Today's Workout using Tomorrow's Technology

Written by E.J. Reeves

Almost five years ago I was training for my first photo shoot. Using traditional body weight exercises to push and pull my way to a better body. These were extremely tough but netted great results. My chin up routine consisted of wide, medium and narrow grip chin ups. I could squeeze out 70 total reps in slightly less than an hour.

The following year was my next photo shoot. I followed the same chin up format. This time I reached a total of 180 reps in about an hour. My next shoot is not until the summer of 2006. It will be a video this time, so I am just training to obtain a good base for next year. The following route is completed in 30 minutes for a total of 180 reps. You will notice I not only cut the time in half but I added a 25 lb plate hung from my body for the first 6 sets of chin ups.

(no rest)

#2 Exercise - Wide grip palms forward (bodyweight) - 6 reps x 6 sets in 6 minutes

(no rest)

#3 Exercise - Medium grip palms forward (bodyweight) - 6 reps x 6 sets in 6 minutes

(no rest)

#4 Exercise - Shoulder wide palms towards face (bodyweight) 6 reps x 6 sets in 6 minutes

(no rest)

#5 Exercise - Narrow hands touching & towards face (bodyweight) 6 reps x 6 sets in 6 minutes

Total time = 30 minutes

Total reps = 180

Today my base workout is at 2.5 times the volume, at half the time with additional weight. This is tremendous personal growth for me. Some may ask how you can achieve such consistent gains from year to year. If you have followed my articles you will know I believe in basic exercises like chin ups and dips with a healthy diet, rest and plenty of water. No special supplements for the most part until now.
For the last year I have been using Lifewave's Energy patches. Since these do not put anything into your body but rather signal your body to perform at your optimum, I had to try them. This new nanotechnology is way beyond me so I have copied a small section of their website that explains. Click here for more info.

More energy and faster recovery are things I understand and see from the Lifewave Energy patches. You may want to try these patches and you can buy them directly from Lifewave, click on the icon and go to the retail store on their website.

They have a money back guarantee if you do not see any results from their products.

So if you want to kick your workouts into a higher gear, this may be the ticket for you. On the other hand, a 20% increase in energy may mean nothing if you do not consistently workout. So to that end let me map out a bit of long term strategy for your chin-up routine. (1 year)

Strategy #1 - Focus on strength. For the 1st four months of the year try to get stronger. This is done increasing the difficulty of the exercise while being able to perform between 3 & 5 reps per set. To increase the difficulty widen your chin-up grip or add weight or both! You will need to rest as long as 3 minutes between sets. That means a 30 minute workout will contain about 10 sets and a total rep count between 30 and 50. Repeat this work-out (with a few added reps) every 3 days (72 hours). After about 4 or 6 weeks increase your days rest to 4 days (96 hours) and then 5 days (120 hours).

The reason behind the progressively longer rest periods between workouts is to help in recovery as you push your strength limits. Each week you should be able to increase your total rep count by 2 or 3 reps, no more than that. Once you cannot increase 2 or 3 reps per workout it is time to increase your rest between workouts. After you have progressed to 5 days rest and cannot add 2-3 reps to each workout you have maxed out your strength training.

Strategy #2 - Build muscle. The second part of the year will be devoted to adding some muscle size to your frame. The strength you have gained in the first few months will be critical in building muscle. Now you will be performing between 6 and 8 reps per set with a rest period of no more than 2 minutes between sets. This means that a 30 minute workout will have 15 sets and a total of 90 to 120 reps per workout.

You will have to adjust downward the difficulty of your exercises by either narrowing your chin up grip or decreasing the added weight or both. Follow the same format for rests between workouts as the strength routine. As with the strength routine you will increase your total rep per workout by 2 or 3 reps, no more. You will have maxed out your muscle building capacity when you cannot increase your total reps even with 5 days rest.

Strategy #3 - Build endurance. The 3rd part of the year will be devoted to increasing your endurance. This will lean you out and harden your build making it more dense. The strength and size obtained from the previous 2 strategies will be built on to accomplish this.

For this part of the year you will be performing 6 to 10 reps per set with a rest period of 1 minute or less. This means a 30 minute workout will have 30 sets and a total of 180 to 300 reps per workout. You will have to adjust downward the difficulty of your exercises by either narrowing your chin up grip or decreasing the added weight. You have already decreased the difficulty of the chin ups so that you have only 2 or 3 narrower grip chin-ups available. If this is the case you will have to modify this section by performing 4 to 8 reps per set. You will need to keep rest periods between sets at 1 minute or less. Your modified total for an endurance workout will be 30 sets and a total of 120 to 180 reps.
Follow the same rest format as the strength and muscle building routines. When you can no longer add to your total reps even with 5 days rest you have maxed out your endurance building capacity.

This strategy is mapped out evenly for the year only as a matter of importance to obtain the 3 key elements of muscular fitness. These are as outlined: muscular strength, size and endurance. Typically the strength building strategy will be the longest in view of making gains from workout to workout. The muscle building strategy usually lasts half as long in view of making gain from workout to workout.

Lastly the endurance strategy will be even less. This means if you make strength gains for 3 months before you max out, the muscle building and endurance strategies may only last 6 to 4 weeks respectively! You may repeat the above strategies several times a year if necessary.

I started working out with a purpose in my late 40's and now continuing into my 50's. A healthier, more muscled, energetic body is possible even at 54 years of age. Believe in yourself and start a consistent home based workout system.

Feedback

Hi E.J.,

I received my UD 6 Bar, and am enjoying it immensely. It’s exceeded my expectations. Nice design, simple installation, GREAT workout. I am 56, active, in pretty good shape for my age, but will have to build up gradually to your fitness formula. I train for whitewater kayaking, climbing, and skiing. I have been putting more emphasis on bodyweight
exercises and compound moves in the past year – incline situps, leg raises pushups, dips, squats, and recently chinups. Also lots of reps with light dumbbells and kettlebells. I bike about 10 miles per day – just commuting, nothing hardcore. In your opinion, could I do light reps with kettlebells and dumbbells on my off days when I am not chinning?

Your workouts and your physical condition are an inspiration. Thanks for the info on your website and thanks for a great product. I leave the UD 6 set up in my kitchen doorway. On my chinup days, I knock off intermittent chinups about every time I pass through the door.

-Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the compliment on the product and exercise information. You should not do any pulling workouts more than twice a week. This means chinups, bentover rows, barbell curls, lat pull down, seated rows, etc., etc. That means you can do chinups twice a week or chinups once a week and another pulling workout for that week like bentover rows with your kettle bell. Just a note on recuperation and volume of weekly workouts. Your body has only so much recuperative capabilities in any given week. This means the total amount of stress on the body induced by resistance training, aerobic training, yard work, hobbies, sex, partying, etc., etc. That means you have to pick the most effective exercises and most important other activities that tax your energy during and after. To do this I keep an exercise log and keep track of my workout volume per week.
For an example, I do four thirty minute resistant workouts per week. About a 180 various chinups and about 250 various dips and pushups twice a week. Aerobics I do two or three times per week. I know about kettle bells but I have never tried them. They look like a neat workout. My preference is for multi joint compound exercises that move your body freely through space. The kettle bells provide a compound multi joint free weight exercise but does not move the body through space. A different example would be a hack squat machine that is a multi joint compound exercise that moves your body through space but it does not allow it to move freely. There are very few exercises that provide all the criteria that I look for. These include chinups, dips, pushups, squats, deadlifts, and clean and jerk. I promote the first three with various grips, positions and even with added weight. I do not recommend the last three because of the propensity for injury. This does not mean that I don't see the value of other exercises or machines for specific purposes but I contend the main stay should be chin, dips and pushups. The dip bar will not work in your home and the UD6 will be fine if
you move. On another note, I am working on a book and weight vest. Your comments are much appreciated.

-E.J.

Hi E.J.,

I would like to do a 2day a week, Fri & Sun.workout. It will consist of 2 sets of shoulder widthpalms forward chins, 2 sets narrow grip palms facing me chins & 2 sets parallel grip chins. In addition I plan on doing 3 sets of dips body upright elbows in, for the triceps and 3 sets of dips leaning over elbows out, for the chest. The other exercises will be Janda situps & pistols, a 1 leg squat wih 1 leg extended to the front. I would like to work up to 20 rep sets. I plan on 20 min. between circuits to recover. I will do cardio kick boxing for aerobics. I have some shoulder problems, probably arthritis. Will this workout cause problems? Any comments on any aspect, frequency, amount of sets etc. will be greatly appreciated. From yuor photos you look like you know what you are talking about. One last question, what is your deadlift bar?

-Ron

Hi Ron,

First of all we will talk about the frequency of your workouts. Doing chinups every three or four days is ideal. The text book is 72 hours between the workouts. For myself I find I need fours days if I push moderate to hard during my workouts and always strive for one or two percent increase in total workout reps. If I am going all out and max every workout I need five days rest. I would not rest more than five days between workouts because you will loose your training effect. This would mean a Wednesday and Saturday workout schedule would be necessary. I find out weekend warriors are very, very prone to injury unless they take it very easy.

Next we need to talk about the grouping of your exercises. A giant set where you go from one exercise to another exercise non stop is a excellent time saving format. I presume you are planning to go from chins to dips to situps and squats in one giant set before repeating. You will be loosing a lot of training effect for each particular exercise but will receive general conditioning by following this. My recommendation would be to group chins together as well as the other exercises. What this means for chinups is that your six sets of chinups will be completed in six minutes. You will start with the widest grip first and proceed to the narrower ones. Find a large face clock with a second hand and start each set when the second hand hits twelve. Your set should take ten or fifteen seconds and the remainder of the minute will be rest. Try to keep each set in the same rep range. This will help you maximize your total reps. Try and increase your total reps by two or three percent every week. This means if you have six sets at five reps each your total rep count for the session would be thirty and a one rep increase would be about three percent increase.

Make sure you have a workout log. Don't overtrain. Be consistent. Believe in yourself and let me know next year what your progress has been.

-E.J.

You can e-mail E.J. your questions or comments at info@easyeffort.com

Copyright © 2002 by E.J. Reeves All rights reserved.

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