Tabata is cool, I have found. These minimal workouts are great. How can you beat working out 4-5 minutes a day and getting incredible results, the kind that if you were an 80′s workout guy would take hours?
However yesterday I went back to old school bodybuilding again. I have to say the old ways are great. Probably the best is the cutting edge – Tabata style workouts – or the oldest, like the Sandow lifts.
What I did again was grab the dumbbell and use much more body motion than bodybuilders would have recommended. Of course my goal is not to get that huge and bulky, nor isolate muscles; instead I want to get the best result for my whole body in the shortest time possible. Also just to have an enjoyable experience.
So I grab the dumbbell and slowly lift it, feeling the stretch in my back, and let it flow up as I stand up. Then I use some body momentum to curl it up to my shoulder (without exaggerating the body momentum, just making it nice and natural), and then do a bit of a jerk as I push it up overheard. It’s a kind of deadlift-curl-clean and jerk.
I then hold it overhead for a few seconds, feeling good as I do so. Very heroic feeling. I do tilt my body to the side sometimes on the lift and lowering the weight, a modified ‘side press’, as they used to be called.
After I lower the weight to my shoulder I might do a few reps, usually around 3-5, and then lower the weight to my thigh. Then I curl it 3-5 times and put it down. Wait a few minutes (unlike Tabata) and do it again for the other side.
No injury or twinge today, which is great. Intensity triumphs over lengthy workouts.
I’m not sure how well this will work for specific body composition goals, but I have none! Gaining some extra lean muscle and staying in relatively good shape is all that matters for now; the rest is gravy.
