041 : 006 Complexus XII
Session 12
‘Pump’n’Carry’
Breathing ramp up
Warm-up
Then...
Using dumbbells or kettlebells, work to the heaviest possible complex of:
3 x Push press / 15-20m overhead carry
6 x Bent over row / 15-20m front rack carry 9 x Deadlift / 15-20m farmers carry
*eliminate individual movements and carries from complex the round after you fail to hit prescribed reps
Then...
Using the final weight you were able to complete with all movements (heaviest push press/ overhead carry weight), perform a 15-20min AMRAP (time and goal dependent) including all movements and carries. Each time you break a complex perform 20 perfect push-ups and immediately continue from where you left off.
Immediately into...
Walking or seated down regulation Until you reach a comfortable nasal: 4-6-8-0 breathing cadence.
The Ramp Up
3 rounds of-
5 x Triangle breathing 7:7:7:0 20 x Power breathing 1:0:1:0 1 x Full inhale
1 x Max hold
1 x Full exhale
1 x Max hold
Consider holding a light weight in the goblet position, or performing the ramp up laying prone on the ground to provide some extra resistance for your breathing apparatus. Get a good feel for what it’s like, and what you consciously have to do in order to optimise your breathing against resistance. This will come in handy later, during the carries, but is just generally a good skill to master, if you like ‘moving large loads over long distances, quickly’.
Inhale, focus on filling from the bottom up; use your nose an breathe deep into the bottom of your trunk and lower back, before working your way up into your chest and then your upper back. Your rib cage should expand in all directions. For power breathing execute a quick but full and powerful inhale through your nose, then simply open your mouth wide and ‘dump’ the air out on the exhale. Get into a quick rhythm. After 20 reps perform 1 final full inhale through the nose, filling your trunk, and then hold. Pay attention to air hunger cues— little tremors, swallowing, fidgeting. Before they get too strong, perform a long exhale under control through your nose, completely emptying the tank, then hold until you feel strong air hunger. Return to triangle breathing and repeat for 3 rounds.
The Complex
This is a slight variation on the lift and carry complex that we looked at on Week 4 of ‘Complexus’, this time with more of an emphasis on upper body hypertrophy, but still utilising the same principles of descending mechanical difficulty, with ascending reps, against growing central fatigue. The complex ‘sweet spot’.
As in week 4, use dumbbells or kettlebells, but don’t feel confined to one or the other. If you begin with KB’s, max them out, but have access to heavier DB’s, don’t be shy in making the switch to keep the weights climbing.
Mark out a 10m,15m or 20m length; using whatever space you have available. Again, as in week 4, If you have no space to perform carries whatsoever, sub in marches and perform 20 deliberate and powerful high-knee marches between each movement, holding your bells in the equivalent position.
Perform 3 push presses, controlling the eccentrics of each rep; if you want to grow get out of the habit of simply bombing your weights once you’ve ‘secured’ the rep. Hypertrophy doesn’t care about movement standards, it cares about tension. Following your final press hold your dumbbells overhead, actively pushing them skyward, and pace 15-20m as quickly as you can whilst keeping the weights secure. Lower your bells to your sides, then hinge at the hips until your torso is parallel to the ground and complete 6 bent over rows, going from a full stretch of the lats with the dumbbells slightly in front of your shoulders, up into your hips with a strong squeeze. After your sixth rep clean your bells into a strong front rack position. If you’re using dumbbells, do not rest the dumbbells atop your shoulders, they should be slightly in front of your body; this coaxes your trunk into anti-flexion to keep your trunk from collapsing, good stuff. Cover one length, quickly. Immediately perform 9 deadlifts and finish the complex with a final length with the weights at your sides, farmers walk style. This is one round. This will test your grip, so chalk up and if you can make it work, don’t hesitate to use straps if your grip becomes the weak link. However, the variety of carries/ grips should make this less of an issue than you might think (until the deads/farmers, of course).
As you work up, avoid making huge weight jumps that will cause you to fail movements too early on. Similarly to week 4, you should be able to perform 2-3 rounds of the full complex before you have to drop then presses, a further 3-4 rounds before you lose the rows, at which point you’re left with just dead and farmers, and with any luck (and a lot of effort) you’ll be able to out-lift the weights your gym has. I’ve said this most weeks— this isn’t a race to the heaviest weight possible, this is a challenge to see how far you can drag those other movements, kicking and screaming, along with you.
The Complex Conditioning
Rest as necessary and grab the final set of weights you were able to still perform push presses and overhead carries with. This isn’t a complicated protocol— set a timer for 15-20 mins (use whatever time you have, but be honest with what you have, and what you need) and perform as many rounds of the full complex as possible. Every time you drop the weights mid-complex, hit the deck and perform 20 perfect push-ups with your hands on the dumbbells to add ROM and a nice big stretch. Don’t bounce off the floor, don’t snake your hips, turn your biceps out at the top and control your eccentrics. Basically, make your chest work. Pick back up from where you left off. You don’t need to perform any push-ups at the end of each full round (unless you really want to). There’s a balance to be struck here where you’re moving fast enough and resting proficiently enough to tick off a lot of rounds, whilst incurring as few push-ups as possible. That being said, I honestly don’t believe there’s such a thing as ‘too many push-ups’. Take that as you will.
If you find you’re struggling to string a single round together, like really struggling, not just ‘this is quite hard, isn’t it?’ struggling, then drop the weights. Conversely if you’re ten minutes deep and haven’t touched a single push-up, you either went too light, or are resting for too long.
After each round recover; don’t just passively rest, watching the clock. I hate to use a trite cliche here, but don’t just count the seconds, make the seconds count. Actually I don’t hate it, it’s a cliche for a reason. Get a hold on your breath, get a hold on your state and try to get to a place where you’re calm, but ready.
Recovery/ Down Regulation
Immediately after the buzzer sounds, come into laying or seated position with your hips raised above your knees if you can. If not, simply move slowly and deliberately as you transition into whatever’s next in your day. Wrap your full attention around your breath, observe where it’s at and begin to slowly nudge it downwards with a gentle but deliberate inhale, creating a little bit of space at the top of the breath, before slowly letting it back out under full control. Aim to work towards a breathing cadence of 4-6-8-0 and spend as long here as you can spare.
