Never Let Go: A Philosophy of Lifting, Living and Learning

by Dan John
Kindle highlights:
Why do abs? According to Miller, when you drop C, A and B go straight to hell, which we already know is going
to impact D so fast itll make your head swim. In other words, abs support your training goals as much as they
support your internal organs! You have to do abs, simply to support the whole training system.
After finishing the five reps, rack the bar and perform 8-10 quick jumps for height if squatting, or eight to ten
explosive push-ups if benching.
I do either Tabata front squats or Tabata thrusters about twice a month. Im sure someone will comment, If
its so good, why dont you do it every day? Go ahead, try it and report back after the second day.
Try this workout, a typical workout my athletes perform about 3 times a month: Do 15 overhead squats with
only PVC. Upon completion, sprint 200 meters. Repeat 3-5 times, finishing with a final set of overhead squats.
Workout: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Front Squats with Chains
Bench Press with Chains
Pull-ups
Box Jumps (a variety of boxes used)
Deadlifts
We do these in conga-line style; one athlete starts at the front squat, then over to the bench, then
pull-ups, then box jumps, then, finally, deadlifts. Once the first athlete finishes the front squats, the
second starts front squatting, then follows the first athlete through the workout.
Kettlebell swings followed by a hill sprint of thirty yards seemed to leave the athlete burning oxygen for hours
after the workout.
Pick a lift you know. Hit eight good reps with it, then sprint away for five seconds. Rest and repeat this two
more times.
The big five lifts:
A deadlift
A form of pressing Cerutty liked a lift called the bench press.
An explosive full-body move He chose the heavy dumbbell swing.
A form of pulling Cerutty called for pull-ups and cheat curls. Cheat curls are like a power clean with
a curl grip (power curls), or that bouncing heavy bar curl you see every gym-rat in the world do when
he gets tired from strict curls.
An abdominal exercise If deadlifts make you go one way, the ab exercise should strengthen you in
the other.
Heres a great home workout that allows you to train and work on the usual issues I find ailing most people:
Right-leg Bulgarian Split Squats with the dumbbell in the suitcase position, 10 reps
Left-leg Bulgarian Split Squats with the dumbbell in the suitcase position, 10 reps
Goblet Squats with the dumbbell cradled on the chest, 10 reps
Deep Push-ups, chest touching the floor, with the push-up handles, 10 reps
Doorway Chin-ups or Pull-ups, 10 reps
Ab Wheel, 10 reps

Try to do these six exercises one after another straight through without resting much between
movements. Repeat this sequence, after a minute or two of rest, three to five times.

How do you get yourself to do all or most of these movements? A good coach can program these easily, but let
me add one more point. Ill again repeat Dan Gable: If its important, do it every day. Do all the movements
or most of them in the daily movement warm-up! Ive stolen an idea from both Steve Javorek and Alwyn
Cosgrove: Do complexes to warm up. Heres one of mine, only mildly stolen.
Power Snatch for 8 reps
Overhead Squat for 8 reps
Back Squat for 8 reps
Good Morning for 8 reps
Row for 8 reps
Deadlift for 8 reps
Do these all in a row without letting go of the bar. Rest a minute, a minute-and-a-half or two minutes, and do it
again. Try three to five sets of this little complex. This particular one is ideal for a day dedicated to vertical or
horizontal pushing. If you do five of these complexes, youve done 240 movements that cover practically all the
other moves.
Use complexes in training. (Advice I ignored until Alwyn Cosgrove made me start using them, and the body fat
just fell off me like grease from bacon.)
Ive always used Dr. Phil Maffetones original definition that fitness is the ability to do a task.
The 100-rep Challenge: I once entered a friendly 100-reps competition. Nothing to the rules: 100 singles with
an exercise. Not ten sets of ten, mind you... 100 singles. The first time I tried it, I did squat snatches with 165
pounds. That was insane. I lost about six pounds the few days after the attempt. I think most of it was skin off
my hands. Another time, I power cleaned 205 for a hundred. Another, I clean and jerked 185 pounds. I also
front squatted 255 for a hundred singles. Unrack, squat, rack, rinse and repeat. It will take you a few hours.
You will be changed.
Rungs and Ladders Workout With the seventy-pound kettlebell, I do the following:
With the left arm: 1 clean and press
With the right arm: 1 clean and press
1 pull-up
With the left arm: A clean and press followed by another clean and press
With the right arm: A clean and press followed by another clean and press
2 pull-ups
With the left arm: A clean and press followed by another clean and press followed by another clean
and press
With the right arm: A clean and press followed by another clean and press followed by another clean
and press
3 pull-ups
After a short rest, I repeat this for a total of five sets correctly these are called ladders.
Abdominal and Rotational Assistance
135-pound barbell rollout for 8 (and no, I dont think going heavier is the key here)
Left-arm kettlebell bench press for 8
Right-arm kettlebell bench press for 8
I do this circuit for a total of three sets.
Revelation says it best: You are lukewarm and I shall spit you out. Moderation is for sissies.

Hesiod, the Greek historian, noted, Observe due measure, moderation is best in all things. Yeah, but what
could Hesiod bench press? Plato, noted for underperforming in the squat, said, We should pursue and
practice moderation.
Here is one thing: sleep. I can often improve an athletes career merely by insisting on going to bed earlier.
Sleep is free and it does wonders for the hormone profiles, recovery process and fat burning. Fat burning?
Sure, do you eat while you sleep? For most of us, the answer is no.
Your P.E. teacher and the drill sergeant were both right: Push-ups do wonders. Not only does the standard
push-up work the upper bodys pushing muscles, it is also a great exercise for that loathesome term, the core.
Im amazed as I work with adults and adolescents who simply cannot hold the plank as they do push-ups. Not
convinced about the value? Plop down on the ground with a dictionary lined up with your sternum. Crank out
as many push-ups as you can in one minute. If you cant do forty, I dont allow you to lift weights until you can!
Always choose intensity over volume. When in doubt, do fewer sets or fewer reps, but go heavier. Still unsure,
go faster, not longer. If you are truly interested in being ripped, join the track team and run the 400 meters. I
see skinny-fat joggers every single day at the park where I train, but you cant find a person who runs a subfifty-second 400-meter who is anything but cut. When in doubt, go to the track and run one lap as fast as you
can. Enjoy the last hundred meters of the fat-burning zone. That thing on your back is called the bear, by the
way. In the gym, dont waste your time with lots of sets and reps of not much more than baton-twirling. Pack
the plates on and go heavy!
Left-handed swings, snatches and press. 5 swings, 3 snatches, and 2 presses for as many work sets as I could
do.
One of the lost bits of wisdom is youre actually able to handle sixty-to-seventy percent of your two-handed
max with one hand. (You still use both legs, your back, and stabilize like crazy with the off arm.)
I believe in coaching movements, not muscles. I am almost to the point as a coach that we never talk about
anatomy in the weightroom, and I insist we run screaming from the pseudoscience that dominates the
industry today. Honestly, I have been told we still dont know what causes a muscle to grow and it is
obvious from the plethora of crap available on weight loss we know even less about fat. The moment one of
my lifters mentions a muscle group, I know he has been at the magazine rack at the supermarket reading the
muscle mags.
Work movements. The Big List
1. Horizontal Push (Bench Press, Push-up)
2. Horizontal Pull (Rows and variations)
3. Vertical Push (Military Press and variations)
4. Vertical Pull (Pull-up, Pulldown)
5. Explosive Full Body (Swings/snatches/cleans/jerks)
6. Quad-dominant Lower Body (Squat)
7. Posterior Chain (Deadlift) 8. Anterior Chain (Medicine Ball Ab Throw)
9. Rotational/Torque
Do all my behaviors fit my goals? Nope. So, either I change my goals or change my behaviors. Either one will
do.
The single best piece of diet advice I ever heard came from (dont laugh) peak-performance consultant
Anthony Robbins. Robbins got his advice from one of his clients. Its called the Alpo Diet. Invite a dozen friends
over to your house. Tell them by the end of the month youre going to lose ten pounds. Tell them if you dont,
youll eat the can of Alpo in front of them. Well, as long as it has gravy. For the next week, every time you feel
the urge to take a piece of chocolate from the cubicle next to you, reread the contents of the Alpo can. If

someone offers you something smothered in goo, open the Alpo can and take a deep sniff. You see, this is the
crux of goal-setting: Rarely do people improve because of the pleasure of the goal; rather its pain that sets
them toward a goal.
According to recent studies at least the ones cited in the mags my wife reads checkout line the number of
choices a person has in life is directly linked to the occurrence of depression. The more choices you have, the
higher your chance of becoming depressed.
Load three bars:
One with 95% of your best deadlift
The next with 90% of your best deadlift
The third with 85% of your best deadlift
Marks athletes would then do a single with the first bar (ninety-five percent), then step over to the second
and do a double (ninety percent), and finally step back and do a triple with the last bar (eighty-five percent).
The idea of the workout would be to do up to three of these clusters.
One of the things I do involves my workout-randomizer trick. I take a single die (singular of dice) and I roll it
three times. The die instantly changes my workout approach. This is how I do it:
The 3 Rolls
Roll 1: Lift of the Day
Roll 2: The Program
Roll 3: The Finisher
The First Roll: Lift of the day
Roll a 1: Press
Roll a 2: Squat
Roll a 3: Snatch
Roll a 4: Clean (or power curl)
Roll a 5: Deadlift (any variation)
Roll a 6: Clean and Jerk
The Second Roll: The Program
Roll a 1: Litvinov Workout. Do eight reps with the lift, then sprint.
Roll a 2: 5-3-2
Roll a 3: 3 sets of 8 with a one-minute rest. Do two exercises with this workout. Front squat
and overhead squat; bench press and incline... that kind of thing.
Roll a 4: 3-3-2-1-1-1-1-1
Roll a 5: Tabatas. Go light, light, light here! 20 seconds of lifting, followed by 10 seconds of rest
for a total of 8 circuits.
Roll a 6: The Big Fifty-five. Thats 55 reps of the lift you rolled. Fifty-five singles or three sets of
10 plus 5 sets of 5, whatever. Just make sure it adds up to 55.
The Third Roll: The Finisher
Roll a 1: Sled sprints
Roll a 2: Sleds carrying a rock
Roll a 3: Rock runs
Roll a 4: Sleds with a heavy pack
Roll a 5: Sleds with a heavy pack carrying a rock
Roll a 6: Farmer walks to death!
Note: Feel free to do anything you like here. A lot of this depends on your available
equipment.