Hello brothers.

My landlord was recently doing some work on the house and I wasn't able to lift. I have a home gym (power rack, adjustable bench, barbell, ez-curl bar, olympic dumbbell handles) that needed to be stored for about a week. I was previously doing the Serge Nubret workout, which can be found here.

I decided to do Paul Wade's Convict Conditioning until he completed the housework. I encourage everyone to read the actual book, but the basic exercises can be found on here.

Below is the quick breakdown of what I've been doing as far as a routine. The book suggests a few workouts, but doesn't really explain them.

Where to start:

The book recommends to start at step 2 of each exercise, no matter how strong you are. Like StrongLifts 5X5, I think this is a good idea. You'll be able to progress quickly even if you start at level 1.

He also recommends you not start on the handstand or bridge exercises until you can do the rest at step 6, but I ignored that advice.

Warmups:

Do one intermediate set of each of the two preceding steps of the exercise. For example, if you're on step 5 of pushups (Full Pushups), do a set of 25 Kneeling Pushups (step 3), a set of 12 Half Pushups (step 4), and then try to do the progression standard of step 5 (2 sets of 20).

If you 're starting out, and you start at step 2, you can do 2 sets of step 1's intermediate level to warm up before trying the progression standard of step 2.

When to move on:

This is easy. move on once you can do the progression standard. If you can't, keep at it and you will be able to eventually. If you have a lot of trouble, there are some alternatives in the book that might help.

Form:

This is huge. Because these exercises will be easy at first, you have the luxury to perfect form. In general, you have two seconds of movement, a one second stop halfway, two seconds of movement in the opposite direction, another one second pause, and repeat. For me it varies. I will take more than 2 seconds on some movements to ensure that I am fully in control and not letting gravity or momentum help me.

Make sure to breathe in on the negative portion of the exercise (the easier one where gravity is on your side), and breathe out on the positive (the hard part). This also helps control pace. Try to fill/empty your lungs in the time it takes you to complete the respective half movement.

Routine:

There are several routines in the book, but none of them were good enough for me. I like to work out every day. I don't need a rest day if I'm not working the same muscle groups every day. 48 hours should be more than enough time for recovery. The routine was simple:

Monday: Pushups, Leg Raises, and Handstands

Tuesday: Squats, Pullups, and Bridges

Wednesday: Pushups, Leg Raises, and Handstands

Thursday: Squats, Pullups, and Bridges

And so on...

Back to lifting:

I actually really enjoyed Convict Conditioning and decided to try to continue doing this after my landlord was finished. I could tell I was getting stronger just doing these bodyweight exercises, so it's definitely beneficial, even if it's because they hit muscles that you don't normally get while lifting.

So I added the Serge Nubret workout, and switched around some of the days. I considered working two muscle groups a day instead of three, since that's what the Nubret routine does, but I really liked the pace I had with Convict Conditioning.

The first attempts were met with failure. Eventually, I realized that it was just too much. I completed the workouts, but they required long rests between sets, which goes against the whole pump workout.

I finally settled on removing everything but the biggest lifts in the Serge workout in the same reps that he did (8x12 squats and bench, 6x12 for incline bench, etc) So I ended up on an A/B alternating workout routine that goes as follows:

A:

Convict Conditioning: Pushups, Leg Raises, Handstands

Serge: Bench Press, Incline Press, Overhead Press

B:

Convict Conditioning: Squats, Pullups, Bridges

Serge: Squats, Chinups, Barbell Bent Over Rows

I've been doing this now for a few weeks and am enjoying the results. I'm not completely set on the programming. For example, I like the idea of a push/pull routine, so I might switch Leg Raises with Squats. However, that's one thing I didn't like about Serge was that the squat/bench workout day was way longer than the other two. I'm going to stick with this for a while and maybe write an update in a few months.

P.S: credit goes to physt from #theredpill on the quakenet irc network for the title of this article. Join us sometime for discussion on sexual strategy, self improvement, and other manly topics.

P.P.S.: feel free to hit me up with any questions you may have.

Tip -Enmity- for their post.