Back in July I started a new exercise regiment. I have read about many people who do extraordinarily things daily and it put me into thinking mode. Herschel Walker is famous for his daily regiment, some dude on a podcast does 800m walking lunge with a barbell every day, stuff like that. I decided I was going to start a 5 year plan. No one would ever buy my 5 year plan because frankly no one has the patience. Heck, I may not even have the patience myself. But imagine yourself in 5 years from now. Each day, part of your routine is 60 sets of stuff PLUS workouts. How healthy would you be? Would you be that guy/gal that people talk about in a positive way?
Here are my thoughts.
Every month I add 1 thing. Just 1. After 60 months, I have 60 things/sets.
It should be easy enough I don't need a warm up.
It should be hard enough I probably couldn't do 2 straight sets without stopping or if I could, it would smoke me.
It should take about a minute, no more.
It should be extremely convenient and require no set up time, no fancy equipment, only something that is pretty much always on hand. (For me, a barbell is pretty much always nearby)
It doesn't need to be something that will require extreme sweatiness like 1 minute sprint or 20 burpees.
I decided to start to July with 20 barbell curls (why curls? long answer, ask me in person if you care). Every day. Just 1.
This wasn't my only exercise by any stretch, just 1 thing. Sometimes I did it in the morning, sometimes the evening, didn't matter. 1 set. Every day. Whenever.
In August, I moved to 2 sets a day. I then starting putting out the challenge to some of you to pick something to begin. Some of you did, some of you did not.
In September, 3 sets of barbell curls a day. 1800 reps for the month.
In October, I added a set of overhead barbell split squats. It tags along with one of my sets of curls. In November, I will add another.
3+ months in and here is what I have gathered.
I have days that I miss a workout unscheduled and instead of getting kinda internally grumpy, my consolation prize is there. I still did something on the schedule and that reduces the self-pissedoffness. I still feel kinda successful.
It takes about 3 weeks before I am REALLY ready to move forward. The first week tends to have some procrastination and late night cramming. Then the next 2 weeks tend to be a "figure out how to make it fit and convenient" period. By the end of 3 weeks, I am typically ready for more so week 4 is pretty easy.
You have to understand this. One set a day is not going to change your body. 2 sets a day will not change your body much. 1 set a day DOES change your mind. It prepares you to be successful for 2 sets a day. That prepares your MIND for 3 sets a day and so on. I don't know if there will be a magical transformation time or anything physically, but mentally there is already a lot of positive changes. I imagine when I get to 60 sets of stuff, I will break it up into 3-6 small 10-20 minute workouts a day. I don't know. I think that is the beauty is that you figure it out as you go. You just keep taking small steps forward.
Remember, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. What will your daily life look like in 5 years? Are you willing to start shaping that now?
Do you want to be one of those guys/gals that people consider legendary? Plant the tree today. Water the tree every day.
Almost forgot- Upper pavilion. Deadlifts today and whatever else I decide is a good idea. Each session may be different based on how many are in it.
Check out symmetricstrength.com to see what weights you should strive for. 49 year old 147lb female? 190 lbs for 1 would be a great target and 240 lbs long term.
See ya in the woods.
Comments