In the book, they suggest that you use Nautilus equipment, but for those who do not or cannot belong to a gym with Nautilus, they also have an at-home workout that uses free weights. This is what I am doing.
Today, I did the Free Weight Big Five at home. I loaded up 23 pounds on the barbell (including the 13 pounds that the bar alone weighs) and used it for each exercise, just to figure out how much I can do.
Bent-Over Barbell Row: 5 reps in 90 seconds TUL (Time Under Load). I did not get to failure. When I do this again next week, I will add some weight.
Standing Overhead Press: 5 reps and got to failure after 85 seconds TUL. This one was hard! The first time I started to lift it up, I thought, "Uh oh!"
Dead Lift: 5 reps in 90 seconds TUL. I did not get to failure. When I do this again next week, I will add some weight.
Bench Press: 5 reps in 95 seconds TUL. I did not get to failure, but one more rep would have done it. When I do this again next week, I will add some weight.
Squat: I had real trouble with this one! I can do regular squats all the way to the ground and back up, holding my hands in front of me, or a Prisoner Squat, or even a dumbbbell squat. But trying to squat with the bar across my back put me in such a weird position that it was hard to go down at all. I did 7 reps halfway down and back up, but only lasted 70 seconds TUL. Next time I do this, I will lighten the weights and try to get my form right, and be able to get all the way to 90 seconds TUL before failure.
Anyway, when I got done, even before I got done, I was feeling very shaky and a little sick to my stomach. And all that just for about 8 minutes of work!
I'm on my way!
I was really helped by these two videos posted by a man to show how to do The Free Weight Big Five:
I made a comment to the man and he said that his form on the overhead press was not great, so I adjusted mine.
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