Welcome to Grapple Shred 4.0. This is your training overview for the next eight weeks — what the programme looks like, how it progresses, and how to read and track it in Notion. Training and nutrition working in harmony. That's the whole game.
Watch the video, then use the rest of this page as the cheat-sheet you come back to.
The three phases
The eight weeks are split into three phases. Each one builds on the last. Don't try to peak in week one — get the foundation right, then we push.
- Phase 1 — Accumulation. Build the base. Learn the movements. Get familiar with the programme. Establish honest working weights. The goal here isn't to crush yourself — it's to get confident with the foundation.
- Phase 2 — Intensification. Now you know the movements, we nudge the intensity. Weights go up slightly. Effort goes up slightly. Still controlled. Still on rails.
- Phase 3 — Peak. The final two weeks. We push closer to maximal efforts. Everything in Phase 3 leans on a solid Phase 1 and 2 — you can't peak what you haven't built.
Your week
- Monday — Full body, squat focus + vertical push/pull. Finisher is a 16-min EMOM, alternating every 2 mins (e.g. row 400m / 350m, then 20 air squats · 15 sit-ups · 10 burpees).
- Tuesday — Mixed-modal conditioning. Think Hyrox-style sessions. Changes slightly week to week — full instructions live in the programme.
- Wednesday — Full body strength. Bench + hinge focus. Sets, reps and exercise videos all linked in Notion.
- Thursday — Rest day. Optional easy movement — walk, bike, light flow conditioning. If you grapple, grapple. Mat time beats conditioning here.
- Friday — Full body, unilateral focus + Fat Arm Friday. A little single-leg, mostly upper body. The fun one.
- Saturday — Optional. Conditioning, optional pump, or a run if that's your thing — running options included.
Squat options: high bar, low bar, front squat, hack squat, pendulum squat, Z squat — pick what you prefer. Can't jump? Skip them. The point is the stimulus, not the exact movement.
This is a skeleton — we can move things
If something doesn't work in your gym, message me. The optional days are for people with a higher training age, more experience, or competitive goals. If that's not you, don't force it.
More training does not get you leaner
Saying this three times because it matters: more training does not get you leaner. More training does not get you leaner. More training does not get you leaner.
I've watched it happen a thousand times — the people who try to train the most usually get the worst results. Leanness comes from the balance between energy in and energy out. More sessions don't equal more fat loss. We're in a deficit. Fuel for the sessions you're doing, properly.
The ideal week for most people is something like: Mon · Tue · Wed · rest · Fri · rest · Sun, with your grappling slotted in where you can. If you don't grapple, that's where the conditioning goes.
"A star that shines twice as bright burns half as long." Don't come out the gates like a house on fire and disappear by week two. Build steadily. Brick by brick.
Tracking it in Notion
You'll have been sent your Notion setup. If you signed up with Apple ID it won't work — you have to sign up with the email you used for your phone. Once you're in, your training dashboard is one tap away.
- Open the programme on your phone. Scroll across to sets/reps/weight.
- Tap any cell to log your weight for that set.
- Every exercise has a video link — tap the name to see it demoed.
- Logging weeks 1–3 is what lets us push intelligently in week 4 onward. I can see exactly what you lifted, and we add from there.
How to read the programme
Colour key:
- ■ Orange — Warm-up
- ■ Red — Absolute strength
- ■ Purple — Hypertrophy (muscle building)
- ■ Blue — Accessory / pump
- ■ Pink — Conditioning (lungs)
Letters & numbers:
- A, B, C on their own = straight set, done by itself.
- C1, C2 (or any matching number pair) = superset. Back-to-back, minimal rest between the two.
I design the supersets so you can do them in the same spot. I've been coaching 14–15 years and I know what commercial gyms are like — you can't superset across the gym, someone takes your bench the second you walk away. So a dumbbell prone row + barbell glute bridge can be done on one bench. A 3-point row + push press can be done with the same dumbbells in one corner. If a cable exercise is paired and you can't reach the cables, sub it for the dumbbell version.
Tempo
Where it just says "controlled", aim for roughly 3 seconds on the lowering phase.
Where you see a four-number tempo like 1·2·2·1, that's: lowering · pause at the bottom · lifting · pause at the top. On a row that means pull up over 1 second, hold 2 seconds, lower for 2 seconds, pause 1 second. Repeat.
The trick to counting tempo and reps at the same time: say the rep number as a 3-count. So for 8 reps on a 3-second-down dumbbell row: "one·one·one — two·two·two — three·three·three…" all the way to eight. Done.
The principle behind all of it
Intention is more important than intensity. Every session has a purpose. We're not training randomly — we're building across eight weeks.
Train for performance. Eat for aesthetics. Your nutrition with me is what drives the fat loss. Your training builds strength, fitness and muscle. Both matter, but they do different jobs.
When you feel like you're slipping, or you're unsure about anything — message me. Don't sit on it. That's what I'm here for.
Welcome to Grapple Shred. Let's get to work.