Today's Sally

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Originally Posted by Mike T

Out of interest I thought I would compare pull-ups with my recent chin-ups. Pull-ups are widely accepted as being harder, and some people claim "better".

With 2 minutes rest between sets to failure I managed 3 - 2 - 2 - 1.

Around about the start of Covid I managed 5 pull-ups, and after short rest, 9 chin-ups - these remain my life-time records. Those were the days!

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The way my bar is set up, I can only do chin ups (palms facing towards me?) as it's wedged in a doorway making pull-ups tricky. I've never managed 9 chin-up, certainly not in recent memory, and 5 is about my best.

Today, dumbbell bicep curls. 2 X 12.5 kg. Simultaneous lifting with both arms. Eccentric lowering. 2 mins break between sets, during which I did x( 10) reps of floor to lock to floor press-ups. Curl Reps were to failure, per set.

21 (10) - 20 (10) - 17 (10) - 11 (10) -10 (10) - 11 (10) - 10 (10)

Spent part of the evening carrying 25 litre water containers to and fro around the village watering the plants in the tubs, so that was a bit of a work out too :)

15 sets to failure, 2 minutes between sets, first 5 sets pull-ups, the rest chin-ups:

3 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1.

Clearly, as one would expect, some of the same muscles are involved.

Set + rest = 3 mins . Floor to lock to floor press-ups to failure in each set.

33 - 29 - 17 - 14 - 12 - 9 - 9 - 9 - 9 - 9

Also, this morning - chin-ups, with 2 min breaks between sets 5 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2

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Originally Posted by Mike T

15 sets to failure, 2 minutes between sets, first 5 sets pull-ups, the rest chin-ups:

3 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1.

Clearly, as one would expect, some of the same muscles are involved.

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Practising for some rock climbing Mike? You're getting good at those - well done.

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Originally Posted by Mossdog

Practising for some rock climbing Mike? You're getting good at those - well done.

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Thanks. They do give me a sense of accomplishment, as for most of my life I could not do any.

I can remember a female rock climber being interviewed on the local news - she was asked how many pull-ups she could do - her reply was "One arm or two?" This was met with astonishment and laughter so we never actually got an answer.

No climbing for me.

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Originally Posted by Mossdog

Set + rest = 3 mins . Floor to lock to floor press-ups to failure in each set.

33 - 29 - 17 - 14 - 12 - 9 - 9 - 9 - 9 - 9

Also, this morning - chin-ups, with 2 min breaks between sets 5 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2

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Well done!

I have to confess, i don't understand what you're all doing. I've gone through it several times whilst bored in the boozer, and it makes no sense.

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Originally Posted by mr brightside

I have to confess, i don't understand what you're all doing. I've gone through it several times whilst bored in the boozer, and it makes no sense.

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Yeap... it makes no sense, but it's fun. A bit like fell running perhaps? Although, maybe trying to develop and keep core strength through fun ways will help us to better cling on to our zimmers when we're tottering old (erm...a bit older) gits :)

Alternating sets to failure of chin-ups and chest to floor press-ups; 2 minutes rest between each set; 8 sets of each.

Chin-ups: 5-3-3-3-3-2-2-2.

Press-ups: 20-15-12-13-12-11-11-9.

A bit tired today, so I am not surprised at the dip in numbers.

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Originally Posted by mr brightside

I have to confess, i don't understand what you're all doing. I've gone through it several times whilst bored in the boozer, and it makes no sense.

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Give it a go - Mossdog and I would welcome your good company. Even one set to failure of press-ups, chin-ups or pull-ups would be interesting.

EMOM press-ups routine. 12 reps (floor to lock to floor) press-ups, every minute, for 10 minutes.

Secs remaining for each of the 10X 1 min sets.

45 - 44 - 46 - 43 - 41 - 42 - 40 - 38 - 29 - 17

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Originally Posted by Mossdog

EMOM press-ups routine.

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Originally Posted by mr brightside

I have to confess, i don't understand what you're all doing. I've gone through it several times whilst bored in the boozer, and it makes no sense.

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Originally Posted by Mike T

Give it a go - Mossdog and I would welcome your good company. Even one set to failure of press-ups, chin-ups or pull-ups would be interesting.

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For those of us coming to it late, where should we start?

I'm sure that somewhere on this thread EMOM is explained, but it would be worth re-explaining it.

It would also be worth those of you are regular practitioners outlining what was likely to be most beneficial parts of this for everyday and running performance; if there is strong evidence of improved performance and/or less injury then I'm sure some people will take it up

EMOM - every minute on the minute - typically 10 press-ups every minute for 10 minutes. Do you do them as quickly as possible so you have a bit of a rest, or do you spread them over the minute? Up to you.

We are doing upper body exercises to help core strength - after all a press-up for example is just a moving plank.

It is good to choose objective exercises - exercises that cannot be cheated. So chest all the way to the floor and resting on it press-ups, or chin-ups - from fully straight arms to underside of chin on the top of the bar and back down again. Too many videos of press-ups show people cheating - their chest not getting anywhere near the ground, or their hips swaying down but their shoulder hardly moving. Or doing chin-ups starting with bent arms.

It is good to do upper body exercises to failure - so you could not do one more - you will know when you reach that point.

So choose an exercise - or two, or three, and away you go! Leave a couple of minutes - or more if you want - between sets. Mossdog and I have been doing chest to floor press-ups, chin-ups, pull-ups, and biceps curls. For the last of these you will need a suitable weight. Or have a go at EMOM - though as chest to floor press-ups are harder than normal press-ups start with say six unless you are pretty good at them.

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by Marco

For those of us coming to it late, where should we start?

I'm sure that somewhere on this thread EMOM is explained, but it would be worth re-explaining it.

It would also be worth those of you are regular practitioners outlining what was likely to be most beneficial parts of this for everyday and running performance; if there is strong evidence of improved performance and/or less injury then I'm sure some people will take it up

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Everything Mike said above Marco is spot on.

I've always done press-ups since my teens, but lockdown introduced me to the "Bring Sally Up Press-Up Challenge", (https://www.fitandwell.com/feature/b...h-up-challenge _) which to date I've never been able to complete fully (the eccentric aspects beat me every time), but it spurred me into being more thoughtful about this particular exercise and how to try and improve.

Research evidence? Well, it's a bit low-brow in terms of hard research, but I think Michael Mosley has commented on how press-ups can help with bone density (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...-works-me.html) and heart health (https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...-heart-disease ) as well as other benefits (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vp09 ).

Also, plucked from the internet, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6484614/

"Findings
This longitudinal cohort study of 1104 occupationally active adult men found a significant negative association between baseline push-up capacity and incident cardiovascular disease risk across 10 years of follow-up. Participants able to complete more than 40 push-ups were associated with a significant reduction in incident cardiovascular disease event risk compared with those completing fewer than 10 push-ups."

More generally, from Men's Health (that well known bastion of objective health research (not!) ) https://www.menshealth.com/uk/fitnes...press-up-edit/

Regarding running performance improvement, I can't say my running has got better (faster or easier), but at 60 plus years I'm having to reconstrue how I understand performance progress anyway!

Press-ups certainly compliment one of my other regular exercises, indoor rowing (all pulling rather than pushing), and of course they don't require any equipment at all or cost a penny in gym fees etc. Clearly there are other resistance exercises that boast the same simple spartan requirements, and I'm sure you could "Sally" them to the tune too. Indeed, I'm waiting to hear Mike has smashed the Sally chin-up challenge soon :)

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Originally Posted by Marco

For those of us coming to it late, where should we start?

I'm sure that somewhere on this thread EMOM is explained, but it would be worth re-explaining it.

It would also be worth those of you are regular practitioners outlining what was likely to be most beneficial parts of this for everyday and running performance; if there is strong evidence of improved performance and/or less injury then I'm sure some people will take it up

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Everything Mike said above Marco is spot on.

I've always done press-ups since my teens, but lockdown introduced me to the "Bring Sally Up Press-Up Challenge", (https://www.fitandwell.com/feature/b...h-up-challenge _) which to date I've never been able to complete fully (the eccentric aspects beat me every time), but it spurred me into being more thoughtful about this particular exercise and how to try and improve.

Research evidence? Well, it's a bit low-brow in terms of hard research, but I think Michael Mosley has commented on how press-ups can help with bone density (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...-works-me.html) and heart health (https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...-heart-disease ) as well as other benefits (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vp09 ).

Also, plucked from the internet, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6484614/

"Findings
This longitudinal cohort study of 1104 occupationally active adult men found a significant negative association between baseline push-up capacity and incident cardiovascular disease risk across 10 years of follow-up. Participants able to complete more than 40 push-ups were associated with a significant reduction in incident cardiovascular disease event risk compared with those completing fewer than 10 push-ups."

More generally, from Men's Health (that well known bastion of objective health research (not!) ) https://www.menshealth.com/uk/fitnes...press-up-edit/

Regarding running performance improvement, I can't say my running has got better (faster or easier), but at 60 plus years I'm having to reconstrue how I understand performance progress anyway!

Press-ups certainly compliment one of my other regular exercises, indoor rowing (all pulling rather than pushing), and of course they don't require any equipment at all or cost a penny in gym fees etc. Clearly there are other resistance exercises that boast the same simple spartan requirements, and I'm sure you could "Sally" them to the tune too. Indeed, I'm waiting to hear Mike has smashed the Sally chin-up challenge soon :)

Everything Mike said above Marco is spot on.

I've always done press-ups since my teens, but lockdown introduced me to the "Bring Sally Up Press-Up Challenge", (https://www.fitandwell.com/feature/b...h-up-challenge _) which to date I've never been able to complete fully (the eccentric aspects beat me every time), but it spurred me into being more thoughtful about this particular exercise and how to try and improve.

Research evidence? Well, it's a bit low-brow in terms of hard research, but I think Michael Mosley has commented on how press-ups can help with bone density (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...-works-me.html) and heart health (https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...-heart-disease ) as well as other benefits (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vp09 ).

Also, plucked from the internet, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6484614/

"Findings
This longitudinal cohort study of 1104 occupationally active adult men found a significant negative association between baseline push-up capacity and incident cardiovascular disease risk across 10 years of follow-up. Participants able to complete more than 40 push-ups were associated with a significant reduction in incident cardiovascular disease event risk compared with those completing fewer than 10 push-ups."

More generally, from Men's Health (that well known bastion of objective health research (not!) ) https://www.menshealth.com/uk/fitnes...press-up-edit/

Regarding running performance improvement, I can't say my running has got better (faster or easier), but at 60 plus years I'm having to reconstrue how I understand performance progress anyway!

Press-ups certainly compliment one of my other regular exercises, indoor rowing (all pulling rather than pushing), and of course they don't require any equipment at all or cost a penny in gym fees etc. Clearly there are other resistance exercises that boast the same simple spartan requirements, and I'm sure you could "Sally" them to the tune too. Indeed, I'm waiting to hear Mike has smashed the Sally chin-up challenge soon :)

Dumbbell bicep curls. 2 X 12.5 kg. Simultaneous lifting with both arms. Eccentric lowering. 2 mins break between sets, during which I did x( 10) reps of floor to lock to floor press-ups. Curl Reps were to failure, per set.

24 (10) - 18 (10) - 13 (10) - 11 (10) -11 (10) - 10 (10) - 10 (10) - 11 (10) - 8 (10) - 10 (10)

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Originally Posted by Mike T

EMOM - every minute on the minute - typically 10 press-ups every minute for 10 minutes. Do you do them as quickly as possible so you have a bit of a rest, or do you spread them over the minute? Up to you.

We are doing upper body exercises to help core strength - after all a press-up for example is just a moving plank.

It is good to choose objective exercises - exercises that cannot be cheated. So chest all the way to the floor and resting on it press-ups

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Originally Posted by Mossdog

Also, plucked from the internet, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6484614/

"Findings
This longitudinal cohort study of 1104 occupationally active adult men found a significant negative association between baseline push-up capacity and incident cardiovascular disease risk across 10 years of follow-up. Participants able to complete more than 40 push-ups were associated with a significant reduction in incident cardiovascular disease event risk compared with those completing fewer than 10 push-ups."

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Thanks guys, I had a check last night and I didn't have a problem doing a small number of press-ups using a 'straight-arm to resting my chest on the floor' technique.

Not sure that I want to get competitive with it, but I will certainly aim to build up to 40+ in view of the reduced cardiovascular disease findings

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Originally Posted by Marco

Thanks guys, I had a check last night and I didn't have a problem doing a small number of press-ups using a 'straight-arm to resting my chest on the floor' technique.

Not sure that I want to get competitive with it, but I will certainly aim to build up to 40+ in view of the reduced cardiovascular disease findings

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Great going Marco.

Definitely no competition here. We all have different body weights and forms and so progress, or even just sustaining (due to my age, I'm on the wrong side of the physical development graph so trying to arrest the muscle tone/strength decline), will do me nicely :) .

Pull-ups, sets to failure until I felt I could not do even 1 more; then chin-ups the same way; then 5 sets of chest to floor press-ups. 2 minutes between sets.

Pull-ups: 2, then six sets of 1.

Chin-ups: 3 twice, 2 nine times, then 1.

Press-ups: 21 - 14 - 11 - 10 - 9.

It is interesting to juggle the format.

EMOM press-ups routine. 12 reps (floor to lock to floor) press-ups, every minute, for 10 minutes.

Secs remaining for each of the 10X 1 min sets.

46 - 44 - 45 - 44 - 41 - 42 - 38 - 38 - 27 - 10

Off backpacking down south tomorrow for a few days, so unable to post until I return.

Chest to floor press-ups, EMOM routine, doing 6 per minute. I managed 14 minutes. This is the first time I have done EMOM - the rest of that minute goes so quickly.

Chest to floor press-ups - 2 x 10. Weight on my chest/belly/hips in the down position, arms straight in the up.

I didn't have a clock on it so I can't say it was EMOM, but it was probably close to this. I could have done a third set, but didn't want to end up with arms so sore I wouldn't be able to do it again for a week

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Originally Posted by Marco

Chest to floor press-ups - 2 x 10. Weight on my chest/belly/hips in the down position, arms straight in the up.

I didn't have a clock on it so I can't say it was EMOM, but it was probably close to this. I could have done a third set, but didn't want to end up with arms so sore I wouldn't be able to do it again for a week

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Well done Marco. I find them rather harder than "normal" press-ups. It will be interesting to hear if you do get any soreness.

Chin-ups, 2 EMOM for 10 minutes, then 1 EMOM for 15 minutes.

Chest to floor press-ups - 3 x 10. Starting each one with my chest resting on the floor

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Originally Posted by Mike T

Well done Marco. I find them rather harder than "normal" press-ups. It will be interesting to hear if you do get any soreness.

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I did get a little bit of soreness across my chest after doing 2 x 10 a couple of days ago, but not the dreaded DOMS. Starting with your bodyweight on the floor uses muscles in the initial movement that aren't used in a 'normal' (or should that be 'average') press-up.

Will probably try 3 x 11 next time, on my way to reaching 40+ by some permutation

Chest to floor press-ups, EMOM routine, doing 6 per minute. 16 minutes.

Chin-ups, 2 EMOM for 10 minutes, then 1 EMOM for 20 minutes.

Set + rest = 3 mins . Floor to lock to floor press-ups to failure in each set.

33 - 25 - 16 - 18 - 12 - 11 - 10 - 11 - 10

A weak and a bit away backpacking, so easing back into these today.

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Originally Posted by Mike T

Chin-ups, 2 EMOM for 10 minutes, then 1 EMOM for 20 minutes.

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That's dedication Mike!! My July resolution is not to shy away from chin-ups! We'll see...

EMOM chin-ups. 10 sets. Straight arm hanging to chin over the bar, back to straight arms.

4 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 2

Very hard. Had a few half chin-ups on some of the sets, but probably caused more failure than helped.

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Originally Posted by Mossdog

EMOM chin-ups. 10 sets. Straight arm hanging to chin over the bar, back to straight arms.

4 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 2

Very hard. Had a few half chin-ups on some of the sets, but probably caused more failure than helped.

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Well done! It can be hard to know if a particular effort should be persisted with - straining like mad half way up but then failing may well mean the subsequent set is dismal. But "failure" is good as it promotes muscle growth.

Chest to floor press-ups, 3 x 11.

The numbers are slowly going up, so I'm heading in the right direction

Chest to floor press-ups, EMOM routine, doing 6 per minute. 15 minutes. I only just managed to squeeze that final 6th press-up into the 60 seconds.

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Originally Posted by Marco

Chest to floor press-ups, 3 x 11.

The numbers are slowly going up, so I'm heading in the right direction

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Well done - it feels good when the numbers go up.

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Originally Posted by Marco

Chest to floor press-ups, 3 x 11.

The numbers are slowly going up, so I'm heading in the right direction

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Yaay - good progress indeed Marco.

EMOM chin-ups. 10 sets of 3 reps. Time remaining in seconds. Straight arm hanging to chin over the bar, back to straight arms (well, largely!):rolleyes:.

45 - 46 - 46 - 45 - 46 - 45 - 36 - 35 - 15 - FAIL

Definitely over-reached myself - 2 reps would have been better and trying for a greater number of sets.

Also, for the last 4 sets I couldn't make the final (3rd) pull-up without letting the bar go, shaking my arms out before trying again, so not really proper form. I loath chin up!

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Originally Posted by Mossdog

EMOM chin-ups. 10 sets of 3 reps. Time remaining in seconds. Straight arm hanging to chin over the bar, back to straight arms (well, largely!):rolleyes:.

45 - 46 - 46 - 45 - 46 - 45 - 36 - 35 - 15 - FAIL

Definitely over-reached myself - 2 reps would have been better and trying for a greater number of sets.

Also, for the last 4 sets I couldn't make the final (3rd) pull-up without letting the bar go, shaking my arms out before trying again, so not really proper form. I loath chin up!

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Well done - that is a tough session - those 3s quickly add up.

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Originally Posted by Mike T

Chest to floor press-ups, EMOM routine, doing 6 per minute. 15 minutes. I only just managed to squeeze that final 6th press-up into the 60 seconds.

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I sometimes find an outburst of expletives are required or involuntarily issued when forcing that final rep - much to the sharp disapproval of my partner if she's within ear-shot:cool:

Dumbbell bicep curls. 2 X 12.5 kg. Simultaneous lifting with both arms. Eccentric lowering. 2 mins break between sets, during which I did x( 10) reps of floor to lock to floor press-ups. Curl Reps were to failure, per set.

22 (10) - 17 (10) - 10 (10) - 11 (10) - 11 (10)

Yesterday's chin-up routine has definitely played havoc with my abs. I'm sure that's a good sign though :rolleyes: