The FUbar
Exercises should be made harder, not easier. Harder exercises have more transfer to your lifts, but also save unnecessary wear and tear on your body. If an exercise forces you to use 10% less weight while the effort remains the same, that’s a good exercise.
Making things harder is not an excuse to lose your mind and do stupid things. Stupid things will hurt you and the best-case scenario is that you will stay the same. The worst-case scenario is that you will be forced into time away from training. Stupid in not good. Crazy is usually not good. Harder is what we are shooting for.
Like many lifters, I enjoy a deadlift bar. The bar whip, the smaller diameter and the aggressive knurling all create an optimal pulling experience. All off the mentioned features were developed to make deadlifting easier and to increase the weight on the bar. In a contest, I’m happy to use this bar every time. In training, I don’t like to be spoiled. That is why we developed the FUbar.
The FUbar is everything the deadlift bar is not. It has a larger (1.5”) diameter, no knurling and no bar whip. This bar feels like it glued to the ground from the start, but it also challenges your grip in a way that a barbell or larger axle cannot. The barbell cannot for obvious reasons, many of which are mentioned above. An axle has too large of a diameter for strapless deadlift training. The large 2” diameter turns the deadlift into a grip event for virtually ever lifter that uses it, not allowing the rest of the body to be exposed to any significant training loads. The FUbar challenges the grip, but it’s not the sole determining factor in each heavy attempt.
The Program
If you are looking for an extremely fancy program, you have come to the wrong place. We are well known for a variety of training tools, but we don’t use them sporadically or chaotically. Everything has a purpose and our tools are only used when appropriate.
If you have read any of my programming before, most know that I favor a concurrent approach. When you look at most good programs, many of them are concurrent even if that’s not their primary name.
Your training days will be split into a rotation of three days that take place in the timeframe of 1.5 weeks. They will follow the rotation of High Intensity (H.I.), High Volume (H.V.) and then a Moderate day that you can call a speed day, but I prefer to call it a Moderate Stress (M.S.) day. This day is used to contribute to power, but to also have a planned dip in volume and intensity to allow your body to recover from the two challenging days that came before it in your rotation. You will complete this rotation six times before returning to get reacclimated to establish your new PR.
You may look at the beginning of this program and see 5×5@80% and think that is more of a high-volume day than high intensity day. In some ways you are correct, but high intensity days in this program do not mean the highest intensity possible. It means the highest intensity you are exposed during that period of your training cycle. In the beginning, we want to just barely crossover into an intensity range that is appropriate for strength gains while accumulating as much work as we can recover from. As the training cycle goes on, we will decrease volume and train in upper-level intensity ranges. As you step back and look at this concurrent program, it has a very linear style, with the benefit of never eliminating any facet of the program. Only the quantity and severity of volume, intensity and power work change, but nothing is ever eliminated.
This program only outlines your lower body focused training, but your upper body should still be trained throughout the week. Follow these guidelines.
- Do not train your upper back within 48 hours of H.V. or M.S. training and within 72 hours of H.I. Training.
- Schedule an off day the day before your H.I. Training
- Train your upper back at least once per week, but twice is optimal. The day after your scheduled deadlift sessions works well.
- Do not do anything that is grip intensive in the upper body sessions that are placed one workout before H.I. days.
**How to establish training percentages on the FUbar**
In this program, you will need to establish a baseline on the FUbar so you can use appropriate percentages. You can do one of two things to establish these baseline numbers.
- Work up to a 1RM before this training program starts.
- Take 90% of your current best training deadlift on a regular barbell and use this as your FUbar 1RM. For example, my best deadlift is 804, but my best on the FUbar is 715, so it will be close for most using this bar.
| Week 1 | H.I. (1)A.) FUbar Deadlift 5×5@80% (180 sec)
B.) Anderson Squat 5×2 (120 sec.) at one weight with 3-5 reps in reserve. C.) Supine Iso Hold 4×30 seconds (60 sec.) |
H.V.(1)A.) FUbar RDL 3×12@50% (120 sec.)
B.) Walking Dumbbell Lunge 3×12 (90 sec.) C.) Glute Ham Raise 3×12 (60 sec.) D.) Single Arm Farmers Carry 4×50 yards/side (60 sec.) |
| Week 2 | M.S. (1)A.) Front Squat to parallel box 10×2@60%+20-40c (60sec.)
B.) Box Jump 5×5 @ 70% C.) Sled Drag Forward (upright) x 5 sets of 60 yards Backwards x 5 sets of 60 yards D.) Hanging Leg Raise 3×15-20 |
H.I. (2)A.) FUbar Deadlift 5×5@(80% + 2%-3%)(180 sec)
B.) Anderson Squat 5×2 (120 sec.) at one weight with 2-4 reps in reserve. C.) Supine Iso Hold 4×35 seconds (60 sec.) |
| Week 3 | H.V.(2)A.) FUbar RDL 3×12@(50% +2%-4%) (120 sec.)
B.) Walking Dumbbell Lunge 3×12 (90 sec.) +5lbs/DB C.) Glute Ham Raise 3×12 (60 sec.) D.) Single Arm Farmers Carry 4×50 yards/side (60 sec.) |
M.S. (2)A.) Front Squat to parallel box 10×2@65%+20-40c (60sec.)
B.) Box Jump 5×5 @ 70% C.) Sled Drag Forward (upright) x 5 sets of 60 yards Backwards x 5 sets of 60 yards D.) Hanging Leg Raise 3×15-20 |
| Week 4 | H.I. (3)A.) FUbar Deadlift 5×3@85%(180 sec)
B.) Anderson Squat 5×2 (120 sec.) at one weight with 2-3 reps in reserve. C.) Supine Iso Hold 3×30 seconds +10-25lbs |
H.V.(3)A.) FUbar RDL 3×8@(60%) (120 sec.)
B.) Walking Dumbbell Lunge 3×8 (90 sec.) C.) Glute Ham Raise 3×10 (60 sec.) D.) Farmers Carry 4×50 yards |
| Week 5 | M.S. (3)A.) Front Squat to parallel box 8×2@70%+20-40c (60sec.)
B.) Box Jump 5×3 @ 70% +5-15lbs DB’s C.) Sled Drag Forward (upright) x 5 sets of 60 yards Backwards x 5 sets of 60 yards D.) Hanging Leg Raise 3×12-15 with weight between feet if possible |
H.I. (4)A.) FUbar Deadlift 5×3@(85% +1-2%) (180 sec)
B.) Anderson Squat 5×2 (120 sec.) at one weight with 2 reps in reserve. C.) Supine Iso Hold 3×30 seconds +15-35lbs |
| Week 6 | H.V.(4)A.) FUbar RDL 3×8@(60%+2-3%) (120 sec.)
B.) Walking Dumbbell Lunge 3×8 +5lbs/DB (90 sec.) C.) Glute Ham Raise 3×10 (60 sec.) D.) Farmers Carry 4×50 yards |
M.S. (4)A.) Front Squat to parallel box 8×2@70%+20-40c (60sec.)
B.) Box Jump 5×3 @ 70% +5-15lbs DB’s C.) Sled Drag Forward (upright) x 5 sets of 60 yards Backwards x 5 sets of 60 yards D.) Hanging Leg Raise 3×12-15 with weight between feet if possible |
| Week 7 | OFF Focus on recovery methods that work for you. | H.I. (5)A.) FUbar Deadlift 8-10×1 at 5-10lbs more than your last 5×3.
B.) Anderson Squat 3×2 (120 sec.) at one weight with 1-2 reps in reserve. C.) Supine Iso Hold 3×30 seconds +20-45lbs |
| Week 8 | H.V. (5)A.) Barbell Goodmorning- 2×8 with 4 reps in reserve.
B.) Dumbbell Step Up – 3×8 C.) Glute Ham Raise – 3×8 D.) Dumbbell Side Bends – 3×10 |
M.S. (5)A.) Front Squat to parallel box 6×2@72%+20-40c (60sec.)
B.) Box Jump 3×4 @ 70% C.) Sled Drag Forward (upright) x 3 sets of 60 yards Backwards x 3 sets of 60 yards D.) Hanging Leg Raise 3×10-12 with weight between feet if possible |
| Week 9 | H.I. (6)A.) FUbar Deadlift 5×1 at 90-100%
B.) Anderson Squat 2×2 (120 sec.) at 1 weight with 0-1 reps in reserve. C.) Supine Iso Hold 3×30 seconds +25-50lbs |
H.V. (6)A.) Barbell Goodmorning – 2×8 with 3 reps in reserve.
B.) Dumbbell Step Up – 3×8 (+5 lbs) C.) Glute Ham Raise – 3×8 D.) Dumbbell Side Bends – 3×10 (+5lbs) |
| Week 10 | M.S. (6)A.) Front Squat to parallel box 5×2@75%+20-40c (60sec.)
B.) Box Jump 3×4 @ 70% C.) Sled Drag Forward (upright) x 3 sets of 60 yards Backwards x 3 sets of 60 yards D.) Hanging Leg Raise 3×10-12 with weight between feet if possible |
H.I. (7)A.) Deadlift with power bar or deadlift bar – 4×2@80% of best on this bar to get reacclimated.
B.) Choose 2-3 recovery methods or mobility/flexibility drills to be focused on. |
| Week 11 | Deload/Recovery Choose 3-4 restorative exercises to recover for the next session. | Final Day of ProgramA.) Deadlift with Power Bar or Deadlift Bar
80% of previous PR x 1 87% of previous PR x 1 94% of previous PR x 1 102-105% of previous PR x 1 |
Best of luck in your training. Please email or call us if we can help you. Mike@mbpowercenter.com 330-503-8141