40 Day After Action Review

This past week I completed the 40 day program from Pavel and Dan John's Book Easy Strength. On first glance, my results from this program don't look as impressive as gains that others have reported. This doesn't tell the whole story, though. What I am most excited about is that this program yielded relatively huge benefits in areas that have been traditionally hard for me to improve. Here's the program I used and the reps/ sets for the last week.


Warm Up

Joint Mobility

Convict Conditioning 2 Active Stretches

Back Bridge x 1 min

N-Sit x 15 sec

Lateral Twists x 30 sec ea side

Goblet Squats x10 w/ double 16kg kettlebells in the rack position

1/4 mile double self limiting jog at 8 min mile pace (nose breathing only and wearing vibram five fingers shoes) alternated with a weighted 1/4 hike at max incline


Training Session

One leg squats 2x5 ea leg to 12" step

Pull ups 3x3 (explosive from dead hang, clavicles above the bar)

Double 16kg Kettlebell Bottoms Up Military Press 2x5

Double 16kg Kettlebell Swings 2x25

Ab Wheel Rollouts 1x5 (from knees to forehead touching floor)


Cool Down

Plank w/ Feet against wall x 15 sec

Wall Sit x 2 min

Being a firefighter, I simply took my rest days when I needed them, instead of having set days per week. The nights when we'd have 5 or more calls after midnight were usually followed by a much needed rest day. Other than that I did the program 5-6 days a week on average.

The areas where I made the most significant gains were in gaining symmetry and balance and in stamina. A few years ago at work I sprained my left ankle and then a year later at a fire I had a partial achilles tear. As a result I've been working on mobilizing a stuck Talus bone ever since. Even though I've pistoled a 36 kg bell with my right leg, I chose to go with body weight pistols (one leg squats)to ensure that I truly was working my full range of motion. When holding a light kettlebell out in front, it acts as a counterweight and thus allowing me to "cheat" around my lack of ankle mobility. I haven't found a way to cheat through a bodyweight pistol yet, so this made it a great diagnostic for me. During the course of the program I progressed from shaky reps on my left leg down to about 3' all the way to solid stable reps throughout the full range of motion down to a 12" step. In a matter of months this was a 2' gain in range in motion in this exercise 5 years after the initial injury.

I also gained quite a bit of stability and strength in my left shoulder. I strained my rotator cuff over a year ago playing rugby and have been slowly rehabbing it since then. It was around 85% healed when I started this program, but still a little shaky. I spent a good portion of the program focusing on the stability, range of motion drills and strength exercises such as bottoms up pressing with light weights and planks with feet against the wall from Perfecting the Press, Ab wheel rollouts and back bridges, never working into pain. I did what I could, when I could and progressed naturally as it felt easy. Now my shoulder feels as strong as my right, without a hint of pain

Another area that I have long struggled to make gains in is endurance. I have always been highly anaerobic. Especially when I was playing volleyball in college, I could go hard, recover, and repeat all day long. On the other hand during the summers wildland firefighting, I was one of the slower runners and hikers on the crew. Give me a short distance, 100 yds or less, I'd get there pretty quick. For anything longer, it seemed like no matter how hard I tried, I was stuck in that 10 min/mile pace. I wasn't the first to the top of the hill, but I was always the first one recovered and ready to work. For many years this was good enough for me.

Now, after the past year of Rugby, Gorucks, Tough Mudders and other crazy endurance events, I've been looking for ways to increase my endurance. Traditionally I've tried to increase my endurance by increasing my maximal threshold, run harder at varying distances. This program increased my endurance by increasing my comfortable threshold. The book mentioned a program from a special forces operator where he practiced self limiting runs, breathing through his nose only. I started out at a comfortable 12 min/mile pace. This allowed me to relax into the run and focus on making my stride as smooth as i could. Before long, I'd gradually increase the speed as the runs were feeling easier and easier. By the end of the program I had increased my comfortable running speed for 1/4 mile by 150% from a 12 min/mile to an 8 min/mile.

Overall I absolutely loved this program and highly recommend the book. Normally I plateau after 3 weeks of most programs, but by the end of it I was still making steady gains. Another added benefit to this training was when I did it at work, I still felt fresh and ready to go for the rest of the shift. I was tempted to keep going with this program, but will cycle off of it for a few months and then gladly return to it. I'm only about 2/3 through this book, but it has already given me a wealth of information and changed my approach to training.