Post: #26

Speaking of the daily pushups - what are your guys' thoughts on doing them that often?

I've been working on the hundred pushups program to build a foundation in fitness after being out of shape for a long-ass time (just as one part of my routine). I'm not quite getting the progress I want yet on the pushups, and I keep thinking about how much faster my pushups accelerated when doing them daily in the past (basic training, starting wrestling season, etc).

The hundred pushups program only has you doing them three days a week. But it's not like I'm sore at all on my rest days. I feel like I could condition my muscles faster by just cranking them out everyday and getting used to the workload.

At the same time, I don't want to keep switching up my routine before I hit the goals I'm aiming for.

Anyone have thoughts on daily pushups (or 5 days/ week) vs. rest every other day?

This old dude in the video below certainly doesn't seem to be losing anything by skipping rest days. I believe Jack Lalanne did them daily until death too.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #27

^ Wow if that guy is really 60 years old, he is pure awesomeness, mad respect.

Post: #28

The most effective home workout is the workout that you are excited about and will do religiously and with intensity!

All of the workouts mentioned in this thread can be good workouts if you do them aggressively. They can also be shitty workouts if you don't do them hard enough.

Even the "best" workout will get boring after a while, then what?

Or, your body will get used to your workout and you will plateau..

Pick the workout that you are excited about and that you will actually do CONSISTENTLY

Whatever you do, do it with great intensity.

I like to go to the park and use the monkey bars.

Post: #29

i have my own gear at home, but when i'm bored and want to do something quick I do "freeletics". it's bodyweigh HIIT training. burpess, situps, squats, and other exercises. its fun

Post: #30

There's nothing wrong with daily pushups, you'll probably adapt to them pretty quickly and it will be like a regular routine.

Resting every other day is an artificial sort of construction, nobody has to. I try to do something every day.

Post: #31

(11-24-2013 02:24 PM)Giovonny Wrote:  The most effective home workout is the workout that you are excited about and will do religiously and with intensity!

Pick the workout that you are excited about and that you will actually do CONSISTENTLY

In all of my years, consistency is the most important element despite whatever you do.

Post: #32

(11-24-2013 04:46 PM)puckman Wrote:  

(11-24-2013 02:24 PM)Giovonny Wrote:  The most effective home workout is the workout that you are excited about and will do religiously and with intensity!

Pick the workout that you are excited about and that you will actually do CONSISTENTLY

In all of my years, consistency is the most important element despite whatever you do.

^^^Yeah, that.

Post: #33

You can get into the best shape of your life with a kettlebell and a $20 pullup bar.

20 minutes of kettlebell work will put most people--ripped or not--on their ass.

Steve Kotter's extreme kettlebell DVD series has delivered better results for me than anything. Ever.

Joe Rogan also swears by something similar, but it's a singular workout, not a fully-comprehensive program with options.

I get bored doing the same workouts.

Kettlebell will be the best money you'll ever spend and it'll outlast you and your offspring.

Post: #34

This is going to be a long post, but it's a summary of all the research I've done on "portable" or do-it-yourself training systems. Let the information overload begin.

I'll try to break it down into different training modalities. Nothing says you can't combine this stuff, either. The best routine is one that works for you right now, with what you have wherever you're at.

Barstar / pseudo gymnastic route



The bulk of your workouts are going to require a pull up bar. I have found the most affordable, portable, durable, and collapsible pullup bar that exists on the market. It is freestanding, can handle 350 lbs of weight, constructed of solid aluminum, weighs 22 lbs, and tears down in a matter of seconds into a small duffel. Basic models start at 200 dollars (that's the one I have). The 250 dollar one is a good value for the money because it has bars that you can do dips off of, but I'd rather not have to constantly adjust the height of the pull up bar to do dips every time I want to do dips. I'll use two chairs or a pair of gymnastic rings instead.

Here's the pull up bar.

http://trapezerigging.com/collections/fr...ullup-bars

A good starter routine would be the Armstrong Pullup program. It's already been talked about in the thread, but hey, it works. A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow, and as a bonus you could easily make it part of your morning routine. In the past it's taken me from 4 pullups to 12 in the span of about 7 weeks. Here's a good website that advertises the effects of the armstrong pull up program. It's no bodybuilding program, but it's better than nothing and it takes very little time.

http://harrycloudfoot.com/2012/05/11/sel...n-6-weeks/

Other good resources would be the websites and forums of barstar athletes.
http://www.madbarz.com/
http://bar-barians.forumotions.net/

The bar athletes tend to do some ridiculous volume, hundreds of pullups every workout and all kinds of variations of pullups, dips, pushups, and maybe some handstand work or leg work thrown in.

If you want a taste of gymnastics and to develop some serious upper body pulling and pressing power, the old Coach Sommers article on the planche and front lever is an excellent minimalistic resource. You could do that program and the armstrong pullup program for a relatively complete upper body workout that takes very little time and only a pullupbar and some floor space.

http://www.dragondoor.com/articles/build...ditioning/

In order to take your training to the next level, buy the Foundation One and Handstand One course on the gymnastic bodies website. You'll have to buy/build more equipment than a pullup bar, but there's a whole entire forum full of other guys just like you who have found out substitutes for equipment or how to build your own. Coach Sommer's program will provide you with a much more complete physical development than doing a shitload of pullups and dips. I do foundation one and I can say that it is both effective and humbling. Foundation One is gymnastics training so yes, the bulk of your training will be upper body or core oriented, but it also has a bodyweight squat series that works well.

Convict conditioning is not a bad way to go, but the volume is far too low and many of the progressions are contrived and an utter waste of time (like those goofy squats where one ankle rolls on a basketball). A better resource would be Al Kavadlo's Raising the Bar and Pushing the Limits! . You'll get an introduction to some different bodyweight exercises with some fairly decent guidelines on how to work up to them and you won't get the ridiculous amount of bullshit that's in convict conditioning.

Calisthenics books written by Ross Enamait are excellent. The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness is an oldie, but a goodie. Never Gymless is the newer version of that book and it is also gold. You can't go wrong with Ross, although his forum is not the best place to go for fitness advice.

I've heard good things about You Are Your Own Gym, but I've never tried it. I did read the book, though, and just about everything you do in that book for exercises you can do in a hotel room with chairs, a door frame, and a phone book.

As far as calisthenics are concerned, your lower body will suffer. To combat this, you'll have to learn how to do the one legged squat so you can build up your legs to an adequate size. Once you're comfortable doing a one legged squat, you can start to add weight. How you do this is up to you, you can shoulder something, pick up a heavy backpack in your hands or even a rock. Anything will work.

Another way to develop strong legs is to do leap training. You can start with bodyweight squats, work up to bodyweight jump squats for height, then for distance, then add weight and repeat. Building the Gymnastic Body by Coach Sommers is a good resource on this.

The Kettlebeller Route



Kettlebells are basically a cannonball with a handle. They're fairly expensive and they don't go up in weight in small increments. However, they have one huge advantage over calisthenics, and that is you'll be able to adequately work out your posterior chain with basic kettlebell movements like swings, snatches, and cleans. Nothing says you can't do calisthenics and kettlebells, they complement each other well. You also don't need a lot of space to work out with (a small patch of floor in your basement will do) and you can even do your workouts outside if you don't mind your neighbors giving you funny looks. Eminently portable, a set of kettlebells will deliver a fairly complete package for all around physical fitness.

The bad thing about kettlebells is that anything you can do with a kettlebell, you can do with other equipment that is either cheaper or more convenient.

This T handle for swings is more convenient to go up in weight and costs 10 dollars (not including the plates).



and a 20 dollar sandbag sandbag for cleans, curls, presses, snatches, rows, and weighted one legged squats does everything else.



There is nothing unique or special about "kettlebell training".

If you do decide to train with kettlebells, there are some major advantages.

1)Once you have dropped a couple hundred bucks on them, that's it. You don't need any fancy equipment. You might need a place to do pullups, but other than that, you're set.

2) They don't take up much space. Four or five different sized kettlebells are going to take up a lot less space in your basement or garage than a set of barbells, a power rack, a bench, and an olympic lifting platform.



3) Kettlebells are really hard to break.

4) The exercises you can do with a kettlebell are basically swings, cleans, snatches, presses, and weighted one legged squats with the kb in the clean position. Those exercises will give you a fairly complete physical development provided you bust your ass at them. There's also a lot of awkward dumbbell-like shit you can do with them, like curls and rows. A set of kettlebells don't beat a gym membership, but they're a good investment if you travel or you live in the middle of nowhere.

A good place to buy kettlebells would be from the International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation website. Really, any place with good reviews for their products and a standard size of kettlebell will work.

http://www.ikff.net/index.php?page=shop....t&Itemid=6

The biggest reason is that they are all exactly the same size. You don't need to relearn your cleaning, snatching, or pressing form every time you go up in weight like you would with the "russian" kettlebells off dragon door.

A good resource to learn how to use your kettlebells would be Enter the Kettlebell by Pavel Tsatsouline. You can get it off the dragondoor website, just don't get sucked into buying all of their overpriced books. I haven't done much research about kb training other than what Pavel has written, so you'll have to do your own research to find what works for you.

The next topic I would do would be odd object lifting, but I'm pretty sure that if you're just working out at home, you don't have the kind of place where you'd have lifting stones, anvils, logs, or barrels full of gravel.

If you're looking for cheap weight though, sandbag lifting is a good way to go. The definitive guide to sandbag lifting would be Ross Enamait's sandbag lifting DVD titled Low Tech High Effect Sandbag Training. A 20 dollar sandbag and some time to make smaller bags of sand to fit into the larger bag will last you a long time.

As far as effective workout routines with absolutely no equipment, The Naked Warrior by Pavel Tsatsouline is a good read. Spoiler alert, the exercises in there are only the one armed pushup and the one legged squat. I would add in the one armed chin up, but that's just me.

Really, just pick a training modality (calisthenics, whatever) and bust your ass at it every day.

Post: #35

(11-21-2013 09:20 AM)Hades Wrote:  

(11-21-2013 03:20 AM)Sharkie Wrote:  How about Convict Conditioning?

It's not bad, but the set and rep schemes are awful and there's just not enough volume.

If the guy (who assuredly did not go to prison) rewrote everything in accordance with Zatsiorsky's rules for making strength gains then you could expect the Convict Conditioning athletes to look somewhat more swole.

I did try and figure out how to apply Zatsiorsky to CC, but I couldn't put it together.

I agree that CC seems a little low on volume. If you check these charts out, you'll see that they suggest doing an intermediate set and a progression set from the previous level before you do your exercises at the current level.

Post: #36

I own this and have used it for a while - lots of good stuff in there that can be done anywhere:

   

Post: #37

(12-04-2013 10:58 PM)not_dead_yet Wrote:  

(11-21-2013 09:20 AM)Hades Wrote:  

(11-21-2013 03:20 AM)Sharkie Wrote:  How about Convict Conditioning?

It's not bad, but the set and rep schemes are awful and there's just not enough volume.

If the guy (who assuredly did not go to prison) rewrote everything in accordance with Zatsiorsky's rules for making strength gains then you could expect the Convict Conditioning athletes to look somewhat more swole.

I did try and figure out how to apply Zatsiorsky to CC, but I couldn't put it together.

I agree that CC seems a little low on volume. If you check these charts out, you'll see that they suggest doing an intermediate set and a progression set from the previous level before you do your exercises at the current level.

Zatsiorsky literally lays everything out for you on page 80 of his book.

I'll edit some of what he wrote to give you an idea of what you could do.

An athlete's best performance in the pistol squat is 2 repetitions. The athlete has the following variants from which to choose to train for strength.

1) Pistol squats (maximal effort method).

2) Perform the step 9 or 8 exercise a submaximal number of times (submaximal effort method) or to failure (repeated effort method).

3) Lift a submaximal load at maximal velocity, for example, leaping bodyweight squats for height and/or distance (dynamic effort method).

The submaximal effort method is also noted in The Science and Practice of Strength Training as a supplementary method of strength training, meaning that the majority of your lifting should be any of the other three methods. The submaximal effort method would work well if you had a lot of time to train, though.

The problem with convict conditioning is that you could do a lot better than the progressions in the book. I've got nothing against one armed pushups and one armed chins, but no one who's done both one armed pushups and planche pushups will claim that the former is more difficult.

Post: #38

(12-05-2013 12:33 AM)Vendetta Wrote:  I own this and have used it for a while - lots of good stuff in there that can be done anywhere:

I own this bodyweight bible, too. More stuff can also be found there: working out - bodyweight

Post: #39

For the legs and glutes Pistol Squats are all you need and they are badass, they will have your legs feeling weaker than a parapalegic's the next day specially after the initial try and it's all body weight, zero weights required. It's basically a one legged squat, search it up on the tube there's a guy that looks like the neo nazi Edward Norton in American History X who does the best tutorial.

For the upper body, power pushups are real good, do as many reps as you can and try to go 110% 3 sets of maximum until failure

For the entire body deadlifts are great, preferably with weights but can be improvised with whatever you can find.

If you want to increase hgh and testosterone to maximum potential you need to go high intensity either by doing reps as fast as you can (not recommended for deadlifts because you can get an ugly hernia) or as slow as you can, both will do but for best results you should mix it up. Try to never do the same weekly routine so that your muscles are always constantly challenged.

The last and best exercise which can be done even exclusively with great results is sprinting as fast as you can in tabata intervals or peak 8 intervals, doing these consistently every week is only for real men so if you lack heart don't bother. Only needs to be done 1x a week but for faster results try thrice a week or atleast work up to it (wait for legs to completely recover before next session). Also you have to warm up according to the muscles used (in this case sprinting) so do a light 5 min jog and 5 mins of leaping and also cool down after the sprint by doing a light 5 min jog so your leg muscles can adapt quicker (very important to avoid injury). Search up the tabata protocol and peak 8 they are very quick excerises that are perfect for a person always on the run which is one of the reasons why they are my favorite. You should notice a difference in your physique in as little as 2 weeks if done 3x a week and a substantial difference in 6-8 weeks, these results can be amplified with a TKD (targeted ketogenic diet).

Also eating a Primal or Paleo Diet with these exercises is your best bet to overall health and wellness. Read Mark's Apple a Day blog for more info on everything regarding the primal diet (our natural diet) and fitness as well as nutrition.

If you got any Q's ask.

Post: #40

Didn't feel like going to the gym, so I just tried the seven minute workout. I didn't feel it that bad, but I'm breathing VERY heavily from it. I might do another two to three sets of it over the course of the night and see how I feel after it's said and done.

Post: #41

(11-23-2013 06:05 PM)puckman Wrote:  I used to do the Matt Furey program a long time ago, it was good, but the way he teaches squats I disagree with.

What's wrong with his squats? Hindu squats?

Post: #42

(01-04-2014 09:05 PM)Aliblahba Wrote:  

(11-23-2013 06:05 PM)puckman Wrote:  I used to do the Matt Furey program a long time ago, it was good, but the way he teaches squats I disagree with.

What's wrong with his squats? Hindu squats?

he teaches people to do squats on their toes with their heels off the ground, with your weight forward in your toes. Which goes against 99.99% of coaches worldwide that teach the squat; a proper squat is with your weight in the heels, your heels are firmly planted on the ground for stability to properly engage your glutes and hamstrings. Furey comes from a wrestling background so I wouldn't expect him to know anyway, and this type of squat may actually benefit wrestlers/grapplers, but its not a proper squat and can throw off your form if you do weightlifting.

Post: #43

I haven't done any due diligence on this Mike Chang guy who spams hard on the internet, but I've done a lot of his workouts. I love the explosive calisthenic workouts. Really helps get the heart rate up and burn fat. You'll feel very fit when you master these plank jump to high jumps. Energy levels will go way up.

Post: #44

So did someone do the armstrong workout for a while and is getting near the look of the barstar guys posted by hannibal?

The black dude has the look I want to achieve. Can't believe he got there just by using body-weight exercises, though.

Post: #45

I used to troll the barstar forums a bit before they changed domain (and lost a lot of good members). The general consensus of the armstrong pullup program is that it's a good program, but it's not nearly enough volume. The more advanced members on the forum said that 100-200 pullups per workout was the average. They have some videos on youtube about how to start working out like them, you start with pullups, diamond pushups, and dips. Everyone has a different routine as far as I can tell, but pullups are the backbone of most every program. You could go on the old bar-barian forum and go through the archived threads to see what I mean.

Post: #46

Been doing BWF for a few months and I really enjoy it. A different kind of pump. Just got to 3x8 dips (I weigh 225 pounds).

I use the progressions from Convict Conditioning but I do volume as I feel fit. Some of the rep suggestions are just goofy and are really up to the user. For example, if I feel like doing a higher rep workout, I will use easier progressions. I'm going to buy "You are your own gym" soon and check it out.

Post: #47

Quote: You could go on the old bar-barian forum and go through the archived threads to see what I mean.

Thanks for the intel, will lurk the forum for valuable knowledge and report back.

Post: #48

(02-23-2014 02:34 PM)Bad-Habit Wrote:  

Quote: You could go on the old bar-barian forum and go through the archived threads to see what I mean.

Thanks for the intel, will lurk the forum for valuable knowledge and report back.

To clarify, this is the forum I was talking about.

http://bar-barians.forumotions.net/

There's a goldmine of information in there. If you're serious about doing that kind of training, I would look into doing some mobility work as well, so you don't develop tendonitis in the elbows or shoulder impingements from the thousands of dips, pullups, and pushups you'll be doing.

I would recommend any material by Ido Portal or Kit Laughlin.

At bare minimum I would do shoulder dislocations combined with some time spent doing handstand pushups so you don't develop kyphosis from all those pullups.

Post: #49

Mike Mahler has some excellent kettlebell programs. I also like Al Kavadlo's bodyweight courses.

I'm a simple, push-ups (many variations) & pull-ups (different grips) kinda guy. For legs, I'll mix it up with thinks like the P90 X 3 leg routines, kettlebell leg routines, and/or some bodyweight leg routines.

Post: #50

Burpees