One of the Bar-barian pledges that I am FB friends with posted a workout he did the other day. He did rounds of 5 pull ups, 5 dips and 5 push ups. The goal was to see how many he could complete in 30 minutes of time. He managed to get 26 rounds which works out to 130 reps of each exercise. I had done similar high volume routines before but not this particular combination so I figured I would give it a try.
I had no idea how it would go, especially after my gym performance yesterday which was pretty pathetic. I have had kind of a rough week thus far and it has been taking it’s toll at the gym. I have felt unmotivated and sort of like I am just going through the motions. I figured 30 minutes of non-stop body weight reps would be a good way to shock me out of it.
So when you describe this work out it doesn’t sound like much. After all, a lot of people can do 5 reps of these exercises. Through the first 3 or 4 sets I was coasting along pretty well. I was trying to make sure all of the movements utilized solid form with full ROM.
As the sets started to pile it became more important to try to keep the reps as explosive as possible to keep blowing through the numbers with out totally gassing out on a set. Once I completed round 10 I was in bust ass mode. Combining the movements back to back makes each one more difficult than if you were doing just dips, push ups or pull ups by themselves.
By the time round 20 was over I was gasping for air. When I finished the last push up in round 23 at the 30:00.2 mark I dropped to my knees as the sweat dripped from my forehead. I was spent.
The pull ups, as expected are the biggest hurdle to climb. In total during the half hour I repped a total of 345 reps spread evenly at 115 per exercise.
It was a good stress flushing exercise. Max reps in blocks of time are always a great mental and physical test. Thanks Steve P for the idea!
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