Single Kidney Training

An alternate title could be: Reasons To Go Retro With HIT

I donated a kidney to a very close friend of mine on 5/26/2020.  It was supposed to be in March, but COVID-19 pandemic exploded, and everyone's plans were derailed.  I was genuinely afraid my friend would die while we waited for the hospital to give us the green light for surgery.  It was scary enough giving up an organ for a friend, but even scarier to be in a hospital with no visitors allowed because of COVID.  I was quarantined in my room for 2 days.  She was there, totally alone, for 12 days.  We are nearly 2 months since our surgery and both recovering well.  Her health is better than it has ever been since I've known her.  We were part of a genuine miracle.

After a few weeks of doing nothing, and sleeping constantly, I finally tried to get back to normal life.  I radically overestimated my ability to sustain physical effort.  I thought I could just lower the weights and still do moderate volume workouts.  I was humbled into accepting the truth: I had a max capacity of about 20 minutes of effort.

So what was I to do?  Well, I was reminded of the words of Arthur Jones: You can either work hard, or you can work long, but you can't do both.  So I gave my old books from Dr. Ellington Darden a quick skim for inspiration, and set to work.

The current plan is a classic framework:



Over a 4-week period, I'll only repeat the same workout 3 times.  This allows for slowly increasing weights and going for rep maxes every session.

Push 1 consists of:

• abs
• quad dominant movement performed 10, 8, RP
• horizontal push movement performed 10, 8, RP
• triceps movement performed 3-50 method

Pull 1 consists of:

• abs
• ham/glute dominant movement performed 10, 8, RP
• horizontal pull movement performed 10, 8, RP
• biceps movement performed 3-50 method

Push 2 consists of:

• abs
• quad dominant movement performed 10, 8, RP
• vertical push movement performed 10, 8, RP
• triceps movement performed 3-50 method

Pull 2 consists of:

• abs
• ham/glute dominant movement performed 10, 8, RP
• vertical pull movement performed 10, 8, RP
• biceps movement performed 3-50 method

What is 10, 8, RP:

the first two sets are progressive warm ups.  An easy set of 10 reps. A moderately challenging set of 8 reps.  The final Rest Pause (RP) set is the magic ingredient.  Grind away with a working weight to failure.  Rack the bar and breathe deeply for 5 seconds, then grind out a few more reps to failure.  Rack the bar and breathe deeply for another 5 seconds, then get your final reps.  The rep total doesn't even matter.  Just blast the lift till you have nothing left.

The 3-50 Method:

This one is a Paul Carter special.  Stick with one weight for three sets.  When you can get at least 50 total reps in 3 sets, it is time to increase the weight.  I like this method because it gives my connective tissue a chance to strengthen as fast as my muscles.

My training partner and I will occasionally finish with a bodyweight MetCon that lasts no more than 5 minutes.  This is a great fatloss tool at the end of a session when your glycogen is depleted, and is also helping to slowly build up my work capacity as my kidney grows and takes on the work that was previously handled by two kidneys.