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Mini Workouts; the key to success
Matt R. Wenning
Many times to get extra volume, or more work done in a week, many of
us usually add on more things in our regular workout. Now we know
from science that after about 1 hour, the body will start to shut
down, and doing intense work past this point may be detrimental and
useless. So how do you get more work in without training over 1
hour, well mini workouts is the answer.
When I first started lifting weights, as I got stronger in the gym,
I wasn’t stronger as a whole. Many of the guys at the welding shop
could work my ass in the ground, pick up odd objects and run circles
around me. I wondered why? I’m training, eating better, and sleeping
way more. The difference was endurance both muscularly, and
mentally, as well as strength in odd angles and positions.
As we all know, the greatest deadlifters of the past were athletes
from the northlands of Finland, Sweden etc. Why, because most of
them were loggers and manual laborers. They had been so used to
picking up oddly shaped things for years that standing up with a
normal barbell close to their body was easy.
The key to mini workouts working for you is to find weaknesses and
train them until they are strengths. This may come in the form of
gym work such as walking with vests or sleds, treadmill walking with
bands etc. Or in can come in the form of picking up heavy rocks on a
farm, or stacking firewood, moving heavy I beams, or roofing, or
other forms of taxing labor. These types of activities make you farm
boy strong. Farm boy strength is not easy to come by. My lifting has
suffered occasionally from doing this type of stuff, but in the long
run, made muscles strong that are impossible to work in the gym (or
take a very creative imagination). In addition to becoming strong,
your GPP goes through the roof, but not at first. Like anything
else, it may take years for you to truly adapt to working like that
and training, but the benefits are great.
Mini workouts should last anywhere from 10-25 minutes and be very
quick, with short rest intervals and high workout density.
Weaknesses such as GPP, low back, hamstrings, grip, abs etc should
be the primary emphasis. I like to hit them all at once with farm
boy work.
Over the course of 2 years, my strength has greatly improved,
especially after a taper. I’ve become leaner, repair quicker, and
can work harder much longer. The end result is greater overall
athleticism and strength.
Other mini workouts that I like to use during the school year when
working at the welding shop is limited, is to go to the pool and
walk 1000 steps in the shallow water. This has seemed to increase
core strength, hip strength and also helped me to recover a little
faster. We walk normal, laterally, and backwards to develop
different areas throughout the process. Try it for a few weeks and
see what it does for you.
If you do cardio use weighted resistance to develop hypertrophy in
lagging areas, when walking, I use weight vests and ankle weights to
develop my back and my hip flexors. I ride the bike with the same
equipment on and it takes it up a notch. If you do this type of
work, keep it around 15 min, that way the main workouts are not
affected. Just remember to start slow and build up.
One thing I do at the welding shop is I have a casting of
counterweight on the workbench. Every time I walk past it, I pick it
up with one hand; it’s about a 3.5x 8 in block of steel that weighs
about 60lbs. When I first started, my grip by the end of the day
couldn’t even get it off the bench, by the end of the summer I could
pick it up all day long. I’ve never had a problem with grip since.
This trick I got from an old foundry worker that made my forearms
look small.
Since I’m a big fan of the reverse hyper, I recommend putting it in
your mini workouts often. Use it heavy sometimes, and light others,
but use it frequently. Remember that many times your lower back is
your limitation to lifting, so put the work in and get it strong.
Hamstrings are another one of those muscles that take forever to get
strong, but they will if your determined enough, band leg curls are
best along with glute ham raises. Band leg curls blow everything
else away because they work your weakest points the hardest, not the
easiest like machines with cams do. Glute hams work your hamstrings
in conjunction with the posterior chain they way they are meant to.
Abs falls under the same category. They take a long time to get
strong, but once they are you will realize your strength potential,
and be able to lift longer and safer. Do most of your ab work
standing since that is the position you’re in squatting, running,
deadlifting. I do at least 500 band or cable crunches per week.
Getting stronger takes time, smarts, and dedication. When you’re
ready to go to the next level, this is the educated way and the
proven path to greatness. To be stronger than all, you must think
like none.
Matt Wenning
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