Today will be a little shorter than usual as I’ve been cooking up some stuff for youtube/odyssey.
Me on any day
I’m making moves in silence as the kids say.
But I’ve been bringing more calisthenics into my workout routine for the past few weeks in a micro-workout fashion.
Micro workouts are where instead of having one or two longer workouts in the day you split those up into more. Interestingly, splitting this up can make you healthier and stronger in the long term.
The idea is not to go all out though. Spend a few minutes to get the blood flowing and reach a little bit of fatigue or get some lactic acid sensation and disengage. My micro workouts(two-three a day), which can be calisthenics or any form of isometrics, are anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes and this is full-body which comes out to less than 45 total minutes on most days.
Legs
Upper body pulling
& Upper body pushing
I’ll throw in a little extra especially if I’m doing isometrics. Depending on the weather I might develop a little bit of a sweat.
Someone - Is this enough?
If done consistently…Yes.
The average chemically enhanced bodybuilder documentary or any montage from a Rock movie is great to watch. Engaging in training that is both mentally and physically taxing can have its benefits. These sources of media/entertainment, as well as a whole list of others, have caused us to think that if we just work harder we’ll improve faster.
Movie reference/not important
With micro workouts…
Think Nourishment!!!!!!
Do we nourish ourselves by eating a giant meal we can hardly digest like on Thanksgiving day(for those Americans here)? Or do we provide just enough to feel satisfied?
Think of recovery from a workout as digestion in this sense. The more food (the more reps) the harder it is to digest (recover).
How you recover from a workout in your 20s vs your 40s will be different.
How you recover from a workout out in the country vs in the city under a 5G tower will be different.
Not all people have the same recovery abilities but these types of workouts will provide you with greater awareness of your own body.
Starting off with the basics or something close to the basics will be a good start. One advantage of micro workouts is that over time it will keep your body in a ready state. Muscles are ready to fire along with a proper tension/relaxation relationship between each other. This doesn’t mean no warm-up for most new people but it does mean less of a warm-up.
There’s also overcoming isometrics which require very little movement and which others have put to good use both past and present.
“I had plenty of time to carry out my ideas. In fact, I had nothing else to do. And one of the things I speedily discovered was that for many hours could this kind of physical stimulation be kept up. Instead of wasting energy, this, on the contrary, was retained. Which was fortunate for me, in more ways than one, when the position I was in is remembered. (p 116 Amazing Sampson)
Alexander Zass on overcoming isometric training as a WW1 POW
Alexander Zass (The Amazing Sampson)
We workout to create a stimulus whether that’s for speed, strength, endurance, or muscle. No stimulus will leave you where you are. Too great of a stimulus will leave you needing to recover for days afterward.
But here is a micro workout I did the other day to give you an idea.
Staggered Squats: Semi-unilateral squats. Standing on that book I have isn’t necessary it just makes achieving greater depth on the working leg(the one on the book) a little easier. The supporting leg (the one on the ground) overtime should be providing less support during the movement.
Pike Push-ups: A regression of the handstand push-up. The bent body allows me to target my shoulders and triceps a little more.
Towel Rows: A regression of the pull-up. I use the gate attachment on my truck to loop a towel around but gymnastics rings are also great for rows. The lower/more parallel to the ground one goes the harder these get. The higher/more perpendicular one goes the easier.
For some micro-workouts maybe two or three out of the whole week, I’ll choose more advanced calisthenics moves.
There’s a balance that needs to be reached between higher reps/low intensity and lower reps/higher intensity. For the former, it’s the 15 to 25 rep range, and the latter between the 7 to 12 rep range. I’ll progress by adding a rep or two over the days or weeks.
Sets I’ll keep it low. Two to three sets for the higher reps/low intensity. I’ll keep the lower reps/higher intensity at one set.
In the videos above I’m not going to failure I’m just reaching a little bit of fatigue/decreased speed in my movements because I’ll be doing more later on. Could I go all out for one workout that day? Sure. But I’d be getting to the point of needing a decent amount of recovery and calories before I workout again. I could do this when I was 20 but as we get older the more we create a larger need for recovery the more this will hurt our progress.
We know that there are the rare cases of men who are able to train strenuously and show good physical development. But such persons are possessed of extraordinary powers of recuperation and they would get better results from more scientific methods of training. Some men are vitally strong enough to withstand several years of hard wear and tear on the organs, and it is these rare cases that are held up by advocates of strenuous training as proof of the efficacy of such training.
However, few people have the time or inclination for such unnatural methods, and it has been proven that by reasonable methods everyone is able to gain and maintain their full potentialities in health, strength and muscular development. I use the word maintain because only when a natural method is used can the training be continued throughout life. - Court Saldo (of the Maxalding System)
A stimulus for improvement can be triggered without massive damage to one’s muscles. With multiple smaller full-body workouts throughout the day, this can be done.
Longer workouts do have their place but due to our schedules, micro-workouts could provide more benefit as long you intend to nourish or stimulate the body and not to annihilate it. Cultivate energy instead of expending it.
Thank you for making it to the end and let me know your thoughts below.
Until next time and happy Friday!!! Next week I’ll be putting together a PSOAS article.
AF Pararescue guys hit pull ups when crossing the quad for any reason, i.e., staggered throughout the day. Good idea re Youtube/Odysee and nice Team Merica clip.
AF Pararescue guys hit pull ups when crossing the quad for any reason, i.e., staggered throughout the day. Good idea re Youtube/Odysee and nice Team Merica clip.
As someone who is new to this work-out world, I like the idea of micro-workouts and keeping it simple!