Rate My Program?

Training
1

I’ve been lifting in a foreign country, and pretty much have a 5x5…maybe 7x7 (i’ll whip out a tape measure if anyone has a burning desire to know the exact dimensions) cement room in which to work out. I’ve got these things called ‘rock rings’, which I’ve looped through the window bars, and I’ve got a diet that consists mostly of carbs.

Its the local diet, and there’s very little I can do about that without seriously offending my hosts.

In the space available to me, this is what I’ve been doing:
30 sec to 1 min of rest between sets, unless otherwise written.

Monday: 5x10 Dive bombers
5x10 wide grip pushups
5x10 normal grip pushups
5x10 diamond pushups
5x10 star pushups (mostly a stability exercise)
1 min. rest between sets. At some point my muscles fail, and I elevate my upper body on a cinderblock or something to make it doable. As my strength increases, I can do more weight and reps.

Tues: Tabatta Squats
5x10 jumping lunges
5x10 jumping squats
5x10 jumping knee tucks
5x10 lunges

Wed: 50 reverse crunches
50flutter kicks
50 bicycles
50 crunches
50 second leg raises
50 sec planks on front, left side, and right side

Thurs: 300 squats
300 lunges
(the goal here is to do all reps as fast as possible, but it’s an endurance workout)

Fri: 5x8 pullups wide grip
5x8 pullups close grip
5x10 bodyweight rows
5 times hang to failure on rock rings, large, med and small grips.

So, I think I’ve covered most of my bases, but I’d like some program suggestions within my defined limits. Thanks!

(I’d really like some ideas for more hypertrophy and also for some cardio ideas. Thanks!)

2

That’s a really weird situation you’re in. Do you spend all your time in that concrete room? haha

3

You know- they let us out every few hours. :slight_smile:

Just kidding, lol

I’m in Costa Rica, and the washroom is pretty much the only place in the house where jumping lunges and burpees don’t wake up the kids. They pretty much eat rice and beans like it’s their job, too. I never want to see another plate of gallo pinto for as long as I live!

4

So what exactly are your goals with this?

5

Mostly improved conditioning- I felt like it was the easiest goal to pursue with this kind of situation- but I’d really like to get some hypertrophy out of this as well. I just haven’t really figured out how.

On another thread someone suggested getting my host family’s kid to climb on my back and doing squats with him, (he’s 4) but he likes to beat me up with things for some reason, so squats quickly become try-not-to-get-hit-in-the-face…for time.

I’m still working on it- any non-niño suggestions would be pretty sweet.

6

Add in burpees and handstand pushups…

7

Burpees are great… to avoid boredom you may want to try some Body Busters…

a.k.a. Body Blasters or Body Breakers

www.powerathletesmag.com/pages/bodyblaster.htm

Note: unlike in the picture shown I would highly recommend bringing the legs and feet all the way back… touching your toes on the ground just behind/above your head.

Don’t know how Mr. Mahler can claim to be the inventor of this exercise as I have been doing them for over twenty years now and so have militaries worldwide with rifles and pugle sticks for decades if not for centuries. Hell, I have the feeling that the Romans were performing the very same movement with their Gladius and Scutum in hand over two-thousand years ago and hating it just the same!

With that said, I would not hesitate saying that Mahler is a top notch trainer as are many of his training principals/methods.