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Other/Mixed Mental aspect of the Easy Strength/40 day program

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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bluejeff

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I have been trying to talk myself into doing something like, if not exactly, the 40 day Easy Strength program. I have a barbell set finally so I was thinking something along the lines of:
-Squat
-DL
-Z press with Viking landmine attachment (to groove the HSPU motion)
-Weighted pullups
-low to moderate volume crawling (like 20-30 steps total, forward and backward), possibly loaded
-low and light movement quality stuff and stretching

I get plenty of low level movement walking to and from campus and work, and live in an apartment building with 10 stories worth of stairs if I need a little more "cardio."

The only things really holding me back are:

- I love pike pushups. Like, love them. Favorite pressing motion right now, with the z press with the viking attachment coming in at a very very close second, so ideally I'd like to keep both running concurrently somehow.

-The bigger issue..... I can't seem to get over the "just 10 reps" thing.... I understand why it works, but my inner "tough guy" is still telling me that it's not very much (or "enough," even though I know it will be enough) and I will be bored.

Has anyone done this program or something very close to it, and was the mental thing an issue for you? If so, how did you overcome it? I think the low volume, lower intensity aspect of this kind of training is what keeps more people from trying it, so I would like to explore peoples' thoughts, feelings and experiences with it.
 
I would do a HSPU progression, starting with pike push-ups, instead of the Z-press. Zaad has a tutorial on youtube that is really well-regarded in calisthenics forums.

"-The bigger issue..... I can't seem to get over the "just 10 reps" thing.... I understand why it works, but my inner "tough guy" is still telling me that it's not very much (or "enough," even though I know it will be enough) and I will be bored."

Practice full-body tension on each lift, trying to master muscle tension. I would do 1-2 high-tension sets of a lighter movement and then do 1 (maybe 2 on certain days) set of the heavy movement. It worked really well and the goal of improving tension had a kind of challenge that kept me invested.

I don't know why, but Pavel's tension techniques never clicked until I started doing them in this format.

I am not an expert, tho.
 
I have done the 40-day program twice with good results. During the program I did plenty of other things, usually GTG style.

I have heard DJ say that Easy Strength gives you time to spend on other pursuits, I would agree.
 
I have been trying to talk myself into doing something like, if not exactly, the 40 day Easy Strength program. I have a barbell set finally so I was thinking something along the lines of:
-Squat
-DL
-Z press with Viking landmine attachment (to groove the HSPU motion)
-Weighted pullups
-low to moderate volume crawling (like 20-30 steps total, forward and backward), possibly loaded
-low and light movement quality stuff and stretching

I get plenty of low level movement walking to and from campus and work, and live in an apartment building with 10 stories worth of stairs if I need a little more "cardio."

The only things really holding me back are:

- I love pike pushups. Like, love them. Favorite pressing motion right now, with the z press with the viking attachment coming in at a very very close second, so ideally I'd like to keep both running concurrently somehow.

-The bigger issue..... I can't seem to get over the "just 10 reps" thing.... I understand why it works, but my inner "tough guy" is still telling me that it's not very much (or "enough," even though I know it will be enough) and I will be bored.

Has anyone done this program or something very close to it, and was the mental thing an issue for you? If so, how did you overcome it? I think the low volume, lower intensity aspect of this kind of training is what keeps more people from trying it, so I would like to explore peoples' thoughts, feelings and experiences with it.

I’ve been training using Pttp/5x5x5/ES/DDD principles since 2006. Never looked back.

If the mental aspect is troublesome for you, just do six weeks of ES followed by another six weeks of any other higher volume program and evaluate.

I don’t think ES is for everyone, but there is a myriad of submaximal programs out there that may fit your bill:

- Wendler’s 5/3/1: at its core (main lifts and supplemental work), it’s not that different from Pavel’s Bear.

- Barbell Medicine’s programs: basically, working up to a moderately hard single @RPE8, followed by a bunch of medium reps back-off sets at a lower percentage. Again, echoes from the Bear and 5/3/1.

From a certain distance, almost every sub-submaximal program tend to look the same. Convergence is good.
 
I have been trying to talk myself into doing something like, if not exactly, the 40 day Easy Strength program. I have a barbell set finally so I was thinking something along the lines of:
-Squat
-DL
-Z press with Viking landmine attachment (to groove the HSPU motion)
-Weighted pullups
-low to moderate volume crawling (like 20-30 steps total, forward and backward), possibly loaded
-low and light movement quality stuff and stretching

I get plenty of low level movement walking to and from campus and work, and live in an apartment building with 10 stories worth of stairs if I need a little more "cardio."

The only things really holding me back are:

- I love pike pushups. Like, love them. Favorite pressing motion right now, with the z press with the viking attachment coming in at a very very close second, so ideally I'd like to keep both running concurrently somehow.

-The bigger issue..... I can't seem to get over the "just 10 reps" thing.... I understand why it works, but my inner "tough guy" is still telling me that it's not very much (or "enough," even though I know it will be enough) and I will be bored.

Has anyone done this program or something very close to it, and was the mental thing an issue for you? If so, how did you overcome it? I think the low volume, lower intensity aspect of this kind of training is what keeps more people from trying it, so I would like to explore peoples' thoughts, feelings and experiences with it.
I don't know if I can answer your question, but I did some thinking while I did ES this summer. I did deadlift, press, pull-up, swing, and ab wheel, combined with a 30m-1hr walk a day. There's some things I think are good about ES - daily practice, building habit, good recovery period. I didn't really see great improvements. Maybe I went too easy. I'd been doing KB SF BJJ for a while before that, so part of it was just getting back into the groove. It was a very odd time in my life, lots of stress and transition, so that may have played in to it as well.

I think there are some people that need to learn to push. I think there are some people that need to learn to pull back. ES is great for the latter, maybe not so good for the former. If you're always red-lining, taking 40 days to ease up can be great. If you're hardly ever actually trying (when the going gets tough you ... stop), ES might not be the best for you. I think the program really applies to athletes that have been busting tail for years; when they stop, take it easy - but still do some work - they give their body time to recover, and that is why they see great results. I don't think that's how the program is sold, so maybe I'm wrong.

Anyways, just my thoughts from doing it one time 6 or 7 months ago...
 
@John K thanks. I’m definitely in the group that tends to overdo things. I just get excited about different exercises and end up trying to jam too many of them into whatever I’m doing.

@Alan Mackey ill have to take another look at 5/3/1. One of the reasons ES appeals to me is the frequency. I like to train, and often training (something) nearly every day.
 
Several years back, I did a program I saw on the internet. Called the daily one hundred.
It was a body weight routine where you do a total of one hundred reps spilt up between five or whatever exercises.
What I ended up doing was keeping the total reps at one hundred, but fluctuating the reps on the different exercises from day to day.
So one day I did more reps on push ups, and the next day less. This ended up being a really nice routine I did all summer that year.

Perhaps this could work on easy strength barbell.

Al
 
Several years back, I did a program I saw on the internet. Called the daily one hundred.
It was a body weight routine where you do a total of one hundred reps spilt up between five or whatever exercises.
What I ended up doing was keeping the total reps at one hundred, but fluctuating the reps on the different exercises from day to day.
So one day I did more reps on push ups, and the next day less. This ended up being a really nice routine I did all summer that year.

Perhaps this could work on easy strength barbell.

Al
I like the underlying concept behind that. I don't know about 100 reps with the barbell haha (at least not in the near future!) but I have considered building to 100 reps of pike pushups and maybe pullups. . .
 
I don't know if I can answer your question, but I did some thinking while I did ES this summer. I did deadlift, press, pull-up, swing, and ab wheel, combined with a 30m-1hr walk a day. There's some things I think are good about ES - daily practice, building habit, good recovery period. I didn't really see great improvements. Maybe I went too easy. I'd been doing KB SF BJJ for a while before that, so part of it was just getting back into the groove. It was a very odd time in my life, lots of stress and transition, so that may have played in to it as well.

I think there are some people that need to learn to push. I think there are some people that need to learn to pull back. ES is great for the latter, maybe not so good for the former. If you're always red-lining, taking 40 days to ease up can be great. If you're hardly ever actually trying (when the going gets tough you ... stop), ES might not be the best for you. I think the program really applies to athletes that have been busting tail for years; when they stop, take it easy - but still do some work - they give their body time to recover, and that is why they see great results. I don't think that's how the program is sold, so maybe I'm wrong.

Anyways, just my thoughts from doing it one time 6 or 7 months ago...
100%.

Very reminiscent of the deloads that Alexander Bondurchuk had his athletes perform when they showed signs of overtraining (a drop in average grip strength and elevated creatinine levels in their bloods).

The differences being that the deloads would be as long as it took for grip strength and health markers to normalise again.
 
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