12 Week Apex Hybrid Performance Fitness Plan (Part 2)

12 Week Apex Hybrid Performance Fitness Plan: Changes

In part two of the plan, we’ve changed the programming style. The schedule is roughly the same as it started. You can expect leg day to be on the same day it always was. However, you’ll note that the lifts are now approaching rep maxes and PR territory.

Part of gaining strength is working with maximal loads. Your body has to learn how to strain under load, with good form. This is the only way to gain strength once you get past your beginner strength gains.

The other big change is the cardio. Most of the cardio is very simple. It’s split into heart rate / power training zones, depending on your type of cardio. I’ve still included a lot of lower heart rate training in Zone 2, but you’ll notice I’ve emphasized Zones 3-5 much more.

In the last cycle of the program, there’s quite a bit of VO2 max training, to really build a lot of conditioning. Remember, to be a truly good hybrid athlete you need a killer engine, and strong muscles. Now that we’ve covered some of the ground rules, and changes, let’s get to the programming details.

12 Week Apex Hybrid Performance Fitness Plan: Week 7

If you recall from part one, I left you on a bit of a programming cliff hanger. Week 6 was half way through the second cycle, and week 7 picks up with the most challenging week of the middle portion of this program. You can see that the primary lifts are increasing to well above 90%.

You can also see that the overall lifting volume has increased. You’ll be doing more sets, as well as more weight. This is a necessary part of any progressive overload plan. You’ll find that this week of the program is the most challenging yet. You should also note that you are performing well on your lifts, and in some cases, setting new rep max personal records. Let’s talk about week 8.

12 Week Apex Hybrid Performance Fitness Plan: Week 8

Week eight of this program is a planned deload. This deload is a little more aggressive than I normally use, but it does represent an overall reduction in volume. I want you to use this week to recover from some of those nagging issues that all athletes accumulate after hard training.

A quick glance at the percentages will tell you that you’re still lifting heavy, you just don’t have as many sets as you did last week. Let’s talk about a few of the details below.

One of the most important changes is to the cardio. If you look at session 43 you’ll see that it was previously a Zone 2 cardio day, where as it’s a Zone 3 day now. Zone 3 is the power output where you start to accumulate lactate in the blood. Said more plainly, it’s where you start to switch from aerobic energy usage, to anaerobic.

You can use this guide to figure out where your heart rate zones are if you don’t have a smart device to track this for you. If you’re old school, Zone 3 is right where you can speak in full sentences but you need a little breather between each one.

If you can carry on a conversation easily, thats too easy. Moreover, you shouldn’t be gasping for air. It can take some trial and error to feel it out without a heart rate monitor or smart device. Now let’s talk about week 9.

12 Week Apex Hybrid Performance Fitness Plan: Week 9

Week nine is the beginning of the final cycle of the Apex fitness program. The schedule is the same but you’ll notice that you’re doing a lot more compound lifts. You will also be lifting heavier weights, quite often. One of the most important methods of increasing your strength is simply practicing more heavy reps.

Because you can’t do a million quality sets in each workout, I’ve elected to increase the frequency of each lift throughout the week. In this week you will bench press twice per week, and you will do some variant of the deadlift three times per week.

Each session is very heavy. As you’ll see, you shouldn’t be very sore. We’ve already spent a lot of time in the previous cycles lifting big sets, that build muscle, and create soreness. Those aren’t our fitness goals now. Here we are starting to peak for maximum strength, and peak performance.

12 Week Apex Hybrid Performance Fitness Plan: Week 10

In week ten the difficulty increases. Did you really expect anything else? You can see that on the vast majority of the barbell lifts you’re finishing with a technical max or as heavy as possible (AHAP). I define a technical max as the heaviest weight you can lift with perfect form. As heavy as possible is normally a few percent heavier. It allows for some minimal form degradation. It goes without saying that every lift needs to use proper form, with sufficient safety.

The other big change to this cycle is the cardio days. Now we are spending about a third of our cardio time in Zone 2. The other days are geared towards helping your anaerobic capacity and increasing your VO2 max.

I highly recommend using cycling, assault bike, or rowing for cardio in this cycle. It’s much easier to recover from, and it still hammers your conditioning. However, if you like running, or want to work on it, you certainly can throw in running days. I would recommend those for the Zone 3 and above sessions. Try to do Zone 2 on a low impact machine. Think of it as active recovery. Next we’ll talk about week 11.

12 Week Apex Hybrid Performance Fitness Plan: Week 11

This week is the hardest 6 days of the entire program. By now you should be ready to attack this week. You’ve been killing it in the gym for months all to get ready for this challenging week. My best advice is to make sure that you’re eating well, and getting enough sleep. Recovery will be king.

By now you’ve also noticed that many of the functional fitness WODs are the same as previous sessions in cycle 1. This serves two purposes. First, it gives you an objective metric to compare your performance, and secondly, it will build your confidence when you crush your previous score.

There’s nothing like posting PRs and doing better than you imagined you could. I find that this kind of psychological boost gives you great confidence in other parts of the program, like the lifts, and the cardio. It also provides much needed motivation when you’re looking at an hour of hard cardio in the morning! Now let’s get to the last week.

12 Week Apex Hybrid Performance Fitness Plan: Week 12

This last week of the program is a deload week. This represents quite a reduction in overall training volume. That’s designed to allow you to perform well in the following week. Ideally you’ll pick something like the Murph Challenge, or setting new PRs on your bench press, back squat, or deadlift.

Either way you need to finish the program with this week. It will allow you to begin the process that actually strengthens your muscles and tendons. After session 72, I would take a few days off, and then plan out a few days of attempting your new PRs.

You don’t need a lot of planning, just figure out some workouts you want to try, and some lifts you want to attempt. I bet you’ll be surprised just how strong and fit you’ve become.

If you’re anything like me, then you’ll want to keep the gains train rolling. Check out the next section where I recommend some great follow on fitness programs. However, if you want to try my most popular strength training hybrid program you can find the details below.