Conclusions About Low Volume Workouts
Last month’s Experiment saw me take my overall workout time down from the certifiably insane range back into ordinary fitness buff land. In addition to lowering my overall training volume, I took the advice of Rachel Cosgrove and dropped the running altogether. Except for 5 minutes or so of some jogging to warm up before weight lifting, Gym Buddy Allison and I stayed off the track & tread. Nor did we spin, ellipticize or in any other way aerobicize ourselves except for our Turbokick (which is more like interval training than steady state cardio).
We did however, do some gut busting interval workouts. We did one off of Cosgrove’s website that was a real butt-kicker when we amped it up to two sets. Not to mention it provided a week’s worth of hilarity with the “over/under” which looked like we were body rolling sans music and entertained a half dozen handicapped people for half an hour along with some fancy footwork that was meant to be done on a swiss ball, except that we couldn’t stay on the ball for anything although it did still work our abs from all the laughing and falling off we did. For our other HIIT day, we made up our own intervals.
The goal was to exercise no more than 6 hours a week. I averaged 10. Despite not quite meeting my goal, it still took my exercise down by about half which did good things for me. I learned two important things (both of which I have learned previously but, as we have established, sometimes I need to be held after class in the School of Life):
1. I am a compulsive exerciser. Actually I am just compulsive, period. Yes, I do realize this can be a problem. Look for a post later this week as I head back to the blog confessional booth.
2. Nothing bad happens when I don’t exercise as much. My weight stayed about the same (which tells you how the current Sensa Experiment is going). In fact, some good things happened as my body fat percentage actually went down 1.5%, I spent more time with my kids and was even able to retain my good humor amidst deleting the thousands of well-intended but nevertheless irritating political e-mails forwarded to me.
Suspension Training
It is with great joy I bring you November’s Great Fitness Experiment: Suspension Training. Every month I start out as excited as a new puppy but this month I’m that new puppy that gets so worked up that they wag their whole bodies, drool and pee all at the same time. Today I am that furry, urine-soaked, hyperventilating SPCA (and Bob Barker!) endorsed sprinkler animal.
I’m all worked up about this because suspension training allows you to use the two resources always at your disposal – gravity and your body weight – to make a killer workout. It’s as basic as you can get and yet you still have hundreds of options. The key to this is, of course, the suspension. You may at this point be imagining something akin to trapeze artists or aerial dancing and while those routines sound like fun, this is closer to, well, bondage gear. In looks anyhow. No Gym Buddies will be tying each other up. Of course the month is just beginning…
Equipment
First step is to get a sweet rig. You can make your own gear or use something like this hot little number from TRX. It weighs only a few pounds, comes complete with handles, foot loops and anchors so it’s perfect for home gyms or travelling. (I’m working on getting a free sample to give away to you all but so far no word yet.) The basic idea is that you hook up the straps to something that a) won’t move and b) will support your body weight. Obviously this gives you a lot of leeway. The website shows demos of people using everything from fences to telephone poles to Sun Ming Ming (kidding!). Just keep it legal, people. Once you have established a connection with a tallish something that won’t move suddenly, you are free to push, pull, jump, squat, twist and stretch.
The TRX people even have an exercise video library with hundreds of ideas on how to contort yourself for maximum strength and flexibility gains. Here’s a great example of a chest exercise. That look too easy for you? Try this bad boy called the atomic push-up. I’m going to try it just so I can tell people I can do “atomic” push-ups!
The Workout
The Gym Buddies and I will be doing 2 non-consecutive days of full body work. But – and here’s where it gets really exciting – in addition to doing basic weight training, you can also use suspension trianing sort of like a Pilates reformer to work your core or even the most complicated yoga strap you’ve ever met to help you stretch. So in between weight days we will try out the TRX for stretching and core-strengthening purposes. If it goes anything like indicated in the promo materials the potential for embarrassment and/or needing a buddy to extricate us is high. I’m very excited.
Similar to the Kettlebell Experiment, I will be posting a new Suspended workout every Sunday night. For this first week we’ll be doing the “all body xpress” workout made up of 12 different exercises. You perform each exercise for 30 seconds (beginner) or 60 seconds (advanced) with a short rest (50 seconds for beginners, 20 seconds for advanced) in between sets. The 12 exercises are as follows (videos of each exercise can be found on the TRX site):
1. Single Leg Squat
2. Balance Lunge
3. Hamstring Curl
4. Hip Abduction
5. Chest Press
6. Back Row
7. “Y” Shoulder Raise
8. Bicep Curl
9. Tricep Press
10. Supine Pull Through
11. Oblique Leg Raise
12. Suspended Crunch
If you don’t have a handy-dandy TRX or the will-power to fashion your own out of nothing but dental floss and a g-string, you can still participate! (Probably!) Many gyms have some kind of bands or cables and/or jump ropes you can try tying to stuff. Even if you aren’t ready to commit to suspension training for a whole month, I would definitely encourage you to at least try out a move or two. Don’t worry, we won’t tie you up:)
ok, I have nothing to say about the experiments other than I can’t wait to be able to work out again. I get winded just leaving the couch. awesome.
BUT.
this made me laugh out loud, “and was even able to retain my good humor amidst deleting the thousands of well-intended but nevertheless irritating political e-mails forwarded to me.”
There is a trainer at our gym who uses a ring system similar to the TRX for a workout. His KILLS.
I’m working to figure out the one cable system. I think I could do most of this work out on it. I’ll give a try later this week!
ooooh Id love to (live closer to you and) try to fashion my own!
very fun!!
Oh this is awesome! I have the Monkeybar Gym which is basically the same thing and I’ve been using it to do assisted pullups but I’m really trying to get motivated to start doing more with it. I will definitely be tuning in to hear how you go with it.
Hmm, this suspension stuff sounds intriguing. And who wouldn’t want to be able to brag about doing atomic pushups?
Also, glad to hear about your realization that reducing your workout time didn’t lead to Horrible Things! Be interesting to see if leads to any long term changes, or if it was just a monthly experiment.
We did some suspended stuff back in the HS days. I remember lots of falling and lots of laughing, along with some seriously sore muscles.
This is something I could really get into, though, as I don’t have a lot of room, and because my favorite exercises were always the ones that used my own weight, not metal weights.
You can do a lot of suspension exercises on a 2 armed cable machine. Pushups are killer when you’ve only got handles to hold onto.
Kelly Turner
http://www.groundedfitness.com
It’s all good!! I continually learn from your inventive exercise, thanks!!
What were your results with sensa, or did you decide not to continue that experiment?
Crabby – I plan to keep it. We’ll see how it goes though as I tend to suffer from “gym creep”;)
Gena – that’s how I feel about weights too!!
Nicole – Yep, still doing Sensa. My weight didn’t change at all this month. Although they did say it takes about 3 months for women to see a difference.
We have a TRX at one of the gyms I work at. It’s pretty fun, although I’m pretty good at handling my body weight (I did 6 weeks of only bodyweight exercises), so my opinion may be colored by being good at it.
so jealous! can’t wait to see the results – you should post a video of you two trying it!
Hey Charlotte. Good luck with the atomic push-ups! Those look quite challenging.
What about your other stats from last month? I’m very curious because I did this one too! However, I don’t have measurements like you do–just how I feel. And–I feel great! Knocking down my cardio and doing HIIT and weights really freed up my mind, leisure time, and I revealed a bit more muscle tone. I’m going to keep some version of this up. When I did some cardio, I significantly lessened the distance I ran or I did sprint intervals. Anyway….
I’m excited about this month’s experiment. In the winter here (Chicago), and with no car, sometimes I can’t drag myself to the gym and try to do body weight training at home. I look forward to your results. And please include updates! I missed those last month!
Gym creep! That’s a great name for it… like when I plan an hour long workout and my fiance says “see you in an hour and a half” (and he’s the one who’s right). There just isn’t enough time in one hour to get everything done that I want. Grrr…
Good luck with your suspension training. This month I’m trying more attitude changes than workout changes, I’ll be living vicariously through you trying something completely different.
Omigoodness I want to try that so bad! It looks like heaps of fun and such a good workout. The basic ones are ALWAYS the best. Can’t wait to hear how this goes (and fingers crossed there will be a giveaway:)).
I compulsively exercise too. Yesterday I didn’t do any exercising except for some chin ups and it felt surprisingly good to take a break!
It looks like fun! But I don’t really have any way to set it up at home. I’m really curious how the experiment turns out, though!
There’s one of the personal trainers at my gym who uses these massive ropes in his workout. The rope is literally about the size of my biceps, and I’ve got some pretty good muscles. He’ll put them through the kettlebells for stability, and then have the person swing them around (shoulders and arms and core). It looks really fun and really hard!
Looks like fun!!! I wonder if Hubby could fashion one of these from his climbing equipment…?
“Nothing bad happens when I don’t exercise as much. My weight stayed about the same (which tells you how the current Sensa Experiment is going). In fact, some good things happened as my body fat percentage actually went down 1.5%…”
Ha! Of course it did. I bet you’ll see further gains if you manage to stick with the high intensity / low volume format. Sounds like that will be hard, though.
The TRX kit looks sweet! It’s simple and highly portable. I like that.
Wow, that actually looks like a lot of fun! I might have to rig one of those up for myself . . . 😀
Am I the only person worried about what that Giraffe is doing?
Wow! This one looks awesome TOO! I’m jealous of this great idea of trying all these things out! You’ve already got me in the mood to take a few kettlebell classes this winter.
Can’t wait to see how the suspension training goes!
If you’re looking for other suspension workouts to try, there’s a form of yoga called Yoga Kurunta (“puppet yoga”) that uses equipment like that.
Okay, now I am worried. You said you were down to 10 hours/week(1/2 of your previous volume) of working out…….that is a part time job. If you are putting in that much time, you should be training for an event! Sometimes for compulsive people training for a specific event takes away from the focus of body image and the other reasons you are exercising.
Maybe in the spring I can help you with a triathlon program and you can train for one and complete one. It would be interesting to see how your mind/body would respond to that. Give it some thought.
I look forward to your confessional as it seems you are aware of these concerns.
We should be perfectly trained for us to get into proper shape. weight training programs helps us and guides us for a perfect physic.
My HIIT experiment went well, and while I didn’t lose any weight I lost body fat AND inches, AND I found fun and creative work-arounds even while holding my 3m old baby. My toddler thought it was great fun running up and down park steps and sliding on the rest periods. I have to say that I dread, dread, dread true HIIT (I never really hit the HIIT truly before, only halfway), and the more I dread it, the better I feel when I’m done. It sucked. It majorly sucked! All thanks to you. AND at the park there was a “master trainer” with this TRX who let my kids play on it. Very cool thingamadoodlebob, and I’ve started working out at the park more often wishing I could afford that stinkin’ thing. I’ll admit, when the trainer took her group for a run, I did go over and swing her kettlebells around for a few minutes while my kids abused the TRX…shhhh! Again, all thanks to you. My husband wanted me to give thanks to you too on behalf of my smaller waistline.