sporadic fitness all day long (grazing) VS. daily "all-at-once" workout page 2

[Richardmac]

This is one of the ways Tom hardy trained for the film 'warrior'

He did a workout consisting of:

Pressups 10-7-5-3
10 normal - 7 diamond - 5 wide - 3 on knuckles

Db raise (from next to his sides to above his head, same rep system)

I think he also may have done this for Pullups and squats (using same technique as he did with pressups).

He apparently did this about 4x during the day in order to bulk up/get fit for the role.

Iv been thinking about doing it but alternating exercises on different days eg 180 degree raises for swings....squats for lunges etc.

You can find his routine (part of it) in a google search.

This sort of training makes a lot of sense. Firstly like was said, this style of work would make Grok proud. ALSO if you think about it this daily low impact training potentially done multiple times a day is exactly what is done by gymnasts (who have phenomenal builds), cyclists (who have amazing legs) as well as people like surfers who dont look too bad for their daily workouts.

Richard

[trippplez]

+1 basically to all replies

Just to add: For the guys/gals looking for ways to exercise during the workday and don't have private space - you actually have it, it's called bathroom/toilet. I'm joking that about half of my fitness efforts take place in the office bathroom during the workday. The cliche questions I get asked are what do I do at the gym

Personally, I'm using Convict Conditioning for the exercises, with a personalized routine of daily workouts. As you can see from my Twitter photos in my sig, at least the visual benefits on the body are pretty good...

[Kingofturtles]

+1 basically to all replies

Just to add: For the guys/gals looking for ways to exercise during the workday and don't have private space - you actually have it, it's called bathroom/toilet. I'm joking that about half of my fitness efforts take place in the office bathroom during the workday. The cliche questions I get asked are what do I do at the gym

Personally, I'm using Convict Conditioning for the exercises, with a personalized routine of daily workouts. As you can see from my Twitter photos in my sig, at least the visual benefits on the body are pretty good...

it looks like you have 0% muscle tho.

[WIChuck]

I've been thinking about this sort of thing since I began to build fitness and lose weight a few months ago.

Over the years, I tried the train to failure and wait a few days to recover approach, but the few days saw me finding excuses to avoid killing myself and I would always stop exercising.

This time, I did measured numbers of moderate exercises each day, often several times a day. It eventually provided substantial gains in muscle and fitness, along with one important factor... I got into the habit of exercising. Now, I do some workout every day, rotating through pushups, pullups, planks and moderate aerobic work on a bike, along with the normal routine of stairs and walking my job requires. It's something I look forward to and enjoy. I even try to sneak some extra reps in the office.

I may never be an elite athlete or body builder, but slow and steady has made a significant change in my life. We all need to find what works for us.

[YogaBare]

I've recently started doing this. There's so many moments during the day that you can throw in a couple of strength bearing exercises. As I wait for my coffee to boil I stand on one leg and lift the other leg as high as it can go without bending my standing knee (great exercise for the glutes and thighs). As I take a shower or brush my teeth, I do a couple of squats. I'm definitely seeing a quick improvement.

I agree with Tribal Rob that it's good to go to failure every now and again, but for overall health I don't think you can beat small bursts of consistent exercise.

[Tribal Rob]

It would seem from today's blog post that you need to go to max effort to engage all your muscle fibers.

[jerry lewis]

Nice post and thanx for shaing this.

[sandstone]

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To simplify this idea further- isn't this he way most people lived up until very recently, probably post war. It is only in the last 50 years or so that he majority of the population have been desk bound. Before that they worked manual jobs for 8-10 hours per day which is after all a form of exercise which runs continuously throughout the day.

You can talk about doing specific exercises for set & reps or until failure but is that more effective than doing construction work every day. I've recently bought a small farm which keeps me very busy walking, carrying, digging the majority of time and I've seriously never been in better shape. Even with very little formal exercise I'm leaner and stronger than before when I followed a conventional program. Certainly an improved Primal diet has helped as well.

When thing are hectic I get through the day, if things are quieter I may add in some Movnat style movements.

The two things I do concentrat on are mobility & stretching (most days) and some kind of intuitive control I.e. if I'm feeling tired I do try to back off a bit- I'm never constrained by the idea of having to do X amount of work in a day.

Varying the load is key to daily training.

[Richardmac]

It's a great subject. Personally I put on over 30lbs in 14months once by eating LOADS and following DC training (high intensity, rest pause. I got really strong and big (about 210 and 10% bf). It stopped being fun having to eat so much and my joints were taking a pounding.

Now, the debate is on. From a bodyweight movement standpoint, do u go with marks LHT program which has you hitting failure, or follow JP from the site strength villain who has his guys do 'frequency method' pushups/chins etc fringe the day and is seeing great carry over into strenth.

I like pushing to failure and am on the advanced movements in marks LHT program, but I also like doing something everday and would happily do more pushups, chins etc at the moment but havnt as I know I will be over training if I try and do them alongside the LHT failure workouts.

I just have to decide which I have a stronger desire to do b/c both will bring results (one probably quicker than the other but that depends on the individual and how they approach training and also how they react to it).

As an aside. If you are looking for daily exercises, or what may be classed as a monthly challenge (or just to have a look), I strongly, strongly recommend you google 'villanous challenge 1' .... then look up ' villanous challenge 2' etc etc (there are 5). This will give you some great goals to work towards, some that require daily work (sometimes multiple times a day if u want to), others that require a session or two a week (potentially something for everyone no matter where you stand on this debate). You can all thank me later haha.

Richard

[Tribal Rob]

I think like the CICO debate this is one of those 'horses for courses' things. What works is what you can stick to and don't hate and can see/feel working. Anything is better than nowt.

Personally this is what I'm doing and it's working for me. Move Slowly - walking often, normally to get baby to sleep, prob at least 3 hrs per week, often more. LHT - Mark's PBF every Saturday - to failure on most things, I've just done a set of 50 push ups, up from 45 max last week, squats I'm doing full body weight x 50 going deep, pull ups are weak, about 5 neutral grip, just done a set of 8 negatives to failure this week. Overhead press - feet on window sill, which is about mid thigh height for me. Progress is decent IMO and I get plenty of rest. I sprint on tuesdays - don't time, just run like satan is chasing me 8 times. I go for a long run on Thursdays - adding a mile a week as I'm wanting to do a 10 mile run at the end of October, and want to do a marathon next year just to tick it off

I like pushing myself, getting sweaty and feeling the effort. My other half finds that weird and would much rather do stuff like sandstone - farm work, all day, as she says there is always something she would be rarther doing than working out and dosn't want it to be something separate she has to decide to do, but something that just happens.