Dan John 40 Day Challenge was a great experience. I did the same session almost exactly for 40 sessions in a row. I got a new Pb of 205kg on the deadlift and 70kgx5 on military press. The program teaches patience and stops the program hopping that the internet seems to make so appealing.
I bet you can’t complete the 40 day Challenge! If you give it a go then let me know!
Here is my review of the program.
Other posts on the 40 Day Challenge – Singles day, PB days, progress videos.
Here is a review from good friend Kurt Ogilvie – KO_Health
Kurt: Completed 40 sessions in 45 days. Exercises were Deadlift, Bench Press, Curls (or Chins), Cleans/Snatch/KB Swings, Ab Rollouts. Usually did 2×5 on each except for 1×20-50 on power movement and 1×5 on abs. Sometimes varied this to 5/3/2 or occasionally another variation of 10 total reps.
Day 1: We didn’t do formal testing at the start of the program, would’ve been good in hindsight. I’d only deadlifted infrequently over the past 5 years, avoiding it through fear of inflaming an old back injury. When I had done them they’d only been very light deadlifts, never even exceeding 100kg. Pre-back injury I’d worked up to maybe 120kg but this was probably 6-7 years ago. Bench press my lifetime best was 107.5kg but I hadn’t done that in the last 2 years and would probably estimate my 1RM on day 1 of this challenge around 100kg. Curls we started on sets of 5 at 30kg but no one really cares about curls.
Day 45 (session 40): I’d hit PB’s in both deadlifts & bench (and curls if anyone cares). Deadlifts went from avoiding anything 100kg or more to bests of 5x130kg and 2x140kg. Bench went from a start of 1x100kg to bests of 1x115kg, 3x105kg, 5x100kg. Curls went from 30kg to 40kg for sets of 5 but there wasn’t strict form all the time
Really improved the kettlebell swings, found it awesome for ‘greasing the hips’ and getting the posterior chain functioning better. Ended up doing sets of 30 or 40 on the 28kg KB which was the biggest one we had.
1×5 rollouts were good, a thousand times better than doing 100’s of crunches. By the end was doing either 75% distance while remaining on toes or was doing 100% distance and dropping to the knees for the last 20% or so.
Working with the two of us most sessions, we were getting through it within 30 minutes (including warmup) which was easy to fit in each day.
I was never sore the day after a session and similarly never drained at the end of a session which was great if you are training/competing in-season with a sport at the same time, I was still training most days for hockey and playing Saturdays and usually still doing an easy session Saturday morning before playing.
I never felt any pressure to lift heavy knowing that we had another opportunity the next day and the next day etc, if things weren’t feeling great there was no problem doing a light session.
I saw the most progress probably between days 20 & 30
Probably should mention my bodyweight remained 72-73kg throughout the program.
I didn’t take any supplements during the program but did focus on eating well, plenty of filtered water, free range meat/eggs, fresh vegetables/fruit, coconut oil, cod liver oil, organic butter, nuts etc.
Without actively promoting what I was doing I had probably 8-10 guys ask me about the program with the intention of having a go at it. A couple have already started it.
I feel like I am the strongest I have ever been, and the numbers certainly back that up. I really noticed the ‘skill development’ aspect through doing the same movements every day. I felt by the end my technique for deadlift was easily the best its been, so were the KB swings and the rollouts. My bench press also felt very comfortable, when I hit PBs it often felt quite easy, I wasn’t getting caught in sticking points at all really. I haven’t felt any problems in my back whether lifting light or heavy and that has transferred to the field and into daily life where my back feels the best (and strongest) it has felt since I can remember. Avoiding using my back had done nothing to help my situation, I’m glad I worked on my deadlifting technique to use more of a hip hinge and load the hamstrings. I now feel like it is safe to deadlift and that the muscles of my posterior chain are all pulling their weight and working in unison. I have no fears of challenging myself with the weight now.
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