John's GymBod workout log

After I was done with the powerlifting meet I was gassed. I spent the first 2 weeks ONLY doing bodyweight conditioning (The Body Practice by Steve Atlas. Steve has been a good friend to me and very helpful!) I knew my speed wasn't where it could be, and even Ido has pointed it out, so I started to work 3 sets of 3 speed exercises into my warmup: 1. clapping pushups 2. kipping pulls 3. box jumps or senders.

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I have also gotten a chance to use a rope on a normal basis. I am loving it.

You are so close to the HSPU!

Great work overall! One thing you may want to look into is doing speed push ups a different way. From locked arms, bring the back of your hands towards your chest as if you are elbowing two people behind you, and immediately straighten your arms completely. You'll be catching your body in freefall and immediately imparting maximum force. You may want to do this on an incilne at first! The forces will be far beyond what you're currently doing, and you'll be building incredible speed.

Thanks man, I feel pretty good with my progress thus far but my legs and overall size are still slowing me down. My freaking shoulders and elbows can only take so much right now, I wish I had started this when I was 100lbs. C'est la Vie.

That sounds interesting Sliz, I am trying to picture it. Could you make a video?

Sure! I'm trying to find my camera now lol! Aha! Found it.

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Thanks very much Sliz! I will give these a shot very soon. I am only afraid of my wrists and AC joint taking a bunch of the pressure. I am trying to deload away from things heavy on the joints for a short amount of time (again).

Use good, stiff padding!

I'll be interested to hear what you think.

For me, these produce a much more powerful contraction than any other plyometric drills, because it forces such an instant contraction! Exactly the kind of neural learning that will have a powerful carryover to all pressing.

I'm looking forward to integrating these as soon as I am sure my muscles are properly re-educated!

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deloading this week and then testing my barbell lifts and my static holds. I went to the park today and did some light mobility and Pk. Despite my bloody knee, I had a fun time. I was with a kid that takes gymnastics and we were rambling about it, I asked him about his static holds and such. I was just playing with my planche when I decided to try a straddle. Surprisingly, I was able to extend in QUITE a controlled manner. I am VERY excited to test my statics. I may not move up to the straddle planche for sets, but it is really motivating to feel the movement getting easier. Since I have turned my hands to a neutral grip, I have developed the position even better than my forehand grip. I would like to have that supinated grip eventually and I have been diligently working it on rings.

In other news; I checked my structural balance via Charles Poliquin and it seems that what would normally be considered 'weak points' are incredibly strong. I am very happy about this because it allows me to move up in my big lifts (bench, squat) without having to worry about my external rotators (etc.) too much. Haven't tested it yet, but I would suppose my bench is at 300lb+ and my squat should be at least 325lb. Couple weeks back I did Romanian deadlifts on a trap bar with 415lb x 4 (touched the ground every rep, no rest between reps) . I know I hear a lot about my supposing to have a double bodyweight squat, #1 I am in no rush to get it, #2 the bottom is my weak point. Bar feels good on my back nowadays, totally stable. My friend, Joe Nappa, at my bw (195lb) is usually squatting next to me... 550lbs for reps. He is a madman but it is nice to be surrounded by strong dudes.

THAT is awesome. The press up into the XR handstand is very impressive to me! Your PB HSPU are too, very nice. What struck me the most was your incredibly good bridge!!!

Thanks Sliz

I am still working on opening my shoulders a little bit more.

I was reading some old logs and found a list of my goals (with dates attached) so I figure it would be a good time to post it up. I have met some of these and I will list out the ones I am still working on:

10-16-08 goals (and current status)

pistol squat two 63lb kettlebells (I stopped doing pistols after I injured my right patellar)

HeSPU freestanding/ rings handstand (I can perform 3 HeSPU on the floor and 3-4 on the P-bars without the wall. Rings handstand seems to be coming along nicely and shoulder stands on the rings are very easy for me now)

Front lever straddle (I can straddle now but I pike in the hips a lot. I have specific plans to work all my levers in my upcoming cycle)

tuck planche (I can hold a straddle planche with hands on the P-bars and I am working an underhand grip for my tuck planche now)

Lsit 1 min (max hold last time I tested a year back, was 35 seconds. I should test this again for fun) V-sit ( have not worked it in a while)

Deadlift 500lb (I have rack pulled 550lb and did 470lb in competition unofficially *check out my videos to see)

One arm deadlift bodyweight (I did this back when I was around 185lb I believe, I should check it again though)

turkish getup 106lb (did 135lb on my right and I think 125lb on my left. missed the second half of the lift on my left with 135lb)

OHP 227lb (I never trained it after I started doing Coach's gymnastic bodies program. most I have done was 205lb for 2 reps in the past)

Bottoms up press double 70lb kettlebells x 5 reps (did it for one rep in the past)

#2.5 gripper close on both hands (not sure when I got this but at least a year ago I would say)

I had a note at the bottom saying "I will try to accomplish these within the next 2 years without direct training for most of them" which holds true for the TGU especially.

07-03-10 Goals

back lever pullout with control (done)

front lever (again, getting closer but not there yet)

solid straddle planche (I think its pretty solid on the p bars but I want it better)

freestanding HSPU on p-bars x 2 reps (got it)

standing back tuck (never had the facility to train it so I held off. same for the front handspring)

15 XR HSPU feet on the straps (this was a beast skills challenge. haven't tried yet but I think I could probably only get 7 before my back starts arching horribly)

Bottoms up press 88lb kettlebell (not yet, I can clean it and hold it in a bottoms up position but no press yet as far as I know)

Squat 400lb (recently squatted 350lb for 2. New goal is 375lb instead of 400lb cause I don't care to squat more heh)

chinup bodyweight +135lb (best I got was 115lb)

Dip double bodyweight (best I got was 155lb in the past, long ago)

Splits (got a front split, side split still sucks though)

Your HSPU strength is pretty damn impressive! Keep up the videos

No kidding! I can't even do 1 XR HeSPU!!! Even the XR handstands kill me! I have not tried anything on my p-lletes lately but I know I'm not on John's level yet! I'm pretty sure I can do one pretty decent HSPU full ROM, but I don't think I have more than that. Certainly not with any kind of tempo.

Thanks guys

I keep holdin off my last test set video cause I don't have music that matches it, hehe. I will post it really soon along with another update in my training. I am about to switch to a new increased volume cycle soon. Hopefully getting handstand work in daily again.

i don't even need to comment on your strength..but dude your music choice is AMAZING (every single one of them)!!! i've become addicted to nine inch nails thanks to you.

stay healthy and train hardd!!

a.ramz said:

i've become addicted to nine inch nails thanks to you.

YES! NIN is win! I have listened to Trent since I was 10 y/o. I just got the Social Network soundtrack, 5 tracks are up for free online. I have not taken it out of my cd player in 2 weeks.

Quick update on my O-lifts and squats: I got 215lb for 2 squat cleans today and I did 225lb squat clean a few days back. Finished with low bar back squat 295lb x 2, 320lb x 2, 340 x 2

I've followed your log some time back and Im impressed with your progress! Really inspiring stuff!

Could you say something about the Body practise, how has it helped your training? It seems to be a good program for getting to know one's body better.

The Body Practice is a great way to get in active recovery work! I do a lot of joint mobility and it kind of make me an anomaly in my gym. It is a great blend of multiple disciplines for general health and wellness.I took many of Steve's drills and applied them to my routine.

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My cleans are already MUCH better than what is seen in this video, but this is the last 4 months of training rolled into one.

Was doing them 2x per week and now down to one to make more time for upper body training. I am going to increase the lower body frequency to 2x per week; 1 day will be focused on olympic lifts and strength and the other will be sprinting and agility followed by corrective exercises to work out my imbalances in my glutes and VMO.

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been training to get a rings handstand by using a method I found in a Mas Watanabe video on youtube. I held one recently for about 3 seconds and then I wanted to swing out of it.

The future:

Going back to straight arm isos, continuing rope climbing and trying to build capacity to do handstand pushups. Plan on high bar squatting 2x bw before my birthday in July.

Next month I have my PICP level 1

Like your videos Ortprod. I'm just about to start putting some Ol' squats into my workout as I'm not having much luck with Pistol variations even after 6 months of negatives and partials etc (not nearly strong enough yet). Think the higher numbers of easier variations (5*5) have started working better for my upper body recently so will do the same with squats. Was just gonna build up 5lb per workout till I hit sticking point then do SSC. Any advice?