Hey anyone still using this board, I've decided to start up simple lifts, mainly because I'm honestly not motivated enough to hit my local gym, and that's a problem. I plan on sticking with simple lifts until December rolls around, then I'll probably return to the gym. I just honestly need a change of pace.
About me: I'm currently 20 years old, male, and in university. My height is probably something like 5'10 or 9. That being said I'm about 150lbs or 68kgs, and I'm currently sitting at 15% body fat. In terms of experience I've been working out for the past 3 years, although it was very on and off, and I didn't really start getting serious until about last year. I started working out in my graduating year of high school, and at that time i was only 115lbs, and probably about the same height. In my own opinion I've come a long way, but i still have a long way to go. My background in terms of fitness is mainly strength work, and i plan on switching between calisthenics and strength work until I can juggle both at the same time.
So I'm actually posting late, and I've already finished two weeks of simple lifts.
Here is what i have written down however:
L1-D1(Level 1, day 1): I was able to get 21 rounds done, I did a lot of this outside in the sun, and it was pretty awesome, however my pull up bar is indoors so i lost some time running in and out, probably gonna start doing this indoors, just to save on time. I also have it written that i stopped a minute early, i cant remember why, but i was probably interrupted.
L1-D2: I actually didn't take the time for any of my strength days, I don't really know if i understand what the benefit is of taking my own time on it, besides trying to take less rest time, any opinions on this are much appreciated. When I think of working on strength with body weight work, it makes me thing slow negatives, and explosive positives. So unless I'm convinced other wise, ill be taking my time with strength work, making sure i go down as slow as i can, and exploding up as powerful as i can. Besides from that I succeeded in making the amount of reps I was suppose to.
L1-D3: I completed judgement day in 3:40.
L2-D1: I was able to get done 23 rounds in 20 minutes. Felt pretty sore in my upper back and chest the next day, hips also feeling those squats. Nothing protein cant fix. I also did 3 sets of dips till failure, for those 3 sets i managed 8 - 9 - 5. Guess i needed to push a bit harder on that first set.
L2-D2: I completed the amount of reps provided, as i said before, i took my sweet time and made every rep as good as I could handle. Push ups ended up going a bit faster than i would have liked. Oh yeah, i also make sure i only take a 90 secs of rest between each set.
L2-D3: I completed judgement day in 4:30 seconds. I took pretty much a minute longer than last time. No excuses, felt groggy and sluggish, some days your stronger than other days however. Hopefully the next level will give me a run for my money, I'm gonna smash it though, and thinking about that gets me pumped.
(sorry if reading this is hard, I'm not an English major or anything, just a guy trying to become a police officer)
Any questions feel free to ask away.
Any advice or criticism, pass em up.
Thanks.
Keroserg's Log
Moderator: cheapo
Re: Keroserg's Log
Alright just finished up with this week. I may have to skip next week because I'll be away from home for the entire week. This is probably fine cause the program calls for a break every month or something like that.
L3 D1: I made 20 sets in the 20 minutes, which is what I've been personally aiming for.
I also supplemented this workout with 3 sets of dips till failure again, it went: 12 - 8 - 5. Also worked on getting them a bit deeper to try and break parallel ever so slightly.
L3 D2: Obviously still not tracking my speed, made sure i slowed down those push ups to where i wanted them, and i even think i made a better pace with my pull ups. That being said i didn't respond very well to the slowed down squats, so after i finished each set i found my self pushing out another 16 as fast and properly as i could, that seemed to really work, probably gonna rotate out of doing them fast and slow on strength days and see whats better.
I also supplemented this workout with 3 sets of chin ups till failure, it went: 5-5-5. Oddly consistent for all 3 sets, also I'm painfully aware that this should be higher. I honestly have never really done much bicep work, that coupled with my abs being sore from all the pulls just made this a hard extra. I'll aim for 7 reps on at least one of them next week.
-All in all this was a nice strength day, and yeah i finished it.
L3 D3: I passed judgement day at 4:55.
This was a close one I had planned to cover it in two sets going 8-16-16 into 8-17-17, pulls ups and squats went well with this idea, however my biceps apparently hadn't healed very well from day 2 with the chin ups, and for whatever god awful reason this made me fail my push ups at rep 8. My logic is that the biceps probably are stabilizing or doing something during push ups, and i guess having them destroyed just made it too hard to press on past 8 for my first set. Kinda weird cause you'd figure if i was gonna fail something due to bicep soreness it would be the pull ups. Anyway i just quickly adapted my route and went with 8-8-16 into 5-16-8 into 3-9-9. To get past the bicep soreness for set 3 i went with a closer arm position in hopes of placing more weight on my triceps, and it worked. I rested about a minute in total (most of it spent revising).
I supplemented D3 with a couple of sets of wide grip pull ups. I didn't track any numbers, just kinda worked on them sorry. I topped on some more push ups as well because i didn't like the way they went during the test. Sure enough my bicep was no longer bothering me, which honestly leaves me out of answers for whatever happened during the test. Maybe i just needed to warm up better, maybe I messed up a pull up before hand. I honestly don't know guys.
Thanks for reading.
Any questions suggestions or criticisms, please do give.
L3 D1: I made 20 sets in the 20 minutes, which is what I've been personally aiming for.
I also supplemented this workout with 3 sets of dips till failure again, it went: 12 - 8 - 5. Also worked on getting them a bit deeper to try and break parallel ever so slightly.
L3 D2: Obviously still not tracking my speed, made sure i slowed down those push ups to where i wanted them, and i even think i made a better pace with my pull ups. That being said i didn't respond very well to the slowed down squats, so after i finished each set i found my self pushing out another 16 as fast and properly as i could, that seemed to really work, probably gonna rotate out of doing them fast and slow on strength days and see whats better.
I also supplemented this workout with 3 sets of chin ups till failure, it went: 5-5-5. Oddly consistent for all 3 sets, also I'm painfully aware that this should be higher. I honestly have never really done much bicep work, that coupled with my abs being sore from all the pulls just made this a hard extra. I'll aim for 7 reps on at least one of them next week.
-All in all this was a nice strength day, and yeah i finished it.
L3 D3: I passed judgement day at 4:55.
This was a close one I had planned to cover it in two sets going 8-16-16 into 8-17-17, pulls ups and squats went well with this idea, however my biceps apparently hadn't healed very well from day 2 with the chin ups, and for whatever god awful reason this made me fail my push ups at rep 8. My logic is that the biceps probably are stabilizing or doing something during push ups, and i guess having them destroyed just made it too hard to press on past 8 for my first set. Kinda weird cause you'd figure if i was gonna fail something due to bicep soreness it would be the pull ups. Anyway i just quickly adapted my route and went with 8-8-16 into 5-16-8 into 3-9-9. To get past the bicep soreness for set 3 i went with a closer arm position in hopes of placing more weight on my triceps, and it worked. I rested about a minute in total (most of it spent revising).
I supplemented D3 with a couple of sets of wide grip pull ups. I didn't track any numbers, just kinda worked on them sorry. I topped on some more push ups as well because i didn't like the way they went during the test. Sure enough my bicep was no longer bothering me, which honestly leaves me out of answers for whatever happened during the test. Maybe i just needed to warm up better, maybe I messed up a pull up before hand. I honestly don't know guys.
Thanks for reading.
Any questions suggestions or criticisms, please do give.
Re: Keroserg's Log
Great start!
Moving right up to level 4 shows you are in great shape. Well prepared, I would imagine, for any police exams.
Moving right up to level 4 shows you are in great shape. Well prepared, I would imagine, for any police exams.
Re: Keroserg's Log
KTG wrote:
> Great start!
>
> Moving right up to level 4 shows you are in great shape. Well prepared, I would imagine,
> for any police exams.
Hey, thanks for the motivation, it really goes a long way.
Been reading your updates as well and I really admire your dedication and work, you seem to be the only other person who is currently posting, and you have a ton of experience. Gotta say, I'm super jealous of the numbers you hit on your day 1's, I can barely break 20 sets.
In terms of strength I feel like I am ready for any police exam, however my endurance is lacking extensively, i would feel more confident with day 1 numbers in the mid 20's much like yourself. I'll use you as my motivation to get that day 1 number up there.
Week 4
Alright so, I believe it was last week i took off, so i came in a bit rusty, but also fully restored. Guess there's pros and cons to everything.
L4 D1: Barely managed to get 20 sets in this time, felt my rest times really decrease due to the work load and man, it got rough. Did it outside on a cooler day too.
L4 D2: I passed the strength day as planned. Had to speed up my push ups because damn, 12 push ups at like 3-5 secs a push up is really hard to do, give it a shot yourself if you doubt me. Anyway, i only sped up the last two sets and i did it like so: 6 Reps slow, 6 Reps fast. By fast i don't mean like FAST FAST, I mean like regular speed, probably about 1.5 seconds per rep. On the bright side my pull ups are so on point. Taking them super slow on the way down, and getting that dead hang pull up with as much power as i can. Can't wait for the number to increase on this one. After i get going with squats i kinda zone out(they take forever ugh), I don't usually feel the body weight squats until the next day, then my hips and ham strings are usually pretty bent out of shape. Don't think squats will get hard till maybe like level 6 or 7. Honestly wondering if its possible to do 99 squats in 5 minutes even.
L4 D3: I barely passed once again with 4:57 seconds on the clock, or 3 seconds left. Honestly I went in super positive, but to be honest my initial plan was a total blow out, its a good thing i can do math quick.
I made my first pull up goal (10 pull ups) and then i hit the push ups and once again, i choked with them and only pushed out 15. (i wanted 20) Maybe I'm rushing to much because the clock is ticking and I'm messing up my form. After that i hit my squat goals (both of them) but i failed hard on my second set of 10 pull ups and only got 6 oops. After that my push up goal died again (no surprise after the first set) and i only pushed out 10, after this I hit my squat goal again, saw i had like 2 minutes to go, so i thought i would rest for 30 secs and started thinking about how i was going to fail without a doubt, suddenly those 30 seconds of rest became 10 seconds of rest and i got down and gave 8 pushups. After that i jumped back on the pull ups and repped the last 4 i had left. I had a bit more than a minute at this point and decided i would try and push out those last 8 push ups REALLY quick, and i manged to do them.
I gotta say, i didn't think a test day would be so hard, but i seriously thought i was going to puke after this, my upper back and shoulders felt like they were melting off me, and they still do while i write this. I'm glad i didn't quit this test halfway through when i thought i was done for, i really turned this one around and im super happy about it. I did learn something however, i'm going to start breaking down all my reps during the 5 minutes (minus squats) into 3 sets each, this change should hopefully give less stressful results.
That being said I'm halfway up the ladder of beginner. Things are about to get very difficult from here, and i expect to spend more than one week for a level from here on out.
As usual, thanks for reading.
Any questions suggestions or criticisms are appreciated.
> Great start!
>
> Moving right up to level 4 shows you are in great shape. Well prepared, I would imagine,
> for any police exams.
Hey, thanks for the motivation, it really goes a long way.
Been reading your updates as well and I really admire your dedication and work, you seem to be the only other person who is currently posting, and you have a ton of experience. Gotta say, I'm super jealous of the numbers you hit on your day 1's, I can barely break 20 sets.
In terms of strength I feel like I am ready for any police exam, however my endurance is lacking extensively, i would feel more confident with day 1 numbers in the mid 20's much like yourself. I'll use you as my motivation to get that day 1 number up there.
Week 4
Alright so, I believe it was last week i took off, so i came in a bit rusty, but also fully restored. Guess there's pros and cons to everything.
L4 D1: Barely managed to get 20 sets in this time, felt my rest times really decrease due to the work load and man, it got rough. Did it outside on a cooler day too.
L4 D2: I passed the strength day as planned. Had to speed up my push ups because damn, 12 push ups at like 3-5 secs a push up is really hard to do, give it a shot yourself if you doubt me. Anyway, i only sped up the last two sets and i did it like so: 6 Reps slow, 6 Reps fast. By fast i don't mean like FAST FAST, I mean like regular speed, probably about 1.5 seconds per rep. On the bright side my pull ups are so on point. Taking them super slow on the way down, and getting that dead hang pull up with as much power as i can. Can't wait for the number to increase on this one. After i get going with squats i kinda zone out(they take forever ugh), I don't usually feel the body weight squats until the next day, then my hips and ham strings are usually pretty bent out of shape. Don't think squats will get hard till maybe like level 6 or 7. Honestly wondering if its possible to do 99 squats in 5 minutes even.
L4 D3: I barely passed once again with 4:57 seconds on the clock, or 3 seconds left. Honestly I went in super positive, but to be honest my initial plan was a total blow out, its a good thing i can do math quick.
I made my first pull up goal (10 pull ups) and then i hit the push ups and once again, i choked with them and only pushed out 15. (i wanted 20) Maybe I'm rushing to much because the clock is ticking and I'm messing up my form. After that i hit my squat goals (both of them) but i failed hard on my second set of 10 pull ups and only got 6 oops. After that my push up goal died again (no surprise after the first set) and i only pushed out 10, after this I hit my squat goal again, saw i had like 2 minutes to go, so i thought i would rest for 30 secs and started thinking about how i was going to fail without a doubt, suddenly those 30 seconds of rest became 10 seconds of rest and i got down and gave 8 pushups. After that i jumped back on the pull ups and repped the last 4 i had left. I had a bit more than a minute at this point and decided i would try and push out those last 8 push ups REALLY quick, and i manged to do them.
I gotta say, i didn't think a test day would be so hard, but i seriously thought i was going to puke after this, my upper back and shoulders felt like they were melting off me, and they still do while i write this. I'm glad i didn't quit this test halfway through when i thought i was done for, i really turned this one around and im super happy about it. I did learn something however, i'm going to start breaking down all my reps during the 5 minutes (minus squats) into 3 sets each, this change should hopefully give less stressful results.
That being said I'm halfway up the ladder of beginner. Things are about to get very difficult from here, and i expect to spend more than one week for a level from here on out.
As usual, thanks for reading.
Any questions suggestions or criticisms are appreciated.
Re: Keroserg's Log
Great work!
I still haven't figured out if a week off is a net plus or minus. I just took a week off as well and it didn't seem to provide any real energy boost.
So here is the bad news: There really are no rules to this so everyone can do it however they want. Nonetheless, the regulation way to do D3 is to do ALL of the pull-ups (using however many sets it takes), then ALL of the push-ups, then finish with all of the squats. That, in my experience, is harder than mixing them up.
I still haven't figured out if a week off is a net plus or minus. I just took a week off as well and it didn't seem to provide any real energy boost.
So here is the bad news: There really are no rules to this so everyone can do it however they want. Nonetheless, the regulation way to do D3 is to do ALL of the pull-ups (using however many sets it takes), then ALL of the push-ups, then finish with all of the squats. That, in my experience, is harder than mixing them up.