Twohandsondeck
Member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2019
- Messages
- 809
Progress from the last 90 days... what I did and learned -
FREQUENCY & STRUCTURE - On the whole, I did a full body workout every 2nd or 3rd day, depending on rate of recovery. Sometimes I would do all lower body with a few light upper body accessories on the first day and then vice versa on the second day.
EXERCISE ROTATION - I'd always do a leg exercise first, pull exercise second, push exercise third, and repeat this rotation until exhaustion, usually 30-60 minutes.
INTRA-WORKOUT REST - All sets had an average rest period of 2.5-4 minutes between each. Allowing creatine phosphate to replenish in the muscle between exercises is the difference between resistance training and cardio. By scientific report, creatine phosphate is replenished by 90% after about 4 minutes of rest. Front-loading water before a workout and drinking water frequently between sets makes a big difference. Muscles are mostly water, after all.
EXERCISES - Every working set I did had at least 8 repetitions and was executed to failure in one of three ways:
A) go to failure > rest less than 30 seconds > go to failure > rest > failure.
Example: 12 reps > pause rest > 5 reps > pause rest > 2 reps
B) supersets (2 exercise sets back to back)
Example: pullups into standing dumbbell curls
C) giant sets (3 exercises back to back)
Example: barbell deadlifts into dumbbell lunges into dumbbell shrugs
*I used wrist wraps for less than 10 working sets for this 90 day period. If my grip was failing, I'd just rest for 20 to 240 seconds before pulling the same weight again.
*I would give extra volume to the back during the end 'cooldown' period of any workout session with light weight, high rep sets of seated rows, dumbbell rows, Lu raises, etc.
MIND-MUSCLE CONNECTION - I gave a strong effort to 1) maintaining muscle tension and 2) relaxing for bodily expansion (detailed below) throughout any exercise... this usually looks like 'partial reps' and, although sometimes seems silly, is key to muscular hypertrophy.
MACHINES - Around day 60, I decided to finally get over myself and allow myself to use machines for additional muscular fatigue.
CORE WORK(?) - I did almost zero ab or core exercises throughout this 90 day period. Every exercise should maintain core engagement at all times.
CARDIO - I did a very slow 2 mile jog about 6 times during this 90 day period. I only bothered to do this cardio if the motivation to do it was very high. I've learned in the past that forcing regular cardio exercise is not conducive to weight gain.
EXPANSIVE MENTALITY - Besides eating food and lifting until physical failure, the most important part of this process has been to employ a mentality of welcoming physical growth. This is most significantly applied during the execution of any given exercise and before falling asleep.
I'm speaking of a practice of envisioning bodily expansion in all directions, which is the antithesis of fixating on one point or another. Not zooming in and fixating the eyes on one point, but instead maintaining tension throughout the entire body during the entirety of an exercise.
For example, I can do a standing barbell curl in front of a mirror, turn sideways, and stare intently at contraction of my bicep in the mirror... OR I can do the same movement with my eyes closed & relaxed, imagining that my eyes are getting further away from each other with each repetition.
In the former execution of this exercise, I'm sending a limited nervous impulse that is intended to simply move a barbell from point A to B in the most efficient way possible. The nerve impulse will favorably use my strongest muscles with the most familiar movement pattern. If I'm focused like this, I'm certainly going to use the same motor recruitment pattern that I habitually use to pick up bottles and pencils, the issue being that that motor pattern is not putting a stress on my entire body, only the same muscles I'm always using.
By contrast, in the latter execution of this exercise, my entire body is being recruited based on a complete tension of every muscle. Instead of only using the 12 familiar muscles which usually execute this movement 95% of the time for me in that specific recruitment pattern, there are now hundreds of muscles which are expanding in their own 3-dimensional space. The more we focus on moving a weight from point A to B, then the less we focus on how a weight is supported by our entire skeleton.
*Pinpointing a movement - like a squat or deadlift for instance - while mentally trying to maintain lots of physical cues can sorely detract from the possible benefit of total bodily expansion.
To again use the squat and deadlift as easy examples, a lot of people get lower back fatigue long before leg fatigue from these exercises because they're habitually using their most common movement pattern to move the weight, which puts 80% of the stress on the lower back when, if the entire body is recruited (stabilizing & supporting weight with the lats, shoulders, etc), the stress on the lower back should only be 60%.
MINDFUL EXERCISE = BODY INTELLIGENCE - A lack of mindfulness when lifting, commonly referred to as the 'mind muscle connection,' is the factor I'm harping on... and at this point I think it's the determining factor of what is sometimes referred to as 'body intelligence.' Oftentimes top athletes aren't the most intellectual, but they're intuitive sense of bodily movement is well-endowed, hence every person has a 'body intelligence' quotient which is separate from their intelligence or emotional quotient (IQ or EQ).
DIET - raw cheese, raw milk, raw honey, raw eggs, raw cream, cooked vegetable soups, cooked bean soups, raw seeds, raw nuts, raw oats... occasionally traditional restaurant breakfasts, tacos, pizza, and cooked or canned meat.
SUPPLEMENTS - camu camu powder (vit C), coffee, raw carob powder, dolomite lime (magnesium), dulse seaweed (iodine)
REST & SLEEP - if I didn't have the energy to workout on a day, I'd try to eat and sleep more, including taking naps where I could get them to ensure that I'd be able to workout the next day. Sometimes I'd just do a quick 10 minutes of exercise in the evening after eating.
FREQUENCY & STRUCTURE - On the whole, I did a full body workout every 2nd or 3rd day, depending on rate of recovery. Sometimes I would do all lower body with a few light upper body accessories on the first day and then vice versa on the second day.
EXERCISE ROTATION - I'd always do a leg exercise first, pull exercise second, push exercise third, and repeat this rotation until exhaustion, usually 30-60 minutes.
INTRA-WORKOUT REST - All sets had an average rest period of 2.5-4 minutes between each. Allowing creatine phosphate to replenish in the muscle between exercises is the difference between resistance training and cardio. By scientific report, creatine phosphate is replenished by 90% after about 4 minutes of rest. Front-loading water before a workout and drinking water frequently between sets makes a big difference. Muscles are mostly water, after all.
EXERCISES - Every working set I did had at least 8 repetitions and was executed to failure in one of three ways:
A) go to failure > rest less than 30 seconds > go to failure > rest > failure.
Example: 12 reps > pause rest > 5 reps > pause rest > 2 reps
B) supersets (2 exercise sets back to back)
Example: pullups into standing dumbbell curls
C) giant sets (3 exercises back to back)
Example: barbell deadlifts into dumbbell lunges into dumbbell shrugs
*I used wrist wraps for less than 10 working sets for this 90 day period. If my grip was failing, I'd just rest for 20 to 240 seconds before pulling the same weight again.
*I would give extra volume to the back during the end 'cooldown' period of any workout session with light weight, high rep sets of seated rows, dumbbell rows, Lu raises, etc.
MIND-MUSCLE CONNECTION - I gave a strong effort to 1) maintaining muscle tension and 2) relaxing for bodily expansion (detailed below) throughout any exercise... this usually looks like 'partial reps' and, although sometimes seems silly, is key to muscular hypertrophy.
MACHINES - Around day 60, I decided to finally get over myself and allow myself to use machines for additional muscular fatigue.
CORE WORK(?) - I did almost zero ab or core exercises throughout this 90 day period. Every exercise should maintain core engagement at all times.
CARDIO - I did a very slow 2 mile jog about 6 times during this 90 day period. I only bothered to do this cardio if the motivation to do it was very high. I've learned in the past that forcing regular cardio exercise is not conducive to weight gain.
EXPANSIVE MENTALITY - Besides eating food and lifting until physical failure, the most important part of this process has been to employ a mentality of welcoming physical growth. This is most significantly applied during the execution of any given exercise and before falling asleep.
I'm speaking of a practice of envisioning bodily expansion in all directions, which is the antithesis of fixating on one point or another. Not zooming in and fixating the eyes on one point, but instead maintaining tension throughout the entire body during the entirety of an exercise.
For example, I can do a standing barbell curl in front of a mirror, turn sideways, and stare intently at contraction of my bicep in the mirror... OR I can do the same movement with my eyes closed & relaxed, imagining that my eyes are getting further away from each other with each repetition.
In the former execution of this exercise, I'm sending a limited nervous impulse that is intended to simply move a barbell from point A to B in the most efficient way possible. The nerve impulse will favorably use my strongest muscles with the most familiar movement pattern. If I'm focused like this, I'm certainly going to use the same motor recruitment pattern that I habitually use to pick up bottles and pencils, the issue being that that motor pattern is not putting a stress on my entire body, only the same muscles I'm always using.
By contrast, in the latter execution of this exercise, my entire body is being recruited based on a complete tension of every muscle. Instead of only using the 12 familiar muscles which usually execute this movement 95% of the time for me in that specific recruitment pattern, there are now hundreds of muscles which are expanding in their own 3-dimensional space. The more we focus on moving a weight from point A to B, then the less we focus on how a weight is supported by our entire skeleton.
*Pinpointing a movement - like a squat or deadlift for instance - while mentally trying to maintain lots of physical cues can sorely detract from the possible benefit of total bodily expansion.
To again use the squat and deadlift as easy examples, a lot of people get lower back fatigue long before leg fatigue from these exercises because they're habitually using their most common movement pattern to move the weight, which puts 80% of the stress on the lower back when, if the entire body is recruited (stabilizing & supporting weight with the lats, shoulders, etc), the stress on the lower back should only be 60%.
MINDFUL EXERCISE = BODY INTELLIGENCE - A lack of mindfulness when lifting, commonly referred to as the 'mind muscle connection,' is the factor I'm harping on... and at this point I think it's the determining factor of what is sometimes referred to as 'body intelligence.' Oftentimes top athletes aren't the most intellectual, but they're intuitive sense of bodily movement is well-endowed, hence every person has a 'body intelligence' quotient which is separate from their intelligence or emotional quotient (IQ or EQ).
DIET - raw cheese, raw milk, raw honey, raw eggs, raw cream, cooked vegetable soups, cooked bean soups, raw seeds, raw nuts, raw oats... occasionally traditional restaurant breakfasts, tacos, pizza, and cooked or canned meat.
SUPPLEMENTS - camu camu powder (vit C), coffee, raw carob powder, dolomite lime (magnesium), dulse seaweed (iodine)
REST & SLEEP - if I didn't have the energy to workout on a day, I'd try to eat and sleep more, including taking naps where I could get them to ensure that I'd be able to workout the next day. Sometimes I'd just do a quick 10 minutes of exercise in the evening after eating.
