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Mars Attacks!

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marvinthemartian

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Hi everyone!

I am out of shape guy who recently crossed into his 30s and finally wants to get in decent shape. Never been super fit. But I grew up in the country side and was very active doing martial arts, volunteer fire fighting, sports shooting, hiking, hunting and so on. 50-60 pushups and a decent 5km time when I trained for it. As a tall lanky guy eating junk food was never a problem either. Once I graduated college I just settled into the white collar lifestyle and slowly got fatter and more out of shape. Side effects like getting sweaty and out of breath and having a low libido included ;)

I started just doing some calisthenics and jump rope training after New Years eve and actually stuck to it so far. On my search for things to add I came across KBs and S&S am trying to add KB swings into the mix while trying to figure out concrete goals. Getting in shape is pretty vague. So maybe something like 50 strict push ups, the 5 min swing test and 10 minutes of unbroken jumping rope while getting down to 200lbs.

With all that being said let's log the first workout here in the forum.

11. Feb 2020 19:00
BW: 105kg / 230lbs
-10 Jump Rope warm up doing the bounce step
-Push Ups & Rows: (1 2 3 4 5) x 2, (1 1 1 1 1) = 35 reps each
-Air Squat, Swiss Ball Sit Up, One Legged Calf Raise: (1 2 3 4 5) x 4 = 60 reps each

Nothing special. Didn't do KBs today. And I didn't have much time because I had to help a neighbor with some paperwork and my GF wanted to watch a movie.
 
Second log!

12. Feb 2020 17:00

-S&S Warm Up
-Two Handed Swings: 20kg 10 sets of 6 + 100 bounce steps for active rest between sets
-Push Ups & Rows: (1 2 3 4 5) x 2, (1 2 1 1 1) = 36 reps each
-Air Squat, Swiss Ball Sit Up, One Legged Calf Raise: (1 2 3 4 5) x 4 = 60 reps each

That one felt easy. Got an hour of extra sleep and had a beer before heading home from work :D
 
13. Feb 17:30

-Jump Rope: 1.000 bounce steps

No time today. Just got some jump rope training done without warming up. Probably should have warmed up. :) But I have to head out now.
 
14. Feb 18:00

-S&S Warm Up
-Naked TGU
-Two Handed Swings: 20kg 10 sets of 6
-Push Ups & Rows: (1 2 3 4 5) x 2, (1 2 2 1 1) = 37 reps each
-Air Squat, Swiss Ball Sit Up, One Legged Calf Raise: (1 2 3 4 5) x 4 = 60 reps each
 
Ups, forgot about yesterday. Overslept, missed breakfast and had a super busy Monday. So not a great day for training. Today I woke early and instead of staying in bed I gave S&S and my new exercise mats a try. TGU worked well. But there is not enough space to safely miss a lift or let the KB drop. Not that the 16kg TGU was all that hard. But I will stick to naked TGU for now anyways. Getting a couple 100 reps in to learn the exercise is probably a good idea anyway.

17. Feb 19:00

-Jump Rope: 10 Minutes

18. Feb 5:30

-S&S Warm Up + Naked TGU
-Two Handed Swings: 20kg for 10 sets of 6 reps
-TGU: 16kg for 5 singles per side
 
Thanks @ShawnM! Sadly I waste much more time with pointless stuff throughout the day than it takes to go through my short workouts. Today went better. But not by much. I did my KB training in the morning and would have been forced to make extra time in the evening to squeeze it in otherwise.

20. Feb 5:30
-SnS warmup
-One Arm Swings: 16kg 10 x 10
-TGU: 16kg 3 singles per arm

20. Feb 18:00
-10 Minutes Jump Rope
-Circuit with Push Ups, BW Row, Goblet Squat 16kg, Calf Raise: (1,2,3,4,5) x 2, (1,2,3,2,2) = 40 reps each
 
Thanks @ShawnM! Sadly I waste much more time with pointless stuff throughout the day than it takes to go through my short workouts. Today went better. But not by much. I did my KB training in the morning and would have been forced to make extra time in the evening to squeeze it in otherwise.

20. Feb 5:30
-SnS warmup
-One Arm Swings: 16kg 10 x 10
-TGU: 16kg 3 singles per arm

20. Feb 18:00
-10 Minutes Jump Rope
-Circuit with Push Ups, BW Row, Goblet Squat 16kg, Calf Raise: (1,2,3,4,5) x 2, (1,2,3,2,2) = 40 reps each

I plan a minimal amount and whatever else is there great, if not, no big thing. Great job!
 
Another short one. I got a bit paranoid and decided to do some shopping to prepare for potential shortages related to the coronavirus. Was actually a bit fun. But it tired me out and I decided to reward myself with some ice cool Corona, a homemade burger and a nice movie.

Given that Lent is about to start I am also thinking about vegetarian and vegan meals. So I might make some bigger changes to my diet in the near future.

But I did some swings and TGUs on the weekend just for fun. That should make up for it.

Day 10: 24. Feb 6:00
-10 Minutes Jump Rope
-Circuit with Push Ups, BW Row, Goblet Squat 16kg, Calf Raise: (1,2,3,4,5) x 2, (1,2,3,3,3) = 42 reps each
 
Last edited:
Day 11, 25. Feb 6:00
-SnS warmup
-One Handed Swings: 16 kg, 10 sets of 10
-TGU: 16kg, 5 singles per arm

Day 11, 25. Feb 17:00
-10 Minutes Jump Rope
-Circuit with Push Ups, BW Row, Goblet Squat 16kg, Calf Raise: (1,2,3,4,5) x 2, (1,2,3,4,3) = 43 reps each
 
Day 14, 28. Feb 16:00
-SnS warmup
-One Handed Swings: 16 kg, 10 sets of 10
-TGU: 16kg, 5 singles per arm
-10 minutes jumping rope

Day 15, 29. Feb 7:00
-Circuit with Push Ups, BW Row, Goblet Squat 16kg, Calf Raise: (1,2,3,4,5) x 2, (1,2,3,4,4) = 44 reps each
 
Simple and Sinister only. We had some plumbing issues in the bathroom and my GF decided it would be a good idea to start cleaning our kitchen as well. Problem is: she is a very slow worker and extremely detail oriented. So instead of working out I decided to help her out.

Day 16, 2. March 6:00
-SnS warmup
-One Handed Swings: 16 kg, 10 sets of 10

Day 17, 3. March 6:00
-SnS warmup
-One Handed Swings: 16 kg, 10 sets of 10
-TGU: 16kg, 5 singles per arm
 
Day 18, 4. March 6:00
-Warmup
-One Handed Swings: 16 kg, 10 sets of 10
-TGU: 16kg, 5 singles per arm

Day 18, 4. March 18:45
-Circuit with Push Ups, BW Row, Box Pistol Squat Progression, Calf Raise: (1,2,3,4,5) x 2, (1,2,3,4,4) = 44 reps each
 
I am still on the fence on whether I should try to do both S&S and my calisthenics training or just add swings for 10 sets of 10. TGUs take up another 15 minutes to complete and I have to make room in my narrow kitchen. Even though I start to appreciate them more and more it's more convenient to not do them. ;)

Another thing I am thinking about is logging my sleep. Kinda worried about the results because I have no idea if I had more than a week or two of a full 8 hours sleep per night in more than a decade.

Just some thoughts I had :D
 
Obviously this is your fence that you need to get off of ;) but my vote is to do S&S as designed. It is the fourth iteration of a program by one of the best strength program designers around. Even if it only gives you equivalent results as what you are doing -- and I think it will be better -- there is something satisfying about doing a program through so that you can better understand it and feel like you've accomplished it.

I also vote for logging sleep. Personally, I had to get a device (Oura ring in my case). I just never had the dedication to manually track my sleep on a consistent basis. I wear it at night and tells me when I actually went to sleep, woke up in the middle of the night, got up, etc. It was only when I was seeing real data that I was able to really prioritize getting enough sleep.
 
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