QUESTIONS FROM A 50 Y/O

OK I turned 50 this year. I have worked out since I was 12.

I am looking for suggestions on my body weight routine. I gave up weights about 4 years ago and went strictly to body weight exercises (that is all I use to do in college).

I do strength training and karate (been in karate since 21). Karate I do 5 days a week an hour each day.

2 days I do legs to maintain knee joints and stability mostly but throw some weight training in on the legs. I stretch, do mobility exercises and 20 - 30 minutes of foam rolling - actually I have progressed to rolling pins to keep knots out of the myofacial tissues and muscles.

2 days I do body weight exercises. I use to do 3 days but with karate it is just too much since I do shotokan and you have to use your entire body on each technique.

So.... here is my body weight routine:

MONDAY: 3 sets of 15 HSPUs on parallettes

3 sets of 30 pull ups

3 sets of 30 second static advanced tuck planche holds

3 sets of 5 - 5 second static front lever holds

THURSDAY: 3 sets of 15 HSPU's on parallettes

3 sets of 15 very wide pull ups

3 sets of 10 tucked planche push ups on parallettes

3 sets of 15 Stradle Front Lever Pull Ups

On my leg days I will do 3 sets of 25 V ups or other ab sets.

I go to a regular gym that does not have rings otherwise I would be doing ring work.

OK so how can I improve on my body weight routine - am I doing too many per set - should I add more variety etc..?

Thanks

If you can do that many reps of pull and push ups, you should be very strong!

Are you trying to build competency in the static elements (FSP) such as levers, planche, etc or strength?

Strength should be done in that 3-5 range. 15, 30 is way past that. If you want to strength more, use harder progressions.

If you want to focus on strength endurance, well that's pretty much what you're doing now.

Well I am trying to get the most efficiency out of my work out and avoid over training and repetitive motion injuries - I have not had any injuries or joint issues with my current routine. But that is not to say that this could not happen over a number of years.

I am satisfied with my strength but I have been doing the this one routine now for 3 years.

Wondering if I should be changing it up some or maybe working towards press to handstand or work on a manna or something.

I have 2 push and 2 pull exercises in my current routine for balance. I think I am hitting all plains.

Wondering if I am leaving anything out that I should be doing or if I should progress to things other than these basics. As in all exercise I have read to not get into a rut and to train in intervals - neither of which I am doing in my current routine.

Just thinking out loud here but maybe working on things where I can only do 3 to 5 reps would give me better results in less time with more rest than doing so many sets.

3 sets of 4 exercises is pretty efficient.

It all gets down to your goals.

Do you want to be able to do such&such, etc?

It is important to expose the body to a variety of repetition ranges. A close examination of the GB WODs will provide some good examples of this.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach , how to apply the repetition range to the killroy70 template?, lately I found that as I´m increasing strength steadily I get stuck if I try to perform more than 10 reps of any exercise ( as push ups or dips) . I´m still not very strong but more than 10 push ups it´s no brainer. So I supposed more reps have to be introduced somewhere but I don´t know how often nor how many for optimal performance. Please could you give us some advice on that?.

Pd. I have been looking at the wods and I see there are more endurance oriented days sometimes but I don´t know how to apply them to the Killroy´s.

omegant said:

Coach , how to apply the repetition range to the killroy70 template?

Achieving the correct repetitions ranges is most easily accomplished by simply following the GB WOD template. However if you prefer to use the Killroy70 template you have several choices:

1) Your warmup sets for that day's workout could be comprised of higher repetition work.

2) You could use a two week training cycle. In this instance you would have two days a week dedicated to lower rep work and then the other two days a week dedicated to higher rep work. Then simply switch which rep range was done on each day the following week.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thank you Coach! I want to do the WODs for training but I´m still to weak :? to follow them with out extensively downgrading the exercises (some of them I don´t even know how to do them easier) so I´m using Killroys by the moment to increase my strength to a point where I am able to perform the WOD to an acceptable level. :|

omegant said:

... I want to do the WODs for training but I´m still to weak to follow them with out extensively downgrading the exercises ...

The GB WODs are not required to be performed only as written. In fact, the GB WODs should always be scaled as necessary to accomodate your personal physical capacities. Remember that your best effort is always acceptable; irregardless of whether or not it may be a modest effort in comparison to that of other people.

omegant said:

... some of them I don´t even know how to do them easier ...

Yes, this will continue to be an ongoing issue until several of the new volumes are released. In the interim the GB Seminars are being used to bridge that gap. For instance, alot of time was spent at the just past GB Seminar going over progressions for scaling dynamic strength and ring strength elements correctly.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

The Gb seminars are a must and I'll atend one soon, but not this year , the family is growing and it needs my inmediate atention!. I' ll try to scale down some exercises askin serotonin and will try to follow wod to my best ( Im not afraid of performing extremly easy exercises, just one and a half years ago I couldn't perform a single push up!)

Thank you Coach!