Brian Alshrue's 4 Horseman program review

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Brian Alshrue’s 4 Horseman program review
I was originally drawn to Alshrue’s programming through his YouTube videos. My training history was mainly CrossFit, which I had previously done for about 4 years. After moving on from CrossFit and starting my garage gym I started with a more “normal” resistance training like 3x10 or 5x5. I did that for about 6 months before finding Alshrue on YouTube. I missed the higher intensity conditioning from CrossFit, and Alshrue seemed to be able to provide that along with fun strength training (not 3x10 with normal rest periods) incorporated into the same workouts.

I emailed him to get a personalized program even though he puts most of his templates on YouTube. I would highly recommend having him write a personalized program for you at least for the first time. Now that I have completed one of his programs, I understand the programming much better and feel good about programming for myself using his different templates. The cost was $150 for a 12 week programs, but different options are available with different price points.
The basic concept of the workouts in 4 Horseman consisted of 4 parts each workout. I was completing 4 workouts per week. Monday – deadlift, Wednesday – OHP, Thursday – squat, Saturday – bench. I wanted a rest day after deadlift and squat days because I knew it would take longer to recover from those days. On my off days (Tuesday and Friday) I tried to do some type of low intensity steady state cardio like bike or rower for about 30 minutes just to get the blood flowing.
• Hard conditioning consisting of about 8-12 minutes. This was a mix of farmer’s carries, calisthenics, complexes, sandbag work, etc. It was definitely not a 10 minute jog.

• 1 rep max practice which focuses on one main lift per day. If my heaviest set during the giant sets was at 80%, then I would build up to a 1 rep around 85%. My heaviest 1 rep during the build portion of the workout was always heavier than my heaviest giant set percentage.

• Three giant sets consisting of an either antagonistic muscle group to the upper body main mover (so on OHP day it would be pull-ups – on bench press day it would be a row variation) or an explosive hip movement on lower body main mover days (so on deadlift day it may be kettlebell swing and on squat day it may be box jumps. The second movement in the giant set is always the main mover (OHP, deadlift, squat, bench). The third movement is some type of core movement (on upper body days it is more oblique focused and on lower body days it is more ab focused), and the fourth movement in the giant set was always something to keep the heart rate elevated. That could be something like jump rope, sandbag carries/holds, sled pushes or drags, etc.

• The last part of the workout was an assistance portion. It was always focused on the same general muscle groups that the giant set main mover was focused on. Assistance was varied between heavy (strength), moderate (hypertrophy), and light (endurance) loads.

My starting 1 rep maxes were deadlift – 315#, back squat – 255#, OHP – 155#, bench press – 225#. I have no interest in competing in anything really, but still pursue strength among other things like GPP. Due to me knowing I’m not competing in powerlifting or anything like that I like to mix up variations a lot. I would alternate between back squat and front squat every other week, and also alternate between conventional deadlift and trap bar deadlift every other week. The program is laid out as 3 - 4 week waves for a total of 12 weeks. Each wave increases in intensity (higher percentages and lower reps). The main mover of each workout during the week is labeled as light, moderate, heavy, or brutal/test. You can imagine what the light, moderate and heavy workouts are with varying percentages and reps, but the brutal/test workout includes the option to set a new 1RM on the third giant set if able. During the 3rd wave you have one testing workout each week that is structured a little differently with the goal of setting a new 1RM. Where I believe I messed up was not taking any deload weeks throughout the whole program when I could tell that I should have. My joints actually felt really good the entire time, but after wave 2 (week 8) I started to become really sluggish in the gym. I was still hitting all my percentages and reps, but I wasn’t moving as fast. I stuck it out for weeks 1 and 2 on wave 3 hitting new 5# 1RM on bench and squat. New 1 RM on bench was 230# and new 1RM on back squat was 260#. Not much, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. I needed a break so bad after those two weeks that I decided to test 1RM on deadlift and OHP and then transition to another plan that would allow more recovery for a while. I was able to set a new 1RM on deadlift of 330#, but failed a new 1RM on OHP. During wave 2 I was able to hit 150# on OHP and felt good about a new PR, but by the time testing for OHP came around I could only hit 140# that morning.

Conclusions – It’s probably one of the best GPP programs you can find, but if you’re looking solely to gain strength in the main lifts then there are probably a bunch of better programs out there. The variety in the movements kept it interesting and I loved the layout of conditioning, giant sets with a short break in between, and assistance. The assistance is also laid out very good with pyramid schemes, tempo lifts, lots of dumbbells and kettlebells, and variations of the main movers. The conditioning was hard, but if you can suck it up for only 10 minutes each day then it’s over with. I’m going to ease off of the intensity and hard conditioning for the next 12 weeks and mainly do typical resistance training waves with strength and hypertrophy waves changing every 3 weeks and some lighter cardio on off days. After that I’m going to run his powerbuilder program, which I already have laid out (likely with a deload week every month so I don’t get into the hole again).