Plate loaded backpack.

20L jerry can

I first heard about this style of loaded pack on a Joe Rogan podcast (I can’t remember which episode) and looked it up right away. I enjoy weighted hikes as I think they are excellent training in their own right and are overlooked for how important they are to prepare for longer hikes. So seeing this simple plate loaded backpack I was keen to acquire one for my own training.

The pack is really quite simple; it’s an old-school army ALICE pack with a bar on the back for loading plates. I bought a re-creation frame and straps from an army surplus store and drew out what I would need for the plate loading. The plate on the back is 200mm x 350mm and 3mm thick, the pipe is a standard 50mm pipe, 180mm long at approximately 70 degrees. I had this all welded up at an engineering shop next door to where I work. I can’t remember what I paid, but it wasn’t much, it’s ridiculously easy for a metal work shop to put together so I suspect most shops would be open to a cash deal.

With the plate made it was up to me to fix it to the pack frame. I bought four small U bolts from a hardware store, then marked and drilled where I would need them to go. I needed to cut down the top set as these would rub against my plates when loaded. The bottom bolts wouldn’t reach the plate due to the angle. I normally use one small spacer off this plate to allow the plate to sit well (Two spaces are pictured to make room for the bag below, more on that later). I finished the plate with silver zinc spray paint to prevent rust.

Total unloaded weight is 5kg (the steel is heavy) and I could load up 50kg plus on this frame.

A few modifications

One option is to ditch the plate loading and just load up the pack frame. I bought a shelf off a retailer in the US for about $5 which makes it easy to load containers to the pack. I bought a 20 litre jerry can for this purpose so I can load 20kg for water on the pack, roping or strapping it on. This works great as a slightly unstable load (a good proxy for hiking where the load is more fixed and the terrain more unstable). However this looks a little too “play army” for me so I don’t often train this. (Full respect to the armed forces, I’m just not part of them and don’t want to mistaken for a serviceman).

The shelf also makes it easy for me to attach a small carry bag to the pack which I set up when I take my dog out for longer walks where he will need a drink. I needed somewhere to pack some water for him and me, a dog bowl, raincoat, first aid kit etc. To make room for the shelf, and full pack I needed to pack the plates out from my back a little further, hence the extra packer.

Last but certainly not least are the straps I have for this pack frame. They are made by a New Zealand company (Twin Needle and Thread) and they are incredible. They are thick, wide, comfortable and extraordinarily well made. They make this my most comfortable pack by far, and I couldn’t be happier with them. The small pack is also made by them and it is of the same supreme quality. They were even able to custom make the pack for me with molle webbing on both sides.

This project took a little bit of organisation to collect all of the parts and put it together but has been well worth it for me. This is my go to set up for taking the dog for a walk around the block, exercising him, and me at the same time. This keeps me partially prepared for when I can get away for a longer hike.

Also good for weighted calisthenics

Door knob climbing holds

Inspired by ninja warrior I always keep my eyes out for potential climbing holds/ odd “fitness” equipment. With this in mind I spotted these 6 old door handles in the store room at work. They are internal ‘orbit’ (i.e. round) door handles which were missing all the other parts, which was fine by me, I only wanted the handles. So when the time came for a big clean out of the store room, I was able to liberate these handles from the skip bin.

These were a little bit tricky to work with since they were obviously not built to be climbing holds. For one thing, the back of the handle is meant to fit over a large hole in a door. I used some scrap plywood to build a base, and drilled a centre hole to accommodate the back of the handle. In addition, there were parts of the handle that stuck out the back side, which I needed to drill space for as well. This is what makes the base look like Mickey Mouse. With the base built, I used some medium size tek screws (an extra beefy screw) to mount the door knobs next to my campus/hang board.

Finished base and tek screw

The handles are quite tricky to hang on and take quite a bit of odd grip strength to work with. They only rotate about 45 degrees right or left, so not a lot of spin, but the turning doesn’t really seem to be a factor in the difficulty of these grips. Also your fingers can run into the screws a little, so the fixing isn’t quite perfect.

All set up

Honestly these will probably get very little use as I don’t see them being worked into my current training program, however they were free and a bit of fun. It’s always worth keeping your eye open to find something fun for your gym/training space.

My knee

My knee has been such a leading issue in my training the previous year that I think it needs its own post to lay out the whole story, and to fill in the blanks in other posts with my many references to ‘my knee’. This post might even give you some idea for dealing with your own injuries.

Going back 16 years (to the age of 16), I broke my ankle. It took quite a bit of physiotherapy to get it moving again; I only ever regained about 90% of its full ROM, and the foot arch was dead flat from that point on.

Fast forward a few years and I found I could wear vibram5 fingers with no foot pain (I was getting foot pain in most other shoes); however I did hyper flex the large toe on that foot (most likely because I was missing ankle ROM). This old injury can pop up every now and then too (Like during this beach hike).

Fast forward some more to around 2013, I injured the knee loading a truck at work. It was some sort of meniscus issue, eventually it calmed down but was never quite right after that. By 2016/2017 it got to the point where I decided I couldn’t jump hard anymore. Not that it would definitely hurt, but the risk was too high, if I did hurt it, the knee would be swollen for a week.

By 2020 it had been getting worse, it would hurt more often and I was struggling to figure out what was setting it off. Sometime it was just getting in or out of a car with ‘bad form’.

The knee prep series from Gymnastic bodies seemed okay while it wasn’t sore, but wasn’t possible if it was aggravated. Hindu squats and toe lifts (lift big toe only, then the other four toe only, not moving the other each time), were okay, but didn’t seem to help a lot. Ryan Flaherty’s 7 way hip (Google it, or check out Tim Ferriss' podcast) seemed useful to help stabilise the hip, but I got to the point where I felt like I could tick that off as “not the issue”. I tried various knee strengthening movements but I always felt like I was strong enough in all of them (nothing ever stood out as a weak point), and couldn’t find a standout which seemed like it was helping.

Then after my 69km run at the Blue Lake 24 hour run (there will be a full post on this) my knee was trashed (surprising I know). It took a long time to calm down and for me to find something that seemed to help. Currently I’m finding foam rolling (particularly VMO, IT band and quad) appears to be helping and getting me out of pain.

Before finding the foam rolling, I even went to a podiatrist and got a set for inserts to support my arches. These were hell the first week, but seem to really be working now. This was at odds with my natural method/ancestral health thinking, but I had to try something to get out of pain. I figured my foot was flat post injury and I wasn’t likely to ever to be able to fix it on my own so I needed help.

I can make and arch, but mostly it sinks

The next step this year in getting help is going to be seeing an Osteopath which a friend of mine has suggested. (Caveat – I don’t know of the science behind Osteopathy, but it looks like it will be some skilled manual therapy and a practised look at my mobility/positions/structure. I don’t see much downside here and a lot of potential upside) My current thinking is that 16 years of less than perfect loading has not been kind to my knee, so any help I can get to fixing this going forward I will be looking into.

One last thing at say here, when I started this blog nearly 10 years ago I would not have had the money to pay for a Podiatrist or Osteopath (maybe I could have got them at the time of injury under ACC but I was 16, and could have no idea how it would affect me in the future). So I totally understand not being able to afford this. If you are in a similar situation, I would suggest you do everything you can to get your feet right (Check out Chris Duffin - foot love), make sure your hips are strong, stretch and foam roll. Then if you’re still having trouble find a professional who can help, sometimes we need help.

My current workout program

2020 was the year of the pistol squat

I thought it would be worth writing up my current workout plan which I have been running for roughly a year now. The main thing to mention up front is that this program is not the optimal way of doing things. The exercise selection, sets and reps, timing, energy systems etc, none of this has been optimised. There is currently no periodisation. This is not my version of a secret sauce, become batman/mega athlete program. That is all to say if you are looking to design a program, this is not a template, only a rough collection of ideas.

So what’s the point, why this program? The point is I will do this program. I can, and will follow it for weeks on end, actually get something done, and move the needle forward. This is the most important point - the best program is the one you will do. So I’ll lay out what I’m doing and why, as there might be some useful information here for someone looking to build their own program to follow.

The what, how’s and why’s

The central feature of this plan was to put in a lot of gymnastics volume, working on muscular endurance. This is something I struggle with, and which always held me back when working on the gymnastic bodies (GB)programs. Secondary to this was to try and at least maintain some of the other movement in the GB program. I only have about 30-45 minutes max during my prime workout time to get things done, so no there is time for extras like grip work or conditioning (Eventually I will work this sort of thing back in, but not yet)

So the first feature of my program - Day one is Monday. I’ve rested during the weekend, and I’m most likely to have time and desire to train on Monday. The things I most want to get done go here. But, if life gets in the way for any reason, I bump this workout back to Tuesday or even Wednesday. That way, if only one workout gets done in a week, it’s the main workout.

Monday:

A: GB Front lever progressions (Hollow rock progression)

B1: Ring row, aiming for 5x15

B2: Push up, aiming for 5x20

B3: Shoulder dislocates, sets of 5

B4: Deadlifts 5x5 at 80kg

C: GB planche progression

A little breakdown is necessary here. It isn’t ideal to start a workout with difficult core work, but I am terrible at these progressions; so it’s best for me to do them first to get the work in. The push ups and ring rows are the main muscular endurance work here and I started by aiming for 5x10 and 5x15 respectively, adding reps where I could. I’m nearly at a point where 5x15 and 5x20 will be my new standard. My plan is to keep this at a maintenance point for some time, while I push more energy into the core and planche progressions. The shoulder dislocates are a good movement to cycle in during upper body work, I suggest applying these liberally. The deadlifts are currently just to give me a little volume to help out my squat, and the plan is to get to 5x5 at 100kg. I’m keeping these very light, as these are not the main point of the workout and I don’t want them to detract for the rest of the workout. The planche progressions are currently maintenance, but I plan on pushing to improve these later this year. This whole workout takes me about 40 minutes, so right on the maximum amount of time that I have available.

Many, many push ups

Tuesday

A: GB Side lever progression (Core based movement)

B1: Front squats 5x5 at 50kg

B2: Arch ups, aiming for 5x10

B3: Wrist prep sequence

The side lever progressions are another tough one for me as its all core work, but again, putting it first and early in the week has meant I’ve been about to make progress on it over the year. The front squats are technique work as I’m not great at them. The plan is once I can do them at 80kg with good form to switch to overhead squats as the technique work here. Front squats and eventually overhead squats will probably take the place of deadlifts on Monday at some stage. The arch ups (an extreme version of a hyper extension) are a low back exercise from gymnastic bodies which I think is extremely valuable for lower back prep work. The plan here is to get back to doing the twisting arch ups then maintain them (these are what I would call a moderately advanced low back strength movement – proceed with caution). The wrist strengthening sequence is out of the GB handstand series, google around and you’ll find something good to follow. These are well worth including in your program for injury prevention. This workout normally takes a little over 30 minutes, so there is room for me to add something at a later point in time.

Wednesday

Wednesdays are tricky as I have my young daughter with me in the gym, so it needs to be something toddler safe, so this is kind of a work in progress (I used to do Thursday’s workout here, but it just wasn’t working out)

A1: GB handstand work

A2: Knee prep sequence

This has been the workout which most often gets dropped out. I’m least interested in the handstand work right now, and lately my knee has been giving me a lot of trouble making the knee movements too painful (I have a post in the works outlining my knee trouble). For reference the knee prep is several movements involving loading the knee in different ways, including different twisting movements from the GB program (Have a google around if you are interested).

Thursday

I’m really enjoying this workout which is a follow on from my lockdown program. This is my “add one rep” workout. (I have a whole post on this workout, so I’ll be brief here).

A1: Pistol squats

A2: Natural glute-ham curls (very big assist from the hands)

A3: Pull ups

A4: Ring dips

I started this as 5 sets of 5 adding a rep every week; working towards 10x5, then the final goal is 10 sets of 10. The glute-ham curls are only 5x5 (the first 5 sets), and eventually I’ll switch them out for a full glute-ham raise. After the 5 sets of glue-ham raise, I’ve been switching to working on hollow rocks and arch body holds, currently its only around 3x12 (reps/sets) but the goal is to work towards 5x60. This may not be totally possible, but putting in the work will be helpful. Each round takes just under 5 minutes, and I am currently closing in on 8x5, so approximately a 40-minute workout. Thursday works well for this workout since it’s far enough away from Monday/Tuesday’s strength work (In both directions), so I can push hard and get some good work in.

Pistol squat, pull up, ring dip

Friday

Day off, generally I’m pretty worn out by now, and I have a lot to get done on Friday’s.

Saturday

Most of the time Saturday is a 10km road run, but whenever possible I prefer a trail run. 

Out for a training run

Sunday

For the last little while Sunday has been 5 sets of 5 heavy back squats, currently at 120kg. The goal here is to slowly and carefully push my max squat up. Heavy squats had been done on a Monday, but they got too heavy with the rest of the work happening on a Monday. Not sure how long I will keep the heavy squats here, but its working for now.

What I’m Missing.

A big thing I’m missing here is stretching, I’m trying to get up early to get some early morning stretching down, but it’s a struggle (I have a whole post in the works discussing AM workouts).

I need more stretching

Also missing is BJJ, previously I was aiming for Tuesday and Thursday, but energy levels with a new child was difficult, and 2020 was not the year for physical contact in large groups. The plan is to get my act together for a better 2021.

So that’s my current workout program. Hopefully there are some useful ideas in there for you. Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is specifically your own.

Add one rep per week

Just add a single rep per week, it’s that simple. This is a plan I have made use of in the past, particularly with difficult gymnastic bodies exercises and with weighted pull ups. If the goal was five sets of five, I would aim to start at three sets of three, then 4x3, then 5x3. Generally, I could reach this point pretty easily. My next step would be to add at least one rep, every week. Sometime I could add more reps, and sometime I had to add a 6^th set just to get the volume in, but the goal was always to add one more. I’m not sure where I got this idea from, so I can’t credit it, but it can’t have been my idea.

A new workout I added this year after lockdown takes this plan and runs with it. This time, the plan is to pick three movements, and for each one I only add one rep, and no more per week. Starting at 5x5 and eventually the goal is to finish at 10x10. This will take a little over one and a half years, all going well.

The workout is pistol squats, pull ups and ring dips. Currently the pistol squats are the most difficult in terms of muscle firing/proprioception/ROM while the ring dips are the hardest in terms of strength. The pull ups are going so well I’m considering changing the grips, or moving to L sit pull ups. In this workout I am also adding in a little bit of additional hamstring training (natural hamstring curls, big assist from the hands), hollow rocks, and arch body holds. This workout is a good place to add this volume as my core isn’t hit too hard by the low reps sets; however the core is not the main focus. I’m ok with these core movements lagging behind, or dropping them entirely to focus more energy on the main three movements.

Pistol squat, pull up, ring dip.

The point of the workout is to get lots of volume and to slowly increase my strength in these basic movements. I should progress slowly enough not to burn out, accumulate too much wear and tear or go too quickly leading to injury. It’s also great to have a workout that requires no planning, I just get stuck in and do it every week; I’m enjoying the predictability of it. Being able to do 10 sets of 10 for any of these movements is a high goal to aim for, but a very achievable too. A year and a half (I think) is a reasonable timeline to achieve this in, so we’ll see how I go.

So far I have gone from 5x5 to almost 8x5, progress that I’m really happy with. Each week I could possibly squeeze out a couple more reps, but I’m enjoying not running on redline, which is also good for injury prevention. Hopefully this gives you some ideas for ways you might structure this into your own training, whether short or long term. I hope it benefits you.