Spinelli's log

Hey everyone,

I've decided to keep a training log for myself, mostly to keep myself motivated and to keep track of my progress. I'm going to pay special attention to my shoulder which is a weak spot of mine and will note anything that appears to work it well.

I will update my weight and such every 4-weeks.

Current stats: Height 5' 11''

Weight 145lbs

age 22

Don't really have much else to put here yet. My schedule at the minute is tuesday, wednesday, friday, saturday. I usually do 3 of the WODs (or at least try my best) a week and one session of bouldering, although sometimes I wont have enough time to be doing this in which case i will do the other WOD. This first ehrty is for tuesday 22 march

Warmup

Ido's scapula mobilization routine

60 sec plank

60 sec reverse plank

60 sec hollow hold

60 sec arch hold

60 sec hang from bar

60 sec hold at top of dip position

wrist and ankle warup routine

FBP - 2x30 sec l-sit pb low

5x1 cast wall walks - found these really hard

3x5 pikebox press HS

Worked on holding a handstand, focusing on shrugging the shoulders up.

1x10 wrist pushups - hips were very piked here

Some basic stretches

My wrists found this workout really hard, clearly need to condition them some more, suppose I have to patient with them though as it would be very easy to cause some nasty damage. I found the hollow hold felt like it was putting a lot of stress on my lower back, as a note I have a very long back and my lower back is quite weak although my abdominals are quite strong.

I found if I focused on extending my arms out in front of me during the arch hold it really stressed some weak areas in my shoulder, the same thing happened when I focused on shrugging during the handstand, clearly something I need to work on.

Warmup

Ido's scapula mobilization routine

60 sec plank

60 sec reverse plank

60 sec hollow hold

60 sec arch hold

60 sec hang from bar

60 sec hold at top of dip position

The WOD posted yesterday wasn't really suitable for me as I'm not doing the leg portions at the minute, so I just did some FBPs.

2x30sec L-sit pb low

2x30sec frog stand hold

1x20sec german hang - would have done a bit more but my bar isn't very secure and I'm a little scared of turning upside down in case it comes loose.

also tested my max hold in the front lever progression, got about 25seconds in advanced tuck! really surprised by this as I haven't trained this at all. Tried to test my max planche hold but me hips just cramped up straight away .

Did some handstands and held a freestanding one for about 5-10 seconds, very pleased with this.

Then did some wall runs.

streched, pretty short and unstructured workout but felt like I worked pretty hard,

Warmup

Ido's scapula mobilization routine

60 sec plank

60 sec reverse plank

60 sec hollow hold

60 sec arch hold

wrist and ankle warmup

4x15sec l-sit pb low, (oops didn't remember that I did 2x30 of these the other day)

Tried to do this WOD http://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/vi ... =12&t=5874 today, my God never realized how weak I am at pushing exercises, managed to do two very scaled rounds at which point I could feel my wrists going and decided to stop before I injured myself.

what I managed to do in the end was:

2x10 HS wall runs (wrists really didn't like these as my arms aren't yet strong enough that I'm in full control of my handstand on only one hand)

2x10 clapping pushups

2x10 wallabys (found these really easy)

2x10 swinging dips ( found these ver taxing on the arms and the coordination needed took a bit of getting used to.

1x10 wrist pushups, on knees with very pied hips.

hmm, looking back on this maybe should have done more but I really don't want to overtrain and was feeling pretty tired, let me know if you think I should be doing more.

Today my shoulders felt pretty tired and I don't have rings so I couldn't do the WOD for friday which was a ring series so I decided to do a 20min yoga routine, as a big plus for today I hardly had to walk at all so my ankles have had some good rest.

Considering stopping doing the WODs for a while and just concentrating on FSPs and dedicating a day to each direction of FBEs. WIll let you know what In decide to do.

I managed to rest quite a bit over the weekend . Was feeling really good yesterday but today when I woke I felt really tired and sore, my ankles seem to be mostly better but still need a good amount of rest, unfortunatly they wont get much for another 4 weeks. I worked it out and I must walk about 6-7 miles a day on average, two of which are up a very steep hill.

My shoulder however is feeling so much better, it hurts less often and when it does I only need to stand or sit propperly and the pain goes. Before when it used to hurt I would have to lie down and it usually wouldn't stop hurting until the next day.

Had a load of uni work to do this afternoon and felt really tired after I'd finished, so only did a few basic holds.

planks 1x60sec, with legs raised

planche lean 2x60sec, 1 set with fingers pointing forwards, 1 with fingers pointing backwards.

1x60 sec reverse planche

1x60 sec pb support

2x30 sec l-sit pb low

Then I messed around with handstands, pullups and front levers (tucked) for a while.

Going to do a more intense workout tomorrow.

Felt like I got a very good workout in today, ran out of time though and didn't get a chance to do any proper streches though.

I have Decided that Friday is going to be a bouldering day and Saturday is going to include a lot of streches.

planks 1x60sec, with legs raised

planche lean 2x60sec, 1 set with fingers pointing forwards, 1 with fingers pointing backwards.

1x60 sec reverse planche

1x60 sec pb support

1x60 sec hollow hold

1x60 sec arch hold

1x30 sec hang from bar, felt really uncomfortable in shoulders today.

wrist and ankle warmup

2x30 sec l-sit pb low

Did 3 rounds of

1x15 sec german hang, spotted

1x5 inverted rows

1x15 sec frog stand

1x5 pseudo planche pushups

1x15 sec front lever tucked

1x5 v-ups

My triceps were screaming at me by then end of the last front lever hold, but felt really good afterwards, the embedded training days are fast becoming my favourite. Was meant to do 10 wall walk extensions but I forgot, will do them tomorrow after bouldering.

Didn't do much felt pretty worn out today, had a little mess around last night to see what I could now do and was amazed by the progress I've made, L-sit pull ups felt really easy and I had pretty good control on one arm chin up negatives.

Over the past week I've become so hungry , started eating massive meals in the evenings, literally enough for about 3 people! Haven't noticed any weight gain (I'm from a naturally bean pole like family and find it really hard to put on weight) but I will have to keep an eye on that.

Warmup

Ido's scapula mobilization routine

60 sec plank

60 sec reverse plank

60 sec hollow hold

60 sec arch hold

wrist and ankle warmup

4x15sec l-sit pb low

2x30sec handstands

Hopefully do more tomorrow

Feeling pretty guilty today as I missed my Saturday training and then went on a 9 hour pub crawl on Sunday :twisted: . Felt really really weak today, really struggled though the warmup, but afterwards felt a bit better. I can tell everything is getting much stronger though as a couple of weeks ago I would have struggled to do this felling really fresh.

My elbows today felt especially sore, I was going to do some german hangs but I think that would have been too mch for them. On the plus side I thin my ankles are better, going to leave it a couple more weeks until I reintroduce lower body work though,

Warmup

Ido's scapula mobilization routine

60 sec plank

60 sec reverse plank

60 sec hollow hold

60 sec arch hold

FSP

2x30sec l-sit pb low

2x30sec fraogstand

3x5 wide grip pull up (really seemed to target my weak point just under my left armpit)

3x5 Handstand push ups, with legs on box (was going to do wall walk extensions here but they were much too tough)

3x15sec FL tuck

3x15sec handstand

8 wall extensions (used to find these much easier a few weeks ago, really need to do some proper stretching)

Feel really tired now, wrists especially feel like they had a good workout though

Felt a bit fresher today but tired very quickly and became a little sore after the warmup, really noticed some progress with my l-sit today. I've been trying to keep my hips as high as possible and my body straight, hopefully wont be too long before I can do them on the floor for a decent length of time.

Warmup

Ido's scapula mobilization routine

60 sec plank

60 sec reverse plank

60 sec hollow hold

60 sec arch hold

FSP

2x30sec l-sit pb low

4x15sec German hang

3x5 pb dips my ROM has increased so much with these

3x5 inverted chin-ups never done these before, found them really taxing.

some extensive upper body stretching, really needed that.

Not been a good week, feeling really run down and a little ill. Hot weather may have something to do with it (I know 20 degrees isn't hot for most people but it is for me especially this time or year )

Skipped two training sessions last week, I'm going to take the view that it will make no difference in the long run and not try and make up for it (a mistake I think many beginners make)

My shoulder has been in real pain for the last couple of days, my lats feel very sore where I am weak, not sure if there just tired but I don't think its a injury but I'm going to take it easy for the next fortnight or so and concentrate mostly on conditioning my joints.

My workout today was basically just my usual warmup, still finding the arch and hollow holds quite tricky also the deadhang puts a lot of stress on my elbows which I don't like. Also did some planche leans, some wrist exercises and a couple of FSP (german hangs and l-sits). Found it really hard not to do more but I really don't want to get injured...

If you have any advice please comment or message me.

No workout today, I have what I think is the start of a throat infection . Started a couple of days ago as a slight sore throat then yesterday turned into a really sharp pain in one side of my throat, had a look at the back of my throat and its all red and swollen. I think I may be a bit run down as I have been feeling really tired the past few days especially in the mornings. Ahh well nothing to do but get plenty of rest and gargle lemon juice and honey.

Hoping that I will be able to train again at the end of this week.

Throat infection seams to have cleared up ok, must have just caught it in time. Felt a bit tired today I'm guessing that's because its the end of semester at uni and everyone is pretty knackered, only a few more weeks till my final exams :shock: and usual after a set of exams I get a really bad cold and can't do anything for a few days (I think it's all that living on borrowed energy catching up to me).

Anyhow decided not to push too hard today and to do plenty of prehab work.

warmup (These felt nice and easy today )

60 sec plank

60 sec reverse plank

60 sec hollow hold

60 sec arch hold

wrist routine

Prehab

20 x hindu push ups (10 forwards, 10 backwards)

10 x knuckle push ups

20 x typewriter pushups

20 x hindu horizontal pulls (dont know if they have another name but basically the same movement as a hindu pushup but pulling on a bar)

20 x typewriter horizontal pulls

60 sec planche lean, fingers pointing backwards.

10 x handstand shrugs

FSP

2x 30 sec l-sit pb low

2x 30 *** german hang, with support

5 x bridge wall walks

Could have done more after this point but I decided best not. As a aside, my lower back is feeling much less stressed during the arch and hollow holds now , also the other day I decided to do a little bit of stretching for my hamstrings (I've always had very tight hamstrings but I dislike stretching them as it always feels like I'm putting too much stress on my lower back) and it felt much better and I am more able to keep a flat back in the pike position. Very happy with today's workout

Nearly didn't get my workout in today, but I just managed to squeeze it in.

warmuo

60 sec reverse planche

60 sec pb support

60 sec hollow hold

60 sec arch hold

30 sec hang from bar

wrist and ankle warmup

FSP

2x30 sec L-sit pb low (was really shaky towards the end of these)

3 rounds of

15sec german hang

5x reverse yewkis (really felt these in my elbows)

15 sec l-sit pb low + 5 embeded tuck planche dips (the dips were really hard nearly failed on the last set)

2x15 sec front lever tuck (was going to do a full minutes work but my elbows were giving out, was also meant to do tick tocks but couldn't work out how to do them on my bar, any tips?)

5x bridge wall walks, my back was also giving out after these

Been doing some hindu push ups on my off days and I have to say my shoulders are starting to feel really good

Quite happy with today, probally going to be sore in the elbows tomorrow

Elbows felt really sore when I awoke today, so I've decided to give training a miss, tried a few seconds of planche leans and frog stands but my elbows didn't seem to like it (no actual pain just felt very uncomfortable). Today was the first day that I started my meditation practice, only did about 5 minutes but I think that's plenty to begin with.

I sat cross legged on the floor, with my back as straight as possible, tried to relax everything as much as possible but dam my hips are tight and my poor posture didn't help but it's better than it was. I tried to empty my mind and focused on breathing in a steady manner, counting up on each breath until I reached 10 then starting again.

Nothing special seemed to happen but it's only the first time I tried it, I did feel quite good just after I'd finished. I think that I'm not going to see any results from this unless I do it consistently so that's my goal for now,

Any advice or tips would be most welcome

Felt really tired today, I'm still a little sore after my last workout but I think lack of sleep/poor diet/heat may have something to do with it. My abs and grip especially felt really weak.

Warmup

60 sec reverse planche

60 sec pb support

50 sec hollow hold

45 sec hang from bar

FSP

3x20 secL-sit pb low

I also did a little bit of german hangs, my elbows are a little sore after the last time I did them.

Messed around with handstands for a bit also

Prehab

2x5 hindu pushups

2x5 hinud pull ups

1x10 wrist push ups (hips very piked)

30 sec planche leans

1x10 scapula push ups

10x wall extensions

Afterwards sat down to do some meditation. Found it easier today to relax my body but still finding it quite hard to relax my face. After a little while I tried imagining that there was string attached to my hand pulling it upwards and my hand would move without me feeling like I was moving it. pretty cool I thought. My back felt like it had a good workout afterwards. I did 10 mins today.

Didn't really feel like a proper workout today, don't know why, end of semester blues I guess.

DId some research on wrist conditioning and found Dorsal pushups, the feel like they work the elbow more than the wrist to me, anyone know if I'm doing anything wrong?

In the end I did the some wrist conditioning and then some handstands, really have improved at the latter.

Meditation was hard today as my downstairs neighbor, considerate soul that he is, decided to play lots of lovely country and western as loud as he possibly can, he does this with some regularity and the extreme amounts of bass he uses causes the whole flat to vibrate. Guess I'm going to be doing lots of depth jumps and senders tomorrow :twisted:

Luckily after I'd done about 5 minutes of meditation he stopped and things proceeded more smoothly for then on, I thin I'm getting better but it's till early days. I did around 5 minutes today.

I have what I think may be very slight tendonitis , dam those German hangs the other day. I don't think that it's too bad, just a dull ache but I'm going to lay off all exercise until Tuesday at least. I find it really difficult to not workout though, I enjoy it so much, going to have to take the pull up bar down so I don't tempt myself. Next week I'm going back to my parents for a week or so and will be able to use some makeshift rings.

Very frustrating not doing anything but really don't want to make it any worse.

Didn't get any meditation done either today and I feel knackered, dam hot weather.

Had a little weigh of myself this morning and I appear to have gained a couple of lbs yay! Only one or two but that's good for me (I am from a family of extomorphs) and I haven't been training very consistently and my diet has been pretty terrible, as well as going on several all pub crawls. I definitely am a lot stronger than I was at the start and also much more defined.

As another plus my elbows seam to have recovered so I'm going to ease back into full on training over the next week and see how it goes.

I did a little bit of training today not much just a little bit of prehab for my wrists and some basic holds, I found this video and I'm going to start doing all of these moves

I noticed today for the first time that my wrists are getting stronger and that I now don't need to pike my hips so much whilst doing the wrist push ups, although I'm still very piked and on my knees.

I had a go at making a slackline, just a piece of rope pulled tight between some trees, work ok, but the rope has a bit too much give in it and I need a better method of getting it tight. Tomorrow I think I'm going to set up a lever so I can pull it tighter. Any ideas would be most welcome. The little go I did have on it felt really good, balance and coordination are two things I've never possesed masses off (as well as proprioception), I've heard this has been linked with being born prematurely (which I was) and is something I should really address. Looking forward to trying out some more tomorrow!

Been away from this board for a while, never fear though I have been doing some training. Mostly handstand work (getting better ) , also did some xr supports and started work on the straddle L. Started this mostly for the flexibility elements not the support element and I'm really feeling it today. My elbows still feel a but sore and I'm going to take it easy on the pulling elements for the next 4 weeks or so (training is going to be a bit erratic over that period as I have my final exams then also :shock: )

Weighed myself again this morning and I've shot up to about 150lbs was really surprised by this, wont be long until I reach my target (Don't really have a proper target for weight I never work for hypertrophy and will just let the muscle come as it does, I suspect that I will top out around 168-174lbs).

Anyway going to start on lower body work now also and will start tomorrow.

What a frustrating week I've had, first a nasty persistent cold that made my joints ache and made me feel exhausted all week with frantic revision and my elbows still not fully healed I've had barley any time for workouts at all. Still I suppose it's kind of better to have it all now than spread it over a whole month which would be more frustrating.

I have managed to get quite a bit of wrist prehab in and there starting to feel much stronger (weirdly my guitar playing has become much more fluid, a very unexpected result). I'm going to ease my elbows slowly back into full training as I really don't want tendonitis ever again. If you've never experienced it AVOID AT ALL COSTS it's the most frustrating thing ever.

Had a bit of a play with the dead hang and have decided that I'm going to do them lightly spotted over the next couple of weeks until I can open my shoulders a bit better and take the strain off my elbows.

On the downside my shoulder really started playing up again over the past couple of days, finally got my bands back and had a nice prehab session last night which has helped enormously. Really need to focus on my posture during revision sessions.

Incidentally has anyone got any tips for understanding Galois theory or Martingales?

Didn't get much done today, hopefully will do a WOD tomorrow though. Found the book Men's Gymnastics coaching manual by Lloyd Readhead in the uni library (saw it on the recommended reading list thread) had a quick read of it and it is a fantastic supplement to BTGB, fills in a lot of gaps. The emphasis of the book is quite different to BTGB (strength not being a focus) but I think it's quite a good introduction to conditioning and has given me some great ideas. Especially like the ballet bits.

One of the exercises in the book is a arch hold but done inverted, a bit like the picture in this post (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4585&p=36397) but I think most of the weight is on the back of the wrists not the neck. Had a go at this but I couldn't lift my upper back off the floor at all. The picture in the book is a little stick diagram and there is no real description of the exercise only that it is fundamental, does anyone know a progression I can do for this or even if its a useful exercise? Thanks

Not been sleeping properly and my diet has been terrible so I'm pretty run down. Gahh I hate exams, still all be over soon! Going to try and have an early night tonight and try and recover by Monday. Hopefully will get around to ordering rings soon so that I can make some real progress before summer get here proper. Hopefully will be able to get a little workout in on Tuesday.

Not done any training this week at all starting to get a little fat as I'm still eating like I'm in full training mode and I've been living off of takeaway for the last week :? .

Just bitten the bullet and ordered my extreme rings . Knowing my luck though the dollar will collapse next week and I could have got them for half the price... Really would like to buy some thick rope and I think I've found some good ones, about £11 including tax for 2m of a 50mm thick rope, anyone know of anywhere I could get some cheaper than this?

Really can't wait for the rings to arrive, hopefully they won't take as long as the last thing I ordered from America, that took about 4 months!

Proper training should resume at the latest of a week on Monday but I may get a session in sometime this week. Have been getting some better sleep over the past week or so and am feeling much better .

Finally exams over yay!

Did a little bit of training today, not too much my elbow joints are still quite weak and I think I could easily set myself back ages if I push too hard, so no heavy pulling movements for a ssc or two. Did some light straight arm work and some rows, felt pretty good and then had some fun with handstands, I really need to increase my hamstring flexibility so I'm going to work handstand presses a lot focusing on controlled negatives one day and then doing my best on the upwards part on the other days.

Feeling pretty exhausted (looking back over my entries for the past month or so that's all I seem to do, moan about how tired I am...) but that should now improve, also going to focus on getting my diet really good. I've lost most of the progress I made but I'm pretty confident that it will be back within a week or two.

Yay finally got a proper workout in! Was a bit hesitant about jumping straight back in with the WODs but as it was a embedded static day and I love those I thought "what the hell!", I did have to scale the straight arm work back significantly but it felt really good, no pain during the workout, my wrists are a but sore but they should be fine.

Warmup: Did all the straight arm work either on knees or supported.

60 sec plank

60 sec reverse plank

60 sec hollow hold

60 sec arch hold

60 sec dead hang

60 sec pb support

WOD: three rounds of

15 sec frogstand

5 muscle ups (on bar with support on the below bar portions)

15 sec dorsal stretch (not trying german hangs or back levers for a very long time)

5 headstand RLL (I think that's what I did, like a handstand press but in headstand, did them against the wall, very hard, had to move forward for the last set)

15 sec front lever (basically help the bottom position of a inverted row and tried to push my arms down to my navel)

5 l-sit lifts (did these these tucked still found them really hard, frankly my efforts were pathetic)

10 x bridge wall walks, meant to do 20 but was so tired it would heave been just asking for a injury

really pleased with today, looking forward to tomorrow.

Edit: Had to carry some really heavy shopping home later in the day and now my left elbow is in pain Hopefully it will be better tomorrow but I suppose I can only wait and see. So annoyed if this sets me further back