My workout yesterday makes it hurt to brush my teeth. Bench press 5 sets of increasing weight, starting at 185 and maxing at 225. Pullups-5 reps in between each set of BP, then a weighted assist (30 lbs) with 5 pull-ups and 5 dips Squats-5 sets of 5 @185-205. I am terrified of my technique, so I am going really slow and easy. Deadlifts 5 sets of increasing weight, maxed at 5 reps @ 325 (after squats). After this, I did about 20 minutes of stairs. This is my bare bones routine, that I will attempt to do 2-3 times per week. The question I have is wtf do I do now? I will go today and do some yoga, pushups and a 1500 meter row and a 1000 meter sprint. I'd like to do some kind of alternative that will help me recover, but Jesus I am sore. Any tips on some bodyweight or low-impact stuff I can do if this soreness persists until my next round? I guess what I am looking for is an alternative to that routine?
Bench is dangerously close. Squat and DL are far away, in part because I haven't done them in about six weeks and in part because I don't currently have insurance and am scared shitless of getting hurt.
I'm no expert but I'd be wary of maxing out anything 3x/week. Most of the 5x5 routines have squats every workout but alternate bench/deadlift with OHP and rows. So like workout A would be squat, bench, dead and workout B would be squat, OHP, barbell row. Maybe do something like that? Here is a pretty nifty site with a bunch of the more popular 5x5 routines (Bill Starr, Rippetoe, Madcow) and variations.
With spring here and the start of mountain biking season, I'm thinking of dropping lifting to two days a week with yoga once a week as well. Does anyone know a good 2-day split? I would say that I just want to maintain strength over the summer. Here's my current routine Day-1 Legs/Core Squats/Front Squats 5x5 Lunges 3x8-10 Back Ext 3x8-10 Leg Curls 3-8-10 Box Jumps 3x10 Day-2 Back Bent-Over-Rows 5x5 Weighted Pullup 3x8-10 Lat Pulldown 3x8-10 Rev Pulldown 3x8-10 Face pulls 3x12-15 Day-3 Chest Bench 5x5 Seated DB Press 3x8-10 Dips 3x8-10 Flys 3x8-10 Side Raises 3x8-10
The easiest way to split up your workout would be day 1: upper body push / lower body pull. Day 2: lower body push / upper body pull. This will keep things simple. I'd also cut out some of the accessory work if you need to, and focus on the complex lifts. With regards to box jumps (and any other plyometric / power move), you should keep that at the front of your workout. Power is the first thing to go with CNS fatigue. Looking at your workout now, you could probably benefit by throwing in some deadlifts. Leg curls are not as effective at balancing out the work you should be doing to your posterior chain vs. the front of your body.
Can you elaborate on this? I have always considered leg exercises to be push exercises. Would the leg curls and back ext be the pull exercises? I also do dead lifts regularly, but they seem less beneficial to my main sports (skiing & mtn biking) than full depth squats. Should I still be switching up with squats/deadlifts each week? Thanks for the input.
Sure. Not all leg exercises are push exercises, but I can understand the confusion. Pull exercises would be stuff that hits the posterior chain, aka back, hamstrings, etc. So yeah, leg curls, glut ham raises, back extension, and various types of deadlifts. Squats are going to be important for building up some strength, but you will run into some problems if you just train the front of your body. If you don't develop the strength symmetrically you will get asymmetries, which are basically weak links in the chain for you. Even if these areas don't hurt themselves, they can refer pain to other parts of the body. For example, if your gluts are underactive they can cause your hip flexors to tighten up, which can lead to tighter quads, which can then lead to knee pain. I'd also consider including a lateral exercise or two, like a lateral lunge. Something that is common in athletes who only train in one plane of motion, like biking or running, is an increased risk of injury with any lateral movement. A little work every week can diminish that risk somewhat.
This thread gets less attention than the boobie thread . . . I'm training for another half marathon next month. I've been running since I was 8-9 years old, but never particularly fast. I just like to run distance. On Saturday, I ran the fastest 5K I've done since I was in college. I finished 12th overall out of 400 runners, which I was fairly pleased with. But, I'm 47 and was the 5th finisher over the age of 45. 5th! Wtf, old dudes? Weird. Anyway, I've done various fartlek and interval training over the years, but a lot of my fitness tips are old school. Anybody have any links to websites with tips for good speed work?
Hi Folks, Anyone remember what Mike's beginner program compromised? I used it have it on a flash drive, but lost it over the years.
I'm pretty sure I have an old copy of it lying around on an old hard drive. Let me dig around and see if I can find it for you.
Here it is. I found both the old word doc with the actual exercises and rep scheme as well as a simple excel chart he provided if you want to track your workouts. The workout tracker was originally in an excel format, but I had to convert it to PDF to be able to upload here, so you might want to re-convert it back to excel to be easier to fill out.
Going off memory but it's close. Three week rolling routine Week 1 - Heavy weight, low rep 3-5 reps Week 2 - Mid weight, 8-10 reps Weeks 3 - Low weight - 12-15 reps (Pretty sure it's 3 sets. Maybe 5?) Day 1 Bench Press Military/shoulder Press Bar Dips Day 2 Squats Deadlifts Day 3 Pull ups Bent over rows Day 4 Incline bench Dumbbell Incline Bench Dips? Day 5 Squats Deads (sumo?) Edit - jdoogie beat me to it 2nd edit - I was pretty close!
I know this thread is mostly dead, but I thought this was the best place for it. I did my first KBR triathlon on Saturday. I'm not much of a swimmer, so I'd been wanting to do KBR for awhile. One I signed up for was canceled back in Summer 2020, and not many are scheduled in my part of the world. They seem to be more popular in NY and MI, but most of the ones in the South are adventure style, where the kayak portion is Class III or better rapids. Anyway, this one in Columbia, SC was a 4 mile kayak on the lake, 16 mile bike and 5K run. I had a blast, even if I didn't finish so great. There were about 70 participants, but only 16 did all three events like me - the rest were all relay teams. I did fine in the bike and run. I passed about 5 people biking and about 5 running. But the kayak? Wow, was that bad. HUGE learning experience for me. I usually kayak in the river. I paddle upstream and down. I've paddled for 2 1/2 hours straight (this triathlon was just over an hour), and I think I'm a fairly strong paddler. I didn't finish last in the first leg, but I was in the bottom five. And it wasn't even close. I have a 10-foot recreational river kayak - and, holy shit is that the wrong equipment! Too short, too wide, and no rudder. I paddled as hard as I could paddle for an hour and 5 minutes and those people left me like I was dragging a piano. I had the endurance, I just didn't have the speed. Despite pedaling and running my ass off, I simply couldn't make up ground on that early setback. I definitely would do it again, or another one, but will have to figure out how to rent or borrow a 14-footer. (I don't think I'm going to drop $1500 for one race a year.)
Good for you, man. Sounds like a blast. Kayaking takes a ton of time to get good at so I wouldn't sweat it.
Thanks. I was fascinated and laughing at how completed out of my depth I was. I've been kayaking on the river, and even some lazy ocean harbor kayaking for 25 years or so. I can easily negotiate Class I & II rapids, too. But, man, that racing / distance kayak was a whole different thing. I kind of related it to commuter driving . . . and then seeing a NASCAR race in person. Or, playing high school football . . . and then being on the field for an NFL game. It was just a whole 'nother level up.
Nice work in the race! That sounds like an awesome event. Cycling and especially kayaking have a huge impact just from scaling up the gear. There’s a reason people buy $10k+ bikes to compete, but they definitely aren’t necessary to finish. Anything you’d have approached differently in training or racing in hindsight?
I knew going in I'd be slower running that some of the younger folks. And, I knew my regular ol' bike would cost me some time. I had trained fairly well, and was ready from an endurance standpoint. Although, it was definitely challenging! I don't think I'd change anything training-wise. I had done all the distances prior to the race, but not all on the same day. And, I had done a mini-triathlon training of each event, but at half the kayak and bike distance. I wanted to know what to expect, how to change gear, etc. 2 days a week for the last month leading up, I'd do two events - bike/run or kayak/run - on that day. I was glad I did those, just to be prepared for the sensation. When you're sitting low to the water, still in a kayak for an hour, and then jump on a bike, for the first little bit, it's kind of odd. Same thing when you get off the bike and start running. Although, jelly legs was a bit of a factor there, too. I pedaled pretty hard to try and make up some time, knowing that it was only a 5K run at the end. Race-wise, there are several things I'd do different. Obviously, getting a different kayak is one. I'm okay with the bike. I'm 53, and didn't expect to compete with the winners or anything, so not have a fancy touring bike didn't really bother me. I passed several people on much nicer bikes. It took be almost 3 minutes in the transition area from kayak to bike and about 2 minutes from bike to run. I think I could cut that down a good bit. I wore a pair of combo shorts that have compression shorts built in, and I didn't expect to get wet kayaking. (Had a change, just in case.) So, I wore those for all three events, and that worked out fine. I wore river shoes for the kayak, and getting feet dried off and socks on took a little longer than I liked. And, I didn't have clip-in cycling shoes. I just wore my running shoes without a problem. Also, we all had timing chips on ankle straps and our race numbers inked on our arms and legs. So, I'm not sure why they gave us race numbers on pin-on running bibs for the run portion. (Most of the teams were relay, so maybe that was why.) Any, I had pre-pinned my bib number on my shirt that I wore for the bike/run. When I took off my life jacket and put on the shirt, I ripped the shit out of the pins. So, that took a minute to fix. I also jumped on my bike when I was ready and got yelled at, because I didn't wait until the exit where the sign said "Mount bikes here." Oops. Rookie mistake. I have run 2 marathons and a 6 or 7 half marathons, so I was prepared for hydration and Gu and stuff like that. I got a cramp in one foot during the bike, but other than that, I was okay. That was another shortcoming of the type kayak I had, though. Not only did it take me longer, so I needed more water, but I couldn't coast straight without having a rudder. So, if I stopped paddling for 15 seconds to drink some water, I'd turn sideways and have to regroup. There was more cross current in the lake than I expected. I guess from the boat traffic, or the heat / cool cycle over night. I'm not exactly sure how lake turnover works. So, training, I felt about right on. Racing (and proper equipment) there is definitely room for improvement.