garage gym – Ben Musholt

Working Out Around an Injury

Ben Musholt — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 02:42:52 +0000

What’s up everybody?! The Strength Mob took a little a hiatus after I injured my back at a trampoline park at the end of last December. It’s all good though, and I’m getting into the swing of things again.

If you’ve ever been laid up with an injury, I’m sure you can appreciate the desire to stay fit. It’s maddening to watch your strength waste away. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to share one type of workout that I had been able to do while on the mend.

Given the injury, my back was intolerant to heavy loading and compression for a good 3 to 4 months. Thus, I had to come up with some alternatives. I should mention however, that this was well after I was out of the acute phase. There was a good 6 weeks of taking things VERY easy. Lots of gentle mobility, light aerobic work, and some classic lumbar exercises.

Heavy squats and deadlifts were out. Even shoulder pressing and handstand development were off the table for a while. No squats, deadlifts, or pressing – what was an athlete to do?!

For the lower body, the workaround was to add in more single leg work, like step-ups, single leg hinging, and lunges. For the upper body, it meant lots of pulling movements, as well as plenty of the isolation exercises that bodybuilders use.

Have a peek and let me know what you think. What are some of the ways you work around an injury?

Zercher squats, arch rocks, and a pile of sweat

Ben Musholt — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 04:02:23 +0000

Today’s garage gym burner starts off with a few minutes of jumping jacks, and then toe-touch backbends to get you limbered up. After that, you’ll cycle 4 times through 4 different exercises: Zercher squats, weight plate halos, uneven push-ups, and chin-ups. See the illustration for the repetition recommendations. After that, crank out 3 sets of 10 tuck-ups, and arch rocks as a “cool-down.”

By the way, if you want to make things more challenging, add some weight to your chin-ups. I hung a 25 lb kettlebell around my waist with some climbing rope as an extra load.

Enjoy, and please leave a comment to let me know what you thought about this workout circuit!

End-of-summer workout

Ben Musholt — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 03:44:49 +0000

Shorter days and a fresh chill in the air – it can only mean one thing: The end of summer is almost upon us. It has been a rough few months out in the Pacific Northwest, with tons of wildfire smoke and not enough precipitation. I’m actually looking forward to the start of fall and the wet and cooler days again. Here in Portland, bad weather doesn’t keep people from being outside and enjoying all of the surrounding adventure activities. On that note, here is a workout to get you pumped for whatever these longer nights might have in store for you.

How I did it:

125 lb step-ups
50 lb kettlebell good mornings
40 lb dumbbell pull-over

Bulgarian split squats, chin-ups, and more

Ben Musholt — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 20:55:22 +0000

Happy 4th of July! Here is another Strength Mob garage gym workout to bang through. Enjoy.

Adjustments: If you lack the mobility to perform Bulgarian split squats, try keeping your rear foot on the ground instead of elevated. If the narrow-grip chin-ups are too challenging, widen your grip and try jumping or using a box to work on your eccentric (descending) control.

How I did it:

25 lb kettlebell for the goblet squats in the warm-up
140 lbs barbell + weights for the Bulgarian split squats
25 lbs extra for the narrow-grip chin ups
40 lbs for the single arm shoulder presses

If you had fun with this workout, please leave a comment below or tag me on social media so I can see the mayhem

Let’s get moving!

Ben Musholt — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 14:29:36 +0000

Adjustments: If you don’t have a barbell, hold a kettlebell or dumbbells in the front rack position. If spiderman pull-ups are too challenging, scale back to regular pull-ups, or jumping/eccentric pull-ups as necessary. If ring dips are out of your grasp, try jumping/eccentric dips, or bench dips for a beginner option.

How I did it: 185 lbs for front squats, + 25 lbs extra for the ring dips.