Wait lifting or A Minimalist Approach to Getting Stronger

Up until now I have shared the weight loss successes I have reached through changes in my diet by following a protocol from author/blogger/entrepreneur Tim Ferris called the slow carb diet which then led me to a plan called The Paleo Diet. I’ve found the paleo approach a little easier to adapt as a lifestyle except for the part where it doesn’t include wheat. I have eliminated wheat mostly except for the liquid form known commonly as George Killian’s Irish Red. Ya gotta live, right?

After giving an overview of my diet plan I thought I would share what kind of exercise plan I have been following to aid in fat loss, muscle growth, and general wellness. After reading Tim Ferris’ book 4 Hour Body I learned of the idea of minimalism related to exercise and Tim’s idea of MED or Minimum Effective Dose. The idea here is to look at exercise like you look at medicine. You take medicine to affect some type of change in your body, but if the doctor recommends 200 mg of whatever the medicine is a normal person wouldn’t take 1000 mg and risk an overdose, but for many people this is exactly what they do with exercise. I am not considering competing in the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic body building competition ever in my life so I need a workout regimen that will make me strong, keep me lean, and not take a bunch of my time, so this MED idea is right up my alley.

A typical workout might take around 30 minutes but the actual time lifting anything is about 6 minutes total, maybe. A typical workout looks like this:

• Some kind of dynamic stretching – 7 reps
• Deadlift – 50% of 1 rep max – 8 reps
• Box jumps – 10 reps
• Rest 5 minutes
• Deadlift – 75% of 1 rep max – 6 reps
• Box jumps – 10 reps
• Rest 5 minutes
• Deadlift -90% of 1 rep max – 4 reps
• Box jumps – 10 reps
• Done

As you can see there is 15 minutes of rest in that workout which I used to change the weight on the bar and then do some dishes or start a load of laundry or something productive. I was strict on the 5 minute rest and even used the timer on my phone to keep me from going back to the workout too soon.  This workout would have me noticing that I had done some work for the next few days but I wasn’t sore like I used to be when I would spend 90 minutes at the gym. If I did this workout on a Monday I would do a bench press workout on Wednesday following the same format but substituting plyometric push ups in place of the box jumps before the rest period. Then on Friday I would do some body weight exercises like push ups, air squats, sit-ups, planks and I always finished every workout with 1 round of kettle bell swings. I have a home-made kettle bell that I keep about thirty pounds of weight on and I do 1 set of as many swings as I can do, which is usually between 25-30.

Lately I have just been doing dead lifts three times a week and I will probably do that for a couple of weeks. I can knock out three sets of dead lifts before my bacon is done frying in the morning. This MED thing is incredible. I have reduced the rest period to about 2 minutes and I’m not doing any plyometrics in this round of workouts.  I just ordered a machine that will allow me to do dips, pull-ups, push up variations and some ab stuff  and it should be here next week, so once that gets here I’m changing from the dead lift protocol to using that thing exclusively for at least a month. I will probably do a review post after a few uses. I know you’ll be waiting on pins and needles.

-JMJ

About these ads