Early Retirement Extreme Forums

jacob wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 01, 2020 2:11 pm

So, far the following have been maxed out:
Insanity Plyo
Insanity Cardio
Insanity Power
Insanity Max Power
Max30 Sweat Fest
Max30 Cardio Challenge
Max30 Sweat Intervals
Max30 Friday Round 1

+Max30 Tabata Power
+Max30 Tabata Strength

Since the virus hit I've been avoiding the gym. At first I did some body weight exercises at home, later complemented by a pull-up bar. Lately I've been using an outdoors gym in a forested area nearby. I've realized that I don't really miss going to the gym for 1-1.5 hours 2-3 times a week, so I likely won't return to my old routine. The forest also provides relaxation and beauty, and while the same can't be said for the home routine, it is very time efficient.

For my upper body the current regimen seems to work fine. Mind you, I'm aiming at a decent all-round fitness level, not at bench pressing 2x my body weight. There is certainly a trade off, but I'm willing to take it in the spirit of 80/20. As for my lower body (perhaps also including my lower back), that's another matter. It's hard to replace deadlifts for example. So once things settle down I'll aim for doing legs/back once a week at the gym along with my current practice.

+Insanity Max Cardio

I remember not being a fan of the max-out concept in the beginning. I now suspect that this was because the level was set too high [relative to me] and thus after maxing out about 1/3 of the way in (like much of the cast btw), the rest of the workout would just proceed in a series of winded fits and starts spending too much time trying to catch one's breath and/or the ability to do another rep. However, once 80-90% there, maxing makes it mentally possible to just squeeze out another few reps before moving onto the next set. At that point, the concept becomes very effective.

This past week was eventful and very fun.

Monday: 30 minute walk in the morning and a heavy kettle bell workout in the evening.

Tuesday: 1 hour bike ride in the evening totaling 15 miles.

Wednesday: Heavy kettle bell workout in the evening.

Thursday: 3 miles run in the evening followed by a high rep, low weight workout (totaling 600 reps).

Friday: 30 minute walk at noon and a heavy kettle bell workout in the evening.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 25 minute run followed by a calisthenic workout (375 reps).

jacob wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 27, 2020 1:22 pm

+Max30 Tabata Power
+Max30 Tabata Strength

You're a beast.

davtheram12 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 29, 2020 5:52 pm

This past week was eventful and very fun...

What does a heavy kettlebell workout look like? How heavy is the kettlebell, both pounds and percent of your bodyweight? I bought one recently but have only tried it once.

Road cycling the last 4 days:

Saturday: 23 miles 1hr45min 131 heart rate avg.
Sunday: 28 miles 1hr50min 142 average.
Tuesday (today): 29 miles 1hr50min 144 average.

None of these are phenomenal times but the point is to be heart rate training. Going faster is not a problem, it is simply not a big part of my training.

+Max30 Max Cardio (week 2)

Also two short ones (for completeness):
+Insanity Fast&Furious
+Max30 Max Out 15

@Gilberto de Piento
What does a heavy kettlebell workout look like? I did the following workout last week. I would give myself 2-3 minutes rest between rounds. Each round consisted of 4 exercises, 1 from each exercise type.

Double arm swings (2x15 with 30lbs, 1x10 with 50 lbs)
Single arm shoulder press (2x10 with 30lbs, 1x4 with 50 lbs, 2x10 with 30lbs)
Goblet squat (2x20 with 30lbs, 2x10 with 50lbs)
Around the head (4x10 with 30lbs)

How heavy is the kettlebell, both pounds and percent of your bodyweight? i have 3 total kettle bells. 30lbs, 50lbs and 70lbs. For reference I'm 5'7" and weight anywhere between 150-160lbs depending on my muscle mass and my primary training goal. Right now I'm focusing on building more muscle mass so I'm approximately 157lbs. I rarely use the 70lbs since it's like throwing around a small child. I use it primarily for farmer carries and cleans. Some day I'll be able to single arm shoulder press it

I didn't do as much as I'd hoped over the summer, but I feel much, much better. There is nothing like hours on the treadmill to clear the mind. Getting back into shape also helped during our trip because I could easily go up and down the multiple flights of stairs in our hotels so I could avoid the elevators.

I haven't been able to lift effectively with the bum elbow yet. I've been putting ankle weights on my upper arms so I can get in some weight bearing work on my upper body without using the elbow. It's not much but it's something. I really need to get the elbow surgery done. Soon. I feel safe going in for the surgery -- it's the PT afterward that seems more risky (covid-wise).

As much as I want to like it, I still can't get into yoga. I've tried several times, and I feel great once I'm done, but it's so, I dunno, sloooow. It reminds me of slow sex ... it can feel great afterward but it's not my thing either. I guess my preference for high intensity stuff is universal.

+Max30: Max Sweat (week 2)

That one was a long time coming.

I joined a friend in a 10k swing challenge. 60 # KB 500 per day, 2 days on 1 off. I've been doing 5 sets of 50, 25, 15, 10. My first day I clocked in at 27:32 and yesterday was the 2nd day and about a minute later. It really works the forearms. I'm curious to see how much my time can improve at the end, Under 20 min would be vey cool.

I don't understand ... so you do 500 pr day until it adds up to 10,000?

Since the total number of reps is the same, I recommend the density system to bring the time down effectively and systematically. Start with something like 25 sets of 20 with 1 minute for each. When this can be completed routinely, move to 24x21 ... then 23x22 ... 22x23 ... and so on .. until you get to the point where there's no time to take breaks.

This popped up on my Google News feed a few weeks ago: https://www.t3.com/news/get-lean-10000- ... me-workout

Yes. 500 per day until 10,000. I'll try your style tomorrow.

I'm trying to add planks to my workout but the elbow still borked so I can't put any weight on it. If I use my weight bench to support my upper body, I can think of three ways to do a plank:

1) place my chest onto the bench (perpendicular to it) and hold the ends of the bench with my outstretched arms
2) place my chest a little lower onto the bench (again perpendicular) and reach my arms under the bench and grip it with my hands up near my face on the far side of the bench
3) place my chest on the end of the bench (parallel to the bench) and grab the sides up over my head, almost like a superman pose

Any thoughts on what might be most effective, or the least likely way to injure myself?

How about just doing one-armed planks? They can be done on the elbow too.

A one-armed plank runs the risk of me having to put the other arm down quickly if I lose my balance (the tricep tendon is torn so that would be bad). But, I hadn't thought of doing a one-armed plank while balancing the other shoulder on the edge of the bench for stability. I think that would work. Thx.

I wish I could get my arm fixed. Stupid covid.

5 days into 10k swings. Forearms are the limiting factor everything else is fine. I tried Jacob's method one day but went back to the original break up. 5 sets of 50, 25, 15, 10 with 60# kb. Rest period varies between 10-25 sec

Day 1:27:32
2: 28:24
3: 25:22
4: 27:05
5: 22:42

@JP - One trick is to put supports just below the range of motion you are working, so a fall is boring. You could do something like this with the elbow down: