Your Weirdest Exercise Program

[rocketscientist]

Hi All,

looking through this forum we find many posts in search for the best exercise routine. That got me thinking of some weird stuff I did over the years (no knowledge w/o failure).

So, just for laughs - what was the weirdest exercise program you ever used?

To start off - mine for sure was my first 'advanced' training routine I took out of a book after I 'matured' out of my beginners full body workout, 3 times a week. The routine was a double split, push (pecs, delts and tric) one day and pull (lats, bi's) with legs thrown in the other day. This was in the early 80's (around '83-'84 maybe):

Routine A:
o 4 chest exercises (bench press, incline press, dumbbell flys, pullovers
o 4 shoulders (seated barbell shoulder press, upright row, laterals, seated bent-over laterals)
o 3 triceps exercises (forgot what)


Routine B:
o 4 Legs exercises (Squats, Leg extension, Leg curls, )
o 4 Back exercises(Front Pulldown, rear pulldown, cable rows, dumbbell rows)
o 4 Biceps exercises(Dumbbell curls, Seated barbell curls, preacher curls, concentration curls)


Details: 5 sets per exercise in a pyramid schema (15, 12, 10, 8, 8), last two sets to failure. Routine A was done on Monday and Thursday, and routine B on Tuesday and Friday.

Summed up this gives a total of 55 sets on A-days with 22 sets to failure and 60 sets on B-days with 24 sets to failure. Every workout lasted something like 2-2 1/2 hours.

But the best of all is that despite my best efforts I still managed to gain 25 lbs over 8 months. Oh, yes, of course I did this very same routine for 8 months! :icon_lol:

The side benefits were chronic pain in both wrists, the right shoulder and my back.

 

[CDB]

The weirdest thing I ever tried was an entire HST cycle done 21 style. Didn't last that long.

 

[dertynasty]

The weirdest thing I ever tried was an entire HST cycle done 21 style. Didn't last that long.

:blink: what do you mean 21 style. I was about to start HST next week but i still have alota q's. Seems like weird style of training, however every thread i have read about it has been positive, so im trying to keep positive about it too,.

 

[rocketscientist]

:blink: what do you mean 21 style. I was about to start HST next week but i still have alota q's. Seems like weird style of training, however every thread i have read about it has been positive, so im trying to keep positive about it too,.

21 - 7 reps with one half (e.g. lower half) of your normal range of motion, immediatly followed with 7 reps the other (e.g. upper part) of the full range of motion, followed immediatly by 7 reps over the full range of motion.

Supposed to give you a good pump, but IMO doing 21 reps with equivalent effort over the full range of motion is far better in terms of pump and burns (if you're out for that). I tried to talk me into doing them a couple of times but everytime after the first set of these I can't help but think 'That was just a waste of time...' Might work well for others though.

HST is actually something I never tried - too much math. Sounds like Tudor Bompa meets Ellington Darden...

 

[LCSULLA]

Got some damn book about half-reps being the greatest thing. I should have known when I saw the authors looked like crap. Did that routine for about two months and then tried full reps and noticed only a small amount of transference.

 

[rocketscientist]

Got some damn book about half-reps being the greatest thing. I should have known when I saw the authors looked like crap. Did that routine for about two months and then tried full reps and noticed only a small amount of transference.

You mean you did half-reps for everything?

 

[danTman2]

mine was ''20 rep quats and milk''


i liked it

 

[dertynasty]

ooooooooo 20 reppers.... killer.

gotta love that and milk... better then test



i mean......uh what?

 

[LCSULLA]

You mean you did half-reps for everything?

Yeah back when I was stupid and thought that there was some magic formula. Half-reps have their place but not like this. Stupidest thing I have everydone weightlifting wise

 

[calpolybk]

Well quite some time ago back in highschool football my coach put us all on this stupid program in which all we did was bench clean squat and box squat... we were not allowed to use the dumbells. it was not a good work out in the least.. i got strong in these workout however my shoulders were always hurting in my opinion because they were weak and were having problems holding up weight associated with bench... he always wanted us to go high weight, ALWAYS..

we also did not have the greatest record either haha and he is no longer the strength and conditioning coach for that school.... i would feel bad for those kids....

 

[CDB]

:blink: what do you mean 21 style. I was about to start HST next week but i still have alota q's. Seems like weird style of training, however every thread i have read about it has been positive, so im trying to keep positive about it too,.

It's fairly easy. You just have go through a cycle or two before you hone in on what aspects of it work best for you. Feel free to ask any questions here or in PM, I've done more than a few HSt cycles. Could even get you a spreadsheet fairly quickly if you wanted so all your workout weights would be scheduled automatically. For what it's worth I prefer the clustered version of HST followed by a good strength cycle, something 5x5ish.

 

[BigVrunga]

The 4-way neck machine

 

[thesinner]

Here's something weird, and it's actually been making some progress for me:

There's no local gyms by me, so I have to work out at home. I have weights and a bench, but I don't have anywhere I can rack the weight for doing squats (and I can't clean&jerk that much weight to rest on my shoulders) so I had to improvise. Here's what I've been doing:

I take the bar, and maybe add a little bit of weight (nothing dangerously heavy), and set it on my back, like I'm going to do regular squats. Then I'll jump up as high as I can, like I'm doing some plyometrics.

Since force= mass * acceleration I'm figuring by pushing as hard as I can, it's going to be similar to doing a regular squat, not to mention the beating your muscles take when you land (cushioning in such a vast change in momentum). As I continue my reps, my jumps don't go as high, until I eventually find myself doing normal squats (no longer jumping). Obviously I'm no longer exerting as much force, which kind of parallels a drop set.

I know it sounds kind of stupid, and it probably is. But the physics behind it adds up, and during the past three weeks I've been doing it, I've added an inch around my legs. So if you're ever stuck in the same situation as I'm currently in, it might be worth a shot.

 

[ktw]

When I first started working out I knew no one at my gym and didn't know what to do, but we had these color coded machines so each day I would go in and do the entire row for a specific body part+bench. After a while I figured out I was doing nearly the same movements for every machine

 

[NiteHawk]

Here's something weird, and it's actually been making some progress for me:

There's no local gyms by me, so I have to work out at home. I have weights and a bench, but I don't have anywhere I can rack the weight for doing squats (and I can't clean&jerk that much weight to rest on my shoulders) so I had to improvise. Here's what I've been doing:

I take the bar, and maybe add a little bit of weight (nothing dangerously heavy), and set it on my back, like I'm going to do regular squats. Then I'll jump up as high as I can, like I'm doing some plyometrics.

Since force= mass * acceleration I'm figuring by pushing as hard as I can, it's going to be similar to doing a regular squat, not to mention the beating your muscles take when you land (cushioning in such a vast change in momentum). As I continue my reps, my jumps don't go as high, until I eventually find myself doing normal squats (no longer jumping). Obviously I'm no longer exerting as much force, which kind of parallels a drop set.

I know it sounds kind of stupid, and it probably is. But the physics behind it adds up, and during the past three weeks I've been doing it, I've added an inch around my legs. So if you're ever stuck in the same situation as I'm currently in, it might be worth a shot.

Your knees, ankles, and hips are taking a beating I bet.

 

[thesinner]

Yeah, I was really cautious about that. More importantly is your spine. With that much momentum, you could snap it like a twig without proper form. I started out light, and worked my way up.

 

[NiteHawk]

May I suggest stop doing this? I dont think the gains outweigh the risks.

 

[thesinner]

I'm moving next week, and will have access to a good gym.

Regardless, I think if you use a light weight (I'm mean really light, 50lbs is plenty) and execute good form, you shouldn't have too much risk. Even the basic moves like deadlift and bench press can cause for serious injury when improperly performed.

 

[cromwell]

Yeah back when I was stupid and thought that there was some magic formula. Half-reps have their place but not like this. Stupidest thing I have everydone weightlifting wise

hmm......:blink: the authors of said book would'nt happen to have last names like Little and Sysco? Yes ladies and germs I fell for Power Factor Training to...partials on everything cause it "is the most productive part of a movement" I actually did this for two months along with some negative assist **** I dreamed up, and came to the following conclusions
1) the negative assist stuff worked..no surprise really
2) partials are a valuable tool....FOR POWERLIFTERS! or sticking points.you get my point, it is not an idea to base a training program on
3)imo PFT sucked and so does Little
4)yes, it worked for a couple of overly juiced guys....so would lifting parked cars:rofl:
5) of the subject but I could'nt resist
"forced reps are best done on your own" Franco Columbo
here are some of the training programs some of my aquaintances follow
jen.....the menstrual program......trains once a month
alan.....the olympic program..........goes to a gym every 4 years
steve...the Mike mentzers still dead program..trains once a week and goes to "absolute failure"(much like the program itself)
gary....the beach workout.....repeat after me,bench-curl, bench-curl..done!
some dude at the gym......the tony little program! Seriously though!:wtf: .....what a homo
rob....the macdonalds program..after a tough day at the gym nothing beats a :burger: :burger: After explaining to me that postworkout is the best time to cheat:jaw: I feel better about sleeping with his wife now:rofl: