Chalk is the killer app when it comes to grip here. Cheap as chips, lasts forever. Even when I was climbing multiple times a week, and using more white powder than Charlie Sheen, it probably cost me £10 a year for chalk.
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Masking tape is pretty slick. You need athletic tape. It’s like cloth you can get it here at just about any grocery store, walmart, dollar store… Amazon sells chalk everyday and will deliver it to your house for like $6
Sure beats wrecking up your hands.
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@anna_5588 if you really want something miserabel you should try Brians Darkhorse, it seems really easy but it buried me to the ground. Really tough. But you’d probably need a gym.
Giant sets are great, progress with an extra rep from week to week, if the loading isn’t possible.
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Is that a similar set up to his linear program but with main lifts done conjugate style?
I think a home gym or very quiet commercial gym is the besr way to make giant sets work well.
I can’t recall it by the memory, I just remember feeling miserabel, yeah something about conjugate and backoff sets and everything as giant sets, I remember several times just laying in a pool of sweat when the workout ended.
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Sounds terrible, I’ll have to look it up.
Do it, it’s fun … not.
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Based on appearances only, I think Darkhorse is Brians “Deepwater” program. They’re all different flavors of suck, but that one stands out from the rest.
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Work for today:
Conditioning (10 mins):
Jump rope ss. Kettlebell snatches (16kg)
Main giant set (5 rounds):
2 x Pull ups
8 x Press (42.5kg)
2 x Pull ups
10 x Weighted decline sit ups
2 x Pull ups
Secondary giant set (5 rounds):
8 x Row (55kg)
8 x Trap Bar Press (40kg?)
20 x Stretchy Band Thingy
“Tabata” Z-press: empty bar
Accessories giant set (3 rounds):
15 x rear delt raises
12 x “axle” curls
15 x banded tricep extensions.
Notes:
- Template fully stolen from Brian Alsruhe again, as are a few of the individual exercises.
- Conditioning got me out of breathe but didn’t really hit as hard as anticipated so must try harder. Idea was that everytime I fail at jump rope, I do some kettlebell snatches. First fail is one per arm, second fail is 2 per arm, etc. The fact I reached 11 in 10mins tells you how badly thought out this was.
- I really really suck at pull ups so added extra sets to the first giant set to make up for lack of volume.
- Weighted decline sit ups are a bad idea, I feel them mostly in hip flexors. I think if I’m going to keep trying this type of programming, I’m going to need to get smarter about core work.
- Bandy Twisty Thingys are straight out of a Brian Alsruhe video, I’ll link the video below. I’m using the guys programming a lot so I figure I might as well give the guy some exposure and some cash.
- “Tabata” Z-press is genuinely unpleasant, even with an empty bar. Did the first 6 sets keeping the bar front racked on the rest periods, but had to put it down for the last 2 rests.
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Work for today:
Conditioning:
“Tabata” kettlebell swings (24kg)
Main set (5 rounds):
3 x broad jumps
3 x deadlifts (110kg, 120kg, 130kg, 140kg, 150kg)
10 x V-ups
Supplemental set (3 rounds):
5 x powercleans (50kg)
15 x trap bar SLDL (80kg)
20m farmers carry (80kg
Notes:
- Absolute battle of wills today, not clear why. Hence, no accessory set. That was the deal I made with myself
- Nice to see I can still kinda deadlift. All moved smoothly enough, but not fun towards the end.
- Farmers walks, after 15 fairly slow SLDL, the day after shoulder day was a whole lot of no fun. This is when the “skip accessories” deal was made.
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I think the giant sets is basically the only similarity. Dark Horse rotates between hitting 5RM, 3RM and 1RM on conjugate-style lift variations for three waves of three weeks, then you do backoff AMRAPs based on that max. Then you do EMOM dynamic effort stuff. Then an assistance giant set.
Oh and it’s all preceded with 10-15m of hard conditioning.
It sounds absolutely awful and I plan to run it sometime in the next year.
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Good work!
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@mattjp that does sound awful, but probably no more so than his basic linear programs. From trying to put these sessions together myself, I would either pay the man to put a plan together for you, bearing in mind any equipment requirements you have, or make sure you’ve thoroughly thought through your plan with regards to having enough bars etc. I find it a nightmare trying to hit his plans with limited equipment.
@Koestrizer thanks man. I feel like I’m leaving gains on the table with the limited equipment but this style of training is definitely exposing some weaknesses. I’m unlikely to run it for a long time, but given my poor results, I think I need occasional blasts like this to expose the holes in my training.
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I paid for a Powerbuilder program and he’s pretty good at accommodating equipment limitations/requests.
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He seems like a stand up guy all round. I still remember all the free advice he gave out on here when he was still an active member. Once I’m confident I have a set up that will allow me to run one of his programs, I’m very likely to go that route.
You have enough now to run one, I’d say, but you’d certainly get the most out of him with more.
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I really like these! Saw them in his video a while back and felt like they were a solid oblique/conditioning move.
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@mattjp For sure, I mean, I’m basically running one of his templates at the minute and its “working” in that I’m consistently starting to underestimate my conditioning rather than overestimate like previously. An extra bar would make the programming a whole bunch easier though.
@jshaving they’re really good, once you get the set up sorted. I can see these being a regular feature.
I have never ever done anything as horrible as darkhorse.
This is Brians stuff alright, it seem legit and fine but when doing the damn workouts, you want to bail.
Absolutely loves the man. Maybe I’ll buy a program once in the future.
When’s the plan for gyms reopening over there?