Desert strength training

Recently we took a trip to the desert.  While we were there we stayed in a house that was dug underground.  Many people live in dug out houses out there due to the intense heat.  

Not surprisingly, they had no gyms out there.  

One of the benefits of body weight exercises is they can be done anywhere and do not need a gym.  

The following picture we went to a look out for sunset.  My son decided to do elbow lever off a fence.  It started to creak and crack so he didn't do this for long.  He did straighten up, but I didn't get a decent photo before he had to stop because we were worried the fence would collapse.  

While the land may look very flat, and for the most part it was, there was actually a bit of a cliff to the left of the barricade.  

Back from the lookout there were some large rocks that had been placed to prevent cars driving up to the lookout.  

Much to the amazement of onlookers, my son did elbow lever using these rocks.  He held elbow lever for some time.  It is easy, because he is strong.  While he is skinny, he is stronger than he looks and can probably do a lot of physical things you can't do because he trains properly.  

While it has nothing to do with strength training exercise, below is a photo of one of the few trees that grew out there in the desert.  This tree was about two meters tall, gnarled from the desert winds, far older than it looked, and must have incredible strength to be able to survive out there.  

This little tree is a true representation of Prochnost'.

Tree in the desert

BMI over 12 months

There is an old saying that goes "Shchi da Kasha, Pisha Nasha", which roughly means "Cabbage soup and buckwheat porridge are our food".  

There seems to be solid logic behind this saying that goes beyond the fact that these were some of the few foods that were almost always available in the old days.  

Most of my life people have told me that I need to fatten up and that I am too thin.  My body is not like theirs, for me to be healthy I need to be relatively thin.  

Gaining fat for a skinny person can be dangerous and unhealthy.  Gaining weight by gaining muscle on the other hand is healthy.   

If I eat poorly and don't exercise I tend to lose weight (which is the opposite of many people).  I believe this is mostly from losing muscle mass, and gaining fat around my organs.  This is a bad thing.  

If I 'eat healthy' and exercise I tend to gain weight (again this is the opposite for many people).  This is mostly from losing fat around my organs, and gaining muscle mass.  This is a good thing.  This is how my body works, and if you are skinny fat it is likely how your body also works.  If you are skinny fat, you want to gain weight but not gain fat.  

Gaining fat for a skinny fat person is unhealthy as they mostly gain fat around their organs.  Skinny fat people need to gain muscle to be healthy.  

I need to be relatively thin to be healthy, but for some time I kept slipping below my healthy range.  For a while my weight was too low, and I was worried.  

To help keep an eye on things I recorded my weight each week for over a year.  I got on top of things, and started to put on a little weight, you will see this in the graphs below.  

Weighing in at the same time, on the same day each week, wearing the same thing, for an entire year (plus a few extra weeks), enhances the data integrity and allows for some interpretation of the data and some fascinating conclusions to be drawn.   

BMI stats for over a year

In the above graph I weighed myself at the same day each week, around the same time, and wearing the same thing (just my glasses so I could read the scale).  

A 'healthy' Body Mass Index (BMI) is considered to be from 18.5 to 24.9 and as you can see I spent most of the time within that range.  My average BMI over the past year, even when you include the first few outliers, was well within the healthy BMI range.  

Looking at the graph you can't help but notice the initial sharp increase.  This is when I stopped eating wheatbix for breakfast, and started to eat buckwheat (grechnevaya kasha).  It changed my weight and helped me become healthier.  

During the initial BMI increase, I visibly lost fat even though I was gaining weight.  As I gained weight and lost fat, presumably I was gaining muscle.  Prior to recording these stats my cholesterol was a bit high, and my LDL to HDL ratio was not great.  Towards the end of these stats my cholesterol is low, and my LDL to HDL ratio is perfect.  

As nothing else (diet, exercise) changed, I am pretty sure that this is entirely due to eating grechka instead of wheatbix for breakfast.  It appears that buckwheat is far more healthy for me than wheat.  

I also recorded in kilograms how much the BMI deviated from the ‘healthy’ line in the graph below.  The bar on the right shows the entire healthy range to provide context.  0 is the healthy line, anything below zero shows how far below the healthy range I dipped, and anything above shows how far into the healthy range I reached.  As you can see, I was at the lower end of of the healthy BMI range, which is where my body needs to be in order to be healthy.  

Kilograms above or below the 'healthy' zone

So there you have it, a little over one year of BMI stats collected weekly.  Initially I was a bit too low.  I started eating buckwheat instead of wheat.  Since eating buckwheat every day my BMI has been healthier, I have lost fat, my cholesterol level has dropped, my LDL to HDL ratio has improved, and I gained weight.  

If you are skinny fat, record your weight every seek for a few weeks.  Weigh in at the same time at the same day each week, try to do this before getting in the shower so you are not weighing clothes.  Then start eating grechnevaya kasha for breakfast.  

Buckwheat is high in high quality protein, and very nutritious.  Perhaps buckwheat will make you stronger and healthier.  

Shchi da Kasha, Pisha Nasha (Щи да каша – пиша наша) - Cabbage soup and buckwheat are our food.  

Fitness park equipment

Recently we went on holiday.  While we were travelling we found a park with playground and fitness equipment.  They had heaps of things that my son wanted to use.  I took a few photos as I found it amusing.  

They had a stationary bike, peddling was too easy so my son used it for elbow lever.

Stationary Bike

They had dip bars, my son used these for dips and then elbow lever.

More elbow lever

There were push up bars that were intended to make push ups easier, these were good for elbow lever.  

Elbow lever on push up bars

An inclined bench was used for elbow lever.

Elbow lever off an inclined bench

He had another try at the stationary bike as it was so much fun.  Normally exercise bikes are used by fat people to sit and peddle slowly while pretending that they are exercising.  I can't imagine many thin people ever use them, and I wouldn't think anyone would use them for elbow lever.  

How else would you use a stationary bike?

As well as all this there was a playground.  There was a thing in the playground that spins.  My son used it for elbow lever.  It was difficult and scary as the thing was spinning.  Apparently his legs acted like a sail and they caught the wind.  It was terrifying to watch.  

spinning elbow lever

The park was almost empty when I took these photos.  We went back to it later and it was full of people.  

Much to the delight of onlookers, my son did more elbow lever off the equipment, and did a lot of pull ups using their pull up bar.  I don't think these people had ever seen a strict pull up.  

A few of the young men attempted to do a pull up after watching my son, but none of them were strong enough.  

Fitbit resting heart rate

I wrote an earlier post reviewing the Fitbit charge 4.  Overall it is a good piece of equipment.  One of the main issues I noticed was the resting heart rate seemed odd.  

Since then I have kept an eye on it, and the resting hears rate algorithm is clearly not accurate!  Some days my heart rate is constantly above the 'resting heart rate'.  Even when I am asleep.  

The screen shot below is a perfect example.  I did not do any aerobic exercise and was sitting around almost the entire day.  My heart rate never dropped below 84, yet my FitBit Charge 4 calculated my resting heart rate as being 79.  The following day it estimated my resting heart rate to be 77, so it doesn't appear to be averaging over a longer timeframe.  

Never dipped below 84

There are plenty of days like this where my fitbit estimates a resting heart rate that is not right.  

The screenshot below it estimated my resting heart rate to be 77.  On this day my heart rate only went as low as 77 twice in that day, and was significantly above this for the remainder of the day and night.  

If you think the fitbit's algorithm excludes any exercise when calculating resting heart rate, that still wouldn't explain what you see here.  I did not do any aerobic exercise and was sitting for most of that day.  I was working from home that day, so didn't walk to or from my car, I sat in front of a computer all day, and rested in the sun on my deck at lunch time.  I would not have travelled more than 30 meters from my bed that day.  

Only down to 77 twice

Below is another example.  On this graph my heart rate dipped to 80, only twice, and only briefly.  Once around 2am the other around 4am, I was possibly asleep during those times.  Other than that my heart rate was above 80.  Somehow it calculated my resting heart rate to be 80.

This time I worked from the office, so walked to and from my car.  I spent the rest of the day sitting at my desk.  I may have gotten up once or twice to walk to the kitchen or go to the toilet, but there was no exercise.  I didn't even go for a walk at lunch that day.  

Resting heart rate of 80 - but how?

The FitBit Charge 4 is not accurate when estimating resting heart rate.  If you are thinking of getting one, it tells the time well, it seems to count heart beats accurately, but the algorithm that estimates resting heart rate is massively inaccurate.  

Protein powder vs meat vs eggs

I looked into protein shakes to increase my protein intake.  They taste great and take less effort and time than cooking food, but they seem expensive and lack many nutrients that are present in meats, vegetables, and grains.  

Strangely, I am yet to find any decent comparisons of the amount of protein and the price per serve in protein shakes to meats or other foods.  So I looked up and compared several meats, eggs, vegetables, and a few grains.  For ease of reference, I included the websites I gleaned the information.  

I am interested in protein percentage and noted if the food is not considered a complete protein.  Leucine is an amino acid that is important for building muscle, repairing muscle, and it is metabolised in muscle fibers.  I am also interested in iron content as I struggle to get enough iron.  I know a lot of people care about calories, so I also include the amount of calories of each even though I think people vastly misunderstand calories.  

To give the below comparison some perspective, the recommended daily intake for a male about my size and age is roughly:

Protein 50 g
Leucine 2.4 g
Iron 8 mg
Energy 2,000 kcal

To make the comparison as useful as possible, I am comparing 100 grams of each as it would be around one serving, except for the protein powder which is one 40g serving.  

Protein Powder

Note: whey protein are considered complete proteins as they contain good amounts of all essential amino acids.

Protein Powder per 40 g serve

https://www.uprotein.com.au/100-whey-protein-powder-enzymes-2kgs/

Protein 33 g

Leucine 3.39 g

Iron 0.74 mg

Energy 149 kcal

Meat

Note: meat based proteins are considered to be complete proteins as they contain good amounts of all essential amino acids
Note: about 14% to 18% of iron is usually bioavailable from meat

Chicken per 100 g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171477/nutrients

Protein 27.3 g 

Leucine 2.33 g

Iron 1.04 mg

Energy 165 kcal

Beef per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174032/nutrients

Protein 25.9 g other cuts as low as 13.6 g

Leucine 1.45 g 

Iron 2.6 mg 

Energy 250 kcal

Rabbit per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174348/nutrients

Protein 33 g

Leucine 2.57 g

Iron 4.85 mg

Energy 173 kcal

Quail per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169902/nutrients

Protein 25.1 g

Leucine unknown

Iron 4.43 mg

Energy 227 kcal

Squab per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169905/nutrients

Protein 23.9 g

Leucine unknown

Iron 5.91 mg

Energy 213 kcal

Eggs

Note: eggs are high in all of the essential amino acids and are considered to be a complete protein

Chicken egg boiled per 100g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173424/nutrients

Protein 12.6 g

Leucine 1.08 g

Iron 1.19 mg

Energy 155 kcal

Quail egg per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/172191/nutrients

Protein 13 g

Leucine 1.15 g

Iron 3.65 mg

Energy 158 kcal

Vegetables and Grains

Note: many plant based proteins are considered to be incomplete proteins as they are low in one or more essential amino acids
Note: Plant based iron is not as bioavailable as animal based iron, for example less than 2% of the iron in spinach is bioavailable

Comparison of nutrition: Buckwheat vs Rice vs Wheat vs Maize

Spinach per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168462/nutrients

Protein 2.86 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.223 g

Iron 2.71 mg (low bioavailability)

Energy 23 kcal

Soy bean (sprouted and steamed) per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168460/nutrients

Protein  8.47 g

Leucine 0.607 g

Iron 1.31 mg

Energy 81 kcal

Peas per 100g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/170419/nutrients

Protein  5.42 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.323 g

Iron 1.47 mg

Energy 81 kcal

Lima beans per 100 g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174253/nutrients

Protein 7.8 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.673 g

Iron 2.39 mg

Energy 115 kcal

Corn per 100 g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169998/nutrients

Protein 3.27 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.348 g

Iron 0.52 mg

Energy 86 kcal

Buckwheat per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/170286/nutrients

Protein 13.2 g

Leucine 0.832 g

Iron 2.2 mg

Energy 343 kcal

Rice per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168930/nutrients

Protein 2.38 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.197 g

Iron 0.2 g

Energy 130 kcal

Wheat per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168944/nutrients

Protein 9.61 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine unknown

Iron 3.71 mg

Energy 332 kcal 

Mulberry fresh leaves per 100g

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17135021/

Protein 7.34 g (range 4.72 to 9.96 g)

Leucine unknown

Iron 7.53 mg (range 4.70 to 10.36 mg)

Energy 77.5 kcal (69 to 86 kcal)

Conclusion

Meats: Rabbit meat has more protein than chicken or beef, and had the highest percentage of protein other than the protein powder.  Surprisingly, rabbit meat has far more iron than beef or chicken.  Rabbit meat was also the superior meat when it comes to the Leucine content.  Rabbit meat is very low in fat.  It makes me wonder why more people don't eat rabbit meat.  Rabbit is far too expensive and difficult to buy here, so I would eat chicken as it is high is protein, high in leucine, and has some iron.  

Eggs: Chicken eggs are reasonably affordable and easy to buy, and has good levels of protein, high in leucine, and has some iron.  

Plant foods: As far as plant foods go, buckwheat was the stand out.  Buckwheat is one of the few plants that are considered complete proteins.  Buckwheat is nutritionally comparable to egg, but has higher iron and higher fiber, and is easier to digest.  The carbohydrates in buckwheat are healthy.  

Novel plant foods: mulberry leaves are an underutilised (and seemingly unknown) vegetable.  Mulberry leaves are far more nutritious, easier to grow, higher yielding per square meter, need far less water, and use less fertiliser etc than common vegetables that we eat.  I find them to be unpleasant raw, but when cooked and used like spinach they have a mild taste and an agreeable texture.  I only included this for my own curiosity as you probably can't buy them anywhere and would need your own tree if you ever planned to eat these leaves.

Price comparisons per gram of protein

I tried to compare rough costs per kg, cost per serving, and the cost per gram of protein of some of the foods listed.  Some meats (rabbit, squab, quail) are expensive or even impossible to buy locally, so I have not included them below.  Prices vary from day to day, and from store to store, so the following will not be completely accurate.  Still, this is interesting and may be of some use, so I will leave it in for now.  

Uprotein powder costs $94 for 2 kg, $1.88 per serving, or about 6 cents per gram of protein

Chicken costs about $10 per kg, $1 per 100g or just under 4 cents per gram of protein 

Beef mince costs about $11 per kg, $1.10 per 100g or just under 5 cents per gram of protein (or vastly higher depending on the price of meat or the cut eaten)  

Spinach price varies considerably, sometimes about $15 per kg, $1.50 per 100g, or about 52 cents per gram of protein 

Buckwheat costs about $7 per kg, $0.70 per 100g, just over 5 cents per gram of protein

Eggs cost about $5 per dozen, 2 eggs weigh about 100g and cost about $0.83, or just under 7 cents per gram of protein.  If only eating egg whites (as many people do), the cost per gram of protein doubles

Public Chin Up Bar Update

Back in February I wrote a blog post about floods destroying the local pull up bars.  These were the only public chin up bars in the region.  I now have an update, so thought I would share.

The old broken fitness equipment has since been removed, leaving behind a sunken square with weeds and holes.  This made me think that the local council was not going to replace the broken fitness equipment.  

The local chin up bars have been removed

This is what was left of the chin up bars after the floods

Then I remembered council also had to replace the broken playground that was destroyed by the floods, and I vaguely remember someone saying something about them putting in new 'fitness equipment' there.  So I went to have a look at the new playground.

The new playground looks good.  Sadly, the new fitness equipment does not.  

Nothing there is overly useful, and there were no chin up bars.  Such a wasted opportunity.

The new fitness equipment

The new equipment, from the other direction

What a sad state our country is in when there are no longer any public chin up bars in the region.  

Earlier this year I did an exercise challenge where I completed 100+ pull ups per day for ten consecutive days.  I also did a pull up challenge over the month of May.  My son and I then did another challenge that we called 'the big hour' where we each completed over 100 strict pull ups in one hour.  Very few people in this country have ever achieved these things.  

There is no way people can train to be able to do these exercises unless they already own monkey bars or something similar.  This is not really possible for renters.  I am very lucky as I have monkey bars at home, and use them for many strength exercises, but there are a few things I would like to do that cannot be done using my monkey bars.  

I live in a country where over 2 out of every 3 people is overweight or obese.  Most of the 'fit' and 'strong' people that I see lack functional strength and just rely on their bulk.  Most have very low strength to weight ratio.  Many have low muscle tone.  If they had some way to train I can only imagine what they would be able to achieve.

Our councils dedicate money to improving health, but the money is all directed to the wrong areas.  Put in some chin up bars, allow people to train strength using body weight.  

Kettlebell Get Up

I have been doing the kettlebell get up for some time now and thought I should write a blog post on it.

This exercise is often called a 'Turkish Get Up' or a 'Kettlebell Get Up' or much less frequently a "Russian Get Up".  It is great for whole body strengthening and conditioning.  My understanding is that even though it uses a Russian girya, it was Turkish wrestlers who originally developed this exercise.

I have a few old injuries that are causing increasing issues as I age.  I take prescription medication each day, as well as that I am allowed to take over the counter pain killers such as paracetamol when needed.  

My body started to degrade, so I decided to get stronger by doing body weight exercises.  This really helped, and for some time I was in far less pain and was more able to do everyday things.  Then inevitably, my body got older, and it started to degrade again.  I was in more and more pain, I was back to having days where my migraine would not ease off, and I was less able to do day-to-day things.  

I take my prescription as directed, and I often needed to take paracetamol once or twice during the day.  As time went on I was taking more and more paracetamol until it reached the point where I was taking the maximum safe dosage every day.  This reached a point where, often an hour or two before I could take my next dose, I was counting down the minutes and wishing time would hurry.  

This was a dreadful way to live, so I decided to try and change it.  I started doing kettlebell get ups.  They helped a lot.

I still do some body weight exercises each day, and some stretches, as well as doing GetUps.  I started doing one each side (two in total) with a very light weight.  I worked my way up to doing three each side (six in total) with a light weight.  Then I progressed to doing five per side (ten in total).  This only takes me five to ten minutes, and does not have to be completed in one go.  From here I have kept the number the same, and am gradually increasing the weight.  

Since doing Get Ups I no longer have many entire days of migraines.  I am in far less pain.  Most days I only take my prescription and don't need anything else.  That is a massive improvement to my quality of life.  

With a get-up, you move through a hip hinge, a knee-dominant move, and transforming a horizontal press into an isometric vertical press.  As the movement is unilateral, you are actively resisting rotation the whole time.  It’s rare that you get to practice so many cornerstone movements in a single rep of an exercise.  

Some benefits of doing Get Ups include:

• Time under tension is significant when compared to other exercises
• Involves many movements in one exercise
• It targets many muscle groups in unison
• Improves mobility and enhances the ability to do everyday tasks
• Promotes cross lateralization (eg getting right brain to work with left side)
• Promotes upper body stability
• Promotes lower body stability
• Enhances core strength and stability
• Ties the right arm to the left leg, and left arm to the right leg (similar to martial arts)
• Helps build balance
• Promotes spatial awareness
• Develops a front/back weight shift
• Develops upper body strength, trunk strength, and hip strength
• Retains and develops the ability of getting up from the floor (which is important as we age) 
• Improves shoulder stability through different planes of motion and positions
• Improves coordination
• Helps to even out any movement asymmetries you might have
• Has carryover into other sports like martial arts

I considered writing instructions on how to do a Get Up.  Pavel Tsatsouline provides excellent demonstration and instructions here (starting from about 15:04) and you are best going there and watching/rewatching this rather than me trying to paraphrase Pavel.  

With the GetUp there are some safety tips in there to take heed of.  They are all mentioned in Pavel's video.  I will stress that you must never do more than five consecutive reps per side, and never train to failure.  It is not hard to learn this as long as you start lighter than you think.  Many people start learning this skill with no weight, or using something super light such as a shoe.  Build up weight slowly, and all will be well.  

Once you have a kettlebell, you don't spend any more money to be able to do this.  Kettlebells are built tough, they should last a lifetime, so no need to buy replacements.  There are no gym fees, no membership fees, and no personal trainers.  It only takes 5 to 10 minutes spread through the day to do these, no travel time, no wasted time wasted getting into and out of gym clothes.  

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline: "the kettlebell is an ancient Russian weapon against weakness".  Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным).

1200 days of exercise ten things I learned

A few years ago I completed my first 30-day exercise challenge.  At that stage, just getting to and from the floor was hard, and doing any push ups was surprisingly difficult.  Back then I found sitting at my desk at work to be difficult, and just getting around the house was harder than it ought to be. 

During that challenge I had to complete a minimum of 100 push ups each day, and no less than 25 push ups per set.  No rest days, and no excuses.  I could exceed the minimums if I wanted, but this didn’t reduce the number I had to do the following day.  This was incredibly difficult, and was a great exercise challenge.

While I was unaware of it at the time, this was the start of something big for me.  

At the end of the challenge, I immediately began another 30-day challenge.  When that one finished I started another.  When that finished, another was started, I kept doing this, and I haven't stopped.

Push up handles

I kept notes of all my challenges, a while ago I realised that I reached day 1,200.  Considering that before I completed my first challenge I rarely did 2 consecutive days of exercise, this is momentous for me.  

I wrote the following list of ten things I learned from doing 1,200 consecutive days of exercise.  I considered writing a list of 1,200 things that I learned, but that seemed excessive, so I whittled it down.

Ten things I learned from 1,200 days of exercise:

1. Push ups are hard and boring, they never get easier 
2. Pull ups are hard, they never get easier 
3. Planking is hard and stupid and boring, and so are squats 
4. If I don’t have daily minimums, I will find an excuse not to do any exercise – ever 
5. Most days are too cold, or too hot, or I have a headache, or I am in pain, or I am too busy, or I am too ill, or I am too tired from doing something else, or I don’t have time, or I am simply not in the mood for doing any exercise 
6. Completing any short-term challenge (eg 1,000 push ups a day for two months) is both pointless and highly motivational 
7. I have nothing for number seven 
8. Most people in this country can’t do the minimums that I can do (because they don't train)  
9. Most people could do vastly more than my minimums, and more than my maximum, if they could be bothered to train properly  
10. Since starting these challenges, most days I am in far less pain than I used to be in, so even though the challenges are hard and boring and the exercises are stupid and I don’t want to do them, it is still worth doing them

I have a few injuries from years go that make me not want to do any exercise.  Given the amount of pain I was in every day prior to doing 30 day exercise challenges, and how much less pain I am in now, once I started these 30 day challenges I haven’t stopped.  

Once one challenge ends I immediately begin another.  Not all challenges work the same muscle groups.  Sometimes challenges are exactly the same as the precious challenge, other times they are entirely different.  There are no days when I do no exercise.

Two of my giri

These challenges are very different from Western training.  Western training is ineffective, and you would need rest days.  I am not going to failure, I am not pushing out one more rep, I am not feeling the burn, I am not having rest days, I am not aiming for heterotrophy or any other form of aesthetics.  

This is prochnost' training.  I am training for strength and am getting a lot stronger.  Stronger muscles hold my body in a better position and reduce my pain.  Being in less pain means I push through doing these on the days when I don’t want to.  

I hope the ten things I learned from 1,200 days of exercise is helpful in motivating someone else to give it a try.  

If this is you, start small.  Pick an exercise, decide on daily minimums, then meet and exceed those minimums every day for 30 days.  Don't go to failure, and don't have rest days.  See how you feel at the end, perhaps you will want to do another 30 day challenge, and another, and one day you will look back at all you have achieved.  

May pull up challenge

I am a big fan of 30-day exercise challenges.  They are not so long that you get bored, but they are long enough to notice a result from your hard work.  

My son wanted me to do a minimum of 30 pull ups a day, for 30 days.  I didn’t want to, but I love 30-day challenges and couldn’t say no.  I increased that to 31 days so it could line up smoothly with the calendar month of May.   

These are strict unweighted pull ups.  No swinging, none of that kipping nonsense, from dead hang until my collar bone is level or above the bar.  I have a weighted belt that I sometimes use for pull ups.  I decided not to add any extra weight for this challenge.  

As with any challenge, you have minimums that must be met each day.  No cheating, no rest days.  You can and should exceed your minimums, but that does not count towards the following day, you still have to meet your minimums the following day.  

I recorded the number of pull ups I did each day over the month of May.  As you can see, most days I exceeded my minimums.  Some days I exceeded my minimums by quite a lot.  

Pull ups per day over the month of May

It felt like the longest 30-day challenge ever (and not just because it was 31 days).  Some days the weather was bitterly cold, or windy, or rainy, or frosty, or I left home in the dark and returned home in the dark. 

Doing pull ups in the dark in the rain after a long day of work, or doing pull ups in the dark when the bars are frosty in the morning before going to work, was not heaps of fun.  I didn't enjoy it.  

Completing this challenge felt like drudgery.  I committed to doing them, so I did them, and I did extra.  It really is that simple.  

This is partly why I like 30 day challenges, they are only 30 days so I know I can push through to the end not matter how much I am disliking it at the time.  At the end of the challenge, I am stronger.

Monkey bars under shade cloth are great for pull ups

During this challenge I completed a total of 1,410 pull ups, with an average of just over 45 per day.  Not too shabby for someone of my age.  I did strict pull ups: chest to bar, doesn't count unless my clavicle was above the bar, all the way down to dead hang, no swinging and no nonsense.  

My daily minimum was 30 pull ups.  I did this the first day, and exceeded this minimum every other day.  This was intentional, I wanted to exceed my minimums every day.  The first day I wanted to check and see that I had not chosen minimums that were too high or too low, that's why I didn't exceed my minimums on the first day.  

You will probably notice that I progressively did more daily pull ups as the challenge progressed, but the increase was not linear.  This was deliberate, as well as being convenient.  As I had to go to work, most days I didn't have much spare time to complete many extra, so I only did a few extras.  I also tried to modulate my increase.  As I was not having any rest days, modulating gives my body a chance to rest and repair without having a day off.  It is only 30 days, so there is no time for a rest day.  

Pull ups on a sunny day without a jumper 

Something you can't see from the graph is the number I completed per set, and you can't see how many I can do in a set, but this is important.  I can do over 20 pull ups with good form, but it wears me down.  Doing 20+ feels like "working out", and I don't want to do that.  Never do a 'work out', if you want to get strong you should train.  At most I do 50% to 75% of my maximum in each set, never more than that.  

I want to train efficiently and effectively.  I want to get stronger.  During this challenge I mostly only completed 10 to 15 per set as they are easy for me to complete.  Doing multiple sets of small numbers means that your body doesn't need a rest day.  This meant my technique stayed good, it meant I never felt the burn, it meant I was never in danger of injury, and it meant that I gained strength efficiently.  This is almost the exact opposite of Western training, and it works.  

According to inspire usa foundation the average man will be unable to perform more than a single pull-up once they reach the age of over twenty-five years old.  If you can do more than one pull up, you are above average!?!  Apparently, less than 5% of men can do ten strict pull ups.  This gives some perspective to the results of my little pull up challenge.  

The fact that a skinny person of my age can do ten pull ups without feeling it, demonstrates that prochnost' training is working for me.  I put in a few non-consecutive minutes of training every day and can do more pull ups than over 95% of men.  Western style training is failing these 95% of people, it failed me when I used to do it, and it is failing you.  

If you have read this far through my post, set yourself a 30 day exercise challenge.  Make it something you can do at home, for free.  Something like push ups, or pull ups, or sit ups, or some other body weight exercise is perfect.  Make it something you can do in a few minutes at a time.  Make it something that you can do no matter what the weather and no matter what happens at work.  Do several sets throughout the day, never feel the burn, and never push to your maximum during your challenge.  Aim to only do about 50% to 75% of your maximum each set.  As you get stronger, do more sets across the day, and try to modulate this increase.  

Do you maximum once before your challenge, then do it again the day after your challenge ends.  You will probably be surprised at how much you have improved.  

Give it a go, you have nothing to lose.  Be stronger.  

Monkey bar strength training

Monkey bars are an excellent piece of strength training equipment.  They used to be a common sight in every primary school and most playgrounds in this country, and the general populace was reasonably strong and healthy.  

Sadly, monkey bars are becoming far less common in Australia.  Schools in this country seem to be phasing them out, and monkey bars are seen in fewer playgrounds and parks.  It appears that many outdoor 'fitness parks' which have exercise equipment seem to lack monkey bars.  

As we see less of these low-tech yet versatile strength building equipment, the percentage of the population who are overweight or obese is on the rise, and so are a host of ailments that plague people who lead a sedentary western lifestyle.  I am not suggesting that monkey bars alone would reduce the amount of overweight people in this country, but it would help.  

Years ago, we bought a set of monkey bars for the kids to play on.  They cost a small fortune, and were worth every cent.  

My kids adore our monkey bars.  Monkey bars are very versatile, younger kids can use them for some activities, and older kids can use them for other activities.  It is kind of impressive to see my kids playing on these, and how strong they are as a result.  

As well as my kids spending countless hours on them, I have also been using the monkey bars.  I use them every day for stretching, dead hang, pull ups, chin ups, front lever, leg raises, and other strength exercises.  I would almost go so far as to say that I use the monkey bars more than the kids do (but that isn’t true because my kids would sleep on the monkey bars if they were allowed).  

Monkey bar strength exercise

One of the strength building exercises that we do on the monkey bars probably has a name, but I don’t know what the name is.  It combines regular monkey bar swinging with pull ups, and it is kind of like doing pull ups that are far more functional and even have some cardio.  

1) Start with arms fully extended, holding onto two bars with your palms facing away from you (pronated grip).  

 

2) Do a pull up, go until your shoulder touches the bar.  Use control, do not swing, do not hit the bar with your head.  




3) Lower yourself until arms are fully extended and you are in a dead hang.  

4) Once in the lower position (and not as you are on the way down), monkey bar swing to the next bar.  Hold both bars with palms facing away from you (pronated grip).  



5) Do a pull up, go up until your shoulder touches the bar.  Always use control, never swing while doing a pull up, be careful not to hit the bar with your head.  




6) Lower yourself until your arms are almost fully extended.  Do not swing to the next bar until you are in this lower position with straight arms.  

7) Keep repeating this until you reach the end of the monkey bars.  

I am lucky that my monkey bars have eight gaps, meaning each side gets worked four times, and everything is even.  If you had an uneven number of gaps you would need to ensure that both sides were worked the same.  

This exercise has many benefits.  You get all the strength benefits that you would get with regular pull ups, you build the functional shoulder strength from swinging to the next bar, plus you get a small amount of cardio training.  

I can do fifteen strict pull ups without putting in much effort, I can do about thirty if I relly push myself.  Somehow doing these eight monkey bar pull ups is really hard and often leaves me out of breath.  

One of the many things I enjoy about this exercise is it is easy to modify.  Want to make this harder because it is too easy for you?  If so, do this with a weighted dip belt.  Want to work on endurance through doing more reps?  No worries, go forward on the monkey bars the full length, then go backwards all the way to the start.  Want to make it easier?  Not a problem, only do two or three each side.