"Navy SEAL Workout"

I am back to the grind. After getting 6th place in Germany with my ultimate frisbee team (Hamburg Hardfisch) and spending weeks working on my doctoral thesis I want to get back to working out. I have no gym membership, so it will just be bodyweight stuff and running. I made a post before about mixing bodyweight workouts and weight training, which was marginally successful until I injured my wrist and couldn't do pushups. In any case I will now start with the same "Navy SEAL Workout" that I linked to then. One of the links is dead, so I figured I would reproduce it here so that it doesn't get lost. *This isn't my intellectual work at all, just reproducing it here, but I have no original source to point to. Taken from here this time.*

I will only follow the pushup/pullup/dip/crunch part of the workout (note I will do crunches and not full situps, which is likely better overall for various reasons), and will run when I get the chance. Likely not much swimming for now. I will also realy only focus on the first nine week block, since the program gets really crazy after that.

Round 1:

WK#	Pushups	Situps	Dips	Pullups	Running	Swimming
1	4x15	4x20	0	3x3	M/W/F-2/2/2	4-5x15min
2	5x20	5x20	0	3x3	M/W/F-2/2/2	4-5x15min
3	5x25	5x25	0	3x4	break	4-5x20min
4	5x25	5x25	0	3x4	M/W/F-3/3/3	4-5x20min
5	6x25	6x25	0	2x8	M/T/W/F-2/3/4/2	4-5x25min
6	6x25	6x25	0	2x8	M/T/W/F-2/3/4/2	4-5x25min
7	6x30	6x30	0	2x10	M/T/W/F-4/4/5/3	4-5x30min
8	6x30	6x30	0	2x10	M/T/W/F-4/4/5/3	4-5x30min
9	6x30	6x30	0	3x10	M/T/W/F-4/4/5/3	4-5x35min

Round 2:

WK#	Pushups	Situps	Dips	Pullups	Running	Swimming
1	6x30	6x35	3x20	3x10	M/T/W/F/Sa-3/5/4/5/2	4-5x35min
2	6x30	6x35	3x20	3x10	M/T/W/F/Sa-3/5/4/5/2	4-5x35min
3	10x20	10x25	10x15	4x10	M/T/W/F/Sa-4/5/6/4/3	4-5x45min
4	10x20	10x25	10x15	4x10	M/T/W/F/Sa-4/5/6/4/3	4-5x45min
5	15x20	15x25	15x15	4x12	M/T/W/F/Sa-5/5/6/4/4	4-5x60min
6+	20x20	20x25	20x15	5x12	M/T/W/F/Sa-5/6/6/6/4	4-5x75min

Obviously this second round of 6+ weeks ramps ups very fast, and the workouts at the end would take a very long time to complete. I would wager that very few people have actually done this, although I know nothing about high-performing military training regimens. Again, just recording this program I read of elsewhere.

Are conventional track workouts useful for ultimate frisbee?

A recent post here challenges the effectiveness of track workouts for ultimate frisbee. The main thesis is that although track workouts may be useful the ability of an athlete to sprint they are actually very far away from what an ultimate player goes through in real life games. He goes on to suggest using playing as the main direct cardiovascular training, and varying training outside of practice and games in less straightforward ways.

I can completely agree with these conclusions and recommendations actually, but the argumentation seems to be too dogmatic for me. The last decades of progress is athleticism at the highest levels (outside of PEDs...) has been via the idea that one doesn't only train the exact quality necessary for their sport or competition. Variety, progression, and periodization can increase many-fold the ability of an advanced or intermediate athlete to continue improving. 400 m runners used to just run the 400 m in training. Now they run shorter and longer distances, do jump and bounding training, interval runs, and spend a lot of time in the gym.

I think this concept is pretty well known and accepted, at least in general. So if it is advantageous to train outside of the parameter space of ones competition, then simply being outside of the parameter space of ultimate does not disqualify track workouts as useful training. Granted, I have done my fair share of 10 x 200 m sprints as training, and can attest to their torture. And I also agree that such extreme examples probably have no place in training for ultimate on a weekly basis. Sprinting 100, 60, or 40 m in lower volume at full speed may be more useful at the track. Still, running longer distances, especially in an interval fashion has a place.

The advancements in training for ultimate over the past few years are awesome, and the average ultimate athlete is getting more and more educated. But I think there is still a huge place for the track, and even sometimes "longer distances" in the weekly and monthly life of someone training for ultimate.

Which are the best exercises for getting stronger and why?

There is a common argument used to justify compound movements (Squat/Bench/Deadlift, etc) as the best for general strength training, used to suggest low-bar squat is better than high-bar squat for general strength training, and to say that some unilateral movements are better than complementary bilateral movements. That is, that if a movement can be used to move relatively more weight and use more muscle then it is ‘better’. Usually this means ‘better for general strength’, but in any case, is this completely true? I definitely agree that these movements are the best, in various contexts, but it seems to me that many people are using incomplete arguments to tout these exercises.

The core reason I disagree with the specifics of this argument is based on multiple things. It firstly depends on what the purpose of strength training normally is, and what the specific definition of strength is. In the case of the compound movements being better than isolation movements, the common argument is something along the lines of “The squat uses more muscle group and more total muscle mass than the leg-press and is therefore better for general strength.” However, if the squat uses more muscle groups, shouldn’t one by default be able to use more weight? And if the squat uses more muscles, couldn’t it be that it also uses more neuro-muscular resources? Therefore, it could be that the leg-press is actually more efficient at increasing strength in the specific muscles that it uses. I am not saying that this is the case (I have no idea), but only that the argument is incomplete. The squat is better for general strength training because it uses more core muscles and is closer to daily activity, and therefore will affect one’s ability to do daily activities. The squat trains muscles together in a way that they would normally be used and helps to train healthy and efficient ways to move heavy weights. The squat is functional.

This same deconstruction can be used for unilateral exercises. Some preachers of unilateral exercises will point to the well-known fact that most can do more than one half of the weight on a unilateral movement than the equivalent bilateral movement. This is often used to say that the unilateral movement is somehow more efficient. But the matter of fact is, that one half of the body is not dead during the unilateral movement. The core muscles along with muscles of the non-weighted side help to balance and stabilize. The unilateral movements are not useful because they tap on unknown resources (although maybe they do). They are better because in real life and in sports we often produce force asymmetrically. The unilateral movements are useful and functional, and recreate very important force-production scenarios.

My point with this short article is only that many proponents of certain movements use irrelevant arguments to justify a movements usefulness in general strength training. Of course, if you are a powerlifter then you want to use the most weight, but otherwise exercises are useful not because of the weight possible, but for a variety of other valid reasons. The fact that some of the most useful movements also happen to be movements where we can use relatively more weight is only either a coincidence or a related, but not equivalent property of the movement.

What is Training Intensity?

Training intensity is an important parameter, as is almost every parameter. Intensity is often used strictly to refer to the percentage of your one rep maximum (1RM) of a given exercise. For example, if you can bench press 100 kg, and you are working with 80 kg, then the intensity is often said to be 80%. But is this really a good definition?

When I think of just the word intensity, it isn't only the effort at any given moment, but also the overall effort involved. For example, if you just bench press that 80 kg one time, then you clearly did 80% of what you are capable of (theoretically). In that case the 80% number summarizes essentially everything. However, if you use the 80 kg to do three reps, then it is more than 80% of what you are capable of. Looking at some tables of average ability, one should be able to 92% of the 1RM for three reps. So the three reps with 80 kg (80% 1RM) were 87% of what you were capable of (.8/0.92 = 0.869). So now the commonly referred to 'Intensity' in this case is not the whole picture. Yes, it was 80% of the 1RM, but the effort was 87% of the maximum effort when looking at the total work done.

I think that this simple definition of intensity, the percentage of 1RM weight used, is ubiquitous enough that I won't attempt to stray from it. But it is really important to understand that this 'relative effort', the percentage of the maximum effort when including sets and reps, is also crucially important.

In beginner's programs like Starting Strength, every workout is at 3 sets of 5 reps at 100% relative effort. Essentially each workout is more than you have done before, and at maximum effort. However, in many intermediate programs, for example The Texas Method, intensity is varied, but so is the relative effort. Usually when people describe these workouts they only describe the varied intensity. The varied relative effort is what allows for recovery from the high volume (and high relative effort) workouts, and is crucial to the success of the program.

Keep it in mind!

Prilepin's Chart Visualized

One of the main tenant's of programming for strength training, muscle building, or any training in general is that the weight you do, the number of reps, and the number of sets all matter. The training effect and therefore result depend on exactly how you train. These charts are an example of A. S. Prilepin's scientific and anecdotal experience of the best rep/set combinations to train strength, or to train certain abilities relating to Russian Olympic weightlifters.

Keep in Mind that it is just a guide, but it really helps to understand that we should be thinking about how much weight we use, AND how we distribute the reps we do.

Percentages are of a theoretical or tested 1 rep max of the given movement.

chart for strength building:

chart including other rep-ranges, and therefore other qualities (Hypertrophy and Endurance):

Honestly, I cannot find reliable sources for this data, and if you see below both versions are called very generally "Prilepin's Chart". Still, if you are training for strength and your rep/set split is outside of one of the shaded areas in the first graph, or you are training for another quality and you are outside of a shaded area in the second graph, maybe step back and think why.

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other places it is discussed:

https://www.elitefts.com/education/training/sports-performance/prilepins-chart/

https://www.t-nation.com/training/prilepins-table-for-hypertrophy

https://powerathletehq.com/2014/07/28/prilepins-chart/

http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/files/prelipins.pdf

https://www.ugbodybuilding.com/threads/11672-Prilepin-Chart-and-How-To-Design-Your-Own-Powerlifting-Program 

Incorporating military style PT with weight training

I have for a long time done beginner and intermediate linear progression programs like Starting Strength or The Texas Method. This usually means lifting weights every week, three times per week, full body each session. However, for the last two years or so I have only had enough time to get to the gym twice per week, and not as much dedication in the kitchen to keep up with these tough programs. Combine that with a desire for a bit more 'general fitness', a bit of a fixation on getting better at pushups and pullups, and a bit of admiration for the crazy levels of fitness of folks in the military, and I am looking for a way to incorporate more PT in to my workouts.

In high school I did the first few weeks of a 'Navy SEAL program' (here and here), and then of course quickly stopped doing it because I was lazy. It is composed of two nine-week blocks, with a running program, and a non-specific recommendation of swimming. Doing all of that is already a lot, but by the end of the 18 weeks one is doing 400 pushups per session!

I want to keep lifting weights in the gym, so I only want to add two days of PT; one on a day of lifting, and one on a day where I don't lift. Therefore the progress should be a bit slower. And I definitely don't want to be doing 400 total pushups per session. I made a program that is similar to the first 9 weeks of the Navy SEAL program, but progresses instead over 12 weeks, and includes dips a bit sooner.

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12 week PT program - parallel with weight training - 2x per week

WK#	Pushups	Situps	Dips	Pullups
1	4x15	4x15	0	3x3
2	4x15	4x15	0	3x3
3	5x15	5x15	0	3x4
4	5x15	5x15	0	3x4
5	5x20	5x20	0	2x6
6	5x20	5x20	0	2x6
7	6x20	6x20	2x6	2x8
8	6x20	6x20	2x8	2x8
9	6x25	6x25	2x10	2x10
10	6x25	6x25	3x10	2x10
11	6x30	6x30	3x12	3x10
12	6x30	6x30	3x15	3x10

3x10 is 3 sets of 10 repetitions. The pushups and situps are always identical, which is easy to remember. I plan to always do it as a circuit, in the order listed pushups-situps-dips-pullups and then repeat. The dips and pullups always have fewer sets than the pushups and situps, so one should spread them as equally as possible.

Let's see how the next 12 weeks go with this. I plan to do it on Thursday and Saturday, with lifting on Monday and Thursday still.

Deadlift Dice

I have always played around with the idea of having randomly generated workouts. In general, and also for specific exercises, variety to a point is useful and a good way to mix it up both mentally and physically. Crossfit makes a solid attempt at programming variety, but for me leaves a lot to be desired. Why not use dice and actually make a workout as random as possible?

The deadlift is one of my favorite exercises to do. It is fun, simple, and I can do relatively more on the deadlift than any other exercise (relative to my bodyweight and what someone of my experience should be able to do). Long story short, picking up heavy weight from the ground and dropping it is awesome. However, training the deadlift very hard can take a big toll on the body, and I actually find that my deadlift strength depends mostly on how much I weigh and not how often I train it or how much thought I put in to my programming. Therefore I still want to train the deadlift once per week, but I want to put as little mental effort in to my planning, and get rid of the stress of meeting any fixed benchmarks.

So the Deadlift is a perfect guinea pig for random training, and the alliteration 'Deadlift Dice' is very satisfying.

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'Deadlift Dice'

You need two die, preferably different colors. Or you can just roll one die twice.

Die/roll #1 – exercise selection
Die/roll #2 – rep scheme

roll die #1.
1 or 2 – conventional deadlift
3 or 4 – sumo deadlift
5 or 6 – snatch grip deadlift (or defecit deadlift)

roll die #2.
1 or 2 – volume
3 or 4 – speed/power
5 or 6 – intensity

volume = high sets, high reps = 5-8 sets of 5-10 reps
speed/power = high sets, low reps = 5-8 sets of 1-3 reps (focus on speed)
intensity = low sets, mid reps = 1-3 sets of 3-5 reps

Choose an appropriate weight yourself. These rep schemes are just examples.

Possible tweaks:
- If you don't like the deadlift variations, get rid of die #1 and just do a random rep scheme with your favorite variation.
- choose fewer deadlift variations or rep schemes, and distribute them across numbers 1-6.
- Choose more exercises or rep schemes and use a fancy die with more than six sides. Ask your neighborhood tabletop RPG player.

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This same concept could be applied to any other type of exercise, and also to running, biking, swimming, rowing, etc. Weight could also be chosen, although with some dependence on the rep scheme. Options could be unequally spread across the available numbers. The idea is that the planning work is only done once and then each training session all you have to do is roll the dice and do what they say.