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Thread: How to maintain progression when I'm away from the weights?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
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    Charlottesville VA
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    941

    Default How to maintain progression when I'm away from the weights?

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    My schedule allows me to lift 3 days one week and 2 days the next because I spend 4 days at home and 3 days on the farm, then 5 days at home and 2 days on the farm. It's about 120 miles between the two. Sometimes, however, I find myself away from home for longer periods of time. For Example I leave tomorrow for 6 days on my farm. When I am there I am "boondocking" and don't have access to weights. There will be some extended periods like this happening this summer, because I am building my house. Can I do a supplemental workout or two with pushups, or Pike pushups and chins? (I could rig up a chinning bar easily enough.) I don't know what I can do for a supplement for squats except maybe lunges. Would this be effective, or would I just be wasting time and effort? I don't have a prowler, but I could rig something up to pull.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Kingwood TX
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    8,914

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    Yeah, when out for a long period of time without training, I'm (in general) a fan of high-rep bodyweight stuff. After 6 days away from the barbell you might not lose much strength, if your breaks are longer than that (10+ days) then there is going to be some unavoidable loss of strength whether you do the bodyweight stuff or not. The high rep bodyweight circuits though will mitigate a small amount of strength loss and they will maintain your conditioning so that when you return to the barbells you aren't gassing halfway through a workout or getting so sore you can't walk for a week afterward. I'd go with push ups/dips, chins, and then rig up a sled and drag for 20-30 mins per day. There are cheap sleds available online

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
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    Charlottesville VA
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    941

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    Thanks. I will try to get the chinning bar set up this weekend.....and i saw a texas T-sled on Craigslist....it that doesn't work out, I have a chain harrow that I can drag.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
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    2

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    Thanks for this.
    I have the same problem this year I will be away with no road or gym access for a week at a time at least once a month until the fall. I know it will drag my novice progression out but I was concerned about regression during those trips.
    Pizza Dad I used to work out in a remote camp years ago and had to make my own exercise gear I couldn't add enough weight using water jugs to do squats so I used to hold a 50lb jug in each hand and do single leg squats. I weighed around 220 at the time so I figured that was similar to squatting about 210. Not much really but probably better than doing a bunch of air squats.
    For replacing the bench press I would lay on the floor and roll 50 lb feed sacks onto my back. Again at 220 a push-up being about 60% of bw with 2 sacks it was fairly close to benching 230lbs.
    For chins I just filled a bucket with rocks and tied it around my waist. Make sure you have a thick rope or this one hurts.
    For deadlifts I found a long steel bar and ran it through the handles of a bunch of 50lb water jugs. I found I could only load up around 300lbs but that's more of a load than nothing.
    I found with all these things as my only training gear I hit a plateau I couldn't pass since I couldn't add much more weight but you might be able to do something similar if you are just trying to preserve your gains.
    Good luck with the farm I'm doing the same thing myself right now.

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