Lloyd's Adventure

[Lloyd]

Hi! I am a 50 y.o male , 6'01, 168. I had hernia surgery in August and I am trying to get back what little strength and conditioning I had 6 months ago. During the warm weather I am a part-time bike commuter so my lower body strength and cardio were decent. Anything involving upper body strength has always been difficult for me. I don’t think I have ever done a real pull-up in my life.

L1D1 27 rds,

All pull ups jumping. I tried to lower myself slowly.
Pushups were harder than I expected. I had to V-legs on the last three rounds.
Squats were really easy. On D2 I might try jumping squats, or maybe I should just be thankful

[Admin]

Nice work and welcome!

[splint]

Great start! It seems a lot of people find the squats too easy in the beginning. Some people substitute more difficult squat exercises and that's fine, but if you want my advice, and you didn't ask but I'll give it anyway, I believe you should do the program as shown. When you start adding more difficult squat exercises, it's possible that you're taking energy away that can be added to the upper-body exercises where you need more intensity. If you're burning energy on jump squats, you'll have less to devote to pull-ups and push-ups, your admitedly weaker areas. Once you progress you can move on to the more difficult versions of the exercises.

If you want to add squat exercises after, that would be the best time, in my opinion. You could add a session of Tabata squats. That's where you do squats for 20 seconds as fast as you can, then rest 10 seconds. Repeat for 8 rounds. Your score is the lowest number of reps you complete in a round. Try to beat your record.

But I'm sure other people see results doing exactly the opposite of what I just said so you know, try it both ways and see which one you like better.

[volleyball_man]

I pretty much agree with splint's un-asked-for advice.

First, check your form on the squats and make sure you are going deep. Up until recently, most "experts" said that below parallel was the quick trip to damnation. Check out the videos on crossfit about proper squat form and depth.

Second, if you are already going deep enough, you might find that as your pullups become a reality, then you have difficulty with squats or pushups. It seems that, for those of us who were starting from a lower level that there was/is a leveling of difficulty between the movements. One month it's squats the next it's pushups and so on. Read some of the threads of people who started low.

Give it time before you tweak it - but then listen to your own body and do what works for you.

Welcome!

[Lloyd]

Thanks for the advice! It makes a lot of sense, and I will take it. I may not have felt those squats yesterday, but I sure do today. Same with the pushups. I doubt I could do three pushups right now. Next workout tomorrow, unfortunately from a hotel. I hope they have a chin-up bar.

[Lloyd]

They did.

L1D2 8:41

The pushups were hard. I only did the first two rounds unbroken, after that sets of three, then finally singles. I am going to wait two days before doing D3 I think I need more recovery time.

[Lloyd]

opps- that was total time including pacing around panting. Is the time on D2 supposed to be the sum of five times, each timed round seperated by an uncounted rest period?

[splint]

Don't count rest time on D2. Just time each round and add them up for a total. Rest time is no more than 3 minutes.

[davidmk]

Hey Lloyd,

Way to go! I am about to leave the house and do day 2. I am sore as well from my first workout. I am not sure if my body is ready but there is one way to find out.

Thanks everyone else that posted some great advice to Lloyd. I will not do extra squats.

I would imagine most people, since they have to walk, have better lower body strength in the beginning.

[Lloyd]

L1D3 9:40

30 jumping pull ups, 8 then sets of whatever. That took 4+ min
21 good pushups , 5/4/3/3/3/3 another 4+ min
21 squats all at once.

I am dissapointed by my pushups- last week I did 7 without a problem. Today I could not do more than 5. Might be jet lag and lack of sleep, we'll have to see what happens next week. I am going to repeat level 1 starting in a couple of days.

[splint]

Progress isn't a straight line. Strive to make gains every workout, but don't expect them. I've had weeks where I've done worse in everything over the previous week and then the next week I set personal records. Most often I've found that there's one aspect of the workout that shows improvement and one that seems lacking. Like, I'll perform exceptionally on pull-ups but feel weak doing push-ups, or vice verse. It's frustrating but worth it when you get the days that you hit on all cylinders

[Lloyd]

L1 (2nd time) D1 28

All pushups and squats legal, but I used the pull-up assist machine at the gym. I used the 2nd plate until 22 rds or so then I added the third plate and did two pull ups instead of one. Is this a better sub than jumping pull ups?

[Admin]

almost always better to use your body weight than a machine, maybe consider body rows.

[Lloyd]

derailed by the world's worst cold, I restarted at L1D1 two days ago.

L1 D1 25

The pull ups were almost legit. I can reach the bar from standing and i kept my knees straight but pushed off with my toes a bit. The second half I bent my knees and did more of a jump. Following Kevin's advice, I stayed away from the pull up machine.

Unrelated, I tried some push ups on a power pushup, the thing that lets you twist your wrists while doing a push up. It was fun. I think it is about twice as hard as a regular pushup. I don't think I would buy one, but I will use my nephew's set when I am over there.

[Lloyd]

Day 1-1/2

No internet connection, so I guessed at the workout and did 10 sets of 3 desk rows (@hotel)+ 3 pushups+5 squats. Whole thing took 8:55. Tomorrow I will do a real day 2, hopefully with a real pull-up bar.

Desk rows are interesting you see parts of the hotel that are no usually cleaned...