Today is the first birthday of The Garage Gym Online. In honour of this special event, I am going to follow this post up with a second post, at 4pm this afternoon, which will be a collection of links relating to the mental aspects of competitive performance (a reader request, no less!).
Anyway, a year ago today, I wrote and published the first post, which later became the About page. It was a welcome to anyone and everyone who decides that the garage is their best hope for a workout, whether that’s for training for a sport, losing weight or getting stronger.
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So how have you managed to rattle on for a whole year?
Well, I’ve talked about lots of different things. Hopefully, some of them have been interesting. Here are some of the main categories:
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Workout routines and training
My own goals have shifted only slightly in the last 12 months. I’ve solidified my one-arm chin, hit a double-bodyweight chin and dip, pushed my deadlift up to 2.5x bodyweight and benched 100kg for a double.
I’ve tried a number of different training programmes, including total body three times a week, upper/lower split four times a week and legs/push/pull six times a week, high volume: both high reps and low sets and low reps and high sets, maximum effort training, using 5 reps, 3 reps, doubles and singles and Doggcrapp (DC).
I’ve not made all the progress that I wanted but I’ve jumped (most) of the hurdles that have appeared in my way and I’ve got a lot stronger and more muscular into the bargain. And I’ve learned a lot about how I want to train from now on.
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Mobility and stability
Mobility and stability have been big for me in the last 12 months. I had a horrid time with my excessive lumbar lordosis, which was partly caused by sitting too much and partly because of lots of competitive swimming. I also have a chronic recurring issue with my left shoulder, again caused by too much swimming. It’s not helped by my desk job either.
I’ve tried activation drills (of limited use), stretching (marginally helpful), soft tissue work (awesome) and strategic strengthening exercises (critical) to get myself into straighter shape. I’m much less “S”-shaped now and my overhead pressing movements thank me for it, both in terms of my groove and my abdominal stability. These days, I do 15 minutes of soft tissue work every single day and I feel so much better for it.
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Exercises
Blogging has been brilliant for making me try lots of new exercises. It’s made me get creative about devising new ways of doing things, including how to do glute-ham raises, which proved popular on the RossTraining forums, lumberjack squats, zercher squats, floor presses and viking presses.
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Cardio
I don’t blog much about cardio because it’s fairly easy to get right. Don’t do too much and don’t go too hard being the general rule… Anyway, during the last 12 months I’ve experimented with various types of cardio to help with the odd fat-stripping session, which allows me to spend most of the rest of the year eating…
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Diet
I performed my first successful mass-gaining phase this year and gained just over 20lbs of scale-weight. Unfortunately, I hurt my left shoulder just after finishing and lost a bit of upper body mass as I cut down again. Ultimately, I think I managed to keep 10lbs of lean mass, which I wasn’t disappointed with. I don’t think I’ll go all out for it again. I’m going for a slower and steadier approach now.
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Homemade gym equipment
I spent a fair bit of the summer banging around in the garden making bits of homemade gym kit. Most ambitious was my sled, which I have used for pushes and pulls (which I prefer – I see myself as more like a miniature Jouka Ahola than any of the really big dudes). However, I’ve also really enjoyed my farmers’ walk bars, my thick bar and my sandbag.
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World’s Strongest Man
I was given the World’s Strongest Man 1980-1989 and 1990- 1999 for Christmas and I reviewed them in detail. It was an amazing learning experience to see what the human body is capable of and the kind of strength that it is possible to attain.
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Oldtime strongman
At some point in the year, I discovered the oldtime strongman resources that have been made available to us on the internet and I set out on a crusade to detail who they were and what we knew about them.
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Book reviews
Recently, I decided to start reviewing a book every Monday, which gives me the weekend to read it, if I haven’t already. I started out with the amazing Biomarkers, which really made me sit up. Since then, I’ve worked my way along my bookshelf, reviewing anything and everything training related that I can lay my hands on.
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Personal Training resources
And finally, just in the last few weeks, I decided to take things further and get qualified as a personal trainer. Please join me this coming year as I learn what I need to know to get myself qualified and set out on the next phase of my understanding of this strange thing we do… training.
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