New Weekly "Split"

I don't believe in splitting body parts.  When you do body-weight calisthenics you realize the best exercises are the ones that use as much of the whole body as possible. You do see nowadays more of a similar message in weightlifting than you used to (more people doing squats and dead-lifts and olympic lifts and favoring pull-ups over lat pull-downs) but I don't think it's quite the same thing.  I also believe that you work the whole body every day.  So for me, the split is in the types of exercises.  I have been experimenting with lots of things:  low reps, high reps, slow, strict form, etc.  There are a million different possibilities.  I don't want to miss anything but I can't do everything, so I have come up with a weekly "split" that allows incorporating all these possibilities.  I have also lately concentrated on rings.  Using rings makes the exercises much more difficult because you need to stabilize yourself.  But I don't have access to rings every day.  So I'm doing something like a high rep day (rows, push-ups, air squats, bench dips - reps always in the 25 - 50 range per set) and low rep days (concentrating on one side at a time, such as one arm rows, push-ups with one hand on a soccer ball, pistol squats, etc. reps 5-12 per set), and then ring days.  I cycle through this a couple of times a week.  So Monday might be a high rep day, Tuesday a low rep day, Wednesday a ring day, then repeat.

For added spice, I'm throwing in days with a "pyramid" approach so I can run the gamut from high to low reps on the same day.  This is fun because you get to build your routine using your imagination and it gets you away from the drudgery of "oh man, I have to get through 150 pullups today".  It's fresh.  Today's effort:

10/15/2015

Pulling:
Knees bent row (easiest):  40
"T-Bar" Rows:  52
Rows:  30
Pull-ups: 12
One arm row: 10
One arm T-Bar:  6
One arm curl: 8
Curl: 28

Pushing:
Incline push-up (upper body elevated, easiest):  50
Regular push-up:  52
Russian push-up:  40
Diamond push-up: 35
Dip: 20
One arm push up: 6
Triceps extension: 10
Triceps push:  30

Squats:
Regular air squat:  50
Strict form 1 second pause all the way down squat:  35
3 Second pause squat:  25
"One Leg Dead-lift":  15
Pistol squat: 8
Slow pistol:  5
Slow dead-lift:  4
Feet close deep squat:  25

My Progress on Something Like the (Possible) Hannibal for King Routine

9/29/2015
Pull 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 5 8
Ring Dip 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 5 8
Pistol squat 8 7 6 5 5 5 4 4 4 4
Diamond 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18

9/28/2015
Pull 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 5 5 5=83
Dip 15 14 13 12 11 10 10 10 10 8 8=121
Pistol Squat 6 5 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3=39
Diamond 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 12 12 12 12=202

9/27/15
Pull. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 5 5=78
Dip. 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 8 8=108
Squat. 25 24 23 22 21 20 18 15 15 15=198
Diamond. 25 20 19 17 17 16 15 10 10 10=159

9/26/15
Pull. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 5 5 =80
Dip. 18 17 16 15 14 12 11 10 10 10= 143
Squat. 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 15 15=202
Diamond. 25 24 20 19 18 15 15 12 12 10=169

Hannibal for King Workout Routine?

This is the man as far as body-weight calisthenics are concerned, but specifics about what he does and how often and for how long are hard to come by.  But I've revisited the questions because I wonder if I'm ready to take it up a level and try to emulate what this guy does, or at least start down that path.  He has a number of instruction videos but they're fairly vague and the most useful suggestion is that you stick with the basics for a long time, like 6 months.  But recently I have found two different articles that describe the "Hannibal method" as starting with a number of reps on an exercise, say 30 for push-ups, and then working down in consecutive sets so that the final set has, say, 20 reps.  Something like this:

Sets of pushups: 30 / 29 / 28 / 27 / 26 / 25 / 24 / 23 / 22 / 21 / 20

Sets of pullups: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5
Sets of Dips: 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10

Sets of Chinups: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5/ 5

I recall Hannibal saying in one of his videos that he doesn't count sets but he does count reps.  So I am wondering if he really does this kind of  descending rep scheme.

I've been getting a lot lately out of one set "drop sets" per exercise where I start with the most difficult move and then keep going until I'm at 45 to 60 or more reps.  Today for pulling exercises, for example, I did 13 strict pullups with knees up followed directly by assisted pullups followed by rows and then easier rows.  The total reps were around 64.  This is appealing because it's quick and intense, but as with all things, you start to wonder if you should be doing more of whatever's the opposite.  Should I be doing more lower intensity volume?  What about the "beast mode" idea where your level is determined mainly by the number of reps you're doing of the difficult movements with good form?

I'm going to try this and will report back.

One (Drop) Set Max to Failure

Diamond push-ups followed immediately by regular pushups:  45
Pull-ups followed immediately by rows:  36 (20 pull-ups!)
Assisted pistol squat to "deadlift" to squat:  35
Dip to bench dip:  46 (28 dips!)

Hard Work Distilled - Mini Drop Sets to Failure

I decided to take the hard work idea and push it further in difficulty and intensity but drop back on the volume.  This has really paid off.  I decided to take a core difficult exercise in the Big Four and do a set to failure or almost failure and then "drop set" that with a less difficult exercise in the same group.  I have been quite surprised at my numbers and enjoy the intensity combined with low volume, so I don't feel like I need to be doing this all day long.  If you go to failure, you really need to repeat less often.  Here's my max:

Diamond to regular push up- 36+14=50
Pull up to doorway row - 30 (10 reg, 10 neutral, 10 chin)+20=50
Deadlift (alternating) to regular squat - 22+23=45
Dips to bench dips - 33+19=52

Honestly, I never thought I'd do a set of 30 pullups (pretty decent form, degrading at the end) or 33 dips.

I think I may be on to something here.

Hard Work

One of the things I like about Youtube is that there are a lot of knowledgeable people giving honest advice based on experience.  These are the ones who are not trying to sell you something and therefore have nothing to hide or sugar-coat.  For example, bodybuilders who talk about their best steroid cycles.  I have no interest in bodybuilding (except to the extent that it gives me ideas that I can apply to body-weight calisthenics) or steroids but the honesty is refreshing.

In the fitness arena you have to be careful because many of them are trying to sell you something, like training programs or consulting.  One thing I see over and over from the honest purveyors of knowledge who aren't trying to sell you something is that it really boils down to hard work.  I decided to really contemplate what that means.

It's easy to get distracted by reps and sets and exercises and people and to forget that you really have to work hard.  Each set has to be difficult and uncomfortable before it really does you that much good.  If I can easily get a set of 25 push-ups is there any real point in doing that over and over?

To this end I decided I need to push my sets harder, closer to failure, and not worry so much about the volume any more.  Whereas before I probably took each set to within 10 to 40% of failure (so if I could do 100 push-ups to failure (I can't), I'd stop at 60.)  Now I took it much closer.  To the point that I probably only had a rep or two left in me.  Felt good.  Tough, shaky, painful, but good.  Here's today's effort:

Pull-Up:  15
Neutral Grip Pull-Up:  15
Chin-Up:  15
Dips:  20, 18, 18
Rows:  25, 25, 25
Slow Squats:  20, 15, 15
Russian push-ups:  45
Diamond push-ups:  18
Regular push-ups:  37
Split squat:  7
Assist pistol squat:  8
Slow rep squat:  2 minutes or so?  Man, my legs are spent.

Tomorrow I may try one set of each exercise to total failure.

I believe a similar concept applies to diet and is something along the lines of paleo, low carb, low fat, whatever it is, you still have to eat fewer calories than you did before and it's not going to be very fun.  More on this later.

975 Reps

Today I wanted to see if I could do 500 reps each for pushups, rows and squats.  That's really a lot when you start to think about it.  I shot for sets of 25 of each with less than strict form.  I ended up with 325 reps for each exercise.  That's 975 total reps.  Volume.

Pushup: 30, 25, 20, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25
Squat: 20, 25, 30, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25
Row: 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25

This was tough and daunting.  I think it's an extreme version of the full day muscle blast.  I wouldn't recommend you do it very often.  But we'll see what the effect is.  Herschel Walker claims to do several thousand pushups a day and I wonder how that is even possible.

Doing this as made me become more interested in form versus volume.  I bet I could get a much better workout on many many fewer reps if I focus on form.

Beast Mode? Elite?

If you spend a lot of time looking at videos about calisthenics you quickly see that there are requirements.  Various groups have minimum set and rep requirements to be at certain levels of performance.  One approach I like suggests you take your max number of reps for a particular exercise.  Then if in your workout you complete three times this number you are "solid", five times and you are "pro", seven times and you are "elite" and ten times earns you "beast mode".  So, if the most pushups you can do in one set is 40, an "elite" workout would be to do 280.  Beast mode would be 400.  That's a lot.

I like this because it is a solid measure of performance and it also suggests to me that maybe I am not working hard enough.

I decided to try it and here's how I did:

Pull up: 20 was my max. I don't go to complete failure so I may have gotten a couple more.
12, 12, 12, 12, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 = 118 = 5x - pro

Russian Pushup: 50
40, 30, 40, 46, 40, 50, 44, 37 = 387 = 7x or elite (woo hoo!)

Squats: 30 (tired!)
20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20 = 230 = 7x I don't think this qualifies as elite, however, because 30 is really not my max. My legs were shot from biking 2 hours a day and doing squats all the time. I've done a set of 80 squats before so I'll have to try this one again.

I'm not a beast but I was pretty happy with these numbers.  The takeaway for me is to not to forget to work hard and push yourself. I don't want to wake up one day and realize I've been snoozing through this.

Bodyweight Calisthenics and Building a Strength Foundation - How to Get Started

First, figure out if the idea of getting strong and muscular without gyms or equipment or special clothes or large blocks of time is at all interesting to you.    Second, if you've tried weightlifting or bodybuilding programs before, try to forget about everything you thought was gospel.  Third, search "calisthenics" on youtube.  Ok, maybe don't do the third one.  It might be intimidating.  But stick with this and the third one will become inspiring.

Ok, now embrace the big four:  Pullups, Dips, Squats, Pushups.  Your goal should be to get as strong as you can at each of these exercises.  Understand that "strength" can mean how many times you do it and how you do it and how often you do it and is really a combination of all of these.  Also understand that strength and size are not the same thing.

Work daily and with patience to get stronger at these four exercises.  Be a stickler for form and don't worry about reps.  Don't carry the sets to failure.  Once your form starts to degrade, stop the set.  If you can do ten good pushups, do sets of 6 throughout the day.  If you can do 4 good pullups, do sets of 1.  Can't do a pushup or a pullup?  Do negatives.  Get yourself into the ending position of the movement however you can (use a chair or ladder for pullups, for example) then let yourself down as slowly as you possibly can.  Work on doing this more slowly.  Soon enough you will be doing your first.

If you can do 25 good pushups, make them harder.  Do Russians or diamonds.  Slow them down.

Pullups are interesting. It's easy to fail quickly and then you're done.  When your reps slow down, your set should be done.  If you go to failure, don't try to do them again for a couple of days at least.   But don't go to failure.  You could put a pullup bar in a doorway and then do at least one every time you pass it.

Let's say you get your solid foundation routine zoned in to 6 pullups, 15 pushups, 20 squats and 8 dips.  I'm just making this up.  Do this for 6 months.  That is, do this routine as a superset as many times you can a day while able to maintain form and do this for 6 months.

When I focus on the big four I do 10 pullups, 12 dips, 25 pushups and 25 squats.  Squats I keep slow and deep and very good form so they're hard enough.  I do this 8 times a day.  I'm not sure where to head from here so that's why I've been throwing in reps and harder movements and slower sets.

What I've Figured Out So Far about Diet: Low Carb, Paleo, and Intermittent Fasting

The main thing I've figured out is that making a change and sticking with it works.  But that's not helpful and 99% of the challenge is figuring out what change YOU can make, what you can live with, and what you can maintain 80% of the time at least.

The following comes from about 4 years of personal experience and about 6 books that I've read.

First, Paleo.  I cringe and eye roll at the mere mention of the name.  Not because it's not good, but because it's hip and trendy and annoying and is a bad metaphor.  Getting rid of the garbage in our diets, which paleo does, is great.  And it works.  I also buy to some degree that foods from the agricultural revolution on are probably the most troublesome.  But I'm sorry, a pizza with a crust made of cauliflower or almond flour is most definitely NOT paleo.  Neither is bacon.  Or a present day apple.  Raw elk?  Maybe.  Boar liver?  Getting warmer.  The point is ridding the diet of sugar, grain, processed food, etc. is great.  But we neither know nor have access to what the actual paleolithic person ate, and an apple of today is nothing like an apple of that time.  Fine.  So it's a silly metaphor and I get that people need these kinds of things for popularity and cocktail party conversations and marketing.  Fine.  But paleo works.  Just please no more articles about hipsters in Brooklyn running around half naked in the park and buying meat lockers.

Paleo and Low Carb.  Paleo is not necessarily low carb and low carb is not necessarily paleo.  Sweet potatoes are high carb and also considered paleo.  Diet coke is low carb and most definitely not paleo.  Reducing carbs to under 100 grams per day works great for weight loss and it turns out that a paleo diet is a good way to do this.  Carbs beget insulin which begets fat storage.  That's why low carb is a great way to lose fat.  You train the body to burn fat preferentially and then it gets good at burning its own stored fat.  Lots of other great things happen when you do this, by the way. Unfortunately will power is the issue with this one.  You've got to figure out what kind of change you can live with and adhere to at least 80% of the time.  You also need to not confuse losing weight and eating healthy.  Combine low carb and paleo and you're in business on both fronts.  But again, can you stick with it?  Remember the world you live in and the world you grew up in and remember that those worlds are not going away any time soon.  What can you live without?  You won't see Greeks or Italians or French going paleo any time soon and maybe that's fine (it's a bread thing).  Maybe an overall reduction in carbs is a better idea for burning fat if bread is a big deal.

Intermittent Fasting.  This is the most exciting dietary thing I'm working on right now.  It's really powerful.  Contrary to the last 50 years' worth of advice, going for long periods of time without taking in calories can do wonderful things.  Really.  It's a really buzzy topic so I'm just going to tell you what I know from experience.  There are three main approaches:  compressed eating window, periodic long fasts, and light graze/feast.

Compressed eating window (Leangains):  most people eat from right after they get up to the right before bed.  That's about 16 hours of eating.  Reverse this.  Compress your eating time to eight hours.  Noon to 8:00 PM, for example.  I do anywhere from 1:00 - 3:00 to about 9:00 - 11:00 PM (depending on how late I will likely drink a beer.)  This is the only one I've done and when I stick to it it really works.  Clarity of mind, fat burning, diminished preoccupation with food and eating....

Long fast (Eat Stop Eat):  Eat when you want except once or twice a week go 24 hours without calories.  I am going to try this and I'm very interested in it.  This sounds horrific but if you're used to fasting it wouldn't be hard at all.  One or two times a week, skip dinner and then breakfast.  If this would give me the same results as compressed eating window, I would like to try it.

Light Graze / Feast (Warrior Diet):  Graze lightly throughout the day but nothing even remotely approaching a "meal" and then have one big meal at night.  I have not tried this and am not too interested in it because I think the light grazing throughout the day could easily turn into old habits.
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From my experience, I'd boil it down to this:  if you are working on your waistline, you can worry about WHAT you eat or WHEN you eat or both.  If you want to worry about what you eat, keep it low carb to lose weight and paleo for overall health.  If you want to worry about when, try intermittent fasting.  It may even allow you to get away with junk if that's your thing, and still help you lose weight and improve health.  Combine them all and you're a machine.

Bodyweight Calisthenics Version of the One Day Muscle Blast

I've always been intrigued with this idea and realized recently that I've been practicing a form of it regularly in the bodyweight calisthenics version somewhat accidentally.  Back in the 1950s Peary Rader, of Ironman Magazine fame, published an article on the "One Day Muscle Blast" or "One Day Program".  The idea is that you pick an exercise and a weight roughly half your max and do a set per hour for 12 hours.  You also are supposed to drink lots of milk and rest.  The milk aside, I like the idea so I'm trying it for bodyweight calisthenics.  But since every day is body day for me, I picked three that are easy for me and decided on sets of 25.  I wasn't as regular as every hour.  Instead I did them when I thought of it.  This was not difficult and didn't make me too tired or sore.  It was a little boring.

If you have the patience to look on Youtube you can certainly find modern versions of this program.  But they usually drink protein drinks rather than milk.  I'll never do that.  They also keep it to 8 hours.

This program is for building size and while that's not my goal per se, I do like the mix it up factor.

I did:  25 rows, 25 pushups, 25 squats, as many super sets of these as I could in the day.  Fairly bad form, fast, no locking out.  The idea was to make it pretty easy and something I could do all day.  Never was I even close to failure.

I ended up with 9 total sets but really wanted more like 16.  As the day progressed I tended to forget.

I like this and I'll definitely do it again and with more of a challenge.  Maybe 10 strict reps of each exercise per set?  Or may 6 of the harder stuff (pullups and dips?)

I do like the idea of seeing how many total of each exercise you can complete in a day.  So this time for me it was 25 x 9 of each exercise, or 225 reps.

I need to double that.

This also might be a good program to keep in the arsenal of the aging person.  The older you get the harder it is to maintain muscle mass, and this may be a good way to do that.

Bodyweight Calisthenics "Starting Strength?"

After spending some time in the high rep, light "weight" world I start to get worried that I will lose the fundamentals, the strength gotten from well-executed dips, squats, pushups and pullups.  So I go back.  Variety is good.  Yesterday I decided to go back in a big way.  What if I executed the reps on the Big Four (pushups, pullups, squats and dips) so well and so slowly that I could only do 5 reps?  Then I might have a bodyweight calisthenics version of Starting Strength, a very influential approach to strength building that touts barbells and four main compound exercises (bench press, deadlift, squat and one olympic movement that involves a shoulder press, not sure what it's called) done in sets with heavy enough weight that you can only do 5 reps.

I decided to go with slow and strict rather than trying to increase the "weight" by leaning or doing one side at a time because I want to keep to the fundamentals and wanted to feel the effect. Again, time under tension will have plenty to say about the benefits of this.

So I did 5x5 of slow dips, pullups, squats and pushups.  The squats and pushups I had to really slow down to make them difficult enough to only get 5.  In all cases I purposely did not lock out so I could keep the tension on the muscles.  For dips and pullups I went as slowly as I could and paused at the apex of the movement and then did an even slower negative.  For the last rep I did the longest negative I could.  Pushups and squats were very slow, especially squats.  Each set of squats probably took 20 - 30 seconds.  I did all of this in superset "rounds" and pushups were last, so I was already pretty fatigued pushing-wise and didn't have to slow them down quite as much as squats.  And I did them Russian.

This is a fun workout because it's intense and it doesn't take long.  Somehow that's much less daunting to me than high volume.  After I felt very spent and shaky, which is a good thing.  Today I'm a bit sore, which I haven't felt in a while.

I'm planning to keep this approach in two ways.  First, I will come back to it and do 5x5 days.  Second, in pyramid days I will make sure my "heaviest" set is a slow set.

Putting it all together.

Bodyweight Calisthenics Set and Rep Tinkering - Top-Loaded Pyramids

Today I decided to do the pyramid approach but top-loaded, so instead of starting with the "lightest" (easiest) exercise (incline pushups, where the hands are higher than the feet), I started in the middle and put the easiest exercises at the end.  The idea was to put more effort into the harder stuff at the beginning when I'm relatively fresh.  As always I stopped before failure.  So it looked like this:

Pushing:
Regular pushups - 50
Russian pushups - 25
Dips - 12
Diamond pushups - 20
Hands on bench pushups - 33
Hands on bar (higher than bench) pushups - 31
Tricep pushups on bar - 22
Tricep pushups on higher bar - 50

Pulling:
Rows:  25
Assisted Pullups:  22
Less Assisted Pullups:  18
Pullups:  8
Slow, close grip pullups:  6
Feet on floor rows:  25
 "T-Bar":  25
"Curls"  30

Legs:
"Deadlift":  12 each leg
Assisted pistol squat:  8 each leg
Barely assisted pistol:  3 each
Pause squat:  11
Strict squat:  20
Fast squat:  30
Assisted squat:  35

Four Bodyweight Calisthenics Set and Rep Configurations and What They Do for You

Strength Foundation
This is how you build your strength and skill.  This is where you should start and this is where you should devote most of your attention.  The idea is that you do the big four (pullups, pushups, dips and squats) and you do as many well executed reps as you can in a day without going to failure and compromising form.  You build strength and mastery.  This is difficult stuff but it pays off.  When I first started I did this for months and months.  I started with one set of each exercise and worked my way up to, now 5 years later, eight sets of each.  It's best to do these as a "super set", one exercise to the next with little rest for 1 "round", then rest as long as you want before the next round.

For me, a round was 10 pullups, 12-15 dips, 25 Russian pushups, 25 squats, rest, repeat 8 times.

This is where you should focus and Hannibal for King says do this for at least 6 months if not a year.  I would agree.

But then you start to get good at these moves and that feels great, but it also gets a bit boring and the volume can be intimidating.  Then it's time to tweak.

Pyramids with Reps
For me this seems to work best for muscle building.  It is my attempt to follow a weight-lefter or bodybuilder protocol but with no equipment and bodyweight exercises and with many more reps than weightlifters would do.  In weight-lifting you start with a light weight and fairly high reps (for them 12), keep adding weight and reducing reps until a final set (2 or 4 reps).  This is the pyramid and that's a day's work for that muscle group.

I did this today and here's what I did:

Pulling:

Heals on the floor rows - 35 reps

Feet elevated rows - 28 reps

"T-Bar Row" - 25 reps

Assisted Pullups - 15

Neutral grip pullup - 10

Regular pullup - 8

Slow pullup - 6

Bicep pull-ins - 30

Pushing:

Elevated pushups - 40

Lower elevated pushups - 35

Regular pushups - 32

Russian Pushups - 25

Diamond pushups - 20

Regular dips - 15

Slow, narrow grip dips - 9

Wall tricep push backs - 30

Legs:

Squats - 35

Slow squats - 25

Very slow squats - 20

One leg "deadlift" - 15

Assisted pistol squats - 10

Slow assisted pistol squats - 6

Least assisted pistol squats - 3

Assisted squats - 25

Reverse Pyramids or "Tear-Downs" (Drop Sets)
I dreamed this one up as a possible best-of-both-worlds and a way to get a good workout in with the least amount of time spent.  I have only been doing it for a few weeks so I don't know if the benefits will meet expectation but I will keep you posted.  But the one set concept is pretty attractive.

This is a reverse pyramid superset, so you start with the most difficult move and go straight from that to the next-most-difficult move for the same muscle group, and so on, until you can't do any more.  I count total reps.

So for pushing it would be strict, slow dips followed by regular dips followed by assisted dips followed by diamonds, Russians, regulars, elevated, and pushoffs.  For pulling, it's strict pullups followed by neutral grip pullups, then assisted pullups followed by rows with feet elevated followed by heals-on-the-floor rows, etc., on up to bicep curl ins.  Total reps are 70-80 and you rest only as long as it takes to get to the next exercise.  3-5 seconds.

It's a bit tricky for pulling exercises because you tire more quickly and you really need to plan it out before you start the set.

Slow Rep Sets
If time under tension is correct then one set of 3 pushups where you take 30 seconds to do each one would be as good as set of 90 1-second pushups.  But I don't really think it's the same thing.  Useful, yes, but not the same thing.  I think slow rep sets are barn burners and another good way to get a good workout in with little time and volume intimidation.  The more your muscles burn and scream the stronger you're getting, so this is a good way to go if you want to get it done in a few painful minutes.  I don't think it has the muscle size building or skill component that the first two have, but definitely good to keep in the repertoire.

Whenever I do this I do 3 rep sets and check total time.  The longer the better.  I watched a Youtube video of a guy, much stronger than me, trying to do a 1 minute pullup.  One rep that takes a minute.  He couldn't do it, and neither would I be able to.  But it's worth a try.

The great thing about slow rep sets is that they offer the positive and the negative movement in the same set.  But man, they are difficult!

Perseverance and Patience

Years ago when I used to lift weights in a gym I would see the usual suspects every day:  big heavy meat heads lifting heavy weights poorly and dropping them on the ground after every set, the half-asseders talking on cell phones while half pedaling exercise bikes or curling 10 pound dumbbells, people who did the exact same workout day after day after day and never looked any different month to month, year to year.  You know, a whole lot of people who probably took a lot of pride in saying they go to the gym every day, but who don't LOOK like they go to the gym every day and probably got their routines out of magazines and never really tweaked them or even thought about them.  There were also the people who use the equipment way wrong but we won't go there.  Look them up on youtube.

But there was one guy who really stood out.  He was probably in his mid to late 30s, very muscular but not huge, perfectly proportioned, ripped, and by the way, a really nice guy.  One day he was looking at himself in the mirror and a guy who didn't look like him at all wandered over and said "man, what is your SECRET?"  His answer?  "Eleven years."  That's all he said.  "Eleven years."

You know what he meant of course.  I've been doing this consistently for eleven years. I've also been doing it CORRECTLY for eleven years, and I've paid attention to what works and what doesn't, I don't let anyone dictate my workout but myself, and I change things up.  I'm pretty sure that's what he would say.

Eleven years is a long time but it's also proof that this is a worthwhile endeavor, can't be rushed, is as much about learning as exercising, and can and will last a lot longer than the actual time spent.  It's a process, a journey.  Of the mind and body.

I've been doing bodyweight calisthenics consistently for at least four years.  I'm not good at keeping records so I don't know for sure, but I suspect it's more like five or six years.  I DO remember vacation in the summer of 2011 and figuring out how to do pullups on the bathroom door and dips in the kitchen where the counter comes together in a V at the hotel.  Back then I remember that my rule was at least ONE set of each of the big four (squats, dips, pushups, pullups) per day.  A modest rule to be sure, but that's right about when I noticed that it was working.

Now I'm at about eight times that modest rule.

"Tear-downs" (Drop Sets), the best of all worlds?

Tear-Downs
We used to call them tear-downs in high school, but they probably have a more scientific name now. Drop Sets, maybe?  Using the Universal machine you would start with a heavy weight and do as many reps as you can and then someone (or you) would move the pin up to one weight lighter and you would keep going until you can't do any more. Hopefully you've reached the top of the stack, or the lightest weight, by this time.

I spent a fair amount of time enamored with the books of Mike Mentzer.  He was an important figure and a real maverick.  He basically simplified the bodybuilding routine down to one set of a compound movement where you go beyond failure.  Except for the last part I really find this attractive.  If you go to or beyond failure you will require a lot of rest before you can do it again.  I want to do this every day.  But the maximum bang for your buck and the one set, I like that. High volume becomes intimidating and you end up having to force yourself to do it.

I am working on pulling these ideas together for bodyweight calisthenics and am hoping this idea works and offers the best of all worlds -- the "heavy", strength-intensive movements like pullups, and the muscle-building movements that allow high reps, like rows, all in ONE SET!  The most bang for the buck.  That's the idea.

Here's how I'm doing it:

Pushing Exercises
Start with strict, slow dips and get as many as you can.  That's usually 12-18 for me.  Then move to diamond pushups and go almost to failure, then Russian pushup, then regular pushups (hands fairly wide), then incline pushups (maybe against a bench or table top), then incline tricep extension, and then, finally, wall push-offs.  I count total reps and am usually in the 60-80 range.  So that's ONE SET of 60-80 reps, inside of which you have a "reverse pyramid" of "heavy" weight, low(ish) reps on up to "light" weight, high reps of the easy stuff.  Try to go from one exercise to the next with as little rest as possible.

Pulling Exercises
Start with strict pullups and try to pull your chest to the bar - about 6-10 reps, then put your feet on the ground and do assisted pullups, then rows, then rows on a progressively higher bar, and finish with wall pull-ins.  I'm usually in the range of 50-75 reps here, and the biceps are trashed by this point.

Legs
Assisted pistol squat (try to give yourself as little assistance as possible), alternating legs each rep, then one-legged deadlift or split squat or lunge, then two-legged long pause squat, shorter pause squat, short pause squat, regular squat, then assisted squat.  I'm at about 50-75 here.

I'm really excited about this because of bang-for-the-buck factor.  I'm keep you posted.  AFter having done this for the last several days, I can tell you that the workout is quick and painful.  That is, I'm probably spending 15 minutes total on the exercises.  That's a lot less than the 8 supersets, 40 minute routine I was doing before and that's a good thing.  But these sets are burning, aching, panting painful.  That's also a good thing.

Building Muscle with Bodyweight Calisthenics - What Has Worked

Conventional weightlifting and bodybuilding dictate that you lift heavy weights in a gym, divide up body parts, isolate, keep your rep range fairly low (never more than 12 and often down to 2 or 1), rest a lot between workouts, and eat small, frequent meals with high protein, high carb and low fat.  So, for example, Monday could be chest, shoulders triceps, Tuesday would be back and biceps, Wednesday would be legs.  Then repeat.  In the golden age of bodybuilding, the 1970s, they did the same split twice a week and took Sunday off and it was chest/back, shoulders/arms, legs.  Nowadays they rest longer between repeating body parts and eat a lot more.  Reps start at 12 and work down to 6 or 4.  Go to failure, so you need help on the last reps.  Bodybuilding meals nowadays seem to be all about chicken breast and broccoli (for whatever reason).  Also, never train on an empty stomach and never skip meals or your body will start devouring its own muscle.

I have, generally speaking, found the opposite of all this stuff in the first paragraph to be effective for me.  I find that really interesting and somehow very motivating.  I also believe that what works for one will not necessarily work for others and you have to figure out your best approach.  This may take years.

What has worked for me is to spend a good portion of the day and night not eating, sticking with high (good) fat, moderate protein, low carb.  No sugar.  No grain.  Binge and cheat sometimes.  Fast.  I also like to work out fasted and often don't need to eat right after.

I work the whole body every day.  When do I rest?  At night when I go to bed (a quote stolen from Hannibal for King)!  Weightlifters speak of "chest day" or "shoulders day".  For me, every day is "body day".  Does a gymnast selectively work certain parts of the body?  Does he say I'm only going to do the pulling part of rings today because I worked chest and shoulders yesterday?  Does he go to failure?  No, because he needs to do it again and again today and he needs to avoid injury.  Gymnasts sure look good.  The movements are bodyweight and functional.  The form is excellent and they do it a lot.

I almost never do fewer than 8 reps a set and some sets are 45, 50, 70, even 80 reps!  I find that the "lighter" I keep it (e.g., incline pushup for 45 reps a set, rows for 25 reps rather than pullup for 12) the bigger my muscles get.  Low weight / high reps seems to build muscle for me.   "Heavy" movements like pullups and dips keep me generally at the 12-15 rep range (or lower depending on form and speed), still high reps by bodybuilder standards but the lowest I go.  This builds strength but not necessarily as much size.  But all of this overall has built more muscle on me than weights ever did.  And I used to pyramid with barbells, separated body parts and trained the same one only once a week, and would eat frequently.

Nowadays size is not so much of a goal for me so I don't keep it light all the time.  I mix it up.

For me there are only four main exercises:  squats, dips, pullups and pushups.  Everything else in the bodyweight arena is a variation of one of these.  I'm talking about exercises here, not necessarily skills.  And there are about a million variations.  This is a good thing.

For about 2 months I did this every day (you need to build up to this):

10 pullups, 12 dips, 25 squats, 15 pushups (usually Russian, sometimes diamond) as one superset - go from one exercise to the next with little rest between the exercises but as much rest as you need after the 4th in the series.  Repeat this 8 times a day, either all in one session or broken up throughout the day.  All together it takes about 40 minutes but you'll sweat and therefore can't really do it in office clothes.  2, 2, 2, 2 can be done in office clothes, even a tie.  I built a LOT of strength on this but not much size.  Which is fine; it's a foundation.

The last few days I've been doing this, or something like it, each day (this is my "high reps low weight" approach):

Regular pushup - 40
Russian pushup - 30
Diamond pushup - 25
Dip - 18
Close dip - 12
Tricep press - 20
Knee pushup - 35
Wall press - 50

Squat - 50
Close foot 3 second pause squat - 25
5 second pause squat - 12
Alternating lunge - 10
Bodyweight "Deadlift" - 8
Pistol squat - 4
10 second pause squat - 6
Assisted squat - 50

T Bar Row - 50
Full weight body row wide - 25
Full weight body row narrow - 20
Neutral grip pullup - 15 (ok form, not strict)
Narrow grip pullup - 14
3" pause narrow pullup - 6 (strict)
TBar type of row - 40
Curl type of row - 30

This looks like a lot but it's one day's workout and takes, again, about 40 minutes. A few weeks in a row of this and you WILL get bigger. If that's what you want. (Build up to it. I've been doing this for years.)

For a while I was doing a variation where I would try to take as long as I could to do three reps of each exercise. Here's my max:

Pushup: 51 seconds (one set of 3 reps)
Squat: two minutes and 7 seconds
Dip: 36 seconds
Pullup: 26 seconds

This is TOUGH. I will go back to this soon to try and beat it. If you want to see how it might compare to doing lots of sets and reps in terms of strength and size, you can read about Time Under Tension. I don't read much technical stuff; I prefer to try things and see how it feels and see what works.

Today's Calisthenics Efforts

Black coffee in the morning.  Started eating around noon and broke fast with Trader Joe's sauerkraut, kim chi, seaweed, bacon and chard.  Lots of water.

Today's exercise (tried to get as many reps possible in three sets of each exercise):

Squats - 80, 50, 50 = 180 (my previous record for a set of squats was 75 so I was happy about this)
Dips - 27, 22, 20 = 69
Pullups - 20, 17, 17 = 54 (not great form but decent)
Russian Pushups - 41, 40, 36 = 117

Fasting is for health and fat burning and mental clarity but I would like to push the start time to 2:00 or 3:00. Fermented food for gut health. High fat (good fat), low carb. Changed up the exercise for variety and interest.

Dinner will be baby back pork ribs and salad. I also drink a lot of unsweetened (NO real or fake sweetener) iced tea. I hate sweet drinks. I haven't touched sugar in a long time.

Can we fix chronic health problems and undo the middle age body shape ourselves?

That's what I'm going to try to find out with this blog. There will be mostly diet and fitness discussion here. A regular accounting of what the goals are and what I have done to reach them and what has worked and what hasn't. I have learned some things over the years.

Generally speaking I know that conventional wisdom on diet and exercise is largely wrong and perhaps deliberately misleading and the health care industry is a chronic sickness industry, and if we want fixed we need to fix ourselves. And most of the effort needs to be directed at perseverance and accepting the obvious rather than complexity or attempted objectivity or science. Stop fooling yourself and get on with it. Stop listening to people that want to sell you something.

 This is a place to stay focused and to remind.


I'm a 50 year old physically active male, 6 feet tall, 185 pounds. Apparently slim and muscular but with a gut, mostly visceral fat. 18-20% body fat, all in the mid section. I ride a bike 30 miles every day I go to work. Not fast. Upright, comfortable, regular clothes, regular shoe on pedal, no spandex. It takes about an hour to get to work, 1.25 to get home (the hills are more up than down and I'm tired). I don't ride for workout or cardio as much as freedom, psychotherapy, meditation, and fun. I love it. It gives me more than it takes.

I've done daily bodyweight calisthenics for several years. Some variation of pushups, pullups, dips and squats. No weights, no machines, no equipment, no special clothes. I can't remember the last day I didn't do any calisthenics. I used to lift weights for size and strength (at my best I benched 235 for 11 unassisted reps) and have had better strength gains with bodyweight calisthenics. I hate gyms. I change up the workouts but average about 8 sets of each exercise a day, sometimes done as supersets all in one session and sometimes spread throughout the day. The sets are in the neighborhood of 10 pullups, 12-15 dips, 25+ squats, 25+ (usually Russian) pushups. For the last few weeks I've done that and lately I have thrown in "lighter" movements for more reps and today I tried to see how many reps total I could get with three total sets of each exercise. I have enough foundation now that I can start playing around with things.

Health-wise I have borderline blood pressure (usually in the 140s over 90s), enough to prompt most doctors to try to medicate me. But I won't take drugs if I possibly can avoid it. One goal is to get bp in the normal range with no drugs and last trip to my doctor I achieved that. 122/70 something. I believe this was from intermittent fasting and alcohol moderation. More on those later. I have mild to moderate digestive issues at all times, from GERD to IBS and similar. I had an endoscopy a few years ago with no cancer but irritated stomach lining and admonition to decrease alcohol intake. Again, more on that later. The most troubling medical condition is high internal eye pressure. This is new and I cannot feel it but this is the kind of thing that can lead to glaucoma. I have no evidence of glaucoma and doctors wanting me to medicate as a preventative, but again I want to avoid this.  I also have nearly constant allergy symptoms that are more annoying than anything - itchy throat and eyes, asthma-ish cough and wheeze usually in mornings.

I am interested in and generally follow paleo, low carb and intermittent fasting. The fasting is the most exciting to me. The paleo is a good idea with a bad metaphor but if you keep it to real whole food, avoid grain and sugar, it works. I generally try to eat within an 8 hour window and fast for 16. I believe all of these things help to allow me to get away with my biggest vice, which is drinking beer and sometimes whiskey. I drink too much. I'd like to fix the health stuff and get the body I deserve based on the amount of exercise I do and know that moderating the beer intake is the biggest key.

Most of the health problems I focus on here are related though seem separate and stem from gut issues. One goal will be to keep this in mind and work on it.  I'm trying to eat fermented food every day and will also try to add in collagen/bone broth.