Some Coach input on group 1, day two.

In total, for this fitness plan there are four different versions of day two to choose from.

I will mostly focus on the main version since the basic foundation is the same, but I will briefly touch upon the alternate day two variants you can choose to do instead. All three are visible in full in the image gallery above. For exercise group 1, the horizontal pull-up is another amazing pull-up version. Like with the vertical pull-up, it’s a proper compound exercise and will work most of your upper body.

From the obvious muscles such as the lats, rhomboids, and the entire scapula region. But this is a horizontal row, so it’s more like doing a bodyweight seated or T-bar row than a vertical pull-up. This means that you get that important and beneficial retract, protract, pull stimulus for your entire upper back in the horizontal plane.

Outside of your upper back, you are also targeting rear and middle delts, upper and lower arms, and your core. As such, I have included this bodyweight staple in all 3 day two versions for our bodyweight, outdoor gym plan.

RIR 0 to 4.

Like with day one, we are keeping RIR 0 to 4 as our go-to reps in reserve. It’s really the default effort level for every fitness plan and client unless otherwise stated.

For one simple reason, RIR 0 to RIR 4 will always deliver great progression over time for strength training, no matter outcome goals. The permanent exception is, of course, warm-up sets and any potential work sets where you are still scaling up to your final workload, or intentional pre/rehab.

In the final work set, for both of the exercises in this exercise group, push hard for that RIR 0 to 1 set and bring out your best effort, people.

Load, bodyweight, and higher.

Most people are a little stronger in the horizontal pull-up, and if not, you can easily scale this pull-up version by placing your feet on the ground, or a raised item, so you are pulling at an angle, instead of horizontal. This takes some of the load away.

The eventual goal is to do full horizontal pull-ups with your feet gently resting on a bar, or other elevated item, so you can pull perfectly horizontal from your feet, and body, all the way to your head. Once you are able to do 10 to 12, or more, full range of motion pull-ups with fully lengthened arms and scapula at the bottom position. With your chest reaching your hands at the top, it’s time to add weight to that backpack of yours.

Coaching cues, horizontal pullups, and full rom step-ups.

The horizontal pull-up really is the bodyweight version of doing a weighted seated row at the gym. Or perhaps kind of a bent over barbell row minus the hip hinge, considering the horizontal plane of your upper body.

As mentioned above, if it’s too heavy for you, simply put your feet on the ground so that you are pulling at an angle. Just like the man is doing in the exercise image above.
But the goal is to get your feet up on the horizontal plane, so you can do this exercise perfectly horizontal from head, hips, and feet.

Bottom position.

With your hand above your head, as you hold on for dear life, protract your scapula and let those strong arms and lats of yours fully lengthen. This is your start and end position for each rep.

Breathe in, and start the pull in your armpits, and aggressively pull your elbows down through your scapula, straight toward the ground.

Top position.

Ideally, your chest and tummy, head, and hips should all reach the same horizontal plane as your hands. But you go as high as you can muster.
Squeeze for a second at the top if you can; if not, don’t worry about it.

Control the descent all the way back to the start.

Jeff is spot on with his commentary down below. The horizontal row only has one weakness: it’s hard to progress the load. But, that’s where our weighted backpack comes into play; it makes progressive overload as easy as any seated machine row in the gym.

Just add more rocks or other weighted items to your backpack. No training partner needed to put awkward weights on your thighs as in Jeff’s video. And that means, no weakness and an amazing bodyweight row.

Full range of motion step-ups. 

All the truly great bodyweight, home gym exercises are proper compound movements, and thanks to our handy backpack trick, you can load them just like a commercial gym exercise with all the dumbbells, barbells, and weight stacks at your disposal poured into one handy backpack.

The full rom, step up is no different.

It’s for obvious reasons a unilateral exercise, and thanks to a proper elevated platform to plant your foot upon, it’s like doing a deep unilateral squat, over and over again. This can be challenging enough just with your bodyweight, for some, and that’s ok, if that is the level you are currently at.

You will get stronger.

Exercise and progression happen at your capacity, and with your progression rate. But once you can pain-free battle through 12+ reps on each leg, it’s time to start filling up that backpack of yours.

Here are my cues.

Plant both feet on the ground, more or less shoulder-width apart. Try to use an elevated area, this can be anything from a stair, a stone fence, a pool, or an outdoor gym machine.

It can be a big sturdy rock, a tall box, or something similar that’s located right next to something tall and robust that won’t buckle and wobble.

We want this to be your setup so you can place one hand against it as a balancing tool.

No, I don’t care about all the crazy, social media balancing acts. You are not supposed to lift big weights on unsteady surfaces. It has no benefits for your physical performance, strength progression, health, or anything else that’s beneficial.

Yes, it will help your balance.

So if you are training for the circus, keep doing those Bosu ball squats.
But for everyone else, training actual strength exercises without excessive isolation with a big effort on a sturdy foundation will elicit superior performance, progression, and keep you injury-free, too. All while improving your balance, especially so if you also participate in other activities, such as yoga, martial arts, climbing, and running.

So, find something that will let you rep away on that elevated surface with an explosive full range of motion contraction on the way up, and with a controlled eccentric on the way down.

Once ready. Place foot A firmly up on the elevated surface. Make sure your entire foot is firmly planted so you can push through your heel and toes alike.

Grab your balance support, stand tall and proud, or hip hinge slightly so your upper body is slightly bent over your elevated leg.

Breathe in, brace your core, and execute an explosive and aggressive step up. All the way to a straight leg and a strong, proud body.
Breathe in, and control the descent down.

Don’t take foot A down from the elevated area once foot B touches the ground.

Breathe in, and repeat until you reach RIR 0 to 4.

Once done, breathe in for a few so you can do the same with leg B, with the same rep range and effort. And once you are finally done with leg B, that’s your first set.

Now rest for the needed amount of time and do both legs again.

Muscle activation, full range of motion, unilateral step up.

Muscle activation for the full rom step-up is primarily the quadriceps and gluteus, but with a big enough load, you will work part of your core too, and even the quadratus lumbarum in your lower back will get some stimulus.

Talking about secondary stimulus, even your hamstrings get to work a bit on that eccentric. And the same goes for your hip adductors. Now, this is by no means a calf exercise at all, but even your lower leg will get some beneficial stimulus.

And let’s be real, if the load is big enough, even your upper back, traps, and shoulders will feel the effort. And this is great!.

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Some Coach input for exercise group 2, day two.

Despise its sissy sounding name, sissy squats ( & the reverse Nordic curl/extension ) is a killer rectus femoris exercise.
In many ways, it’s a better leg extension than what you most often do in the leg extension gym machine. And thanks to our trusty backpack, you can load it and forever improve your strength.

RIR 0 to 4.

As always with the lower body, it’s a simple case of it really progressing when you push it with both reps, load, and RIR, so if you have the mental fortitude, go for that RIR 0 to 1 set with every set.

Not to mention just how kind the sissy squat is for knee health and injury risk. So, while RIR 0 is not needed, 0 to 4 is still extremely useful. Just letting you know not to be afraid of that RIR 0 in this exercise.

Load, bodyweight, and higher.

There are people doing a ton of sissy squat reps per set, and the same holds true for the reverse Nordics. That’s perfectly fine. But there´s going to be a lot more benefits from loading up the weights and reaching that RIR 0 to 4 in that 5 to 25 rep range. Not to mention that I personally think most people would be better off using a load that lets them reach their RIR target in 5 to 12 reps.

Why?
For no other reason than the fact that you will recover better between sessions. And when it comes to our lower body, it excels at high rep ranges.

So, since we most often spam it with higher reps running, jogging, walking, kicking, skating, playing soccer, climbing, et cetera, what most people lack is strong, healthy, explosive, and capable type 2 fibers.

It’s load and explosive reps that most people miss in all of their other lower-body activities, not more of the same low load, higher rep impact.

Most does not equal all.

Some people have all the explosive strength in the world and would subsequently be better off doing more higher rep training and aerobic exercise, but most people would benefit from a bigger load and lower rep range before they reach that same RIR 0 to 4 range.

Coaching cues, Sissy Squat.

Sissy squats are easy to get right, and you do not need to worry about technical perfection.

At the top, stand tall and proud, like the top position in an RDL. Position yourself next to something, a tree, or machine, or a wall, so you can keep your balance, and preferably be able to assist a little with the push back up, by pulling ever so lightly with your arm, if needed.

From that top position, brace your core.

Lean your upper body slightly backwards, as you drive your knees forward, and downward towards the ground in front of you.
Yes, in front of you, not straight down.

The sissy squat is a leg extension, and not a traditional squat.

So unlike the pistol squat that moves straight up and down, the sissy squat has your quads and knees moving in a decline/incline up and down, all the way to softly touch the ground, if you can, and all the way back up to that tall, and proud top position.

If you have never done the sissy squat before, you will soon realise why that assisting arm helping with balance and perhaps even some upward force is such a good tweak.

Do not freestyle it as she is doing in the exercise video.

If you do more than 25 reps, add some load, good folks. But as I mentioned above, push yourself and try to keep that load big enough to reach your 0 to 4 RIR between 5 and 12 reps for an amazing quadriceps and especially rectus femoris exercise.

Muscle activation is primarily the quads, and especially the rectus femoris.
But you will stimulate hamstrings, calves, core, abs, and glutes too.

Flipped V pushups. 

Another mighty fine pushup variation.

And like with the regular pushup, this is a wonderful compound exercise for your chest, triceps, and shoulders.

Thanks to the backpack, there’s no need to stick with just your bodyweight or to rush into the wall-supported arm stand pushup. In many ways, the flipped V pushup represents the best of both of those upper-body push exercises.

The how-to.

Put your feet up on something, if possible; otherwise, use the ground to stand on.
Go into the downward facing dog ( an upside down V, hence the name of the exercise ), hands flat on the ground so you can push through hands and fingers, roughly at shoulder width, but adjust for what’s most comfortable for you.

Too wide and all you will do is create an easier exercise, and we dont want that, plus a really wide grip will increase the internal rotation of your shoulders, which might feel uncomfortable. With that said, the closer you place your hand, the more of the stimulus gets directed to the triceps. So there are no wrong options. Just a slightly different stimulus.

From the top position, you should have your ass up in the air, straight arms, and a braced core.

Lower your head as close to the ground as you can go.
If you have also elevated your hands, let’s say by placing them on two rocks, you are increasing the range of motion, which makes the exercise and stimulus even better.

Gently touch the ground with your forehead, if possible, hold for a second at that deepest position, and push up through your hands, driving that force through your elbows, shoulders, and chest.
Hold at the top, breathe in, and do your next rep.

Muscle activation is mainly in the chest, shoulders, and triceps. That’s why you do this exercise, but due to the upside-down pose and the angle of your body, thanks to the elevated feet, the biggest stimulus happens in your shoulders and triceps, relatively speaking, compared to the regular elevated pushup.

But indirectly, your core is also involved, and to some degree, especially with added load, your gluteus, erectors, and scapula.

Speaking of the flipped V pushup. In the video below, you can see an excellent version of it with your feet on the ground. Now do that, but place your feet higher up on something sturdy. This will further push more of your load onto your shoulders, triceps, and chest muscles, making the flipper V pushup/pike pushup even more challenging.

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Some Coach input for the mighty Wheel Flip, day two.

Our mighty wheel flip is the biggest compound exercise of the week. Usually, I am all for starting with the biggest, baddest compound lift of the day.
But the truth is, you can’t feed your way into a big working set with the wheel flip; it’s all or nothing from rep 1.

So I have given you 4 great exercises first to be properly warmed up and loaded in your entire body before you go for broke with the wheel flip.

Load, bodyweight, and higher.

No reasonable way to increase the load with this one, except to use a bigger wheel for even bigger weights, and smaller ones to enjoy a lower feeder set load.
You can, of course, use a box instead of a wheel and deadlift it. Or a log, bigger rocks, and so forth. That’s up to you to experiment with the suitable load and mechanics.

As for the wheel, this is both a deadlift and a push exercise in one. So I would recommend that you start with the deadlift aspect until you can handle that load in a good, injury-free way. Once you have accomplished that, at the top of the deadlift, push one leg under the wheel, like in a lunge, flip the grip, and push the wheel over. That’s 1 rep of a complete lift and push wheel flip.

Now, keep going for the next rep, and the next rep until you reach that RIR of 0 to 4.

Coaching cues, Wheel flip.

Brace your core properly, and hip hinge down in a deep sort of deadlift-like stance.

With a few differences.

You are A. Further away from the load (ie, the wheel ) so you are not lifting the wheel vertically over the middle of your foot. The load is in front of your body.
B. As such, you are driving your feet into the ground, and simultaneously driving your chest into the wheel from that squatted down, leaning into deadlift-like stance.

C,
Now, grab the wheel at the bottom, deadlift upward, while you drive through the wheel at the same time as you lift it up.
Keep going until the wheel is resting halfway up your body.

Push one leg under the wheel, like in a deep lunge, turn the grip from underhand to an overhand, breathe in, brace your core, and push the wheel over.

Boom, 1 rep down, go until RIR 0 to 4. Rest for the needed time so you can repeat it all again.

Muscle activation is primarily the gluteus, back, and hamstrings, with some stimulus for your core, biceps, shoulders, traps, triceps, and chest too once you proceed to the push part.

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Coach input: Run intervals or heavy bag boxing session, day two.

There is nothing complicated about this one if you have the desire, need, and time. Carve out a 20 to 30-minute interval session.
Either run/jog/walk in a faster pace up an incline, walk, or jog back down in a slower pace. Repeat this up to 3 times while jogging/ or slow running for at least 5 minutes before every uphill run.

Or replace your entire running session with a superb heavy bag workout.

Heavy bag boxing session.

When I say boxing, I am talking about any kind of martial arts preference, body combat, or whatever you call it.
Work the bag hard for 20 to 30 minutes, and treat it as a higher effort interval. Go hard with kicks, punches, elbows, and knees in waves.

In between each hard wave, keep at it, but at a lower pace, less explosiveness, less intensity, less power and more technique, this is your boxing zone 1/2 and it will let you ramp up productive skill and fitness building volume while recharging your body for the next wave of higher intensity effort.

Unlike running, combat sport workouts provide excellent full body agility, better balance, flexibility, and athleticism too, all while also providing cognitive benefits.

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Day 2 variants.

Nope, I did not forget about our 4 different day 2 variants. Most of those day 2 variants just make use of different exercise combos, allowing you to create a better, more individually tailored week-long gym plan without becoming one of our paying clients.

But I will briefly touch upon the yoga version of gym day two in this section.

The mountain gorilla.

The mountain gorilla is a great hip, back, and lower body flexibility drill I have done with almost every single in-person client I have personally coached in the last decade.
Treat is as an active stretch, recovery drill while you recover between your actual strength training sets.

It allows for a pain-free progression of mobility in your back, scapula region, gluteus, your hip hinge movement pattern, calves, hamstrings, and quads.
Start with going as deep as you can with your ass, arms inside your knees, and if possible, push your knees out a little with your arm.

Hold your chest up, and wiggle your upper body lightly left to right while you push the opposite knee outward with your arm. Start with 30 seconds, and work your way up to 60 seconds, and finally two minutes. Use the rest of your rest time standing up.

The crow.

The crow, on the other hand, is a proper strength and agility drill from the wonderful world of our Yoga Mida coach.

It’s like a cross between the flipped V pushup and a squat. Start by going into the mountain gorilla, but place your hands on the ground, spread your fingers out for better balance, elbows directly outside of your quads. Lean forward into that squatted down, flipped V pushup position, with your head close to the ground.

Now, place your knees against the back of your arms, or on your elbows, slightly inside or outside, it’s all ok.

Lean slowly forward, tipping the balance forward and into the ground until your feet are elevated into the air, balanced by nothing more than your hands, triceps, shoulders, and chest. Beautiful!.

Now dare yourself to progress this exercise until you can hold it for a minute or two; eventually you will get there.

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Exercise Day Three is Coming soon in a separate article, link down below.

I have decided to publish our public fitness plans with one individual article per exercise day. This is day two, you can find the first exercise day of the week down below.
This way you wont have to scroll up and down forever to find the right exercises, coaching cues, exercise videos and so on. Each exercise day in each public fitness plan will also link to the other days of that fitness plan. And at times provide exercise variations for that day.

Making for very easy, user friendly, and structured browsing.

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