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.