Ok, cool thanks that’s helpful. I’m open to trying different things
How would the dumbbell/ band progression work?
With the 1 push up a minute approach, would you initially just try for the 10 pushups, then repeat in 1-3 days?
Do you need any soreness to be gone before you attempt again?
Dumbells - pick a pair that you can do 8-12 presses lying on your back, either on the floor or on an exercise bench (more range of movement). Keep your elbows tucked in, and your chest lifted up by squeezing your shoulder blades together (this is important as it puts your shoulder in a stronger mechanical position to avoid rotor cuff damage and loads the chest which is what you want - may seem over the top at low weights but is proper form as the weight goes up). At the top pause and concentrate on squeezing your pecs together and not letting your front shoulder move up. Tempo something like 3 secs lower, 0 at the bottom, 1-2 secs up, 1 sec squeeze pause at the top and back down again.
Once you can do say 3 sets of 12 then slightly increase the weight (small increments are the fundementals of progression) and start again. If your form suffers on a rep, stop, don’t force it or jerk it up. 1-2 mins rest between sets but aim for 1 minute as you get stronger.
Resistance bands - create a twist so the band is a figure of 8. With your hand holding each end of the loop, flip the band behind your back and take up the tension so that it sits at shoulder blade height. Then press your hands forward until they touch, squeeze your chest as above, and then slowly let your hands go back (elbows in!) and the pull your should blades together which creates a nice stretch/ tension in your chest, and then press again.
Progression is in reps, and then sets, and then higher rated bands. To be honest I do these as either warm up to bench press or as a ‘pump’ finisher after heavier bench press sets.
You can also do a ‘pull’ version with the band rapped around a leg of a settee or table and this makes sure you’re are working on the back and rear shoulders which is important to prevent problems with shoulders going forwards and an imbalance. I can explain the technique if you go ahead and buy bands but its basically a seated low row.
Rep on the minute - yes you’re shooting for 10 initially which will take 10 mins for each set. But say you can do 5 and then your form suffers then stop the set. After resting one day, then the day after you go again and shoot for 6 or more in good form. Then once you can do ten on the minute, start reducing the rest times between reps. Once you can do ten 10 reps as a continuous set then you can add another set.
Some people plateau at 5-6 reps and if that’s you then I have another strategy, from Russia (not drugs!).
Train or not to train when sore? - Classic question this. Soreness in my experience is a classic mental cop out where you can easily convince yourself that it would be counter productive to train and in any case you have no chance of progression. Actually you need to see what you do as training rather than competing with yourself. As long as you’re not so sore that you’re impaired and can’t perform reps properly its okay to go ahead and in many cases the increased mobilisation and blood flow will help speed up recovery - up to a point of course. Basically you need to be honest with yourself, are you crying off or are you actually physically impaired?
Also you need to force your body to some extent to adapt and that it had better hurry up and fix you back up because in 48 hrs you’re going again. If you always allow 72-96 hrs recovery your body will happily stick to this - remember frequency is a key driver of improvement and progression.
When I was in the gym and on rings and horse the pain the day after would be terrible, and was usually worse on the second day - this was a problem as my coach basically said that I needed to be tough enough to train 5-6 days on and only one day off. To get me there he made me train every single day at nearly full intensity for a month straight. It near damn killed me - I had to eat like a horse to cope, sleep 10 hrs a night and spend the mornings stretching and mobilising the sorest areas (no foam rolling in the 80’s!) and then spend 2-3 hours after school each night training through the soreness and pain. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it did work.
So anyway, short answer is you don’t need to be completely sore free to go again. If you’re so sore its impossible after 72 -96 hours then its better to reduce the intensity and volume to allow you to train more frequently - think about it in terms of maxing your weekly total volume.
Would like to lose few pounds, I have been going for c20 min walk first thing before breakfast and an evening walk after dinner. No plan to this just fits in with work & family.
I was a bit concerned at bpm on last night’s walk, completely out from all the other walks. Today back at 110bpm.
So based on this - keep your morning walk brisk but not enough to be out of breath; you can push your evening walk as hard as you like if its after a meal.
Combined with a small adjustment to your daily calories of about minus 100 kcal you should see a few pounds come off in a couple of weeks - don’t fret if it doesn’t happen straight away - weight loss is not linear.
I’ll loan you Tara for a few weeks - that will soon get you fit.
Ok, so I did 10 reps on the minute (just one set)…In a couple of days I should do 10 with 55 secs in between?
Great result.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61gzEMdHjHL.SX381_BO1,204,203,200.jpg
But basically yes, on Friday do the same but with 50 or 55 second rest between reps.
Cool, thanks. After I can do 10 continuously, is the second set introduced as continuous reps or 1 per minute?
Yep once you’ve got a continuous set of 10 under your belt, the next set after 1-2 mins rest I reckon you’ll get 5-7 continuous the first time out. Then next session you do your first 10, and then try to add to your score on the second set.
One bit of advice, progress is progress. Sometimes the slower is goes on the longer it lasts so don’t be in too much of a rush - ie try not to fail on a rep. Push yourself but at the early stage try to keep one in the tank if you can. When you’re shooting for your tenth on the second set, then that’s when you give it all you’ve got.
Okay one more - don’t get into a habit of psyching yourself up each time. It’s hard to maintain that and you’ll have nothing in reserve for when you really want a boost.
I think the same principle stands for endurance as well.
Thanks, all helpful pointers. Not sore today, but can feel that the muscles have been worked, so I guess that’s good?
So far this year I’ve managed 4 full body 20 rep/ set workouts, and some mobilisation/ trigger release work in between.
Should be training today but have managed to pick up a cold and not feeling great. Will try not to cry off but see how things are this afternoon. T-spine stiff as a board though so will work on that before looking at any weights.
Sir Cliff’s looking well. Look out Sue Barker.
This…is fucking tasty. Filling too.
how would I know this was happening?
Reducing weight but bodyfat % stays the same = less muscle mass. Loss of strength and dynamic performance are typical early indicators.
When calculating the 100 calorie deficit do you take calories expended by exercise into account?
You’re trying to have a negative balance of calories burned vs calories taken in of about 100 per day. So let’s say your base calories rate (find an online calculator) is say 1600 per day. Your step movement just getting around and doing everyday stuff is say 300. Then your exercise on top is 400 calories. So that means your calorie expenditure is 2300.
This means you should look to manage your total calorie intake from all food and drink to 2200 on that day. You’ll need to also watch your macro split across those calories to make sure you’re getting enough protein for example to match the intensity of your exercise.
This is how people who eat clean and healthy but have sedentary jobs end up putting on weight and don’t know why - they see the average male guideline of 2400 and think that’s fine but it depends on how much muscle mass you’re fuelling and how active you really are. Also people underestimate the calories in tea, coffee, alcohol etc.
Anyway, does that help?
Yeah, definitely. So do you think the 1-2lb weight loss a week figure that’s thrown around as safe (sustainable, advisable??) is too much?
I think a pound a week is better for a couple of reasons :
