Since writing the above I’ve been doing the below protocol fairly regularly:
I set an interval timer for multiple sets of 1:00 and then inevitably suffer through the sets.
Horizontal push and pull using the door frame, and then vertical push and pull using the door frame and chin up bar.
I’ve also done arm extended sideways push/pull.
Almost every doorway set is one handed.
Don’t trash talk these without doing them, you’re getting in loads of time under tension, and if you’re doing it right it’s hard work.
At the very least you’re getting in a lot of wall/doorway/chin bar assisted posing and building mind muscle connection.
To end this particular workout I threw a towel over the pullup bar, bunched it up real tight vertically and squeezed it one handed like I was gripping a wrist. Since hindsight is 20/20 I wanted to kick myself for not doing this regularly while wrestling in high school. It was so damn similar to holding a wrist tight, and was crazy hard on the fingers to boot. To make it more interesting I also added some wrist motion in which made it even better.
I’ve said it about a million times, and here it is again… You’re never gymless!
Give some longer isometrics a try, but make sure you use a timer. I’ve found by checking that I can make a 100 count fit into as little as 10 seconds. The timer doesn’t lie, and 4-6 minutes can be enough to get in a stellar workout. It’s all about improvise, adapt, and overcome.
Why not test if Aerobic Isometrics work as well as Steve Justa states they do.
Often it’s said that cardio is a small man’s game. While this is certainly the way most activities trend there are some exceptions.
Rowing is a big one.
Go look up Concept2 erg times, the heavyweights consistently post better times than the lightweights.
That’s all aside the point. If you’re big you should definitely spend some time on a rower.
You can treat it as a sprint. You can do intervals. Any cardio protocol is possible, but where it shines most is during distance work.
Nothing works as well for distance running like cardio stimuli for the big man as rowing does. (Nor is jump rope a bad choice.)
While weighing heavy, running will fatigue you earlier than you’d expect, particularly if at a smaller weight you ran. This isn’t always a cardio issue. It can be a knee thing, a shin thing, or often enough just fatigue around small stabilizers.
Rowing levels this playing field.
You can test your heart without the running drawbacks, build your ticker without pounding the pavement.
Plus on a long row you can visualize being a Viking in a longship rowing to pillage a French village, this technique can not be overstated for the enjoyment of the activity, nor does any visualized target work as well as imaginary French villages.
Rowing times should be faster than the equivalent distance run times, though you’ll be a ok shooting for rowing respectable run times. While not by any means elite aim for a 6 minute mile pace, and try to keep a respectable sub 20:00 5k as far as distance work. For sprints reps done as fast as possible at the 300m distance or for the max distance in 60 seconds are good. Intervals can be played with also.
A lot of his trainings was at home, his own gym, or what seemed to be a semi-open to the public garage which had a slew of powerlifters, strongman competitors, and D1 + NFL football players come through.
Whatever you’re doing, you can likely up it a notch or more.
Genetics don’t vary so greatly that they matter all that much.
The right mind, atmosphere, and hard work will do a lot. Like the above linked article, it’s all a matter of perspective.
I was thinking back a few years to a time where training made more sense to me…
When I stumbled upon this:
Sometimes we allow the mental and the environment to get in the way of us doing what we need to do.
Sometimes we need a reminder of more possibility to bring us to a different place.
It baffles me that there are haters to this. Put a heavy barbell on your back for 20-50 reps and then reply.
Once your hands have been numb, your groin feels like it’s going to explode, and you can’t control your breath, or stand up after your set get back to me.
405 x 42 reps.
Man just watching that got me somewhere else mentally.
As I am built for squatting and benching (short limbs) I gain more benefit pulling than one who is built for pulling does.
Likewise the reverse is true.
A person built for pulling gets more benefit squatting and benching than one who is built for squatting and benching does.
Having wrestled I adapted to having to get low. Getting used to effort in this low round backed position has served me well.
My time as a mover likely was far harder metabolically than it was for any of my coworkers, even the ones similar in weight to me. They all had monkey arms, while I possess t-rex arms. They’d all be walking upright, and for me to hold onto the desk I’d look like Quasimodo. At 6′ even the 5’6″ guys on the crew had longer arms than me. It simply meant I had to carry shit in weird rounded back positions just like the wrestling position.
To shovel snow or chip ice I have to get very low as well. Snow clearing is not only GPP/work capacity/whatever, but a ruggedness builder.
The fact that I have to get into these positions has made me very durable in my “core”.
I’ll never injure my lower back as any pull type work requires me with my short arms to get into very “awkward” positions.
I’ve spent years building durability in these odd often twisted low positions due to necessity, this base has allowed me to “get away with” some “stupid” stuff like an off center 495 deadlift that ended with a side bend to lockout one side.
Throwing a different take on leverages out there. They’re not a thing to complain about. Getting stronger on the movements you’re not meant for will pay dividends in ruggedness if not in one rep maxes.
There’s more to strength that your one rep max. Gym culture seems to forget this sometimes.
I have a hilarious Christmas related anecdote, what better day for publishing it than Christmas day? Enjoy…
So I’m sitting there at the one of the Las Vegas DMV locations. Sitting there for forever as I did not sign in via text ahead of time, but walked in the door the moment it opened.
I had a lot of time on my hands to kill, and figuring it to be good policy and knowing I’d get a text when it was my turn at a booth I decided to wait outside.
It’s still winter time, if you can even call anything in Vegas that, and my pale white self found the one bench in shade to sit in.
I killed a couple hours in the shade on that bench. I can not stress enough that it was at points the only shaded bench. I felt no urge to burn.
Sitting there killing time I made small talk with those around me, and people watched.
Some Filipino kid a few years older than me and I talked high school wrestling since we had that in common. He grew up in the Bay Area, and his school ran hill sprints outside to start practice. I told him I was jealous, and that his weight cutting in Cali winter must’ve been a breeze, that I was in New England, and that our running was indoors in the halls and that god forsaken stairwell. The two of us joked around calling which teens passed their license tests and which didn’t from our vantage point near the entrance based on ecstatic and depressed faces.
Eventually he got texted to a booth. He had been in LV long enough to know not to check in in person.
So I was back to sitting silently, high noon, but shaded if barely.
Looking back I was wearing a red t-shirt which likely added to the effect.
I’m a red bearded white man. It was early in the year. Christmas was not long past.
This Mexican family walks out. Tall light skinned dad holding a 1 year old, his wife, light brown skin, light brown hair, taller as well. A daughter about 6 years old (light brown skin, jet black hair, she looked more Hispanic than either parent) running ahead of them…seemingly straight towards me.
She smiles. Then sits about 2 feet from me on the almost empty bench. I was completely to the right end of it, there was 10 feet of open space.
I look over acknowledging that she’s there, wondering why so close, and she looks up at me and smiles…
Immediately to start scooting closer and closer to me not stopping until seated hip to hip against me. I look over at her father (maybe 10 yards away) with an expression like “I’m not doing anything, she sat there, and moved this close”.
The dad comes up to me, apologizes, saying he’s never seen her act like this to a stranger and that he’s sorry she bothered me, I laughed, telling him she wasn’t bothering me, and that whatever she was thinking my funny to me too.
He looks at her and goes “Come on Maria, it’s time to go home”.
She looks at him, still in contact with me (hip to hip), and goes “Do we have to?”
The dad and I both kinda shrugging our shoulders to each other about the oddity of this all, and he replys “Yeah”.
She seems saddened and goes “Can I stay?”
“No, Maria. We have to go home, it’s lunch time aren’t you hungry?”
“Yeah, but can I stay?”
“No, lets go home”
She looks really saddened and goes “I want to sit next to him!” in a burst of childhood truthful innocence, the dad and I both look at each other, shrugging our shoulders again, laughing. Then the family leaves.
As they’re walking she smiles at me and waves goodbye.
The dad and I both were to a degree dumbfounded. Why did little Maria want to sit next to me so badly? Soon after it dawned on me…
Christmas was only about a month past.
Christmas specials play around Christmas.
Little kids watch Chrismas specials.
Young Santa has red hair and a red beard.
Santa weards red.
I was wearing a red t-shirt.
I have a red beard, and because of my often buzz cut some people think I may be a redhead.
I’m fairly certain this is what little Maria was seeing sitting there.
I think that little girl was psyched to run into Santa off season while going about errands with her family. An otherwise boring DMV trip ended with an impromptu opportunity to interact with Young Santa Claus.
With a small amount of willingness to improvise the world can be your gym.
Most look at a doorway as a doorway. I have done the same most of my life. However, while gymless in 2015 I noticed the potential of a doorway.
With just my finger tips holding I realized an isometric to simulate a one arm row. Standing, pulling against the doorway, crazy good for finger strength due to positioning required.
Hold for as long or as short as you want. Just put in effort. Have fun.
The level that back isometrics translate over to a barbell is scary. I’ve talked how this exercise, a deadlift simulation isometric in my apartment complexes hot tub, and chins off a tree (doing mostly today’s described exercise) saw my deadlift up 30lbs, and my grip up proportionally way more without touching a barbell for 9 or 10 months.
I’ve just finished a quick 5 minute doorway push-pull workout.
I set an interval timer for 10 seconds on/5 seconds off.
About ¾ were pulling sets, ¼ pushing sets.
I stuck to one push variation, and a few pull variations. It’s isometrics though, you can make infinite variations.
The beauty of this is the adaptability. I didn’t have to commute. It was done in my bedroom doorway.
The work is very condensed. Consider I was under tension 40 seconds per minute for 5 minutes. 200 seconds, that’s not a little time under tension. In fact you could mentally equate it to a similar number of quality reps for the same bodypart.
It gave a stellar pump, and honestly these shorts sessions will strongly add to your work capacity base and strength.
This work pulled me out of a deadlift slump before without any specific barbell work. Adding it in again makes sense.
Overload training whether it’s partial reps, holds, cheat reps, or an isometric are great. (These things can be combined.)
Nothing beats them for kicking up anabolism in your body.
Do some then wait until that night, you’ll be horny as fuck.
For this reason (the test boosting effects) alone you should be getting right on these overload protocols.
Every time I do them I’m pleasantly surprised both by the soreness I have when I awaken and the horniness gained.
Overload then don’t get off that night. You’ll go slightly bonkers and precede to have dreams full of glorious sex and violence.
Not to mention you’ll feel solid, like your body was forged from one piece of steel, and that when you do full range work within roughly the next day that will feel light as your body was prepped to support way more.
As you should be training full body and with high frequency doing an overload variation every 2-3 days is a solid guideline. Starting out? Once a week. Feel like experimenting? Go crazy. But every 2-3 days is a solid metric to get the best of both full range and overload work.
Over the years I’ve had phases where I did nothing other than pushups. So I’ve actually done the “limited to one exercise” thing before with pushups for a time.
As far as the weight room is concerned I’d agree with Dan John. One can in fact be awesome doing nothing but the clean and press…
But I also say that some form of heavy ass partial in the rack is a solid one exercise choice for just brutishness. I’m partial to a partial front squat (they’re better than partial back squats), or some variation of cheat rack pull work, my favorite variation being a strapped hand and thigh lift into cheat form/body english shrugs.
Of course one could just work a heavy labor job like men of yesteryear, and not give a fuck about exercising.
Labor which brings me to this last bit…
Sled work, if you involve your hands is the closest to labor strength you’ll get in the gym.
While I see people pulling for scientific amounts of time with scientific amounts of weight generally using a hip belt, I prefer to go full retard on these movements.
Firstly I refuse to use less than bodyweight on the sled. Almost always I involve grip by pulling/dragging holding onto a fat bar.
Only once have I used that hip belt. It resulted in this:
315 sled moved for 10 minutes.
Yesterday I did 2 x 3 minute sets with 270 holding on to a fat bar.
In the vein of the 1000lb plate load prowler…
I once pulled a 500lb sled 10-15 yards before having my fingers slip launching myself like a off the rails locomotive towards an unsuspecting personal trainer. Somehow that crash was averted.
So…
Drag/Pull a heavy sled for time holding onto a fat bar. It’s also a damn good choice for one exercise should you only do one exercise for some odd reason and not simply work heavy labor.
With it you’ve got legs, grip, and cardio/GPP/work capacity/whatever rolled all into one fun suck pretty brute force unscientific caveman laborer package.
However this is a silly thought experiment as why would you limit yourself to one exercise?
Even in the most limiting of circumstances (say solitary confinement) you can still do it all with your body alone.
