Thursday, October 15, 2015

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


Monday, October 5, 2015

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.