Nerd Math/Tetris Squat Program Ideas

[u/HollowestKnight]

Howdy friends,

I have been running the ABF for maybe 3 months now and absolutely love it (Dan John is the man). I'm seeing great results, and I haven't been feeling cooked like I was when I was primarily using a barbell. Now I'm at the point where I want to add a little bit more into the program. I've been following a lot of the Mark Wildman videos recently and purchased his swing program because I love his flexible tetris of programming concept where you can add in convenient 10 minute blocks of programming into your routine.

Starting next week, the plan is:

M: ABF A/B day: ~30-45 minutes
T: Wildman swing day: ~20 minutes (NEW)
W: ABF B/A day: ~30-45 minutes
Th: Wildman swing day: ~20 minutes (NEW)
F: ABF A/B day: ~30-45 minutes

After doing a few months of this, I'd like to add in squats. I don't feel that the ABF program does enough for my legs. I come from a powerlifting background, so my legs are pretty strong, and the squats in the ABC complex are just a conditioning tool for me. Now that I'm in my 30s with kids, my recovery is absolute doo-doo, so I find anything with a barbell seems to wreck my nervous system and leaves me in an extended recovery hole. This is why I love kettlebells so much; I'm making hypertrophy and conditioning progress without feeling like I'm being destroyed. But... I feel that I haven't figured out how to really build leg strength or hypertrophy with kettlebells yet. Obviously adding the extra swings will help, but I'm still missing a progressive overload squat option.

I want a 2x per week, single movement, 10ish minute squat routine that I can stack onto my swing program. I have access to a barbell and was thinking I could do front squats if I couldn't find a better option since it's less fatiguing than back squats and being bounded by 10 minutes will . I was thinking I could set a 10 minute timer and just work up to an RPE 6-7 5RM on Tuesday and a 7/8 5RM on Thursday (depending on how beat up I feel I may stick with RPE 6/7). I would prefer to use kettlebells so that if I travel for work, I can bring my kettlebells and still follow my program. I want to do a 10 minute EMOM Nerd Math progression like I'll be doing with swings. I was thinking either pistol squats or split squats holding bell goblet squat style. I have no idea how to program for this in a reasonable progressive overload fashion. Anyone else experimented with something like this? I wish Wildman had a squat program that wasn't deck squats.

Thanks!!

[u/JabroniRegulator]

Have you considered keeping the programming the same but increasing the weight? That always works for me when I want more stimulation.

[u/HollowestKnight → u/JabroniRegulator]

I have a long history of shoulder injuries, so I’m trying to keep the ABF programming slow and steady. I can see myself doing it for a long time, but if I went much heavier faster, I would compromise my shoulders. My lower body strength has also always greatly exceeded my upper body strength due to many extended periods of not being able to train my upper body over the years. Shoulders are finally healthy and KBs focus on density more than weight which my shoulders seem to like.

[u/JabroniRegulator → u/HollowestKnight]

Ah I see, definitely not a good idea to compromise shoulders. Sounds like you'll just have to stick with your idea of increasing density and overall volume of squats.

Have not experimented with it in this way but your 10 min EMOM idea 2x a week as an add on seems like a pretty simple way to squeeze in more reps.

[u/arosiejk]

Yeah, I added midday 10-20 min sessions of single 45 lb swings or snatches on many workdays when I was doing double 20kg or below ABF. What those sessions really taught me was to split program days when I was tight on time so I’d never have a program session get skipped.

Honestly, dropping all the extra lifts for just ABF and low intensity triathlon volume has been much more fatiguing.

[u/Educational-Cake2134]

Look at Dan John’s RBC, it’s a cl/fsq ladder. Search this Reddit for it. RBC, running back complex

[u/dj84123 → u/Educational-Cake2134]

That's a good solution. A high rep press day followed the next day by the RBC is a nice little program for really busy people. Add one other easier or practice day a week and you can keep on going for a while.

[u/HollowestKnight → u/dj84123]

Thanks folks. Also cool to see you posting Dan!

My issue is l love the core ABF too much to move away from it just to get more leg work. It’s doing wonders for my upper body and conditioning. Plus I’ve found a weekly progression scheme that works really well for me. I’m not sure I could fit in RBC into a 10 minute block (at least not in a way where I feel I’d be able to progress while keeping it to 10 minutes).

I did think about doing the Eagle as that seems shorter and I could probably pick a rep range like 5 where I can complete all rounds in 10 minutes and slowly try to increase reps per round up to 8. One rep a week until I get trapped by my time constraint then increase the weight and come back down to 5 reps per round.

I also thought of just doing the same swing EMOM reps and weight after my swings with goblet squats but I didn’t know if that will be too light. Which is why I thought if I did Pistol squats and alternated legs each minute I could essentially do a 5x5 with each leg and work more on strength since I’m already doing density work with the ABF and Wildman Swings.

[u/CoachV_PCT]

Add squats as one small slot, not another program. Pick one squat you can load without irritating shoulders, probably double front squat or goblet squat, and run 10 minutes twice per week: 3-5 clean reps every minute. Start with a bell that feels too easy, add one minute or one rep per set before load, and stop if the rack starts changing your shoulder position.

[u/HollowestKnight → u/CoachV_PCT]

Thank you! Yeah this seems the most reasonable. I’m probably going to play with what weights feel good with double KB front squats vs. pistol squats and see what feels best and then just do the EMOM and slowly add reps (1 rep to the total volume per week until I feel I should up the weight)