Honest Effort

[Bret S.]

Weighed in right at 200lbs. Kind of incredible really. In ten weeks I've put on about 1.5lbs of fat to 5.5 lbs muscle from my start point of 193, at a guess.

That is incredible! Are you choosing different points in the various movement ROMS to work from?

 

[North Coast Miller]

That is incredible! Are you choosing different points in the various movement ROMS to work from?

I'm doing all of them from the lowest point in the ROM I can manage and still get a real solid contraction, the longest muscle length possible.

Only Row, Abs, Hamstring are done in a regular muscle length. It would take more hardware than a sandbag and a sheet of plywood to pull that off - in case of abs I don't think that would be good for my back either.

Def feels like a lot of misinfo re Isometrics is perpetuated via lack of direct experience, glad I rolled the dice.

 

[North Coast Miller]

Not training till later in the day, but thought I'd share how potentially effective run and sprint training with resistance band is liable to be.

Picked up a couple of cheap bands at the grocery store Saturday and ran em around a basement jack - the activation relative to actual running is impressive - to the point where I can't really go easy using the heaviest band, I have to maintain a pretty good cadence. With the medium band I can blast all out pretty good. Will have to tinker with this, but have no doubt this is going to make my sprint intervals a lot more interesting.

The link (again):
How to Develop Athletes with In-Place Running - SimpliFaster

 

[North Coast Miller]

3 minutes jumprope
- DL
- Crossover High Pull
- Quad Extension
- Bench
- Crunch
- Hammer curl
All holds done 10 seconds full on, 20 "reps" rapid relax/ 30 - 50% on, 20 seconds rest.

4 intervals followed by two "max effort" sprint-in-place HIIT 12 on 30 off anchored with resistance bands.

 

[Bret S.]

Not training till later in the day, but thought I'd share how potentially effective run and sprint training with resistance band is liable to be.

Picked up a couple of cheap bands at the grocery store Saturday and ran em around a basement jack - the activation relative to actual running is impressive - to the point where I can't really go easy using the heaviest band, I have to maintain a pretty good cadence. With the medium band I can blast all out pretty good. Will have to tinker with this, but have no doubt this is going to make my sprint intervals a lot more interesting.

The link (again):
How to Develop Athletes with In-Place Running - SimpliFaster

Fascinating article, I'm going to play with this format a bit.

 

[Bret S.]

I'm doing all of them from the lowest point in the ROM I can manage and still get a real solid contraction, the longest muscle length possible.

Thanks man, good to know.

 

[North Coast Miller]

Thanks man, good to know.

For the most part once the joints get used to that flavor of tension it doesn't "feel" much different from regular training with two exceptions - you will not feel any real pump to speak of and trying to strain harder to elicit one is a good way to maybe hurt yourself.

Second is my abs still don't know what to make of it. I'm losing some hypertrophy in my abs, but the day after training they feel...different. Like they worked really hard but not in a usual ab way. I'm wondering if its because most ab work maybe doesn't manage to challenge the type II fibers as aggressively - think about a one or two rep load for a crunch isn't really possible without compromising your back. Most stuff like HLR and Dragon Flag is going to challenge the entire anterior core.

IDK, am going to test loaded crunches for reps tonight and see what's up.

 

[Bret S.]

Second is my abs still don't know what to make of it. I'm losing some hypertrophy in my abs, but the day after training they feel...different. Like they worked really hard but not in a usual ab way. I'm wondering if its because most ab work maybe doesn't manage to challenge the type II fibers as aggressively - think about a one or two rep load for a crunch isn't really possible without compromising your back. Most stuff like HLR and Dragon Flag is going to challenge the entire anterior core.

Heavier mace has my core super hard and strong, among other benefits. Definitely a hypertrophy boost there when doing higher reps. Doing sets of 100 reps with 22lbs gives a great pump, 50 with 26lbs and 30 with the 30lb are doing me good right now. After all the mace work I can now do half assed 'around the worlds', that would kill my LB pre mace. Just some FYI.

 

[North Coast Miller]

Heavier mace has my core super hard and strong, among other benefits. Definitely a hypertrophy boost there when doing higher reps. Doing sets of 100 reps with 22lbs gives a great pump, 50 with 26lbs and 30 with the 30lb are doing me good right now. After all the mace work I can now do half assed 'around the worlds', that would kill my LB pre mace. Just some FYI.

Abs def respond to quantity. Am going to stay the course till end of Dec and then maybe start doing cutouts for abs or just include a short sandbag circuit of cleans and getups on off days.

Currently am even doing iso grip work, everything done using the same template.

 

[pet']

Hello @North Coast Miller

If it can be of any help, here in post 1967, you will find 2 charts regarding hypertrophy (one from Bulletproof and one from Overcoming Gravity)

https://www.strongfirst.com/community/threads/mens-sana-in-corpore-sano-resiliency-stoicism-in-omnia-paratus.6866/page-99#post-169846

Hope that may help,

Pet'

 

[North Coast Miller]

@pet'
thanks for the chart. I miss 305pelusa perspective, a very valuable member of the forum! I am somewhat agnostic (to reuse from thread on nostalgia) re hypertrophy range for reps and TUT. My use of Clusters and now Iso is having me simply do and record impressions.

I should say is not a case so much of zero or maybe even declining hypertrophy, as every muscle is now becoming acclimated to Iso I am possibly losing some stored glucose and water in the muscle - to me I look like I've lost weight from my start of 192lbs. But...when I test or do actual work during my day I tend to generate a pump at much lower threshold of effort, whereas before nothing I could do in my daily would come close to the effect from resistance training.

It was my theory coming into this, that hard effort Iso would create a delayed state where the muscle is ready to draw blood at much faster rate/lower threshold at commencement of dynamic exertion compared to same muscle post isotonic exercise.

I did some 35lb loaded crunches last night and hit 20 side to side variant (up and to the side, pull side to side 3x with shoulders as far off the floor as I can contract, and back down keeping shoulders parallel to the floor throughout), they are not quite as difficult move-for-move as 4 regular crunches but closer to 2.5x when I do side by side comparison. These engage serratus and oblique to a greater degree.

20 is about where I left off from sandbag so maybe not so much improvement as other muscle groups or maybe stronger at bracing and not as much dynamically. And now this morning my abs are visibly more defined...AS far as experiments go, this is generating as many questions as answers.

 

[North Coast Miller]

Seriously considering breaking out the HIIT and doing in Tues/Thurs bookended by Iso. That was the original plan and now I'd like to examine this aspect a little more.

Had a pulmonary function test for a new job screening physical, really felt that AMRAP set of crunches trying to clear 100% volume on the exhale, actually hurt.

3minutes jumprope warmup
- Squat
- OHP press
- hamstring curl
- Row
- Leg Raises
- Triceps extension
All holds done 10 seconds full on, 10 seconds rapid relax/ 30 - 50% on, 20 seconds off, 4 intervals followed by two "max effort" band resisted sprint-in-place HIIT 12 on 30 off.

 

[North Coast Miller]

Reduced exertion time from 10 seconds to 8, added a 5th effort. Breaking out the HIIT for tomorrow, from now on will be done on separate day.

3 minutes jumprope
- DL
- Crossover High Pull
- Quad Extension
- Bench
- Crunch
- Hammer curl

All holds done 8 seconds full on, 20 "reps" rapid relax/ 30 - 50% on, 20 seconds rest for 5 repeats.

 

[Bret S.]

All holds done 8 seconds full on, 20 "reps" rapid relax/ 30 - 50% on, 20 seconds rest for 5 repeats.

How much rest time between repeats Martin? Are you still doing rapid run in place between them?

 

[North Coast Miller]

How much rest time between repeats Martin? Are you still doing rapid run in place between them?

Each repeat is 8 sec MVC, 20 quick "pump bumps", 20 seconds rest (whatever is left of the 30 second timer). At the end of the 5th repeat the timer is set for 120 seconds and that includes setup for the next hold, so a bit of hustle involved.

I am now breaking out HIIT on separate (following) day. So today it will be indoor sprint HIIT 12sec on, 36 off, 15 repeats.

 

[Bret S.]

I am now breaking out HIIT on separate (following) day. So today it will be indoor sprint HIIT 12sec on, 36 off, 15 repeats.

Thanks man.. I'm interested to see what the HIIT work does for you.

 

[North Coast Miller]

Thanks man.. I'm interested to see what the HIIT work does for you.

Going back to my logs from about 4-5 years ago when I first started messing with full body iso I also started tinkering with textbook HIIT instead of the informal intervals I had been using for years.

I noticed that HIIT used within 2 days of full body iso induced a massive pump, literally feel my shirt getting tight over a 12 minute session. I described it at the time as a Super Soldier Serum/ VitaRay effect. It doesn't have the same effect when sandwiched into the iso routine. I expect breaking it out to work better, I have zero idea why.

 

[Bret S.]

Going back to my logs from about 4-5 years ago when I first started messing with full body iso I also started tinkering with textbook HIIT instead of the informal intervals I had been using for years.

I noticed that HIIT used within 2 days of full body iso induced a massive pump, literally feel my shirt getting tight over a 12 minute session. I described it at the time as a Super Soldier Serum/ VitaRay effect. It doesn't have the same effect when sandwiched into the iso routine. I expect breaking it out to work better, I have zero idea why.

Yes, it's interesting to see what theory does when rubber hits the road, I like road testing like you are doing.. the 'what and how' are far more important than the 'why' in my view.

 

[North Coast Miller]

Band resisted sprint intervals 12 sec on, 36 off, 15 intervals.

Not as tough as I'd hoped, added another 3 at the end using 15 on, 30 off, much tougher - that's the mark for the next session.

 

[North Coast Miller]

3minutes jumprope warmup
- Squat
- OHP press
- hamstring curl
- Row
- Leg Raises
- Triceps extension
All holds done 8 seconds full on, 20 "reps" rapid relax/ 30 - 50% on, 20 seconds rest for 5 repeats.