charlesatlas.com

I've finally bought the course and am genuinely impressed.

I went swimming after a couple of weeks doing lesson one. I have never been a strong "sweet" stroke swimmer but was going for over 30 minutes and only stopped because the pool was closing. I can only put this down to the Atlas course, particularly exercise two from lesson one. Genuinely this is not hype!

However, since that day about last month I've had a really bad dose of the cold which laid me out and I did no exercise in the period. Which would be more advisable, restarting the course from scratch or going from where I left off?

Also, I'm trying to combine the course with getting fit to join the Territorial Army (British Army reserve) which means I need to be able to do 42 press-ups and 50 sit ups. Can anyone recommend a good combination of the first exercise from lesson one with regular press-ups? Similarly, can anyone advise on mixing sit-ups and the abdominal exercises on the course. I want to get the full benefits of the course but at the same time am conscious of passing the TA's tests and possible overtraining.

Hello Boredreiver, it's great to know you have a plan that really works, isn't it? I completely relate to your amusement.

I would recommend starting all over again since if I got you right, you did the course for 2 weeks and then "rested" for at least 3 weeks more. As regards to your intention of joining the Territorial Army, I would recommend to follow the Atlas course as intended. For that I mean, perform the 12 lesson course and once you finish it, get into the perpetual lesson. In that way you will develop your whole body at the same time, instead of been have some areas overdeveloped and other underdeveloped. If you want to perform a change, I would simply continue to practice lesson 3 for all the 12 lesson course besides lesson 1 & 2.

In my experience, you can do 50% more reps of the standard push-ups when compared to the Atlas dips. For example, if you manage to do 20 Atlas dips without stopping, you could perform 30 standard push-ups.

Well, I think it depends on how long you've not been exercising. If it's been over 2 weeks, I'd suggest starting over again, but if less, then picking up where you left off might be okay. I'm not British, so I'm not sure what you mean by pressups, but If I'm not mistaken, they're the same as American pushups. If so, I suggest substituting the dipping exercise with the pressups, as they are essentially the same exercise except you don't get as full a range of movement that the dips give you. But if you are training to do 42 pressups, I advise you to do pressups. After the test, you can always return to doing full dips. Atlas says the dips can be done on the floor, or wherever you find most convenient. So doing them on the floor would still be in keeping with Atlas' instructions. As for the abdominal exercises, just follow the instructions given in the course.

Cheers folks, will take your advice on board.

And yes, press-ups are the same as push-ups. Some people do now call them push-ups over here but I like to stay old scool.