If I Could Turn Back Time To Improve My Fitness Progress...
“If he is wise, he will realize that he has been rushing things too much and is overtrained; but that sort of wisdom comes only from experience, and this is his first experience.” (p 139 Liederman Secrets of Strength)
In terms of the calisthenics skills I wanted to accomplish or strength/rep markers I wanted to pass I am not where I wanted to be at my age. The reason for this could mostly be attributed to my training regime.
If I could do it over again here is what I would change.
Train Less
Yes, I said it!!! How hard or how often you train does not matter as much as how much progress you make.
I’ve had the best comebacks after taking about a week off from training. But, if the frequency is low enough it’s possible that a week-long break won’t be needed. I shake my head in disgust looking through my old logs and seeing how despite my lack of progress my only response is, “To do more.”
Now I train with two, maybe three, tough sessions every week and this is helping me a great deal with my strength increases.
Incorporate More Muscle Control or Neuromuscular Based Training.
Behind The Neck Outward Towel Pull: Trying to rip the towel apart in this position hits the triceps and then the grip effectively.
Isometrics and muscle control provide a great deal of benefits in terms of neuromuscular efficiency and strength with little energy cost. This combined with less frequent training would have me at a different place now.
Also, I’ve noticed that my mood as well as my willpower tends to get better the more I employ this type of training. Sometimes I’ve performed just a few over-coming isometrics to pull myself out of a rut and feel more motivated to do entrepreneur-type things.
The great secret of developing strength is to do so in a way which will store up energy instead of dissipating it, and build up the stamina as well; (p 149 Amazing Sampson)
More Rope Climbing
This exercise is great for pulling strength and grip. My forearms have been hard to grow. I doubt this would be the case if I had devoted more time to rope climbing. Being in the military it would have been easy for me to maintain this since on most bases there’s a rope to climb somewhere.
However, there are ropes you can buy online at various lengths. I’ve had one for a few months now and it’s been pretty handy.
As with any bodyweight exercise, there is a myriad of ways to increase the difficulty. A way I like increasing the difficulty is by ascending the rope more slowly and allowing my non-pulling arm to stay detached from the rope a little longer. This knocks the heck out of my biceps and grip.
More Isometrics for the Posterior/Hamstrings
Low Wall Leg Press(Right Foot): Great for the glutes/hamstrings.
Hiking for me was a problem in the early days of my military training. Walking up a steep hill with a heavy pack was fine due to my regimen of pistol squats. It was the straight a-ways that got me especially when the dude at the front of the formation had long legs. I needed to be able to drive forward with more power upon stepping.
I eventually worked through this problem by hiking on my own with a hiking form of interval training walking at various speeds.
Overcoming isometrics by practicing this position or something similar would have been time efficient and greatly improve my force generation when hiking.
What about you? What would you have changed in the past to make your training more beneficial?
