A Decade of Lifting: The Programs That Brought Me to Now

Training goals change — sometimes slowly, sometimes all at once.

When I first started lifting, it was mostly about how I looked. Building muscle, cutting fat, chasing the usual symmetry. And honestly, that goal worked. It gave me structure, consistency, and a reason to show up. But over time, that reason started to shift. The gym became less about appearance and more about function — and eventually, something closer to efficient movement and cardiovascular endurance.

Phase I: Calisthenics — Unstructured, But Consistent

Before I ever touched a barbell, I started with bodyweight movements. Push-ups, pull-ups, planks, crunches — whatever I could manage with minimal equipment and no gym membership. I added ankle weights to leg raises. At the time, I cared more about hitting my numbers and never missing a day than doing things efficiently.

Looking back, it wasn’t the best way to build muscle. But it gave me just enough visible change to keep going.

There was something appealing about the simplicity — no machines, no structure, just reps. It wasn’t sustainable, but it served its purpose. It got me into a routine, even if that routine leaned a little obsessive.

What it looked like:

• Frequency: 7 days a week, no exceptions (again, not recommended)
• Structure: 4–5 rounds of:
  • 20–25 push-ups
  • 20–25 pull-ups
  • 20–25 hanging leg raises (often with ankle weights)

If I couldn’t hit all the pull-ups in one go, I’d rest for a few seconds and finish the reps before moving on. I didn’t track rest times. I didn’t program progression. I just committed to doing the same thing, every night. Obsessive? Probably. But it gave me structure — and that consistency carried me to where I am now.

Phase II: Stepping Into the Weight Room

After months of doing bodyweight routines on my own, my training started to shift — not because I was chasing something different, but because football required it. Lifting became part of the schedule. We trained together as a team, moved through full-body workouts four days a week, and followed whatever program the coach put in front of us.

It was a noticeable change. Barbells instead of pull-up bars. Racks, plates, timers, and someone always watching your form. There was structure now — and accountability. I wasn’t just working out because I felt like it. I was part of a system, expected to show up and push through it with everyone else.

Looking back, the structure of our football team’s program actually resembled a basic anterior/posterior split, even if I didn’t realize it at the time. Two of the four training days leaned heavily into anterior-chain work — think squats, bench press, and core. The other two focused more on the posterior chain: deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, RDLs — along with shoulder work and some upper back accessories.

We weren’t calling it a push/pull split, and we definitely weren’t optimizing rest intervals or individual recovery. But the balance was there. It trained the whole body, kept things from feeling repetitive, and built a foundation of strength that carried over into sport.

What it looked like:

Frequency: 4 days per week
Style: Full-body strength with a lean toward an anterior/posterior split

We trained four times a week — typically two sessions focused on anterior chain movements (squats, bench press, lunges, core), and two days centered around the posterior chain (deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, RDLs). Shoulders showed up often across both.

Each day combined:

• A primary compound lift (e.g., squat, deadlift, bench) with progressive loading
• Paired accessory movements like incline dumbbell press, lunges, or curls
• Plyometrics or explosive work, often coached (box jumps, hang cleans, etc.)
• Ab circuits and partner-based finishers like medicine ball work or static holds

Phase III: Training Without a Playbook

By the time I got to college, I wasn’t training for a sport anymore — I was training for myself. But without a coach, team, or program to follow, I had to figure out what that actually meant.

The structure I’d relied on in high school was gone. No set lift times, no shared workouts, no consequences for skipping a session. What replaced it was a mix of freedom, experimentation, and — for better or worse — inconsistency.

I tried a little of everything: bro splits, push-pull-legs, upper-lower, full-body routines. I tracked progress for a few weeks, then abandoned it. I'd chase size one month, performance the next. It was messy, but it was mine.

To be fair, the shift didn’t come out of nowhere. Toward the end of high school, I had already started lifting outside of football — extra late-night sessions geared toward aesthetics, layering isolation work on top of the team’s strength program. So when college came around, I just leaned further into that freedom.

But the freedom came with friction.

Without a team or coach setting the direction, I was left to write my own programs — and that turned out to be harder than I expected. I quickly realized just how many variables were involved:

• What’s the main goal of this program?
• How should I structure micro, meso, and macrocycles?
• What order should the exercises go in?
• Should I be using linear, undulating, or block periodization?
• Am I doing enough? Too much? The right kind of volume?

I’d start a new plan and follow it for a couple of weeks — only to abandon it as soon as I came across something that looked more optimal. The anxiety of making the “wrong” choice kept me from sticking to any of them for long. I wasn’t just training anymore — I was second-guessing every set.

The irony was, I probably could’ve made solid progress on any of those programs if I’d just stuck to one. But I kept jumping ship, chasing some hypothetical version of “better.”

Eventually, even with all the overthinking, a pattern started to form.

Most of the programs I gravitated toward — or pieced together myself — ended up following a basic upper/lower split across four main training days. It was simple enough to stay consistent with, but flexible enough to plug in different goals.

On top of that, I usually added one or two extra sessions each week that focused on the muscle groups I cared most about at the time — usually shoulders and arms. Not the most balanced setup, but I wasn’t trying to win a powerlifting meet. I wanted to feel good, look a little better, and keep training fun.

This phase didn’t last forever — it mostly spanned freshman to junior year of college. But in that window, the training pattern stayed relatively consistent. Even though I kept bouncing between different programs, most of them followed a similar structure underneath the surface.

What It Looked Like

Frequency: 4 main days + 1–2 optional focus sessions
Structure: Upper/Lower Split + Targeted Accessories

Weekly Breakdown:

• Monday: Upper Body (push/pull mix, heavy focus)
• Tuesday: Lower Body (squats, deadlifts, posterior chain)
• Wednesday: Rest or light cardio/stretch
• Thursday: Upper Body (hypertrophy focus, more volume)
• Friday: Lower Body (unilateral work, lighter loads)
• Saturday: Optional — Shoulders + Arms
• Sunday: Optional — Abs, mobility, or another high volume arm session

This split let me hit the major lifts consistently while leaving room to train what I enjoyed. It wasn’t always optimized, but it was repeatable — and at that point, repeatable was enough.

Phase V: Back to Full-Body — But Better

At a certain point, all the overthinking started to wear me down. I had spent so much time chasing the “perfect” split or the most optimal plan that I was burning out — not physically, but mentally. Every time I second-guessed a routine or swapped programs mid-cycle, it chipped away at the consistency I’d worked hard to build.

Eventually, I took a step back and asked what had actually worked for me in the past — not just on paper, but in practice. And the answer was simple: full-body training. It’s what I started with during my football years, and looking back, it was also one of the only approaches I stuck with long enough to see clear progress.

So I went back to it — not out of nostalgia, but out of clarity.

Structurally, the setup wasn’t too far off from what I’d done back in Phase II — alternating between anterior- and posterior-focused full-body days, usually four days a week. But now, my pressing focus had clearly shifted.

I was overhead pressing three to four times a week, depending on how I felt. Some days it was strict barbell overhead press, others it was push press, and occasionally a dumbbell variation. I’d adjust the weight, reps, tempo, or range of motion to avoid overtraining, but the movement stayed in rotation because it was working — and I was actually enjoying it.

It was the first time I let feel and feedback lead the programming more than theory. Instead of obsessing over the “perfect split,” I was building around what I responded to best.

Frequency: 4 main training days + 1 optional accessory day
Structure: Full-body rotation with anterior/posterior focus
Emphasis: Overhead pressing 3–4x per week with variation and load adjustments

Weekly Breakdown:

• Monday — Posterior Focus
  • Romanian Deadlift
  • Pull-Ups or Weighted Rows
  • Hamstring Isolation (e.g., Nordic curls or Maching curls)
  • Overhead Press (light/volume-based)
• Tuesday — Anterior Focus
  • Front Squat or Bulgarian Split Squats
  • Standing Barbell Push Press (heavy/intensity-based)
  • Cable or Machine Chest Press (low volume)
  • Core work (e.g., hanging leg raises, weighted planks)
• Thursday — Posterior Focus
  • Trap Bar Deadlift or Rack Pulls
  • Barbell or Dumbbell Row
  • Hamstring or Glute Accessories
  • Dumbbell Overhead Press (moderate reps/tempo focused)
• Friday — Anterior Focus
  • Safety Bar Squat or Goblet Squat
  • Barbell Overhead Press or Push Press (medium intensity)
  • Lateral Raises, Incline Curls
  • Optional Core / Mobility Finisher
• Saturday or Sunday — Optional Accessory Day
  • Focus: Shoulders, Arms, Mobility
  • Lighter work, no compound lifts
  • Often included a chest focused press variation to maintain some balance

This layout kept things focused but flexible. It respected recovery without sacrificing frequency — especially for the lifts that were clearly driving results.

I also started weaving in more cardio during this phase. The previous stretch of training had included almost none, and I could feel it — even short bursts of conditioning left me winded. So I began reintroducing low-to-moderate intensity sessions a few times a week, just enough to rebuild some baseline endurance without interfering with recovery.

Phase VI: Learning to Like Endurance

Over the past 6–8 months, my training has been shaped by something a little different: HYROX.

HYROX is a fitness race that combines running with functional exercises — think sled pushes, rowing, lunges, and wall balls. You run 1 kilometer, stop to complete a workout station, then run again. That cycle repeats eight times, each station testing a different aspect of strength and endurance.

Here’s the full breakdown of a HYROX race:

• 1km Run
• 1,000m Ski Erg
• 1km Run
• 50m Sled Push
• 1km Run
• 50m Sled Pull
• 1km Run
• 80m Burpee Broad Jumps
• 1km Run
• 1,000m Row
• 1km Run
• 200m Farmers Carry
• 1km Run
• 100m Sandbag Lunges
• 1km Run
• 100 Wall Balls

It’s tough, but the challenge is what drew me to it. Training for HYROX has brought structure back into my workouts in a way that feels purposeful without being obsessive. I follow a recurring 8-week training cycle, each phase building a little differently.

My 8-Week HYROX Training Cycle:

Weeks 1–2: Base
The focus here is just getting comfortable with the movements and building a solid aerobic foundation.

• Easy-paced runs paired with lighter strength circuits
• Exercises like sled pushes, carries, and lunges done at moderate effort
• Less about speed, more about consistency

Weeks 3–4: Pace
These weeks start to focus on effort management. You’re learning how to pace yourself during workouts that alternate running and lifting.

• Short intervals on the treadmill or outside
• Workouts that blend slightly faster runs with harder stations
• One longer workout per week that mimics a mini HYROX event

Weeks 5–6: Accelerate
This is the most demanding stretch — intensity goes up and the workouts are closer to race conditions.

• Three fast-paced sessions per week with a mix of running and stations
• One long endurance-style session
• A few lighter sessions mixed in for recovery

Week 7: Prime
Volume drops a bit to give your body a break, but you still move with intent. The goal is to feel ready, not tired.

• Fewer sessions overall
• A mix of easy cardio and short, crisp intervals
• A bit more attention on recovery and mobility

Week 8: Race Week
This is where you ease off completely. The goal isn’t to push — it’s to feel good heading into the race.

• Just enough activity to stay sharp
• Mostly light workouts or movement-based sessions
• Focus shifts toward mental prep and feeling rested

Between Blocks: Resetting Without Stopping

After each 8-week block and competition, I usually take a some time to pull back. I still train, but it’s more relaxed. I’ll step away from the running circuits and get back to the basics — strength training, low-impact cardio, and a little more flexibility with how I structure each day.

During this time, I usually go back to:

• Simple full-body or upper/lower gym sessions
• More traditional lifts (presses, rows, squats, etc.)
• Some steady-state cardio, usually walking or cycling
• Light mobility or recovery work I may have neglected

It’s a nice way to reset both mentally and physically before diving into the next block.

Closing Thoughts

My training goals have changed — and if yours are too, that’s not something to fight. That’s growth.

I still care about how I look — I won’t pretend otherwise. But now, that’s just one part of a bigger picture. These days, I’m training to feel good long term: to stay mobile, keep my heart healthy, and have enough energy to move through life without feeling drained by it. I want to stay strong, but I also want to stay moving — not just next year, but in my 50s, 60s, and beyond. That’s the balance I’m working toward.

One thing that hasn’t changed is what the gym gives me: space. It’s one of the few parts of my day where I can truly unplug. No notifications, no expectations — just a playlist and an hour or so of movement that’s mine. Some days I push. Other days I coast. But I always leave feeling better — clearer, calmer, more like myself.

So if your goals are shifting, or you’re not sure what phase you’re in, that’s okay. You don’t need a perfect plan — you just need a reason to show up. And that reason might evolve more than once.

The important part is that you keep coming back. Not to chase some ideal version of yourself — but to support the one that’s already here.