New training starts Monday, May 13! Each training cycle of Persist builds on itself week to week. Take a look to see what’s coming in each track. Or try the Track Quiz to find your perfect track.
A Note From Marcus
We are rolling from one 6 week cycle to the next in May. Be prepared to build on what you saw in the past. Our training schedules and splits will stay consistent, but be prepared for new movements and new training formats to show up next Monday.
If you are new to PERSIST, I suggest picking a program track that gets you the most excited. Then, select a number of days per week that you feel confident you can commit to. From there, try to do just that. No need to do MORE. As the weeks and months go by you can always add more if you feel inspired.
Training is here to be supportive to a great life. Training doesn’t have to be your life.
PERFORM 5x/Week
In this cycle in PERFORM, the Strength Intensity lifts you will see are the Barbell Bench Press, Back Squats, the full Snatch, Dips and Pull Ups, and Deficit Sumo Deadlifts.
I would love to see you focus on your strict pull up and dip strength this cycle and make some measurable improvements there. Be sure to reach out to our coaching team if you need help scaling to make progress.
There is a ton of conditioning format variety this cycle. With 5 days of conditioning and 2 hot starts, you will likely see several formats you like, and 1-2 that aren’t your favorite. I encourage you to lean into those ones that aren’t your favorite and find a way to get the most value from them.
Lastly, there are two days where we will explore kipping gymnastics. If you aren’t confident or comfortable doing those movements you can use the alternative options presented, or ask our coach support team for suggestions.
WEDNESDAY GRINDERS
20min AMRAP @ 75-80% Effort
40/32 Cal Row
10 Rower Pike Up
10 KB Front Rack Tall Kneeling to Standing 53/35lbs
100 feet KB Rack Carry 53/35lbs
(Begin your carry after you stand up from your last Tall Kneeling to Standing)
PUMP Condition 3x/Week
The Pump 3x/week programs are all written with Full Body Splits. You’ll hit all the major movement patterns on each day of training. Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, and Core, with a mixture of unilateral work and bilateral work throughout the wek.
The Strength Intensity lifts that you will train this cycle are the Flat Bench Press, Sumo Deadlift, and Back Squat. Expect to see slight variations in these movement patterns week to week. Little variations help widen your movement ability and keep you engaged, but are similar enough each week to allow you to progress nicely.
Look out for accessory strength training in our Strength Balance sections. These often hit smaller muscle groups like dumbbell twist curls, dips, and dumbbell glute bridges.
We have 3 unique styles of conditioning workouts this cycle. The goal is to give you enough variety to train different qualities of your cardiovascular system, muscle endurance, and remain engaged in something different each day.
FATIGUED ABDOMINAL FRIDAY
7 min running clock
2-4-6-8-10-12… (add 2 reps per round)
Weighted Hanging Knee Tucks (35/20) or BW Hanging Knee Tucks
*Between every round of knee raises, perform 6 Box Step up (3/side)
Right into
7 min running clock
2-4-6-8-10-12… (add 2 reps per round) “GHD Sit Ups or Anchored Sit-ups
*Between every round of tucks, perform a 5/4 Cal Bike
On your off days I encourage you to get in about 30mins of movement in the form of a walk or light cardio movement. We give you suggestions and mobility routines on the off days that you are welcome to follow. But they are optional.
PUMP CONDITION 5x/Week
For the training split, there will be two Upper body days on Monday and Saturday. These will be Push and Pull focused to hit the big muscles of the upper body. Then on Tuesday and Friday you will see lower body days. These will include squatting and hinging. We call this a Regional Body Part Split.
For Wednesday, expect a day that will focus on your arms and core. This middle day of the week is a great day to break up the big lifts with some smaller movements and slightly varied strength and conditioning formats.
The Big lifts that you will train this cycle are the Flat Bench Press, Strict Pull Ups, Strict Dips, Sumo Deadlifts, and Back Squat. Expect to see slight variations in these movement patterns week to week. Slightly variations help widen your movement ability, help keep you engaged, but are similar enough each week to allow you to progress nicely.
Look out for accessory strength training in our Strength Balance sections. These often hit smaller muscle groups like dumbbell twist curls, dips, and Dumbbell glute bridges.
We have 5 unique styles of conditioning workouts this cycle. The goal is to give you enough variety to train different qualities of your cardiovascular system, muscle endurance, and remain engaged in something different each day. On the intervals days remember to go hard and fast, and on the days with longer continuous workouts just find a good pace.
FATIGUED LOWER BODY
4-5 Sets
15/12 cal Bike
4 DB Thruster
4 DB Front Squats
8 Alternating DB Suitcase Reverse Lunges
24 Double Unders or 36 Single Unders
-rest 90 second between sets-
On your Thursday Rest Day I encourage you to get in about 30mins of movement in the form of a walk or light cardio movement. There is an optional gym session idea for movement and mobility flow if you are looking for ideas. Sunday is a great day to give your body a full rest if you hit all 5 sessions in a week.
Pump Lift 3x/Week
Both of the Pump 3x/week programs are all written with Full Body Splits – but Pump Lift replaces muscle-focused conditioning work with additional time for lifting. You will see a Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, and Core exercise, with a mixture of unilateral work and bilateral work throughout the week.
This doesn’t mean that you will necessarily have a chest exercise every day, but rather a pushing exercise that will target the chest, shoulders, triceps, or combination of all three. You can also use the Pump Condition track any time you feel like a little extra conditioning.
The Big lifts that you will train this cycle are the Flat Bench Press, Sumo Deadlift, Split Squat, Strict Dips, Strict Pull Ups, and Back Squat. Expect to see slight variations in these movement patterns week to week. Slightly variations help widen your movement ability, help keep you engaged, but are similar enough each week to allow you to progress nicely.
Look out for accessory strength training in our Strength Balance sections. These often hit smaller msucle groups. We will explore the landmine press and the meadow row, along with upright rows, dumbbell pull overs, and dumbbell squat complexes.
We have 3 unique styles of finishers for you this cycle. This final section is about getting you a satisfying pump and burn out before you leave the gym. We will hit Hamstrings & Calves on Monday, Chest & Delts on Wednesday, and Arms on Friday.
On your off days I encourage you to get in about 30mins of movement in the form of a walk or light cardio. We give you suggestions and mobility routines on the off days that you are welcome to follow. But they are optional.
SQUAT AND PULL GIANT SET FRIDAY
Every 3:30 x 3 working sets
- Weighted or Bodyweight or Band Assisted Supinated Strict Pull up; 10 reps @21X0 – directly into
- Goblet Squat; 12 reps @20X0 – directly into
- Goblet Reverse Lunge; 12 reps (6/side) @20X0
rest until the next 3:30
Loading Note: Perform 1 warmup set of 4-6 reps to determine your pull-up variation. 10 reps at this tempo should be around RPE 7 on your first set. Add weight, perform them bodyweight, or use assistance as needed. Perform 1 warmup set of the squat complex for 4-5 reps each to determine starting weight. Aim for RPE 7 on the first set.
Pump Lift 5x/Week
The Big lifts that you will train this cycle are the Flat Bench Press, Sumo Deadlift, Split Squat, Strict Dips, Strict Pull Ups, Back Squat, and the Seated Barbell Press. Expect to see slight variations in these movement patterns week to week. Slightly variations help widen your movement ability, help keep you engaged, but are similar enough each week to allow you to progress nicely.
Look out for accessory strength training in our Strength Balance sections. These often hit smaller muscle groups. We will explore the Rear Delt flys, Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts, Lateral Dumbbell Raises, bicep and tricep variations, and single leg Hip Thrusts.
- Tricep & Carries
- Calf and Lateral Core
- Anterior Core and Biceps
- Hamstrings and Adductors
- And a fully dedicated abdominal day.
HAMSTRINGS AND ABDUCTORS FRIDAY
3 sets:
1. 10-15 Physio ball or Rower Hamstring Curl @20X0 Tempo
rest 15sec
2. 10-15 Lateral Banded Walk Left, then Right
rest 60-90sec sec before going back to 1
On your Thursday Rest Day I encourage you to get in about 30mins of movement i the form of a walk or lightly cardio movement. There is an optional gym session idea for movement and mobility flow if you are looking for ideas. Sunday is a great day to give your body a full rest if you hit all 5 sessions in a week.
Pillars 4x/Week
The training split this cycle is going to be an Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower split. Two days to hit all the major muscle groups each with this approach and it continues to work well for our Pillars and Minimalist clients.
Upper body Day 1 is more horizontal pushing and pulling, like bench press and rowing, while Upper body Day 2 is more vertical push and pulling, like overhead presses and pull ups.
Lower Body day 1 is more squat focused while Lower body day 2 is more deadlift and hinge focused.
After a general warm up, we always start you with Strength intensity. This is a focused section that we want you to bring you best strength effort to. It is most important that you track your weekly weight in this section and do you very best each week to progress them. Some movement highlights that we are focusing on this cycle are Flat Bench Pressing, Back Squats, Strict Pull Ups, and Sumo Deadlifts.
We follow this section up with Strength Balance. These sections are designed to explore more movements in the way of superset, range of motion, and provide you a chance to strengthen your joints with exercises that are generally not as taxing on the body. Look for movements like the half kneeling Filly Press, Dumbbell Twist Curls, and Reverse Lunges.
You’ll finish with a conditioning section each day. While we love consistent week after week strength progressions, conditioning is where we deliver a bit more variety. For this cycle you see several Interval style conditioning workouts on Monday and Tuesday. These are work rest formats that I want you to focus on bringing higher levels of effort. Thursdays and Fridays formats don’t have rest so you will practice more sustained pacing during those.
On your off days I encourage you to get in about 30mins of movement in the form of a walk or light cardio movement. We give you suggestions and mobility routines on the off days that you are welcome to follow. But they are optional.
FRIDAY LOWER BODY COUPLETS
For Time
4-6-8-10-8-6-4
DB Burpee 50/35lbs
*10 Hollow Rocks each round
No Rest and Begin
For Time
4-6-8-10-8-6-4
Box Jump Step Down 30/24″
*100m Run each round
Minimalist 4x/week
Minimalist training split will be Monday upper body with pushing bias, Tuesday lower body with squatting bias, Thursday upper body with pulling bias, and finally Friday with lower body hinging bias. This means you will have two days to hit each of the major muscle groups with a 2x Upper and 2x Lower body split. This approach has worked well for our testers and past cycles of training.
Our aim is to get you in and out of the gym in an hour if you so desire. Stay longer and spend more time doing additional warm up sets and taking your time if you would like. But for those of you tight on time we have tested to ensure you can get it all done efficiently.
Strength intensity is a focused section to bring your best effort. Attempt to progress these lifts every week if you can. For Minimalist athletes, you may have to get creative when it comes to progressing your workouts each week. If you cannot make things harder with access to heavier weights, then try one of the following solutions:
- Do more reps than are prescribed
- Do additional sets to what is prescribed
- Move at a slower tempo than what is prescribed
Some movement highlights that we are focusing on this cycle are Dumbbell Bench Pressing, Goblet Squats, Strict Pull Ups, and Dumbbell Sumo Deadlifts.
You are also invited to bring a lot of effort to the Strength Balance sections of training. But if you are somewhat fatigued from the first lift of the day, these sections are designed to explore more movements in the way of superset, range of motion, and provide you a chance to strengthen your joints with exercises that are generally not as taxing on the body.
TUESDAY STRENGTH BALANCE
Every 3:30 x 3 sets
1. Dumbbell Hip Thrust; 15 reps @20X2 Tempo (2 seconds down, 2 second pause at the top)
directly into
2. DB Right Split Stance RDL; 5 reps @30X0 Tempo (3 seconds down, no pauses)
directly into
3. DB Left Split Stance RDL; 5 reps @30X0 Tempo
rest until the next 3:30
You’ll finish with a conditioning section each day. While we love consistent week after week strength progressions, conditioning is where we deliver a bit more variety. For this cycle you see several Interval style conditioning workouts on Monday and Tuesday. These are work rest formats that I want you to focus on bringing higher levels of effort. Thursdays and Fridays formats don’t have rest so you will practice more sustained pacing during those.
On your off days I encourage you to get in about 30mins of movement in the form of a walk or light cardio movement. We give you suggestions and mobility routines on the off days that you are welcome to follow. But they are optional.
NEW CYCLE STARTS MON. May 13!
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