Anyone else doing the bear?

[Mackadocious]

I did the bear today for the first time as HIIT. I have tried it before as a warm up before squats. I would do one set of 8. It was good to get the muscles warmed up for stretching then I would ramp up the weight for squating.
Is anyone else doing the bear? If so, what are the rep/set frequencies that work best. I was trying to do 8 sets but almost died after 4. I did some research and found there are a few variations. I was just checking if anyone has much experience with it.

Mack

[JCedolia]

I do the bear in some of my crossfit workouts. I do as many as I can in 20min with 95pounds. It's a great sub for the cardio machines. Also another good one is do as many rounds in 20 min of push press or thruster 6 reps, hang power clean 10 reps and sumo,deadlift highpull 12 reps. This will kill your forearms. Hope this helps.

[holvoetn]

I think helm and Bflo are also doing the bear regularly.

[Mackadocious]

I do the bear in some of my crossfit workouts. I do as many as I can in 20min with 95pounds. It's a great sub for the cardio machines. Also another good one is do as many rounds in 20 min of push press or thruster 6 reps, hang power clean 10 reps and sumo,deadlift highpull 12 reps. This will kill your forearms. Hope this helps.

Wow 20 min with 95lbs. That sounds crazy. I just used the bar, I was able to control it better. I once tried is with 65lbs and had a hard time stopping the momentum of it. I suppose it's like anything else, gradually increase the resistance and work hard at it.

My question is more on how many sets, reps and rest time. There is no way any human being could do this for 20min non stop with out rest.

[Mackadocious]

I think helm and Bflo are also doing the bear regularly.

Thanks H. I'll check their logs.

[fflumpy]

Me and the guys at work have bin doing the bear after weights for our cardio (I'm currently doing Stronglifts 5x5). This is a good change from the elliptical. This is what we bin doing and this gives us a good ass kicking;

5sets/7reps
3 of us do it and we take turns, this is our rest time (not sure how long 2 min maybe)
We started light (just the bar 45lb) and worked our way up. As our body's got used to it we found that we cycle though faster (less rest time)
Our bear looked like this:
1st time; 45/45/45/45/45
2nd time; 45/45/50/50/50
3rd time; 45/50/55/60/60
4th time; 45/55/60/65/70
and so on..........
hope this helps.

[Mackadocious]

Thanks fflumpy. That looks like it would give you a good ass kicking.
Your response is exactly what I was looking for. I have been doing 4 sets of 7. Usually the last rep is hard to press off of my shoulders. So I don't know if I could increase my weight after every set. I have done it with 50lbs but didn't keep it up. I will keep trying to progress with it.

[fflumpy]

What helped me was going on YouTube and watching how the guy that put up big weight do it. If you watch they bounce and use their whole body to move the weight over their head.
Good luck glad I could help.

[nothingasfate]

i have started with it.it's either bear or 2.4 kms run under 9 mins.both are taxing.since the SL program is all about strength ,i do it with a difference.
on one day i take (lets assume) 20,22.5,25,27.5,30 kg and do 5 sets of 7 reps.then on the other day i do only 3 sets of the 3 maximas i.e 25,27.5,30 kg.then in the next workout i increase it by 2.5 kg.i dont how it'd work for you,but it works for me.i take a min rest b/w sets.this way i can train on Hiit almost every workout and the lighter volume helps with recovery.the biggest limiting factor is the behind the neck press.otherwise it's all good.

[hardestgainer]

I couldn't help myself http://stronglifts.com/forum/the-bear-challenge-t20815.html. I've managed 5 rounds of 5 sets at 35kg, but I realised that I had to do 7 sets so I haven't entered it yet.

[OneMore]

I'm doing it... It's great!

5 rounds, 7 reps each.
Rounds 1-3: 35lbs ~ 0:55-1:10 to complete 7 reps, with 2:00 breaks in between rounds
Rounds 4-5: 45 lbs ~ 1:30-1:50 to complete 7 reps with 2:00 breaks in between rounds

I try to do the rounds as quickly as possible, but when I switch to the heavier weight, I'll sometimes pause for a moment after the back squat to catch my breath.

[Mackadocious]

Rounds 1-3: 35lbs ~ 0:55-1:10 to complete 7 reps, with 2:00 breaks in between rounds

How are you doing 35lbs?

I have seen smaller barbells but I don't know how much they weigh. I think it's a six footer vice an eight footer. Is that what you are using?

[BerserkerRage]

Could someone link me to the complete description of the bear?

[GraySheep]

I plan on doing it fairly regularly. This is my second session. I'm doing 5 sets of 5 reps to start off, then I think I'll add weight when it starts getting too easy.

-GraySheep

[OneMore]

How are you doing 35lbs?

I have seen smaller barbells but I don't know how much they weigh. I think it's a six footer vice an eight footer. Is that what you are using?

The gym that I go to has a good set of fixed barbell weights from 20-100+lbs, so I use those. I would use a regular barbell but there isn't really enough space at my gym to use the olympic bars for the BEAR (people walk into me all the time), and the fixed barbells are only 4 or 5 feet wide.