whelp, new plan

All my shit hurts. I've got topve furniture today and I'm genuinely afraid I'm going to herniate a disc. This is not ok.

The entire point of strength training is to get stronger. To be pliable and resilient. This isn't it fam. I followed a new kettlebell dude on insta yesterday (kettlebell grant) and saw a post that hit home. If what you did in your 20s doesn't work today or you are constantly hurt, then your long term plan failed. It pisses me off. It's right and it pisses me off.

The plan I was following gave me a few weeks of bliss. I not only felt strong, but also I could move how I wanted to move. I was STABLE. Fuck bro, even my knees stopped hurting to the point where I felt like I was on the right path. And then kablooey. It's unclear if it's because I added more shit or the timeline where things work ran out, but it ran out.

I spent yesterday feeling bad and sorry for myself. That was yesterday. Today is today.

The new plan

Step1: small deload. 

- bodyweight or light kettlebell goblet squats.

- lower leg training.

- lots of walking and light sled work.

Step2: dre kettlebell program.

- use the program I've already purchased. This focuses on mobility and stability.

- continue lower leg training.

- continue walking and sled work.

Step 3: not sure.

After step2 (8 weeks) it might be apt to rerun at a higher weight. Find a new program. Or find new ways to incorporate calisthenics and kettlebells. It would make sense to replace some pressing movements with ring presses 

Dre himself breaks up his kb training:

Lower press, upper pull x2

Lower pull, upper press x2

Mobility

Full press

Full pull

don't blame the equipment

When I was in college, I wanted to become a film maker. Its all I wanted to do. And I stopped making movies because I had a shit camera from the time I was 16. It wasn't good enough to be taken seriously I would think. And even when I saved up enough to buy a massive upgrade, I moved the goalposts to a new and better camera.

Years later, I didn't leave the same lesson when it came to training equipment. My first purchase was a 20kg kettlebell. I thought, this is a good start, but I can't do anything amazing until I get a full barbell set. Jokes on me. If I put in serious chops with that bell, I could have accomplished great things. Hindsight and all that. 

I'm.not saying I don't appreciate my barbell. Or my rack. Or any of the other things I've accumulated over the past few years. But the more you move goalposts, the less you will accomplish with the tools at hand. People have always been able to make due without cutting edge anything. Idolizing a symbol at the mountain to climb is at best procrastination.

training calves in a home gym

I avoided calf training my entire life. Early on, it was because I had an excessive amount of calf work between marching band, karate, and just generally sprinting all the god damn time. This continued into college where I was break dancing 4x a week for 4 years.

Adult me thought calves were stupid. I don't care how they look. And barring basic athletic function, I didn't care how well they worked. At least part of me was also bit by the 'calves are genetic' bug and said why bother. Fast forward to today, part of the reason my knees got hurt was because of weak ass calves. They are now a priority. 

The giant surprise I've gotten is I love training them. You can mash them into dust and they just jump back. it fits great into an OFF day on daily training. Finding out the how on training has been a joy too. The answer is it doesn't really matter. I'll usually opt for easy setup and less weight over anything else, so keep that in mind with the following choices.

Top 2

1)Seated calf raises

Do one leg at a time. Place a pillow between you and the weight. Use plates or kettlebells. Flex your calf before any rep. For an additional stimulus, you can change the angle of your foot compared to your knee, and bring the foot in closer as a mechanical drop set.

Making light weight harder:

Press down into the weight during the eccentric (negative) and fight the resistance. This shit is HARD.

Pull up on the weight when you can no longer complete a rep, flex to the top of the rep, and perform a small negative.

2)knees over toes calf raises

Lean against a wall, rack, etc. bend your knees in so they are over your toes. Do calf raises. Increase tension by holding a weight or wearing a vest.

Afterwards

Stretch your calves after every day and every session. Do this for longer than you think you need (2+min).

easy strength example slow progression

A big question Dan gets often is - how do you know when you are ready to increase weight. The answer is disappointing - when it's easy. And ya, that is the right answer. But the problem is that what is easy today might be a fluke, better rest, better food, etc. when you bump up the pounds all of a sudden it's heavy again.

Try this instead.

Day1: start 2x5

Day2: start 2x5

Day3: start 1x5, start+5-10 1x3, start +10-20 1x2

Day4: OFF

Day5: start 2x5

Day6: start 1x5, start+5 1x5

Day7: OFF

If the last set on day6 is easy. That is your new start weight. This can increase what feels dogshit east by 25lbs per cycle. 

don't add more shit

 The dumb thought goes - well a little is good, so a lot must be better!

I struggle with this EVERY WEEK. Obviously. I wanted to expand my bodybuilding days to have more work. And shit man it isn't like I can't handle more. BUT. Vastly increasing volume via the kitchen sink works for a very short amount of time. What I'm doing is working. All lifts are slowly increasing. My joints feel great. Body composition is improving. Why the fuck would I dump an extra 40% volume into the plan? Ridiculous. 

corrective intro

It's been a week of corrective exercise. Some thoughts.

Back

Jefferson curls are very uncomfortable right now. BUT. After a few sets of full range of motion with a very small amount of weight (2-5lbs) I felt soreness in my erectors and hamstrings. There is value to this exercise. If I can build up my resilience to the point where it is a comfortable position with a decent amount of weight, I feel like we can do great things for future me.

Knees

Backwards walking is boring but whatever. Considering adding kettlebell squats to my Jefferson curl days. Really would enjoy some larger legs overall.

Neck

A small child hung from my neck yesterday, and my left hand went numb ish for a few min. Not entirely surprising given my past, but this is concerning. Calves and tibs day may get a neck/traps partner in crime.

a week after not alright

Things are going better. Removing deadlifts from easy strength has let the lower back fatigue bleed off. I no longer feel like I'm a day away from injury. Honestly, with the kb swings and squats in my warmup, my lower body feels taken care of to the same capacity. Side benefit is I noticed my knee health also doing better without daily pulls from the ground.

Walking backwards sucked at first but I'm acclimating. I found it's actually a good 'rest period' from daily conditioning outside in addition to a standalone activity. Going to continue for a few months before attempting single leg work and sled pulls.

Current plan

EZ 5x

Pull

Press

Ab

Bb 2x

Bi 3x12

Tri 3x12

Shoulders 3x15

*Moved to barbell presses behind the back for shoulders instead of rear delt raises.

Off 2x

Calves, tibs, hip flexors

Erectors 2x

Jefferson curl

Rdl or sandbags 

Conditioning

Mace every other day

Backwards walking daily

Goals of like to reach

- Jefferson curls 100lbs for easy reps.

- conditioning includes keg carries and sled walks.

Curiosity

Am I not - as Dan states - a hinge guy? I always thought I was, but the lack of ability to hinge daily says otherwise. As I build my erectors, I would like to introduce one of 2 things to EZ strength.

- squats. Dan says no but cmonnnn legs are cool and I'd be far from the first person to squat daily.

- or, kb hinges. More so on the dynamic side.

not alright. not gonna back out previous post.

My last couple of posts have been sunshine and rainbows. If I'm being honest, it's not because shit is great. It's not. It's because I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude while things are not looking my way. In my angst last night, I explored something outside of EZ strength via density training. All of a sudden, I remember why I abandoned this method. It's borrrrrrring. Ooo look at me! Doing X work in Y minutes. This works baller for some movements, but others (see: ring chinups) I wanted to die of boredom. The one good thing about last night is I discovered an ab exercise that is not limited by my knee health. More on that later.

What is not going well

- my lower back is giving warning signs of fatigue before a major injury. Part of this is the daily deadlifts,  but I think the lions share is not being able to incorporate ab wheel after my knee went tits up again. Ab wheel is a god damn godsend. I can link every period of my life where my back was solid up to periods where I was pushing the ab wheel hard. 

- extension of the ab wheel issues. I've had problems finding a hinge that doesn't hurt. This may have more to do with fatigue than movement selection. It's still be upsetting as I'm supposed to be building general strength. And here I am struggling with a 50lb sandbag clean.

- my knees aren't feeling great. Plural. This is after I tried doing sled drags and hip thrusts. I'm always a little down in the dumps when I do things that are heralded as gentle and they wreck me.

Word vomit

- I have to really decide whether density is a viable method forward or not. I like the idea that I can help manage lower back fatigue better by having days where I'm not putting it to hard work. This works under the context of being able to lift heavier and incorporate abs daily to reinforce my weaknesses. But if everything is as boring as yesterday it's a stretch.

- lower back is off limits for a few days. Even if we continue with easy strength.

- ab movements variation is going to keep me healthy. Using the wheel in the first round of EZ was clutch, buty abs where also the first body part to feel overuse creep in. 

- knee health needs to regress. If sled drags are no good, we start at backwards walking. Yes this sucks, but it has worked for others and could work for us. Swallow pride and do it. 

- revisit Jefferson curls. If spinal erectors and mobility is a limitation, deal with it! Unclear whether this would work better with density over EZ.

Comparing methods

(Density)

5 mornings 

20min movement super set abs 

5min minor isolation 

Basically one lift a day and abs 

Allows for more movement variation and volume

(Easy strength)

5 mornings 

20min 5 movements

2 days also include minor isolation

More specificity. Changes what feels easy in any given movement 

easy strength week 8 feedback

Things are still going well! The plan is to keep up what I'm doing until I'm sick of it.

Comments 

- conditioning daily is $$$. I don't always want to do it but always glad that I do.

- lower back fatigue is becoming a problem. Nothing hurts but it's always low grade sore. Very different than the first few weeks. Possible deload required.

- stretching daily is also $$$. I need to get more creative with what I'm doing.

- less complex movements > more complex. Maybe it's because I'm lifting in the morning, but hinges like cleans or sandbag cleans don't feel great daily.

- more protein is needed than I'm taking in. Always a good idea so whatever.

Adjustments

- I'm back on wave loading weekly weights. 2x5 for extended periods works but it's BORING. The key difference with this period is dropping some days way below.my easy threshold before ramping back to a new difficult day. 

- ab movements still in flux. I love ab wheel as the mainstay. Lord knows my back feels way way better when ab wheel is my jam. Near the end of week 6 I started feeling irritation in my right dick root muscle (technical name) and had to back off. Soon after I deviated from the plan and was unable to put pressure on my right knee. 

- hinge movement also in flux. Testing the waters with more kettlebell swings (i.e. conditioning plus heavier). The nice part about this setup is swings don't use a barbell, so setup time is non existent.

Everything else

- alternating mace and sled days as my afternoon break is awesome. Great work breaks without digging into recovery.

- the day before an easy strength off day is still arm and shoulder hypertrophy day. Not changing this. I'm finding my strength in isolation movements is slowly creeping up, and my arms are looking sexy AF. Shoulders on the other hand, don't look super different post isolation. I'm going to make my next easy strength push exercise more shoulder biased to address this.

Possible future ventures 

- landmine movements have an entire world of movements I've never messed with.

- easy presses: dips, ring dips, high incline bench.

- easy pulls: ring chinup, chest supported rows.

- arms shit: easy bar will be my friend for both sides of the guns.

success is stringing good days

I wrote this title thinking about injury recovery, but it applies to any desired skill acquisition as well. Getting better or better at something isn't the result of one really good day just as failing isn't the result of one really bad day. Consistency of effort is what gathers momentum.

Where injuries are applicable. Two weeks ago I decided I was better than the plan I was running (call back to previous posts). I added a shitton of new stuff in - going heavier, doing squats I had never tried, adding full range of motion lateral squats. Once I felt the numbness creep back in my knee, I knew I had fucked up. 

Fast forward to today. My knee feels...fine. it's fine. But the anxiety over whether or not it can get better is gone. I already did this once, and recently at that. If every day I can strive to be pain free and hit the plan (humane burpee + ez strength + stretching) the signals will be heard. It can't not.

membuh: hip contact and kettlebells

I have no idea what correct kettlebell form is. So, grains of salt. I do know that when my hips make contact with my forearms on the up swing that I actually get to push my hips into the kettlebell. The resulting contraction and power is WAY more than of the kettlebell is on its own.

Good stuff. Membuh.

training is communication

Dumb dumb thoughts today. Why is it important that we repeat the same training or training pattern until it doesn't work? That's because we can't just tell our tendons, ligaments, bones, muscles, and nervous system to...do stuff. The way we communicate a need is by training. 

Say you sell muffins. Every day people come in and buy muffins and all is well. It's what you do. Then one day, someone comes in and asks for an egg muffin. Fuck. We don't have eggs. Homeboy is going to get a muffin and walk away without what they asked for. Then over the course of the next few days, more customers come in and ask for egg muffins. Whelp, it doesn't make sense to not provide a growing demand with no supply. You start buying some eggs to feed the customers who specifically want egg muffins. But the demand only grows. Soon, you're the egg muffin shop. It's what you do. 

If only one person came in and requested an egg muffin one time, there would be no need to change. It's a one off. Repetition is communicating a need.

Get it?

This does not mean that you stick with the same movements forever. It means you stick with them until progress stalls.

first day back on the plan, solid day

As I said yesterday, the plan is solid. The plan going forward is to keep following the plan. 

First day back was fucking solid. I can already feel my knee loosening up and feeling better. A few more days and I'll be sitting pretty.

The plan

Warmup: humane burpee.

Puts blood back in my bum. This gets daily squatting practice in. The magic here is the weight will increase so slowly the tissues have no choice but to acclimate even when sick dying or dead.

The workout: easy strength

The plan is work up to an easy 2x5 and maintain it before weight increases. 1-2 weeks ain't shit here. The speed and ease should be increasing and not decreasing. Easy days or weight acclimation can be via 3x3 instead.

The goal is to slowly bump up the easy baseline.

The fun: mace work

Strength and flow. Not either. Both.

if the plan is working, follow the plan

Experiencing a minor setback with my right knee. For weeks it was feeling awesome. I overall felt like a fucking tank. And it was because I had a plan, and I was following the plan. But then I thought, maybe I can do better.

Bad. Idea.

What was the plan?

- easy strength, 2x5, stick with a weight and keep working on speed for a week.

- daily humane burpee.

- daily mace or kettlebell work when work time allows 

What did I add?

- armor building. First via kettlebells then via barbells 

- Cossack squats. 

- Nordic curls till death.

- increase weight when possible. Ramp up to 5/3/2 days.

The top three things above were added in the last week. The fourth I've sprinkled in. More on the fourth later.

The new additions were sudden jolts into tissue health I didn't have in ranges of motion I havent touched. Adding one of these would have been ok. Kind of. Adding 3 was stupid. The Nordic curls in particular to failure is where I started feeling numbness again. This is my fault. I am error.

The fourth item isnt 'bad.' it's one of the actual programs after all. But if I'm doing this to feel good and not necessarily focus on the weight lifted, building a set progression ain't the best idea. Dan's original comment of increase weight when too easy is a great guidelin, vague as it is.

I will get back to where I was. I have to remember that 6 weeks ago I was in worse shape than I am now. Follow the fucking plan. You can't keep busting your head against a wall.

armor building and the barbell clean

Time is funny. You do something that works, then you stop to chase the new shiny. Years and many injuries later, you come across your old love and oh ya this was always great.

The cornerstone of my old productive training was power cleans and snatch high pulls. Those 2 movements covered SO many bases it was ridiculous. My biggest sin with them was continually pushing weight, never taking time off, and never swapping for variations. The movements themselves are excellent.

Fast forward to present. I'm reading and rereading Dan John's armor building formula. Honestly I bought the book to support the guy. After all, I'm running easy strength and feeling better and stronger than I have in years with little effort other than consistency. The book is a fun read, but after dipping my toe briefly back into kettlebell training I remember I really don't enjoy that stuff (note: other than the daily humane burpee warmup, that shit is OP). For whatever reason, I found myself reading the part2 of the program which is an option for barbell armor building. The format is very similar -cleans and presses - the biggest difference being the amount of squats included. But this shit is my JAM. A set of 8 clean and press left me gasping for air. It works EVERYTHING and makes me feel like a god damn tank. 

This post is a love letter to Dan. Thank you for giving me my life back! Thank you for helping me work past injuries I wasn't sure I'd overcome. And thank you for showing me the barbell is not off limits. I swear my Instagram feed is jam fucking packed with anti barbell and pro kettlebell and odd objects. Those things are fine. And shit man I love me some sandbags. But I have permission to say this isn't for me if I genuinely have 0 love for an implement.

coding your tissue: this is what we are doing

Connective tissue joints and tendons are weird. they don't give you the same feedback of improvment like anything else you train so it's easy to think my X is fucked. It isn't going to get better.

This isn't true. It just takes 2 things:

- repeated pain free movement.

- more time than you'd think.

Every rep you perform that is pain free is money in the bank. This is why full range of motion but regressed stress (see: major band assistance) can be such a boon when it comes to building connective tissue strength. This applies regardless of whether you are recovering from an injury or trying to build a new skill that requires amazing tissue health.

As for the time aspect, I started seeing major improvements in my knees after 3 weeks of daily squats and swings. After 6 weeks, my joints are feeling great all the time. I can venture that continuing down this path will unlock more dynamic and difficult movement that would have been a pipe dream a year ago.

easy strength worked so well I stopped doing it

Adding a quote from Dan john on easy strength

When you get to a certain age, you can not keep throwing yourself into the wall.

Reigning myself back in from a bad week of training lol. I was feeling awesome and strong and stable after weeks of easy strength, so of course I try to 'improve' it. 

Here is what I did

- add a flailing 5/3/1 day. It went poorly and put my recovery in a hole for the rest of the week.

- add a deadlift only day. This actually went really well (+50lbs over easy strength base while still feeling easy) and spiraled me towards reworking my program into a one lift a day type deal 

The second option honestly wouldn't be super bad, but it flies along the same thing Dan says is a pitfall for his atheletes. I don't 'feel' this working. Or it was working so well I stopped. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

The truth is I've got diet to keep my weight down and conditioning to cover the 'everything else'. Looking good isn't a matter of finding the right training magic bullet to overcome a diet infraction.

Tldr keep doing easy strength. Slowly nudge the baseline UP.

easy strength and dealing with the 'everything else'

Mentioned this on other posts, but I don't play a sport. I don't intend on playing a sport. I'm full quadrant 3 gen pop park bench 4 life type of lifter.

Easy strength is an awesome starting point. An excellent way to START a day. My 'everything else' ends up looking like conditioning work. Keeping it real real simple here folks.

0-7 days a week  

Push

Pull 

Lower

Repeat

Reps? GTFO. Do enough to be hard but not enough to fail.

Sets? As many in 30-60min.

Variations? Be creative and try not to repeat a workout.

For me this usually looks like:

Push: Pushup variation, dip variation, KB press variation.

Pull: Mace (something), sled drag.

Lower: KB swing, KB snatch, KB dead, burpee.

knee recovery: what is working

Brain droppings on good ideas put to use. 

Warming up, sometimes with bfr bands

Spanish squats for high reps

Kettlebell swings for medium high reps

Goblet squats for low reps

Form

All squats start and end with a glute contraction.

All squats use a pause at the bottom and top of reps.

Feedback

When anything feels tight, STOP. My knees will feel tight a few minutes before they feel pain. Tightness is gone the next day. Pain is not.

The goal is to slowly increase the amount of time and reps before tightness occurs. String good days together edges towards recovery.

This is super important and I MISSED it. I lamented the idea that sled pulls weren't working for me. this isn't true. Sled pulls work great, but I kept pulling through tightness and was upset how quickly tightness occurred.

It's ok to be a pud. This is really tough and I've failed this test a ton. The contention is that you need to work with regressed movements and weight until you can turn up the heat. Rushing the process means backsliding. A great example would be loaded carries. They flat out hurt or cause tightness and pain for days. You know what doesn't? Marching in place with weight. Almost the same stimulus without the baggage.

more easy strength musings

Easy strength

Focus on barbell strength and absolute load

Stay with light weights longer (1-2 weeks)

Move light weights FASTER

Upper body calisthenics pulls can be weighted to work towards more complex skills in the same movement pattern (ex: bw row, add weight to row, tuck lever row, and so on)

The goal is raising the floor of what is piss ass easy. 

Do not skip warmups (humane burpee) and cool downs (basic mobility)

At no point should the weights feel heavy

Everything else. I e. I ain't got no sport lt Dan.

Focus on non barbell strength. Kett bells, sandbags, clubs, bodyweight. These implements aren't magic, they're just easier to transport into a sunny area.

Easy strength is the warmup. 

Stop when things get tight. You are coming back tomorrow.

Think less in terms of programs and splits and more in the case of practicing key full body movements.

Final

This is not a route to hypertrophy, but hypertrophy and fat loss will happen.

The biggest nag I feel is that bodyweight circuits make me FEEL better. More blood flow. This sounds more like an afternoon lifting problem than an easy strength problem.

Lady gains: Fast until lifting has happened. If possible fast until dinner. 

when to stop

With recovering body parts, I've noticed that the poison is volume. Too often over the past few years I've be feeling good going into a set only to suddenly feel tight then trigger a pain response. The solution was right in front of me for the longest time, but I've only recently put it into practice.

When the tightness comes, you're done. Stop. Cease.

This can be on the first set of the 10th. The deal is in order to keep coming back and push the threshold of where danger exists. you can't do that if you have pushed into pain. We want to program in the response that what we are doing is ok. And can be resisted 

easy strength: 5 days means 5 days

The last time I tried easy strength, I was confused why my progress stalled despite all attempts remaining easy. With this latest iteration, I have some thoughts.

1. Do the warmup dummy

Dan talks at length about using the humane burpee to warm up. It takes 5min or less, and takes care of squat movements, swings, and level changes. Low impact, endlessly repeatable.

Humane burpee

15 swings

5 goblet squats

5 pushups

15 swings

4 goblet squats 

4 pushups

Etc

2. 5 days a week means 5 days a week

My last iteration became daily easy strength. While the actual work is low intensity effort, each day adds on the previous. With no off days, it becomes harder to move the easy floor up.

Off doesn't mean do nothing. Off still means a humane burpee followed by small body parts bodybuilding (calves, tibs, etc).

3. Wave loading > straight 3x3

This is where Dan and I disagree a bit. He says that if he could do it all over again he would stick to 3x3. Maybe I'll take this advice in my own future run, but his even easier strength template wave loads weights on a way that makes sense.

Example in a 2 week cycle

2x5

2x5

5-3-2 (heavier day)

Off

2x5

2x5

Off

4. Everything else can really mean everything else

Dan made this program for athletes. Meaning he expects you to do easy strength for 15min, then play your sport for hours every day. If your sport is 'i like lifting weights' then you have a pretty wide net of what that could mean!

Right meow I want me sport to be loaded carries and mace work. But it could also be bodybuilding. Ya get me?

Easy strength is the base. The minimum. It works but it was never meant to me done on isolation.

building architecture. injury feedback

Strength training can be summarized in a single sentence: go build shit here.

Shit can be a lot of things. Connective tissue, muscle, blood flow, satellite cells. If you are not training a body part or a range of motion, you are also sending a signal: I don't need shit here. Simple, and frustrating. 

When injury occurs,.your body gives all the incentives to prevent you from saying build shit here. Mainly, pain and tightness. Both prevent movement, but one is a red flag and the other a yellow flag. When recovering from injury, the best thing you can do is get pain free movement in an impacted area as soon as possible and as often as possible. Signaling I still need this! I've lost years signalling the opposite then wondering why my shit hurts for so long. Why herniated discs and knee tweak recovery is measured in years instead of weeks or months.

When training an injured body part, I've found the following to be helpful:

- start with walking. Always walking. Emphasize motion in the injured body part in pain free ranges of motion.

- when retraining the body part, start with regressed variations. No floor is too low. Your ego needs to take this short term.

- low reps, far far far far from failure. The goal is blood flow and recovery, not growth.

- higher sets and frequency is better than higher intensity and low sets/frequency.

- if you feel tightness (yellow flag), STOP! it will fade quickly and you can likely restart tomorrow. The goal is to stack as many good days together as possible until you only have good days.

high frequency: managing fatigue

Not an expert, just putting down on paper what is working for me. Inspired by Jim wendlers weight vest and chad Waterbury high frequency training. Embarked on because my right side seized up mid sandbag clean a few weeks ago. Vertical type movements are the only thing that feels extremely safe 

How we do:

1-2x daily

1st session: ring pullups, ring dips, legs.

2nd session: repeat, or ring rack pullups and dips.

Legs use a grab bag of goblet squats, banded reverse lunges, or bodyweight squats 

After stuff

Nuances:

All reps are done PAUSED. We are not thoughtlessly banging out reps. We are building connective tissue and work capacity that LASTS. 

No sets are done to failure. High frequency only works if you can recover day over day. 

Progression (upper):

Start with 5x3 per movement.

Every week, add a round (6x3, 7x3, etc) until completion in under 30min isn't possible.

Reset to 5x4 and repeat.

When the marriage of reps and sets is no longer feasible, rest to 5x3 and add weight or use a more difficult progression.

Progression (lower):

This is VERY specific to me. My legs are incredibly detrained. Anything I try to do that is 'theraputic' like sled drags just HURTS. I've found that pain enters the chat with medium volume regardless of weight. The reps, progressions, and weight is VERY low on purpose because I am working on rebuilding connections to my body as opposed to building size and strength.

The long term plan is to either continue using light weights/progressions indefinitely in the morning (with heavier kettlebell work in the afternoon) as a warmup to live the joints, OR progress to more extreme ranges of motion. Examples being sissy squats, atg split squats, wide stance lunges, etc. Lots to work on that has a benefit!

After stuff:

1. Recovery

Band pushdowns, curls, rows, etc. many different grips for extremely high reps (30-50). The goal is to push blood in the area without accumulating additional fatigue.

2. Minor body part for high reps.

Calves, tibs, neck work really well here. Use a rep goal with high reps (ex: 3x50 to increase weight) while avoiding failure. Choose one movement per day and go to town. Like the main work, feeling the muscle through large range of motion is more important than increase weight and banging out reps.

What works really well is to use one of these movements are a rest period between rounds of mains.

Example:

3 ring pullups

3 ring dips

3 goblet squats 

35 seated calf raises

Shit hurts, what do now:

Couple of options...

- Switch movements temporarily or permanently. 

- Reduce volume. As long as it takes.

- Rest. 

In a more isolated sense, if your joints hurt focus more on post workout band exercises to force blood into your joints. I've def seen a difference with and without this method.

Never under any circumstance lift through a painful range of motion. We want buttery joints.

Benefits?

I'm still very new to the party. This early on, I can tell ya my day to day energy is amazing. That alone is worth the price of admission. Body composition is slightly improved but nothing to write home about. I won't really be able to evaluate how much or little this does for aesthetics for a few months. 

Overall, a+ experience. I'm more into feeling good than looking good. And this makes me feel very very good.

building tolerance

Little, but often.

Reread an insta post about recovering from injury. One of the steps highlighted low volume and high frequency. This really really spoke to me. I've been able to dip my toe back into leg exercises, but after a few reps shit starts to get tight and hurt again. Maybe, just maybe, it's because the tissues involved have 0 tolerance for load or volume. They haven't gotten any blood in...years! I've been moving back towards daily training for my upper body, but failed to realize that injury recovery with the lower can use the same rubric. 

Little bit often. 

I'm not training through pain or discomfort. The goal is to flush blood in areas that I can't FEEL right now. 

yur a beginner harry

This one hurts to write. I picked up momentum in the past couple of weeks combining sandbags and calisthenics. I was feeling STRONG. And in the middle of a set where I felt amazing, the right side of my body seized up so hard I blacked out. For days I was unable to walk. Today being the first day in 2 weeks where I'm not in pain. Dips and chinups are already back on the menu, but I've made some observations as I've slowly become human again.

1. My lower body is at a beginner level again due to disuse.

Combine this fact with just not being 20 anymore, it's time to (sucks through teeth) restart at a beginner level. This means squatting, deadlifting and so on at a ridiculously low level. The strength is still there, always is, but the supporting joints and tissues have regressed to the point before I started lifting in my early 20s. 

2. Dynamic effort isn't for me right now.

Gotta crawl before you can walk. This ain't a bad thing.

So here's why this is a great thing. Beginners make progress fast AF. In a couple of months I can either be where I want to be, or on my way there. The catch is I've got to be a piece of shit now so I can fly later. And coming off of 15yrs training history that is a very hard pill to swallow. I'm talking about starting a beginners kettlebell program with a 12kg weight. Ridiculously easy. Embarrassingly easy. And that's ok.

Upper body is a different story. While not even close to my peak, upper body is in great shape structurally. I'm gonna milk that shit for all its worth.

rebuilding my gym

I love this type of thought process. I avoided getting a home gym for YEARS because I thought the investment too large and my space too small. In retrospect, I could have saved thousands on gym fees, prevented all of my worst injuries, and had 24/7 access to equipment. 

The tldr is that the barbell and hundreds of pounds of weight + a power rack is not a prerequisite for working hard or making progress. These tools make progress easier, but if I had to rebuild from scratch it's not what I would buy.

Minimal gym purchases

Sandbags - 50-150 in 25lb increments.

Olympic rings - pullups, dips, and rows length.

Dip bars.

Light and medium bands. 

Loadable dumbbell.

Loable mace.

Paltry amount of weights (50lbs in 2.5, 5, 10).

sandbag bodybuilding - Nov 2024

ADHD is strong this year. Training to failure works for muscle growth, it really really does. The downside is more tied to general fatigue during the week. I've seen a pattern in my posts since August. Whenever I introduce big compounds to failure (notably exempt are isolation and calisthenics, more on that later) I need more coffee to function and just are generally more irritable. I'd rather feel powerful and good than be bigger and feel tired. And nothing makes me feel as good as sandbag training. 

Sandbag training 

It's the epitome of get more out of less weight. If you barbell deadlift 2x bodyweight, congrats you are no longer a beginner. If you can shoulder a sandbag that's 2x bodyweight, you are world class. The YouTube channel 'the stone circle' has spoken often in this next topic, but I agree heavily - lifting sandbags makes my back feel 'solid' in a way that classic training does not. As someone who has experienced multiple herniations then nagging pains from doing normal human things, feeling like you are unbreakable is a premium worth it's weight in gold. It's safe to drop the weight for your floors and your feet. And finally, if you enjoy Olympic weightlifting there are a ton of parallels. I feel that a sandbag to shoulder shares a lot more in common with a power clean than I ever did with kettlebell cleans and snatches. 

The program

- 4 days required.

- 2 isolation days optional.

Sandbag Day 1

Shoulder 5-15x1

High pull 5-10x3

Row x3

Lap (low pull) x1

Back extension x1

Pullover x1

Mace x1

Calisthenics Circuits Day 1

(10 down, 5-3-2, Juarez, etc)

Pull

Press

Ab wheel 

Pull

Press

(10min optional Isolation)

Optional Isolation Day 1

Pick a movement. 

Perform 3 reverse pyramid sets to failure.

Long rest between sets.

Rotate movements when progress halts 

Sandbag Day 2

Push press 5-15x1

Shoulder 5-10x1

Squat x3

Lap (low pull) x1

Back extension x1

Pullover x1

Mace x1

Calisthenics Circuits Day 2

same as day 1. Different movement set 

Optional Isolation Day 2

Same as day 1.

return to sword and shield

Still trying to find a balance with training my lower and upper body given my lower body isn't conditioned to hard training yet. Any set taken close to failure HURTS for days. Like I said with my last post, I'm training my upper body while fixing my lower. This doesn't mean the lower body is ignored entirely. Oh no no, we have learned from that mistake. Unless I'm feeling pain or symptoms get worse, movement is medicine. In the interim, I'm adding more and more movement where I can.

Sword and shield is not my program idea (credit bells and bodybuilding). This version is closest to V2 of his insta page. 

AM

Warmup: rope flow, jump rope

Lift: 

- bodybuild (2x week) upper.

- lower singles (2-3x week).

- rest or calf days as needed.

Cool down:

Stretch adductors, hips

PM

Mace endurance

Easy Carries

Bodybuild

2-3 different variations. Cycle movements as needed.

Upper Press 50 in 5 ss Upper Pull 50 in 5

Bi, tri, shoulders 60 in 4

Lower singles

Hinge or squat. Goal is power not weight. We are trying to rebuild not get bigger. Stop when any yellow or red flag (tingle, tightness, pain) rears it's head. In terms of how many singles, set a timer and go to town (as many in 20-25min).

Mace

Change variation and weight daily 

Carries typically suitcase carry marches. Focus on ab contraction.

Examples:

- two handed swings for time.

- one handed swings for time.

- swings for strength. Pyramid up sets of 10-20. Back off sets.

- mace flow.

In the 'for time' swings, progress is measured by increasing rounds, decreasing rest, then increasing weight.

train it or fix it

I'm a big fan of decision trees applied to training. As with most blog posts, this is a lesson I have to learn over and over and over. But the premise is simple: train it or fix it.

Train it

Can you push sets hard without aggravating an existing injury? Do it.

Fix it

Does training a movement make all metrics worse? I.e. sciatica flares up, your knees feel like someone hit them with a bat? Are you not able to train with any intensity other than baby light? Fix it.

It's not worth trying to make progress with a movement or body part that you cant push close to failure without serious ramifications. This doesn't mean you leave this movement or limb to rot. It means you are LUCKY. You get to put all your training capital into things that are working NOW. Fixing things can be done every day, but the goal isn't the same as actual training. The goal is to restore and not physical transformation.

Food for thought.

daily conditioning + dessert only

Let's. Fucking. Go.

Let's assume you read the last post and said nah chat. I don't give a shit about bus bench workouts. I just want to build work capacity, feel great, and look good doing it. Bro I've got you. 

Remove the actual 'training' blocked workouts and replace with conditioning + dessert only. Increase weight or reps when it's disgustingly easy, or mid workout. Whatever. Have fun. Membuh fun? I membuh.

Conditioning - 30min circuits

Press + mace/club + quads

Pull + ab wheel + hams

Fill in whatever exercises you want. Don't repeat workouts often. Regress movements as needed. Strength isn't the goal but you will build strength. Size isn't the goal hit you will get bigger. No sets are taken to failure.

Dessert - 1 move/day to failure

Same deal as before. You can do this sick dying or dead. Don't repeat movements often, and work whatever has the most horsepower at the moment.

Examples

Tri pushdowns, tri extensions

Pelican curl, ring curl, hammer curl 

Leg curl, hip flexors, calves

Rear delt raise, front plate raise 

more on daily conditioning + actual training

To be clear I'm gonna use Dan John terms.

Park bench: no expectation on going anywhere.

Bus bench: I'm expecting to go somewhere.

Programming usually falls in one bucket or the other. If you're a generalist like me, why not zoidberg (see: both)? Personally I'm more in the park bench court nowadays. I have seen amazing dividends from daily conditioning, and I'm gifted small amounts of size and strength as a bonus. Actual bus bench training doesn't have to be anything more than increased effort over time. If you're spending your entire week building work capacity, really how hard are 4 difficult sets to failure a week? 

The setup - morning 

Mon-fri: alternate

- push + mace/club circuits. 1 set of dessert. 

- pull + mace/club circuits. 1 set of dessert.

Sat

Deadlift variation - top set and back off set.

1 set of pulldown dessert.

Increase weight every week. Drop weight after 4-6 weeks or rotate movement pattern.

Sun

Bench variation - top set and back off set.

1 set of tricep dessert.

Increase weight every week. Drop weight after 4-6 weeks or rotate movement pattern.

The setup - afternoon

Mobility and yoga.

I'm surprised too. But I suck at it and I'd like not to.

Conditioning 

Press: pushups, explosive pushups, dips, ring dips.

Pull: swing, sand row, gorilla row, snatch.

Dessert 

One all out dropset of a movement you can do sick dying or dead. The goal is not to count reps, just do work and get a sick pump. Add regressions where possible (ex: add bands to pullups).

Good dessert options

Pullups, chinups, pulldowns, pelican curl, ring curl, hammer curl, band curls, band rows.

Seated calf raises.

Tricep extensions, tricep pushdown, tricep overhead.

Rear delt raise, plate.raise.