First Thing Water
Ab challenge Day 28
Atlas Day 27
Wall pushups Day 6
GE Wk6, D4 - Shoulder press x 60; Lateral raise x 65; Upright rows x 50
PD - 1 hour
Okay, so today I officially draw a lone across my Grand Experiment. The verdict?
My intention with this experiment was to see if I could gain strength not by doing the standard 12 rep and 3 sets (or similar variant) but by doing only a few reps of an exercise multiple times throughout the day, lifting a similar total weight. I tested myself to find the weight at which I could do 2-5 reps (depending on the exercise and slightly limited by the weights I have) of a
very limited set of exercises, focusing on the upper body. There were four targets - biceps and chest, triceps, back, and shoulders - and I would hit one each day and then have a rest day. The rest day was not strictly necessary as the focus muscles would generally have three days off anyway, but I wanted one, partly to make sure, and partly just to give the whole body a break from lifting weights. This experiment was done on the fly, and as such, my protocols were not well fixed. During the first couple of weeks (about three cycles), I found myself wanted to increase the number of reps, to chalenge myself to do more,
more, every time - but that wasn't the experiment. Realising what I was doing, I put an immediate stop to it and returned to what I had intended initially - to lift the same total amount of weight as I otherwise would in order to see whether or not I would gain strength.
The Issues:
There was a number of issues, some insurmountable, others unintentional.
1. There is only one of me. Therefore I could not perform both parts of the experiment and see which gave the best results. Neither could I do them sequentially, as one might expect that from the first iteration I would gain some degree of additional strength. Therefore, I could only do the one test and, of course, as I do not have access to high-tech monitoring machines and muscle biopsies, etc, all my observations are empirical.
2. I failed to note for which exercises I could perform only 2 reps, which more. As the experiment continued, I continued
not to note how many reps at a go I could now perform.
3. The exercises chosen were based mostly on those I could perform without frequent (and annoying) jiggling around with the plates on my little dumbbells, and as a consequence, might not have been the best choice (and certainly I know I missed working muscles I'd otherwise have liked to have hit), but at the time I thought they were a good enough selection.
Results:
So. Was the experiment a success? Have I gained strength over this past six weeks of regular weight lifting?
First and perhaps foremost, I'd like to hope that almost
anyone who doesn't lift regularly, when embarking on a regular schedule of weight lifting
does get stronger. Did I get stronger? Yep. Although I didn't take careful note of reps per 'set' I did, today, for example, I did 20 reps of lateral raises. Shoulder presses tanked out at 12. Greatest improvement was in my triceps and that doesn't surprise me as they were my weakest. I did manage to crank the overhead triceps extensions to 10, though that was a fair struggle and I generally stopped at 8. Kick-backs were too easy, and I did the 40 reps (each side) in just two sets. I was very tempted to increase the weight for them, but that would have spoilt things so I didn't. Lat pull-downs hit 15 reps. Bicep curls went from 2 (I remember that one!) to 6, though that's still a struggle. A significant improvement though. I'm looking forward to playing around to see how much weight I can now lift for just two reps!
Final verdict:
Would I have seen similar strength gains if I had followed the same schedule but performed all the reps in a briefer window, using lighter weights? No idea. It's that issue of light weight/high rep vs heavy weights/low rep. Not that I went
heavy. Overall, though, I enjoyed this experiment. I'd do it again - or rather, something similar, but I'd have a greater variety of exercises, perhaps having two or three different programmes for each group, and maybe add in an outlier, like a forearm workout. I
am stronger, and that's nice. And I have proven to myself that for me, it doesn't really matter if I heft the weights in one session or whenever I peel myself away from my work and want to get the blood flowing again for a brief moment - I still see some gains. And that was the whole point. Therefore, yes, this experiment
was a success.
And from here?
I am thinking of this in context of body-weight exercises and how to assess improvement there. I think I'd have to select exercises,
record how many I can comfortably do (push myself but not quite to failure) and then set a total daily limit based on that. Eg, if I can
comfortably with my dodgy knees, do, say 5 deep squats in a row, then I'd set myself a target of say, 15 in a day. Don't want to irritate those knees, and I could then do just 2 each time, or even just one. Then, if my knees feel up to it, I could do a set of 3 occasionally, but still sticking to the total of 15. Throughout the period, I'd stick to the same total of whatever exercise (push-ups, single-leg whatevers, side plank dips), and simply see how many sets I need to do in order to complete all the reps. So there won't actually be progression along the lines of: week 1, do 5 push-ups, week 2, do 7 push-ups, but there would be a lot of "greasing the groove". But as I said, I'm just thinking about this right now. Once my mum's left again, I'll get down to more experimentation.
So today the house got its final polish up. Even got out to the shops to buy in some food (I think my mum will appreciate that). By about 3 o'clock, everything was ready. I'd even clipped the dog's nails (I'd forgotten the cat but I did her later). Mum's flight was due in at 7:20. At 6:20 she phoned. Problem with the plane; she's delayed. At 7:05 she called again and said the flight had been cancelled and she's going back home. She'll be here tomorrow. You know, if
she'd cancelled the flight and wanted to reschedule, the airline would have charged her for the privilege, but when the airline does it, all she can do is go back home. So tonight, for no particular reason, I get to sleep on the air mattress because I've already made up her bed. At least I can test to see if it is going to deflate again as it did when the Lad was last here, in which case I can sleep the rest of the night in my bed again!
It wasn't a very Good night last night and this morning I decided that for a change I'd take it fairly easy, activity-wise. So I did. A few minutes of exercises wasn't excessive, and a walk at 3.7kph is quite gentle (though it can still get me sweaty). Having reached my usual distance and gone the usual fraction over 30 minutes, I changed things a little and tried walking backwards (tip: hold onto the handrails of the treadmill if you try this!). I'd heard that, among other things, this could also be good for knees so I thought I'd give it a go. Quite liked it but I had to keep twisting around to the display to see how far I'd gone. I'll see if I can remember to incorporate more backwards walking.
for the situation with your human boy.
The Lad had asked for buttermilk pikelets (I used ordinary milk that I soured with lemon juice) for breakfast and they went down a treat. Then I suggested we go for a hike up in Tidbinbilla. So I packed some tins of herring, a couple of eggs, two bread rolls, and a bottle of water and off we went. We took a favourite route - the trail to the Cascades (which sound grander than they actually are, but it's a lovely walk). Initially he rushed ahead but I kept calling him back, pointing things out and he photographed a lot. Ultimately, he was going slower than I was and photographing almost everything! It was a very slow hike - almost two hours - but lovely. Then we had a bit of a picnic lunch, sitting on logs that bordered the carpark, and got home around three in the afternoon.
and we thought COVID was the worst that could happen to us
But the chickens needed food and grit, I wanted some new pens, the dog food was running low, I needed a desk lamp - that alone was four different shops in four different places. Oh, and some food - I got some of that, too. All up, over three hours out and a 60km round trip. But as much as I hate shopping, two little instances occurred that made me feel respected. The first, I was exiting one shop, and the bloke by the door called me "sir". Now, I'm okay with "mate" or "love", casual is fine by me. But "sir"! Later I wondered if it were just because going shopping ages me... The other one was when I encouraged the woman behind me at the checkout to go first, given she had two items and I had a lot. The elderly bloke behind her then came up to me and commended me. Found that a little odd, I must confess. I generally do it. It's just good manners, isn't it? But I left the shops on an up note.
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The Woods. NorCal
I can't deny that another 10 nights on that mattress don't seem daunting, though...
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