ONLY THE STRONG WILL SURVIVE…

So what are the key elements to becoming ?  Strength, speed, flexibility, endurance and stamina right? In order to build endurance and stamina we started the Jungle Run. For strength I found myself returning to Arnold.

If you recall in the I spoke about being in Washington D.C. with my uncle for the summer between eighth grade and freshman year. This is when I was first introduced to Arnold. I was in a Walden’s bookstore when I saw Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder on display. The book was half biography half workouts. I couldn’t put it down.  The other book I bought was Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding which also featured Arnold.  I saw the documentary film Pumping Iron a few years later.  Both this book and documentary film lead to the fitness revolution that first began in the 1970s and still continues to this day. If you don’t believe me look at any newsstand. You will find muscle mags with vintage pictures of Arnold on their covers. For me it’s like being in high school all over again.

Strength training is different than the body part exercises or isolation machines. While these body part exercises focus on developing a single muscle, strength training is based on compound movements in order to build brute strength and muscle mass throughout the body. In fact the legends of bodybuilding like Arnold all started out with strength training or powerlifting.

“When I was trying to get bigger in my early days of training, I followed a routine called the Golden Six. I made tremendous gains on this program and so did many others who trained at my gym in Munich. All agreed that this simple system of training produced excellent gains in muscle size…” –Arnold Schwarzenegger

What are the Golden Six?

Barbell Squats 3×10 Barbell Bench Presses 3×10 Wide Grip Chins 3x until exhausted Overhead Presses 3×10 Barbell Curls 3×10 Bent-Knee Situps 3x 20 or until exhausted

The idea here is to do these three times a week (Mon-Wed-Fri) for a period of 3 months without missing any workouts. Then increasing the number of sets until your doing 4 sets. Then in 3 more months increase again. You continue until you are doing six sets in all. Paul Grant achieved amazing results with this progression also.

Another routine that is attributed to Arnold that was taught to him by Reg Park is this 5×5 system that alternates between two different workouts.

Workout A

Back Squats 5×5 Chin-Ups or Pull-Ups 5×5 Dips or Bench Press 5×5 Wrist Work (Grip Work)  2×10 Calves 2×15-20

Workout B

Front Squats 5×5 Rows 5×5 Standing Press 5×5 Deadlifts 3×5 Wrist Work 2×10 Calves 2×15-20

These workouts will alternate in the following manner:

Week 1:

Monday – Workout A Wednesday -Workout B Friday – Workout A

Week 2:

Monday – Workout B Wednesday – Workout A Friday – Workout B

In looking for these old workouts I found one that I want to try.  Stronglifts 5×5  was created by Mehdi Hadim. It’s based on this Reg Park 5×5 routine and legendary American strength coach Glenn Pendlay‘s workout. The routine is very simple and works on the A-B schedule.

Workout A

Squat 5×5 Standing Military Press 5×5 Deadlift 1×5

Workout B

Squat 5×5 Bench Press 5×5 Barbell Row 5×5

The routine alternates in the same manner:

Week 1:

Monday – Workout A Wednesday -Workout B Friday – Workout A

Week 2:

Monday – Workout B Wednesday – Workout A Friday – Workout B

In this routine you start out using an empty Olympic barbell. At each session you will add 5lbs to the bar. Which for those who don’t know we are talking about 2-2.5lbs plates to each side. It seems to easy and embarrassing at first lifting an empty bar (45lbs) but as Mehdi explains in a few weeks when your squatting a few hundred pounds no one will be laughing. What I really like is the app. LiftBig is a great little app.

I will not say anything bad about this routine. Because there is nothing bad to say. The problem with this routine was me. I was not in good enough shape to start this. By the end of the first month my body felt like I had been beaten by hammers. I was skipping workouts to recover. The program was too much too fast for me. I couldn’t even walk anymore.

This is when I decided to employ my Extremus Method. I went looking a little further into these old routines. One of the things I realized was that when Reg Park taught Arnold his 5×5 routine these guys were already very strong. They were after all world class body builders. They were not 50 year old fat guys who had smoked for thirty years who were trying to get healthy.

In studying these old routines there were more 3×5 routines than 5×5 routines. I was also seeing ab and arm work which I feel strong about. Having tried many of these routines and weight progressions I took what I considered to be the best seven exercises for me and the best weight progression for me and created my own workout routine.

The Cimmerian Seven

Here is how it works. There are two different workouts that we alternate the same as the others. Workout A and Workout B. Now lets look at the seven.

Workout A

• Back Squats 3×5
• Bench 3×5
• Wide Grip Chins palms out grip 3×5 (Use the assist machine to displace body weight to 45lbs or less)
• Dips 3×5 (Use the assist machine to displace body weight to 45lbs or less)

Workout B

• Back Squats 3×5
• Standing Military Press 3×5
• Deadlift 1×5
• close grip chins palms in 3×5 (Use the assist machine to displace body weight to 45lbs or less)

The routine alternates in the same manner as the others:

Week 1:

Monday – Workout A Wednesday -Workout B Friday – Workout A

Week 2:

Monday – Workout B Wednesday – Workout A Friday – Workout B

Is any of this original?

No at not all. These exercises have been around forever. I am sure this is not the first time this combination has been used together. But it is the first time I will be using them together. So the Cimmerian Seven is original to me. It is

The real changes are in the sets, reps and weight progression. We are doing 3×5 exercises instead of 5×5. If you look at the Golden Six which is designed for beginners you see the 3×5 being worked here. This will also help to eliminate the over training factor that lead to my failure with the 5×5 routine.

Can you bench 305lbs?

The reason I ask is that if you start with an empty Olympic bar and only add 5lbs a week in a year your benching 305lbs. This makes your dead lift 375lbs in a year. This is my chosen method. I will achieve Hyborian Strength in a year.

I really don’t care if I have six pack abs. I want Strength. I want to be able to lift that engine block when I have to. You know… true strength… that you can really use!

This is why I include chins and dips. Everyone knows the guy at the gym who has 26 inch arms but he can’t do ten pull ups. So what good are 26 inch arms if there is no strength in them?

No I don’t care if I am lifting easy weights for months. No I don’t care how I look with the empty bar in the gym. In a year these young guys will be asking me how I achieved these astounding  results at age 50.

And I will just tell them to Subscribe…

Sure I will eventually hit a wall. Weights become heavy. Progress slows. How will I handle it then? Rather than adding 5bs a week you can even slow it down further and add 5lbs each full cycle or every two weeks. When this becomes to much then add 5lbs a month.

When you begin you have to start with more weight on your dead lifts in order to maintain proper form. The starting weight on dead lift is 115lbs. This includes the bar. You may have to start out with less weight and set your barbell on stacked plates to achieve the required heights in order to maintain proper form. Who cares how it looks just do it…

You may not be able to start doing chins and dips at 45lbs. Who cares? Displace more weight with the assist device until your strength builds. Do the work…

Again people we are not looking for quick lazy solutions or secrets workouts or the magic supplement. We are going to be about this and actually do the work and take the time necessary to achieve the results we want to achieve. What if you miss a day? Go the next day and continue on as if you went the day before. Don’t try to do two workouts and don’t go backwards. And don’t look for excuses to stop. Remember This is…

FIT FOR LIFE NOT FIT FOR SUMMER –GEEKUS EXTREMUS

Have you read ?

• CONSISTENCY TIME= WHAT?

is the Key component to The Cimmerian Seven System. Take the time to read it. These principles changed my life. I believe they will help you achieve great results.

What about ab work? On days(Tues-Thurs-Sat) we will work the abs. We will follow the A-B schedule alternating each week.

What are the exercises?

Workout A

•  Bent-Knee Situps 3x 20 or until exhausted

Workout B

• Hanging leg raises 3x 20 or until exhausted

These workouts will alternate in the following manner:

Week 1:

Tuesday – Workout A Thursday -Workout B Saturday- Workout A

Week 2:

Tuesday – Workout B Thursday – Workout A Saturday – Workout B

Again the progression is simple. Each week we will try to add 1rep to each set. So in week two we will do 3×21 and so on. The difference is we will use a progression similar to the Golden Six method to ultimately reach 6×50.

So how will we progress?

When we get to 3×33 we will switch to 4×25 and again build our progression. When we build to 4×30 we will switch to 5×25. When we get to 5×30 we will switch to 6×25 and build to a maximum of 6×50.

Why these ab exercises? Well these seem to pull in the most muscle into play and incorporate more muscle groups. Bent knee sit ups use more muscle than crunches. Hanging leg raises require more muscle than laying on a bench or floor and doing leg raises. Again strength is what we are trying to achieve not six pack abs. This will create a rock solid midsection which helps prevent hernia’s and improves posture, digestion and elimination as well.

Again strength training is to increase your total muscle mass and pure brute strength. This training also improves bone density, joints, ligament and tendon connections as well as your . When we say muscle mass we are not talking about an increase in body weight. You can stay the same weight. Your muscle mass will increase because percentage of body fat will drop.This increased mass will make your body a fat burning machine.

If your trying to gain you can use this routine and pump up to the calories to 4000 a day and pack on the muscle. Just Like Arnold with the Golden Six.

I have not lifted weights with any consistency since high school. (Except recent experiments) I have not run any real distance since high school. For me that was thirty two years ago. So to take an entire year to get into shape is not unreasonable. I also believe that benching 305lbs and running a marathon are real achievable goals.

I also believe that, the Cimmerian Seven and the will help me get into the shape I want to be in. These are some of the components of our program. Maybe you have not joined a gym. If you are looking to, we recommend that you read before you do.

Please remember that we are looking to spend only an hour or less a day in the gym in order to achieve our goals. Our progression is the easiest possible. Walking and lifting an empty bar is where we start with the Jungle Run and the Cimmerian Seven. What could be easier? So you have no excuses to start. Like a symphony these programs build from a single note. In order to achieve these results you just need to start. So don’t wait… play that first note today…

 

May the Love of Christ be with you always….

…Live long and Prosper

© 2013 GEEKUSEXTREMUS.COM