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re: The Greyskull Methods- A Primer

Posted on 11/1/17 at 7:03 am to
Posted by Hu_Flung_Pu
Central, LA
Member since Jan 2013
22239 posts
Posted on 11/1/17 at 7:03 am to
Diy cable pulley
LINK
Posted by arktiger28
Member since Aug 2005
4813 posts
Posted on 11/1/17 at 10:50 am to
quote:

Diy cable pulley
LINK


Yep. That is the exact powerrack that I built.

Posted by FootballNostradamus
Member since Nov 2009
20509 posts
Posted on 11/2/17 at 3:56 am to
I think I'm on month 2-3 of Greyskull. I'm still liking it. Couple of thoughts:

-I think the villain challenges have a breaking point when it comes to sheer volume. I'm currently on sets of 80 per hour of pushups, and by the time I reach the gym in the afternoon my shoulders are usually shot from having done 800 pushups or so throughout the day. I might switch to only doing the pushups on my off-days. Idk. My elbows are also beyond tight and borderline painful.

-I will say, though, the pushup challenge is easily the most aesthetically beneficial thing I've ever added to my workout. You will see a ridiculous change in your shoulders and triceps. My SO never really notices much of a change from my time at them gym, but she's commented multiple times since I tossed in the pushup challenge.

-Really like the burpee challenge. Scratch that, I hate actually doing it, but I love the results.

-Really like the Greyskull deload method for squats and deadlifts. I've busted through a previously unbreakable plateau on each through deloading and jacking up my final reps. I can't see I've seen the same results on OH or brench press. I don't have a reliable spotter for bench so I think I struggle going high reps when deloading, and maybe I'm not deloading as much on OH press.

Overall still quite pleased.
Posted by FootballNostradamus
Member since Nov 2009
20509 posts
Posted on 11/2/17 at 5:05 am to
Also, this wasn't technically something from the Greyskyull program, but I finally passed Bring Sally Up at 95# last night.

I absolutely love finishing my squat workouts with this, and I can really tell the difference in my workout program. I've always been comfortable sitting in the hole as I'm pretty flexible, but transitioning from the base of my hole up to the squat has never been my specialty. It's just always felt weak at the start. Ever since I've started the Bring Sally Up work I've felt much stronger powering up from the hole on my working squats.

It's a brutal set, but I highly recommend adding it to everyone's workout.
Posted by lsu777
Lake Charles
Member since Jan 2004
31811 posts
Posted on 11/2/17 at 12:54 pm to
quote:

-I think the villain challenges have a breaking point when it comes to sheer volume. I'm currently on sets of 80 per hour of pushups, and by the time I reach the gym in the afternoon my shoulders are usually shot from having done 800 pushups or so throughout the day. I might switch to only doing the pushups on my off-days. Idk. My elbows are also beyond tight and borderline painful.

-I will say, though, the pushup challenge is easily the most aesthetically beneficial thing I've ever added to my workout. You will see a ridiculous change in your shoulders and triceps. My SO never really notices much of a change from my time at them gym, but she's commented multiple times since I tossed in the pushup challenge.



absolutely there is a point of going over board. The goal is to to the pushups until you can do 100 in 2 min. Then move up to a harder variation. You are going to get overuse injuries and should back off some imo.
Posted by arktiger28
Member since Aug 2005
4813 posts
Posted on 11/2/17 at 4:21 pm to
LSU777,

I have being doing what you suggested with the LCI. How many different Circuits and intervals should I be rotating. I'd like to be well rounded but I'd like to keep it simple as well.
Posted by lsu777
Lake Charles
Member since Jan 2004
31811 posts
Posted on 11/2/17 at 4:34 pm to
As many or as few as you want, choice is yours.
Posted by FootballNostradamus
Member since Nov 2009
20509 posts
Posted on 11/2/17 at 10:35 pm to
quote:

absolutely there is a point of going over board. The goal is to to the pushups until you can do 100 in 2 min. Then move up to a harder variation. You are going to get overuse injuries and should back off some imo.


O wow, definitely misread the challenge. I thought the idea was to get to where you can do sets of 100 every hour on the hour.

I'm probably at 100 in 2 minutes now. I'll have to check and then transition to the elevated version.
Posted by Bailey25
Member since Nov 2017
82 posts
Posted on 11/6/17 at 10:02 am to
I too have consulted with John a couple of times and love the program. When I was laid off a few years back I made the best gains of my life on the program. I have since strayed and due to being older (44) and working a tough more physical job as a mailman, sporadic lower back issues etc my strength has suffered. This thread is invaluable and I have decided to commit to this for the next year. I had a few questions though. I’m just keeping it basic and doing the base program with frequency pushups, band assisted chin ups using nightly ladders and just a couple plug ins such as barbell curls and a row variant such as inverted body weight rows or chest supported dumbbell rows. I like doing and believe in going heavier for barbell curls, can those go to a 1x5, 1x5+ set up or similar to your close grip suggestion go to a 1 or 2x8, 1x8+ set up? 2nd question, if recovery becomes an issue can I have two days in between workouts and work off of a 9-10 day “week” or micro cycle? Last question, I am very weak in body weight movements, if I do frequency pushups is 4-5 x a day sufficient? If I can only do 15 push-ups before coming close to failure should I do frequency sets of 7-8 to begin? How should these be programmed to progress over the coming weeks?

Thanks
Posted by lsu777
Lake Charles
Member since Jan 2004
31811 posts
Posted on 11/6/17 at 1:54 pm to
quote:

I like doing and believe in going heavier for barbell curls, can those go to a 1x5, 1x5+ set up or similar to your close grip suggestion go to a 1 or 2x8, 1x8+ set up? 2nd question, if recovery becomes an issue can I have two days in between workouts and work off of a 9-10 day “week” or micro cycle?


Either is fine, do what you feel you respond best to, but dont go so heavy to cut into recovery for the big lifts.

quote:

2nd question, if recovery becomes an issue can I have two days in between workouts and work off of a 9-10 day “week” or micro cycle? Last question, I am very weak in body weight movements, if I do frequency pushups is 4-5 x a day sufficient?


I wish more people looked at it like this concerning the micro cycle. Yes stretch it out if need be. Honestly on the bodyweight start with 3 or 4 days and slowly add them in.

quote:

If I can only do 15 push-ups before coming close to failure should I do frequency sets of 7-8 to begin?


start with sets of 5 and do total work method of 50 or so a day and work up from there.
Posted by Bailey25
Member since Nov 2017
82 posts
Posted on 11/6/17 at 5:54 pm to
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah I’ll probably only do the frequency sets 4-5 times a day so I’ll do the totalwork method but start at 25 a day so maybe 100 push-ups a week and just add from there. I’m in a mail truck all day so realistically doing more sets will be harder.
Posted by lsu777
Lake Charles
Member since Jan 2004
31811 posts
Posted on 11/6/17 at 7:57 pm to
I get it and John almost exclusively uses the total work method now with private clients. I am doing the team pain class with him right now and it's what he has me doing exclusively.
Posted by arktiger28
Member since Aug 2005
4813 posts
Posted on 11/7/17 at 3:04 pm to
LSU777,

Thanks again for the help. I am currently in my third week of working the LCI method. I am currently doing the main lifts and rotating curls and chins for the lifting portion. For interval I am rotating burpees, jumprope and sprints. The thing that is overwhelming me is circuits. If you were wanting to rotate 3 to 6 circuits for aesthetics which ones would you pick? Anyone else is welcome to chime in as well.
This post was edited on 11/7/17 at 3:05 pm
Posted by lsu777
Lake Charles
Member since Jan 2004
31811 posts
Posted on 11/7/17 at 8:48 pm to
It's not gonna make a huge difference. The main key is keeping it to large compound lifts that are not super complicated so it causes growth but also an enormous epoc to help burn fast.

The biggest thing with aesthetics is making sure you strip fat without also stripping muscle. If you do that you are good.

You are over thinking it. Just concentrate on getting stronger on the main lifts and improving your times or reps or weights on the circuits and intervals.
Posted by TDcline
American Gardens building 11th flor
Member since Aug 2015
9281 posts
Posted on 11/12/17 at 11:01 am to
Awesome post.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

Does anyone have a schedule of which program you’re using? I normally workout 5 Days a week with some body weight and cardio thrown in.

Has anyone put together a program of using this program on a 5 day a week schedule?
Posted by lsu777
Lake Charles
Member since Jan 2004
31811 posts
Posted on 11/12/17 at 1:26 pm to
2 options for a true five day week, one is going to be slower but steady progress, the other will be faster progress but will push you to reset faster.

Option 1- do one major lift per day and a body weight day in between and just choosing appropriate accessory lifts.

So something like

Monday-press
Tuesday-squat
Wednesday-bodyweight day
Thursday-bench
Friday-deadlift

Doesn't have to be exact but something similar.

Option#2
Using the ABAB format

Monday-press and squat
Tuesday-bench and deads
Wednesday-bodyweight
Thursday-bench and squat or variants
Friday-bench and deadlift or variants

This post was edited on 11/12/17 at 1:28 pm
Posted by Sandtrap
Baton Rouge
Member since Nov 2006
2374 posts
Posted on 11/13/17 at 9:49 am to
I’m trying to read through all of this because I’m ready to make a change in my workout regimen. About 7 years ago, started lifting for really the first time in my life and was using a program that was aimed at gaining mass more than anything. Went from about 175lbs to 195lbs in about a year, but was lifting only and doing nothing else. Since that time, I’ve been going through spurts of working out hard and then slacking. Looking to get myself back into a good routine because need to lose about 10-15lbs and would like to be more lean. I’m 6’0” by the way and currently at 205, but would like to be little lighter.

This workout routine seems like something I’m going to stick to, but need a little guidance into which one would be the best considering my goals and other activities I’m going to want to continue doing.

I just recently got back into swimming about 10 weeks ago and I’ve been swimming almost every M-F while not really lifting too much because I’ve been trying to lose the weight, but haven’t loss too much because my diet is still bad (more on that below). I also play tennis 1-2x/week. I really like the swimming and want to continue to do that and tennis will always be something I do, so hoping to get some clarification into which one of the workouts will allow me to lift and swim 2-3 days/week as well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Back to the diet...I know I’m eating way too many carbs and I am really struggling with sugar. I need to find a way to cut the sugar out because I know how bad it is. If I can get rid of the sugar and carbs, I’m not a terrible eater otherwise. But need some help with this as well. I’m in my mid-30s and it’s time to make a change in both my diet and exercise plan.
This post was edited on 11/13/17 at 9:51 am
Posted by lsu777
Lake Charles
Member since Jan 2004
31811 posts
Posted on 11/13/17 at 10:51 am to
quote:

I’m trying to read through all of this because I’m ready to make a change in my workout regimen. About 7 years ago, started lifting for really the first time in my life and was using a program that was aimed at gaining mass more than anything. Went from about 175lbs to 195lbs in about a year, but was lifting only and doing nothing else. Since that time, I’ve been going through spurts of working out hard and then slacking. Looking to get myself back into a good routine because need to lose about 10-15lbs and would like to be more lean. I’m 6’0” by the way and currently at 205, but would like to be little lighter.

This workout routine seems like something I’m going to stick to, but need a little guidance into which one would be the best considering my goals and other activities I’m going to want to continue doing.

I just recently got back into swimming about 10 weeks ago and I’ve been swimming almost every M-F while not really lifting too much because I’ve been trying to lose the weight, but haven’t loss too much because my diet is still bad (more on that below). I also play tennis 1-2x/week. I really like the swimming and want to continue to do that and tennis will always be something I do, so hoping to get some clarification into which one of the workouts will allow me to lift and swim 2-3 days/week as well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


Try the twice a week program of

Day 1
Press
Squat
BW Chins


Day 2
Dead
Bench
Bw Dips


Do the Pushups and burpees total work method as the homework section.

Use the swimming and tennis as your cardio.

quote:

Back to the diet...I know I’m eating way too many carbs and I am really struggling with sugar. I need to find a way to cut the sugar out because I know how bad it is. If I can get rid of the sugar and carbs, I’m not a terrible eater otherwise. But need some help with this as well. I’m in my mid-30s and it’s time to make a change in both my diet and exercise plan.


For Diet I suggest you do two things for now, cut out breakfast and eat all of your calories in an 8 hour window, I suggest either 11-7 or 12-8. During the fast, no calorie drinks only. Second thing is start weighing and tracking all of your food in myfitnesspal. Be accurate with the serving sizes and if it goes in your mouth, log it. Its the only way your will know how much you are eating currently and were you are making mistakes.
Posted by Sandtrap
Baton Rouge
Member since Nov 2006
2374 posts
Posted on 11/13/17 at 11:02 am to
Appreciate the advice. So, I’ll only be lifting 2x/week if I am readin that correctly?

How long do these workouts usually take? Hour or so?

As far as the diet goes, I drink water almost exclusively with exception of milk every now and then. I’m also going to have a tough time not eating breakfast. I lift/swim in the mornings and get pretty nauseous if I don’t eat at least a little something before going to the gym. I’ve been eating RX bars recently and they seem to give me good amount of energy and keep me full for good amount of time.
Posted by lsu777
Lake Charles
Member since Jan 2004
31811 posts
Posted on 11/13/17 at 1:07 pm to
quote:

Appreciate the advice. So, I’ll only be lifting 2x/week if I am readin that correctly?

How long do these workouts usually take? Hour or so?


twice per week, prolly an hour or so. But you will be doing sets of pushups and burpees throughout the day when possible.

quote:

As far as the diet goes, I drink water almost exclusively with exception of milk every now and then. I’m also going to have a tough time not eating breakfast. I lift/swim in the mornings and get pretty nauseous if I don’t eat at least a little something before going to the gym. I’ve been eating RX bars recently and they seem to give me good amount of energy and keep me full for good amount of time.


If you can't get used to it then try only eating carbs in the morning then. i.e. carb cutoff. Not scientific but it works.
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