Lex's Workout Log

Hey guys,

I'm new to this site, but I love it already!

I've been working on a few things over the years but I've decided to take things serious so I created a blog to track my progress and hopefully get some tips from others!

Age:22

Weight: 135lbs

Height: 5'6

Over the past few years, I've been just going to the gym to build strength, so here are some stats:

Bench Press: 205#

Deadlift: 335#

Squat: 285#

Cleans: 135#

I have gymnastic rings at home and over the years played around with them but like I said, nothing serious.

What I can do:

Muscle ups

Back Lever

Single Leg Front lever (sort of)

Immediate Goals:

Handstand

Planche (almost there, I can sort of do a messy straddle planche)

Full Front Lever

I've challenged myself to a 60 day handstand. So by the end of the 60th day, I want to be able to press up into a handstand and hold a strong straight handstand for a substantial time. (20-30 seconds would be nice). I'm on day 5 and I've already seen progress, however I'm finding my wrist is starting to hurt. Is this something I should be concerned about?

I'm going to be building a set of paralettes soon so I can work on my planche, v-sits, etc, and will update as soon as I can.

The first few days of practicing the handstand I saw lots of progress, and the past couple days I feel like I'm not getting anywhere.

I've been doing static holds along the wall, kicking up into the handstand, and pressing up into the handstand from all fours.

I'm not sure if it's the wrist pain, or the fact that I did lots of deadlifts today which made my wrist weak, but hopefully I'll get back to seeing progress soon.

I find that on the wall holds, I know that I'm supposed to stiffen up my entire body and legs, but when I do that, I lose balance quicker... not sure if that's supposed to happen.

On a good note, today I deadlifted 350lbs for a new personal record. I'm 135 lbs, and I'd like to eventually get up to 3x body weight at 405lbs.

This is my progress on my handstand so far. The hardest part I'm finding is finding that balance point by kicking up. But once I get it, it feels strong for a while. More practice I guess....

My press handstand is ok. I can push up, but I rarely pushup into the balance point, and fall over pretty quick.

I just built my first set of parallettes! I thought this was supposed to be easier with handstands and planches, but right now I'm finding them harder! I think I'm not used to the different hand grip, so hopefully that will pass soon. Not to mention, I haven't quite figured out how to dismount from the parallettes from handstand without crashing! it's just so scary.....

Couple tips, first how to dismount from turn your body to the side and step down with one leg. For the handstands, you hands are to wide apart, they should be about shoulder width. Make sure you have full body tension, also it looks like you need to concentrate on squeezing your abs while you are up there, this will stop your arching. And I would recommend doing stomach to the wall HS's for 60s if possible, concentrate on getting your palms as close to the wall as possible, this will force you to have almost perfect form

Enjoy your training!

Handstand training seems to be hitting a brick wall . I've been working on stomach to wall handstand holds to remove the arch in my back, and I think it's worked. I can feel it when my body is straight, but I'm finding it's harder to hold the handstand with my body straighter. Wrist pain prevents me from training more, so I'm finding I'm not progressing as much as I did in the first week when I started. Paralletes aren't really helping, since I don't know how to dismount properly, and I actually find it harder to hold the handstand, since I'm not used to it. But I'll keep working at it.

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I've discovered that pressing into an arched handstand, and then slowly straightening out the back is MUCH easier than trying to press into a perfectly straight handstand. So I've made huge progress I think. I was able to press and hold handstands almost 10 seconds.

However, last night during my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class I strained my right shoulder and I couldn't even raise my arm over my head. This morning it's feeling a little better, but still I won't be able to do handstands for a couple days I think. Crap...

Here's a video of my progress thus far....

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My most recent quasi straddle press into handstand on parallettes:

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Nice, you've gotten better since the last time I checked your log out! Also don't worry about how long your holds are, that is not really as important right now, form is!

Also I think I know one thing that might be holding you back, you are sticking out your head too far, you head should be placed so that you can just barely see your thumbs through the top of your eyes! hope it helps

Great work mate

Da Newguy

It's rather uncomfortable at first but it will help alot in the long run

Newguy said:

Nice, you've gotten better since the last time I checked your log out! Also don't worry about how long your holds are, that is not really as important right now, form is!

Also I think I know one thing that might be holding you back, you are sticking out your head too far, you head should be placed so that you can just barely see your thumbs through the top of your eyes! hope it helps

Great work mate

Da Newguy

thanks for the tip, i'll work on it!