return to cards : random vaca workout

Great reminder that one of the best quick workouts is simple and effective.

Deck of death

Black = pushups (various grips)

Red = squats

Numbered cards = number of reps

Face cards = 10 reps

Ace = 11 reps

Get through the deck as fast as you can. The speed of this workout makes it a bear. I've experimented with adding more exercises to the mix -

3 exercises, spades/clubs are unilateral leg exercises. Red is one exercise.

4 exercises, each suit is something.

-

But keeping the exercise count to 2 removes guesswork and ups the difficulty. There is no hiding from anything difficult with 2 exercises. Your strength endurance is taxed immediately.

You will never repeat the same workout twice. Ever. 

I used squats and pushups today because i have no equipment. At home, things like dips, rows, pullups, etc can be easily substituted. 

What variations to use?

Do some or do none. It doesn't matter.

Difficulty modifiers

1. Use harder variations on 1-5 reps

Ex: 

ring dip instead of dip

L sit pullup instead of pullup

Diamond pushup instead of pushup 

Jump squat instead of squat

2. Go through the deck twice

Not gonna lie. This is absolutely brutal. If i take this route, i will typically make sure round 2 is only comprised of easy variations.

3. Double the volume of a movement 

Typically reserved for lower body work. Double the rep value of every card.

3 = 6

King = 20

4. Add weight

Bold move Cotton.

morning workout: low impact and restorative

Equipment needed:

Jump rope

Single kettlebell

Workout:

Jump rope until you miss or run out of steam

Waiter walk with kettlebell 50 yards. Repeat with opposite hand.

Repeat for 10min

I love morning workouts, but they dont love me. Thats not to say im not awake or cant turn on the juice, but my joints and back typically arent ready to party until im damn near done. This is where injuries start my dudes. As much as i want to do deadlifts and swings, this isnt the time. 

The morning workout posted above is a nice comprimise. Get the blood flowing, conditioning work is claimed, and i get to work on my oblique strength without the mind numbing boredom that is side planks. 

<rant>

I hate side planks so fucking much. They heal my back as much as they hurt my shoulder. The tradeoff is not desirable. 

</rant>

Get there, then figure it out (Maxing out the weight you have)

Buying more advanced fitness equipment is a lot like buying smaller clothes when you are morbidly obese. Ya, you may eventually fit these clothes, but you only dropped 5lbs dude. Maybe consider getting so small that your current clothes look ridiculous. The new clothes are a reward not a target.

I can't tell you how many times I have to fight the inclination to jump the gun buying something I don't need or didn't need. Well, I'm lifting 200lbs now but I only have 250lbs max. I really should buy up to 300lbs to prepare for this inevitability. What never fucking happens after I pull this trigger? Getting to comfortably lift 250lbs. 

What's a better strat? Run into the problem of being too fucking strong for the equipment you have. Hit that weight, then hit it for more reps. Then more. Then more. 

Did this become ridiculous? Fine.

• Decrease the speed of the negative.
• Add pauses.
• Do 1.5 reps.
• Go to silly amounts of reps.
• If this is a bodyweight movement, you have the option of changing the leverage.  

You should be so lucky to have the problem of being too strong for your current equipment. Feeling like you have hit a ceiling when you top out your available weight is a creative limitation. 

Caffeine (back on and off the wagon) and thoughts about recovery

Caffeine

My wife and I returned to caffeine after about a month of nothing. It was like a light got turned on in my head that had been off for a long time. I then crept into the daily coffee habit I've had since I was 18.

Quitting again this week sucked, but not nearly as bad as the first time (where I was guzzling 32oz+ a day easily). About 2 days of feeling tired and experiencing mild headaches was the rhythm here.

Recovery

It's always spooky when you are already going down a thought process, and suddenly an article or video shows up discussing that literal God damn thing. Mythical Strength posted an article (http://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2021/04/if-you-want-to-get-bigger-stop-lifting.html) on lifting less often to foster hypertrophy.

When I look back at 2020, my best progress was made with this exact schedule:

3-4 HARD training sessions a week filled in with conditioning on my off days (or get this, GASP, off days are actually off). We'd like to think that more is better when it comes to growth, but this only really applies if you can recover from your sessions.