Dufisthenics

Ray, whom I know through the Bar-barian forums and who also has the good fortune to train directly with Zef in NYC, messaged me last night.

He saw my State of the Bar address video and specifically the part where I talk about the frustrating plateau I hit when I was trying grind out GUTS routines several times a week in my ultimate pursuit of the BBR’s.

Ray shared with me what he has been doing to build up his endurance.  It uses some of the GUTS concept where you are just concentrating on the dips, pull ups and push ups.  The difference is you are doing 5 sets and you are introducing a time element as well.

Here is what Ray sent, many thanks to him!  I will be trying this later this week.

The routine that I’ve been doing has become a staple workout that I like to do at least once a week to help increase my strength & endurance – the two key things in trying to finish the BBRs. The routine was ACTUALLY inspired by your GUTS routine — slashing the muscle ups and just trying to finish the bulk[45, 25, 55]. The setup is pretty much breaking up the reqs and doing them for sets within an allotted time. Here’s how I started:
 
[20 Dips, 10 Pull Ups, 25 Push Ups]x5 Rounds. 3 minutes per round and 2 minutes rest in between each round.
 
The first couple rounds feel pretty easy but by round 4 and 5, it’s a fight. If you finish the round early, you have more rest time. & you can’t break up the set, just like the requirements. I always try not to even pause during the sets and try to finish each exercise as fast as possible to train that explosiveness. I realized the moment you slow down in a rep, everything becomes helluvalot harder. So I always attack this routine like how I would attack the reqs – speed and form.
 
Once I can complete the entire 5 rounds at least twice (two different times) I up my numbers slightly. Any small increase will make it feel exponentially harder. This is how I’ve been climbing over the past 2 months since I started this:
[20 Dips, 10 Pull Ups, 25 Push Ups]
[22 Dips, 12 Pull Ups, 25 Push Ups]
[23 Dips, 13 Pull Ups, 28 Push ups]
[25 Dips, 14 Pull Ups, 30 Push Ups] – current. Attempted first time today – Failed at 4th round 14th dip. Once I break up the exercise, that’s where I stop. So far, I’ve yet to increase the allotted time to complete it so every time I up it, I’m pretty much taking away some rest time as well.