@atp_4_me do you do this movement? If so, how do you like them?
They are fine! If I was a bodybuilder, I would use them regularly. This movement may be a case of overthinking/over analyzing. All that is needed is a stimulus. I wish I could have got that into my mind years ago. I was told! I now believe the muscles recover faster than what has been written about
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I think they are fine too. I generally donāt do unilateral movements, but Iāve been mixing these in a lot lately.
Recently I have been going back and watching some of his videos, and although a lot of his ideas fly in the face of gym lore, some of them make a lot of sense.
I have his book, and yes the book and videos do tend to maybe go overboard on the mechanics/āphysicsā (and sometimes my eyes and ears glaze over), but there are a lot of little nuggets in there.
Like these pull-ins. You can absolutely feel the lats in a way you canāt with regular pulldowns. For the attachment I like the independent handles. Iāll do a primer set with a bilateral grip, then do an antagonist set for chest, and do my next set(s) one side at a time as described by Doug. Itās a great movement IMO.
The downside is all the setup on the cable machine. I do these at a gym, and there are people to contend with sometimes.
Yes! Caveat: As long as they are not destroyed with excess fatigue-inducing and tissue-damaging āstimulusā. I use quotes, because at that point, these things cease being pluses and start being more minusesā¦
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Caveat is valid, but maybe because I am retired, minimalism/efficiency are not a prime concern for me anymore. Although I do still value efficiency within a workout, and they are brief (30-40 minutes, including what you could call H.I.F or High Intensity Flexibility work).
However, the frequency varies week to week, and I sometimes do full body (w/HIF) on back to back days. I agree, it could be a minus, and you have to know your own body. I do full body 2-4 times a week, and have been getting good results. Relative to my 68 years that is - Iām no muscleman.
Even with all that, youāre nowhere near the kind of volume I was talking about.
I turn 63 tomorrow and have found in the last year, that 3 full-body(ish) workouts per week WONāT send me dick-in-the-dirt. And, in fact, I could thrive on it.
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@simon_hecubus Curious what your plan looks like.
I concur
The future of HiT - brief, intense , infrequent damage.
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I got into the RP Strength methodology the last year or so. Basically, I start out in Week 1 aiming for 3 RIR (reps-in-reserve or reps shy of failure). Week 2 is 2RIR. Week 3 is 1RIR and Week4 is TF (to positive failure, last rep in good form). Week 5 is low-weight, low-reps ā basically warm-ups. Then I start again.
Each workout is 6 upper body and 2 lower body movements.
M: Push Focus (4 exercises), 1 Bicep, 1 Back Movement, 1 Quad, 1 Glute/Ham
W: Arm Focus (4-6 exercises), 1 Heavy Leg (Hack or Pivot Squats), 1 Lunge
F: Pull Focus (4 exercises), 1 Triceps, 1 Push, 1 Hinge Movement, 1 Glute or Calf
Unlike a lot of what RPS espouses, I mostly did only 2 sets per exercise. If I did the high end of the rep range on my first work set, the 2nd set would be with the same weight; if it was the low end, my 2nd set would be with 10-15% less weight. Emphasis areas (i.e Arms, Delts) might get 3 sets in Weeks 3 and 4 only.
If I did Chest first on Monday, Iād start with a press and the rep range would be 5-8. The 2nd exercise might be machine flyes and Iād do a 10-15 rep range.
Thereās a few more nuances, but thatās mostly it. Hope that helps!
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@atp_4_me Iām gonna check out that Keith Baar video, his name has come up in a couple of contexts lately. Iām a little distracted with the French Open starting this morning and all matches airing on Max, but I saved it for later.
In line with the Brignole pull-ins. Iāve been experimenting with some of the āBrig 20ā lately. Iām not sold on all of them, but it is hard to argue with the logic in general (a little like Mentzer, so I am wary lol - It SOUNDS good, but be a little skeptical). He relies on cables a good bit, but offers alternatives for all of the ā20 bestā.
For example Iāve tried cable squats as he describes, and after watching several videos, but I just canāt feel/donāt like them. Itās actually not one of the Brig 20, itās an alternate to sissy squats. Sissys are a flat no for me. I play a lot of tennis, and they bother my knees. Too risky, Iāll stick with leg presses and leg extensions. Here is what he says about quads
**āQuadriceps
15 - a) Sissy Squats (bodyweight or with cables) AND / OR
b) Leg Extensions (machine or single leg with cable)
Alternative
**2nd best:
Cable Squats
The compromise here is the simultaneous activation of knee extension and
hip extension, which triggers Reciprocal Innervation (i.e., āshut offā of the
Rectus femoris)ā¦although the direction of resistance is good.ā
@simon_hecubus if you like RP stuff, hereās a discussion of stiff-legged DL w/Doug.
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RIR is of course subjective, and I can estimate it pretty well with ~10 reps or below. I tend to do a wide rep range, anywhere from 5 reps to 40 reps depending on the exercise, whim, or possibly my horoscope that day. Once the reps get higher, the burn takes precedence over absolute failure for me. This is where myo reps or drop sets or whatever you want to call them come into play. I canāt imagine differentiating between 1, 2, or 3 RIR on these sets.
Do you track things related to RIR? I would think it would be a necessity.
āHigh Reps and judging RIR or Failureā is the discussion in many places. Yes itās subjective, but then itās only me gauging against my own performance so thatās OK. 12 reps is the noted cutoff point, after which accuracy of gauging such things, begins to fall off. The burn may ātake precedence*ā over going TF for you ā¦ but you are not alone: after 15-20 reps, the burn further masks where you are in regards TF or RIR or whatever.
[*I wasnāt sure if you meant: 1) you purposefully chased a good burn over failure OR
2) the burn just naturally dominated your perception on the high-rep sets]
I have little interest anymore, in accumulating a lot of fatigue and the associated by-products. Therefore, reps greater than 15 reps rarely make their way into my routine. Though, once a week, I love walking lunges as a finisher ā though byproduct build-up is minimized by the alternating reps.
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Most of the time Iām purposefully chasing a burn. Trying to get close to, but not necessarily to failure. 3 deep breaths or so, then a couple more reps. The idea being to get more quality reps (in proximity to failure), without that grinding, pushing to absolute failure. Since the volume is low overall, I donāt get the feeling Iām accumulating a lot of fatigue after the fact.
The āburnā itself is a sign fatigue byproducts are building upā¦
I believe very little to-failure training is needed or advised. After reading Dr. Baarās research material, I realized the tendons are a ālivingā part of the human body, with water, blood, and elastic/recoil ability. This part of the human body readily responds to lower intensity isometrics done twice daily. How much more so would the muscles respond to work since they are full of energy (fats & glycogen) and blood (Protein stores), as the key in my belief is not to engage in muscle insults, such as excessive eccentrics and plyometrics. If engaging in athletics this explosive element can be retained through performance of the exact sporting movement. Iām experimenting with such an isometric protocol. Daily submaximal training has surely worked for Olympic lifters even though drug use is rumored to be rampant.
I liked the video @atp_4_me - He laid it out there pretty clearly. The tendon stuff intrigues me, so Iāll look into it. My achilles occasionally barks at me if I am not careful and prudent with loading it.
I should clarify that I donāt do the burn/myo-rep/deep fatiguing stuff on every set. But at least 2 or 3 movements per workout get taken to a bit of an extreme.
Thereās a guy who used to post on the old forum (maybe here too, but I havenāt seen him in a while) who had an interesting system. And I do mean system. I actually saved it, so Iāll paste it here.
I like the thought that went into it, and what appears to be a patient, long-term plan. Only one exercise per week makes an attempt to āprogressā, and only the last exercise is likely to cause the deep fatigue and byproducts that @simon_hecubus mentions,
If you read this and are here, I hope you donāt mind me posting this (itās at least 8 years old, so I have no idea if you still use it). Please comment if you read it.
*Saturday: *
1. Nautilus Leg Press
2. Nautilus Pullover
3. Nautilus Low Back
4. Nautilus Torso Arm
5. Nautilus Decline Press
6. Parallel Grip Chins
7. Dips.
- Variances: *
1. Each time, cycle which exercise is first, second third, so goes from 1-7 to 2-1 to 3-2 etc. (variety and greater emphasis on fresher body parts first)
*2. First exercise of the day is progress tracker. Warm up static in strong position for 20 seconds. Warm up static in weaker position for 20 seconds, followed by 30 second break. Then look for progress for 5 strict reps, not timed, just focus on smooth and strict. Finish with jreps with approx 30% reduction in weight. By only having a āprogressionā every 7 weeks, goal is to avoid skill acquisition and hopefully measurement shows actual strength increases. *
3. Exercise 2 to 6, use about 80% of weight I would use if they were first, and I vary between jreps, super slow and stutter reps, as just current examples. Focus is on getting good feel. May or may not be failure.
4. Exercise 7ā¦. 50 rep set (just starting this)ā¦. do a bunch of reps, take a few seconds, do some more etc. until totals 50ā¦. may lower weight between sets if needed.
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Another Brignole idea I have taken to is dropping all overhead pressing. No matter what equipment or technique I use, my left shoulder eventually gets painful, usually sooner rather than later.
When I got back into his stuff 2-3 months ago, his logic convinced me that (1) I donāt need them and (2) THEY HURT MY SHOULDER MORON.
So now I stick with laterals, and in particular, lying side laterals. I can do them 2-3 days a week and still recover. Good stuff.
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Another Brignole idea I have taken to is dropping all overhead pressing. No matter what equipment or technique I use, my left shoulder eventually gets painful, usually sooner rather than later.
āāā
I concur! Kettlebell overhead pressing hurt my left shoulder causing impingement.
Dead hangs and stopping all overhead pressing worked great. I mainly got the idea to stop overhead pressing from DeSimone. He has great books! It took 4 months however to heal. I only do Nautilus decline press on my double chest. Even side laterals are superfluous with pulldowns and decline presses filling my needs.
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I have a copy of Joint Friendly Fitness that I try to read every April 20th 
The book and approach are excellent. No bombast or dogma, just straightforward info. Itās refreshing.
Ugh kettlebells. I think I mentioned on here somewhere how I wrecked my neck within 3 days of my 20k Dragon Door kettlebell arriving. Letās stipulate that it was operator error, and excessive enthusiasm from the sales pitch/promises, but in hindsight, itās such a bad idea unless you really just like kettlebells or are young and bulletproof.
In another post here I mentioned used car salesmen. cough Dragon Door.