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.