RUNE GOON

Headsman’s Debt
For Minimalist Muscle Mancers
 Copyright © 2020 by Rune Goon

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 Contents

Foreword iv
1 Program Overview 1
2 Exercise Description 3
3 Routine 8
4 Cardio 12
5 Cheat Sheet 15
 Foreword

“This is not a fair fight, you’re bound to pay your dues sooner or
later.”

I know that not everyone has access to equipment. I also know

that not everyone wants to be told: “Yeah bro do some sit ups
and you’ll be good”. So I figured I would put something together
that you only need a decently heavy object and your own ass for.
It’s designed to address some of the big movements you (should)
do in daily life, with minimal fluff. You could call it a “functional
workout” if you’re into all that new hip fitness lingo. Strength
and Conditioning is important for the professional as much as it
is for the fighter, keeping you injury free as well as capable. I ran
something very similar to this years ago when I was out in North
Africa, and I was still able to do my job while making progress.
I also highly prefer this type of training for martial arts, since
some folks have to make the decision between traditional gym
membership and martial arts dues. This program allows you to
train for strength gains with minimal equipment while also not
being too beat up for your training to perform.

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 1

Program Overview

This program is a 4 day program but you are welcome to run

it as often as you like (up to 6 days, take a day off please) or as
few times as you like (shoot for at least 2 days a week, you can
manage 2 hours a week). I feel like 2 days on and 1 day off would
be the best, it would let you get 4-5 workouts in a week. If you are
running this very frequently DO NOT SLAUGHTER YOURSELF.
As I said before: there are no frills here. It’s a straight forward
movement based program that utilizes one of the two set/rep
protocols. There are any number of large heavy objects you can
use: barbell, dumbbell(s), kettlebell(s), sandbag, TRX straps,
bands, chains, tire, rock, some random goober you hijacked
off the street and kept in your garage. I don’t recommend
kidnapping but these are trying times in the fitness realm. Either
way, one protocol is density based. If you’ve read any of my
articles you’ll know this is what I recommend for people with
fixed weight or very few implements. All it is is using a fixed
weight for reps over a period of time. The way you progress is
by either adding small amounts of time (1-2 minutes at a time),
doing more reps/less rest during the set period of time, making

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the exercise more difficult (think increasing the range of motion,

like doing pushups on handles instead of the floor), or adding
weight if applicable. This is more of the “fitness” or strength
endurance type workout, which works well for guys with labor
jobs where you can’t afford to be sore, or like I said previously:
martial artists. It also provides you a set amount of time you
can set aside if you are one of those “I’m too busy to workout”
types since the exercises are timed. Be aware the density time
encompasses both YOUR WORK AND YOUR REST, its a running
timer. Conversely if you have adjustable weights, like a full ass
gym, you can use the other method: total working reps. It’s just
a rep range and you decide how many sets you take to get there.
Feeling good? Do 10-15 heavy singles. Feeling like a hammered
bag of dogshit? Do 2 sets of 10 reps. It’s up to you how you get
there, so you’ll have to use your brain a little bit and listen to
your body.

Density Effort

• Exercise A: 20-30 minutes

• Exercise B: 10-15 minutes
• Exercise C: 10-15 minutes

Total Rep Effort

• Exercise A: 10-20 total reps

• Exercise B: 30-50 total reps
• Exercise C: 50-100 total reps

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 2

Exercise Descrip on

Getup: Standing up under load. I know this may not be the

most glamorous exercise, it won’t give you bulging biceps or
whatever, but it will help you learn to link your anterior and
posterior chain while doing a very basic human movement.
Standing up from the ground with weight may not be your idea
of a workout either but I can assure you, it steals your soul
much like heavy loaded carries. You can do a traditional turkish
getup, which would be the preferred exercise, but you could also
do some type shouldering or bent press. While not totally the
same motion they are unilateral loading which is the goal of this
exercise along with loading the core fairly heavy (a getup is part
situp, part bridge, part press, and part lunge; all of which stress
the midsection). Picking a sandbag up off the ground to your
shoulder or pressing in a bent torso position both require near
about the torso musculature. Regardless, doing a getup with a
barbell is hard as hell and looks cool.

Squat: Knee flexion. You know what squatting is, but we also
include single leg work here. Lunges, step ups, pistols, split

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squats… any of those are fine. I prefer front squats or zerchers

mostly for fighters, especially if you have very little equipment.
Hindu squats can be done for density, and it’s absolutely brutal.
I’m sure some people are wondering why I have less squatting
programmed and more hip hinging programmed: it’s because
the hip hinge is easier to perform. I can get almost anyone into
the swing or deadlift position, from the obese to the skeletal.
On the other hand, squatting can be a problem for even athletic
folks. Knee issues, poor ankle mobility, bad shoulders/wrist
mobility (for barbell squatting)… there are a ton of things that
come into consideration. Is that lazy? Yeah probably, but I’m
not Kelly Starrett or his gang of supple leopards. Like Pavel said:
“The deadlift [hinge] is the working class answer to the squat”.
You’ll still be doing some form of knee bending however, since
it is important. I also highly recommend holding the bottom
position of the squat as a little pre workout stretch no matter
what you’re doing.

Pull: Chinups are the go to here. Whatever progression model

you prefer to do is alright with me. Add weight if you want.
Alternatively you can do front or back lever progression, which is
an absolute test of back and abdominal strength. Lat Pulldowns
are fine here as well if you have access to one. If you don’t have
a way to do chin ups or pulldowns, you can use some kind of
row. Take whatever weight you have, hinge at the hips, and pull
it to your belly button. Likewise you can do inverted rows on
rings, TRX straps, or even on a low bar or table. When you’re
doing this think about pulling your elbows back, not the weight
towards you. This will help you engage your lats a little better
and use more of your bigger back musculature instead of relying
on your biceps to row. Rowing seems to be one of the more

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 EXERCISE DESCRIPTION

important motions for grappling, used in off balancing your

opponent. Kuzushi is the traditional term for off balancing in
Judo that generally requires a rowing type pull in big turning
throws.

Hinge: Maximal hip bend. Anything you are picking up off

the ground to your hip level would work here. Kettlebell
swings, good mornings, any deadlift variation you can think
of. You could do olympic pulls (cleans, snatches, high pulls, etc.)
here if you prefer more dynamic movements. Hinging is very
important for all types of fighters, as the hip pop is used almost
unanimously. Throwing a cross, shrimping, and almost any
takedown requires this hinge motion. But it’s also just a good
movement for everyday life. Regardless of what OSHA says, not
a single fucking soul squats down with a flat back to pick up
anything. You bend over at the waist, pushing your ass back; the
hip hinge. You’ll be hinging twice in the schedule (3 times if you
count the clean in the C & P) because your posterior chain can
handle tons of volume. Or rather it should be able to handle this
amount of volume, which is why you need to do it more often.

Push: Some type of pressing, or moving weight away from your

body. Push ups are always a good option because it’s great for
shoulder health (scapular movement). The overhead press goes
well here if you don’t have a bench, since pushing anything
above your head is a hell of a workout. If you have no gear
whatsoever and pushups are way too easy (are you in prison?)
then handstands are a good choice here. Hand balancing is
great for your shoulders and they force you into a good overhead
position if you have the strength. You can do handstand pushups
if you are very very strong but just handbalancing will work, just

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do it for time. Dips are also a great move if parallel bars or rings
are available, it’s a good chest and triceps builder if you are
bench press less.

C & P: Clean and Press. Find something you can take off the
ground or at the hips, to your shoulders, then overhead. It must
be done in three moves: ground/hips, shoulders, overhead. The
clean portion doesn’t have to be anything perfect, just get it up
there. Continental clean works well for weird shit you can just
blast up onto your shoulders, it’s a two step clean where you
rest something on your belly then pop it up to your shoulders
ready to press. Speaking of the press, you can press it strictly,
use a little leg drive (push press), or use a lot of leg drive and fall
under the weight (jerk). If you have absolutely nothing heavy
around you (and you should, get a little creative for fucks sake),
you’re welcome to work on muscle up progression here.

Carry: Movement under load. I feel like these are the most im-
portant movements for longevity. Bracing your body against the
motion of walking along with the sway of the weight activates
lots of tiny little muscles that you didn’t know you had. It also
teaches you to “breath behind the shield” or the ability to brace
while breathing. Really any loaded carry is good: farmers walk,
suitcase carry, waiters walk, racked carry, zercher carry, sled
drags/pushes, bearhug carry, or any combination therein. I
also include crawling in this section. Crawling is an underused
basic human movement, it stresses your underused serratus
muscles as well as your whole shoulder girdle in a novel way.
Plus crawling around like a big ass gorilla is rad, and it gets you
tired as shit. Bear Crawl for 500 yards and tell me you aren’t sore
the next day: I’ll call you a liar. Now if you are space restricted,

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 EXERCISE DESCRIPTION

just do marches. Hold the weight in the position you want and
bring your knees high like you are marching in place. Simple fix.

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 3

Rou ne

Below I’ve outlined the 2 training modalities and a few recom-

mendations for the exercises you can use. It’s not an extensive
list but it’s a good little primer. You’ll notice the Carry total reps
are total trips. I consider one trip to be the distance you travel
before stopping (or dropping the weight). Normally I like to use
a set distance but that’s totally up to you.

Day 1

• C & P: 20-30 minutes or 10-20 total reps: Ground to

overhead, Muscle Ups
• Squat: 10-15 minutes or 30-50 total reps: Front, Back,
Hindu, Lunge, Stepup
• Pull: 10-15 minutes or 50-100 total reps: Chinup, Row,
Lever, Pulldown

Day 2

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 ROUTINE

• Carry: 20-30 minutes or 4-10 total trips: Farmers,

Bearhug, Overhead, Crawl
• Push: 10-15 minutes or 30-50 total reps: Pushup, Dip,
Handstand, OHP, Bench
• Hinge: 10-15 minutes or 50-100 total reps: KB Swing,
Hyper, KB Snatch

Day 3

• Getup: 20-30 minutes or 10-20 total reps: Turkish Getup,

Shoulder, Bent Press
• Carry: 10-15 minutes or 8-15 total trips: Farmers,
Bearhug, Overhead, Crawl
• Pull: 10-15 minutes or 50-100 total reps: Chinup, Row,
Lever, Pulldown

Day 4

• Hinge: 20-30 minutes or 10-20 total reps: Deadlift, Clean,

Snatch, GM
• Push: 10-15 minutes or 30-50 total reps: Pushup, Dip,
Handstand, OHP, Bench
• Pull: 10-15 minutes or 50-100 total reps: Chinup, Row,
Lever, Pulldown

You’re welcome to add additional exercises to the program

at the end (no more than 2) for lagging body parts. Just don’t

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major in the minors. I suggest neck work, my cuff and grip

circuit (listed below), some conditioning, or just some higher
rep vanity work like curls, lateral raises, or pushdowns.

Circuits

Abdominals: Ab work is important, simple as.

• Active Brace: 10-20 reps per set

• Curl Up: 10-20 reps per set
• Side Twist: 20-40 reps per set
• TVA Vacuum: Max Hold per set

Grip (Hook): You’ll need some type of weight for this one, but
if you want some grip work you can always do different types
of hanging from a bar. Like a chinup but you just dangle. A1/A2,
B1/B2 indicate supersets.

• A1) Supination: 10-20 reps per set

• A2) Pinch: 10-30 seconds per set
• B1) Sinking: 10-20 reps per set
• B2) Flexion: 10-20 reps per set

Grip (Roll): Much like the other grip work you’re gonna need
some weight

• A1) Pronation: 10-20 reps per set

• A2) Crush: 10-30 seconds per set
• B1) Rising: 10-20 reps per set

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 ROUTINE

• B2) Extension: 10-20 reps per set

Rotator Cuff: You can do this whole 4 exercise circuit lying

facedown on the floor, just make sure you pause the reps at the
top (Youtube is your friend here).

• Y Raise: 10-20 reps per set

• T Raise: 10-20 reps per set
• W Raise: 10-20 reps per set
• L Raise: 10-20 reps per set

Neck Work: Like the cuff circuit you don’t need any equipment
to do this one. Just a place you can hang you head off of is all
you need.

• Neck Curl: 20-50 reps per set

• Neck Extension: 20-50 reps per set

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 4

Cardio

If you own Ancient Enemy then this first part is just a reiteration.
I think the best conditioning you can do without equipment is
some type of running so here’s a little running program I wrote
down ages ago. If you can walk for 30 minutes straight and not
be tired then you can start with Phase 1. Be real with yourself, if
you haven’t ran in your whole life or running is a distant memory
from your glory days in the military or on the field: please just
do more walking first. If you are relatively fit and want to run
here is the plan

Phase 1
Perform each 3 times per week before moving into the next
phase. This will build a nice base of road work culmination in
one hour of running per week.

• Week 1: 1 min on / 4 mins off×4

• Week 2: 2 mins on / 3 mins off×4
• Week 3: 3 mins on / 2 mins off×4
• Week 4: 4 mins on / 1 min off×4

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 CARDIO

• Week 5: 6 mins on / 4 mins off×2

• Week 6: 7 mins on / 3 mins off×2
• Week 7: 8 mins on / 2 mins off×2
• Week 8: 9 mins on / 1 min off×2
• Week 9: 20 minute nonstop run

Phase 2
In this phase we will keep 2 of the 20 minute runs and add in
an additional style of running.

• Extensive: 30-45 minutes

The extensive run can simply be a longer run or a ruck hike with
additional weight. The Pig Egg walk is a good thing to do if you
recall that article I wrote. Essentially walking for the allotted
time holding a weight any way you can till the end of the walk.
This is an easy way to make a 16kg kettlebell feel really fucking
heavy.

• Intensive: 500 yards/meters

The intensive run will be sprint work. Break the 500 up into
different distances such as 10 sets of 50, or 5 sets of 100,
whatever you prefer. These are ALL OUT SPRINTS.

Alternatively, if running isn’t your thing or you don’t have the

time then Interval Training is the path for you. We are doing
4-10 minutes of hard work. Some exercises I like to use are
jump rope for work/rest intervals (start with 20 seconds on,
40 seconds off, for 10 sets; slowly working up to 10 minutes of

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 HEADSMAN’S DEBT

nonstop skipping), sledgehammer swing Tabata (20 seconds of

work, 10 seconds of rest, for 8 total sets), or Burpees for time
(if you can do 100 burpees in 5 minutes you are in good shape,
I don’t care what you say). Wanna get good at Burpees? Here
is a little training plan to get really fucking good at them a la
Johnny Pain (creator of Greyskull LP/Villian Challenges). Start
with sets of 10 burpees. Your goal is to do each set of 10 reps in
30 seconds or faster. You can start with just one set or multiple,
just keep your total work time under 10 minutes.

If you’re serious about hitting 100 reps in 5 minutes then a good

formula for you math nerds is: Number of Burpees * 3 = Target
Time in Seconds

This is something you could do everyday if you have the guts for
it.

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Cheat Sheet

Day 1

• C & P: 20-30 minutes or 10-20 total reps

• Squat: 10-15 minutes or 30-50 total reps
• Pull: 10-15 minutes or 50-100 total reps
• Optional cardio and/or auxillary work

Day 2

• Carry: 20-30 minutes or 4-10 total trips

• Push: 10-15 minutes or 30-50 total reps
• Hinge: 10-15 minutes or 50-100 total reps
• Optional cardio and/or auxillary work

Day 3

• Getup: 20-30 minutes or 10-20 total reps

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 HEADSMAN’S DEBT

• Carry: 10-15 minutes or 8-15 total trips

• Pull: 10-15 minutes or 50-100 total reps
• Optional cardio and/or auxillary work

Day 4

• Hinge: 20-30 minutes or 10-20 total reps

• Push: 10-15 minutes or 30-50 total reps
• Pull: 10-15 minutes or 50-100 total reps
• Optional cardio and/or auxillary work

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