and yes, they all rely on those rubber balls to keep the cables from slipping through.
in any case, the numbers don't really matter: it is a matter of what feels difficult and then being able to keep track of whether you are slowly moving toward more difficult or less difficult.
happy pulling, rotating, or whatever it is you intend to do with the cables!
Ha! I like that system. Shunning the numerology of so much training in favor of color-coding. Could one end up chasing colors as hard as numbers though? "C'mon dude, you totally own the red, now let's go get it!"Exactly, the numbers don't matter. One just wants to increase resistance over time. I keep track by using the color of my bumpers and microplates. 1 red, 1 yellow, etc.
It you do rotational, make sure it's the thoracic spine that's rotating and not the lumbar spine. I think.Oh nice I forgot about rotational exercises, thanks for the reminder.
You ever have any concern about those balls breaking off? I should probably research a little about the weight limit.
It you do rotational, make sure it's the thoracic spine that's rotating and not the lumbar spine. I think.
"ball-breaker": a demanding woman who destroys men's confidence.
Should be easy to avoid in a home gym.
Well, from a naturalistic point of view, it's hard to see when in real life someone would twist like that with their arms extended. Landmine Twists seem to come close to a natural swinging motion, although of course, there are limits to the naturalistic position.Yeah I was thinking these
But chances are I won't get to them. I am more likely to do the landmine twists to be honest.
Need to start looking at my next 4 week plan, more of the same with some tweaks? Wednesday I was also thinking about making the upper lifts a high rep workout instead of pushing the weight. And only focus on higher intensity squats.
Speaking of which, face pulls? Do you do them at all? I keep thinking about these excess lifts for a fun day Friday workout wondering if that should be one?
Low on sleep, but the antibiotics seem to be doing there job, so I was tired-tired instead of sick-tired. Time to get back on the lifting train. I just primed everything, with the hope that I could do Workout A on Tuesday and Workout B on Wednesday, and thus get in a full workout week despite the time off. Looks like Abide is getting better too.
Red = 45lbs
Thursday, 16.01.28
PM
SQ: 1/2 @ 295 | 3 @ 280 | 3 @ 265 | 6 @ 235
OHP: 3/3 @ 135 | 3/2 @ 125
RDL: 3/3/2 @ 275
BP: 5/5/5 @ 185
P Rw: 5/5/5 @ 155
S PD: 5/5 @ 180
Finally worked out at the university gym. Not too many people at the end of the afternoon and lots of space. It was nice to do my OHP standing instead of kneeling. I may have to work in a few push press reps next time. Everything was a little off but not as bad as I expected. Will try for another workout on Saturday.
I think it's a little too early to tell. The squats went well, but by the time I got to the press, I was already feeling a little weak and hungry, and I hadn't pressed for at least a week, and the press seems like it's the lift that weakens the quickest with time off. It will probably take at least a week of consistent lifting before I'm able to recover everything. I'm going to start with the goal of reaching my beginning-of-the-year loads. So basically, with this sore throat and other stuff that came up, I've lost a month of progress. No biggie, and who knows, maybe in the long run it was good to deload a bit. Still not sure about the 2/3/5/7+ protocol. Might just go back to the 5-7-3 weekly wave, that works just fine. I'll give 2/3/5/7+ a fair shot though. I went in without my little spread sheet and it was kind of nice not to worry about the exact right loads or micro-loading.Interesting that your standing overhead press was pretty comparable to your kneeling weight earlier this cycle. I would have suspected you would see a bump from standing but I guess you have really mastered the kneeling version.
That's funny about the schedule likely a university gym would vary from a typical neighborhood gym. Back when I lifted at the university gym in Chicago the mornings and lunch time were packed, but most people went home in the early afternoon as soon as classes were done.
Edit: funny, sometimes the coincidence of T-Nation articles appearing about something that I've just begun to focus on is amazing. Yesterday I did standing overhead presses for the first time in many, many years. Then this article is posted in T-Nation's daily reposting section: https://www.t-nation.com/training/get-your-press-up
Now I'm thinking maybe I'll clean my press from the floor when I use the university gym.
I forgot to mention how fun it was to glance at other lifters at the university gym. Some half-squats, one guy saying to his buddy that shoulder day was his favorite day, lots of lunges with light dumbbells, etc. It will be hard to keep from dispensing with old guy advice (albeit old guy knowledge that has only been acquired within the last two years or so!). For the moment though, I seem to be the only old guy in there, so everyone will probably want to keep their distance.
Yah, but perhaps cleaning and then presses, or even push press, would involve more muscle recruitment and therefore greater gains overall. A long time ago, when I was almost completely naive about strength theory, and I didn't have a rack, I would clean to press, then add weight and just clean, then add more weight and deadlift. I might try that again. It would depend on whether my shoulders can take all that cleaning. So a workout could be Squats, then that press-clean-deadlift complex, bench, row, pulldown, with focus on the first two, and bench, row, pulldown becoming secondary. The squat I could continue to do 2/3/5/7+, and everything else straight sets across. I dunno, something to think about. I did like that video in the article with the dude cleaning and pressing twice his body weight. Cleaning and pressing my body weight and squatting twice it would be noble goals. And then, like you say, other gym rats, especially the body-part kats, would probably look at me and wonder what the hell I'm doing. Could be fun . . .Yeah I remember that article from a while back. I tried his advice about cleaning the bar but after a few workouts realized that the clean was adversely affecting the press. I could make more reps at higher weight off the rack I mean. Plus the warmup requirement, ahh bitch, bitch, bitch. Anyway that was my experience, and my takeaway was focus on the lift your are performing, you wouldn't clean a front squat or snatch an overhead squat right?
Gyms have great comedic value, the funny thing is you can get to know the regulars over time but its still so difficult to understand why the hell they do what they do. In fact they probably look at us and think the same thing.
Yah, but perhaps cleaning and then presses, or even push press, would involve more muscle recruitment and therefore greater gains overall. A long time ago, when I was almost completely naive about strength theory, and I didn't have a rack, I would clean to press, then add weight and just clean, then add more weight and deadlift. I might try that again. It would depend on whether my shoulders can take all that cleaning. So a workout could be Squats, then that press-clean-deadlift complex, bench, row, pulldown, with focus on the first two, and bench, row, pulldown becoming secondary. The squat I could continue to do 2/3/5/7+, and everything else straight sets across. I dunno, something to think about. I did like that video in the article with the dude cleaning and pressing twice his body weight. Cleaning and pressing my body weight and squatting twice it would be noble goals. And then, like you say, other gym rats, especially the body-part kats, would probably look at me and wonder what the hell I'm doing. Could be fun . . .
Speaking of gym rats, did I mention the two non-graduate students I befriended in University of Chicago's general gym (the athletes had their own weight room) did no lower body work? One guy in particular looked really funny, just bird legs with a medium-sized bodybuilder physique up on top. It looked like he could tip over at any time. I wonder if he realized how worthless all that upper body strength would be if he actually tried to do something with it while standing up. Of course, at the time I didn't do squats either, but at least I knew enough to deadlift.
Ha, I like that image, and he was something of a peacock, very attentive to fashion and hair etc. And I think the guy was a natural ectomorph, so his legs were especially skinny and out of proportion to his upper body. It really was comical. He always wore pants of course, but even then it was obvious that he had an endurance runner's legs and a body builder's torso. He was a great guy though, very encouraging and positive, as close as I've ever come to having a training partner.Who knows maybe the dude had massive success in the dating game, like a peacock huh? That was me back in high school, except I had the benefit of football sleds and sprint practice at track to offset all my curls.
You are right about the muscle recruitment. As you know probably by now I have always been a little against doing cleans, mainly to prevent injuries since the quick lifts have always been problematic for me. So I don't think its bad advice I am just trying to see what the benefit would be to do so? Cleans intuitively seem to me to benefit more of a fast sport like sprints or football. Do you think there is more benefit to be had from them, from the endurance perspective? I have also felt the same way with push presses. However now that we are talking about it maybe doing a 5+ final set of OHP and the pluses are push presses after the presses stall out might be good.
I remember your old clean/dl combo, but your "Squats, then that press-clean-deadlift complex, bench, row, pulldown" idea is sensory overload for my minimalistic nature! That is a hell of a workout though, maybe once a week on a Monday and then simplify your other two workouts? Otherwise I think it will be fast burning you out.
I dunno, my view is that exercise so broadly affects every other facet of life--health, of course, but also mood, concentration, sound sleep, energy levels, appetite, self-esteem, etc.--that an hour a day isn't really that much time. It makes the other 95% or so of the day so much better, and I'm not a very efficient person anyway, so the onus should really be on cutting out wasted time in other areas before I start shorting the exercise time.Same here with the focus lifts with one caveat, I have one heavy focus lift a day. It seems to be working pretty well. Even though the other lifts are lighter they still seem to have a good impact. Like next Monday I'll be doing lighter DL's so I will try to push the bench a bit and maybe even the pull ups. Doing 10 extra reps of the TBDL on my off day at 87% of the heavy day really impacts the body in a different way. Wednesday I will go heavy with my presses, I'll see if I can get 5 x 5 @ 60kgs. I'm gonna add the push presses to the last set. I'll probably skip going heavy with the back stuff, I seem to do better with higher volume reps lower weight anyway.
However one problem is the time commitment is slowly increasing. Between the 5 x 5 upper sets I find myself taking a little more time between sets to warm up for the heavier DL's and squats. But compared to going to a gym the 45-50 minutes 3 times a week I spend lifting really isn't much.
I think before I start adding any variety in the schedule I should really add in some hill sprints. They might have a more direct benefit for my 100 goal for now.
I dunno, my view is that exercise so broadly affects every other facet of life--health, of course, but also mood, concentration, sound sleep, energy levels, appetite, self-esteem, etc.--that an hour a day isn't really that much time. It makes the other 95% or so of the day so much better, and I'm not a very efficient person anyway, so the onus should really be on cutting out wasted time in other areas before I start shorting the exercise time.
But yeah, lately I've been feeling the need to do a certain amount of intensity, but then not always having the motivation to do it. A whole hour of high intensity fries the middle-aged CNS. So for me, basically, I'm accepting that I got to vary the intensities of the six lifts somehow. It's just a matter of figuring out the best way. The 5-7-3 weekly wave gets to be a little too much with the loads getting up there. And then of course, the heavier lifts involve more warm-up sets, another consideration as you point out. So the simplest for me is just to alternate heavy Squats with heavy Deadlifts, and heavy Presses with heavy Bench Presses. Since I feel like I get more benefit from Squats and Presses, I reason that I should do them heavy twice a week and Deadlift and Bench Press heavy once a week. Then on the lifts' non-heavy days, do them medium to light, just to practice the movement. Rows and Pulldowns seem to fit best last, and at moderate or higher reps, like you say. I like them as finishers/balancers. Anyway, that's been the plan for this cycle, just have to put it into practice!
Of course, I could just go with stasis and simply maintain. That would cut down on time and some of the need for motivation. But it wouldn't be any fun.
Yah, if you're doing all that on top of lifting everyday, it's a lot. I was speaking about exercising an hour a day more generally. Like an hour total of whatever combination of stuff you're doing.Yeah 45 minutes isn't that long of a time, but once I add everything up then we are talking 2-3 hours a day between lifting, biking/running and yoga which is a bit long I think. Plus coordinating schedules with my wife's training is difficult too.
Yeah the alternating concept seems to be an easy one to make to offset the higher weight loads. In fact I look forward to my squat workouts now that I really only have to push them every other week. Although I am a little sore from pushing the deads yesterday.
Well now how to work this weight off? Composition is changing slowly so maybe I will have to wait a little longer for the actual weight piece? Still dealing with very low energy levels almost everyday. Wish losing weight didn't have to mean feeling like molasses most of the time.