ethos | types of exercise

Summary
- Power
- Conditioning
- Grease the Groove

Primary goals: Moving well and staying in shape
Secondary goals: Strength and size

Preamble Ramble
2020 has already been decided. This January marks the first time I'm without a gym membership. It's been terrible. Just terrible. I miss getting up extra early to drive to a commercial gym filled with people who have trouble remembering that gym clothes need to be washed. I miss using equipment and movements that have been reinforcing injuries and movement patterns I have no current business doing. I miss feeling like I need to do X or Y to get stronger or bigger or faster or leaner. Terrible just terrible.

Woe is me. All I have at home now is a 8kg kettlebell, a 20kg kettlebell, a few lengths of chain, and a 20lb weight vest. All I can do is anything I can fucking imagine.

Let's break. I'm a little embarrassed about an article I wrote back in 2012. I was whining about how unequipped a hotel gym was to accommodate an accomplished lifter [sic] such as myself. What I failed to even consider is how much I could do with the equipment I had. How sad is the idea that without Xlb barbells or dumbbells I'm hamstrung. Mah stuff. I need, mah stuff. It's so easy to build something meaningful without a lot. I intend on adding more to my home gym over time - another 20kg kettlebell, heavier kettlebells (not sure where yet), high paralettes. None of this is really needed, but my toolbox expands into crazy directions with just a few more additions.

The reality check is I'm not going to pull 600 pounds. I'm not going to squat 400. I'm not going to bench 300. That's not the goal. I can't believe they ever were. Are my shoulders going to be weak or tiny when I'm able to strict press a 100lb kettlebell for reps? Is my back going to be weak after mastering weighted front lever rows? Will I be slow the more I master explosive movements like swings? The answer invariably is going to be a resounding NO.

With minimal equipment, I've kept or increased my strength and size in almost every avenue. Leaning out has become a factor from diet and training instead of just how many oly lifts I can get in. The best news here is I feel fuckin bulletproof. My neck has no looming tweaks. My herniated discs are quiet. Being able to do normal things like walk and run and fuck bring me so much joy I could burst. Good as time as any to segway into the cornerstones of the types of exercise in this program I'll post about.

Power | Feel younger and move better
One of the hardest parts about getting older is not feeling like I have a POP factor any more. Like most things with reaching older levels, you can still access perks from previous levels, but you have to work for it. Shit don't come for free any more.

Increasing power is not contingent on increasing weight. Increasing power, is not contingent on increasing weight. iNcrEAsinG PowUh iS nOt ConTiNGeNt oN iNcrEaSinG WaaaiiT. We good?

Way overly simplified
Power = Force * Velocity

Moving weight through space as fast and as hard as possible is the primary goal. Adding weight is a far far distant second driver. Before you add weight, you can:
- Add different lifting variations to the same weight
- Change the exercise so the plyometric effects are increased
- Focus on exerting more force against the same weight

Current toolbox
- Kettlebell swings: Two handed, one handed
- Explosive pushups: Palms, knuckles

Condition | Being in shape, leaning out, hypertrophy
This was hard pill for me to swallow. May 2019, my girlfriend and I went for a 2hr walk. By the time we got back to her house I was absolutely destroyed. My back ached. My knees ached. I was out of breathe. What the fuck man?

This was a moment in time when I was doing intensity techniques in the gym like rest pause, but also implementing 20 rep front squats. The latter of which I thought meant I was in shape. I just front squatted bodyweight for 20 reps. I'm in shape!!! I'm also...constantly worried my neck will get tweaked. I'm also feeling my still herniated discs just itching to numb my feet. I could do things in the gym other people weren't willing to do our couldn't do, but I couldn't go for a walk with someone I loved. Unacceptable.

Conditioning workouts are going to be a bit all over the place. The goals here stem from the acronym GPP = general physical preparedness. A certain aspect of randomness is going to be inherent here even if the toolset of movements may stay the same. Unlike increasing power, adding weight will be a huge part of keeping in shape, but like power there is not going to be a time when I'm unsure whether I can complete a rep. I'm a huge fan of conditioning tools that have a unilateral aspect. I've seen my back health increase steadily since I incorporated movements that force my abs on one side of my body to stabilize the entire unit.

Current toolbox
- Single arm carries: Suitcase, waiters, rack
- Double arm carries: Farmers
- Other kettlebell movements: Press, swings, deadlift, row, cleans

Grease the Groove | Doing a lot a little at a time
Grease the groove is a Pavel term. Essentially, you build strength by doing your volume a little at a time often instead of a lot infrequently. Your sets don't even look across the room at a party at failure, let alone flirt with it.

Greasing the groove is practice. Imagine your strength as paperclips you are dropping on your desk one by one. Individually it's not a lot. Cumulatively the effect is enormous. For me this essentially works out to some strength work and some hypertrophy work. Almost all of it is a short 2-5min break from working so I can do something else.

This is not an essentially part of Rollin with Chet. It's a useful supplement.

Current toolbox
- Kettlebell movements: Floor press, press, row
- Bodyweight movements:  Weighted pushups, bodyweight rows, front levers
- Other: Ab wheel