There are a lot of milestones that I’m shooting for. One in particular is the one-arm pullup. This is not where one arm pulls on the wrist while the other arm pulls up. This is a real one-arm-only pullup where the other arm is not contributing at all. I ran into a rock climbing friend of mine who said that only 1 in 100,000 people can do this feat. I figure that makes it a good goal to strive for!
When you’re doing strength training, you want to be able to do comparisons so you can measure your improvement, and also see how far you have still to go. One great way to do this is by comparing reps to maximum total strength or power. Here’s the breakdown:
# of reps % 1 rep max
1 100
2 95
3 93
4 90
5 87
6 85
7 83
8 80
9 77
10 75
11 70
12 67
15 65
Ok, now how do we put this to work on the one-arm pullup? Here’s what I did.
Throw a rope over the bar and attach weight to it. The non-working arm pulls on the rope, and the other arm pulls on the bar. Keep adding more weight, until you can do your one-arm pullup. I weigh 150 pounds, and can do the pullup with 10 pounds attached to the rope, so my 1 rep max for one arm is 140 pounds. For working this skill, let’s put 15 pounds on the rope. Calculating that out, you’ll find that 135 pounds is 90% of 150 pounds. Looking up in our table above that means that with the 15 pound weight, I want to be able to do FOUR REPS.
This type of comparison of reps to total power can be used all the time in your strength training. If you know the total 1 rep max that is your goal, you can design reps at smaller weights to get there over time.
This technique provides you with another tool to apply during your training, allowing you to breakdown your goal into manageable and measurable steps.
I never really tried these until a couple of weeks ago. I ran into a video on YouTube, and started working this against the wall.In yoga there’s something called a forearm stand, which is like a handstand where the entire arm from elbow to hand is used as your base. I’ve seen breakers jump up to handstand from this, but they usually do some sort of abdominal kick to get there. I worked it for a few weeks, and get a set of ten (five each arm) on video:
When you get bored of that video, take a look at this guy doing those without the wall!!
There are a few methods that personal trainers, and folks doing their own training, can measure their exertion level during exercise. METs are one of those methods.1 MET is defined by the American Council on Exercise as “a person’s oxygen uptake at rest”, or more technically at 3.5mL of oxygen per kg of bodyweight per minute.With that in mind you can quickly scan the list below and see what types of exercises require more or less exertion. With that in mind you can choose exercises that will hit the range you are targeting, and thus reach your fitness and weight loss goals.
backpacking: 5-11
playing basketball: 7-12
boxing in ring: 13
canoeing, rowing: 3-8
cycling 10mph: 7
dancing: 3-8
hiking: 3-7
judo: 13
mountain climbing: 5-10
jumping rope (60-80/min): 9
jumping rope (120-140/min): 11-12
running (10min/mile): 10
running (9min/mile): 11
running (8min/mile): 12
running (7min/mile): 14
running (6min/mile): 16
skiing downhill: 5-8
skiing x-country: 6-12
soccer: 5-12
stair climbing: 4-8
swimming: 4-8
tennis: 4-9
As you can see running is by far the hardest, and consequently it’s the reason why running in combination with weight training is recommended as one of the most effective ways at weight loss.
Queda de Rins (elbow to the kidneys) is a Capoeira position/movement which puts like 2/3 or maybe more of the bodyweight on one-arm. I’ve been working these for years, but only recently was able to come out of one into a handstand. Yes, as you may guess, I can only do it on the right side. Anway, take a look at the video, slight jump into handstand, straight legs, ease it down into queda de rins, then back to handstand.
Here’s an interesting article that appeared on BBC news in December. It talks about the diet of Medieval people. These heavy laboring peasants would have done 12 hours of heavy labor per day, consumed roughly 30-50% more calories, nearly two loaves of bread, and three pints of beer. Those are pints, or roughly five 12oz servings! They also consumed only 8oz of meat, which by proportion to their total calorie intake would be 4-5oz by todays calorie standards. They make a strong point that they did not consume much in the way of our modern demon, refined sugar. Say goodbye to heart disease and diabetes. About a year ago Michael Pollan wrote an article for the Times which talked about eating and diet. His conclusion: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. This article more than most others I’ve read, puts debates to rest, and simplifies the debate to the essential concepts which are often lost to nitty gritty details that are in the end irrelevant.
