Pop quiz hotshot: you’ve got five seconds to name some of Power Athlete’s most popular and well-known programs. Ready? Ready? Go.
I would bet a perfectly cooked, medium rare steak dinner that names like Bedrock, Field Strong, and Jacked Street flashed through your head before I even finished my challenge. In fact, I’d be surprised if they didn’t, since they are some of the most well-known and popular Power Athlete programs available today. And there’s no question why everyone knows about them. Field Strong, our flagship program, is specifically designed to increase athleticism and turn you into a monster on the field. Jacked Street will help you give the Hulk a run for his money and turn you into a pavement-cracking beast, slapping some serious muscle on your frame. And Bedrock has been shown time and time again to be the single most powerful program for amateur athletes and fitness enthusiasts, establishing a Base Level of Strength from which they can continue to push their performance. Hands down, there are simply no better programs on the market today to meet any of your training needs.
However, these programs do have one small drawback. To fully squeeze all the benefits out of these programs, you need to dedicate time. Lots of time. It’s not unusual for sessions to go 60-90 minutes, four to six days a week. This is great if you can afford the time these programs demand of you. But what if you don’t have that available? For some folks, the idea of spending 90 minutes in the gym isn’t just unpalatable…it’s impossible. So, what does that leave you to do if you’re in this camp? Go kick rocks?
Choose Your Own Adventure
If you find yourself in this conundrum, have I got the perfect solution for you: enter Grindstone. In my humble opinion, this is the best Power Athlete program that no one is talking about…yet. Grindstone was designed for those whose time is limited and are looking for the best bang for their buck. The new parent who wants to keep banging weights in between diaper changes and feeding times? Yep. High powered CEO who wants to keep looking jacked in a three piece suit? Definitely. Or, how about the fitness enthusiast who just doesn’t want to spend that long in the gym anymore but still wants to perform? Good news! This will keep the needle moving without the time commitment.
What’s different about Grindstone, compared to its other siblings, is that it’s built around the idea of flexibility. Each week there are two Mandatory workouts, with an upper and lower focus. These are going to take you 60-70 minutes per session. This means on a rough week, when the hits of life just keep on coming, at the bare minimum the most you’ll need to carve out in a seven day week is 2.0 – 2.5 hours to keep driving adaptation. Yes, that’s it!
From there, if you have the capacity, time, and desire, you can add training days with a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure training model. You can pick a training day that is aligned with your goals, time, and priorities, opting for aerobic work, GPP/conditioning, or hypertrophy. You can choose to do none or all three, and this can vary week to week. That’s the beauty of this program. You let your priorities and schedule dictate a training schedule that fits.
Time Is On Your Side
Grindstone has been my program of choice for the last couple years. As a huge follower of the big three over the last decade plus, I would love to be able to hang my hat on one of them. However, that just isn’t a reality for me at this moment in time. Between being a father of a 19 month old, husband, part-time stay at home dad, gym owner, strength and conditioning coach, and high school rugby coach, I have a lot of things that are putting a demand on my time and energy. Grindstone helped ensure I was still able to make progress and push the envelope in my training, without requiring huge swaths of time each week.
Beyond just life changes, Grindstone is a great temporary option if for some reason you suddenly find yourself slammed with things like cooking, traveling, shopping, and get-togethers also known as the Holiday Season. It’s not uncommon for people who are normally steadfast in punching their ticket on the Gain Train to suddenly find it leaving the station without them come November and December. Grindstone is the perfect solution to keeping that train rolling, albeit maybe just not as fast, until the mad rush of the holidays passes.
Building More With Less
Still not convinced that progress can still be made with such limited time under the bar? In true John Welbourn fashion, let me tell you a story. In conjunction with Grindstone, I started working with Sam from the Power Athlete Nutrition Crew shortly after my daughter was born. During the 3 months that we worked together, I dropped 3.3% body fat and added 5.5lbs of lean muscle (no dad bod here). This was all accomplished with hitting both mandatory sessions, prioritizing the hypertrophy session, for a total of 2-3 hours of work in the gym, and Sam’s guidance. Let me say that again: new father, 2-3 hours of work in the gym, and I lost weight and put on muscle. Sometimes less really is more.
So what are you waiting for? Head over to powerathletehq.com now, follow the link at the top of the page to find our catalog of Training Programs, and choose the one that’s right for you. I guarantee whatever your training goals are, and however much time you can dedicate in the gym, we’ve got something for you. And if you already are on one of our programs, take your results to the next level by working with one of our nutrition coaches to truly Empower Your Performance.
Related Content
Blog: Dad Bod to Rad Bod by Dave Shirley
Blog: On That Grind: One Hustler’s Journey Through Grindstone by Ben Skutnik
Blog: Romancing the Grindstone – Addiction and Denial by John Durrett
Blog: Romancing the Grindstone – Part 2 Rehab and Relapse by John Durrett
SOURCES
AUTHOR
Carl Case
Carl Case has been an athlete his whole life, playing both football and rugby in high school. After high school, he directed his focus to rugby where he went on to become a collegiate Midwest All Star. Carl continues to play rugby on a mens team near South Bend, and was part of a National Runner Up team. He found CrossFit and then Power Athlete as a way to fuel his rugby performance. He has been following the Power Athlete methodology since it’s launch in 2009 and attended his first CrossFit Football seminar in August of 2009.
After an introduction to CrossFit in 2007, Carl became a certified coach in 2009 and co-owner of CrossFit South Bend in 2011. In addition to coaching CrossFit and Power Athlete inspired classes at the gym, Carl has been coaching high school rugby since 2009. He uses the CrossFit Football and Power Athlete concepts to help his young athletes identify their goals and provides pointed instruction to help achieve those goals.
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