Use This Training Day Template To Quickly Level Up Your Physique and Performance

🎁 done for you training day template inside

⚠️ ANNOUNCEMENT (TIME-SENSITIVE) - In order to focus 100% of my time, effort and energy on my next project, I am retiring both my Principles of Strength and Conditioning Course and Oxygen Course this upcoming Monday, June 19th. They will go into the vault and no longer be available for sale. If you’d like to get your lifetime access to either course, be sure to do so by Sunday night at midnight. Here are the links again one last time if you’re interested: Principles of Strength and Conditioning Course and Oxygen Course.

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On your journey to becoming a LifeProof Athlete, it’s crucial to routinely touch all the major pillars:

1. Power

2. Strength

3. Hypertrophy

4. Endurance

5. Movement quality

That does not mean each pillar will be trained to the max, but they must get some level of love to make sure they don’t disappear. This brings us to the concept of development vs. maintenance mode.

All things cannot be in development mode at the same time. It just isn’t possible. You must pick and choose what to develop and what to maintain. Think of the 5 pillars as dimmer switches. None of the switches are ever turned completely off.  Rather, some get turned up while others get turned down, and this chapter is going to discuss how to make it happen.

In total, there are 2 types of days you will need to manage:

1. Lift days

2. Conditioning days

The conditioning days are the easiest because you’ve already seen how those work.  You have low-conditioning days and high-conditioning days, and you have protocols for each of them. 

Below you will find the lift day nuts and bolts template, and it will make your life really easy.  Is it the end all be all of designing training days? Absolutely not.  There are many ways to skin a cat.

For example, you can take more of a physiological approach and design days around very specific outcomes.  Such as having mechanical tension days, metabolic stress days, CNS days, and upper-lower splits. Or you can play with complex and contrast training methods. The issue with that strategy is the learning curve is quite large, so it’s more difficult to implement.

The template I’m sharing with you is something I’ve been using for years now, and it DELIVERS. It’s easy to use, and it works again and again and again.

Let’s dive into the template and unpack it block by block, so there’s zero confusion.

The Nuts and Bolts Daily Training Template

1️⃣ Block 1:  Prep

Prep is all about preparing yourself for the lift to come (shocker I know), and your goal is to keep it simple. If your prep is taking longer than 15 minutes, then you’ve done something wrong.  You are here to train. Not lay around and warm up for 30 minutes.

“But James, I’m in pain and I really need to focus on my movement.  What should I do?”

This is a good question and one I routinely get, so let’s dive into it now.

First, you need to know when to refer out. 

What are you comfortable managing, and what is outside your realm of expertise?  For example, I have good protocols in place for general back, hip, knee, and shoulder pain.  Anything neck up, I immediately refer out, and if my protocols aren’t creating the change I want to see, then I’ll refer out as well.

Second, know your role. 

I am a performance coach, not a physical therapist.  People come to me because they want to get a training effect.  If we’re having to spend ¾ of our session just trying to make it so the person in question can get up and walk around, then they need to be referred out.

Third, don’t be married to anything.

Many problems stem from nothing more than shitty exercise selection, coaching, and cueing.  This can generally trace back to being married to certain movements.  I’m not married to anything.  My goal is to use the simplest exercise available to maximize the desired adaptation. 

I am not going to force a movement on someone just because I think everyone should do it.  Barbell back squats are a great example.  Unless you want to compete in powerlifting, who the fuck cares about your barbell back squat? Use an SSB bar, use a spider bar, do a Zercher variation, elevate your heels with a ramp, or maybe even stick to a hack squat.  Pick the right variation for you that you can load and progress.

That’s the name of the game.  Have as many tools in your toolbox as possible, and to quote Bruce Lee - “be like water.”

Lastly, get good at using training as your intervention. 

This all comes down to exercise selection, coaching and cueing, and if you’re good at those things, then you can use training as the intervention and kill two birds with one stone.

For example, a front foot elevated zercher split squat is an incredibly powerful move.  Not only am I driving movement-based changes at the ankle, knee, pelvis and rib cage, but I’m also chasing hypertrophy at primarily the quad and glute.

So how do you design a generalized, highly effective warm-up?

1. First - pick 2-3 breathing based drills¹

2. Second - pick something core-based to help feel and lock in both pelvis and rib position.²

3. Third - pick 2 ground-based dynamic movements

4. Fourth - hit two drills that get you upright and moving athletically (stand up dynamic). 

Here’s a handy summary table:

As you can see, the warmup naturally progresses in the following ways:

• Simple → Complex

• Static → Dynamic

• Ground-based → Athletic

Like building a pyramid, you start with the foundation and build your way up over time. Again, this is not the end all, be all of warm-ups.  It’s a simple, yet highly effective template you can start using right now to move better, feel better, and start your lifts ready to party.

Here are a few examples to get you started:

Warm-Up Example 1

1. Side-lying breathing x 5 breaths

2. 90-90 early propulsion x 5 breaths

3. Lat hang x 5 breaths

4. Wall press leg lowering x 8/side

5. Reverse baby crawl x 10/side

6. Yoga push up x 10

7. Walking lunge w/ outside heel tap x 6/side

8. A skips 2 x 8/side

Warm-Up Example 2

1. Side-lying breathing x 5 breaths

2. The bulldog x 5 breaths

3. Modified couch stretch x 8 breaths/side

4. Copenhagen side plank x 30 sec/side

5. Crossed arm rocking x 20

6. Inchworm x 10

7. Walking reverse lunge w/ passthrough x 6/side

8. High knees 2 x 10

2️⃣ Block 2:  Power - Jumps, Throws, Sprints, and Agility

Block 2 is all about power, and you can use it to prime the CNS for the main lift, develop a specific power attribute, or maintain a specific power attribute.

For protocols and applications see the power chapter.

3️⃣ Block 3:  Main Output Lift

The key word here is OUTPUT!

This is game day. This is not the time for being the nice, polite, well-behaved human that everyone sees the other 23 hours of the day. This is freak mode. Plain and simple.  If you can’t dial it up here, then you have no business training, and you need to get the fuck out of the gym.

The biggest mistake I see here is people not choosing a movement that allows them to prioritize LOAD and/or VELOCITY.

If you think back to the movement chapter, this is where you want to pick a movement as far right on the sensory-to-output spectrum as possible that allows you to maintain a stack.

That means this is the land of big exercises - squat, deadlift, press, and pull.  Make sure your choice is bilateral and make sure you can load it up.

For protocols and applications see:

• Strength Training Guidelines

• Hypertrophy Training Guidelines

• Power Training Guidelines

4️⃣ Block 4:  Secondary Output

This section is unique in that you want to choose an exercise that falls right in the middle of the sensory-to-output spectrum.

Meaning you are choosing an exercise that allows you to challenge both movement and load.

A great example is a zercher squat – an exercise you can move a decent amount of load in but it’s inherently capped by the restraint of needing to hold the bar in your arms. At the same time, it gets your hands in front of your body to reinforce a strong stack position, and challenges you to improve your squat pattern by focusing on moving as straight up and down as possible.

Another great example is a snatch grip RDL. By moving your hands farther out on the bar I am taking your lats away, thus limiting how much load you can move in comparison to a normal RDL. Plus, by taking your lats away, I am forcing you to better use and integrate your abs and hamstrings to improve your hinge pattern.

This block gets progressed just like an accessory, by moving more toward the output side of the spectrum over the course of a training program.

Use any of the set, rep, and rest protocols discussed in the strength or hypertrophy chapters, but I really like 3x8-10 or 3x6-8 here with 90-120 seconds of rest.

5️⃣ Block 5:  Sensory Accessory Superset

I feel like I’ve already beaten this horse to death in the movement chapter, but here you go again:

• Pick exercises as far on the sensory side of the spectrum as you can at the start of a training program.

• Progress those exercises every 4 weeks toward the output side of the spectrum

• Feel free to utilize any of the set, rep and rest schemes discussed in the hypertrophy chapter, but I recommend utilizing the double progression method of 3x12-15 or 3x10-12 and resting 60-90 seconds.

6️⃣ Block 6:  Core

This part of the lift is all about hammering your side abs. Your rectus abdominis is cool, but it’s nothing more than a glorified show muscle. If you really want a strong core, you need internal obliques, external obliques, and a transverse abdominis. So, pick exercises that make that happen.

For more on how to do this, read this blog post and this blog post.

7️⃣ Block 7:  Phase Change

Phase change is all about coming down from the high of training. When it’s go time, I want you to dial it up to 10 and let it eat. Once training is over, though, you need to come down because walking around all day in deadlift rage mode is not good.  You want to turn it on when you walk into the gym, but then turn it off before you leave.

This gets into autonomics and appreciating the difference between sympathetics (fight or flight) and parasympatheics (rest and digest).  If you want to maximize your recovery outside the gym, you need to drive parasympathetic tone.

Here’s an easy way to think about it.

Imagine you’re out walking around the Serengeti when a lion appears out of nowhere.  Immediately your heart rate shoots through the roof, you dump norepinephrine into your bloodstream, and you shut down any and all physiological functions that are not 100% essential to your survival right now. That means things like digesting your food, sex, and sleep.  All things we like, but none matter if you don’t get away from this lion.

Well, when you don’t come down from deadlift rage mode, you are running from a lion all day, and it’s detrimental to your other functions.  Remember, when you’re in the middle of this massive stress response, anything that’s not 100% essential to your survival gets shut down, and you won’t be able to make deposits into your bank account.

So, before you leave the gym, I want you to be like a chilled-out hippie panda bear. 

Here are my favorite drills to make that happen:

• Lie on your back with your feet up on a box or bench, close your eyes, listen to white noise, and focus on your breath for 3-5 minutes.

• Sit in a deep squat while holding onto a band or bar 2-3 inches above the ground, close your eyes, listen to white noise, and focus on your breath for 3-5 minutes.

🙋‍♂️ What about arms and delts?

Your arms and delts will grow following the above template, but you’ll likely want more direct arm and delt work to get that superhero look. While you can add them to your training day, I’ve had greater success putting direct arm and delt work after low conditioning sessions.

First, I’ve found it acts like a reward and actually gets people to do the conditioning they normally skip. Second, it doesn’t seem to interfere with the following day’s lift in any way.³

Accounting for The Patterns and Stances

It’s important for you to consider how this daily template comes together over the course of a week to ensure you are working across the different patterns and stances and not becoming a one-trick pony…

With that in mind, here’s how I like to lay out a 3-day lift week:

Note how you are 1) working across all the patterns every day and 2) working across the entire sensory-to-output spectrum every day.

This is one of the reasons I’ve had so much success helping men transform their physique and level up their performance while feeling better than ever before.

1. These go first because they hold the power to reposition your skeleton and open up movement options you didn’t previously have.

2. This is crucial because if you want your arms and legs to work well, then you must nail ribs down and hips under (i.e. the stack).

3. As long as you are smart and don’t destroy your triceps the day before an output-focused bench session