I'm wondering if anyone else has experience going down this path. My personal fitness philosophy is more of a generalist without looking to become elite (or even particularly high level) in any one area. Strength is good, of course, and I have room to go- but strength at the expense of other qualities like mobility, conditioning, and aesthetics doesn't appeal to me.

So here's what I'm thinking as a long-term style of programming.

Strength Foundation

The foundation of the program is built on strength work.

• Barbell squats (both back and front squats, cycled throughout the year)


• Overhead Pressing


• Bench Pressing


• Weighted Chin Ups


• Deadlift

Not all of these might be present at any given time. Some periods may replace benching with dips and pushups, or deadlift might come out in favor of a ton of KB swings per week, but in general this is foundation.

Calisthenics Additions

With the strength foundation accounted for, I'm interested in the use of calisthenics for the additional hypertrophy and assistance work. Dips, pushup progressions (i.e. floor, deficit, rings, etc.), ring curls, ring extensions, inverted rows, leg raises, L-sits, handstand pushups, etc.

Strongman

To be clear, I'm not talking about competitive strongman. Rather, taking the tools of strongman and applying it to help push things along. Stuff like odd object lifting, axle bar work, sandbags, farmers carries, etc. I tend to use these mostly on conditioning days in the form of circuits and medleys.


The plan is not necessarily to do all of this all of the time, but to cycle the year through "seasons" with different emphases during each one. I'm wondering if any of you guys have done something similar and what worked/didn't work for you.

Doing calisthenics will get you good at doing calisthenics, but be advised that the hypertrophy is pretty low once you’re past beginner levels. I’m going to be using a strongman-oriented 5/3/1 in a few months here.

This is all basically what I've done. Strongman stuff is fantastic and there are so many options.

You can substitute sandbags for atlas stones. Yoke carries are great. Farmer's carries. Pushing and pulling things. Deadlifts from different heights and different type grips. Overhead stuff can be sketchy and easy to hurt yourself. Log press can be super sketchy. I would stay away from strongman overhead movements, unless you're competing in it. .

A lot of guys will run a normal 3-5 day program then have their strongman day on the weekend.

You can also just cycle variations in. Like sub log press in for OHP, or axle deadlift in for deadlift.

Calisthenics are great, I try to do one every workout, typically as an antagonist. So after a set of presses I do a set of chinups. After a set of squats I'll do floor slide curls or nordic curls...etc.

I have, and intend to return to, lifting an atlas stone after deadlifting or squatting.  Lifting a relatively light (175lb) atlas stone is humbling for a guy who can deadlift 4 plates for reps.  It works your gluten and abs in a completely new way.

Have you thought about programming phases over the year, much like an athlete would? Even though you may not be peaking for any particular event now. You likely won't lose much if any lean mass or strength if you move from a hypertrophy or strength phase to a strongman phase.

Or like was already recommended, add a strongman day. I did the same thing recently when I added an "athlete day" to my 3x full body routine to emphasize explosiveness and athletic movements (I box and train self defense). Try Garage Strength on youtube for some info on programming different days like strength and atheletics.

Yes, I mentioned that in the post. I think of a training year in terms of seasons with different focus areas for each season. Generally it goes Aerobic Capacity --> Hypertrophy --> Strength & anaerobic conditioning --> Power & athleticism. Each season is about three months long. There's bleedover, though. Nothing every really gets dropped, but it does get minimized. Like during the aerobic season, it's lifting twice per week (full body), zone 2 three days, and a more intense athletic day on saturday. During hypertrophy, the current set up is lifting four days per week, anaerobic one day (with strongman loaded carries), and zone 2 one day per week.

so you want to vary your workouts for strength, flexibility, mobility, and athleticism....constantly.  

sounds like
crossfit

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