-July 2022, promising bodybuilder Michal Križánek switched from the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Elite Pro League to the National Physique Committee (NPC). Križánek’s motivation behind the switch was to obtain his IFBB Pro Card and gain eventual qualification for the 2022 Mr. Olympia. Judging by his latest physique update, his training progress for those ambitious goals seems to be going well.
On August 16, 2022, Križánek shared a post on his Instagram where his upper body and lower body mass have a balanced shredded look. According to the bodybuilder, he weighs 133 kilograms (293.2 pounds) in the photo.
Based on the NPC’s standards, to get his Pro Card, Križánek will have to qualify for and win at least one of the upcoming North American Championships or the National Championships. A top-five result in a National Qualifier would garner him a roster spot in the North American Championships. A top-three finish would place him in The National Championships.
The 2022 NPC North American Championships will take place on August 31 in Pittsburgh, PA. The 2022 NPC National Championships will take place on December 2-3 in Orlando, FL, as a potential last step before the Olympia.
In the event that Križánek earns his Pro Card in time, he will have to either win an IFBB Pro League contest or finish in the top three in points in the Men’s Open division by the time the qualification period ends on November 20, 2022. Notably, the NPC is the only amateur organization that the IFBB Pro League recognizes.
At the time of this article’s publication, Križánek has not confirmed his next steps and when he’ll compete in a necessary regional contest.
Should Križánek successfully find himself in December’s Mr. Olympia, he’ll be another noteworthy competitor in what is shaping up to be a stacked Men’s Open field.
From the qualification process to potential competitors, the obstacles ahead are set for Križánek. Now it’s just about him making the Olympia opportunity official.
The 2022 Mr. Olympia will take place on December 16-18 in Las Vegas, NV.
Featured image: @ifbbmichalkrizokrizanek on Instagram
Who wouldn’t want to be strong like a powerlifter while also being built like a bodybuilder? Maximizing strength and muscle is what drives many people to start lifting weights in the first place, so why not train for the best of both worlds? Powerlifting plus bodybuilding equals powerbuilding.
Credit: antoniodiaz / Shutterstock
Although powerbuilding is often considered a specific style of training, it’s really just an overall structure given to any training plan. And it’s a structure that many experienced lifters were doing even before it was given a name.
While there’s no reason to be dogmatic, here are some basic guidelines that can help you decide where to put your focus, what to include and what to leave out, and how to best organize your training to pack on size and strength.
What is Powerbuilding?
Training for powerbuilding means that you focus on increasing strength in big, compound (multi-joint) lifts while also building muscle through more classic bodybuilding-type training with isolation (single-joint) exercises and exercise variations, also called accessory movements.
One example would be starting a workout with sets of deadlifts, followed by accessory exercises concentrated on individual muscle groups such as the back and hamstrings. The main compound lift would be done for lower reps with heavier weights to develop strength and power.
The accessory exercises are done with relatively higher rep ranges in order to develop individual muscles while reducing wear and tear on the joint. That can include anything from single-joint exercises like biceps curls to multi-joint movements like split squats or pull-ups.
Credit: Maxim Morales Lopez / Shutterstock
An upside to powerbuilding is that you can choose what to prioritize for specific goals. If you eventually decide to enter a powerlifting competition, for example, you could allocate more time to training heavy with the big three powerlifts — back squat, bench press, and deadlift — and minimize some of the bodybuilding work.
Or, when beach season approaches, you might keep the heavy barbell lifts to a minimum and spend most of your training doing muscle-building accessory exercises to build a serious physique while remaining relatively strong.
While powerbuilding gives you flexibility in exercise choice, there are some things to keep in mind for the best results.
Who Should Use Powerbuilding
Powerbuilding is for those who don’t have one singular physique or performance focus, but instead want to be physically well-balanced.
If you want to be strong, muscular, and fit, there’s no reason to get stuck working towards some grandiose weight in a barbell lift, reaching a specific body fat percentage number, or breaking a certain time for an endurance workout.
Credit: Mongkolchon Akesin / Shutterstock
That’s not to say you won’t still set PRs (personal records), build endurance, and drastically improve your body composition with a more general training powerbuilding approach.
You may not break state lifting records or be shredded enough to step on a bodybuilding stage, but you can still end up stronger and more muscular than people who put all of their training eggs in a single basket.
Powerbuilding training can also be useful for people who compete in other sports or physical hobbies. When you’re approaching a competition, strength and conditioning training does need to be tailored to your specific sport or activity, especially when you’re competing at a very high level.
As long as you’re not in a competitive season, powerbuilding can be a great way to build a broad foundation for novice athletes and it can help experienced athletes remain well-rounded.
Powerbuilding for New Lifters
It’s great that powerlifting-inspired, strength-focused training has become popular in recent years. However, too many people with no lifting background dive headfirst into heavy training after seeing it for the first time.
While powerlifting can build an excellent level of upper and lower-body strength, beginners need to build a foundation using more variety than this type of specialized training can provide. Powerbuilding training is a better alternative for beginners because it builds a much broader base by developing more attributes with more exercise variety.
Credit: MR.SOMKIAT BOONSING / Shutterstock
A beginner starting with a broad base will be in a better position to build on. With powerbuilding, you can steadily improve in big barbell lifts, similar to powerlifting-based training. Those barbell lifts can be markers for you to track your progress — not just in strength, but also in movement quality. Your technique will improve as you progress.
You also have more freedom when choosing different exercises, variations, and training methods on a powerbuilding program. Powerlifting is exclusively focused on moving the most total weight in the back squat, flat bench press, and deadlift. Powerbuilding lets you focus on different barbell lifts while performing a wide variety of isolation exercises. In the long-term, this leads to better balance, proportion, and overall healthy function throughout your body.
Why Train for Powerbuilding
A Powerbuilding routine is excellent not only for building strength and muscle, but also for developing work capacity and resilience toward injury. This is primarily because powerbuilding allows flexibility to use a variety of exercises and training methods, instead of a relatively smaller handful of goal-specific exercises or methods.
Muscles grow bigger and stronger more quickly than the connective tissue that attaches those muscles to bones. If your training routine is excessively focused on building strength, like many powerlifting-based programs, you’re on a potentially dangerous path.
The disproportionate increase in muscular strength may create a condition where your muscles exert levels of force that your connective tissues can’t support. That can lead to the type of injury that keeps nagging for years.
Powerbuilding programs make it simple to incorporate moderate-to-high rep accessory exercises which increase blood supply and metabolic growth factors to tendons and ligaments. This type of training makes the connective tissues thicker and stronger, while increasing the muscles’ ability to withstand fatigue and do more work.
Powerbuilding routines also leave room for hybrid training methods which build muscle and aerobic capacity together, such as “tempo interval circuits” — alternating 20 to 45 seconds of steady state activity (rowing, stationary bike riding, sled dragging, etc.) with 10 to 15 reps of an accessory exercise, repeated for a total of 20 to 60 minutes.
These methods can all be included in powerbuilding programs to build a more well-rounded, highly capable body that’s more resistant to injury. You can still decide to specialize with powerlifting or bodybuilding-focused training later, if it suits your specific goal.
How to Plan a Powerbuilding Routine
While you do have a lot of flexibility when arranging your powerbuilding training plan, there are some important things to consider when designing a program.
Choose Your Main Lifts
First, decide which compound lifts to prioritize. You can use the classic back squat, flat bench press, and deadlift, or you can substitute similar alternatives. For example, you could trade the bench press for the overhead press if overhead strength appeals to you.
To focus on leg strength, you may want to include both the back squat and front squat while leaving out the deadlift for a few months. However, using “overlapping” exercises or very similar movements will require extra attention to planning, explained later.
There are no strict rules regarding which exercises to include, just pick what you like and stick with it. You can choose whatever big compound lifts you prefer, and you can even change them over time.
However, because the main lift is strength-focused, it should be a movement which allows the greatest potential weight to be lifted. This will almost always be a barbell exercise. Plan to use three to five sets of three to six reps with a challenging weight.
Know Your Training Split
Next, decide what order you’ll train your lifts and muscle groups. You can do this by following a push/pull split, an upper/lower split, or a muscle group split.
Credit: Roman Chazov / Shutterstock
Push/Pull Split: The push/pull split alternates training days focused on “pushing” muscles and movements (including squat and squat variations, chest and shoulder training, and triceps work) with days focused on “pulling” muscles and movements (including deadlifts and deadlift variations, back exercises like rows and pulldowns, and biceps training).
The most common way to program a push/pull split is to pair a pushing movement main lift with accessory pushing exercises. For example, a workout could begin with heavy squats, followed up with upper and lower-body pushing accessory exercises including hack squats, leg extensions, overhead dumbbell pressing, and skull crushers.
If you’re training with more than one push (or pull) workout per week, you might focus the accessory work to only the muscles used in the main lift. For example, heavy front squats followed by the leg press, Bulgarian split squat, standing calf raise, and ab training.
Upper/Lower Split: This is exactly what it sounds like — each training day is devoted to either upper body or lower body exercises.
On day one, you might bench press and then do the dumbbell overhead press, pulldowns, cable rows, and triceps extensions. Day two could include the deadlift, lunges, hamstring curls, and calf raises. While day three might focus on the barbell row, chin-ups, chest dips, incline pressing, and biceps curls.
This approach can be manipulated to improve overall recovery time by adding rest days to extend the time between workouts. This makes it a very suitable choice for older lifters who may need to carefully monitor the weekly wear and tear on their body.
Muscle Group Split: This is a classic “body part split” seen in most bodybuilding programs, with each training day focused on one or two specific muscle groups. However, the main compound lifts still focus on building strength with that body part as the primary working muscle.
Training days typically work around the chest, back, shoulders, arms (sometimes broken down into a biceps day and a triceps day), and legs. “Leg day” may also be separated into one quadriceps day (with squats) and one hamstring day (with deadlifts).
For example, you might start “quadriceps day” with front squats, and then maximize muscle growth with accessory exercises that specifically work the leg muscles used in a squat — including lunges and leg extensions.
Once you’ve selected your main lifts and training split, you’ll know which accessory movements can be plugged into each day.
Accessory movements should be chosen to build size in muscles that need attention and are appropriate for each training day. If you’re following a push/pull split, you wouldn’t perform leg curls as an accessory movement after bench press; they’re different types of movements and the hamstrings aren’t recruited when benching.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking accessory exercises are a lesser priority than your main lift. Accessory movements are primarily responsible for the “building” part of powerbuilding. They help you pack on size and support strength progression in the main lifts.
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When it comes to accessory exercises, work for three to five sets of eight to 15 reps. You may want to include traditional isolation exercises like lateral raises or seated leg extensions, or variations of the main lift such as an incline bench press or dumbbell overhead press.
You could also use alternative exercises like kettlebell swings, farmer’s walks, or sled drags to build the size and conditioning you’re looking for. Accessory movements allow you to focus more on muscle growth than raw strength, so choose the movements based on your individual needs.
Determine Your Training Frequency
The last step to setting up your powerbuilding program is to decide how many days per week you’re going to train. Typically, the longer you’ve been training, the more volume of work you must do to continue to see progress.
This usually means more experienced lifters will need to train more days each week than when they first started. Someone who has been doing powerbuilding training for a year or less can often improve with only two to three workouts a week because the overall stimulus is still relatively new and their body responds well.
Lifters with more than two years experience will probably need to train three to five days per week to achieve the volume and intensity needed to continue seeing results. One or even two workouts per week couldn’t accommodate enough exercises with enough sets and reps, using enough weight, to trigger sufficient muscle and strength gains.
However, you can structure your week to make the most out of fewer training days. Yes, the longer you consistently train, the more work you will need to add overall. But if you appropriately pair your compound lifts and add accessory exercises that fill in any potential gaps, you don’t necessarily need to lift five days a week.
For example, you might follow an upper/lower split three days per week using the bench press and barbell row as main lifts on one upper body day, trap bar deadlifts and squats on a lower body day, and a shoulder press on the next training day.
Common Powerbuilding Mistakes
Powerbuilding can be a relatively straightforward approach to training — lift heavy and then lift a little lighter — but several common mistakes can limit your recovery and reduce results.
Poor Fatigue Management
One of the biggest issues to keep in mind is managing your fatigue throughout the week. You can do this by following a proper training split, grouping main lifts together, and organizing your split to reduce the total training days each week. Each of these were addressed in the planning section above.
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You can also manage nervous system fatigue by avoiding excessive overlap with similar exercises. If you were to design a powerbuilding routine with four different squat variations as the main lift four days in a row, you never give your nervous system or squatting muscles a chance to recover. You’ll likely burnout before seeing any significant results.
Instead, you might do back squats and squat cleans on day one, with Zercher squats and front squats on day three or four. This creates a structure that allows you time to recover from the physical and physiological stresses of squatting.
Yes, it may suck to do heavy cleans after heavy squats or front squats after heavy Zerchers, but your body will adapt because it’s given the chance to recover. In the end, the total training plan will be more productive and you will adapt and grow stronger from it.
Overemphasizing Main Lifts or De-emphasizing Accessory Work
Some lifters get so caught up in chasing heavy weights that they overlook accessory work. If they’re in a hurry on a given day, accessory movements might be performed haphazardly, with reduced effort, or even skipped entirely. That’s a one way ticket to plateau city, where strength stalls and muscles remain under-sized.
For optimal gains in both size and strength, the main lift and the accessories should be approached with balanced effort and enthusiasm. If you wouldn’t skip a set of heavy deadlifts, you shouldn’t consider skipping a set of pulldowns or lunges.
If the unexpected happens and you need to trim your time in the gym, don’t simply drop the accessory movements. Take the opportunity to dial up the intensity and use supersets to fit more training sets into a shorter amount of time.
Sample Powerbuilding Routines
Now that you have the general outline for how to structure your training, here’s a sample program putting it all into action.
Credit: Tom Yau / Shutterstock
This adaptable template keeps the main lifts focused on building strength and includes alternative methods to increase work capacity and develop muscle.
Day One
Back Squat: 4 x 5 (70% one-rep max)
Overhead Press: 5 x 3 (75% one-rep max)
Bulgarian Split Squat: 4×10 (each leg)
Dumbbell Upright Row: 4×10 (superset with previous exercise)
Tempo Interval Circuit — Perform for 20 minutes:
Sled Push: 30 seconds
Feet-Elevated Push-up: 15 reps
Sled Pull: 30 seconds
Lat Pulldown: 10 reps
Day Two
Deadlift: 2 x 3 (75% one-rep max), 2 x 3 (80% one-rep max)
Powerbuilding training is not only a great way to build a broad base for beginners, it’s one of the most efficient ways to structure your workouts for becoming stronger, more muscular, leaner, and capable of more than just picking up heavy things or flexing in poses. If you’re motivated to build a well-rounded body, spend some time powerbuilding.
