Conditioning · Reconnection — 2000m Row Baseline

Week 1 · TueTarget 32 min
7 exercises · 8 sets ahead

Eat something 2-3 hours before this session — training under-fuelled costs you real strength on every lift. If you didn't and energy is under 5/10 today, cap this session at RPE 6 regardless of the week.

Warm-up3 min

row

3 min steady · zone2 conversational

Easy, building pace into the main set.

Light Primer2 min
90/90 Hip Switches (dynamic flow)

Maintenance dose — 8 reps each side, easy.

Video thumbnail: 90/90 Hip Switch (Improve Hip Health & Mobility)

External video — 90/90 Hip Switch (Improve Hip Health & Mobility) by Simone Sports Performance.

How to do it
Setup
Sit on the floor. Front leg bent 90° at hip and knee, shin angled across your body toward the far hip — this hip is now in external rotation. Back leg bent 90°, shin angled out behind you, away from your body — this hip is in internal rotation. Spine tall, hands off the floor.
Execution
Lift both knees slightly off the floor and rotate through the hips — not the hands — to swap which leg is in front. Flow side to side for the prescribed time, each bout under 20 seconds.
Common error
Pushing or dragging yourself around with your hands instead of rotating from the hip — if you need your hands to move, you're not doing the drill.
Feel
Smooth rotation through both hips, no catching. Dull ache anywhere is fine, keep going. A sharp pinch in the hip crease means stop that rep and shorten the range.

8/side · bout <20 s · rest 0:10

Shoulder CARs

Easy arm circles, both directions.

Video thumbnail: Shoulder CARs

External video — Shoulder CARs by Functional Bodybuilding.

How to do it
Setup
Standing tall, one arm out to your side at shoulder height, the rest of your body still.
Execution
Take at least 8-10 seconds to complete one full circle — count it the first time to calibrate your own pace. Hit two checkpoints every circle: at the top, your arm brushes past your ear; at the bottom, it reaches down and slightly behind your hip. Complete the full circle through both checkpoints, then reverse direction and repeat.
Common error
Turning it into a brisk, loose arm-circle warm-up — if a full circle takes less than 8 seconds, or you can't feel real tension at the ear checkpoint and the behind-the-hip checkpoint specifically, it has become a warm-up swing, not this drill.
Feel
Steady, controlled tension everywhere in the circle, including at both checkpoints — never a swung, momentum-driven arc. Any pinch means shrink the circle until it's gone, even if that means missing a checkpoint.

5/side · rest 0:10

2000m Row Time Trial — Baseline Benchmark15 min

Benchmark

2000m Row Time Trial

5 min easy warm-up row, then a maximal-effort 2000m, self-paced (even or negative split), then 3-5 min easy cool-down row. Record the time to complete 2000m, in seconds — lower is better, tracked as your own trend. A genuinely hard effort, but low-impact and non-axial-loading, so it is safe within week 1's RPE-capped, tendon-cautious return: that caution is about heavy barbell loading, not a maximal row.

Measure (optional)
How to do it
Setup
Rowing ergometer, monitor set to a 2000m countdown. 5 minutes of easy, conversational-pace rowing beforehand to warm up.
Execution
Row 2000m at a genuinely maximal, self-paced effort — even split or a slight negative split, your choice. Record the total time to complete 2000m, in seconds. Follow with 3-5 minutes of easy cool-down rowing.
Common error
Starting too fast and fading hard in the last 500m, which makes the time worse than a well-paced effort and makes week-to-week comparison noisy. Pace it like the test it is, not a fun sprint.
Feel
Genuinely hard — legs and lungs both maxed out by the final 250m. This is a rare, gated effort, not a weekly training stimulus, treated with the same respect as the programme's gated strength retests. Track your own time trend, never a population benchmark.

2000m row

seconds
Cool-down + Extended Mobility Flow12 min
90/90 Hip Switches (dynamic flow)

Maintenance flow, 10 reps each side.

Video thumbnail: 90/90 Hip Switch (Improve Hip Health & Mobility)

External video — 90/90 Hip Switch (Improve Hip Health & Mobility) by Simone Sports Performance.

How to do it
Setup
Sit on the floor. Front leg bent 90° at hip and knee, shin angled across your body toward the far hip — this hip is now in external rotation. Back leg bent 90°, shin angled out behind you, away from your body — this hip is in internal rotation. Spine tall, hands off the floor.
Execution
Lift both knees slightly off the floor and rotate through the hips — not the hands — to swap which leg is in front. Flow side to side for the prescribed time, each bout under 20 seconds.
Common error
Pushing or dragging yourself around with your hands instead of rotating from the hip — if you need your hands to move, you're not doing the drill.
Feel
Smooth rotation through both hips, no catching. Dull ache anywhere is fine, keep going. A sharp pinch in the hip crease means stop that rep and shorten the range.

10/side · bout <20 s · rest 0:10

Couch Stretch

60s each side.

Video thumbnail: Couch Stretch

External video — Couch Stretch by Functional Bodybuilding.

How to do it
Setup
Kneeling lunge, rear shin up against a wall or couch/bench behind you, rear foot pointing up. Front foot flat on the floor, well out in front. Torso tall, ribs stacked over the pelvis.
Execution
Squeeze the rear glute to sink the hip forward and deepen the stretch. Hold completely still for the full prescribed time. This is a finisher drill only — never do it before lifting.
Common error
Arching the lower back to bring the torso closer to vertical instead of actually moving the hip forward — this fakes depth without touching the hip flexor. Keep the ribs pulled down and let the glute squeeze do the work.
Feel
A steady, building stretch through the front of the rear hip and thigh that should ease slightly the longer you hold it. Dull ache is normal. A sharp pinch in the hip means come out of the position, don't fight it.

60 s/side hold · rest 0:15

Pigeon Stretch

60s each side.

Video thumbnail: PIGEON STRETCH

External video — PIGEON STRETCH by Atomic Athlete.

How to do it
Setup
Front leg bent, shin angled across your body with the front foot pointing toward the opposite hip. Back leg extended long behind you. Hips square to the floor, not twisted or hiked to one side.
Execution
Fold your torso forward over the front shin, letting your weight sink down. Hold still, breathing, for the full prescribed time.
Common error
Letting the hips rotate or hike up to force the front knee flatter — this fakes extra rotation from the hip instead of finding it honestly. Keep the hips square first, and accept whatever depth that leaves you with.
Feel
A deep stretch on the outside of the front hip and glute. A sharp pinch in the front of the hip crease means the angle is too aggressive — back the front shin off toward a less rotated position.

60 s/side hold · rest 0:15

Wall Pec Stretch

45s each side.

Video thumbnail: Pectoralis (Chest) Stretch

External video — Pectoralis (Chest) Stretch by EmergeOrtho-Triangle Region.

How to do it
Setup
Stand side-on to a wall or doorway. Forearm flat against it, elbow bent roughly 90°, upper arm raised to that week's height — 90° (arm level with the shoulder) or 120° (arm angled up above shoulder height).
Execution
Keeping the forearm fixed on the wall, rotate your torso away from the wall until you feel the chest stretch. Hold for the prescribed time. Repeat at the second angle if the session calls for both.
Common error
Hiking the shoulder up toward the ear to fake more stretch — keep the shoulder blade pulled down and get the range from turning the torso, not from lifting the shoulder.
Feel
A steady stretch across the chest and front shoulder. Any sharp pinch inside the joint means back off the height or how far you rotate. Either shoulder sharpening at all is your signal to stop that side.

45 s/side hold · rest 0:15

Cross-Body Shoulder Stretch

30s each side.

Demonstration of Cross-Body Shoulder Stretch, start position

30 s/side hold · rest 0:15

Dead Hang

60s, full relax through the shoulders and lats.

Video thumbnail: Dead Hang

External video — Dead Hang by OPEX Fitness.

How to do it
Setup
Both hands on a pull-up bar, roughly shoulder-width, full overhand grip. Step or jump off the floor so your entire bodyweight hangs.
Execution
Consciously release any bracing, then check yourself against two signs of a true passive hang: your shoulders should ride up noticeably closer to your ears than when you're standing, and your ribcage should feel like it's lengthening away from your hips. If your shoulder blades are still pulled down and your neck looks the same as standing, you're still actively hanging — let it go and check the two signs again. Hang and breathe for the full prescribed time.
Common error
Actively pulling the shoulder blades down ('active hang') without noticing you're doing it — this is the default position most lifters hold from habit. The two-sign check in execution is how you catch it.
Feel
A gentle traction pulling through the shoulders and lats, grip working the forearms, shoulders visibly higher than your standing posture. Any pinching in the shoulder means come down and shorten the next hold.

60 s hold · rest 0:15

RPE — lifting sets

Rate of Perceived Exertion — reps in reserve (RIR) is how many more reps you had left.

10
RIR 0
Maximal effort.
Never programmed as a target in this plan.
9
RIR 1
One more rep was there, barely.
8
RIR 2
Two clean reps left in the tank.
7
RIR 3
Three left — working hard, not grinding.
6
RIR 4
Solid work, far from failure.
≤5
RIR 5+
Warm-up / ramp effort.

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Effort — mobility & primer sets

Effort against your own end range — RIR ("reps in reserve") doesn't apply to a hold or an isometric, so this scale describes how hard the contraction felt instead.

8
Hard end-range contraction — right at the edge, just barely maintained for the prescribed hold.
The peak-week PAILs/RAILs target — held, never exceeded.
6–7
Strong contraction, real effort, comfortably sustained for the hold.
4–5
Moderate — a working ramp, noticeable but not straining.
2–3
Light ramp — could hold this all day.

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Tempo

What to do: pick a weight that lets you hit the prescribed reps at the prescribed RPE while moving at this tempo, then log what actually happened. That's the whole job — everything below is only for when you want to know why.

Reading the four numbers

3-1-1-0
Eccentric (lowering) · pause at the bottom · concentric (lifting) · pause at the top — each number is seconds. This example, this programme’s Week 1 back squat, is 3s down, 1s paused in the hole, 1s up, no pause at the top.
3-3-X-0
"X" in place of a number means move that phase explosively — as fast as you genuinely can, not on a count. This example, Week 6’s back squat, is 3s down, 3s paused at the bottom, drive up as hard and fast as possible, no pause at the top.

Why this programme prescribes it

It standardises the stimulus. A rep's difficulty depends on how fast it's performed, not only the weight and rep count — the same weight moved faster is an easier rep. Writing the tempo down is what makes “RPE 7” mean the same thing this week and next; without it, RPE stops being comparable week to week.

This is a measurement/programming argument, not a muscle-growth claim on its own.

It removes momentum. A controlled lowering phase and a real pause at the bottom take away the free elastic rebound a rushed rep gets from the muscle and tendon stretching and snapping back (the "stretch-shortening cycle"). Without that assist, the muscle has to start the lift from a dead stop — why a paused rep feels harder at the same weight, and why it’s obvious immediately if a rep gets bounced instead of controlled.

Evidence: solid, well-established muscle physiology (Komi PV, "Stretch-shortening cycle: a powerful model to study normal and fatigued muscle." J Biomech 33(10):1197–1206, 2000) — a mechanical fact, not a hypertrophy-specific finding.

Tendon and connective tissue load differently under a controlled tempo. Tendons adapt to how they're mechanically loaded, and a slower, controlled rep holds real tension in the tissue for longer per rep than a bounced one — relevant here because this programme leans corrective (the shoulder/hip work).

Evidence: real but broader than this exact prescription. Bohm S, Mersmann F, Arampatzis A, "Human tendon adaptation in response to mechanical loading: a systematic review and meta-analysis of exercise intervention studies on healthy adults." Sports Med Open 1:7, 2015 (27 studies, 264 participants) found loading INTENSITY was the strongest driver of tendon stiffness gains, with duration a smaller factor — applying that general principle to this programme's tempo choice is this programme's own reasoning, not a trial that tested this exact tempo.

What it does NOT do: make a set better for muscle growth by itself. A slower or paused tempo is not shown to build more muscle than a rep performed under your own, honestly controlled pace.

Evidence: the best current evidence points the other way. Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn DI, Krieger JW, "Effect of repetition duration during resistance training on muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Sports Medicine 45(4):577–585, 2015 found similar hypertrophy across repetition durations from 0.5 to 8 seconds each — and very slow reps (over roughly 10s) came out WORSE, not better.

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