RadRobe's Log

[RadRobe]

Hello all,

I just stumbled across this site and it looks to be perfectly in line with my goals.

A little about myself: I'm a 32 year old male, 6'4, 250lbs. I'm currently in the military deployed to Afghanistan. I've been here since last May and have lost 45 pounds through a combination of low carb paleo eating, walking, and bodyweight exercises. I want to get where I can crank out 10 pull ups no problem and be about 235 when I return home. My wife would be very happy with that I think . I can currently crank out about 2 mediocre form chin ups, which is 2 more than I used to be able to do. I'm fairly strong and in good shape otherwise, minus the 20 extra pounds hanging around my mid section.

Anyways, I'm going to follow this program, though I'm initially subbing pulls ups for Austrailian Pull ups (horizontal pull-ups). When I get strong enough to do real pull ups, I'll make the transition.

[RadRobe]

Day 1/Level 1

Alright, day 1 is: 1 Austrailian Pull Up/ 2 Push Ups/ 3 Squats, how many sets in 20 minutes.

I focused on form and was able get 36 rounds. I wish I was able to get real pull ups, but I wanted to do an exercise I had enough strength to tightly control my form and my crappy chin up form would not cut the mustard. I felt pretty exhausted when I finished......I'll be sore tomorrow.

[Bri3626]

welcome Rad. Keep plugging away. you'll be suprised how quick the pullups happen.

[RadRobe]

welcome Rad. Keep plugging away. you'll be suprised how quick the pullups happen.

Thanks Bri, I appreciate the support.

I was sore this morning in my quads, biceps, triceps, and back. Definitely a good workout.

[RadRobe]

D2/L1

6/6/10

4:54 total (minus short breaks between sets)

Was supposed to do 2/6/10, modified it to 6/6/10 as I'm doing body row/austrailian pull ups instead of actual pull ups.

52/48/45/51/51 for a total of 4:54. I struggled a bit with the body rows at the end but managed to crank them out. I may stay at level 1 another week and see how well can do day 1 with 3 body rows vs the 1 I did last time.

[RadRobe]

D3/L1

Ok, so the normal D3/L1 is 10/21/21, but I was doing body rows so I tried for 30/21/21. I couldn't finish 30 rows. i had muscle failure on my fourth set of rows at 24 so I stopped. I did 10/21/21 in 1:35, but it took me 3:45 to get 24/21/21.

Next week I'm going to repeat level 1 doing neutral grip pull ups and I'm going to use a chair to assist as needed.

I like this program and I really look forward to workout days. Can't wait to see some improvement.

[KTG]

That's solid! It's all about patience and persistence. Then the improvements come.

[RadRobe]

Thanks KTG.

D1/L1 (second time)
1/2/3 as many times in 20 minutes.

I cranked out 27 rounds. Out of those, 4 rounds were with legit pull ups. On the rest I did chair assisted pulls, either 1 or 2 depending on how strong my lats were feeling that round. Push ups are a joke at this point. I adjusted my form on squats a little, so they're a tad challenging. Next week is definitely level 2, more for my push ups than anything else.

[RadRobe]

D2/L1 (Second time)
3:06

Great improvement from last week. Was able to do 4 out of the 5 sets without modifying pull ups. (didn't really go all the way down on some, but close is better than not doing real pull ups at all) On the last set I was only able to do 1 rep so I did six assisted to make up for it. I feel legitimately stronger in the lats and I'm loving it.

[RadRobe]

D3/L1
10/21/21 for time.

Finished in 2:54. Did 2 decent quality neutral grip pulls, then a mediocre chin, then did the next 7 with the help of an exercise band. Push ups were a joke as usual. Squats have gotten more painful lately, as I go down lower than I used to. Still not too hard tho. I'm going to level 2 next week. The exercise band helps me enough to do the required pulls without making them too easy. I like it.

[RadRobe]

Level 2 (Third week of Simplefit)

Day 1:
1/3/4
27 times through. I had food poisoning up until about 6 hours before the workout, so I felt weak. However, I was able to push through the weakness. 12 of the 27 were full pull ups, though not from a deadhang. The rest were with my 50lbs exercise band, and they were from a dead hang.

Day 2:
3/8/13 x 5
5:14

Day 3:
13/26/26
3:34

I don't think I necessarily killed it this week, but I want to keep progressing my push ups and squats, so I'm going to level 3 next week. We'll see how it goes.

[KTG]

That's great progress. In my experience it is all pretty incremental. You never feel like you are really killing it in any one week, but over time you go from struggling on a few pull-ups, to knocking out 7-10 without too much grief.

Stay safe!

[RadRobe]

That's great progress. In my experience it is all pretty incremental. You never feel like you are really killing it in any one week, but over time you go from struggling on a few pull-ups, to knocking out 7-10 without too much grief.

Stay safe!

Thanks KTG, appreciate the support!

I moved up to level 3 this week.

Day1- 2/3/5 completed 23 times. Out of those 23 times about 4 of the sets had legit pull ups. On the rest I used a 50lbs elastic band. I switched between neutral, regular pull ups, chin ups, and body rows unassisted. Tough workout tho.

Day2- 3/10/16x5. 4:28. Did 3 legit pulls on my first set. First time I've gotten 3 in a row in years. Felt good.

Day3- 16/33/33. 3:46

[RadRobe]

I switched up this week from MWF to WFM. Doing Level 3 one more time.

3/7
Day1- 2/3/5x20. 26 times through.

3/9
Day2- 3/10/16x5. 4:46.

3/12
Day3- 16/33/33. I forgot to time myself, but I did well enough to want to move on to level 4 on Wednesday.