We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Currently my Sat. morning weights day (my 3rd weights day/week until April 1, but without trainer) includes the following (each with 1 light warm-up and just 3 working sets, because of time). I will not do barbell bench or barbell squat without a spotter or trainer. We tend not to do much isolated muscle-group exercises, but some of it is ok and it can help with the large complex movements:
Leg press - max wt for 12-15 reps Pullups - damn difficult. Use assistance if needed Dumbbell or barbell row - max weight for 8-10 Inclined dumbbell bench press - high reps, not high wt. Dips Curls, if time - max wt for 10-12 curls/set Sometimes inclined pulls with the TRX things, if time
Each with a 50-100 set of mixed jump rope fun between each set as a semi-recovery thing, plus to fit in a bit of HIIT into the roughly 75 minutes.
Are dips worth doing at all? I think maybe so as accessory exercises, if you do Tricep Dips and not Chest Dips. Between bench press and inclined bench, chest gets plenty of stress. Triceps dip is holding your body vertical while dipping. The Triceps are the most important arm muscle, but it gets plenty of stress from other more basic things like Bench Press. But why not? Big biceps are for the beach, but strong Tris are for life. Some men and women are too weak to do any dips. They are a strong movement, but not as strong as pullups. Pullups are tough for most of us.
The goal of most training is to improve one's ability to perform some task. As such, one should aim for the optimal program, not the easiest program. In most cases, making your exercises easier is the opposite of what you want to do as that implies that the body will have little reason - in a teleological sense - to make significant adaptations as the applied stress will be less that that which will elicit the optimal response.....but go ahead and kip if it makes your pull up numbers look better and give that bar a good bounce off your chest to boost your BP numbers.
