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Back in April, I told you that I was embarking on a 25-week program in preparation for a Spartan Race Super 10k. I dubbed this plan “Project Hoplite” and it covers many aspects of physical success done in a progressive manner. My “why” boils down to a belief in the value of doing hard things. For my family, it’s important that I’m seen as an example, particularly for my son to see an active dad who puts in hard work. I want my coworkers to respect my discipline and ability to put in serious effort. As for myself, I want to be as mentally and physically capable as possible, despite not being as young as I once was. For everyone else, I want to be perceived as physically capable (if not dangerous). That’s a conversation for another day, though.
I’ve completed the first six-week block of training. This week is an “easy week” of reduced training load before going into the next six-week block. As promised, I wanted to give you an update on how training has gone so far and any lessons learned.
A Short Review of the Training
The overall plan is 25 weeks long. It’s comprised of several six-week blocks that progress from general strength and conditioning to sport-specific training for the obstacle course race. I officially started the plan on May 5th, 2025.
The first and second blocks look more or less the same. I believe consistency on your lifts is important to actually drive adaptation and see progress. Rather than going entirely on my own for the programming, I’ve been blending three different programs from different coaches.
Strength Work
First is Tactical Barbell’s “Fighter” template, a minimalist program based on barbells (duh, it’s in the name). These workouts consist of flat bench presses, squats, weighted chin ups, and I’ve also added in weighted dips. These are the “A” workouts, and they’re pure strength work.
Next is Geoff Neupert’s “Giant X” program, which is a double kettlebell clean and press density system. Every session is 30 minutes, and the goal is completing as many times through the prescribed “ladder” as you can with good technique and a controlled heart rate within that time. A ladder is some varying number of repetitions done sequentially.
For example, a 2/3/5 ladder means you do two repetitions, take a short break, three repetitions, take another break, and then five repetitions. That’s one round. You would do as many times through the 2/3/5 ladder as you can within the time limit. Geoff’s program waves the ladder repetitions up and down from day to day in a heavy/light/medium format.
To these workouts, I’ve also added some chest supported rows.
These kettlebell days are the “B” workouts, and they are mainly a strength workout with a touch of conditioning.
On Saturdays, I do barbell deadlifts according to the Tactical Barbell program. Immediately after that, I put 20 minutes on the clock and do as many repetitions as I safely can of picking up a 150 lb sandbag and bringing it to my shoulder. I’ll typically finish these off with some bicep curls. Because…guns.
I alternate the A and B workouts on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in an A-B-A-B-A-B format. That means I do them each three times over the course of two weeks. Each workout is performed every four to five days.
What About Conditioning?
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’m running Mike Perry’s Building the Engine fan bike program. This is purpose built for something like a Rogue Echo Bike, though any air bike will do (or even the C2 BikeErg if you’re smart about it). The program is entirely interval training. You’re supposed to perform it three days per week, and each session has varying levels of intensity, duration, and number of rounds for each interval.
Since I’m doing this twice per week, it means I’m turning an eight-week program into a 12-week program- lining up perfectly with two six-week blocks of training.
On top of that, I’ve been using Sundays to do steady low intensity work on the C2 BikeErg.
The Findings So Far
This plan is quite the balancing act. I’ve been successful so far, and will talk numbers in a second, but I also think there’s opportunity for some things to go better were I being more focused on a specific goal.
I’ve held about the same bodyweight for the last six weeks, which is what I wanted to do. That said, my pants also fit slightly looser around the waist. I’ll continue hovering around 190 lbs as best I can for the time being.
Strength Gains
I don’t frequently (if ever) test one-rep maxes for anything, so instead I’ll tell you how I’ve raised my “training maxes” on key lifts. A training max is like a theoretical maximum number I could do for one repetition. I use this number to calculate percentages for the actual lifts. So if a week calls for three sets of five repetitions at 80%, then I figure out 80% of the training max and use that. If I hit all of the repetitions over a three-week cycle, then I raise the training max by five lbs for the next cycle.
This means that there’s been two opportunities to raise the training max over the last two weeks for a maximum gain of ten lbs of progress. Here’s the numbers:
- Deadlift: 390 lbs –> 400 lbs
- Squat: 305 lbs –> 315 lbs
- Bench Press: 220 lbs –> 225 lbs
- Weighted Chin Up: 260 lbs –> 270 lbs (AKA bodyweight + 70 lbs –> bodyweight + 80 lbs)
I’ll point out that I actually started my deadlift and squat 5 lbs lower than I wrote my max was during the original Project Hoplite post, just to give myself some runway. During the third week’s “heavy” bench presses, which called for 3 x 3 @ 90% max, I only made the first set and then got two reps each on the second and third sets. So I kept the weight the same for the second half of the block, and made all of the reps on week six.
Kettlebell Progress
I might have chosen to go too light on the kettlebells for the Giant X. The program calls for using your 10-rep max of double kettlebell clean and press. Remembering all the advice (and my own experience from running Maximorum last year), I opted to be a little conservative with it and went with double 20 kg kettlebells (44 lbs each).
I’m averaging around 125 to 135 repetitions in 30 minutes for these sessions. That seems…high.
I’m tracking the tonnage, though. Clustering them together in two-week chunks (since one week has two sessions and the next week has one session), I’ve gone from 32,120 lbs in the first two weeks to 34,408 lbs in the last two weeks. Tonnage, by the way, is just a mathematical result of how many repetitions multiplied by the weight lifted. So a session with 120 repetitions of 88 lbs (i.e., double 20 kg kettlebells) is a tonnage of 10,560 lbs.
After this first six-week block, I went ahead and tested my repetition max (RM) with double 24 kg bells and got a solid 10 repetitions. My personal best was 8 reps after completing Maximorum last year. Since The Giant X calls for using your 10 RM, I’m thinking that I’ll bump up to the next weight and begin the X2 plan. I could continue on where I left off in the plan for the next six weeks, but I think that would be a mistake given Geoff’s planning assumes I’ve accumulated volume with the 10 RM along the way.
Bonus: I also tested my snatch, and got a good three repetitions on each arm with the 32 kg / 70 lb kettlebell. That’s also a new personal best, and the first time I’ve ever snatched the 32 kg.
Conditioning
Building the Engine is TOUGH. I’m enjoying it, but the sessions definitely take a lot out of me. The program doesn’t call for it, but I find myself taking 1 to 3 short breaks during many of the sprint sessions. If it calls for 16 rounds of short sprints with a 30-second rest, I’ll probably end up taking a one-minute break somewhere after the 8th round and again after the 12th.
Given the choice of letting my heart rate continue to climb but losing power in my sprints, or taking the break and making sure I keep a sustained level of power for each sprint, I’m opting for “quality” in the sprint first.
The “long interval” sessions are surprisingly tough owing to the workouts taking much more time. Those take upwards of 45 to 55 minutes to complete, whereas the shorter sprint interval sessions are done in 10 to 20 minutes.
Bonus: Sandbag Gains
When I started this program, I had only ever brought the 150-sandbag from the ground to shoulder one time. It was ugly, too.
I’m not doing the sandbag sessions on the heaviest deadlift days. That means I’ve done four sessions over the six weeks. In Week 1, I managed 14 repetitions in 20 minutes. During Week 5 (I didn’t do it in Weeks 3 or 6), I got that up to 24 repetitions in 20 minutes. A lot of that is probably technique improvement, but it’s still progress!
Double Bonus: New Records
One more thing, my app tells me that I’ve hit 27 new records in the last six weeks. It may be slow and steady, but the needle is moving as I add 5 more pounds here, or an extra rep there. Done consistently over time, this is how you make serious progress.
Onward to the Next Block
The next block looks a lot like the first one. I’ll keep the same rotation of workouts throughout the week. Because of the new kettlebell weight selection, I’m cutting the back half of the Giant X1 block and moving to the X2 block I had planned later this year. That lets me start over with accumulating volume with a new set of weights, and adds some variety to the lifts.
Building the Engine continues on to the second half of the program. The intervals get longer and the intensities go higher from here.
As much as I like the sandbag ground to shoulders, I’m debating keeping them in the next block due to overlap with the deadlift and squats on the low back. I want to incorporate more loaded carries, instead. Perhaps a weekly session of a carry relay?
Something like a sandbag load over a bar, bear hug carry, load over a bar, then suitcase carry a heavy kettlebell for a distance? Repeat that for some number of rounds. I like it. Let’s do that.
Feeling good so far, so the work continues.
What’s In Your Training?
Now that I’ve laid out what my recent training looks like, what have you been up to? Put it down there in the comments.
Thanks for the update, I like the integration of the Giant and TB.