This is a theory. File under natural movement. Enjoy.
As a heavyweight I seem to get pumps in pulling musculature from walking. The swing of the arms or something pumps up by lats.
One of my buddies was constantly on his feet through high school. He had a sometimes homeless welfare type mother, which often found him constantly crashing at different places. One motel was 10-12 miles from school. There was no car in the family, he ran, jogged, and walked everywhere.
5’9″ 165, he had a very wirery strength. Just from always being on his feet and wearing a backpack.
I believe strength that we can’t reason it’s existence out via gym science is built simply through natural movement.
Walking at a decent pace, hands cupped, swagger arm swing, alert, head turning & scanning… something primal is comes alive in you.
You ever run faster cause someone’s at your heels?
The first time I ran a mile at if not a sub 6:00 pace, then very close to it was with my 5’10” 230lb wrestling coach breathing on my neck the entire time (I was a 6′ 171lber) and me simply thinking “he ain’t passing me this lap” eventually realizing larger and larger fractions of the mile were done, and in the last 1/6 RUNNING full speed ahead to keep him from passing me.
I finished and go “time!” His reply 6:02 or 6:03. It had taken a moment for him to check and I was in front of him.
That Mark’s Daily Apple stalking prey run thing works. I can recall being on the “prey” end of it twice.
1. The aforementioned wrestling story where the coach (a threat to me) kept me moving faster ahead of him.
2. During a 1 mile run with bleachers added (~1.5 mile equivalent) another cadet was able to pass me in the last 100m. I’d gotten sick of keeping him from passing, and unlike a few months earlier primal brain he wasn’t a threat.
Anyway, I noticed when I’m doing a lot of walking that my pulling strength, particularly grip as applied to heavy lifts like a double overhand deadlift, improves even though I may not be training it.
I decided I’d start the year off with a 10 day 1500 reps daily run.
(Actually thought 500 hindu squats for the rest of the month in addition, decided against it.)
Whereas last time was bodyweight only, pushups, bodyweight squats, and abs this time I made use of the equipment I had, and broadened the categories out to push muscle/pressing, legs, abs.
I believe I did some pullups daily as well.
I used weights, calisthenics, flexing, and holds.
(8-9×50 of btn presses was good, as was getting 450 reps with 65lbs in sets of 30-40 which was shockingly difficult, I didn’t get to do such things last time.)
A static exercise was either timed like in the case of leg work, 1 second = 1 rep, or each mental count was equal to ⅓ of a rep meaning 500 reps static abs would be 1500 counts. Even the days I did flexing or the Bruce Lee front raise hold (the hold I timed like the leg statics) instead of using only pushups, I made sure to get 50+ strict pushups a day, with a few extra credit mantra reps tacked on.
The first few days I got it all done in the morning.
On the 3rd it was 500 hip thrusts off the living room couch. This was more difficult than the hindu squats of the prior two days, but felt much better on my knee.
On the 4th I did 500 reps of sissy squats.
Just phase 1 and up though.
That ended up an all day affair, gone was doing it all in the morning. The 500 sissy squats may have been the hardest leg thing to get through that I’ve ever done. You feel them quite well on the part of the quad near the knee. It’s a great exercise.
On the 5th I did 500 step ups using the highest park bench there. It was a good challenge, on the 6th visually my quads looked a good deal bigger overnight.
The rest of the leg work was mostly static exercises, and that category was mostly flexing in warrior pose for the quads and glutes…outdoors. However bodyweight squats and pacing around the yard were mixed in to a degree.
4:30 seconds in that pose before switching which leg is forward is quite meditative, and that long (9:00 combined) qualifies it as aerobic isometrics.
I did mostly flexing and vacuums for the abs. The first few days were crunches or toe touches, the rest the aforementioned. It would’ve been better to use crunches primarily. Right now they’d be good to do frequently, towel over the tile, plenty have done such exercise on hard surfaces. A few thousand a week I believe would change my physique.
Diet was a couple days of cleanish (kielbasa, beans, rice, steak), the end was steak, a good deal of milk, and serious amounts of frozen food, cereal, and anything I could get my hands on.
Zero supplements.
Sleep was pretty good through it all, the volume was wiping me out, I switched to statics as they were easier to recover from day to day.
Bodyweight? Somewhere in the 250s I’d guess. Upper body looks a little bigger, as do quads, and my waist is definitely smaller. My track pants are getting loose even while cinched up.
(I wonder how much of this is the lack of heavy squats/deadlifts/partials vs vacuums vs recomp)
I didn’t step on a scale once, nor do I care to. As a man, completely outside of the gym it doesn’t matter. There is only performance, and the mirror.
Coincidentally on the 5th when I walked into a gas station a maybe 5’3″ tattooed Hispanic gang banger type got wide eyed and went “woah, you’re a big dude. You a bodybuilder?” One, it’s surprisingly easy for me to reply “haven’t really lifted for months”, he then goes in shock “that’s natural!”, I replied “pushups, shit ton of pushups”, “damn…cool” as he nodded his head. Looking back it dawns on me that as a big, tall, strong, red bearded man I’m often perceived as super human. It makes some funny shit, in and out of the gym make more sense. They’re looking at you like you’re Kryptonian.
Lessons :
Activity will guide the cravings.
Just massively up volume to lean out.
Hip thrust more often, I used them years ago unweighted when I couldn’t lift. Keep them in rotation.
Buy an exercise ball for peak contraction leg curls.
Sissy squats are like a compound equipment mashup of the leg extension and glute ham raise.
It’s time to lose more rigidity in my training, I’m outside a gym. Just move, and hit the whole body daily.
Leaning out could be tied to the high volume of flexing. It definitely is euphoric.
The front raise hold has serious potential.
One arm pushups for strength. Clap pushups for power. Do more than just high reps. You can do them weighted too.
While the anecdotes differ, the consensus is that Bruce Lee held a weight of 8-10lbs (usually described as a small metal ball, maybe a shot put) in a static front raise hold for a serious length of time alternating hands but without stopping the exercise.
30-45 seconds per shoulder, I may have gotten up to 60 or 75 seconds once.
It’s a very Kung Fu feeling exercise. I liken it to the wall sit but for the shoulders.
To get in today’s 500 press reps, I set a timer for 8:20/500 seconds.
Alternating hands I made 5:00/300 seconds before finishing the last 3:20/200 seconds after maybe 5 minutes resting (during which I hit a minute in each hand, plus of course still hitting some pushups after, daily habit you know).
Give the front raise hold a try. As part of feeders they’ll grow your shoulders very quickly even while only using a 10lb dumbbell.
I’m tempted to get a dumbell handle so as to weigh this heavier, though adding time is currently on the table.
Then (during feeders a few months ago), and now I like the sound of a 5 minute hold without switching hands.
My training is shifting.
PostScript : September/October 2015 I was doing this, forgot about it until now.
I’ve always liked exercising in the winter…outdoors.
Whether in the fall or winter going back to 16 years of age I’d often find myself in the dark, and out of breath having exerted myself in a time where most would allow the cold air to keep them indoors watching television or maybe inside on a treadmill likely with television (still) not panting, not sweating.
Flipping the tire, swinging the sledge, sprints, jump rope, calisthenics, movement.
(Like cartwheels…or jumping jacks.)
This isn’t gym training. Tonight moreso, again I’m finding myself at peace with getting it in without a gym membership.
I rember running during the first snow of the year, a bit cold, snow hitting my skin, breathing deep of the chilled air because it made me feel alive.
There was the preseason wrestling prep of sprints, jump roping, running, with a walking cooldown. Sometimes I’d repeat the entire session because it felt so good. The expending of energy filling me with an abundance of more.
In three weeks I’d have good wind, enough to never have an issue with gassing.
Cardio in the cold air, I’ve used the method since to get my cardio shape/wind back.
I’ll forever know that a short period of pounding the pavement, and skipping the rope will grant me wind.
Yesterday, then again today it was long static holds at night to get through this run of 1500 reps daily (write up coming on the 10th or 11th). Smelling the trees, making sure not to slip on ice, and ending with some bodyweight squats on my feeling dead legs.
(It may be the same leg work for a while. I’m digging the air, the holds which have ended up quite meditative, and bodyweight leg work these two nights thus far.)
In the winter you’ll have the place to yourself. The other day I did 500 step ups, and goofed around with a soccer ball I found laying around without another soul in sight.
It’s a nice time, about as quiet as civilization can be.
As I finish typing this up, I hear panting and hard footsteps…a jogger, ~8:00 pace. Cool, I’m not the only one.
Tommorow it’ll be more of the same.
From those high school nights with headphones. It’s the right vibe, the right mood for the thing :
Years ago I stumpled upon this Russian youtube channel. It was one of those things that simply left an impression. Dude does 100s of pullups, and frankly looks built like someone who does massive amounts of pullups, notice the size of his lats.
Form police would say his form is terrible or some other bullshit as an excuse as to why they can’t do this sort of thing. I saw it differently…
He doesn’t look particularly small, and who cares what form he uses. It was an eye opener as to the possibility of really pushing reps high, I’ve done so with pushups…and am built accordingly.
There’s something to be said for simply applying yourself to the task, the training, at hand, and running it as far as you possibly can.
All you have is the floor? Pushups, situps, bodyweight squats, etc as far as you can.
I had a blast regularly using the bosu ball at the gym.
It is a surprisingly fatiguing thing…on the nervous system.
(Though there was one at the bodybuilding gym I actually didn’t use it there. Some strange combination of social phobia (it’d look really weird there, somehow that didn’t stop me at the other one) and the sense of maximizing my time there getting big and strong as it was the closest to perfect place to get big and strong that I’ve ever experienced.)
I found that regularly standing on it (the bosu ball, not either gym’s roof) and then adding exercises such as bodyweight squats, calf raises, and attempting to pistol squat deep, and harder balances like on toes, one foot, or one foot on toes while on it was a nice addition to my training. It carried over in strange places, my ability to power clean, and box jump improved.
Now the bosu ball is a decent chunk of change for a toy to balance on. I’ll likely buy one in the future, I like them, and have an experiment that I want to try on it.
(Lots of bodyweight squats on it as my primary leg work. Could I squat to front kick eventually? What benefits would a high quantity of work on it have? It’d be more be more nervous system engaging than muscular, what would happen to my build?)
But for now I don’t have one…
Luckily when one exercises with the mind of a child there is a strong sense of play…
Winding down from a high volume workout I started to spot land broad jumps between sets of btn presses, saw a brick, and got the idea.
Balance play…by standing on an upturned brick, which was not on the most flat of ground. It wobbled depending on where I’d reset it each time I fell off.
Whatever you’re trying to do, the necessary tool is already available to you. You just have to have an open mind and find it.
The world is there…everything you need to get fit. It’s there.
When you exercise play some, and try some balance work, most anyone could use it, and it’s quite fun.
PostScript : Or you can close your eyes and balance on foot foot for as long as possible. No equipment required. Try it, the efficiency of effort/effectiveness will surprise you.
On a whim during summer 2017 I discovered the most awkward way to do a barbell front squat.
Sparking my memory of the thing glorious variation was a surprise stumbling across YouTube video of damn near the exact same variant a few days ago…
“Woah! I’m not the only one to have ever done this!” – Me in shock as I do odd looking shit with barbells.
This is what I did :
•Sumo stance
•Power curl
•High rep squat
In British parlance a “sumo stance power curl & curl lockout front squat for reps”, because yes those 3 bullets were the steps of the exercise.
By holding at the top of a curl (underhand grip, straight up/vertical) you get a serious isometric for the upper back and biceps. It’s way more time under tension than if you were just doing straight power curls, and by positioning it’s very awkward as far as upper body demands go.
I’m sure someone would disparage how the back limits the legs here or some shit, and to that I ask…anyone care for some weird strength?
Being that I’m lifting outside without a rack…I again have another variation of squat to keep in the bag of tricks.
While the rest of New England zombies out to latest itineration of Patriots fool’s ball football game I have a different habit.
Instead of spectating others being physical, I go and be physical myself instead.
Inspiration? Maybe this is another post.
I’d go to the gym in the past, and now instead of that I found myself lifting in the yard around kickoff time. Though I don’t have a gym membership I’m still going and doing something other than watching.
I’ve always figured it better to go be big and athletic myself than watch others doing so.
In high school I ran sprints Sundays at a playground.
College age and post college age it’s usually the weights instead.
There’s just no draw in watching for me. Relatives will tell me my disinterest is sad, yet in reality it’s their interest that is.
My best football memories were all out in the yard, at a playground, or pickup games with family or friends or friends and/or random people respectively. In fact the deep man to man conversations with a certain friend all involved that playground and a pigskin in hand, these wouldn’t have happened in front of a television screen.
Hell, another alternative…instead of watching football I’d rather go play rugby (the nearest adult action taking equivalent for most, because sadly tackle football pickup games are rare).
(At least soccer hooligans bring the ruckus…and do it in person instead of zombified in front of a screen.)
I actually typed this post workout while enjoying a 12oz glass bottle cream soda, which frankly I earned far more having had hit 10×10 military presses than if I’d been doing the same (probably in a much larger quantity) while watching the game dumb and sloth like.
That shit is hilarious, and just may have been today’s lifting music. However I’m admitting nothing.
•The cold affects your wind.
•Some days the bar just feels absurdly heavier than it should.
•There’s no need to rush.
Pacing between sets and longer rest periods come naturally. Less frequency. Volume whatever it ends up being.
I’ve been liking higher reps usually. It’s a very different approach for me.
Olys from the hang. No squat rack.
The work boots, and winter gloves add a bit of difficulty.
If one day 205 is hard, but I’ve recently hit 245 I know it’s just the cold playing it’s tricks on me.
I know that the yard always tacks on a roughly -20% overall to ability, Blame the aforementioned boots, gloves, cold, and bad footing.
I’ve never been more ok with using such light %s of 1rm.
I’m a lot stronger than what shows, and as these #s move up…
Maybe someday on swanky gym mat flooring and out of the cold this base will get to show.
(Hairy beast having come in from the out of doors, likely to partial front squat.)
Lord knows I keep lifting through this and I’ll have learned some serious drive. I doubt others would still be lifting even at this point.
I don’t have to worry about the olys. The winter can be a season for building horsepower. The sldl instead of the olys, and if I insist on keeping olying, to do so only from the hang, and progressing at sets of 5+. Low reps from the “floor” can be a bit risky some days.
(Though…see Bill Starr on York Exhibitions.)
I seem to be learning to train again. Getting away from testing.
I’m beginning to be part of this yard lifting. Why so serious?
My buddy had been showing me some Larry Wheels pressing shit on Instagram.
I really couldn’t care less. I don’t give a damn about spectating anymore, haven’t for a while.
“Yeah it’s crazy, but realize there’s at least another at that level not online, no spotlight at all.”
He agreed with me, and I’ve been finding this is the case much more frequently the last 6 months or so.
Prior it was damn near impossible to get agreement from lifters on that, as if everyone lifts/lives by the camera.
The bodybuilding gym was cool, very few phones came out. Higher level, and barely Instagramming.
There were chicks fitness modeling that you wouldn’t even know had Instas as they rarely shot for them.
There’s something very wrong thinking the highest levels can be found online.
I stand by the statement that for every freak you find on the internet…there’s at least another, but probably more, that you’ll never hear of.
Out there is a guy swinging sledges all the livelong day who’d make the world forget about Halfthor.
Some midwesterner occasionally squats and benches the world records for sets of 3-5 in his shed alone for a laugh once he’s got home from his shift at the factory.
A potential hall of fame running back is right now drinking moonshine in a Nigerian shantytown.
I could go on.
A lot of potential and talent is in the shadows. It’ll never be “discovered” be it because of shyness, lack of access, not caring the slightest, etc.
It’s vanity and narcissism to think everyone has an online presence.
