Sunday, August 01, 2021

resistance-band and dumbbell routine, slightly Goggins-style

David Goggins went from 306 pounds to 191 pounds in the space of three months by putting himself through an insane routine that involved plenty of running, swimming, and high-rep resistance work (and by "high-rep," I mean anywhere from 100 to 500 reps of a given resistance exercise). He also did the math and realized he needed to eat only 800 calories a day, so he was Newcastling before there was even a Newcastle Diet. This is positively scary, and I have no intention of putting myself through that sort of hell, but I will borrow, to a limited extent, the idea of high reps to do 100 reps of a few select exercises, dividing those exercises over the week so I don't tire myself out. What follows, then, is a tentative high-rep routine using resistance bands and my 10-kg dumbbells. The point, for me, is to do the reps so I can burn more calories. It's not necessarily about building scary strength.

For MWF:

Chest
Resistance Bands: 
chest press, 100 reps (20 sets of 5, then later, 5 sets of 20)

Biceps
Resistance Bands: 
biceps curls, 100 reps (20/5, then later, 5/20)

Shoulders
Resistance Bands:
lateral raises, 100 reps (20/5, then later, 5/20)

For TRS:

Triceps
Resistance Bands: 
triceps pulldown (using doorknobs), 100 reps (20/5, then later, 5/20)

Back (Lats)
Dumbbells:
upright rows, 100 reps (20/5, then later, 5/20)

Legs/Lower Body
squats, 100 reps (20/5, then later, 5/20)

I'm already doing core work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I pretty much abandoned pushups and pullups when the shoulder thing happened. This way, I can get back to training those muscle groups in what I hope will be a constructive way, without straining myself overly. I have a pullup bar, but my shoulder hurts too much to use it, so that will have to wait until later this year. I can vary the resistance in my resistance bands by standing nearer to or farther away from wherever I attach the bands, or if I run the bands under my feet, I can widen or narrow my stance to adjust resistance. Everyone's fear when using such bands is that they get old and eventually snap, but I only just bought mine, so that prospect is still pretty far off.



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