Chain Reaction Training

[Michael]

Years ago Fred Hutch recommended a book that I bought for my Kindle. It was a training protocol that emphasizes building stamina, endurance strength, stressing Your cardiovascular and respiratory systems. It was called, " Chain Reaction Training" by Ernest Emerson. I never gave the training a go before because I didn't have hardly any weights.

I just bought my dumbbells and another kettlebell. Plus my oldest son brought home a trap bar, barbell, ez-curl bar, 100lbs of Olympic plates and a really good adjustable bench.  So I decided to start this routine today so I can get my endurance up to par. In a nutshell, the routine consists of 11 exercises with a mixture of bodyweight, kettlebells, barbells/dumbbells, if You have them sandbags and a slosh tube. I'll do without the last two training types. Each exercise training session is done in a circuit which last 30-40 minutes. You use moderate weight and the exercises are done for 10-20 reps depending if they are one limb exercises or not.


I know most won't be interested here but if You are I'll try and post some workouts in my log. Also, I'll try to give some feedback on my thoughts. 

[mr potatohead]

You have a good son.

...... sandbags and a slosh tube ......

I love DIY tools like these, but I also like to spend as little money as possible on kit.

[Michael]

Jan 13, 2019 19:35:57 GMT mr potatohead said:

You have a good son.

...... sandbags and a slosh tube ......

I love DIY tools like these, but I also like to spend as little money as possible on kit.

Do You have a slosh tube? I could look in the book later to see how he made it. There's plenty of stuff around for sandbags. I stay away from this stuff because I do enough of the unbalance lifting at work. 

[mr potatohead]

I don't have a slosh tube yet, but I know how. 3" to 6" or so, PVC, length - whatever works (4' to 8'?), plug on one end, fill with water to amount desired, screw plug into threaded cleanout adapter.
I suppose if you wanted to balance it out a little more, both ends could have threaded, removable plugs.

It's one of the simplest DIY tools to make since all the parts are on the shelves and racks in the local home improvement store.

[billfish]

Jan 13, 2019 20:33:13 GMT mr potatohead said:

I don't have a slosh tube yet, but I know how. 3" to 6" or so, PVC, length - whatever works (4' to 8'?), plug on one end, fill with water to amount desired, screw plug into threaded cleanout adapter.
I suppose if you wanted to balance it out a little more, both ends could have threaded, removable plugs.

It's one of the simplest DIY tools to make since all the parts are on the shelves and racks in the local home improvement store.

Mikey
I found that bigger than 3 or 4 inches makes it difficult to hold the pipe....and I put a rubber cap with hose clamp on one end and glued a PVC cap on the other ( easier and cheaper )
Voila' !
Since the pipe moves with the water, it becomes very difficult to handle the pipe. I tried it with an old 4" piece of PVC and it was too big for me to maintain control of. I would check out how the various pipes fit in your hand before making one

[mr potatohead]

Yes, I remember your post on that BF. I was hoping you'd pop on here with that.
I suppose one could use about any diameter of PVC pipe one wanted that would give the desired effect.
What length for, say, 3" pipe, would you recommend - or maybe a better question would be, what length might be considered "beginner", "intermediate" and "advanced" and how much water - half full?

[Michael]

I know Billfish is right. I would say the same even though I never did it. In the book, he says 8 foot in length with a 6-inch diameter. From the pictures that definitely looks really thick. He mentions filling it up two thirds full of water. With the water sloshing back and forth doesn't sound easy. Not that helped but thought I'd share.

[mr potatohead]

Johnny Grube might use a 6" x 8' slosh tube, but I'm not him. I think I'd start with a 2" or 3" pipe that's 4' to 6' long, filled two thirds full.
By my calcs, a 3" x 6' slosh tube, filled to two thirds full of water weighs 12.11#. I suppose the instability of this light weight shifting around could be OK to begin.
A 6" x 8' slosh tube, filled the same way, would weigh about 65#.

[Michael]

It is not Johnny Grube and I was just sharing what was in the book. I didn't tell You to do the same thing. And from what he says that size is around 40 or 50 lbs.

[mr potatohead]

Nothing I said in that post was a contradiction to the idea of using or making a slosh tube.
I didn't say it was Johnny Grube in the article. I don't know what's in the article. I just threw him in there because I know he does some intense stuff.
I didn't even consider doing the same thing. I didn't read the article since I already knew what a slosh tube is.
BF, others and I have discussed slosh tubes in the past which is why I was glad he posted, since he's actually made and used one. 

BTW, I recalculated the volume of the 6" x 8' tube after subtracting for 1/4" tube wall thickness and came up with ~ 54# @ 2/3 full, so that's probably closer. Forgot to account for wall thickness in previous post.

[Michael]

I didn't say it was a contradiction.

[mr potatohead]

No, you didn't say it was a contradiction. I was only making a statement. Sorry you thought that.

Everything posted on the forums are just opinions. I assume everyone knows that, so I don't bother with acknowledging the possible difference of the opinion of others or make assumptions about what someone might think about what I post. I just post what I have to say and expect that there may be those that disagree or those that don't care what I post. No offense intended.

[Michael]

Yeah, I have no reason to talk about slosh tubes because I never did it. I never will either, not worth it for me. I do enough odd object lifting.

[mr potatohead]

I might make a small one to play with, so thanks for the reminder. I have plenty of exercise options and had forgotten about slosh tubes.

[billfish]

Jan 13, 2019 21:46:09 GMT mr potatohead said:

Yes, I remember your post on that BF. I was hoping you'd pop on here with that.
I suppose one could use about any diameter of PVC pipe one wanted that would give the desired effect.
What length for, say, 3" pipe, would you recommend - or maybe a better question would be, what length might be considered "beginner", "intermediate" and "advanced" and how much water - half full?

Mikey
i couldn't say about "beginner" etc as i really don't know
As for the diameter, i found that it has to be a diameter that you can grasp firmly since the pipe will be difficult to hold onto when the water moves.
My pipe is about 7 feet....it was a piece that i had. Again, I couldn't recommend a length, but anything bigger may be an inconvenience due to it's length
You will have to experiment with the amount of water as too little will flood one end and make it almost unmanageable, but you don't want to completely fill it as you want it unstable
Hence, the rubber cap and hose clamp....easy on, easy off and cheaper than threaded ends etc