Tuesday, August 25, 2015
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.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
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.
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.
Monday, August 17, 2015
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.
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.
Friday, August 14, 2015
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.
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.
-----------------
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.
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.
-----------------
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.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
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
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
Monday, August 3, 2015
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:
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!
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!
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