The hot weather seems to be everywhere. Some tips for staying cool without AC.
I've been enjoying the Bruce Lee routine on IsoMax. It takes so little time compared to other strength training routines.
However I've gotten more flab too. This might be a downside of an exercise routine that takes so little time, even done daily. The intensity is high during the workout, as I aim for a new PR for each exercise, but the total calories burned must not be very high. I started adjusting by cutting down intake of rice and bread, to reduce caloric intake. On the caloric burn side, I started trying to raise my NEAT.
The original Bruce Lee/Bob Hoffman isometric routine did not seem to include progressive overload, which is understandable as Bruce trained with a bar-and-chain device that did not have a built-in force dynamometer, unlike the IsoMax or Isochain bar. I have been using the IsoMax in Timer mode, so I can hear it count off 6 seconds as I apply force equal to or greater than the load setting. So when I set the load to 50 lbs., the bar will beep as long as I put out at least 50 lbs. of force, and will stop beeping if my force output drops below 50 lbs.
Until this week, I've been deciding after each session whether or not to increase the load for each exercise by 5 lbs, depending on how easy it felt to trigger ther Timer mode and/or the max force reading for that exercise. I didn't follow any particular rules in this decision-making - just went more with feel. So I've increase the load at a faster rate for some exercises while the load has stayed constant for days or even weeks at a time for others.
Last week (Week 5), for the Low Overhead Press, I had the load set at 70lbs., which was higher than 70% of my estimated max force of 93 lbs., based on Week 4 results. This week I decided to set the load to 64 lbs, roughly 70% of my max force. I also set my grip to roughly shoulder width or a little narrower, which seemed to allow me to get a little more stretch of the chest while pulling my shoulders down and back before initiating the overhead press. In this video, Red Delta Project explains why the shoulders should be down and back to "switch on" the chest muscles. Yes, in this video he's actually teaching a different exercise, which was called the "chest press" but in the IsoMax manual is called the "pec press", but the relationship of shoulders to chest still applies for the low overhead press. My max force increased from session to session. I finished the week with a new PR of 99.6 lbs.
I got the "70% idea" from the 6x6 program in the book Ultimate Isometrics Manual. In that program, you begin by testing your 1-rep max under a particular protocol described in the book, then train at 70% of the 1-rep max until you test it again. I don't know how or why the authors of this book settled on 70%, but there seems to be something to it. I've noticed that if I set the load too high in Timer mode, I expend so much force getting to the target load that I can't seem to achieve as high a max force as when the load is set lower. I'm not sure what the consequences are, exactly, for setting the target load lower than 70% of 1-rep max. However, my understanding of how progressive overload works is that one should not train at the same load forever if strength gains are desired. 70% of 1-rep max seems to be close to the sweet spot for allowing me to produce the highest max force numbers on Isochain/IsoMax.
One difference between strength training on this type of device vs. a barbell is we are aiming for the highest possible max force output on Isochain/IsoMax for every training session while on a barbell we aim to lift as much weight as possible, but can actually only do that once in a while - eg. at a powerlifting meet. For example in the overhead press, I try to press 95 lbs. or higher every session, whereas if I were training with a barbell, I'd probably be pressing overhead a weight less than 95 lbs. - say, around 65 lbs - gradually working up in weight towards 95 lbs.
I guess the above paragraph needs some understanding of the Force-Velocity Curve
Anyway, I've been working with the load set to higher than 70% of the max force readings for some exercises, before this week's discovery with the low overhead press. I decided to not lower the load for those exercises. I'll just keep the 70% idea in mind when deciding whether or not to increase the load for a particular exercise.
No comments:
Post a Comment