WFH Superthread

Patsy167 · 19-10-2020 8:07am #1

All aboard the Workout From Home Superthread!!!

May be useful to have one thread to share resources on:

equipment,
workout plans,
tips & advice.

What may be particularly useful for others is to hear what worked well and not so well the last time the gyms closed.

The following is a very good starting point for useful resources - https://www.reddit.com/r/naturalbodybuilding/comments/fivvhv/the_quarantine_workout_template/

Black Sheep · 19-10-2020 11:31am

Off the cuff, but a few years ago I used to do a lot of backyard training heavily informed by the work of Dan John and Pavel Tsatsouline.

At the time I had no gym membership and pretty much made it all happen with a selection of kettle bells and a pull-up bar.

This way of training never lends itself to top end strength or serious mass gain, but you can still get quite 'strong' relatively speaking, and it can be varied and fun. You've got to be quite flexible in terms of set and rep schemes and accept that progression is going to be a little more subjective, and think of it more like just going out and getting a bit of work done in the back garden, getting a sweat on and hopefully getting in proximity to failure in at least a few movements.

I used to take one movement from each of the following movement patterns and that was it for the day, and I'd train most days of the week. So one push, one pull, one squat, one hing and one 'other' movement. Precede with warm-up. Rep schemes and volume for the workout varied greatly depending on the difficulty of the exercise chosen. Sometimes I'd be doing 3 x 10, sometimes it would be 100-150 reps (Swings). Sometime's I'd superset, sometimes not. Sometimes circuit the whole lot, sometimes not. Carries were usually for time, I'd just go for 10 minutes and try to get something out of it. At the time I had a 16kg kettlebell, a 24kg and a 32kg, which is why this is kettlebell heavy and contains a lot of asymmetric work. But you could do all these movements with a dumbbell too.

Push - Push up variation (Feet elevated, diamond push-up, slow tempo push-ups), kettlebell floor press, kettlebell overhead press, 'bottoms up' kettlebell press, kettlebell see-saw press, one sided kettblebell bench, handstand pushup (Maybe you'll have better luck than I did), low ring push up, ring dips

Pull - Pull ups, weighted pulled ups (Feet hooking through kettlebell or wearing a pack with whatever in it), ring rows, feet elevated ring rows, bent over kettlebell row

Squat - Air squats or goblet squats always, in the warm up if nothing else... Also goblet squats combining kettlebell curls at the bottom position, pistols, weighted pistols, bulgarian split squats, reverse lunges, skater squats, tabata squats

Hinge - double handed kettlebell swing, one handed kettlebell swing, kettlebell snatch, american kettlebell swing, banded kettlebell swing

Other - Turkish get-up, One sided farmers walk ... Suitcase carry, rack position, bottom-up position, waiter walk (overheard), sprints, shuttle runs, kettlebell complexes, kettlebell curls, ring curls, ring overhead tricep extensions

You can train this way for a long, long time and from a health point of view get quite a lot out of it. Makes almost nostalgic for it, looking at the above. Particularly the Turkish get ups.

I am familiar with techniques now that I would likely use to increase difficulty if needed. Once you can comfortably press your heaviest kettlebell for reps, for example, an option would be to press-exhaust before pressing with some one sided side delt raises using a band or whatever is to hand. Or if your horizontal pushing movement of choice was feeling too easy then pre-exaust with some sort of floor flye variation first. Another option would be the use rest / pause sets, to use ladder rep schemes and so on, or to play with the tempo of the reps.

The above approach is quite heavily based on a "40 day" training program idea from Pavel and Dan. The original used at least a few barbell movements but a lot of people don't anymore.

For Dan John ... His T-NATION articles and http://danjohn.net/
For Pavel there's any number of interviews, sites etc and his organisational page - Strongfirst
For kettlebells in general Jeff Martone, Steve Maxwell, Steve Cotter, Mike Mahler etc.
Brooks Kubick and Ross Enamait are also worth looking at for the minimalist stuff.

Alf Veedersane · 19-10-2020 12:14pm

I used to incorporate the workouts from Dan John's 10,000 KB Swing Challenge, where you have 4 weeks of 500 swing workouts.

1 round:
Set 1: 10 reps
Set 2: 15 reps
Set 3: 25 reps
Set 4: 50 reps

Total of 5 rounds. It was just something different to add in and see how quickly I could do it.

Don't know if I could be arsed now though. I just never took to kettlebells.

As for last time around, the most weight I had was a 25kg sandbag so I just did a lot of single leg work; primarily lunges and Bulgarian split squats.

I had a selection of bands so I used the heaviest one I had (orange 83mm band. I'd say there was maybe 110kg of resistance at the top. I found an old Argos bar I got maybe 10 years ago with a set (left the weights behind when I moved into the house) so I used that for RDLs. The major problem was that I was too far through the movement before any real resistance. So I got three thick A4 books (the first time I got any use out of Supple Leopard in some time...), used mini bands to hold them together and put them on the band like I was doing deficit pulls. It was actually ok but I don't think there was nearly enough resistance at the lower portion of the exercise so it felt a bit like doing high-rep rack pulls from the knee or thereabouts. I have a couple of 30kg DBs arriving today so that might actually work out better with the ROM and using a tempo.

Same idea, without the books, for rows.

I started off my pushing exercises just doing push ups with a red band. Then went to purple. All good. Got some push up handles so I could use a bigger ROM. Downloaded a metronome app (no idea why I never thought of that for tempo work before...saw Mike T use one and had a lightbulb moment) and used to do tempo push ups on the handles and push ups with a long (3s) pause at the bottom. I think that was the most effective work I did, not least because the load is lower on bench so you have a smaller weight difference to make up.

I used the Argos bar with the purple and then on to the green band for OHP. Was awkward to set up - because I had to look one end around the middle of the bar and stand on the other end - but got a good burn off it.

Got these handles for using with bands so I could do single-arm rows or OHPs. Also used them for flys: one each end of the band, band behind my back and just do the flys. Did reverse flys with them as well.

I suppose what I found hardest was replicating the level of weight I wanted to for squat and deadlift since I essentially train for comps and to aim for PRs on them and that wasn't happening with what I had. But if you just want to train all the pieces of the puzzle, then I would say they were good.

Besides, it's definitely always worthwhile doing single leg work.

silverharp · 19-10-2020 2:29pm

One thing I regret last time round was not organising any kind of weighted squats , is there any convenient Woodies style sandbags that work, or buying a cheap cylinder shaped sports bag and filling it with sand? or would weight accessory shops have them?

JayRoc · 19-10-2020 2:40pm

silverharp wrote: »

One thing I regret last time round was not organising any kind of weighted squats , is there any convenient Woodies style sandbags that work, or buying a cheap cylinder shaped sports bag and filling it with sand? or would weight accessory shops have them?

I've made sandbags in the past quite succesfully. Fill a black sack to required weight, triple bag it, then wrap the bejaysus out of it with duck tape.

Alf Veedersane · 19-10-2020 2:54pm

I had a proper sandbag because I wasn't arsed making one. 25kg. Billion-rep sets are zero craic and don't feel particularly challenging.

Hence the move to single leg work

paw patrol · 20-10-2020 10:54am

recommend ross enamait - never_gymless_ebook.
Has a sample 50 day plan in there too - book is a only a euro.
saw me through the last lockdown

https://rosstraining.com/blog/

his site also has guides to making homemade equipment which may be of use.

Cill94 · 20-10-2020 11:00am

Great idea for a thread.

Most impressive source of knowledge I've come across for bodyweight/at home training is probably Ross Enamait. He has a great book called 'Never Gymless' that he's selling for $1 at the moment.

https://www.instagram.com/rosstraining/

https://rosstraining.com/blog/never-gymless/

There's also Wendler's WALRUS training, which requires a weight vest if you want to try all the challenges. I'm sure for a beginner just using bodyweight would still be decently challenging. I have a vest which goes up to about 40kg, which makes me very happy.

https://jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/weight-vest-training-revisiting-the-walrus

Alf Veedersane · 20-10-2020 12:41pm

This thread could be really helpful for people that are newer to training and who have limited equipment and are not really sure how they could use it beyond one or two exercises.

A lot of people might have bought a band or two, for example, but aren't really sure how many actual useful exercises they could do and could ask. And some of the posters that train people or who have gone through enough trial and error with similar equipment might be able to help out.

Black Sheep · 20-10-2020 1:44pm

Back in the day there was a ton of Dragon Door publications that used to produce these kitsch and over-the-top books by Pavel Tsatsouline and others. But if you got past the hyperbole they had some great technical information and the programming was often very minimalist in flavour.

A lot of them are available for free in PDF format if you search online. I'm not going to provide links but they're there as some of these books are really old at this stage.

They may be of interest to anyone wanting to go the kettlebells and calisthenics route.

Pavel Tsatsouline - ENTER THE KETTLEBELL. The original kettlebell craze book that popularised Pavel's hard style approach. Full of ridiculous descriptors like "develop a back that is as flexible and strong as a mutant's" but it's still a good book and details a bare bones few kettlebell-based programs suitable for home training. SIMPLE AND SINISTER is a much later book that's effectively his re-write, for his own company StrongFirst.

Pavel Tsatsouline - THE NAKED WARRIOR. Bodyweight training, proposes a very minimalist approach and detailed instructions on how to achieve the pistol - one legged squat - and one armed pushup. The advice on getting pistols in here is still the best I've read.

Al Kavlado - RAISING THE BAR and other books. Kavlado produced a lot of very easy to read books on bodyweight training / calisthenics that had good technical details and a lot of information on exercise choices. Where they tend to fall down is there's not much clear advice on programming.

CONVICT CONDITIONING - Probably the most notorious of the Dragon Door publications. There is a question mark over whether the author exists or not, a lot of people believe they were written by someone such as the Publisher of Dragon Door. CONVICT CONDITIONING and its sequel proposes a bodyweight based approach to training that plays up the whole prison training thing. It has some good technical information nonetheless, and there is a really long term approach to programming that might appeal to someone who wants to try something radically different. The only criticism that a lot of people make of it is that it's very conservative, it has you building over a significant amount of time and begins with very modest prescriptions.

None of the above is the optimum way to train but all very do-able at home, and might capture someone's imagination.

paw patrol · 20-10-2020 1:58pm

Black Sheep wrote: »

Back in the day there was a ton of Dragon Door publications that used to produce these kitsch and over-the-top books by Pavel Tsatsouline and others. But if you got past the hyperbole they had some great technical information and the programming was often very minimalist in flavour.

A lot of them are available for free in PDF format if you search online. I'm not going to provide links but they're there as some of these books are really old at this stage.

They may be of interest to anyone wanting to go the kettlebells and calisthenics route.

Pavel Tsatsouline - ENTER THE KETTLEBELL. The original kettlebell craze book that popularised Pavel's hard style approach. Full of ridiculous descriptors like "develop a back that is as flexible and strong as a mutant's" but it's still a good book and details a bare bones few kettlebell-based programs suitable for home training. SIMPLE AND SINISTER is a much later book that's effectively his re-write, for his own company StrongFirst.

Pavel Tsatsouline - THE NAKED WARRIOR. Bodyweight training, proposes a very minimalist approach and detailed instructions on how to achieve the pistol - one legged squat - and one armed pushup. The advice on getting pistols in here is still the best I've read.

Al Kavlado - RAISING THE BAR and other books. Kavlado produced a lot of very easy to read books on bodyweight training / calisthenics that had good technical details and a lot of information on exercise choices. Where they tend to fall down is there's not much clear advice on programming.

CONVICT CONDITIONING - Probably the most notorious of the Dragon Door publications. There is a question mark over whether the author exists or not, a lot of people believe they were written by someone such as the Publisher of Dragon Door. CONVICT CONDITIONING and its sequel proposes a bodyweight based approach to training that plays up the whole prison training thing. It has some good technical information nonetheless, and there is a really long term approach to programming that might appeal to someone who wants to try something radically different. The only criticism that a lot of people make of it is that it's very conservative, it has you building over a significant amount of time and begins with very modest prescriptions.

None of the above is the optimum way to train but all very do-able at home, and might capture someone's imagination.

you brought back some memories there with the dragon door stuff.

I still have them - I spent months trying out "relax into stretch" by pavel but sadly the splits were not to be no matter how i relaxed.

convict condition was pretty decent but took ages and boredom kicks in but the whole mystic thing was bullsh1t . I was told the author was Tsatsouline himself.

Black Sheep · 20-10-2020 2:04pm

paw patrol wrote: »

convict condition was pretty decent but took ages and boredom kicks in but the whole mystic thing was bullsh1t . I was told the author was Tsatsouline himself.

The funniest thing about the whole "who is the author?" mystery around CONVICT CONDITIONING is that when too many people started asking questions, and wanting to meet 'Paul Wade', Dragon Door's answer was to announce that he had permanently moved to the United Kingdom... As if that was like a one way trip to Mars

Mellor · 20-10-2020 3:26pm

Simple and Sinister is a great program. A good answer to the fact most people over complicate training.
I was doing S+S when gym was closed earlier this year. Still do it every so often as I want to get the targets.

Dan John’s game changers are also good. Most require gym equipment but the loaded carry element doesn’t and is often neglected.

So I combining the two above and you get some solid targets
100 Swings (S+S)
10 Get-Ups
Overhead carry

Work up to a heavy kB with that and you doing wel

el Fenomeno · 20-10-2020 5:26pm

I did a simple time challenge today, all bodyweight.

Squats x 10
Mountain Climbers x 10
Sit Ups x 10
Push Ups x 10
Rear Lunges (L+R) x 10

Second round I did 9 of each, then 8 of each, then 7, 6, 5 etc. until no more to do.

Set a timer, and see what time I can finish in. Easy way to work up a sweat. Then do it again tomorrow and see if I can beat it. I'll set up a few different circuits and see what's the best time I can do in each one by the end of the 6 weeks.

Minimal space required, no equipment necessary beyond a mat of some sort, if even.

JimmyCorkhill · 21-10-2020 10:21am

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a pull-up bar for to put in a door frame? I am not sure if I would get away with putting it indoors and potentially damaging the door frames of one of the rooms, so I am thinking of getting one that would fit in the shed door and can be taken down when not using.

The shed is concrete, the door opens outwards. I am thinking more along the lines of something that does not have a clamp as inside the shed had a shelve in the way where the clamp may go.

I have attached pics of the shed door/frame to give some idea of what I am talking about.

Thanks

sky88 · 21-10-2020 11:27am

looking for 10kg weights anyone know of the best place to buy them

caviardreams · 21-10-2020 7:05pm

I am hoping the 6 weeks stays at 6 weeks - I think this might help me more than the last time where there was no fixed end in sight. (Don't come near me in 6 weeks if it's extended

)

I found my motivation and effort really waned significantly as the weeks went on, so I am committing to 2 full body sessions a week, and telling myself it's 12 sessions, so commit to them all and make them count. Will put a list up on the wall and mark them off. Only have a couple of sets of DBs, a few bands and a couple of KBs, so bulgarian split squats will be back on the menu. Yay :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Thankfully I've a spin bike so will be ramping up the sessions on that a bit more to x4 a week probably.

The mental piece is that hardest for me, outside of the gym, so hoping that mapping out the sessions helps a bit.

Alf Veedersane · 21-10-2020 10:31pm

caviardreams wrote: »

The mental piece is that hardest for me, outside of the gym, so hoping that mapping out the sessions helps a bit.

Having it mapped out will really help. If you tried to do 6 weeks in the gym, twice a week but just doing whatever, it would be hard to sustain as well.

It really is a case of every time you do something and give it your all, you will be that bit closer to where you should be than if you did nothing.

In some ways, when I've been in the depths of doing rehab type stuff, I continuously have to remind myself that while its boring, it gets me a step closer to where I want to be.

[Deleted User] · 21-10-2020 10:52pm

caviardreams wrote: »

I am hoping the 6 weeks stays at 6 weeks - I think this might help me more than the last time where there was no fixed end in sight...
I found my motivation and effort really waned significantly as the weeks went on, so I am committing to 2 full body sessions a week, and telling myself it's 12 sessions, so commit to them all and make them count. Will put a list up on the wall and mark them off...

That's a really good idea caviardreams - thanks!
I'm going to steal it and put a sheet up on the wall. I may even give myself gold stars :pac: And (hopefully) a giant night out at the end.

Patsy167 · 22-10-2020 8:36am

sky88 wrote: »

looking for 10kg weights anyone know of the best place to buy them

https://www.donedeal.ie/gymequipment?words=10kg

Cill94 · 23-10-2020 2:29pm

One of the hardest things to strengthen without free weights is the lower back. Deadlift was easily the lift that took the biggest hit for me over lockdown. But here’s a couple good vids I found with options for strengthening lower back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9I1cmLf7_I

This one requires bars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMC4qSWYSE4

Alf Veedersane · 23-10-2020 3:20pm

^^ Brings up a good point. Since most people will likely be restricted to bebew8, it's a good opportunity to give some love to a lot of those areas that frankly we don't work enough.

There are a load of exercises we could stand to do and would help us that don't need any weight. Stuff that you might use in a warm up ("a what?"). Dead bugs, supermans, side lying clams, hip abduction, hip bridges, etc etc.

Alf Veedersane · 23-10-2020 3:25pm

Also, here's Big Z showing a load of exercises you can do with bands:

Credit: BossArky who posted it in my log back during the first lockdown

el Fenomeno · 23-10-2020 3:58pm

The problem with working areas you don't usually work on is for the first 2 weeks of the lockdown, you'll be absolutely crippled as those muscles are summoned from a multi-year slumber :pac:

I did single leg glute bridges on Wednesday. I would have thought I did sufficient glute work in the gym before that. Apparently not. I don't think I've ever been as vocal as I am today when having to sit down or stand up. I'd surrender any secret you wanted from me if it meant not having to attempt to sit on a hard toilet seat again today.

Alf Veedersane · 23-10-2020 4:12pm

el Fenomeno wrote: »

The problem with working areas you don't usually work on is for the first 2 weeks of the lockdown, you'll be absolutely crippled as those muscles are summoned from a multi-year slumber :pac:

I did single leg glute bridges on Wednesday. I would have thought I did sufficient glute work in the gym before that. Apparently not. I don't think I've ever been as vocal as I am today when having to sit down or stand up. I'd surrender any secret you wanted from me if it meant not having to attempt to sit on a hard toilet seat again today.

Yup.

I've been going to a physio and doing a lot of these especially around my hips, hamstrings and lower back and they are humbling.

silverharp · 24-10-2020 1:28pm

I do find it weird when you think you have muscles and you discover you don't, over the summer I was mostly doing a small number of the main compounds but lots of sets. then about 6 weeks ago added in a 1 leg landmine RDL which was killing my hams at the start and thought great have them covered. 2 weeks ago I added in some glute focused ones, gym has hip hinge machine and those glute kick back ones, first time I did the kick back ones I thought my hams were going to disconnect and seek asylum somewhere.

Alf Veedersane · 24-10-2020 1:45pm

silverharp wrote: »

I do find it weird when you think you have muscles and you discover you don't, over the summer I was mostly doing a small number of the main compounds but lots of sets. then about 6 weeks ago added in a 1 leg landmine RDL which was killing my hams at the start and thought great have them covered. 2 weeks ago I added in some glute focused ones, gym has hip hinge machine and those glute kick back ones, first time I did the kick back ones I thought my hams were going to disconnect and seek asylum somewhere.

It's really just focusing on a more isolated area than an RDL might. I have to disconnect smoke alarms when I'm doing my hip rehab exercises because my muscles get incinerated.

Black Sheep · 24-10-2020 3:12pm

If anyone's interested here's another option for a six week program that in equipment terms just requires a pull-up bar and sports watch.

Quite a good synopsis of the programming on the site that gives a flavour of what's involved. It's six days a week, a mixture of body weight training, interval / shuttle runs and longer runs. Honestly, this would be such a good option for most people in terms of the variety involved and how it is scaled depending on starting level of ability.

https://mtntactical.com/shop/bodyweight-foundation-training-plan/

I really like Mountain Tactical's approach. They've been selling programming for a long time for people getting prepared for particular fitness tests (Often related to US fire fighting and military course entry, or deployments).

caviardreams · 25-10-2020 11:23am

First WFH session today with motivation at its highest I'm sure!

A1: Pushups 15*4 sets
A2: 16kg KB squats - 4*20

B1: DB Bench press 12.5kg 15*4
B2: DB Pendlay Row 12.5kg 15*4

C1: DB RDL 12.5kg 15*4
C2: DB OHP 8kg 15*4

Finisher: 8kg Lateral raises, Curls, Skulls 8kg - 3 sets AMRAP

I find it very annoying that with KB squats it's my upper body/back that fails a good bit before my legs - I just find holding a 16kg / 20kg KB really heavy after 10 reps or whatever. Frustrating.

Alf Veedersane · 25-10-2020 12:41pm

Do you hold it with the bell part below the handle or above?

Cill94 · 25-10-2020 1:14pm

caviardreams wrote: »

I find it very annoying that with KB squats it's my upper body/back that fails a good bit before my legs - I just find holding a 16kg / 20kg KB really heavy after 10 reps or whatever. Frustrating.

You could do a split squat holding the kettlebell and challenge your legs a lot more.

For anyone with a decent base of leg strength, goblet squat is really ineffective for taxing the legs and are better used as a conditioning exercise imo.

WFH Superthread

Comments