Post by GJEC on Apr 26, 2012 4:38:48 GMT -5
It interests me reading about how others train. Some like the power lifts. Some light weights / high reps. Some Olympic lifts. Some kettlebells etc etc
Some stick on the same program for years and some grasshopper from one to the next, changing what they do every time a new program appears in their favourite magazine ...
So I though it would be interesting to compare our BIG ONE. (Steady girls)
What single exercise do YOU feel has given you the most benefit from the time invested?
For me that answer is very simple.
The Clean & Jerk
www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/CleanAndJerk.html
The Fire Station where I worked in my early 20's had a scruffy downstairs gym right in the basement next to the boiler room. It was always about 30 degrees in there and with tiny windows it stank of sweat. There was an old barbell and an assortment of plates and my goal was simple, to clean and jerk my bodyweight.
I started off with power cleans and heave presses but as the weight increased I had to learn the proper squat clean and split jerk. As it was a busy station and I never knew how long we'd have between 'shouts', I got in there and cracked on, often not even bothering to change. In - Lift - Eat. Sometimes a few times a shift, sometimes just once a week depending on the time available.
My rep scheme was dead simple. Easy 5 reps, add weight. 4 reps, add weight. Then 3 reps at my top weight, which I recorded on a marker board in chinagraph pencil. Then 3 reps at a lower weight and a final 3 reps back at my starting weight. At all times my thought was "get the bar moving" rather than 'time under tension' or any such notion. As it was a concrete floor and metal plates I had to control the bar on the way down, none of this lift and drop stuff we see today. Rest between sets depended entirely on how I felt at the time.
Every few weeks I'd try for a maximum and my best ever was 210lbs (95 kgs) at a bodyweight of 84kgs. A weightlifter would toy with that but at the time I was training karate most nights, running every day and training in a bodybuilding gym as well. Had I just done karate twice a week, the C & J's and chucked in a few 400's, I'm sure I'd have been in far better shape with less injuries and less chronic fatigue!
In later years health and safety took over at work and the old rusty bar was replaced by a multigym, but I often look back and wish I'd carried it on. I credit that one exercise - and the determination it required - with more benefit than any other exercise I've ever done (and I've tried 100's)
I love my KB's but writing this I'm seriously thinking of buying myself an old rusty barbell ...
Gary
Some stick on the same program for years and some grasshopper from one to the next, changing what they do every time a new program appears in their favourite magazine ...
So I though it would be interesting to compare our BIG ONE. (Steady girls)
What single exercise do YOU feel has given you the most benefit from the time invested?
For me that answer is very simple.
The Clean & Jerk
www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/CleanAndJerk.html
The Fire Station where I worked in my early 20's had a scruffy downstairs gym right in the basement next to the boiler room. It was always about 30 degrees in there and with tiny windows it stank of sweat. There was an old barbell and an assortment of plates and my goal was simple, to clean and jerk my bodyweight.
I started off with power cleans and heave presses but as the weight increased I had to learn the proper squat clean and split jerk. As it was a busy station and I never knew how long we'd have between 'shouts', I got in there and cracked on, often not even bothering to change. In - Lift - Eat. Sometimes a few times a shift, sometimes just once a week depending on the time available.
My rep scheme was dead simple. Easy 5 reps, add weight. 4 reps, add weight. Then 3 reps at my top weight, which I recorded on a marker board in chinagraph pencil. Then 3 reps at a lower weight and a final 3 reps back at my starting weight. At all times my thought was "get the bar moving" rather than 'time under tension' or any such notion. As it was a concrete floor and metal plates I had to control the bar on the way down, none of this lift and drop stuff we see today. Rest between sets depended entirely on how I felt at the time.
Every few weeks I'd try for a maximum and my best ever was 210lbs (95 kgs) at a bodyweight of 84kgs. A weightlifter would toy with that but at the time I was training karate most nights, running every day and training in a bodybuilding gym as well. Had I just done karate twice a week, the C & J's and chucked in a few 400's, I'm sure I'd have been in far better shape with less injuries and less chronic fatigue!
In later years health and safety took over at work and the old rusty bar was replaced by a multigym, but I often look back and wish I'd carried it on. I credit that one exercise - and the determination it required - with more benefit than any other exercise I've ever done (and I've tried 100's)
I love my KB's but writing this I'm seriously thinking of buying myself an old rusty barbell ...
Gary