06-25-20 08:00 PM - Post#899615    

Actually, two of them.

I had a long stretch because of...the world...where I wasn't lifting. Four months, which is the longest in 30 years.

So I wanted to get back to it but mentally couldn't deal with being out in the shed a long while.

What I came up with was

Step Ups
5*5

Bench
5*5

Dumbbell Rows
5*5

The secret sauce here, if there is such, is that I do a set of one exercise, rest a minute, do the next exercise, and cycle through five times.

In practice, I'm usually spending the whole minute writing down my weights and changing stuff for the next set of exercise. This is Reg Park or John McCallum style, so the first two sets are warm ups

Start to finish 23 minutes.

The other is

Swings
5*5 - Go up a bell with set, starting with bodyweight (okay, not swings, but hinges anyway) to my 100 pounder

Press
5*5

Pulldown
5*5

I do a 1.5 mile before.

Four days a week.

I feel good after I do it and I feel good generally. It is, I think, solidly park bench. Weights are moving up steadily too, but that's no surprise.

06-26-20 08:31 AM - Post#899622    

I’ve been doing a similar workout with an heavyish kettlebell:

Using a timer and going every minute:

Minute 1: 10 swings
Minute 2: 5 goblet squats
Minute 3: 10 pushups

8 rounds is 24 minutes and about right.

Each set is 15 seconds of work and 45 seconds rest.

Log

06-26-20 08:31 AM - Post#899623    

There is magic in these kinds of workouts.

Daniel John Just handing down what I was handed down... Make a Difference. Live. Love. Laugh. Balance work, rest, play and pray (enjoy beauty and solitude) Sleep soundly. Drink Water. Eat veggies and protein. Walk. Wear your seat belt. Don’t smoke. Floss your teeth. Put weights overhead. Pick weights off the floor. Carry weights. Reread great books. Say thank you

06-26-20 11:37 AM - Post#899630    

Showing up, getting into the habit of working out, and short enough where you look forward to doing it, not dread it.

You can do Magic.....

06-26-20 11:42 AM - Post#899631    

I like the whole approach. Plus step ups have got me thinking. I'm being doing double KB front squats for the last 6 weeks and I don't love them.

Steps ups might be a great way to get in some legwork with my limited weights option. How do you load them?

Training Blog.

06-26-20 01:00 PM - Post#899634    

KB in the hand opposite the leg being worked. Not racked. The free hand is hovering around the chin up bar on the rack in case balance becomes an issue (it hasn't, but you know, safe sorry etc)

06-26-20 01:01 PM - Post#899635    

(Why the opposite hand? Dunno, tried both, this worked better.)

The 23 Minute Work Out
06-27-20 02:17 PM - Post#899695    

THAT said, I am also not using much weight on the step ups, like 20% of bodyweight, and I think there's a point where I'll probably need to load differently because of balance.

The reason I can use so little weight is because, well, I got weak quads. Squatting ends up a butt and hip driven movement for me, so this is me working around that.

Specifically these because I have some mobility issue on one of my ankles from an old injury so I've discovered I can't do stuff like rear elevated split squats or lunges.

Other Dan type stuff about these work outs:

- I do it fasted. Not so much intentionally, but because I work out in the morning and don't usually have my first meal until 11, so when I am doing these I've usually gone fourteenish hours since my last meal.

- I make a point when I am moving the KB's around for rows or swings to use one hand on the way to, and the other on the way back, for some built in suitcases carries. Bonus.

(Also, I was surprised to find that I can do this with my 100 pound KB - the handle is sufficiently thick that I can just barely touch my fingertips together)

Edited by Justin Jordan on 06-27-20 02:18 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.