When all is said and done you have to balance in your own head the joy of chasing and achieving self set goals ( who else will be elated if you achieve your chin up goal entsminger?..can I call you Scott? I know that even my wife doesn’t give two hoots about my training achievements).If the thrill of chasing / achieving those numbers beats the possibility that you may develop elbow tendinitis (which may effect your life negatively) with whatever approach you may choose, or that the approach may become so unbearable and take the joy out of the process in the quest to achieve those goals, it is a choice only YOU can make. You have to come to terms with that in your head.
Well said, sgg.
Thank you Dr Darden. I’ll take that as praise indeed, coming from someone as respected in the field as yourself.
Plus intermingled…isn’t it true that we always want what we can’t have?
At 5’7 and about 160lbs I always envied bigger guys in my youth. But now I’m 54 and still have visible abs, despite not having the best diet ever, I look back and reflect that my perceived weakness might have actually been a strength. I just needed time, patience and a bit of experience to actually realise it. I’ll never be a mass monster, or even super strong, but I am in relatively good health and fairly lean. I’ll let others take the risks to chase big numbers, instead I’ll try to improve where and when I can, and be content with what I do have, rather than long for what I don’t. It’s not always easy, sometimes the dreams of my younger days resurface, but as I get older it is easier to keep them in perspective.
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Sorry…blasted auto correct…I meant entsminger NOT intermingled…Lol…Sorry.
My name is Scott so call me Scott. Entsminger is just a name I picked as a nick name. The only person who gives a crap about me doing a pull-up again is me and it’s just something I brought up hoping a new to tip to achieve that stupendous goal might have come up. I recall now years ago trying to do them everyday and a lot like the marines do and if I recall after about 3 weeks I might have got one or two . I think it made the cover of Scientific American , “Man with no lats does pull-up , ha ha!
Scott
I’m not sure where you got that impression from, sgg, it was not my intention. I am all for training, specially as we move towards and into old age. I am a little horrified by my grammar in that post by the way, old age and fat fingers on a phone!
I believe there is just as much risk to joints etc by not training, under use and all that so yeah, most can find a way to train relatively hard and safe I would think, just have to choose what is best for them.
Scott I really would have suggested negatives if you had not already been doing them! Perhaps 30 second negs are too endurance based and weighted for 5-6 reps would be better, though you have already tried them probably.
Intermingled, ha ha! I think that’s funny!!
Scott
Today I was out in the yard trying to build a small greenhouse from bed frames. I was cutting , welding, cutting pounding etc up and down all day . I’m near exhausted at the moment. When I walked by my pull-up bar I would stop and try a rep, I did this about 7 times. Of course I didn’t get any better but it was fun! I love the idea of just jumping into a few sets at random during the day !
Intermingled , ha ha
Scott,
I truly think that we are a “prisoner” of our genetics. I don’t think that different approaches have “much” if any difference in the actual outcomes. I remember Richard Winett writing about this in his publication “Master Trainer”. He wrote about how his upper body, especially chest was fairly large for his size, but his legs, although strong, as evident in his squatting and dead lifting poundages that he could use, were small in comparison. He had tried numerous approaches but nothing made any difference. If I remember correctly he went on to write that in accepting your limitations it could become quite “liberating”…in that you were no longer wasting time and energy trying new approaches and looking for them, Instead you could just use tried and tested, simple methods and let the cards fall where they may.
Stuke,
My apologies if I misunderstood what you were writing about.
I’m a big Bill DeSimone fan. I think that finding his material and utilising it has literally “saved” my training and prolonged my training years. For example I have not barbell squatted, dead lifted, bench pressed or done overhead presses or dips in well over six years, instead utilising what I consider to be safer alternatives and my body looks no worse for it.
Yes we are a prisoner of our genetics but every now and then I feel like trying something new just to see if it makes a difference. It probably won’t but what have I got to lose but the time . I made great gains up to my 20s and then sort of plateaued . It was probably because I had to get a real job and couldn’t play around with the weights all day, ha ha. Basically I’ve made no real gains since then that I can tell.
Scott
I don’t think I have really made any physique gains simce then either, or if I have, not much at all.
No probs, I probably didnt word it too well. Soinds like you would probably like Doug Brignole too.
Stuke,
I’ve seen a lot of Doug’s stuff. However it’s amazing to me, that a field like biomechanics that would appear to be a fairly black and white issue, seems to have “grey areas”. Now Doug and Bill seem to agree on a lot, and for similar reasons. They have similar ideas on a lot of exercises, however they do have different solutions in some cases. In those instances I probably will always defer with Bill’s approach. His slant at this biomechanics game seems to be centred around “safety first”, whereas Doug seems to look at things from a bodybuilding perspective first.
Some of Doug’s solutions for leg training for example make my dodgy knees ( from my younger sporty days) “pain” and make me wince just looking at them and the solution, although solving some problems, would seem to me, probably create different ones. But that is my opinion.
Scott,
You’re right, probably nothing much to lose but time ( as long as you don’t injure yourself with an approach or exercise). The only other issue, I’ve found, is that if you employ an approach that spoils your love for training and the process. That’s why I’ll always look to use an approach that errs on the side of under rather than over training. I would rather leave wanting more, than do something that makes me dread going in next time.
The problem I always had ( and it’s down to my personality I suppose ) doing that approach where you do sets throughout the day, is that I couldn’t switch off between sets and get on with what I was doing elsewhere. I’d be wondering about when I’d do my next set. Was I doing too many reps per set, too little? How many sets should I do in a day. I couldn’t relax enough for this seemingly relaxed approach. So I suppose another consideration is to employ an approach that matches your personality and preferences.
Stuke,
My apologies if I misunderstood what you were writing about.
I’m a big Bill DeSimone fan. I
I’m a big fan of Bill as well! I don’t always do exactly as he says but his teachings make good sense ! Early on I realized I had no potential to be really strong . When other guys similar size to me were benching 350 I could only do 235 but I looked like I should be benching 350.Guys would ask what are you benching now 400?and I’d say I do dips instead. Nobody cared about dips. He’ll I figured I go with what worked and I never did much benching , squats , deadlifts or presses.
Scott
That’s why I’ll always look to use an approach that errs on the side of under rather than over training. I would rather leave wanting more, than do something that makes me dread going in next time.
I have rarely dreaded an up coming workout and I always seemed to over do it. Maybe always over doing it was my down fall? On another note I have a 6’ 11 “ friend who is dang tall and big and he says he works out one body part a day so most days he’s doing something. I’ve always worried the cross over would interfere with another muscle from recovering but it seems to work for him.
For the last few months thanks to all the stress and worry from this virus , job etc etc I have been sleeping poorly . I barely get 4 before I wake up and then I just lay there trying to get back to sleep. I wake up feeling really tired . I started using that ZMA sleep stuff Dr Darden recommended and the first few nights it really helped with my sleep but after a while it seemed less effective. Maybe I just haven’t gotten used to it? Any way if there’s a point to this rambling it’s that right now I really don’t have the killer desire to workout lately so it’s been a drudge to get going at it.
Scott
Hey dude,
You may need therapy. There may be underlying issues that are causing sleep problems that a drug or a supplement cannot address.
Or, maybe there aren’t. I’m not a professional, but you don’t cure anxiety from work and a worldwide pandemic with “sleep stuff” that someone recommended, and rest assured, Dr. Darden did not promote a sleep aid to deal with that circumstance. You owe it to yourself to try to fix a problem that a 68 year old man is not supposed to be dealing with.
Talk to someone. I am not a professional, and I always offer to talk to people if they need it, but I’m 30 and you can do better than a 30 year old who doesn’t know squat. The gym will be there when you are ready to have it as something that enhances your life instead of something that lets you escape from it.
TL;DR, long term sleep deprivation is a harmful and serious health problem that is not always cured by a can-do attitude and a pill. It may need medication, but it needs more attention than you’re giving it.