Flex' BTGB/WOD Workout log

Hey everyone,

I'm doing a steady state cycle right now and thought I'd share my experiences ^^

My background consists out of 1 year crossfitting (all year long 3-1), and afterwards playing around a bit with all kinds of training methods like Starting strength and the like.

I never really got strong, before I started I had a one rep max squat of 90 kilograms. Bench of about 45 kilograms, shoulder press 45 as well. Deadlift 120 kg and could not do a single ring dip and the like.

After that I started to GTG random things I've read about on the dragondoor articles and the thousands of searches i've done to optimally develop the exercises that I wanted (Planche, Handstand, Ring dips, Muscleups , Front and back lever, Presses),

After a couple of days of GTGing slow ring dip negatives I finally got my first rep, and my core and lower back strength and levers got a good workout from whenever I pass the rings, doing a 360 pull with easy 5 second statics of the levers. But I still felt extremely weak overall. At that moment I was GTGing 360 pulls + planche progressions on one day, Ring dips the second day, wall handstands the third day, and I overtrained extremely fast (after 3 weeks), So I had to take a week off.

Then after the week I tried things again, Ring dips became easy, I suddenly was able to do the flat tuck front lever for 5 seconds (previous record was 0 couldn't do one), I could straighten my back on the back lever (so got the flat tuck here as well). A few days later I tried the Tuck planche again, and I kind of got the feeling of straightening your back and lifting your hips from the back lever, so I attempted that and filmed it. Was able to straighten my back and keep my hips high for 3 seconds and got a flat tuck planche (still insecure about the technique, will post a film later on ).

Still I completely failed to develop handstand and shoulder strength because of a fear of handstands and falling while inverted (has happened to me every attempt already ), and I really didn't have any structure and was just messing around until the book came out. Before everything came, I was working on GTGing rings turned out dips negative, still haven't obtained this exercise, and I was trying handstands out in the garden (we have a grass field now ) every now and then. And muscle up negatives and lowered dips and higher pulls and such, but it just feels so impossible.

Now I'm in Sweden, took the book and rings with me and have here a perfect place to hang the rings so I can train really well.

So I made a steady state cycle for myself and went with it, (and then the WOD's came out which I want to follow as well : <)

I've started on December 14th with a steady state cycle ensisting out of the following schedule :

Sunday :

3x 3 sec adv tuck planche -> 3 ring dips -> 6 sec adv tuck back lever -> 3 inverted pullups

(about 3 minutes of rest between sets)

3x 6 sec L sit on the rings (with correct support, L-sit isn't really the prettiest yet or the highest) -> 3x Hanging leg lift to L -> 6 sec adv tuck front lever -> 3x pistol from object (first stair)

Monday :

3x 3 sec adv tuck planche -> 3 HeSPU negative against the wall (stomach facing the wall) -> 6 sec adv tuck back lever -> 3 bulgarian pullups

3x 9 sec Straddle L sit on the rings (trying to straddle as much as possible and lifting legs as high as possible) -> 3x Headstand RLL (without feet touching the floor) -> 6 sec adv tuck front lever -> 3x Natural Leg Curl negative and up with momentum (light arm push)

Wednesday :

3x 3 sec adv tuck planche -> 3 Ring PP Pushup-> 6 sec adv tuck back lever -> 3 Front lever Row (tuck)

3x 6 sec L sit on the rings (with correct support, L-sit isn't really the prettiest yet or the highest) -> 3x V-up press up to V-sit -> 6 sec adv tuck front lever -> 3x pistol from object (first stair)

Thursday :

5x 3x Jumping Muscle-Up -> 1x Low dip -> 1x Muscleup Negative -> 1x High pullup

I've been going at it for 4 weeks now and it feels interesting, I might have some signs of overtraining, but everything feels extremely solid. The third and fourth week I switched out the thursdays for some WODs. and on the third week on wednesday I subbed out the day for :

GTGing 2x Towel straddle L pullups (for about 20 reps in total)

that thursday did ;

3x Ring Strength Series (High Pullup, Jump to muscleup, ring dip, L sit hold for 6 sec, muscle up negative, front lever tuck pull to inverted hang, adv back lever hold 6 sec, ticktock to adv tuck front lever hold 6 sec and land.

3x10 Tick Tocks in tuck

3x 30 seconds ring swings, pretty high.

And last thursday :

5 minutes of handstand holds against the wall with 30 second sets and leaning on each arm (wall runs style, but weaker )

And now I feel a little bit overworked, so I took an extra resting day and will start working out again today

I haven't posted here in ages because of inactivity and severe overtraining, and ending up semi-useless and unable to train for a while. In that time I've been information mining like crazy and noticed some extreme flaws in my daily life. Malnutrition (well, malnutrition..more like, just general bad eating habits), overreaching by taking a too high volume with exercises a bit too hard (4 days a week and picked the exercises on all planes that I could barely do, and statics that were still a bit too hard 3-5 sec range).

After reading all of the goodness on Robbwolf.com, and most of the posts of Ido Portal (big thanks to both of you) I was able to clean up my nutrition and made big adjustments to my sleeping area. Started eating Paleo, taking fish oil capsules, cut off almost all carbs and followed their most carbs PWO recommendation. And following that step, I made a new steady cycle which I've been on for 3 weeks now :

*The Straddle L or L-sit and the leg workout alternates every workout For example : Did L-sit on monday, Straddle on wednesday etc.

3 Days a week (MWF) :

Workout 1 :

3x Tuck plance 6s - 3x3 Bulgarian Dips

3x Adv Tuck Back Lever 8s - 3x3 Inverted Yewkis Adv Tuck

3x Straddle L or L-sit (8s) - 3x5 Tick Tocks Adv Tuck

1x Adv Tuck Front Lever (6s) - 2x5 Pistol Negatives or 3x5 Assisted Natural Leg Curl

Workout 2 :

3x Tuck plance 6s - 3x3 Bulgarian Pushups (XR)

3x Adv Tuck Back Lever 8s - 3x3 Front Lever Rows Tuck

3x Straddle L or L-sit (8s) - 3x5 Back Pull Negative

1x Adv Tuck Front Lever (6s) - 2x5 Pistol Negatives or 3x5 Assisted Natural Leg Curl

Workout 3 :

3x Tuck plance 6s - 3x3 Handstand Pushup Negative (against the wall)

3x Adv Tuck Back Lever 8s - 3x3 Bulgarian Pull-up

3x Straddle L or L-sit (8s) - 3x5 360 Pull (Pike to inverted hang -> Adv tuck negative with 3 sec back lever hold -> Adv tuck back pull to inverted -> adv tuck negative with 3 sec Frontlever hold)

1x Adv Tuck Front Lever (6s) - 2x5 Pistol Negatives or 3x5 Assisted Natural Leg Curl

Workout 4 :

3x Tuck plance 6s - 3x3 Chest Roll to HeS negatives (hard : <)

3x Adv Tuck Back Lever 8s - 3x3 Front Lever Pulls (straight body)

3x Straddle L or L-sit (8s) - 3x5 Headstand RLL

1x Adv Tuck Front Lever (6s) - 2x5 Pistol Negatives or 3x5 Assisted Natural Leg Curl

First week was hard, the second week became abnormally easy, also lost 5-6 kilograms because of the diet change and gained alot more visible muscle. All workouts feel relatively easy now and it seems the gains come incredibly quick after the nutrition/recovery adjustments.

Played around yesterday and got a Pike HS Press against the wall ^^ Also tried the ring series of 10-4-2008, tuck plance went with ease and so did the forward roll to front lever while I usually struggle with Front Levers.

One thing that still seems ever elusive is the Muscle Up : <. Also don't have a handstand yet because had lack of training facilities here in Sweden. But since the snow is starting to disappear and there's grass outside again, i'm going to add 10 min of handstand work before every workout. And inspired by Steven Low's Iron Cross article and his progression on his blog, I'm going to add 3x5 Iron Cross pullouts with block to every workout as well. And one of the most important things which I've been neglecting for way too long, stretching at least 1 time a week like Coach Sommer recommends and more if there's no sign of DOMS ^^

Next workout (in 30 min ) :

10 min Handstand Work

3x5 Iron Cross Pullouts with back of knees on chair

3x Tuck plance 6s - 3x3 Bulgarian Dips

3x Adv Tuck Back Lever 8s - 3x3 Inverted Yewkis Adv Tuck

3x Straddle L - 3x5 Tick Tocks Adv Tuck

1x Adv Tuck Front Lever (6s) - 3x5 Assisted Natural Leg Curl

30 minutes of streching afterwards

Followed by : Whey Protein shake (egg extract kind) -> 1 banana mashed with honey and cinnamon (yum )

Critiques, comments and everything would be loved ^^

Edit :: Noticed I forgot to put my height and weight in the beginning post,

I'm 1.84m (about 6'0?) and I weigh about 64-65 kg at the moment (145ish) and have extremely long arms and legs (damn long limbs making it harder xD)

Another week of training done

I finally got my girlfriend to help me and now she can spot my press to handstands and assist me when handstands in general are going wrong. So now I can finally practice then

My training volume increased alot by the addition of the press handstands and handstand training for about 10-20 minutes every warmup and the addition of 3x5 Iron Cross with legs on chair sets. (Started following the program by Steven Low )

My workout of last week :

Monday

Some playing around with spotted Press to handstands and handstand holds

3x5 Iron Cross with back of knees on block

3x 6s tuck planche -> 3x Bulgarian Dips

3x 6s adv Back Lever -> 3x Adv Tuck Inverted Yewkis

3x 8 sec Straddle L Low -> 5 Ticktocks Adv Tuck

1x 6s adv Front Lever -> 3x5 Natural Leg Curl assisted with arms

And random stretching afterwards and 2x10 wrist pushups on knees

2x10 wall extensions

3x10 hip extensions (In the same way coach described them)

The Iron Cross completely killed me the first time, wrong form (tried to get my elbows pointed down completely), arms not completely straight, barely could get half of the ROM done. But it still taxed my biceps, triceps , lats and chest like crazy (and induced quite some hyperthropy already O.O).

The tuck planche and dips were extremely hard after that, but I managed to finish them, so was everything else. The Straddle L is getting higher, the Back Lever is starting to feel like a breeze. It was a great workout overall. The handstands and presses in the warmup also were fun.

Tuesday :

More handstand playing

Wednesday :

Spotted handstand presses, handstands (spotted, i hate wooden floors xD) for about 10-20 minutes

3x5 Iron Cross progression

3x 6s tuck planche -> 5x Bulgarian XR Pushups

3x 6s adv Back Lever -> 3x adv tuck Front Lever rows

3x 8 sec L-sit Low -> 5x adv tuck Back Pull negatives (8 second count)

1x 6s adv Front Lever -> 5x3 Pistol off elevated surface (extremely low stair)

10 Bridge Wall Walks

2x10 Wrist pushups on knees

2x30s Weighted Pike Stretch

and other random stretching

The Iron Cross progression is coming along infinitely better after I reread the article, elbows were locked, form was good and almost hit the full ROM . They are still hard as hell though. Luckily this day of the SS was an easier one. Noticed that my form was off on some Pushup reps (blegh), will be working on it next week. Finally learned to press my shoulders back correctly in the Front Lever rows, and they became alot smoother and easier because of that. And the pistols just felt great so I did 5 sets instead . Was quite sore afterwards, since I've been pushing the volume : <

Thursday :

Again some handstand practice and stuff and random stretching. Didn't feel fatigued at all.

But my girlfriend sprained her ankle on our way to the store :<, so went to the emergency and everything. Ended up getting about 3 hours of sleep and stress from worrying xD.

Friday :

Warmup :

Handstand wall pike press practice. (Sucked, could barely make it without a jump)

Kicking up practice.

Form practice on chest rolls and pushing off the floor from a headstead.

Practice on Headstand lowering to Tuck Planche (oh dear that was bad, hit the floor before able to push myself up every time)

3x5 Iron Cross progression (back of knees on block, finally hit the full ROM with straight arms )

10s Iron Cross hold with knees on block afterwards as a pincher to see if it really was true

3x 6s tuck planche -> 3x Chest Roll to Headstand negatives (Headstand fall through planche negative :P)

3x 6s adv Back Lever -> 5x Front Lever Rows

3x 8 sec Straddle L Low -> 5 Wall Handstand Pike Press (with jump)

1x 6s adv Front Lever -> 3x3 Pistols off low stairs (Girlfriend unable to hold me down with NLC's so it'll be pistols for legs constantly now)

The warmup was fun Have gotten rid of most of my fear of inverted practice and the wooden floor, so will go full gear into finally getting those handstand elements, RAWR. Also was able to hit full ROM with the Iron Cross progression, so time to start moving my legs gradually off the chair ^^. I've really noticed that most exercises I've been doing were easy compared to the cross progression and they've had a really big transfer on most of the things I've been training. I also in the warmup found that I was able to press myself up in a headstand now Not a full HeSPU yet since I lose balance and fall in a planching way : < (Again, wooden floors are mean.)

The Front Lever rows were alot easier than normal, was able to keep correct form without piking (big difference from last week) and was able to slow it down, without failing on any of the reps. So I added 2 more reps on each set.

Chest roll to Headstand didn't go good at all Was afraid to lower myself after pushing up so I ended up smacking down like this most of the time : ! -> / -> _ . More practice required on those.

Pike Press practice was fun, tiring for my lower back, felt like it hit the right spots.

I think I also got a big big wake up shock after the Iron Cross to emphasize proper form alot more. Alot of the times I was doing an L-sit or Straddle L without feeling the cramping in the legs and such, things too fast, too sloppy. Hope fixing this mistake will speed up the progress substantially, and that the volume won't kill me xD

Will try to film workouts soon as well, to avoid these kinds of wall of texts

Alex Dienaar said:

I finally got my girlfriend to help me and now she can spot my press to handstands and assist me when handstands in general are going wrong. So now I can finally practice then

I also tried this version with my girl--- --- but she was to weak :oops: ...i#m not to heavy !!

Looks like a good workout. The articel "Developing the Iron Cross" is fantastic----i will give it a try in 1-2 months.

All the best for your training.

Daniel

Haha, awwh, get her working out as well! xD Soon she'll be able to spot you then xD

I hope it is ^^ Been making some good progress the last few weeks, and indeed, the article is just brilliant. I'm just wondering what the carryovers would be to other exercises (and will try to log what it would be in my experience ^^). You really should, it's fun and awesome.

Thank you ^^

Just started working out.

Warmup existing out of handstand presses against the wall practice and some handstand holds/negatives against the wall, 2 sets of 30 sec wall runs. Some sprinting back and forth, some short L-sit and Straddle L-holds, and 3 wheels/3 chinese pullups x3.

3x5 Iron Cross progression (top of calves instead of back of knee now )

taking a little break (10 min) before starting my SS cycle.

I accidentally put my legs too little on the chair when I started out of excitement, so ended up doing one rep with legs halfway on my calves (Damn that was hard) and the other 4 with the planning of today. Second set went extremely smooth, pushed on the last rep. Third set, made the same mistake as the first set, and it cost me the last rep :< So had 2x5 1x4.

Chest and Back and arms feel extremely tired now, pondering if I should rest it out for now or do half volume today.

Continued doing everything else reduced volume/intensity :

3x 3 sec Tuck Plance -> 1 HeSPU negative against the wall

3x 3 sec Adv tuck back lever -> 3 Regular pullups

3x 5s Low L-sit -> 3 Hanging Leg Lifts

1x 3 sec Adv Tuck Front Lever

3x3 Graduated pistols (extremely low stair for the right leg, low couch for the left leg)

Felt quite fatigued and weak afterwards, so cutting the Iron Cross for this week and just focus on handstand work and playing around.

Wednesday :

Felt extremely weak when I woke up and headache and a runny nose, so ::

Play day

Started trying everything out that was in the book and on the forums.

Did some support leans, maltese lean until I smacked into the floor : < (good pain from that afterwards), tried presses from L to shoulderstand.

Presses went smooth as hell and was the first time I could actually extend my legs to a full shoulderstand (instead of flailing in a tuck shoulder stand ). So ended up doing 3-4 of those.

Did like 6 sets of 3 bulgarian dips followed by 2 normal ring dips. A few inverted chinups, false grip pullups, transitions.

L-sit to Tuck Planche - Shoulderstand - Forward roll to Front Lever -> Hanging L -> Assisted Muscle up -> Bulgarian Dip -> Tuck Planche -> Straddle L - > Backward roll to inverted hang -> Back Lever ring series about 2 times.

Ended with 2x5 Jumping Deck Squat.

Comments ::

Everything, seems so extremely much easier after I incorperated Iron Crosses and constant Handstand/Press to handstand practice in my work out. Normally I struggled with the bulgarian dips, but now I fly up.

Normal Ring dips was an extremely big struggle at the bottom, now they feel like nothing.

So, time to work on those RTO dips.

Press to Shoulderstand felt easier than ever, inverted chins felt like I was doing them assisted.

Can completely say that Iron Crosses and Press to handstand work is awesome xD

But I think I went overboard by adding those 2 elements to my steady cycle, with overtraining. So after this week, thinking of focussing solely on Iron Crosses/Press to Handstands and Handstands and pistols/GHR/other leg work and leaving the Steady State for a bit until I have my Iron Cross and solid handstand and presses down. I would love it if someone would check me if this would be a stupid idea or not Please leave a comment ^^

*Updated the above post ^^:

Feel the same as this morning again, headache, nose runny and sore >< Only a little bit less after this 'workout' ^^

damn---i've been infect you via Internet?

Get well soon!!

Good goals for this year---looking forward.

Daniel

Haha, maybe you had I'm all recovered now though, but found a new found elbow pain that only shows up with rings turned out supports and Iron Crosses. So I've quit Iron Cross work and wrapped my steady state cycle up to follow Coach's WOD instead and taking it slow on the discomforting or painful movements. Rested since last wednesday and extremely pumped to go again (Slowly :<<<<<<<<<<< /cry)

Tuesday :

As a replacement for obstacle course ::

About 3-4 minutes of Handstand weight transferring between arms(my temporary Wall HS Run sub), 3 min of normal Wall HS, alot of dynamic attempts and spotted attemps to pike presses straight arm. Tried some spotted and dynamic bent arm presses as well to develop more inverted bent arm strength, which I severly lack.

Wednesday :

Oj, a workout on a wednesday. Doubting if I should let myself recover or if I can do the Korean Dips with my elbow in the first place. Testing ensues later today!