Longshanks' workout log

I started a very toned down version of this type of training about 6 months ago now. Due to injuries and not being able to count properly (doh) I've been on very low volume static holds so far as a method of physio. It's only in the last couple of months I've been able to do any exercises worth posting at all realy, previous workout logs would have looked like that of the crypt-keeper trying to get into shape! I realise it isn't much to scream about yet but I'm getting there after nearly two years off due to my injury and lots of bad physio advice :x . Anyways, this is what I'm doing now and all my strength training is purely isometric as FBE's have just caused flare-ups of injuries for me. I do 3 workouts a week (Workout A-C) with workout prehab every time and now high rep and cardio work at the end of each session. I've stick to SSC's strictly and I'm in week 7 of cycle 3. I'm going to continue this cycle and future ones to 12weeks from now on as a further conservative measure against re-agravating my injuries.

Workout prehab

L-flys against door frame - 2*15s

Lateral raises - 2* 15s

(Fists against top of door frame, elbows at shoulder height, elbows at 90degrees to work supraspinitus)

+Light stretching of all muscle groups (10mins)

Workout A

Rows on rings - 2*15s

(body horizontal, feet on chair)

Planche leans - 3*12s

(body horizontal, feet on chair)

L-sit - 3*8s

Pistol hold just off bottom - 15s*2 each

(with 5kg ounterbalance)

Hamstring curl - 3*8s

(ankles hanging from pull-up bar)

Single leg Calf raise - 2*15s each

(With extra 20kg dumbell)

Wrist curls - 20s lateral/20s medial

(10kg each arm, arms straight my my sides)

Fingertip holds - 15*2

(Press-up position with feet on chair)

Workout B

Iso pull-up +17.5kg - 3*12s

(at 170, 90 & 20degrees)

Headstand/RLL - 2*15s

(Feet held at 45degrees)

L-sit - 3*8s

Pistol hold just off bottom - 15s*2 each

(with 5kg ounterbalance)

Hamstring curl - 3*8s

(ankles hanging from pull-up bar)

Single leg Calf raise - 2*15s each

(With extra 20kg dumbell)

Wrist curls - 20s lateral/20s medial

(10kg each arm, arms straight my my sides)

Fingertip holds - 15*2

(Press-up position with feet on chair)

Workout C

A.Tuck Font lever - 4*8s

(on rings)

A.Tuck Back lever - 4*8s

Pistol hold just off bottom - 15s*2 each

(with 5kg ounterbalance)

Hamstring curl - 3*8s

(ankles hanging from pull-up bar)

Single leg Calf raise - 2*15s each

(With extra 20kg dumbell)

Wrist curls - 20s lateral/20s medial

(10kg each arm, arms straight my my sides)

Fingertip holds - 15*2

(Press-up position with feet on chair)

NB. When I first realised I was only doing 30s each exercise I jumped to 60s which caused instant flare-up on old injuries showing I was toeing the line. I will be building up to a full 60s in each exercise by adding approx 10s a month more on each exercise as off the end of this cycle, as per Blairbobs helpfull advice on this matter.

Post-workout Cardio/Joint physio

20mins on rowing machine (heart rate 120-140)

Calf raises - 33*3

Lateral raises - 33*3

Bench press 15kg - 33*3

Wrist flippers - 70*3

(Empty 1kg dumbell bar)

Isometric stretching of groin and hamstrings

NB. Im finding an increase of 2-3reps every 2weeks and an extra 2mins on the rower to be the right balance of improvement without aggravating my injuries.

Future Goals for before I hit 30 (3 years)

Full back and front lever

Straddle planche

Iso OAC at various angles

Iso RLL with feet and head just off floor

Iso pistol with 50kg

Iso calf raise with 70kg

Iso 1 leg hamstring curl (never seen done)

Advanced L-sit on rings and finger-tips

False grip on rings and Coach Sommers Wrist pre-hab push-ups (light years away... cant even do them against the wall)

I realise these goals may even take me well into my 30's to attain considering my size (6'5'' and 231 pounds) but as long as I see consistant progress and make my joints indestructable to injury for my MMA I'll be happy.

Well I've just finished another cycle and rather than increasing my hold times per hold I'm trying to increase my volume from 30s to a full minute over the next 8 weeks. I've added an extra set onto all my holds. Will be adding another set onto the holds <10s every 3 weeks and holds >10s every 4-5 weeks depending on how my joints feel on increasing the volume. If I find better increases in strength due to higher volume I may keep going with this pattern until I reach 90-120s on each hold as per Ido & Slizzardman's words on higher volume. Think I'll just have to play it by ear.

As far as my joint physio's concerned I've had to drop the rowing machine unfortunately as it's caused my knee to flair up a little but think I jacked it in just in time to prevent any major setbacks. Although the intensity was very low I think the sheer volume and knee position in relation to my toes caused my problems. To replace that I'll just be doing normal 2leg squats (with strict form - arse back and knees no further forward than perpendicular to toes), bent over rows and a few leg raises. I've also increased the weight on the bench press and reps on calf & lateral raises. On the up side, even though I've dropped the proper cardio (rowing machine) the high rep work seems to be keeping my weight dropping and I've dropped 10lbs now in 5weeks. Another 14 to go and I should be back to my pre-injury weight.

Workout prehab

L-flys against door frame - 2*15s

Lateral raises - 2* 15s

+Light stretching of all muscle groups (10mins)

Workout A

Rows on rings - 3*15s

Planche leans - 4*12s

L-sit - 4*8s

Pistol hold just off bottom – 3*15s each

(with 5kg ounterbalance)

Hamstring curl - 4*10s

Single leg Calf raise - 3*15s each

(With extra 20kg dumbell)

Wrist curls - 15s*2 lateral/15s*2 medial

(10kg each arm, arms straight by my sides)

Fingertip holds – 15s*3

(Press-up position with feet on chair)

Workout B

Iso pull-up +17.5kg - 4*12s

(at 170, 110, 80 & 20degrees… ish)

Headstand/RLL - 3*15s

L-sit - 4*8s

Pistol hold just off bottom - 15s*3 each

(with 5kg ounterbalance)

Hamstring curl - 4*10s

Single leg Calf raise - 3*15s each

(With extra 20kg dumbell)

Wrist curls - 15s*2 lateral/15s*2 medial

(10kg each arm, arms straight my my sides)

Fingertip holds - 15*3

(Press-up position with feet on chair)

Workout C

A.Tuck Font lever - 5*8s

(on rings)

A.Tuck Back lever - 5*8s

Pistol hold just off bottom - 15s*2 each

(with 5kg ounterbalance)

Hamstring curl - 10s*4

(ankles hanging from pull-up bar)

Single leg Calf raise - 3*15s each

(With extra 20kg dumbell)

Wrist curls - 15s*2 lateral/15s*2 medial

(10kg each arm, arms straight my my sides)

Fingertip holds - 15*3

(Press-up position with feet on chair)

Post-workout Cardio/Joint physio

Squats - 25*3

Bent over rows - 15kg 30*3

Calf raises - 40*3

Lateral raises - 40*3

Bench press - 20kg 30*3

Wrist flippers - 70*3

(Empty 1kg dumbell bar)

Leg raises - 15*3

Isometric stretching of groin and hamstrings

My hope for the next 4-6months is to gradually increase my calf raises, squats and wrist flippers into the hundreds with slow control in the hope and can start skipping again without any flare-ups. Also hoping to get my bench press to around 60-70kg (60-70% BW) with high reps so I can start press-ups again without any problems. Hopefully by this point my body should be able to handle some light Thai boxing bag work again and I'll gradually transfer my physio workout to a light Thai boxing workout again. Will stick to that for a couple of months in the garage then hopefully I should be ready to go back to my club finally! HEYHEY! Is very frustrating and heartbreaking this 3 steps forward 1 step back with my injuries, but after 2 years of trial and error physio I think I'm starting to be able to judge my rate of recovery now and increase my training accordingly.

Well I've decided to give slow negatives second go for rehab purposes. I tried this a few months ago and it gave really bad flare-ups but I think I just started on too hard progressions so I'm cutting it all back a lot. I've already been at this, this week and noticed quite a difference already on the least major of my joint problems (knees & Achilles). The only drawback to this training is the DOMS but my joints seem to hurt a bit less every day so I think I can live with it. I'm doing essentially all the same exercises but just as negatives apart from finger holds, L-flys, L-sit and hamstring hold, and I've added in negative lateral raises with a conservative 1.25kg in each hand. I think the negative levers are called skin the cats if I'm right and I'm just making the effort to keep elbows locked for the 5sec negative. The L-sit I'm doing on rings but in tuck position to try and just get more time on the rings to strengthen my elbows. Its a lot higher volume TUT than I've done in the past but much lower intensity. I'm hoping that's the magic formula for using negatives for injury recovery. That's what I've read in medical journals on this topic anyway. Here's the new routine, the different colours up upper body stuff denotes M/W/F.

L-Flys - 4*15s

Lateral raises - 1.25kg 5sec*5reps*5sets

L-sit - 6*10s

Planche leans - 5s*5reps*5sets

(feet on chair)

Push-up - 5s*5reps*5sets

Ring Rows - 5s*5reps*5sets

(Body at 45degrees at bottom of motion)

Front tuck lever - 5sec*5reps*5sets

Back tuck lever - 5secs*5reps*5sets

Pistol squat - 5secs*10reps*3 sets

(to chair height)

Calf raises - 5secs*10reps*3sets

Hamstring curl - 4*10secs

Wrist Curls - 5kg 5secs*5reps*2sets pronation

- 5kg 5secs*5reps*2sets supination

Finger Holds - 4*15secs in press-up position

Had my first workout with the negative levers today and it absolutely bloody fried my lats and forearms. Only managed 4sets of 5 and needed a short 10-20sec rest after each 1 or 2 reps. Definitely noticed the drop in strength after lowering past horizontal having only done levers so far and at much lower volume. Also dropped the forearm curls after all the lever work cos it reduced my grip strength to that of a newborn kitten after a total 200secs on the rings. The muscle soreness is reaching new heights of pain but my joints have all stopped aching completely barring my left shoulder. I think this may just be because I'm being so conservative so far. Have just upped the Lateral raises from 1.25 to 2.5kg after a week at that and haven't had any flare ups, so will stick to this for another week or two then I'll think about another small jump. My left supraspinitus is the only weak spot now so I'm just heating the joint as many times a day as I can remember with a hot water bottle. Recovery here I come, will hopefully be dusting off the Thai pads and boxing gloves again before I know it....

Made a few adjustments now I'm a couple of weeks in and found the right intensity & volume. For starters I've gradually upped the weight for lateral raises until I reached a weight I felt actually work the muscles but without flaring up the injuries. I do ring rows with a supination grip now to try and imitate reverse curls as much as possible as they apparently help the elbows a lot more. I don't do any supination wrist curls now as it felt a bit too much on top of all the lever, ring rows and planche leans. L-sit is also on dumbbells (as parrelets) to strengthen the elbows more. I'm also doing the back and front lever as one rep and doing these as 12 sets of 1 as they are so taxing for me. Although I feel loads stronger in this move after only a fortnight than months of static levers. I upped the weight on calf raises as well, as these seemed quite easy without weight now. On days that I do negative pushups I do all of these on fingertips so I can up the volume on my fingertips once a week. This is how it looks now:

L-Flys - 4*15s

Lateral raises - 4.0kg 5sec*5reps*5sets

L-sit - 8*8s

Planche leans - 5s*5reps*5sets

(feet on chair)

Push-up - 5s*5reps*5sets

Ring Rows - 5s*5reps*5sets

(Body at 45degrees at bottom of motion)

Front tuck lever - 5s*12

Back tuck lever - 5s*12

Pistol squat - 5secs*10reps*3 sets

(to chair height)

Calf raises - 5kg 5secs*10reps*3sets

Hamstring curl - 6*10secs

Wrist Curls - 5kg 5secs*5reps*3sets pronation

Finger Holds - 6*15secs in press-up position

Well only just dragged myself through today's workout after doing 12hour nights shifts all week. Think I'll drop the 3sets of 10 negative pistols to 5 sets of 5. My balance and technique are just appalling after the first 5 and I suppose I'm better off doing it properly. Think I read Blairbob write about this exact topic with regards to his kids and rubbish technique pistols. Cant really be bothered to post what I did just yet, I'll just upload the excel spreadsheet I fill in for the whole month, should be easier to track progress that way anyway.

Made a bit of a cock-up in technique on rings that cost me this week unfortunately. So far I've been lifting up with hands in neutral position and coming down into negative levers with strict straight arm palms down (for front) and palms up for back lever. However, last week I noticed a slight pain when lifting back up from German hang after back lever negative and realised I was coming up with straight arms for that one. When I did my levers this week I made an effort to bend before lifting but didn't realise I didn't change my hand position to neutral first so when I bent my elbows they where bending out rather than in line with my body. Couldn't quite realise why this caused even more elbow pain (including my good elbow shockingly). Its seems I was doing some weird Bulgarian version of back lever pulls. Will have to pay attention to that next workout. Luckily I've been off work these last couple of days so I've just spend the whole 2 days with hot water bottle on my elbows, eaten what seems like gallons of fish oil and tonnes of antioxidants. Have woke up today pain free but definitely learned my lesson. On the up side, I haven't had any shoulder pain in 3 days now. This may seem like not much but after 2 years I'm practically jumping for joy! I'm definitely headed in the right direction now.

Apart from the elbows my trainings been going really well. Seem to feel a much bigger difference in strength from week to week since I started negatives and dropped most of my statics. Was playing around a little last week and managed a 5sec planche tuck for the first time which actually seemed shockingly easy and I didn't even push it anywhere close to max! I've only been doing these higher volume planche leans for a fortnight as well so I'm looking forward to testing my max's after a full cycle! Also tried a couple of L-pull-up negatives for fun last week.... Pulled it off (no pun intended) but I've never known pain like what I felt in my core the next day. Seems my L-sit will have to be a lot better before I can do these with good form.

Well levers night went a lot better this week. Just did my back levers in a neutral grip with the accent bent arm and it seemed to take a lot of pressure off my elbows. Everything else is progressing well. Just tried the weighted Pike stretch with 20kg and it was good. Didn't feel as though I was really pushing myself as much as I used to by pulling on my feet but I might just use a little more weight next time. Suppose I am a big guy and I can already get my upper chest to my thighs. Just wanna get my back straight with it now. Straddle flexibility is another matter entirely, keep working that one but feel my progress is very slow. Mind you I only started this one about 4 months ago for the first time. I'm still at it though every Mon/Wed/Fri rain or shine.

Longshanks said:

Just tried the weighted Pike stretch with 20kg and it was good. Didn't feel as though I was really pushing myself as much as I used to by pulling on my feet but I might just use a little more weight next time.

I completely take this back. Didn't think it was doing much at the time but my calfs and hamstrings were really sore today so must have done the job

Hehehe, I need to try weighted pike stretches... I just use active flexibility to get down.

Do they work as well as they're said to?

Seiji said:

Hehehe, I need to try weighted pike stretches... I just use active flexibility to get down.

Do they work as well as they're said to?

I wouldn't like to comment just yet to be honest as I've only done them twice. I think I actually tore my hamstring a little a few months ago by just pulling on my toes to get that little bit further. Luckily I took a month off anything hamstring wise and then just eased back in over another month and it seemed to work. At least with the weighted pike approach I can strictly control how much I stretch (by just upping the weight once a month) because I had a tendency to over-push it without realizing. I's say it doesn't seem to hurt as much at the time but bloody kills the next day. I'll post my results in a month or so.

Well couldn't get the excel doc of my workouts uploaded. Im about 5 weeks into my cycle. At 4 weeks I started doing 12*10sec negative full range pistols. Was nearly impossible for the bottom 90 degrees for the first week but it's starting to feel a lot stronger now already after only a week. I have to tense my core loads more and I've started protracing my shoulders forward and even my head as far as I can forward to get the counterbalance. I look like a right plonker but it feels a lot stronger and better balanced when i do.

The calf negatives I was doing were switching left to right after every rep up to 10 each side for the first month, but started doing 6 sets of 5 each side with the same weight and no problems 4 weeks into cycle.

I've also started doing the concentric part of lateral raises at 4 weeks without any flare ups. Tonight my negative skin the cats started feeling a lot easier (at 5weeks) so changed it from 12*1 to 6*2 without any problems so I'm chuffed to bits with these noticeable gains.

To sum up, much larger jumps in strength for doing negatives and don't think I need to wait a whole 8 weeks before trying to reduce the number of sets i do everything in. Think I'll take stock every 4 weeks from now on and just change the sets of the same exercise each time. Maybe just up the actual volume every 8 weeks. Keep it going this way until I get to 5*5 then up to next progression.

Thought I'd do an overview of what I'm doing now since I've made a few changes. I read the post about pre-requisites and decided to dial back all my training to just pull-ups press-ups and L-sit. L:-sit being my only straight arm work. I think the back levers and planche leans were hindering my injury recovery. Since I've dialed it back to these basic exercises I've never felt better, injury wise. I only notice the slightest ache in a knee if I try to bike to work every day now (5miles each way- 10 miles a day), so I get the bus in on training days to try and keep the stress down until I'm more recovered (its all hills and bridges on my route to work). Here's the layout now:

L-Flys 1kg*5*3

Lateral raises 4kg*5*5

Back Bridge 20s*3

L-sit 8s*8

Push ups

(feet on chair) 5s*5*5

Pull ups 5s*5*5

Pistol squat 10s*12

Calf raises 10k*5*6

Hamstring curl

(Isometric) 10s*6

Wrist Curls (Pro) 5s*5*3

The negative pistols have now gone to full range and feel a lot more stable only 2 weeks in. Will start maybe just reducing the resting times in a couple more weeks until I can do 2 negatives consecutively. I've also stopped doing press-ups on fingertips as my fingers weren't keeping up with pressing strength. Have upped the height of my feet now. Next cycle I intend to start my push-ups on rings then work through the ring push-up progressions. Have just jumped from ring rows to proper pull-ups again without any elbow pain finally which I'm ecstatic about! At 230lbs normal pull-ups are pretty bloody hard for me. The L-flys have switched from isometric to slow negatives now without any flare-ups. I'm thinking of just sticking to the same progressions for a while and just adjusting the sets/reps for a few months until I'm doing mostly 3sets of 10 for each. Want to get a bit of hypertrophy for a while until I'm up to my original size before I had to stop my MMA training.

I'm getting itchy feet now to start fighting again since I haven't had any injury pain in about 3 weeks now but I'm gonna stick to my guns and keep the slow negatives for at least another 5 months. I no longer naive enough to think I'm ready for it yet. Have had FAR TOO MANY flare-ups in the past just when I thought I was sorted to believe my body can take it quite yet.

Congratulations on the recovery, feeling painless after a long time of pain is truly one of the best things

Razz said:

Congratulations on the recovery, feeling painless after a long time of pain is truly one of the best things

Thanks Razz.

Well had a really good workout tonight, upped my reps slightly from 5reps*6sets to 7reps*4 sets on calf raises which still felt strong. My negative pistols however felt like they were struggling the last few sets and just on a whim I tried holding 2*2.5kg weights in front for counterbalance and it made an INFINITE difference! I've avoided trying this for a while, worrying about the extra weight on my knee but I think it actually had the opposite effect. Seemed to feel it in my glutes a little more but felt LOADS more controlled and quite easy to be honest, was really shocked. Will stick to 12sets of 10 for a good few more weeks though despite the urge to try and do more with how easy they are now.

I'm starting to notice that after a couple of weeks I'm capable of changing the reps/sets up slightly if I stay on the same exercises. Might continue this for a while until I get my volume up before progressing through each exercise.

Despite my excitement about the counterbalance idea for pistols I've come back down to earth now and realised it's probably pushing my luck a bit jumping head in weight only a few weeks into cycle. I started just holding the edge of a door for the last few seconds of the decent now and it works just as well without having to add extra weight. Felt a bit easier as well. I've also dropped the height of my feet to the floor for push-ups in favor of higher numbers so I'm doing 4sets of 7 now.

I'm nearly at the end of my cycle for wrist rehab and L-sit this week so am looking forward to upping my time on l-sit and starting wrist push-ups. Think I'll have to start with my hips and knees at 90degrees for the ultimate girly variation but I did have tennis elbow not so long back so have to start somewhere.

I've also just started realising that the weighted pike stretches did seem to highlight a weak spot in my lumber spine which did feel a lot like tendon pain so I've eased off those for now. It makes sense to be honest though, that area of my back has always crunched a lot when I wake up in the morning so I maybe injured it once without realizing it, and it probably never got back to full strength. So my pike stretching is much lighter now and I'm doing lots of back bridging to try and re-strengthen any weak spots. Will maybe re-assess when I'm strong enough to do bridge wall walks (ATM its only headstand bridges).

Well unfortunatley the L-flys seem so have had the opposite to the desired affect. Maybe even 1kg to start with was too much. With try and just do it without weight for now and invest in some of those mega-light resistance bands for a few weeks time. Am a bit gutted because I thought it was a lot better but I think I've just trained around it too much rather than tackling the problem head on. Is also hard to get the right balance of working the injured tendon without overdoing it. Did isometrics for about 9months but doesn't seem to have done as much good as I'd first thought.

Well my shoulder's calmed down a lot with a few days rest and heat treatment, also got my therabands today so I'll start that next workout. Tried out my max L-sit today and was impressed with the 25secs but checked my reflection and noticed some serious back rounding but my elbows and knees were locked straight, will have to correct this later I think when I'm much stronger and closer to 3*30secs.

Also tried Ido's idea this workout and cut the volume in half for the whole lot. Think I'll make this a habit once a week now because it felt like a breeze and was good to feel like that after having to drag myself through it like I normally do, since my full workout takes about 1h45m usually. On a good day 1h30m. Was only 45m tonight and felt like a good brake for my will-power and body (like a treat day in your diet.... sort of).

Well the L-sits are taking some work now I've upped the time. Getting some serious tricep cramps and I'm having to concentrate on breathing properly more now.

Did a session of rock climbing with a friend this week and absolutely loved it. With the exception of my finger strength I found it a lot easier than I expected I would, even had a go a couple of respectable overhangs. Think I might cut my strength workouts down to two a week so I can go rock climbing twice a week too.

As of next week, once all the blisters on my hands have healed (went a bit mad and stayed for 4 hours my first night) I'm gonna start a GTG program of finger strength where I grip the door-frame for half my max every time I walk past it into my living room.

As for my shoulder I've given up on dynamic exercises for now and gone back to isometrics. I just hold 4 different angles of the L-fly for 5secs *4 sets for now. May try and up the time at the end of my cycle and have a go with the bands in my SSC after next. I've just got a few different strength resistance bands that should last me quite a while now.

Have been off full of flu for couple of weeks ago and just started back into it last week. Was actually surprised that the time off seemed to do me good and I felt a lot better with my training. Think the week off every now and then isn't something to be sniffed at. I always found it hard to take a week off but will be sure to do it every now and then in the future. I've also noticed that a training twice a week rather than 3 times seems to be a lot better for me and I feel a lot stronger each workout. Think my recovery ability must just be rubbish.

I also just got my first couple of bottled of proper concentrated fish oil this week. By god does that stuff taste rank! Tried mixing it with my milk first time to try and dilute the taste but I think it actually made it worse. I've just been taking a 5gm teaspoon (fingers holding nose) in the morning now before breakfast. Is still rank but at least its over a lot quicker.

Am set to test a few maxes the end of this week so am exited to see my gains after my first full cycle of negatives. Will be posting them later this week.

Well I didn't realise at first but seems I upped the reps/time on different exercises at points throughout the cycle so now each exercise is scattered and I'll only be testing my max's for 1 or 2 exercises every week of two. Think I like this though as there will only be one or two exercises I'll really dread doing where I've just upped the volume. I think if every exercise was this intense it'd be really hard to motivate myself, or at least keep my rest times down to something reasonable.

Anyway the strength test for pull-ups went brilliantly this week. I went from 4 neutral grip negatives last cycle to 9 palms down negatives. The grips a bit wider as well. Wanted to go a lot wider and lower reps but since I've got a door frame pull-up bar and my shoulders are only a few inches narrower than the door frame it wasn't really an option. I also upped the pistol negatives from 10-12sets of 1, to 6 sets of 2 negatives. I'm also trying to grip the edge of a door for counterbalance for as little time as possible. This seems to be the last 2 seconds out of 10, then I come back up on two legs. I also started wrist push-ups with my hips and knees at 90 degrees a month ago. L-flys are back to isometrics at various angles. So here's the layout now, I'm still doing all negatives and Isometrics apart from the wrist push-ups.

Lateral raises 4kg 4 sets of 6

Back Bridge 4 sets of 20s

L-sit 5 sets of 12secs

Push ups 4 sets of 7

Pull ups 4 sets of 6

Pistol squat 6 sets of 2

Calf raises 4 sets of 7 (+10kg)

Hamstring hang 5 sets of 12secs

Wrist Push-ups 3sets of 10

I've edited thsi post for two reasons. Firstly, the 3 sets of 8 pull-ups are way to close to failure on every one and felt like they were making my elbow injury flare up a little. I've also given up on the L-flys for now. I think for some reason these are inflamming my supraspinitus every time do them because this combined with the Lateral raises are a bit too much volume for an injured tendon. Also, I've notice little or no improvement in the strength of my lateral raises and suspect the L-flys are the culprit. Will just stick to the L-raises for now and re-evaluate in a few months time.

Well I tested my maxes on some other exercises this week and my few improvements are:

12 negative pushups

12 negative 1 leg calf raises (+10kg)

18..... sort of negative lateral raises (no weight)

I've kind of had an epiphany this week for getting my rep ranges spot on whilst not aggravating my injuries. I just do the half my maxes for each set just like with the static principles for as many sets as comfortable. When I tried doing more with pull-ups for a session I had an elbow flare up. Once I cut down the reps and upped the sets it calmed down overnight. I think this is the principal of GTG when compacted into a workout, just super-setting with loads of other exercises for rest between sets, and keeping the reps low enough that you're still fresh as a cucumber each set.

My shoulder is another issue but I think I may have figured it out at long last. I've heard an old mantra that if you're struggling to progress, do less, not more. So I ditched the weights with lateral raises and just did 5sec negatives again to my max. As much as I easily do the 18 with barely any muscle fatigue at all I did feel a slight pressure on the acromion (Just like someone touching it lightly). I think I must of disregarded this in the past but the day after my shoulder felt very sore so I'm treating the point I felt that as my max, which was 11. Although it wasn't actually painful I'm going to treat any tendon sensation at all as a no go area.

As much as I know this may cause uproar I've decided against static exercises as much as possible since I'm doing this for physio and to supplement other sports, not as a primary focus. I'm keeping hamstring hang alone because it seems to simulate holding someone in your guard BJJ style. Once my shoulder is strong enough I'll be replacing headstand back bridge with bridge walk walks. And it would be much more beneficial to other sports to have strength throughout the full range of motion. With that in mind, this is my slightly altered workout now:

Lateral raises 5sets of 6

Back Bridge 4sets of 20s

V-ups 5sets of 6

Push ups 5sets of 6

Pull ups 6 sets of 4

Pistol squat 6 sets of 2 each

Calf raises 5 sets of 6

Hamstring curl 5 sets of 12s

Wrist Push-ups 3 sets of 10 (hips and knees 90-90)

Well although I haven't posted in a while I've been training consistently as well as rock climbing twice a week for a couple of months now. Just tested my max's today and although they're still modest exercises I'm really chuffed to bits at the increases I've made. Best of all I've been completely pain free in the shoulder for about a month now. This half of your max negative reps philosophy is a bloody godsend. Any way here's my max's compared to the last cycle:

Last cycle:

Back Bridge (with hands) 40sec static hold

V-ups 12 (not very controlled)

Pistol squat 2*10sec negatives

Lateral raises 12 5sec negatives (I previously put 18 but felt shoulder pinching at 12)

Pull ups 9*5sec negatives (on bar)

Hamstring curl 25sec static hold

Calf raises 12*5sec negatives

Push ups 12*5sec negatives

Cycle ending 31/10/10:

Back Bridge 40sec static hold

(just head/heals up from Matt Furey's Bridge progressions)

HLL 6*5sec negatives

(Half- up to L position)

Pistol squat 6*10sec negatives (+5kg counterbalance)

Lateral raises 20*5sec negatives

(might have even been able to chance a couple more but knew to quit while I was ahead)

Pull ups 10*5sec negatives (on rings)

Natural Leg Curls 4*10sec negatives

(I needed to use fingertips for assistance at 5secs/about 45degrees)

Calf raises 20*5sec negatives

Push ups 18*5sec negatives

Overall I either moved up a progression slightly or had a fairly respectable jump in reps across the board. Think I was most impressed with the jumps in all the leg exercises, although I don't have a clue why they had better improvements than upper body. Think I'll 'try' and have a week of active rest this week of stretching and start my next cycle next week. I'm hoping to upp the volume a bit by keeping the same amount of sets but with the half of max reps philosophy again but I'll have to see when I try it out. I'm going to try and keep my progressions the same for a while until I've built some decent work capacity in the main FBE's such as pull-ups, press-ups, pistols & calf raises.