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Belnik's Fitness log

44K views 422 replies 6 participants last post by  Belnik 
#1 ·
Hello folks, I thought I’d try a fitness log/thread here and see how it goes. I have been doing this on another forum, but I have been growing a bit uninspired by the group. I’m hoping that I will maybe inspire some of you and you in turn will do the same for me.

Starting off I’m 40 yrs. old, and out of shape. “Out of shape” is always a loose word but I am simply not in the shape I want to be at the moment. I have pretty much trained in some way on a consistent basis since my teens, so this is not a starting out thing, however I do often switch up what my main activity is and generally train is small cycles with different specific goals.

I wish I had one of those body fat scales, to get a better idea of where I’m at but I weighed in yesterday at ~190lbs. (5'8") Looking back I’d guess my best shape was around the 175-185 range so that’s one of my goals.

Starting right with today, lets get to it.

Jump-rope x165 in 4 attempts.

24kg Kettlebell
1 arm swing x5. Press x5. Snatch x5

32Kg KB.
1 arm swing 2x5
Press 2x5
Snatch 2x5

Pipe lift* (this is a 2” pipe, 5 feet long; weight is loaded on one end. Lift is sort of shoveling, and stabbing motion.)
25# 4x5 each side

Sandbag lifts* (my sandbag is an old mil surplus bag; I think it was a European bag. The sand is just loose, giving one big blob. I have used it with smaller hard weights adding to it as I go in the past)
120# Hug and walk, 4 singles or about 192’ carried.
Shoulder 4 singles per shoulder

Hamstring leg curls with wheel (ab wheel w/foot straps)
21 reps in 3 sets
Roll outs w/wheel
23 reps in 3 sets
Gripper work (hard to measure but I have numbered notches) did 22 reps in 4 sets.

I’ll do my best to eat smarter, but will not keep a eating log.
I hope all in all this will be interesting to some of you, and I really hope to hear from you, and see your own fitness logs for inspiration.
 
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#37 ·
Wed. AM.

jump rope
x154 skips, 4 sets.

1 hand KB swings.
(24kg) 3x5,
(32kg) 3x5

KB Sn.
(32kg) 3x5

Dips.
(BW) 2x5.
(53 lbs) 2x3.
(70) 2x3.
(123) 6 singles.
(136) 5 singles.
(BW) x25 reps.

*split squats.
3x5 (tried to use a chair for these, and it was not really working out.)

Rear lunge w/ one KB in each hand
(123) 2x3 each leg.
 
#38 ·
Thu. Am.

2 pipe "club" swings/rotations.
100 reps in 5 sets

KB presses.
(24kg) 2x5
(32kg) 3x3

"2 hands anyhow" *
(using the two KBs)
4 singles.

Dual KB press
2x3

Dual KB swings 2x2

Dips
BW x5,x5,x10
(52) x10
(70) x5
(123) x2

curls
(52) x6
(70)2x5
(83) x2

Gripper 1x13
Ab work

*the "two hands anyhow" for those who don't know...cut and pasted from Wiki...
"The Two Hands Anyhow is a traditional strongman lift that was popular with lifters such as Arthur Saxon and Thomas Inch (of challenge dumbbell fame). The goal was to lift as much weight overhead with two hands in any method as long as you were not assisted by an outside force. The most common version of the Two Hands Anyhow had lifters bent press a barbell with the strong arm and then lift a smaller weight with the other arm, usually a kettlebell. The world record for the two hands anyhow is 448 lbs by Arthur Saxon who used a 336 lb barbell and a 112 lb kettlebell."

I snatched the 70# KB with one hand and curled and pressed the 52# one. Last I remember doing these was back in 2004.
 
#40 ·
My partner and I have done the Two Hands Anyhow many many times in the past! We also used to do a one handed Turkish Get Up and enjoyed it. Old age and laziness has let us get away from it, plus, we have very little room in our little garage gym!
 
#41 ·
Jo, I'm far from any strongman competitor, but I bet it would be very cool to play around with some friends like that. Not to mention my lift was very light. I've done it in the past a bit, and I think I'll play with it some more, but would like to get more weight plates for my "pipe bell". Using two kettlebells is pretty easy, balance wise, but that was the heaviest way for me to do it today. The total weight was only 123 lbs...far from a strongman!

Flattop, I have played around with turkish get ups on and off since i first got a KB. I never really got into it. I'm sure I must be wrong but I just don't see enough value in it to make it a lift that I often do. I have read some pretty cool things about it, and now and then I hear someone praise it. I guess it always felt like more a test than something to train? logically I am sure I'm wrong, but I guess instinctively it just isn't in me to do it? If you think its worth doing I'd like to hear it. (in the past I did work it for a while, just didn't see much in results, think I went up to 80-90lbs, maybe I needed to go higher?)
 
#43 ·
Flattop, I have played around with turkish get ups on and off since i first got a KB. I never really got into it. I'm sure I must be wrong but I just don't see enough value in it to make it a lift that I often do. I have read some pretty cool things about it, and now and then I hear someone praise it. I guess it always felt like more a test than something to train? logically I am sure I'm wrong, but I guess instinctively it just isn't in me to do it? If you think its worth doing I'd like to hear it. (in the past I did work it for a while, just didn't see much in results, think I went up to 80-90lbs, maybe I needed to go higher?)
We used it as a warm-up for our general lifts. After we were strong enough, we'd one hand snatch a barbell with 135lbs, then do one rep, making sure we were completely prone and laid out before we stood. Then the other hand. It was difficult and our entire body would be breaking out in a sweat when we finished with each hand.

Using a barbell, it is a fantastic whole body movement AND a grip/forearm movement. I've always had strong hands and wrists, probably from growing up next to a dairy and hand milking every day, but my lifting partner doesn't. Usually if he missed a rep, it was due to his grip as he balanced the bar overhead and it tilted a bit as he laid out. It really helped with his grip over the years.

We don't do it anymore mostly because I'm a big believer in using a barbell to perform them and we don't have the room in our garage gym. I wish we still did them and now that I've given it some thought, there is no reason when the weather becomes nice, we couldn't do them in the lawn!
 
#42 ·
Fri. AM.

This whole week has been off plan, so I figured why not do something different for today as well, at least in part. I read something that inspired this yesterday, and this was my first attempt at it.

I'm calling it "Bag-Pipe Hell"

warmup:
Jump rope for 226 skips in 4 sets
High knees for 45 reps in 3 sets
pushups for 45 reps in 3 sets.

Sandbag carry (125#)
"pipe lift" (25#)
Sandbag shoulder (125)

These were done as a circuit, for singles.
The carry was a lift off ground, hug, and walk 48' as one single.
Pipe lift was one lift with each hand forward, essentially 2 reps lifted count as one single.
Bag to shoulder was lift to one shoulder, then down and lift again to other shoulder, like normal, 2 lifts count as one single.

Circuit was 20 singles of each. This took a time of 50:20 (not counting warmup) I had hoped to finish by 45 min, but it got to the point of not knowing if i could finish it, this was hard.

if I didn't mess up the math its looks like this...i lifted off the ground a volume of 7500 lbs with the sandbag, and walked 960' w/125lbs. The Pipe lift volume alone would be 1000 lbs lifted, but I don't know how to measure the felt weight with the leverage at play...It was the easy part of this workout.

I can't say for sure if I'll ever do this exact thing again. It was a good challenge though.
 
#44 ·
I totally agree on the one arm barbell work and how the balance issue works the grip. I have in the past worked one arm snatches using the same size pipe I have now, worked great, being ~2" thick and 5' long there was a happy medium vs using a 7' barbell (more grip with a bit less length to balance...I'll be doing some of these coming up).

I don't think I ever did the TGU with the pipe, just used my KB and Dbs at the gym (certainly far less balance issues). mostly I'd do progressive singles, maybe if I'd have worked reps vs singles I'd have a different impression of it? I don't know. I'll maybe give it a go again when I get bored, might be interesting to work it alone for a couple weeks, but doing that now would mean working reps as I am limited in weight...I'm sure I'd hate it!
 
#46 ·
The way I felt waking up the following day, the name fit well.

Sat's workout.
In the morning I did light, but fast running on the tread mill.

later in the day I "hiked" for ~5 miles with pack with a little added weight, ~30lbs total.


I don't think I'm planning on any activity today.
 
#47 · (Edited)
Notes on objective.

(I started getting off track last week, as my primary goals are to increase cardio/endurance fitness levels and cut some fat. The part I find hard is the better diet part, and the fact that strength training is a lot more fun.
Hopefully I'll start to re focus with a little more emphasis to running and "hiking" yet still get in some general strength work.)



Mon. AM workout. (I may try and add a PM workout?)

warm up:
Jump rope 202 skips in 4 sets
squat/thrusts: x70 in 4 sets

KB work:
2 hand swings, (24kg) x10, (32kg) 2x10

Snatch, (32kg) x2,3,5. (24kg) x10

Sandbag work (130#)
Hug/carry/SQ.
10 singles, ~480' carried

Sq/thrust x10, x20

total time of workout (not warmup) 28:58


PM work (starting off easy, to see if I can maintain it)
squat/thrust 2x25
 
#49 ·
Tue Am

4 min run/ .52 mile (~8mph)

Pullups 10x3

3 min. run/ .39 mile (~8.1 mph)

Db curls (20)x12 (*2 minute work set. (25) x31) (35) x10 (50) x6

Vbar pressdown. (60) x6, (70) x6, (80) x10, (90) 3x2

twin Db OH ext. (25) x11, (35)x8, (45) x5


(PM work)
100 squat thrusts in 7 sets
 
#52 ·
The link I posted before was this,
http://www.t-nation.com/training/7-day-biceps-cure

Thur am.

(Not feeling great, I sort of did a poor accessory workout, probably should have just skipped today altogether.)

twin club swings 2x15

Wrist roller work (52) 2x25, (70) x15, (122) x5, (70) x20-25-30-20

"Pipe bell" (pipe loaded both ends) one hand snatch. (50) 2 singles each arm. (forearm are too pumped, and my grip is messing with me)

Pipe-bell curls (50) x4-5-7-5-5-5

wrist curls w/same setup. x10-5-5-5

Dips, x3-5-5. (never felt good, so scrapped the idea of any more.)

TGU (24kg) KB, 1 single each side,

(Then grabbed the 32KG KB, and started, but nothing was feeling really good, grip was questionable from forearm pump, and the fact that I'd just done a single rep for the first time in a year or more? the wisdom of getting older finally paid off, maybe...and I called it good for now.)
 
#54 ·
Fri AM workout

warmup: crawls ~288'

one hand KB swings. (32kg) x5-6-7 (24kg) x10

Sandbag shoulder one single each side. (wrists too sore for these)

*Sandbag hug/hold for time. (130) :30 sec, 1 min, 1 min.
(harder than I though it would be)

*(25) plate curl for time or 100 reps.
x100 reps in 2:49

*(25) plate OH ext for time or 100 reps
100 reps in 2:11

Dips x5, x5. (25) x5, (52) x5, (70# max reps in 3 min) 23 singles.

leg lifts on dip bars, x10-10, flutter kicks x20

22# Bulgy bag spins x5-15-10 (each direction)

Note: I've never did these * before, felt interesting. the curl and ext was using both hands, seemed very light but getting around the 40-50 rep mark things started to change. (I had just heard about a challenge where you curl an empty barbell for 100 reps...)
 
#56 ·
Yeah the crawling was fun, and your comment made me laugh.

I took it easy on Saturday as it was snowing all day, and today walked for a decent amount of time on the trails. I left the pack at home, but the snow depth and untouched trails made for a nice little workout. Got to see a herd of deer close to, if not more than 20 animals cross the trail, seemed odd for this area. ( I think this amount of snow is odd for this area as well).
 
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