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Bodyweight Minimum effective reps/sets for GTG/NW?

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Harry Westgate

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Certified Instructor
Hi everyone,

I'm just wondering what everyone has found to be the minimum number of reps/sets to make continued progress on OAPUs/OAOLPUs and pistol squats. I know that Pavel said in the Naked Warrior to lift as often/heavy/fresh as possible, and has said in a video somewhere to 'just have fun with it', but I was just wondering if there is a minimum effective dose? Similar to how 100 swings daily is seen as said dose in S&S.

For reference regarding what I'm looking for out of this: I'm currently doing S&S almost daily, but I'm also wanting to maintain or perhaps very steadily improve my pistols (particularly bodyweight only, to really make the balance, control and compression aspects of the drill effortless) and OAPUs/OAOLPUs (the one arm one leg pushups could use some work...). Some days due to uni/work I may struggle to GTG that many sets, hence my query.

Any advice would be massively appreciated!

Thanks,

Harry
 
My understanding of GTG is that you take a very instinctual approach based on "staying fresh." That could be 1 solid rep per day or even up to 20 throughout the day. The idea is to never get to the point of fatigue and perform the reps as best as possible.
 
Hello,

I agree with natewhite39

My daily dose of OAOL Push ups is about 8. I often do 8 - 10 pistols. If I go beyond, I lose my movement quality and I have more difficulties to rest. This is a quite personnal question. The idea is to avoid fatigue.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
I agree with the instinctual approach and staying fresh, but:

- you should choose a progression in which you can perform 5-6 reps, and use half of it for your daily GTG practice, i.e. "sets" of 2-3 reps. Not "heavy singles".
- volume should vary - and relatively sharply.
- the long rest (15 minutes plus) and relatively easy rep count (half you your max) alows the laser sharp focus on NW principles (which are the key!) - and should help you to reach some daily volume.

I personally would not seek a daily "minimum", just enjoy the practice, GTG 2-3 days in a row, take a day off, and continue. Most people doing the GTG choose too difficult progression (or too heavy weight), and end up in doing few heavy singles. Don't.
 
This "heavy singles" mistake explains why GTG with pull-ups never worked that well for me before.... I can usually do about 2-3, so I would GTG 1-2. After some good suggestions from a couple of helpers in my training log, I switched to doing a set of 5-ish with a little assistance from my feet on a chair in the last few weeks. This did seem to work better and I surprised myself with 4 (almost 5) good pull-ups in Saturday's TSC.
 
One more for the staying fresh and vary volume sharply...
I did GTG pistols for several weeks with singles (my max was 3 if I remember correctly)
Then I tested my 1RM of weighted pistols, 15kg went down & up smoothly in each leg. 20kg went down & up not so smoothly on the right and really not smoothly on the left. My daily volume was 3 - 10, averaging 5, 5-6 days a week.
 
Apologies that it's taken me a while to respond. I really appreciate everyone's input!

So, just to clarify, is it 'acceptable' to perhaps only manage 2-3 sets on busy days where my schedule puts me in a crunch? Say, doing said 2-3 sets while getting ready in the morning, e.g. wake up, set 1, brush teeth, shower, set 2, shave, get dressed, set 3, head out for the day, then possibly doing no more on that particular day?
 
Yes, but... IMHO GTG works because:

1. you do easy sets (half your max)
2. still relatively difficult progression
3. you have plenty of rest between the "sets"
4. you can do it basically everywhere (NW)
5. you an always have laser sharp focus on Hardstyle principles
6. AND you can do relatively high daily volume, because of the points 1-5

Minimalist approach? I am all in. But less then less is - nothing.
 
Hi everyone,

I'm just wondering what everyone has found to be the minimum number of reps/sets to make continued progress on OAPUs/OAOLPUs and pistol squats. I know that Pavel said in the Naked Warrior to lift as often/heavy/fresh as possible, and has said in a video somewhere to 'just have fun with it', but I was just wondering if there is a minimum effective dose? Similar to how 100 swings daily is seen as said dose in S&S.

For reference regarding what I'm looking for out of this: I'm currently doing S&S almost daily, but I'm also wanting to maintain or perhaps very steadily improve my pistols (particularly bodyweight only, to really make the balance, control and compression aspects of the drill effortless) and OAPUs/OAOLPUs (the one arm one leg pushups could use some work...). Some days due to uni/work I may struggle to GTG that many sets, hence my query.

Any advice would be massively appreciated!

Thanks,

Harry
I'll add something weird here, as I've been up to exactly what you have been up to (wanting to excel in both NW and S&S at once). My observation for myself has been that the S&S programme with the 32kg bell gave me the strength to perform the pistol squat and the one arm pushups. I haven't done the NW routine with any earnestness since August, but whenever I check to see if I can still do the two moves (pistol and OAPU) I can, very well indeed, in fact better than when I was doing them without S&S.
 
I've seen @305pelusa write about this a bunch, and I think what he has written in the below forum link will help you a bunch.

just finished NW book, 3-5 sets a day enough?

@305pelusa, I'm tagging you in case you don't think the above is the right approach anymore. If that's the case, please let me know! I very much appreciate your thoughts on NW and BW work in general.
Whoah is that thread from a long time ago. It was during a time I was trying to get the OACU and OAPU, so I was keeping track of every single rep, every day, trying to figure out how to get those movements.

I still agree with the general idea. 10 sets of GTG daily still seems unnecessarily high. I think 5 is plenty, and I personally like 2-3. Anything more becomes a bit impractical to do daily also, so. But everyone is different I suppose. Obviously it's possible to get away with more pull-up and pistol sets than OACU and OAPU sets a day, so the exercise itself has to be taken into account to. I'd just try whatever volume you can do, and you'll most likely improve. GTG is that good at times honestly.
 
I have started GTG Pull-up at the begining of this month. I did pre-test and started GTG with sets of 7 reps. After 10 days I did another test and it turned out that more then 7 sets per day did nothing for my max (I was still able to do only 14 reps), so right now I am doing only 2-3 sets per day.
 
I have started GTG Pull-up at the begining of this month. I did pre-test and started GTG with sets of 7 reps. After 10 days I did another test and it turned out that more then 7 sets per day did nothing for my max (I was still able to do only 14 reps), so right now I am doing only 2-3 sets per day.
At the risk of hijacking this thread.... @mikhael i know your goal is 20+ pull-ups. You may just need to be patient with GTG for this. Or.... As much as I appreciate the benefits of GTG (especially for pull-ups!) it may not be the best tool for the job in this case. Maybe the Fighter Pull Up programme would be better suited. (And/or weighted pull-ups)
 
When I'll finish doing pull-ups in GTG formula I'll try something else. Presently my max amount to 14 reps and I'm still testing GTG. I'll finish at the end of this month.
 
10 sets of GTG daily still seems unnecessarily high. I think 5 is plenty, and I personally like 2-3. Anything more becomes a bit impractical to do daily also, so.

This.

There may be the odd day when I can do plenty of sets (e.g. the time I did twenty sets of 5 OAPUs), but for the most part, going over 5 sets is harder in practice than it may seem in theory... At least for me; if I'm at uni, training, or work on a given day, then frankly, I have other things I need to be focussing my mind on than 'oh God, time for another set!'. That's not even taking into account that I may be rushing about to get to places so to take a couple of minutes to crack out a few reps of two drills just isn't on the cards - I'd end up rushing them which seems to contradict the idea of perfect practice.

I think this is a very, very individual thing, and depends very much on who you are and what you might have going on in your life, but I'm glad to hear of some having success on a diet of 2-5 sets.
 
I think the one armed pushup is about 1/3rd of bodyweight as there are three points of contact with the ground. That's about the same weight as my 32kg kettlebell. This is why I think S&S with the 32 is maintaining my Naked Warrior one armed pushups. Just to test again, I got down and did 4 one armed pushups per side yesterday, and that was without any particular effort. I then did a single one armed one legged pushup per side just to prove I could still do it. Doing the pistols I noticed that I got a bit weak near the very bottom of the move but otherwise I was fine. Because of this thread I'm going to maintain my Naked Warrior stuff every day just because it's super cool.

I'm mainly doing S&S but I do one cycle of ROP and one of NW as well now - hahaha! I'm quite a Strongfirst fan then!!!
 
Love this thread, but want to add one reminder when doing GTG.

GTG works best with only focusing on two GTG skills at a time which I think most of you are. The number of reps/sets will vary depending on the person, strength level, progression selected and should be varied daily even when doing GTG.

On office days which is normally t/th for me.... I set a time to go off every hour and when it does I get up and perform my GTG for that day. I do not set a minimum or max but do however stop when my body is no longer performing high quality rep or reps scheme for that day. STAYING FRESH is KEY as is WAVING THE LOAD PER DAY.
 
I think the one armed pushup is about 1/3rd of bodyweight as there are three points of contact with the ground.

That's not the way to measure it. Get a scale, and place your arm on it. Put whatever that weight over your total weight, and that's your ratio. That should be close or the same to a normal pushup, which is usually 70%.
 
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That's not the way to measure it. Get a scale, and place your arm on it. Put whatever that weight over your total weight, at that's your ratio. That should be close or the same to a normal pushup, which is usually 70%.
OH! So, given that I weigh 98 kilos, I'm probably pressing about 67 kilos! Yikes! I'll give the scale thing a try! :) I never thought of that!
 
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