Johnny Sheaffer AKA Johnny Pain from Strength Villain is a good coach and programmer. In order to be good at those things, you need to be an innovator, and JP fits the bill. He has created a modified and effective linear progression known as The Greyskull LP, and just released an e-book with the same name.
The Greyskull LP isn’t just a reiteration of a program outline. Instead, it’s a 56 page synthesis of material that JP has talked about for years. For those of you who are uneducated, the Greyskull LP is a linear progression that differs from other LPs; it reduces the squatting frequency (a significant change in itself), changes exercise order, and adds in various twists like going for max reps on the last set of each exercise. JP explains all of this in detail, but more importantly he explains why these alternative techniques work. I’ll also point out that they don’t merely work, they work better.
After establishing the reasoning for the program’s outline, he spends 30 pages discussing variations, “plug-ins” (or subtle changes that push the trainee towards particular goals). He discusses ways to improve pull-ups and push-ups via the frequency and ladder methods. He discusses that trainees can in fact get big and strong, yet do so with athletic body fat and conditioning levels by using short, intense conditioning workouts. He discusses the effective, yet boring (his words, but I agree) aspects of low-intensity conditioning. JP contributes effective methods of accomplishing each individual goal.
A lifter at Greyskull
The “Putting it all together” section creates a focused synthesis of his material and programming for different LP goals such as mass/hyper/swollertrophy, fat loss (including female fat loss), and the ever popular “linebacker” focused Greyskull LP that gets guys bigger, stronger, and athletic.
It’s rare that I wholeheartedly endorse someone in their coaching and programming, but JP doesn’t merely apply programming templates; he thinks through and around situations and always comes up with something better and more efficient. It’s almost as if his tattoos augment his brain power. The Greyskull LP is simple to read and contains more information than what is merely contained in the program itself. It explains a lot of side topics that are frequently asked about on 70’s Big and Strength Villain and gives reasoning for their utility (JP’s observation on body fat and his burpee challenge is probably worth the price alone for most of you). If you want to read a text that will help you get bigger, stronger, leaner, and more conditioned, check out
PR Friday
Post all your personal records, meet results, or training vids to the comments. We’re out in San Antonio for USAPL Military Nationals. Will report back.