Don’t forget about the bent press. The manliest press.
I’ll take advantage of you having posted here to ask you for some advice regarding a thought that was floating in my mind earlier. Everyone else is welcome to chime in as well.
Having only a thing that allows me to do chin ups, dips (at a pretty awkward width though), a 22 lb weighted vest, and soon a 22 lb kettlebell, my options are pretty limited. A friend of my father has a gym and told him that tomorrow he’ll try and get me a barbell and a couple of plates, along with a medicine ball (I didn’t ask for that, but he said he has a few spare ones), but still.
However, limitedness isn’t necessarily a disadvantage, right? You even said it in a blog post of yours that I read some time ago and I agree with the idea.
So, what was the thought I was mentioning earlier? There’s this “challenge” on instagram that some of my friends have taken part into, in which they film themselves doing an exercise and tag other people to challenge them to do the same. A friend of mine filmed himself while doing one-arm pushups. Mind you, this friend of mine benches around the same weight as me, squats less, and deadlifts much less. He’s hardly stronger than me. Yet in the video he busted out 4-5 one-arm pushups, while I currently can’t do one (tried earlier).
I can do around 1 one-arm pullup at least. I can’t do a whole bunch of chins. Around 12-15, and less than 10 with 10 kg added. Dips around 15+, and maybe 8-10 with 10 kg added. I can barely do a couple of pistol squats balancing myself (but this is literally the first time I try so there’s that). I can do around 30 pushups (although I haven’t really tried to push it much further)
My point is that I’m weak, and while my numbers on the lifts have been increasing, I suck at most else. That’s understandable, as I have never trained bodyweight stuff really. It also means there’s lots of room for improvement.
Now, I train to be big and I’m aware that you don’t need to be able to do any of the things I mentioned in order to get big, but there’s always value in training one’s weak spots and getting better at the things I mentioned can’t make me smaller for sure.
If I get to doing 20 chins with added weight, same with dips, a couple of one-arm pull/push ups, 10 pistol squats without balancing, etc., I think I’ll also be a bit bigger and stronger by then. I might even be able to incorporate the weighted versions of those exercises in my training program more effectively when I do come back to the gym.
So my question is, what would you prioritize, given my situation and availability of equipment? Would you just do sets of chins, dips, pushups, and pistol squats, trying to get more and more reps? Weighted first, then unweighted when the reps drop too low? Any other advice?
Thank you!
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Pretty much. Also you can shorten rest periods to make it more challenging and come up with various circuits and supersets.
Actually, Josh Bryant has a book called “Jailhouse Strong” that has a bunch of stuff on bodyweight exercises and stuff like that which are common in prisons where they have no weights. Might be worth buying if you are stuck for ideas. I have the e-book, I will take a look and see what ideas I can give you guys.
Oh yeah, almost forgot, Josh also has a bunch of “hotel workout” videos on his youtube channel. Take a look.
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I’m impressed. Or do you mean that your other hand is on your wrist of the hand holding the bar?
Strict ones or are his legs spread wide Rocky-style?
I don’t remember. I’ll try tonight and let you know
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I’d be very, very, very surprised if you could do a one-arm pullup without the other arm assisting, but you couldn’t do a one-arm pushup. I can do at least 10 one-arm pushups with each arm, going into a deep stretch with full ROM, but can’t do a one-arm pullup without the other arm assisting. If I grab my wrist or my forearm I can do a couple, but that’s not a one-arm pullup. Interested to see either way.
I have to mention that if I can do it, it’s going to be a chin up. For some reason doing pronated grip pullups messes with my wrists and I can’t really do them
I can do chin/pull-ups with more than half my bodyweight added but I cannot even do a controlled eccentric of a one-arm pull-up
A friend of mine who doesn’t lift can do one-arm pushups. Its insane. I tried, lol FAIL.
I can do plenty of chins but my “one-arm chin” involves holding the wrist tightly with my free hand, so still using both arms really.
Yeah, that’s not a one-arm chin/pull-up according to my definition at least.
I’d calling this one legit, as the other arm does not assist in the slightest,
I can do Rocky style ones but not a strict one
Ok, so basically you are limited to pushup and chinup variations, bodyweight squats and unilateral movements, burpees, and stuff like that. You can also do bodyweight tricep extensions, you just need a table that is either against a wall of bolted down, if it’s too hard then do it more like a JM press. Also you could probably figure out a way to do bodyweight rows if you have a rope or something like that.
For compound movements you could do them in a plyometric/explosive fashion at first for a few sets and then just rep it out to failure or close.
I’m not into direct ab work personally (other than McGill big 3), but if you can’t lift heavy then it would be a good idea to do some. I would personally stay away from flexion based exercises so planks, side planks, dead bugs, McGill curl ups, and stuff like that would be my choice.
Another thing you could try is fill up a garbage can with water and use that for various lifts, you can put it in the corner of a wall (a wall you don’t mind messing up) and do overhead presses. If the handles are solid enough you could do curls.
Josh Bryant also has some videos on neck training, I don’t do that because I already have a big neck and I don’t want to sleep with a CPAP on my face but for some people it is worth looking into.
I’d stay away from pistols and go with walking lunges instead. Pistols are just such a circus act depending on balance that it’s hard to really push the intensity on them. Could lunge in place as well.
Similar to what I wrote about low weight barbells, you can do something like that with these exercises. You can do a bunch of push ups, then transition to dips, then go back to push ups, for example. With the weight vest, you could go unweighted up to weighted back down to unweighted. It would just be about coming up with creative ways to make light weights feel heavy.
Every Minute on the Minute works well too.
I remember something from Jamie Lewis that was something like, do 1 dip and then 20 chins, then 2 dips and 19 chins, etc, until you eventually switch numbers and are doing 20 dips and 1 chin. Referred to it as “blackjack”, because of things adding up to 21.
Always the option to try to beat the clock too.
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For the entire day. Definition of a training day. Yes?
Jokes aside,
That’s beautiful mathematically.
A finisher I used a while back was doing push-ups, starting at 1, up to ten, and then back down to 1 and in-between each set of push-ups do ten full-range lateral raise starting in front of you, palms touching, finishing overhead with the back of the hands touching.
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Something seems a bit weird to me here. I’ve achieved precisely 1 one armed pull up in my life, despite being capable of knocking out 20+ pull ups with relative ease for probably most of my teenage years.
I’ll admit that I’m in the camp that doesn’t think we’re going to be over this in a couple of weeks. I go to a small neighborhood gym in the off-hours - sometimes I have the place to myself for as much as 30 minutes. I’m already swearing off jiu-jitsu practice for the duration - would hate to have to stop working out, as well.
I wish I had a few more resources here at the hacienda (DBs max out at 25 lbs). I wonder if a chin/dip station (I see a few online for around $100 at WalMart - $70 more at Dicks Sporting Goods), and a few plates might be a good investment …
You should aim for five weeks
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Facebook Marketplace. Got mine for $40
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And it’s official … Washington state gyms closed down until March 31st.
At least. I’m bracing for double that given the Centers for Disease Control’s latest statement. US' CDC recommend gatherings over 50 people should be postponed for 8 weeks