Doing the minimum (...or what the heck happened to grubman?)

[grubman]

It would be extremely arrogant of me to have expected anyone to notice I haven’t been “active” on the forums for 3 1/2 months. But this morning I took the first pictures in that time, and felt an “update” and “explanation” might be interesting.



So, while I have many other interests, Lifting has been my PRIMARY focus For the last 5 or 6 years. In any case, several months back, one of my other major hobbies (miniature wargaming) emerged from the grave. In fact, I’ve been enjoying it so much it has taken the forefront in things I want to spend my free time doing.

So where does this leave the gym?

Fortunately my gym is in the basement. If traveling to the gym was in the equation, things might be different. In any case, I put a LOT of thought into what the minimum amount of TIME (not effort) I could put into lifting and maintain what I’ve gained...hopefully.

WORKOUT

I’ve been doing a push (chest, shoulders, Tri, quads) / pull (back, bi, ham, and calves...yeah, not a pull). Working out every day, taking a day or two off when I feel I need it.

The workout consists of a responsible full body warmup (including 1 set of abs), and 1 set per bodypart. 😮

Ok...the one set is actually a weight that I can do for about 15 reps, followed by 5 deep breaths, followed by about 5 more reps, followed by 7 deep breaths, followed by going to failure (or 1 rep before).

For exercises, I just pick one...like maybe bench for chest. Sometimes I’ll do 3 exercises instead, like bench for 15, followed by 5 reps of cable flys, followed by pushups to failure.

3 minutes of rest. The whole workout takes, maybe 20 minutes.

Before anyone asks...no deadlifts, and I’m not even doing free weight squats (not practical for this type of lifting)...I have a magnum perfect squat machine, belt squat, leg press, and lunges for quads.

There is no progressive resistance other than additional reps. My weights stay the same.

DIET

What diet? I’ve always had a reasonable appetite vs calorie expenditure, and I eat fairly healthy. I’m pretty much eating the same kinds of things and the same basic portions...but have no clue what my calorie consumption is. I eat when I’m hungry, and eat deserts whenever I feel like it.

SUPPLIMENTS

None 😮. Not even my beloved pre-workout. I don’t feel my brief workouts justify it, and since I workout after I’ve been drinking a cup of coffee with sweetened creamer and painting miniatures for an hour, I’m wide awake.

MUSIC

We’ve had a house guest for a couple months who will be with us a few months more. Most days I don’t play music, since I’m still working out around 4:30-5:00...late for me, early for most people. I only mention it because I’ve noticed there is a significant difference in the quality of my workouts when I DO lift with music.

WRAP UP

Over these 3 1/2 months of this my weight has gone up 2 pounds. It’s obvious from the pics I’ve put on a tad of fat, and lost a tad of muscle...but I’m a bit surprised at how much LESS I can do, with such a relatively minimal amount of loss.

[MrCarrot]

Welcome back, actually I had been wondering where you had been :-)

Troy hasn't been posting much either :-(

Glad you're still pumping away...

[OldFartTom]

Happy New Year. Simple solution, get your house guest lifting, then turn the music on again.

[kimm4]

Happy New Year and welcome back!

[keyboardworkout]

No sweater pics, no care.

BH has set the standard.

[weiss1967]

nice avi Kimm!

hello grub how are you

[Payton1221]

I have been lifting either every 3rd day to 2X per week for many months. I do three hard pushing sets (usually incline chest one day then ohp the next), three hard pulling sets (pull-ups when my shoulders feel good and hammer strength when they don't), and one rest pause set of legs with bike riding (my favorite means of "working out" these days) another 2-4 days. I'm not making any gains, but I'm always within a few pounds of recent PRs on any given day.

[grubman]

Welcome back, actually I had been wondering where you had been :-)

Troy hasn't been posting much either :-(

Glad you're still pumping away...

Thanks...nice to be missed a little

Troy is AWOL? That’s a shame, lots of fun motivating stuff from him. Hope he returns soon.

Happy New Year. Simple solution, get your house guest lifting, then turn the music on again.

I told her she can use the gym...but when I lift, I lift alone . The focus can be really good when there is no music, but there’s more adrenaline when there is.

Happy New Year and welcome back!

Thank you...not sure if I’m “back” yet, but I’m still lurking.

No sweater pics, no care.

BH has set the standard.

I have no idea what that means, probably due to my absence...but if it involves BH, I’m sure it’s an epic statement.

nice avi Kimm!

hello grub how are you

Pretty darn good

I have been lifting either every 3rd day to 2X per week for many months. I do three hard pushing sets (usually incline chest one day then ohp the next), three hard pulling sets (pull-ups when my shoulders feel good and hammer strength when they don't), and one rest pause set of legs with bike riding (my favorite means of "working out" these days) another 2-4 days. I'm not making any gains, but I'm always within a few pounds of recent PRs on any given day.

I’ve always heard atrophy happens at about the same rate as gains...so, maybe I’m losing at a rate so slow I wouldn’t notice for a decade...or maybe this is all I really need to maintain? Not sure how long before I’m bitten by the “hardcore” bug again...if ever. Either way, the results will be interesting.

[Payton1221]

I’ve always heard atrophy happens at about the same rate as gains...so, maybe I’m losing at a rate so slow I wouldn’t notice for a decade...or maybe this is all I really need to maintain? Not sure how long before I’m bitten by the “hardcore” bug again...if ever. Either way, the results will be interesting.

I've not heard that but I suspect it might be true for a totally UNTRAINED condition, but you're still stressing your muscles.

What I've heard is that it doesn't take near the volume (the intensity still needs to be there though) to maintain your muscles. That's what I feel as if I'm doing: high intensity but low volume and somewhat low frequency.

[MrCarrot]

Never mind the BB pictures, I want to see pictures of the minatures!

Are they like Warhammer Space Marines or something?

[blue9steel]

In any case, several months back, one of my other major hobbies (miniature wargaming) emerged from the grave. In fact, I’ve been enjoying it so much it has taken the forefront in things I want to spend my free time doing.

In for the wargaming news. Epic pics expected.

[jademonkey]

When I quit gymnastics training and started racing bikes (a better sport for old people I decided, at age 28) I tried to lose muscle (dead weight) by not doing a single strength workout in years. It refused to leave until I dieted down to 145. Still retained much more muscle than pretty much everyone else I raced against. It all came back pretty quickly when I quit racing and joined the gym (a better "sport" for super old geezers like me, age 35).

[drudixon]

Hey bud, good to hear from you. I wonder if upping the intensity, lowering reps just a hair might be worth swapping in every other week, ie 6, break, 4 break, 2 or something like that. It's a bit hst but might work once you start to plateau with that. Grats on finding something to be excited about. Lifting can only feed the ocd for so long.

[Jtbny]

Good to see ya Grub -

If strength isnt a concern I think maintaining can be done with minimal movements like you're doing. Lifting is boring as hell to me but miniature wargaming sounds interesting

[ElrondHubbard]

Thanks...nice to be missed a little

Troy is AWOL? That’s a shame, lots of fun motivating stuff from him. Hope he returns soon.



I told her she can use the gym...but when I lift, I lift alone . The focus can be really good when there is no music, but there’s more adrenaline when there is.



Thank you...not sure if I’m “back” yet, but I’m still lurking.



I have no idea what that means, probably due to my absence...but if it involves BH, I’m sure it’s an epic statement.



Pretty darn good



I’ve always heard atrophy happens at about the same rate as gains...so, maybe I’m losing at a rate so slow I wouldn’t notice for a decade...or maybe this is all I really need to maintain? Not sure how long before I’m bitten by the “hardcore” bug again...if ever. Either way, the results will be interesting.

In my experience atrophy has happened orders of magnitude faster than gains, but I think that's influenced partly by age and partly by physical stress. The last time it took me about a year and a half to get back to where I had been prior to a forced 7 month layoff. This time the recovery is much faster, but I lost 15 pounds in two weeks, and it will take a lot more than that to get back to October strength levels.

I think it depends a lot on the individual case.

[tblodg15]

Thanks...nice to be missed a little

Troy is AWOL? That’s a shame, lots of fun motivating stuff from him. Hope he returns soon.

Hi guys!

I am with you grub! Yes I have not been on here at all for a few weeks and not often for a few weeks before that. I am still lifting but also in more of a maintenance mode and am also spending time on another hobby (archery).

My current approach is full body 2 to 3 days per week with 3 to 5 sets per exercise on mostly compound lifts. I have always done mostly compound lifts but for now I have dropped almost all isolation exercises except for a few sets of curls each week. So my overall volume on compounds hasn’t dropped much as I am doing 7-10 sets per muscle group per week (the most I have done is 10-12 sets per week). I am hoping I can still make gains on this reduced frequency program but the mirror and my data collection suggests that I may just be maintaining.

I also relaxed on the diet with no tracking and some fat gain. I am up 6 or 7 pounds from my progress pics in September but that is by design as I plan to gain over the winter but instead of bulking where I pushed up to 176 last winter I am just going to hang out in the low 170’s (171 right now).

Good to hear from you, glad I decided to check the forum for the first time in a few weeks.

[grubman]

Good to see ya Grub -

If strength isnt a concern I think maintaining can be done with minimal movements like you're doing. Lifting is boring as hell to me but miniature wargaming sounds interesting

It’s been a love of mine since I was a kid...before I could afford it . It’s a very complete hobby for a certain kind of person. Creative, artistic, crafty, things to build, paint, craft, collect, research to do, books to read, rules to learn, scenarios to create...and that all culminates in the actual play of the game/battles themselves.

In my experience atrophy has happened orders of magnitude faster than gains, but I think that's influenced partly by age and partly by physical stress. The last time it took me about a year and a half to get back to where I had been prior to a forced 7 month layoff. This time the recovery is much faster, but I lost 15 pounds in two weeks, and it will take a lot more than that to get back to October strength levels.

I think it depends a lot on the individual case.

I think it would be a lot worse/faster if I just totally stoped... my volume isn’t technically down, it’s just different. intensity is actually mathematically higher (weight x reps) and intensity (as in effort) is way up with more productive reps...if myo research is to be believed. And my frequency is 3+ times a week.

Don’t get me wrong, the whirlwind workouts are a lot quicker...but I’m not sure if I’d say they are “easier”...although, I certainly don’t expect gains.

Hi guys!

I am with you grub! Yes I have not been on here at all for a few weeks and not often for a few weeks before that. I am still lifting but also in more of a maintenance mode and am also spending time on another hobby (archery).

My current approach is full body 2 to 3 days per week with 3 to 5 sets per exercise on mostly compound lifts. I have always done mostly compound lifts but for now I have dropped almost all isolation exercises except for a few sets of curls each week. So my overall volume on compounds hasn’t dropped much as I am doing 7-10 sets per muscle group per week (the most I have done is 10-12 sets per week). I am hoping I can still make gains on this reduced frequency program but the mirror and my data collection suggests that I may just be maintaining.

I also relaxed on the diet with no tracking and some fat gain. I am up 6 or 7 pounds from my progress pics in September but that is by design as I plan to gain over the winter but instead of bulking where I pushed up to 176 last winter I am just going to hang out in the low 170’s (171 right now).

Good to hear from you, glad I decided to check the forum for the first time in a few weeks.

Glad your still here

I always wanted to get a legitimate longbow...it would be thematically in line with my fascination with the 100 years war...and apparently it’s a good test of strength as well.

Interesting how we are on the same kind of “break” at the same time...I can only assume that means we’ll get “back into it” at the same time as well.

[grubman]

Sorry guys, somehow I missed these replies.

Never mind the BB pictures, I want to see pictures of the minatures!

Are they like Warhammer Space Marines or something?

In for the wargaming news. Epic pics expected.

Ha ha, well, I usually don’t mix interests on forums...back in the day I was doing mass battles (mostly Warhammer fantasy), but finding people who play mass battles is very hard. Skirmish games are more popular these days. I’ve been doing a lot of fantasy skirmish, but am starting work on some 100 years war English for some historical battles.

I’m “old school”. Most of my miniatures are from the 80s and 90s. I have a certain style I like...not the “dark” fantasy that is popular these days.

Skirmish games don’t make for “epic” pics, ha ha, here are just a couple...my favorite picture I took, all the minis I’ve painted in the last 3 months, and finally the beginnings of my 100 years war army.

When I quit gymnastics training and started racing bikes (a better sport for old people I decided, at age 28) I tried to lose muscle (dead weight) by not doing a single strength workout in years. It refused to leave until I dieted down to 145. Still retained much more muscle than pretty much everyone else I raced against. It all came back pretty quickly when I quit racing and joined the gym (a better "sport" for super old geezers like me, age 35).

Age 35...that’s a young pup . I went 17 years without lifting before I started up again...even after that long I looked “muscular” even if I was also scrawny. Came back fast, looking like I lifted after only a couple months.

Hey bud, good to hear from you. I wonder if upping the intensity, lowering reps just a hair might be worth swapping in every other week, ie 6, break, 4 break, 2 or something like that. It's a bit hst but might work once you start to plateau with that. Grats on finding something to be excited about. Lifting can only feed the ocd for so long.

I’ll probably eventually go back to a more “traditional” full body eventually. Right now I’m enjoying this, and the quick pace makes the workout fly by pretty quickly, since my attention span is lacking right now.

[blue9steel]

It’s been a love of mine since I was a kid...before I could afford it .

When I was younger most of us couldn't afford all the figures so we used card stock cut to the size of the bases. Wasn't very impressive looking but worked just as well.

Ha ha, well, I usually don’t mix interests on forums...back in the day I was doing mass battles

We had some pretty epic Warhammer Fantasy Battles with like 9 different armies on the field at the same time. It was insanely time consuming but fun, no way I could do that nowadays.