Where Do We Start ’Em? Beginning GPP with the 1×20 (Plus Crawls, Carries, and Drags)

As coaches, we’re often inundated with information on the Next Big Thing. Speed program X, Strength Program Y, or whatever Pro Athlete Z is doing seem to catch interest among coaches and parents alike. In my younger days, I was no different in my pursuit of “advanced knowledge” and even more eager to apply it.

During nearly twenty years in the industry, I’ve seen trends come, go, then come back again—sometimes repackaged, recycled, and watered down. But one trend that has steadily grown (if you can call it growth) is the lack of baseline skills coupled with a dwindling physicality in the developmental population. This has made the answer to the question, “Where do we start ’em”‘ one that has regressed congruently over the years.

Some may argue that today’s training landscape (and to an extent, physical education in general) is ridden with a lack of behavioral and physical standards. This is bred by the tolerance of low efforts while over-celebrating the equivalent of basic hygiene with over-expectant results. This may seem like a loaded statement to some. Still, we can examine the country’s youth obesity rate¹ along with the prevalence of injury in young athletes² to see how this philosophically may fit. Layer this with well-meaning but misinformed parents who ask you about the Westside Barbell Program for their twelve-year-old (true story), and you have the recipe for a ticking time bomb of premature injury and burnout.

I don’t mean to go on a rant about how kids are soft, and their parents are crazy but recognize that invoking standards, celebrating success, and building culture takes some ingenuity. This also helps us traverse the murky waters of athletic development in our pursuit to prepare these trainees for their next level.

So, where do we start ’em?

Drive Engagement, Embrace the Basics, and Celebrate Success

The short answer is a blend of general physical preparation (GPP) that employs a progressive loading and movement system during which our young athletes can see where they’re at and know where they’re going. The key is in how we make the general basics attractive enough so that our young ones embrace them.

The following model is a blend of ideas from various GPP methods, inspired in part by social media posts from Jay DeMayo several months ago. The crux of the program includes basic movement patterns for the upper and lower body paired with resisted crawling, carrying, and dragging patterns. Execution involves interspersing a crawl, carry, or sled drag in between sets of your chosen 1×20 exercise. You can see the GPP influences here, ranging from Yessis (1×20) to Dan John (crawls and carries) to Louie Simmons (sled dragging). I’ve run variations of this program for one to three months, depending on the progression of the individual involved.

In this system, we realize progression in a few ways.

1. The 1×20 parameter allows our athletes to progress in two ways: by increasing load upon hitting the 20 or by increasing repetitions with the same load. The wonderful thing about this is that the visual of “more weight on bar” or “more reps per session” is empowering, as momentum and confidence build over time.

2. Each movement has a progression where young athletes earn the next level by hitting a target load for an assigned repetition range. For kids and parents who want the barbell right away, I explain we must earn our way by displaying impeccable control of our bodyweight before loading with external resistance. Some of the exercises progress a level or two within the month, while others take a while. In this way, individualizing a program has a direct purpose and grows with them. I term this auto-regulatory progression.

3. As work capacity improves, time to completion compresses. Over time, these kids become beasts. And as this portion of the session becomes easier, we allow them to add in stuff they like. In other words, they earn their way to fun by taking ownership of their progress. We can’t ignore the significance of this subjective progress, as the perception of “getting in shape” creates a motivated, internal mental environment that allows young athletes to approach each day with the best effort they can give us. For coaches, this is an important tool.

Be warned, though, that this implementation makes for a bit of a smoker—initially, athletes breathe hard and often report DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). Trust me, when I say we do not chase this, it’s a result of the lack of acute work capacity. Athletes quickly adapt to these demands, as bi-weekly personal bests become a regular occurrence. Another psychological caveat of the single set program is the urgency factor. Athletes get one chance to do their best. No do-overs! No second chances! No sandbagging! Whatever happens, happens right here and right now!

It’s a built-in culture-builder within a pragmatic system.

The Basic Template

Here is the skeleton layout of the system.

Block I: Lower Body Emphasis

A1) Squat: variation based on progression

A2) Forward/backward bear crawl

A3) Hinge: variation based on progression

A4) Lateral bear crawl

A5) Single-leg variation: left

A6) Rotisserie crawl-bear to crab to bear; repeat

A7) Single-leg variation: right

A8) Forward and backward bear crawl

A9) Trunk/hip flexion

A10) Lateral bear crawl

Video 1. Forward and backward bear crawls.

Block I emphasizes the lower body, where we work three of the five basic movement patterns (squat, hinge, single leg). Some will disagree with having two squat exercises in the block, but the way I see it, you can use the single leg in different planes, as in a lateral lunge or rotational lateral lunge.³ I also include a basic trunk drill (I don’t call it core) involving hip flexion or anterior chain stability.

We determine the beginning exercises during an evaluation. Progressions for the hinge range from the old school waiter’s bow to the barbell RDL. For the bilateral squat, we begin loading with a dumbbell (goblet style) and progress to the barbell. Single leg is an interesting case, as I’ve used a similar progression to the squat but have found loading with a weighted vest is better because it lessens the complexity. Keep in mind, complexity is another layer of loading (especially on one leg) that may not be the best option initially. The crawls serve as “focused filler” work that prepares the upper limbs for Block II without directly interfering with lower body fatigue (not to mention all the great things the cross-crawl pattern does for the brain).⁴

Block II: Upper Body Emphasis

A1) Horizontal/vertical push

A2) Forward sled drag/carry variation

A3) Trunk lateral flexion

A4) Backward sled drag/carry variation

A5) Horizontal/vertical pull

A6) Lateral sled drag: right/one-arm carry variation

A7) Trunk rotation

A8) Lateral sled drag: left/one-arm carry variation

A9) Trunk extension

A10) Drag/carry variation

Block II is upper body dominant, initially applying one multi-joint push and pull movement along with hitting the other movements of the trunk (flexion and rotation extension). The multi-joint push and pull is enough for most young athletes at this stage, but you can layer in single-joint drills as trunk work becomes too easy. Again, the reason behind putting a drag or carry here is that it won’t directly interfere with the strength drills. One can argue the trunk is getting worked in the carry—which I agree with, but from an isometric standpoint. The simple beauty of the carries and drags lies in their resemblance to hard work. As stated earlier, having young athletes perceive work as hard is important in building standards of behavior in the overall culture.

Remember how I told you this session is a bit of a smoker? Well, here’s how we accomplish this: we go on the clock. My experience in working with the swim community forced me to learn a certain vernacular to understand how aquatic athletes practice. A common swim set may be ten one hundreds on the one-thirty, meaning they swim 100 yards every one minute and thirty seconds ten times—your basic interval-based training here. Organizing the swim dryland workouts in this fashion allowed a connection to their language and culture while keeping effort and compliance honest. After researching articles on how to condition in the weight room, I figured I would apply that to the above structure.

In the early going, for a few reasons, I space out the intervals a bit with an E202 (every two minutes on the two minutes).

• We aren’t out to destroy these kids, as they’re walking in our doors with low work capacity and low training age.
• There is more space to coach in. If movement quality means as much to you as it does me, you’ll appreciate the time to coach the proper technique.

As each athlete improves in movement progression, strength levels, and stamina, you can compress the interval to challenge them. The most compressed interval I’ve used is the EMOM (every minute on the minute) structure—a challenge to the aerobic pathways given a set of 20 will last about 25-35 seconds.

Troubleshooting the Carries, Crawls, and Drags

The next question becomes, how do we apply the carries, crawls, and drags? Take a simple inventory of what you have in terms of implements and space.

Things you need to crawl:

1. Your body
2. Space 5-10 yards

Things you need for carries:

1. Kettlebell, dumbbells, barbell, or farmers’ walk handle
2. Space 15- 20 yards

• If you don’t have anything from number 1, you can use loaded buckets
• If you don’t have space, you can march in place

Things you need for drags:

1. Loadable sled with strapping, ropes, or chains
2. Space 15- 20 yards

• If you don’t have a sled, you can make one from an old tire with a 2×6 piece of wood as a base inside the tire. Load up anything of weight inside.
• If you have a treadmill, you can turn off the motor, and the belt will provide resistance. This has come in handy during our current state as everyone is homebound.

Video 2. Off-Set Backward Sled Drag

Here’s the quick and dirty application.

If you have the allotted space: crawl for 10 yards and carry/ drag for 15-20 yards.

If you have less space: crawl in 5-yard increments, carry in a shortened area (or march for thirty seconds), drag, or work the treadmill for thirty seconds. This is a scenario where, if you lack a training partner or the coach is with a group, you can set an interval time (SIT Timer in the App Store) for :30on/:30off and commence exercise on the beeps.

This system covers total body strength and work capacity while leaving room for technical work for sprinting, jumping, cutting, and landing. Share on X

One great caveat about this model is how it fits into the minimal effective dose and bang for your buck philosophies. The entirety of an E202 session will be forty minutes for each block and compresses to twenty minutes in an EMOM. Total body strength and work capacity are covered, while leaving room for technical work for sprinting, jumping, cutting, and landing. Applying remedial dynamic means in congruence with this system is no problem, as you can increase the volume and repertoire of jumps, throws, and tumbling as the workouts become more time-efficient.

Video 3. Carioca Sled Drag

Which Brings Me to Other Variations I’ve Applied!

Let’s say you have a kid who comes in, and mom and dad tell you they only have 30 minutes today because they have an ACT tutor coming. I’m sure my fellow private sector coaches have dealt with this (or comparable) often enough. If we need to compress the overall daily structure to include our dynamic work, we can simply insert extensive jumps or throws into the series.

Block I: Lower Body Emphasis —No Contrast

A1) Squat: variation based on progression

A2) Med ball chest pass vs. floor or wall

A3) Hinge: variation based on progression

A4) Overhead throw vs. wall

A5) Single-leg variation: left

A6) Sideways/shot put throw vs. wall

A7) Single-leg variation: right

A8) Twist throw vs. wall

A9) Trunk/hip flexion

A10) Slam variation

Block II: Upper Body Emphasis—No Contrast

A1) Horizontal/vertical push

A2) Low box jumps

A3) Trunk lateral flexion

A4) Low hurdle hops with forward displacement

A5) Horizontal/vertical pull

A6) Zig zag jumps with two legs or skater style

A7) Trunk rotation

A8) Split jumps

A9) Trunk extension

A10) Single-leg hopping LLRR

Make sure you put these on the minute and keep the jumps and throws to no more than ten total per exercise. If you want a contrast effect, just simply perform the jumps during the lower body emphasis and the throws during the upper body emphasis.

A Slightly More Advanced Model

Here is yet another variation I’ve applied with contact sport, cheer, and gymnastic athletes. You can compress it or extend it in a couple of ways.

Base model

Block I: Lower Body Emphasis + Somersault

A1) Squat: variation based on progression

A2) Forward somersault

A3) Hinge: variation based on progression

A4) Backward somersault

A5) Single-leg variation: left

A6) Forward somersault

A7) Single-leg variation: right

A8) Backward somersault

A9) Trunk/hip flexion

A10) Forward somersault

Block II Upper Emphasis + Rolling

A1) Horizontal/vertical push

A2) Shoulder or log rolling

A3) Trunk lateral flexion

A4) Shoulder or log rolling

A5) Horizontal/vertical pull

A6) Shoulder or log rolling

A7) Trunk rotation

A8) Shoulder or log rolling

A9) Trunk extension

A10) Shoulder or log rolling

Extension

A1) Squat: variation based on progression

A2) Forward somersault

A3) Hinge: variation based on progression

A4) Backward somersault

A5) Single-leg variation: left

A6) Forward somersault

A7) Single-leg variation: right

A8) Backward somersault

A9) Trunk/hip flexion

A10) Forward somersault

A11) Horizontal/vertical push

A12) Shoulder or log rolling

A13) Trunk lateral flexion

A14) Shoulder or log rolling

A15) Horizontal/vertical pull

A16) Shoulder or log rolling

A17) Trunk rotation

A18) Shoulder or log rolling

A19) Trunk extension

A20) Shoulder or log rolling

Compression

A1) Squat: variation based on progression

A2) Pick somersault or roll

A3) Horizontal/vertical push

A4) Pick somersault or roll

A5) Hinge variation

A6) Pick somersault or roll

A7) Horizontal/vertical pull

A8) Pick somersault or roll

A9) Trunk drill of choice

A10) Pick somersault or roll

Anyone who has followed Dan John over the years can see his influence here. And let me tell you from experience, the stress on the vestibular and circulatory system is tremendous. An EMOM clock here works best and keeps you honest while you’re trying to figure out which end of the room is which when you’re getting up from the rolls.

By no means is this system a be-all and end-all, nor is this anything you must do in perpetuity. As your athletes progress through the ranks, they will require more intensive means. But you can revisit this system during rest cycles or the “curve balls” life may throw at you. You can make the adjustments suggested above when time, equipment, or space become an issue—which happens to be the case for some of us currently.

In this system, our young athletes learn to embrace the basics, drive work ethic, engage their efforts, and catalyze improvement. Share on X

The marriage of simple GPP modalities, along with a systematic approach to strength and conditioning, has allowed me to plug and play variations that fit the current and evolving needs of my athletes, along with daily fluctuations in performance and logistics. And all the while, we’re getting them to embrace the basics, drive work ethic, engage their efforts, and catalyze improvement. The simple stuff is sexy when it delivers.

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References

1. “Childhood Obesity Facts,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• “The prevalence of obesity…affected about 13.7 million children and adolescents.”
• “Obesity prevalence was 13.9% among 2- to 5-year-olds, 18.4% among 6- to 11-year-olds, and 20.6% among 12- to 19-year-olds.”

2. Youth Sports Injury Statistics,” Stop Sports Injuries, American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine.

3. Nick Garcia, “Creating and Implementing Template Based Training,” Garcia Performance (blog), October 17, 2018.

4. Dan Fichter, “Neuro Based Training,” Presentation TFC 8.