Phitness & Philosophy #1 - Lower Pull / Upper Push

[Oafkad]

Hey Folks!

Today I'd like to talk about the first workout of my week. This is the one I'll be doing for roughly 3 months and I'm pretty excited to work through it. It begins with one of my favorite exercise of all time, the Deadlift. There is something about this move that just fills me with a great deal of joy. It is sometimes a scary exercise as well, but I do my level best to be safe with it.

My goals with this exercise are to see how high I can take my 3x5 without a belt. You'll notice in today's video that I did have a belt. Well, first off I'm really impressed by how quickly you noticed that. Secondly I made a bit of an mistake at the start of my workout. I warmed up and shot for my absolute highest weight ever. A 300 lb Deadlift, which I managed to do! Admittedly only once but it was an incredible moment for me. A new high.

So what is next for the Deadlift? Well, we will see if we can reach 300 lbs without a belt for 3 sets of 3. Can I achieve that in the next 3 months? I'm not sure, but I'm going to try.

Following this we have the barbell bench press. Another of my favorite exercises. I appreciate this one for the way it challenges my upper chest. My pectorals end up incredibly sore for days after a good bench press workout. I tend to have a very wide grip which causes me to get a massive stretch while also not hurting my shoulders. I injured myself very badly a few years ago, so most of my working out involves sneaking around those issues as best as I can.

So if you see anything peculiar with my stance. Keep in mind that I'm doing what must be done for my own body.

The second superset is Landmine Shoulder Press and Single Arm Kettlebell Swing. The former has me charged because I'm finally using my landmine attachment. Lever based workouts are really enjoyable for me and provide sensations that I don't generally get with my other conventional routines. Like the bench I don't really have a goal besides just slowly increasing the weight.

My strategy involves raising the weight until I can't finish 3 full sets of the exercise without pauses. Each time I hit those walls I will keep with that weight until I beat it. Naturally the further into my workout I get the harder this sort of stuff becomes.

For the Single Arm Kettlebell Swing we enter into one of the sillier workout options. These sort of things seem to make professional fitness YouTube folks furious, but I dig it. It gives me a chance to work on my poor coordination and have a good time. A nice break away from the brutal rigidity of most exercises.

Our final set I actually didn't reach this week! That is the TRX Push Up and the TRX Overhead Triceps extension. So for these two I'm just going to need to work on my stamina so that I can accomplish them. I think the next time we make a video I'll take a breather and do them once I have some energy back in the tank.

Overall though I'm really jazzed for this workout. I'm very interested to see where I go with it and what new highs I can achieve. I'm in my mid 30s and my goal is simple. Keep my body in the best shape that I can so that if I get lucky, and science figures out reversing aging, that I'll have the best possible physique to utilize it. Hopefully the lowest chance of all cause death (or however it is said).

Our next video will be from my Wednesday routine. Editing these does take a little bit (even as bad as I edit them). When you add in work I'm usually just completely gassed by the end of my day.

- Oaf