No the 200 reps is an estimate…haha I wish it was 200.
However I did record my reps at 4:40 and they were about 170. Notice that I say about, because after about 125 reps I start to lose count and as I mentioned, lose form. I suspect my 5 min rep count will be more like 185 reps.
Because the weight is relatively light my first 80 to 90 or more are deep squats. I am sure as the work continues the depth decreases but for this type of exercise program I suspect the goal is to have time under tension as opposed to perfect form. However, having said that, I hope the Smith Machine will allow me to focus more on reps and depth.
ps…I had a look into my log book…when I first started at 2:00 I did 47 reps
when you guys are doing it are you able to go straight through? I have to stop like 2 or 3 times at 3 minutes think thats ok or should i lower the weight?
Well the program calls for 30% of your max weight to be used. Now i’m actually above that as 135 is 35% of my max weight, 115 is 30% for me (max 385).
When you say ‘stop’ are you talking about taking a breath or two? I have to gulp down a breath or two or three on occasion but I keep trying to push it out as much as I can. Sure I’ll pause for 2-3 seconds on occasion (sometimes even 4-5 i’m sure) but I keep on going as best I can.
Finding the right tempo is the hardest thing. Go out to fast from the gate and you’ll run out of gas, go to slow and you’ll not really ‘push’ yourself.
So i’d ask what type of ‘pause/stop’ your talking about and then look at what % of your max weight your using.
Today was at 5 min…did 172 reps (so I did not increase from the reps I did at 4:40) and then after 5 min took 20 sec rest and did 15 reps because I wanted to hit about 185 reps for the 5 min mark. Also, I used the Smith Machine for the squats for the first time.
I think what effected my rep range was lack of sleep, poor nutrition and mucking about on Saturday night instead of going to bed like a good athlete should. heh
[quote]ricphoenix wrote:
I think what effected my rep range was lack of sleep, poor nutrition and mucking about on Saturday night instead of going to bed like a good athlete should. heh[/quote]
Yeah I had this Thursdays workout in the afternoon vs morning because I didn’t get enough Sleep that night. Its amazing how much sleep affects everything
Squat 135x4:40min (80 reps)
Leg Ext 4x30 5x30
Leg Curls 7x8 8x8 9x10
Tibelous Flex 30x30 30x25 30x20 30x20 no rest.
As my post above, man sleep affects so much… My 2 year old didn’t get much sleep last night and I suffered with him.
Did the time today, but did a few things a little difference. Tried to keep a constant tempo (obviously it slowed down as time goes on) but I squated deeper and really tried to stay on my heals and squeeze with my glutes more when going up. My reps dropped some but my legs felt REALLY shot by the time I finished. After the 4:40 I was spent, and climbing onto the leg ext I had to give everything I had to finish off the last set of 30. For the curls it was just grit and pain/fatigue to get in what I got in. The last rep to fatigue there was barely anything on the 10th one. But overall a great workout.
I added some tibelous raises with a dumbell to help work the other part of my shin. thats the muscle that most people neglect and wonder why they get shin splints. Dumbell with a towel around the grip to help fit/stay on foot then lots of foot raises = burning/worked muscle.
I’ve got to think that’s too many reps man, I’d either bump the weight or slow it down, you’ve got to be hopping in the rack.
I’m up to 70 but like I said a while back I stopped timing, when I get to 100 I’ll time it. I tend to go in 5 rep blocks, still somewhat continuous but for 5 reps I’ll have a defined cadence with a rep on each breath, after 5 I’ll take a 2-3 breath blow and go again. It is brutal and I am seeing results. I’ve been doing the extensions wrong though and have been doing a 30 rep set, toes in, toes out, and straight and that sucks after 70 squats…I need to read more gooder.
Ehh its only 3.5 seconds per rep. I’m going good the first minute (20 in about 50 seconds), by 2 minutes i’m at 40, by 3 minutes i’m in the 55ish range and so forth.
I’m actually over my weight based on the program by 5%. Max Squat at start was 385, I should be lifting 115lbs. I’m doing 135 which goes to a 450 max squat (30% of your max).
I MIGHT try and take a video and upload it (haha we’ll see how that goes on my junky dsl). Really been trying to focus on good form and a good depth. Will take the thought of slowing it down a little more. Might help with my tiredness
Alright lads, really good post, very interesting. I have a problem squatting due to a shoulder injury, front squats are a bit awkward as well, reckon if I will see similar gains using dumbells? I hope so it could be my only option! Cheers
[quote]sutty123 wrote:
Alright lads, really good post, very interesting. I have a problem squatting due to a shoulder injury, front squats are a bit awkward as well, reckon if I will see similar gains using dumbells? I hope so it could be my only option! Cheers[/quote]
I imagine that would severely change the way your upper body is used in the exercise. You can try it if you want to, bro.
[quote]crod266 wrote:
what workouts do you usually do for the rest of your body when doing the holb[/quote]
Usually if I get up on Mondays and do my legs in the morning I’ll bench/chest in the afternoon.
Tuesdays = Back/biceps in morning with Yoga in afternoon
Wed = off in morning, plyometrics during lunch
Thursday = Legs morning, Chest lunch
Friday = Shoulders/Tri’s
Sat = Running for a little bit if I can get to it…
Sun = Rest
As far as doing this program with dumbells man thats a grip workout from hell. You’d have to tie those to your arms and the weight hanging on your shoulders might pull you into bad form. You can try it but holding anything that long might be tuff. Let me know how it goes.
This legs program looks so tempting to try, though I would feel embarrassed squatting such a small weight. My max is about 315 on squat right now. I would feel pretty wimpy squatting with a 25 on each side. Though my squat has gone up from 95 lbs for a 1 rep max to what it is today in about 4 - 5 months of squatting. I feel like I can get up to 135 for a 30% max within a year, if not less.
Someone asked about this program and whether or not it could work with other body parts. I would be interested to try this. I’m not quite sure, however, if this would work as well on other body parts.
[quote]AstaTheMasta wrote:
I tried this workout and got up to 5:00. I stopped for two reasons. One, I would get back cramps when I got further into my set. Two, I was not seeing any results.[/quote]
Cramps are a sign of weak muscles. They’re cramping to protect themselves because they’re just not strong enough to handle the load you’re asking them to carry during your squat. Give yourself a serious back (and abdominal) strengthening program for the next 4 weeks and see how you feel when squatting then.
I’ll be honest after 4-5 minutes your really starting to be in an endurance mode and muscles like the back which are weaker are going to show.
Thats why they call for the 30% of max squat like they do, because ‘hopefully’ your muscles are strong enough in an equal fashion to survive/grow. I’ve noticed some great back strength increases doing this program as hyperextensions were something I hated (still do) but they have gotten easier in Rep# wise per set.
Also remember FORM. FORM FORM FORM. If you don’t keep the form good your going to really run the risk of hurting yourself at longer periods of time as your tired and put stress on those muscles in ways they shouldn’t be. Take a few extra seconds, grab a few more breaths, slow down the tempo but keep the form.
Squat 135x5 minutes (ugg) 81 reps
Leg Ext 4x30 6x30 (bigger uggg) 12 second rest
Leg Curs 8x8 9x8 10x10 (really ugg)
Well let me first say I tried to harness the frustration of my gym not working this morning into this workout. 5 Minutes seems like forever… the whole workout took less then 10 minutes but it was about as painful (mentally/endurance) as I have ever experienced. The 5 minutes was tuff. I switched a slightly slower tempo after discussing it with a few other guys on this post. I will say my back was getting sore as were my shoulders. The legs started feeling like jello but I know I could have pumped out another 30 seconds… not sure how many more reps that would have been but I could have gotten probably another 5-7 more i’m guessing (we’ll find out monday for sure).
Leg Extentions I upped the weight on my final set and REALLY had to mentally push myself. Muscles were fatigued/tired/pumped and it took alot of grunting to get it done (think I scared off a few of the 30-50 year old women who aren’t used to those noises). Felt great though after finishing with the heavier weight. Legs were really exausted at this point.
Leg curls… Started 1 plate heavier and added 1 more each time. Was really a mind over muscle matter here as my legs screamed no more on the 10x10 but forced it.
Great workout IMHO and looking forward to the first 30second jump on monday.
I noticed in another thread that you said you were squatting 450lbs for reps back when you were in high-school and you weighed 165. Before that when you first started out what did you see the most gains in your squat weight from?
I ran track / cross country since I was 8 (paid to be on a private team before Jnr high).
In Jnr High my coach started me on Squats/lunges. By High School I was squating and leg pressing. My Fresh - Soph Summer I spent 3 months chopping wood and hauling across my grandparents house in N Cali. I put 30+ lbs on that summer doing nothing but fishing/eating/sleeping and chopping and hauling massive amounts of wood (mainly carrying as grandpa used the chainsaw and i got stuck with the old axe). So alot of Farmer walks/etc with wood.
By my senior year I ditched football for a track scholorship and was squating 2x’s a week and running 5 days a week. Played some sand Vball (lots of jumping), rollerbladed TONS for 3 years, biked alot and constantly used my legs. I’ve always had better legs then upper body (as I never worked out upper body wise, ex max bench was 185 in HS).
I honestly never did ‘high’ rep squats. I probably did 8 at the most and stayed in the 3-5 rep range. I would leg press occasionally when my legs/knees were too tired from running and then might go up to a 12 rep set.
In college more running lots of legs but for the most part squats/lunges/presses. I ate tons and got plenty of rest.
So other than hard work, sleep and food (lots of food) just your usual leg workout. I never deadlifted. I never O-lifted.
After a bad triple jump landging and hurting my knee I stopped squating heavy and never went past the 350 mark in rep weight again. This was the same year I saw a guy blow out his knee in the gym squating and I realized ‘hmm that could be bad’
After college I stopped working out for the most part. Still ran for many years but I lost alot of weight strength from that.
Np. Was thinking about it also a little more as I drove to work this morning.
I lived in small town and walked, ran, rollerbladed, biked (up to 15 miles or more sometimes) anytime I wanted to go somewhere. It wasn’t until my Senior year I got a truck. I litterally used my legs everyday to take me where I wanted to go.
I competed in a ‘makeshift’ weight compitition at a local gym in town. They added Bench, Curls and Leg press for each age division for a free 3 month pass. I got schooled hard in the bench and curls. But when it came time for the leg press I made up everything I was behind and then some. I pressed 800, then 900 then capped it out at the 1000 mark on the max the machine was supposed to hold and won. I had some bigger high school guys who were benching 250+ and curling big too that just couldnt do 700-800lbs on their legs. I’m one of those lucky guys with legs. Helps being short too(was 5’4 - 5’7 in HS).
