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11-15-19 01:20 PM - Post#890396
I gave a friend of mine the 40day workout, he did it while mountainbiking three-four times a week at a fairly high level.
This is what he had to say:
Today I officially finished Easy Strength (ES) after 43 workouts. I added some extra workouts due to 6 days off after some lower back pain. In general I liked the program, as it's never "heavy" and rarely makes you feel fatigued afterwards. ES is a bit frustrating as it takes some time to get results (people usually get results in the second half of the program) and you don't workout hard. I didn't feel much strength increase in the last five workouts.
My results are the following:
Sumo DL: I quit this exercise as bad technique hurt my back. Did squats and romanian deadlift instead, but didn't do them the "ES way".
Bench press: From 50 kg (2x5, felt light, could probably have lifted more at that time) to 70 kg (3x3, would probably have made 2x5 at 67,5 kg, didn't find the correct weights at the gym today).
Chin-ups: From half-chins bodyweight (2x5) to BW+12,5 kg (2x5).
Forward bent reverse flies w/squeeze (https://youtu.be/16ZFEUpFEv4?t=151): From 4 kg (2x5) to 8 kg (2x5).
I also improved in strength in loaded carries (Farmer's walk (FW), one-handed FW (suitcase walk), waiter's walk) and high leg raises.
SinisterAlex
The person SinisterAlex is talking about is me.
The reason why I added the rear delt flies variation was to try to cope with my shoulder impingement.
Some background information is that I had pain in my right shoulder for the last 1,5 years when doing vertical plane exercises (chins, overhead presses, also deadlifts). I went to two different physical therapists to fix my shoulder, both diagnosed me with shoulder impingement due to weak muscles in my back (rotator cuff).
The prescribed treatment was mainly external rotation exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff. As many here might know, the muscles that make up the rotator cuff are small and take ages to strengthen. I kept doing those exercises and kept on with a regular strength program, except for chins, overhead presses etc. The results weren’t satisfying.
One day, SinisterAlex told me that I should try ES to cope with my impingement. I immediately quit the program that I was doing at that time and started with ES right away. As you’ve seen from my results above, my strength increased a lot. My weak muscles in my back (rotator cuff) became significantly stronger, not only by the rear delt flies variation, but also (probably) caused by having better technique due to lifting “light” every time (e.g. easier to pull back shoulders with doing chins).
1-2 weeks after I finished ES, my shoulder pain disappeared more or less. Probably because the inflammation disappeared as the the cause of it was removed (weak muscles). Now, three weeks later, it’s still almost non-existent. So I can say that my 1,5 year long shoulder problem is gone after one period of ES. Because of this, Easy Strength can also be used for rehab purposes.
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