While waiting (anxiously) to do my next workout in two days I'm fielding a suggestion to post a little more background about my training history. Also, I thought I would express my impressions about the recovery period from week 0, as my muscles are no longer incredibly sore as of yesterday (recovery day 4).
Background:
I've had an overall very active childhood/young adulthood. I began training in male gymnastics at the age of 10 and began competing at a regional/tri-state level at the age of 12. I noticed sometime around the age of 12 that my triceps were no longer normal compared to my peers (particularly in the lateral head), and along with my lats were the only muscles that were extremely well defined for my age. Unfortunately, my family and I moved later that summer to a new state with no gym to train at, so that's where my gymnastics career ended.
I did however put my newfound atheleticism to use. In school I played various sports but mainly stuck with soccer (football) as mid-fielder (middie) from middle school through my senior year of high school. Also, in my sophomore year of high school I was on the wrestling team. My only real weight training during all of this time was during my one season on the wrestling team (where I gained quite a bit of definition, particularly in my deltoids). Also, it should be noted that I spent my last two years of high school at an Army-style military academy. This is important because we had mandatory "PT" three days a week which mainly included sit-ups, push-ups, and runs. While I was on the soccer team there however, we did not participate in school PT, but instead did lots of wind-sprints for conditioning.
At the age of 18, I promptly joined the Air Force (where I have been for nearly 10 years). When I entered the AF I was at my wrestler weight of 130 lbs, and when I left basic training 6 weeks later I weighed in at 147 lbs (a weight I've more or less maintained for the past 10 years). In the Air Force, we are supposed to do three days of PT a week, with again the basic three: sit-ups, pushups, and running. Work and other things frequently get in the way of scheduled PT though, and it's usually less than 3 days a week on average.
Strength Training Experience:
I was deployed to Iraq for about 6 months during OIF and spent 6/7 days at the gym and eating everything in sight. I was also chugging protein shakes and taking NO-xplode like it was my job. I gained roughly 4 lbs over 6 months, with little to no added mass to speak of. Ultimately my training partner and I had very little idea of what we were doing and had very bad misconceptions about how to train. The biggest mistake that we made was not doing squats, and overtraining.
Last year I tried the leangains protocol for about 3 months, and while I did see significant progress in my lifts, I gained no weight, and no mass. I eventually hit a point this winter where my workouts trickled off to eventually abandoning the protocol all together for a sprint and pushup protocol. My largest strength gain was getting up to doing 7 reps of weighted dips (BW + 90 lbs).
Prior to starting this BBS protocol I began a workout which consisted of 4-6 sprints, and then doing as many pushups as possible in a 2 minute period. I've been doing this since late February because the weather started warming up. I'm able to do 90 pushups in two minutes now. For sprints I'm up to 6 intervals at around 250m each. I didn't time my sprints, however I don't know how to do anything less than 100% effort because that's just how I am.
Week 0 recovery:
Ok, so I did my first workout on a Wednesday and about an hour after I was already starting to feel sore, particularly in my right bicep (I'm right handed if that makes a difference). The next day I was barely able to shower and get dressed. My soreness continued well into Saturday though it cycled through the various muscle groups ending with my quads mainly on Saturday. I went to an amusement park on Saturday (and I saw a LIGER... not big deal), so all the walking made the soreness even more noticable, though I think it helped to relieve it as well.
It's now monday... and I want to do my workout again. I'm very curious to see if there's much noticable improvement or not. I plan on increasing all of my lifts with the exception of the shoulder press. Also, I'm going to try to do the leg press last this time, so I don't risk smashing my face into a piece of gym equipment.
Interesting Video Link:
The Truth About Exercise
This is a really great setup and I admire you for taking it on! I have an idea that you might be interested in - I'm about to go back onto "Starting Strength" for about 12 weeks or so, until the end of June. We should do before / after measurements on the same exercises, but not ones that either of us are specifically training for. I'm doing Squat, deadlift, OHP, bench, cleans, and chins.
ReplyDeleteHow about we measure improvements in health & fitness using some combination of these or other movements:
ReplyDeleteFarmer's walk, burpees in a set time limit, Erg, etc. Things that neither of us are specifically training for that involve both strength and conditioning. That is the best way to judge overall health improvements.
Yeah! I'd be down for something like that! I talked to my workout partner as well, and he's up for it too. Only hiccup I have is that I have to do a PT test (consisting of 2 min of sit-ups, 2 min of push-ups, and 2 mile run) next week, and there's no getting around that. We could either use that as a marker for initial fitness levels, or do another test a few days after?
ReplyDeleteThat could work, but I will be doing some running one or two days per week during this time, so that might give me an unfair advantage if you are not running at all during that time. Also, it's cardio and we are both mainly working on strength. I think the farmer's carry is a great full body test of strength and power, or we could pick a crossfit WOD to do in addition to the pushups and situps. This is going to be very cool.
ReplyDeleteHmm, how about this, we can both do a sit-up, push-up, 2 mile run day on Wednesday next week (or closest day that's convenient) and then 3 days later do an additional strength/power test with Farmer's Carry, and perhaps a few more?
ReplyDeleteI actually think testing my running endurance 12 weeks later after doing BBS for 12 weeks will be a great thing! I'm going to have to think long and hard about what my hypothesis will be for that too! On the one hand, I'll still be working my legs and gaining lots of anaerobic and aerobic training through a single workout, but on the other hand my VO2 max might slip during that time period quite a bit because I'm not using my legs that way... Maybe it won't change at all. Any of those results will prove useful I think for others!
OK, that sounds perfect, I'll commit to take the PT test next Wed or Thursday. I'm Tim, by the way. Some exercises I never do that might be good to use as tests - front squats 1rm, snatch (I do cleans only), weighted pushups - like, max reps with +40 lb on our backs or something. For Farmer's carry, we can pick a weight like 95 lb dumbbells or something, and measure distance covered in about 2 minutes.
ReplyDeleteWell, since the first day of PT test was picked for us by the military, I leave the second half of strength tests up to you Tim. I'll of course let you know whether or not they're realistic here or not, but we've got pretty decent facilities here so it likely won't be an issue. Pick your poison sir!
ReplyDeleteOh shit, am I competing against an active duty deployed soldier? Haha, crap. Thanks for your service. I'll make up a protocol that should work for both of us and I'll do a standard PT test sometime next week.
ReplyDeleteI'm not deployed, just overseas, but yes to the rest, lol.
ReplyDelete