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.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
"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.
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.
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
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.
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.
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.
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