More workouts sans equipment | deck of cards

Start with a deck of cards. If you dont have cards, download a cards app. Either works.

Run through the deck 2 times as fast as possible. 

First time through the deck

Spades: jumping bulgarian split squat (left)

Clubs: jumping bulgarian split squat (right)

Hearts: bw single leg rdl (left)

Diamonds: bw single leg rdl (right)

Values of cards

2-10 = their value in reps

Jack - ace = 10 reps

Bss jumps use half the reps indicated rounding down.

Ex: jack = 5 reps

Ex2: 9 = 4 reps

Second time through the deck

Spades: split squat (left)

Clubs: split squat (right)

Hearts: band pullthrough

Diamonds: bw squats

Bw squats use 2x the reps indicated.

Progression methods: 

1. Strive to beat your previous time.

2. Make every movement more explosive.

3. Switch out 1 to 2 movements.

4. If possible, add a small amount of weight aftee a few weeks (optional).

Switching up movements

Ive been doing nothing but weighted ring dips for the past month. Although my overall strength has gone up (bw+55 x 10, up from a previous best of 45x8) things are starting to feel creaky. The movement is boring. Even my warmups feel a little iffy. Ring dips didn't suddenly turn on me. Im either under recovered or getting stale.

Enter a planned switch.

Replacing weighted ring dips with weighted ring pushups is money. I can still go heavy without burning my house down. The literal only downside is i may run out of weight to use (75lbs), but thats a great problem to have. Also, something i wont run into for weeks if i only add 5lbs every 3 sessions (+5 week). 

This is working. My joints feel great. My shoulders are rounding out. My chest is looking better by the day.

Hypertrophy | Turning isolation into full body

Summary

With isolation movements that have little to no injury risk, start strict and end sloppy.

Not so summmary

Sometimes you try something and think - why the fuck haven't i been doing this already? Years. Wasted. Should have sent a poet.

For the past few months, Ive been ending each workout with a gauntlet of quasi isolation. Something like:

- band rows

- bw tri extensions

- band curls

- band one arm overhead extensions

- ring rear delt raises, face pulls

- band two arm overhead extensions

- band rear delt raises

This takes all of 8min to run through. It's the icing on the cake of an already complete workout, but i enjoy it and see a visible difference when i neglect it.

Ive noticed a solid pronounced increase in performance (on main lifts) and size when i started to cheat every movement once i could no longer complete a strict full range of motion rep. Lemme say: YOU SHOULD BE DOING THIS ON ISOLATION. Especially when bands are involved and the most tension is at the end of each rep.

You have little to no increase on injury risk, and unless youre a psycho you arent trying to enhance performance on these tiny movements. Turn each isolation movement into a full body movement once strict isolation can no longer happen.

Example: band bicep hammer curl

Grip low on the band, strict reps

Grip low on the band, cheat reps

Grip medium on the band, strict reps

Grip medium on the band, cheat reps

Grip high on the band, strict reps

Grip high on the band, cheat reps

6 sets where your biceps are being challenged without risk to your biceps or back.

I wouldn't suggest using this method with dumbbells or barbells. There is too much risk involved once you get fatigued and start to put in sloppy reps. Likewise, most bodyweight movements are probably not great choices for the same reason as barbells, but with the added bonus of ingraining shit form for movements you actually want to be competent at.