Pogo's Training

Thursday, 3rd February 2011

morning:

(missed mobility)

back squats:

20 x 77.5kg

3 x slow, controlled assisted MU transitions

back squats were nasty this morning. my legs were still partly trashed from a combination of monday's squats and the dynamic leg WOD that afternoon. I'm sure during the last rep my eyeballs were nearly popping out of my head. told my wife it would have made an awesome photo opportunity.

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

3 sets:

1 emb BL + 5 XR bulgarian rows

1 emb XR L-sit + 5 PPP

1 emb FL + 5 body levers

FSPs still wiping me out; but, to be expected and it seems to building up throughout the week. my body is definitely looking forward to the weekend.

I did tuck FL and BL as I was still fatigued from the FSPs. tried to flatten them out, but I just didn't have it in me.

never done the bulgarian rows before but they felt fine.

PPP were good; felt strong, but did them on parallettes, not rings.

body levers were all negatives.

embedded XR L-sit; 1st round was MU -> L-sit... mistake; 2nd round was RTO support -> RTO L-sit... also mistake; 3rd round was support -> L-sit... very tired, but at least I made it through.

Friday, 4th February 2011

morning:

NADA

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

3 rounds

10s XR L-sit

3 x XR HeSPU

5 x XR dips

7 x single clap pushup

not a good day for compliance, but it was as much as I had to give. has been a tough week with the new FSP cycle, but I'm toughing it out for now.

cut the WOD to 3 rounds and scaled down a LOT, with easier exercises, cutting a couple of the variations and some volume with the pushups. ended up cutting the 4th round due to having to take my youngest boy to his touch football match, but I have to say, I wasn't sorry about cutting it short!

still, full set of FSPs for the week, and some kind of attempt at each WOD; pretty happy overall.

Monday, 7th February 2011

morning:

NADA.

missed my mobility and back squats. really wanted to keep up with the squat particularly, but I got rather sunburnt on sunday and just couldn't bring myself to load nearly 80kg on my back and squat 20 times.

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

3 rounds

10 x SLS w/ 5kg

5 x GHR

60m tyre drag

FSPs felt a little better, but this is the beginning of the week.

WOD was pretty good. yet another leg WOD that I decided to do as written rather than subbing barbells. I will try to stick with this as much as possible and keep the weights to my morning squat sessions (provided I don't get burnt again!!).

I missed the part about not doing giant sets, so... I did giant sets, oops.

was the first time in a verrrrrry long time that I'd tried SLS, so while 5kg hardly impressed me, I was happy that I am still able to do them at all. GHR is getting better; each time I seem to be assisting less and pulling more.

tyre drag was about right; no added weight this time, just tyre+wheel, but the grass is pretty long, so it made me work about enough, I reckon.

Tuesday, 8th February 2011

morning:

mobility

3 x slow, controlled assisted MU transitions

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

10 x cast wall walks

5 x pike box press HeS

10 x straddle box press HeS

12 x 30s XR strap HS

FSPs felt pretty good again; PL is tough especially in final set, L-sit also bit tough in final set, FL also, but getting better.

cast wall walks felt pretty good again.

press HeS getting much better - head raised on two plates. more control each time I do them.

got all 12 sets of XR strap HS!!! varying degree of RTO, but very pleased to have got through it all.

Thursday, 10th February 2011

morning:

skipped mobility; didn't really feel like much of anything - poor sleep and long work hours strike again.

back squats:

20 x 78.5kg

3 x slow, controlled MU transitions

3 x slow, controlled XR strap neg. HSPU

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

4 rounds

3 x 20m sprints

5 x backward rolls

7 x TOPs pulls

9 x tuck FL pulls

1st set of sprints was pulling the tyre, but I broke my dip belt, so the final 3 sets were just sprint as fast as possible.

backward rolls were as controlled as possible rolling back and over but I dropped out in each towards the end.

TOPs pulls felt pretty good.

FL pulls sucked. really bad. final 3 sets broken into 4/3/2

overall I was pretty happy with this one; I feel particularly weak in the pulling WODs so I'm happy to have got through it in reasonable shape.

Friday, 11th February 2011

morning:

mobility

3 x slow, controlled MU transitions

3 x slow, controlled XR strap neg. HSPU

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

no WOD this evening. had to take my youngest boy to his touch footy game and I now just don't feel up to it. tired and my wrists have been sore on/off throughout the day, so I'm giving myself a rest.

Monday, 14th February 2011

morning:

mobility

back squats:

1 x 20 x 80kg

3 x slow, controlled assisted MU transitions

back squats felt pretty good, but it's starting to get really heavy in those last few reps. thinking I might continue to up the weight each week until I hit a failure, then I'll switch to a strength cycle.

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

3 rounds:

1 emb XR L-sit

5 gallimores

1 emb BL

6 x circular archups

1 emb FL

5 x russian leg lifts

L-sit was support RTO -> L-sit

gallimore sub'd to bulgarian dip -> lower to tuck FL -> tuck FL pullup

BL was inverted hang to flat tuck BL

FL was inverted hang to flat tuck FL

russian leg lifts weren't all that russian (really want some stall bars)

SSCs continue to get better (less strenuous). WOD felt ok, not strong but I got through it.

Tuesday, 15th February 2011

morning:

mobility

3 x slow, controlled assisted MU transitions

3 x slow, controlled XR strap neg. HeSPU

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

4 rounds:

30m tyre drag +10kg

20m squat jumps

10 depth jumps @ 3'

Thursday, 17th February 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutations

back squats:

1 x 20 x 80kg

I've been promising myself that I'd start doing some yoga; I like it and it usually makes me feel good, but as with all things stretching I find it hard to motivate myself. so I decided that at the very least, I'd do 2 sun salutes every morning - it's a start.

felt quite unmotivated this morning. it was very difficult to get myself under the bar for the squats, but again... I got through it. no time or left over motivation for the mobility and/or skill work.

afternoon:

NADA.

still felt fatigued and vaguely sore, mainly in the shoulders and biceps.

Friday, 18th February 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutations

mobility

no skill work this morning; still feeling the fatigue and vague soreness as per the last couple days.

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

had to take the lil fella to touch footy after cooking dinner; didn't hold out much hope of having the energy for WOD afterwards, but...

WOD:

10 x cast wall walks

5 x pike box press HeS

10 x straddle box press HeS

15mins elapsed wall walk

the cast wall walks were a bit harder this time. all 10 in one set, but I paid a little bit more attention to form and to make sure I was as close to the wall as possible (still not flat against it).

press HeS done with head raise 4" this time. made enough of a difference to feel the pike stretch when I hit the box (chair). good feeling, felt like I got the limit of my abilities just right. straddle felt good; again, about right at my limit. is getting significantly better.

15 mins elapsed time wall walks. still don't have an efficient way of timing 10 mins total wall walking with no stop/start timer available. pretty sure I did more volume this 15mins than last; was more strict about my on/off timing.

my shoulders are very much looking forward to a rest this weekend, although... I doubt they'll get it.

Monday, 21st February 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutations

back squats:

1 x 20 x 81kg

3 x slow controlled, unassisted MU

3 x RTO XR strap HS + slow controlled neg. HSPU

it's continued to be really hot and humid; and it's sapping the motivation out of me. but... while I skipped mobility I did my sun salutes and squats. really difficult to get through the squats and even harder to get under the bar in the first place, but made it through once again.

anyway... onto the good stuff. I got 3 slow (not as slow as my inspiration, frits, but I'll get there) controlled full MU with no assistance!! I just started pulling like always, but when I got to the transition I just never did need the feet to assist, so kept going. next goal is to keep progressing until I have complete and micro-slow control over the entire ROM, a la frits. then I'll move onto further progressions, with the ultimate goal being L-MU with no (minimal?) forward lean and perhaps no false grip, but that's aaaaaaaaaaaaages away.

afternoon:

WOD:

4 rounds:

60 reps HS wall walk

10 clapping pushups

5 swinging dips, 1 at a time

10m L-sit walk with single alternating foot on frisbee

2 x 10 wrist pushups from knees

I have no useful way of timing things, so I did 60 reps instead of secs wall walks.

10 clapping pushups instead of 20' wheels.

5 swinging dips were largely practise because i struggle with the timing. the first round was much better this time; think I got the timing almost right, but my form degraded through the rounds.

I've been procrastinating with the L-sit walks; been subbing L-sit variations, but I decided this time that I need to start working on (severely easier for now) dynamic equivalents to the L-sit walk.

I think L-MU are easier than what you think, guess it's the same that is for pistol, holding a weight in front (your legs in this case) counterbalance the transition.

I'm going to list my morning routine, an early lark like you may have plenty of time to kill...

Yes, I've tried and managed L-MU in the past, kinda; but never with the form I'm looking for. I had to lean quite a lot and then found it almost impossible to achieve the required pike compression to get the L parallel to the floor.

I'm happy to progress incrementally as I have been. It's a lot easier to be patient with small amounts of regular skill work and static progressions like the SSC FSPs when you see your strength building over time. Not that I wouldn't like to be where I could be a year from now, but it's something to look forward to.

I'd be most interested in some ideas for expanding my morning routine. I'm *always* up early, very often too early and I waste far too much of the extra time it affords me.

Tuesday, 22nd February 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutations

mobility

3 x slow, controlled MU

only got 2 slow controlled MU today - had to assist with the med ball on the 3rd. felt appreciably weaker than yesterday, but I guess that's to be expected given monday follows 2 days of rest. still happy with being able to get the MU under slow control - I reckon I'll have them consistently so in a few weeks.

ran out of time to get any other training/skill work in this morning. kids were up early and kept distracting me from the morning routine.

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

3 rounds:

MU -> 2 x bulgarian dips -> shoulder stand -> forward roll to collapsed hang -> MU -> shoulder stand -> strap assisted neg rev MU -> 2 rev tuck cranks -> 2 tuck cranks

5 x 15s tuck FL

5 x 15s XR strap HS

5 x 15s german hang

wow; felt really weak. ring series was really hard work, even the stuff that I can normally do without too much trouble. going to target fwd roll to MU in my morning MU progressions because I completely collapse in the roll; will go there after I consolidate the slow controlled MU.

statics were pretty good.

grats on your MU.. im still unable to get one

cheers dreadrok.

I've been able to do some form of muscle up for years now, but I've only started to develop it in the last 6 weeks or so. trying to get rid of all traces of piking, leaning or (what I had to do to first get one) kipping. trying to turn it into a move of slow, controlled pure strength.

provided you have the requisite basis in strength (say 10 or so full ROM ring pullups and dips), there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do it. it becomes largely a matter of learning the skill of rolling your elbows over in the transition.

if you're ready for it, I *highly* recommend FritsMB's progression for the development of the MU. I've been adding only 3 assisted MU transitions every morning as skill work and while the progress as been very gradual, my MU and false grip are way in advance of what they were prior. I get the impression from the opening notes in frits' video that he was doing a good bit more volume than me, but I have to balance what I'm doing with my other training. all I can say is, it doesn't take much to improve.

Wow.... I think I'm doing MU work at the end of my warmup from now on.

Thanks

if you are consistent and keep it to a level that doesn't interfere with your other training (I see it as skill work - strength as a skill), you will not be disappointed.

my MU yesterday morning were a great deal weaker than monday. and in fact, my MU in the ring series last night were quite weak too, but then I was feeling rather fatigued in general. but I expect that with only just having achieved my first slow controlled MU on monday, it will be a few weeks or so before I am doing them consistently without any kip or excessive lean.

I've just re-read some of frits' more recent posts in that thread regarding the forward roll to MU. I can do a backward roll to MU, but the forward roll just collapses, so I think I'll be adding that into my progression forward also. for now though, I'll continue to keep it simple.

Thursday, 24th February 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutations

2 x each side, whatever the hip/glute yoga pose I was doing is called

not a great start to the latter part of the week. had zero motivation, so no squats, no mobility and no skill work. didn't feel great at all and my lil fella is home from school today, so I'm hoping I'm not brewing up whatever has taken him down.

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

3 sets:

1 emb BL + 5 tempo tuck yewkis

1 emb l-sit + 5 tempo tuck PL dips

1 emb FL + 5 tempo under-grip HLL

BL/FL both flat tuck from inverted hang; L-sit from tuck PL.

yewkis were very tough on biceps and lats, but kinda fun.

PL dips were nasty; ROM on dips wasn't great, did them on parallettes with knees tucked .

under-grip HLL were a whole new world of discomfort. seemed much harder than over-grip. tough again on biceps.

Friday, 25th February 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutation

2 x ea. side hip twisty thing stretch

2 x ea. side side stretch thing

mobility

3 x slow, controlled assisted MU transition

3 x slow, controlled neg. HSPU

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

4 rounds

sprint 4 lengths of back yard

7 hopping pullups

6 (3,2,1) tuck FL pulls

5 tuck 360 pulls

tough day!! the FSPs are getting slowly easier, but the pulling WODs are my weakest point.

Monday, 28th February 2011

morning:

back squats:

1 x 20 x 82.5kg

2 x sun salutation

limited motivation in the morning once again; seem to be struggling with it a lot. lack of (and quality of) sleep is likely the major culprit, but I haven't devoted any time into doing anything about it; long past due I suspect.

squats were really tough; not really close to stalling, but it's getting a great deal harder to get through the latter half. much heavy breathing and much struggling.

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

3 rounds:

10 x killers w/ 2.5kg ea hand

5 x assisted NLC

30m tyre drag +10kg

FSPs felt really good today; FL was probably the least strong (kinda shaky, not sure why) but the PL felt awesome strong!!

never done killers before; the 2.5kg can go up next time.

NLC felt pretty weak; back squats this morning could have contributed.

Tuesday, 1st March 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutation

2 ea. side twisty hip thing

2 ea. side side bendy things

mobility

3 x slow controlled assisted MU transitions

3 x slow controlled XR strap assisted neg. HSPU

everything felt much better this morning, after the morning stretching. very stiff from squats and leg WOD yesterday.

concentrated on making my MU practise this morning full ROM from bottom to top to bottom, RTO.

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

10 x cast wall walks

5 x pike box press HeS

10 x straddle box press HeS

HSPU ladders

cast wall walks still all in one set; felt harder than previous, but I am paying more attention to form.

box press both from about 6" elevated HeS. pike was easier on the pike stretch, harder on the core. straddle felt good all round, about 4-6" from the ground when fully lowered to ability.

3 full rounds of ladders (box, neg, HeSPU) and one final round using only neg and HeSPU).

2 x 10 x wrist pushups. I attempted my first set of these in a piked plank for the first time; much harder than from the knees, but the wrists are definitely getting stronger. 2nd set from knees and very easy.

Thursday, 3rd March 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutations

back squats:

1 x 20 x 82.5kg

3 x slow controlled assisted MU from lockout to RTO at top of dip

wow!! what a tough morning. I've been bad all week. baked very dark chocolate brownies on the weekend and I've been paying the price all week by trying to help make sure they disappear as fast as possible. all gone now, thank goodness.

squats were *really* tough this morning. they've been getting progressively more so, but this morning was tough enough already. still, got through it, even if the last couple reps felt like they might be my final act.

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

4 rounds:

shuttle run

5 box jumps ~24"

20 jumping deck squats w/ 5 kg plate

5 depth jumps 3'

2 x 30s weighted pike stretch

FSPs were a little tough today. it was crazy hot'n'humid, and I think it was taking it out of me. asthma is playing up a little too.

leg WOD day *again* on the day I do back squats in the morning!! that's monday and thursday this week!! my legs are going to hate me tomorrow.

box jumps were ok, but I really do have to find somewhere to start trying a higher jump.

deck squats were nasty. I'd never tried them before, so I probably should have gone unweighted, but... got through them.

depth jumps stuck with 3' again. I think I'll try one rung higher next time.

the breakthrough of the day was with the weighted pike stretch!! I have a bad habit of forgetting the "don't forget the ... at the end" part of WODs, but I remembered this time and I'm glad I did. I was doing weighted pike and straddle stretching in the mornings, but I gave it away a few weeks back and do only shoulder/wrist/neck mobility and some yoga for stretching in the mornings now. my weighted pike stretch is *WAY* better than it was when I was working at it regularly; I'm convinced that it is the sun salutations that are helping me. there is something about them that is helping my body and mind to "click" such that I'm now bending at the hips much more.

Friday, 4th March 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutation

2 x twisty hip thing

2 x side bendy thing

mobility

3 x slow controlled assisted MU full ROM to RTO

3 x slow controlled XR strap assisted neg. HSPU - raised the rings a little to deepen the ROM on these

afternoon:

FSP SSCs

WOD:

3 sets:

MU -> L-sit -> shoulder stand -> neg rev MU -> inverted hang -> 2 x slow neg tuck front pull -> 2 x slow neg tuck back pull

2 x neg XR HSPU

5x15s tuck FL

5x15s XR strap HS

5x15s german hang

2 x 10 wall extensions

I don't have room to even attempt HSPU with the rings set up high enough to do the ring series. but I doubt I could do it anyway in the middle of a ring series, so I did a couple slow negatives after each set.

Monday, 7th March 2011

morning:

2 x sun salutation

2 x ea. side bendy things

3 x slow controlled assisted full ROM MU

3 x slow controlled strap assisted neg. XR HSPU

very tired this morning; didn't sleep well at all. forgot mobility entirely.

I'm going to have a backoff week this week. felt tired and lethargic most of last week and still not sleeping properly or feeling quite right this week. was very stiff and sore for no apparent reason yesterday.

I'll continue with my stretching, mobility and skill work in the morning. but no squats and keep it to either some reduced volume FSPs or "playing" in the afternoons; or maybe just play frisbee or soccer with my boys.

afternoon: