As I've written before, you should change your strength routine every 6-8 weeks to encourage consistent progress. Most people can't just pound away using the same exercises, poundages, and rep schemes and get consistently stronger.
I decided to prioritize my weakest movement, the pullup (or chinup). I have never had a good connection, or feeling, in my lats. I can rarely get a pump in my lats, and when I do pulling exercises I rarely feel a strong contraction in those muscles. The problem is that along with the glutes the lats are the most important muscles in the body, and I believe correct use of the lats is a key to developing good striking power with the hands.
To improve my lats I knew I needed to do lots of good reps, preferably done without generating a lot of fatigue. That's the best way to improve the nervous system's ability to fire a muscle or movement pattern. Ideally I'd grease the groove - do a couple of reps at a time, many times a day. Unfortunately, I work in an office where doing chinups is sort of frowned upon. So I needed a workout that would let me do lots of sets.
As before, I decided to keep my workout in a circuit style. I just prefer to rest from one exercise by doing another one. As long as the loads (weights I use) aren't high enough to really tax my conditioning I feel this is the most effective use of my time.
To choose a pulling movement I had to pick between pullups (palms facing away) and chinups (palms facing towards you). Chinups are easier - because the movement is biomechanically stronger for the biceps - and I can't do very many of either exercise. So chinups were the answer (remember, I need to do lots of reps to get the effect I want). I could have done band assisted pullups or something, but I didn't want the hassle of setting up extra equipment in my bedroom.
Here's what I came up with:
10 sets of chinups (I did 1 rep each set the first time, while this past Tuesday I'd increased it to 2 reps each set).
After each set of chins I did either pistols with each leg (I started with 2 reps per leg per set and got up to 4 with the last workout) or 8 or so swings. I alternated so I wound up doing 6 sets of pistols with each leg and 4 sets of swings (I did pistols after the 5th and 6th sets of chins). I cheat on the pistols - I hold a pair of 5 lb. dumbells while I do them to maintain my balance.
After each of the first 5 sets of legs I did a set of one arm pushups with each arm. The first workout I alternated 2 reps with 1 rep. This past Tuesday I did 3/ 2/ 3/ 2/ 3, for a total of 13 reps with each arm. I do these with my legs spread fairly wide (which makes it easier), touching my chest to the floor with every rep.
After the 6-10th sets I did handstand pushups with my feet on a dresser, using pushup bars to get more depth. I manage 5 reps each set.
The whole thing - 10 circuits, a total of 41 sets if you count each single limb exercise separately - takes just under 20 minutes. Once it is done I add a couple of sets of adduction/ abduction - either leg raises with an ankle weight or sidestepping with my feet in a band, isometric ground - squeezing out of a deep horse stance for the adduction. This adds and extra 2 minutes or so.
Total time? Maybe 30 minutes if you count the warmup. It's a nice predominantly bodyweight routine. I'd like to build up to sets of 5 on these exercises before I do something to make them harder. To make them harder I'd tighten up the technique - do pullups instead of chins, bring my feet together on the pushups, stop assisting the handstand pushups, and use a heavier kettlebell or a pair of kettlebells for the swings.
The routine isn't core-centric enough for my taste, but I find adding in sets of rollouts or planks mid-way saps my energy for the other moves. I've been doing more core work on my kata days and counting on the one arm pushups to give me a little extra anti-rotation work.
I do this, usually, twice a week. It's a nice workout - doesn't fry my system, leaves me with enough in the tank to practice kata the next day, and I'm definitely getting stronger. Give it a try!
Osu.
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