My ultra- simple 'weights routine'

OK, so the plan is I'm going to clean and jerk, clean and press and clean and push press my way to victory. The idea is that I keep doing something simple until it stops working, then I can add other exercises.
I'm not asking permission- I know what people will say; "no, you're retarded".
But what I am asking is this: what repetition range? I mean, nothing cleans me out like a good high rep set of clean and presses, but I think maybe lower reps and heavier weight would be a better idea?
Thoughts?

 

Lean and long muscules or bulky hulk like muscles.

 

Just muscles. I'm not picky. If I had to choose, I'd say I was more of a 'hulking, enormous' type.

 

Cheers Dog!

It depends on what you are looking for.
Is it endurance, strength, "explosiveness", or all of them?
Also, how many days will you workout?

If it was me and I could workout 3 days a week, I would do:

Day A
Clean and Jerk / Clean and Press / Clean and Push Press
Jim Wendler's 531 ( search it, I will have to write much stuff to make it clear here )
or
5 sets x 5 reps

-Working at strength (mostly)

Day B ( ofc rest in between )
Clean and Jerk / Clean and Press / Clean and Push Press
4 x 8 -12

-Working at hypertrophy (mostly)

Day C
Clean and Jerk / Clean and Press / Clean and Push Press
3-4 x 15-20 explosively

-Working at conditioning+speed(explosiveness)+endurance (mostly)

 

Well, Mr. Hulk, they say the key to that is heavy weights and low reps done really slow. How heavy and how low and how slow is up to you and your capacity.

 

Strength, above all else. I need to be strong for my job, and when I go back to karate I want to be ungodly strong. I'd like to be pretty as well, but that's probably a lost cause frankly.
Cheers.

Ah. This might throw a spanner in the works as you can't really do a clean slowly. But I'm determined to do it anyway, just to see if it works.

 

Then,
I would go for 5 x 5 on Day 1,
3 x 8 -12 on Day 2
( more of a recovery day with a little bit of hypertrophy, you want to be pretty as well )
and again 5 x 5 on Day 3 or Wendler's 531.

Also, as you go for strength and you will be lifting heavy weights, always warm up really good before the workout.
Jumping Jacks, skipping rope, running and dynamic stretches for a warm up.
Then proceed to reach your working set via warm up sets.
Moreover, If I would press so much I would try to work my rotator cuffs at the warmup, a set of 10-20 reps of external rotation with a dumbbell, another set of 8-10 reps of 45degree angle side raises ( again with a dumbbell ) and another set of cuban presses with the bar, at least once a week.
For all these exercises, use minimal weight, you want to condition your rotator cuff and warm up!
You don't want to screw your rotator cuff
After the workout you should stretch to relax your joints and avoid nerve over-tension.

Disclaimer: I don't know your "fitness"/weightlifting level, so if you already know and follow the points I just stated, don't shout, I stated those to make a more general image of my opinion!

-RaKzaroK

 

Cool.

 

Thoughts? I know the title of this thread is ultra-simple but there are complexities in even a simple routine like that of the 2 Oly lifts (or even just the 1). The Clean is a fairly technical lift, so knowing this surely you'd also know the type of rep/set ranges that other people use in training it? Strict Press and Push Press are Jerk progressions. In my own training I haven't tried the Jerk or even Power Jerk yet for various reasons. Are you alternating Press, Push Press and Jerk on different days or the same day? Including any doubles like Clean, Press, Press.

 

want simple? do a lot of reps. there. screw fixed rep ranges, just get as many in as you can, however you can

 

As to the rep/set ranges, I've heard a number of opinions. There are people who say you should stick to low ranges, like really low, say 1-3 but if you go back into history you can see people like Peary Rader using reps as high as 15. I was wondering what everybody's take was on that here. Is it better to use a different kind of set/rep scheme if you're not including other exercises? I've heard people talk about aiming for about 30 reps per exercise per session, but if you decide from that that the workout as a whole should be about 100 reps, that seems a bit much. What might work is if rather than a set number of reps, I decide on a set time frame for the workout, say an hour, and see how many reps I can get in in that time?

I hadn't thought of using doubles like that, I'll give it a go.

The clean and jerk won't be the only exercise whatsoever. I plan to do cardio and a few pushups and so on. But it will be the only weighted exercise.

 

that's kinda how every MDUSA and California Strength video looks, but I think they work up to a percentage of 1RM for x many lifts, which might be 6 at 90% or 12 at 80% and some of them are training more than once a day, every day

for me at an evening session a set is just that number of reps at whatever weight so not like my powerlifting set/reps at all: eg

Overhead Press
1 x 5 @ 20kg (45%)
1 x 3 @ 30kg (65%)
5 x 5 @ 37kg (85%)

vs.

Clean & Press
10 x 1 @ 25kg (50%)
8 x 1 @ 35kg (65%)
6 x 1 @ 40kg (75%)
5 x 1 @ 42.5kg (80%)

Clean & Push Press
3 x 1 @ 45kg (85%)
3 x 1 @ 47.5kg (90%)
3 x 1 @ 50kg (95%)
3 x 1 @ 52.5kg (100%)

These are rough estimates from training, 52.5 is the heaviest I've push pressed, 44 the heaviest I've strict pressed.

 

Rightie ho then. I can get 70kg above my head, how much of that should I use? I'm thinking about 60?

 

i'd say work up to a max or near-max clean and press (which will vary from day to day) in very small increments, then take between 10 and 20kg off the bar and do a crapton of reps with that, moving to push presses or jerks as your strict press fails. if you can put 70 overhead consistently, then between 50 and 60 would be your ideal work weights (afaik the sweet spot is basically between 70% and 90% of 1rm).

 

Call it 55 then. Let's go full fool.

 

Shoot dog, what an earth are you talking about?

If you want supper simple do what fishy says OP.

Shoot for a heavy single/double/triple then just do a set number of reps with a back of weight.

Say a total of 40 reps, that may look like: 8,8,7,6,6,5

Or 20x2 or whatever, the secret is not to have rest breaks so long you start paying rent on the place.

My favourite simple program is one that I handed out a while back and a few member here got a lot bigger and stronger on was:

Back squat 10x3
Bench 10x3
rows 100 totoal reps, heavy
shrugs - 50 total reps
Curls 30 total reps


Deadlift 10x3
Frontsquat 10x3
OHP 10x3
Pullups 50 total reps, when you can do 5x10, add weight
CGBP 30 total reps

 

Turns out a whole hour of singles is hopelessly optimistic. I could have gone on for another 10 minutes, but duty called in the shape of a roof panel that needed lifting into position. So that's 20 minutes to shoot for next time.

 

work up to a heavy single, double or triple and do back offs.
front squats, deadlifts and rows too

 

Reading your workout thread, the whole time frame of singles isn't going to take you leaps and bounds Dog.

Part of building strength and muscle mass is developing neural pathways, and you have to be busting a ton of reps in any given movement to develop those pathways. That's what strength is about, and you need strength to induce hypertrophy (muscle growth) or you won't make any significant muscle mass gains.

I think you would be better off doing compound movements only. Deadlift, Squat, Front Squat, Bench Press, Dips, Shoulder Press, Pull Ups, and Rows with added core work each session. You can make a really simple program and make some serious gains in strength and muscle growth just doing those alone.

 

Is 'one right after the other' better than 'one a short while after the other' though?

I am. I perform clean and presses. To the exclusion of all else.