Day 3

Repeated Workout #1 again, no issues - still feel it a little afterwards, but not as much as Wednesday.  Which is good because on Monday I'll move up to some harder exercises and will more than likely not make the full totals.


Again, I did supersets with about a minute rest in between each superset, just for times sake.  I think it worked well - got a good workout in, but kept it to under a half hour for lunch.


Ran 6.5 miles this morning.


This weekend I plan to get in a long run, but will probably only throw in some stretching and core work around that - depending on time and how the weather is, supposed to snow.  Ugh.


So Monday will be Starter Workout #3, which adds one more exercise (dips) and advances all the exercises to the next progression:

Starter Workout #3	Sets	Reps
Split Squat	3	15
Feet apart Pushups	3	10-20
Bench Dips	3	10
Australian Pullups	3	5-10
Flex Hang		30
Sit Up	3	20
Straight Bridge		60

For purposes of my workout and to advance the exercise progression, I will do the Australian Pullups with my feet raised up on a bench to increase the difficulty, since I already did the 3x10 reps of regular Australian Pullups.  The rest I will do as prescribed.


Again, my plan will be that if I do master any of these, I will still repeat this workout exact for a second time next week before progressing that exercise.  I really don't see myself hitting the max reps for all of these exercises.  I also may need to break this workout up into two sessions, one in the morning, one at lunch because seven exercises may exceed my lunch break.

Day 2

Okay, no planned Strength Rules workout today - planning to do it 3 times a week right now.   At least for the current workout that only has 6 exercises.  As the workouts progress I think they add more and more exercises, at which point time will probably only allow me to do half per day and I'll have to break the workout into parts and workout more days per week.


I did run 6 miles this morning though and did a half hour of stretching.


Plan to hit the gym at lunch and maybe do more stretching and some core work.

Day 1

Okay, just got back from the gym and it went pretty well.  Here's what I did:


Workout #1


Partial ROM Squat (3 sets of 10-20) - Completed in Full
Knee Push-ups (3 sets of 10-20) - Completed in Full
Australian Pull-up (3 sets of 5-10) - Completed in Full
Bent knee raises (3 sets of 15-20) - Completed in Full
Side Plank (30-60 seconds each side) - Completed in Full
Table Top (30-60 seconds) - Completed in Full


So I had limited time today due to having a 12:00 meeting I had to get to so I opted to super-set the exercises.  I super-setted (not sure if that is a real word) the squats and pushups, then rested 2 minutes between supersets.  Then I super-setted the Australian pullups and the Bent Knee Raises. 


After that I went straight into the planks and table top to finish it off.


Overall it was not too bad.  The squats and pushups were no problem - could feel some burn at the end of the push ups, but didn't lose form at all, so I was happy with that.  The pullups went the same as the pushups - last couple were a bit tougher than the start but didn't let form fall at all so I think I was good there.  The bent knee raises were tougher than I thought they would be - but the discomfort was more in my hips than in my abs, so either I was doing them wrong or my legs/hips were tight from doing the squats.


So how do I feel after - pretty good.  I can still feel it a bit in my chest and arms so that is probably good - meant I got a workout in and I was sweating a bit by the end.  By using supersets I was able to complete the whole workout in about 25 minutes, which works well for lunch-time workouts.


I've decided that even though I met all the reps and all the sets for this workout that I will repeat this workout on Friday, and then move to the next steps in my first workout next week.  the next workout has more exercises that are harder, so I don't expect I will complete them all and it never hurts to hang again at a lower level for one more day to help the ligaments and joints get used to the movements.


More tomorrow.


After-thought:  for cardio this morning I ran 9 miles as well.  Tomorrow I'll try to post some pictures for my starting physique so I can compare later, but really am trying to go on how I feel after workouts, rather than how I look because changes to physique will take a while.


Found some before pictures - hopefully I'll see some changes in a month or two

What is Strength Rules?

So I've decided to start a blog to track my progress as I get (back) into calisthenics training.  I have done this a few times before, and always seemed to stop for one reason or another.  So this blog will hopefully give me some sort of accountability as I start from the very beginning and see if I can get somewhere with this.


Why am I doing this?  Well, to be truthful I really want to perform a strict muscle up.  For those of you that may not know what a muscle up is - picture yourself hanging from a pull-up bar, then you perform a pull up, but instead of just stopping with your chin above the bar, you explosively (though the coolest one I have ever seen was done by "Hannibal for King" and he did the whole movement slow and controlled) pull yourself up over the bar and proceed to push yourself up so that your arms are extended down and you are holding yourself over the bar.  Then lower slowly back down.  It is a hard, advanced calisthenics move, but I'm willing to start from the beginning and spend the time to get there - not expecting to do it tomorrow, but maybe a good goal is by the end of the year.


I've been to Crossfit classes and seen the kipping stuff but to me it just seemed like raw power to be able to do it without any aid from momentum.


My goal is to update this blog every day - even if I don't do a workout, just to keep the accountability up.


So then, what is "Strength Rules"?  It's a book written by Danny Kavadlo, which breaks calisthenics training down pretty simply - into squat exercises, push exercises and pull exercises.  He provides progressions for exercises to work all muscle groups as well as progressive workouts as well.  My plan is to start at the beginning - well almost the beginning.  I'm going to start at Starter Workout #1 and move on from there.  Each exercise in the workout has a repetition range that he recommends before moving on.  For the sake of my workouts, I will not move on until I have hit the top number in that range for each exercise. 


Tomorrow starts workout #1


Partial ROM Squat (3 sets of 10-20)
Knee Push-ups (3 sets of 10-20)
Australian Pull-up (3 sets of 5-10)
Bent knee raises (3 sets of 15-20)
Side Plank (30-60 seconds each side)
Table Top (30-60 seconds)


I think I will be good on the squats, plank and table top, but my fall short on pushup, pullup and knee raises in this workout.


More tomorrow after we see how this goes.  Wish me luck, I feel completely out of shape.