C50

By Tom Furman

C50 stands for, “Chasing 50”, which is 50 reps or seconds. That is the goal. When you reach it, you increase resistance slightly and start over. The usual starting point is at 50% or 25 reps. The idea of, ‘chasing’, is that the race never ends. You keep on improving and gaining size and strength. This workout requires little equipment, but is of high quality. Not endless, ballistic, repetitions based on unrealistic times or arbitrary purpose.

C50 has nothing to do with age, but it could. 50 years old? Get 50 reps/seconds. Add ONE rep or second per year and age 60 you are doing C60. Then at 70? C70. One rep per year increase is manageable. Imagine at 70 doing a workout that would trash an untrained 20 year old?

The exercises are these.

1. Nordic Leg Extension. Move smoothly. Limit your range of motion until you are stronger and perhaps have a stability ball behind you in case you fail. Pad anything that is irritating you and have perfect form. This is negative or eccentric only and the name used here is, “Reverse Leg Curl”. You may count total time and shoot for 50 total seconds under tension.

2. Nordic Leg Curl. These are tough. Have a soft surface in front of you and perhaps an elevated, padded, surface to catch yourself. Eccentric only. Sometimes a bungee is used to reduce the weight of the upper body initially. These are VERY difficult. You may substitute the, “Natural Hyperextension”. https://youtu.be/eLymVlQvwp4 The goal can be 50 total seconds under tension versus 50 reps.

3. Hanging Knee Raise. Trainees often neglect the, ‘folding’ of the legs onto the torso. This makes use of the hip flexors, which are weak from our modern day lifestyle of sitting. As you can see from the image below there is a LOT of muscles at play. This is a positive/negative or concentric/eccentric exercise. Do not jerk. Moving slowly will not only increase the torture, but warm up the hips for the last exercise. Start with getting 25 reps in any amount of sets. You want to build up to 50 total reps over many workouts. Resistance is added with light bands or leg weights. Holding a light dumbbell between your feet works too.

4. Cossack Squats. These squats require an adequate range of motion in the hips. You can use a small stool or aerobic platform to limit the range of motion. As well if you are weak or fatigued from earlier exercises, you can hold on to a TRX type of apparatus for balance and a bit of assistance. Move slowly and don’t drop into the bottom position.

The straight leg should be pointed toes up. Move fully to standing vs the, “side to side squat”, where you stay low. Again, start with 25/25 or even LESS. Build up to 50 reps or chase it after weeks.

5. The calves are done after the upper legs. There is no or little loading, so this should not be a problem. You will have a break in period. Using bodyweight alone with a full stretch and getting high on the ball of your foot, start with two legged calf raises. This can be 30, 40 or the goal, 50 straight, SLOW, calf raises. The knees can be slightly unlocked. The break in period tries to avoid the extreme soreness associated with calf work.

The One Legged Calf Raise is the go-to exercise. Simple balance yourself on a step, block or doorway and slowly move from extreme contraction to extreme stretch. The goal is 50 total. You can alternate legs to get the magic total. However 50 straight is the goal before adding external resistance. Count the reps in your journal and be accurate and honest.

6. Pull Ups. There are two components to this, pull up style and grip. First off, DO NOT adopt the hollow body position. I want you to endeavor to pull to the pectoral line or at least the collar bone. You should lean back and look at the ceiling. This creates a convergence of overhead pulling to horizontal pulling. You will start with counting total reps. SLOW, FULL, REPS. Unlock the elbows. No bend in the arms in the stretched position is a requirement. The minimal pull should be to the collar bones, period. If this requires stepping into stretch bands to minimize the load, that is fine.

Changing the grip from harder, [pronated] to neutral, to easiest [supinated] is required as you fatigue. Overly wide grips do nothing magic. Good anatomical alignment prevents injuries. Start with 25 and move over weeks to 50 reps. Then you can add weight to your body.

7. Suspension Trainer Handstand Push Ups. This is an entirely underused exercise and actually is a hybrid of an incline push up and handstand. No gymnastics are required. This exercise is literally an upper body squat. You will learn to rest in the elbows locked position and breath, just like barbell squats for your lower body.

Your workout area with the suspension trainer should be organized with tape on the ground to determine starting position and allow you to advance to a harder position.

While 50 total reps is the goal, you will probably start at 10 or 20 total reps. The effects of this exercise are quite profound. Be accurate with form and starting position. Don’t sag during the press ups. Stay planked. Progress by moving from inclined to vertical over time.

8. Hollow Body Hold. Here is a video on the progressions needed to get there. The goal is 3, 50 second holds. You need to go through each step to build the necessary strength to accomplish this. It will also be taxing after the two previous exercises. https://youtu.be/LlDNef_Ztsc

Programming -

1. You may do this as a 2–3 times per week total body workout.
2. You may split this upper/lower.
3. The other workout is aerobic. That is walking, rucking, running, rowing, biking, swimming, climbing steps for 50 minutes. [see how I fit 50 in there?]. If you can’t get outside due to weather, do 200 to 500 kettlebell swings. Aerobics is 2–3 days per week. Other days should include 5000–10,000 footsteps.
4. Flexibility and Mobility can be shoehorned in anywhere in the form of basic stretch or more stylized yoga routines.
5. Every 4–6 weeks, drop back to 25 vs 50. This will allow recovery and for you to regroup mentally.