Colorado Experiment Results

I can hardly believe its been 3 months since my first post about the Colorado Experiment - but its true!

Thanks for all the emails & comments I’ve received badgering me to add a status report… I needed it!

Ok… So, how did it all go?

In my original post I said that the first few sessions made my muscles the sorest they’ve been for a long time. This effect didn’t last very long. Our routine only had us hitting the gym 2 times a week (because I’ve got a raging fast metabolism and that Colorado experiment guidelines say to keep the frequency low), but even though we were pushing ourselves hard, we quickly adapted & muscle soreness returned to the usual I get the day after a workout.

The best result from the Colorado Experiment so far is the improvement I’ve had in aches & pains… I’ve had a niggling neck injury that I suffered doing pull ups years ago, and it usually protests day in day out, and feels worse when I push hard at the gym.

The Colorado Experiment style workout we’ve been doing has seemed to really improve that injury. Some of you might have it yourselves - when its at its worst, it hurts to look left and right, and you look like you’re walking around with a neck brace on.

After about 2 months of Colorado workouts, my neck on a day to day basis is feeling better than it ever has since I injured it. Most noticably, I don’t feel a constant pain and ache after a day working in front of the computer, and my neck also feels BETTER after a day at the gym.

In fact, one thing that kept me going back to the gym regularly was when my neck started to get a dull ache again - it was like a reminder, “Hey Jon, get back to the gym you lazy so & so, I hurt!”

The routine we were doing was simple - start out with the exercise I needed the most (because I believe my body produces better results on muscles I work first) and finish with the exercise I needed the least (definitely chest!).

Each exercise was a large muscle group, and each session included every major muscle group, so it was certainly a “whole body” work out.

For me, I started with cable rows. Like I said, I’ve got a bung neck, and feel that the stronger my back is, the better I’ll cope with my day to day hunching over a computer. So one BIG, full on set of back was performed (after a good warm up of course), following the parameters of a Colorado style workout… 5 seconds concentric, 5 seconds eccentric. Each workout after each full body routine was complete usually took around 45 minutes (1 min rest between sets).

And just for the sake of completion, I’d vary my workouts. So one day I’d do bench for chest. One day flys. One day I’d do cable rows for back, the next I’d do upright rows. The only thing I didn’t vary much was pull ups, which I do on an assisted weight machine to offset any chance of hurting my neck again.

We followed most of the parameters of the Colorado experiment, but like I said in my first post, we didn’t use nautilus machines.

Any other results? Are you HUGE?

No… sorry… I’m not now 10 pounds of muscle heavier after 3 months… I’m the same weight.

HOWEVER, I’m not eating to bulk right now… When I get a more convenient gym, I will absolutely let everyone know how I go with this routine while I try & bulk.

Got any questions? Have you tried a Colorado style routine? Just punch in your details below & let us all know how you went.

Cheers!