Lew's Log

Wednesday evening, I didn't have time to really workout for the amount of time I wanted. However, I wanted to do something, so I decided to see if I had gotten lighter/back to normal.

First I did 1 chin up and was glad that it wasn't challenging. Next I pushed myself to support on my rings and this also felt good. I was about to try the circles on the pull up bar, but didn't feel I could do one in each direction without a rest. So I decided to do a few tucked 360 pulls instead.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do next, so I alternated between 5 reps and 1 rep rounds of the following exercise.

chin ups

uneven squats

arch hold alternating leg lifts

hollow hold alternating leg lifts

I returned to the rings with the intent of doing a few more tucked 360 pulls, but then thought about basic ring strength 1.

Starting from a seated position I did a pull up. Next I lowered myself down a little and then moved into an inverted hang position. From there I lowered my legs so that I was in an L and then returned back to inverted hang. Next I started to lower myself into a full back lever. Amazingly, I was able to keep my body tense enough to lower to an almost horizontal position! I returned to an inverted hang and then to my feet.

I decided that I would end the workout right there. I was tempted to try to actually hold a full back lever, but decided to wait until Thursday evening. In the past, all of my levers were always tucked. Slowly but surely my core is getting stronger and I'm pleased that I'm getting closer to attaining some of the most basic positions.

Thanks to everyone out there, who has a (b)log, pics, and youtube page. Your thoughts, pics and videos give me insight and inspiration and have allowed me to carry on.

Tonight's workout was great. Using the idea of active rest periods, I put together a nice routine. It was challenging, but I got through it. Might have used a little momentum on the pulls, but I'm OK with that. 8)

I did 3 rounds of the following, with no break in between exercises.

5 reps front lever pulls

5 reps uneven squats (5 each side)

5 reps push to support and lower back to mat. (rings at chest level)

5 reps arch hold alternating leg lifts (feet never touched ground, lift left then lower, lift right then lower = 1 rep)

I was determined there would be no break between exercises. As my chest began to burn and my breathing quickened I started to waver, but pressed on. At the end of round 3, my chest really burned and I was breathing heavy but I was OK.

It didn't take long to recover. I can now feel something in more than just my chest muscles but nothing is sore. I should be fine to try a routine like this again tomorrow.

I was disappointed that I didn't get to workout before I left the house this morning. It's a quiet Friday in the office, so I decided to do some exercise. I wanted to do something that was challenging, but didn't want to break a sweat.

I did two rounds of:

3 reps burpees w/push up

3 reps cabinet pull ups

I finished the workout by doing 3 X 15 secs of frog stand.

I never liked burpees, because I always feel stiff while doing them. I suppose if I do them more often, this problem should go away.

The cabinet pull ups are more challenging for me than normal pull ups. I rest on my knees in front of a cabinet and then reach up. My palms and thumbs are pressed against the front of the cabinet, my other fingers are on top of the cabinet. I pull down on the cabinet and lift myself to my feet. I kneel down and repeat.

I think I'm physically able to lower myself to back to my knees, but mentally I'm still figuring out how to do this exercise. Not being able to use a normal grip is forcing me to recruit my other muscles in a way that I'm not used to doing.

I'll probably do this workout a couple of more times before it's time to head home. I should still be fresh to do something on my bar and rings this evening.

I had a nice workout Friday evening, unfortunately, I didn't post it. I can't remember all that I did. The workout was not much different from Saturday's workout.

I did a few rounds of the following exercises no rest in between exercises

1 rep dumbbell squat (50 lb each side)

1 rep push to support (rings chest height)

1 push up

1 front lever pull

My pace wasn't very quick, I was just interested in continued movement.

I finished with 16 reps arch hold alternating leg lifts (feet never touched ground, lift left then lower, lift right then lower = 1 rep)

I'm also trying out a new static position. It's a planche lean except my knees are on the ground and my feet are lifted. This allows me to still have most of my weight on my upper body, while I get used to that feeling of falling forward as I try to lift.

I've been doing this position for 30 - 60 secs at a time.

I think I'll make the workout above my regular workout for next week. The only change I'll make is to do lateral push ups instead of regular ones.

After resting on Sunday, I got back to work on Monday.

Due to discomfort in my knees while exercising, I modified the way I do the squats with dumbbells. I now hold the weights over my shoulders instead of letting them hang at my sides. This has allowed me to keep my back straight instead of leaning forward. The strain on my knees is gone, and I feel more of my body is worked while doing the squats this way. I also lowered the weight to 30 lb dumbbells. I can perform this exercise with the 50 lb dumbbells, but I prefer the 30's when I'm trying to do 3 or more rounds.

I did a few rounds of the following with no break in between exercises.

5 reps of dumbbell squats (30 lbs each hand w/ weights above my shoulders)

5 reps push to support (rings chest height)

5 reps front lever pulls

2 lateral push ups

2 or 3 times during the day, I also performed the same routine with 50 lb dumbbells. I lowered the reps and would only do one round.

3 reps of dumbbell squats (50 lbs each hand w/ weights above my shoulders)

3 reps push to support (rings chest height)

3 reps front lever pulls

1 lateral push ups

It's good to be able to read this on the screen. Now that I've modified the way I'm doing the squats, I think I need to add another pulling exercise to this routine. I think I'll add inverted pull ups on the rings.

I like the lateral push ups, but I've also started playing around with another. I don't know the name of it, but I get into a push up position and instead of going up and down, I rotate my upper body in a circular motion in each direction. I don't think I'm ready to make it a regular part of the routine yet, but I do like the challenges of performing the exercise.

I spent a good part of the work day playing around with staggered push ups and the circular push up motion I described in a previous post. After work, I helped a friend carry in supplies for a BBQ. I carried 2 cases of water bottles. Combined the cases weighed 60-70 lbs. The distance didn't seem so far at first...

My evening workout was hours later. I struggled through three rounds of the following workout.

3-5 reps of dumbbell squats (30 lbs each hand w/ weights above my shoulders)

3-5 reps push to support (rings chest height)

2-3 inverted pull ups on rings

3-5 reps front lever pulls

1-2 lateral push ups

As I was working out, I couldn't understand why everything was so difficult. Changing the order of the routine didn't even help. Fortunately I didn't hurt myself and reflecting on my day ended my confusion.

I'll try this routine again tomorrow evening when I should be a lot more energetic.

Yesterday, at the office, I played around with various static positions. The positions were frog stands and different forms of the planche lean. My core is getting stronger, but I still need more strength in my upper body. When I'm in a planche lean, I can feel how I'm not ready to support all of my weight without some part of my lower body on the ground. I also did a few cabinet pull ups and 100 limited ROM push ups.

Grip and forearm strength seem to be the limiting factors for the cabinet pull ups. If I don't come up too high on the cabinet, I am able to lower myself back to the ground now. So I am slowly seeing improvement.

About an hour before it was time to leave the office, I was in the mood for some McDonald's. Don't know what I really wanted, but I wanted to go there. So I told myself, if I could do 100 limited ROM push ups in a row I could go. I was able to do 70 and then stopped. After 20 -30 seconds of rest, I did the remaining 30 limited ROM push ups. Since I didn't do all 100 reps without a break, I decided against going to McDonald's.

When I arrived home from work, I learned that my wife and sons had scriptures to read at Bible study. So we all went to church as a family. It was late after the service so we decided to grab some food on the way home. My wife was driving and instead of going to one of her preferred places, she decided to take us to McDonald's.

Since it was very late by the time we finished eating, I decided to workout in the morning before I went to the office. I'll post those results at another time.

This morning's workout, was two rounds of the following exercises.

3 reps inverted pull ups on rings

3 reps push to support (rings chest height)

3 reps uneven squats (3 each side)

3 reps front lever pulls

1 lateral push up

I had to will myself to complete the workout. Certain portions of the workout were easy, others not so easy. Trying to do inverted pull ups and front lever pulls in the same round was tiring. I've also noticed that I'm getting to a point where either my front lever pulls are low or I pike when I try to do them higher.

Even though I'm not walking around sore or tired, I believe I am over exerting myself. Doing so much static work in the office is starting to limit what I can do at home.

I've already returned to squats without additional weight. I think I'll also drop front lever pulls for ring rows for a while.

I'm amazed at the number of things I learned I could do this past month. I'm going to try to work intelligently so that I can continue to make progress during the next month.

After doing some reading and thinking, I decided to do a workout tonight. I couldn't let the night go without doing something. :roll:

2 x 10 secs supported tuck planche-like hold

2 x 5 secs tuck FL

2 x 10 secs plank

I tried to lean into a tuck planche with my legs pressed against the inside of my arms. I didn't get my feet off the ground, but I did get a nice tense sensation in my abs and upper body. I liked the tuck FL and was pleased that I could get into the position and hold it for even a short while.

I didn't want to push it too far, but didn't want to stop just yet. So I did a circle in each direction on my pull up bar. I was pleased that I completed both circles and was more pleased that the circles were kind of slow. My hands seemed to have a mind of their own and had a super grip I wasn't expecting. It was as if they were saying if your will doesn't break during these circles then neither will we.

Last thing I did was push myself to support and hold for 10 secs.

At the beginning of May, I expressed my displeasure with doing a lot of static holds. I think my opinion has changed. For now, I will work towards 30 sec total hold times instead of 60. This will leave me with enough time and energy to do non static work as well.

I had a pretty busy weekend, and didn't get to workout as much as I would've liked. I stayed active, so I don't feel too bad.

Saturday evening, I decided I wanted to change the way I did my workouts. I wanted to do something that I could do continuously. I could feel that my strength was increasing, but my stamina wasn't necessarily keeping pace.

I thought about what I could do continuously without having to switch from rings, to bar, to floor, to stairs. I decided the rings would be my best bet. I came up with the following routine based on moves that I could do continuously without fatigue being a factor in forcing me to stop. I believe I could do 5 reps of this routine but time hasn't allowed me to test this yet. My goal is to be able to do this for 10 continuous reps without a break.

On both Saturday night and Monday morning before work, I did 3 easy, continuous reps and was ready for more. Monday's routine was shortened, because I was really pressed for time.

Saturday's Ring Routine

Start in dead hang on rings

Get into inverted hang

Lower my legs so I'm in an upside L

Return to inverted hang

Lower myself into a tucked back lever

Return to inverted hang

Lower my legs so I'm in an upside L

Return to dead hang

Monday Ring Routine

Inverted hang

Lower my legs so I'm in an upside L

Return to inverted hang

Lower myself into a tucked back lever

Return to inverted hang

Originally on Saturday, I tried lowering into a full back lever. Once I got past a certain point, I would lose all tension and my feet would slam down onto the mat. It didn't hurt, but after 2 or 3 times I decided a controlled descent into tucked back lever was best.

For now, my pushes will be frog stand and various forms of the planche lean. I do these through out the the day. I'll try to describe what positions I do on a given day, but will probably only record the grand total of the time spent doing static work.

When I arrived at home, I thought I'd get in a quick workout and then spend time with the family. The order was reversed and then interrupted.

During the first workout, I did:

2 reps pull ups

2 reps push to support (rings chest height)

Ring Routine (Did this twice before being interrupted)

Start in dead hang on rings

Get into inverted hang

Lower my legs so I'm in an upside L

Return to inverted hang

Lower myself into a tucked back lever

Return to inverted hang

Lower my legs so I'm in an upside L

Return to dead hang

Much later in the evening, I did the following:

2 reps pull ups

2 reps push to support (rings chest height)

I did some portion of the ring routine, but not the whole thing. I was distracted and it was late, don't even remember what I did.

Disappointed, I got on the rings again and did the following four times:

Inverted hang

Lower my legs so I'm in an upside L

Return to inverted hang

Not exactly the workout I wanted for this evening, but it was something. We'll see what happens tomorrow

This morning, I wanted to do something before work, so I did a repeat of yesterday's morning workout.

2 reps pull ups

2 reps push to support (rings chest height)

Ring Routine

Inverted hang

Lower my legs so I'm in an upside L

Return to inverted hang

Lower myself into a tucked back lever

Return to inverted hang

I did the ring routine twice, but on the second set, I ended the routine by lowering into a german hang and then releasing the rings.

I like my ring routine, but would like it more if I could work above and below the rings without having to return to my feet. I'm going to need to work more on achieving a muscle up.

Last night and this morning, I played around with a few things. I learned more about areas of strength that I need to improve in. Instead of being disappointed, I'm using this as motivation. I feel that once I've addressed these issues, I'll be less of a beginner than I am now.

I learned last night, that I can't really do a complete chin up or pull up on the rings. I can pull until my head is in between the rings but can't go higher. Not sure if it's strength or technique, but I plan to resolve the issue. If I can't do a regular ring pull up, I won't be able to do a muscle up.

I was pleased to learn that I can handle deep dips on the rings. So once I'm able to pull myself into position, I should be able to handle the pushing portion of the muscle up.

After playing around with some foot supported false grip pull ups, I spent some time leaning back and forth on the rings. I had the rings at chest height, put my hands in a false grip and as I leaned forward would raise my hands up and away from my body. As I leaned back, I'd bring my hands down and towards my body. I did this at a moderate pace, not fast or slow.

The leaning on the rings was fun and didn't feel very challenging, but I was surprised later when I could feel the results of the movement in my upper body and abs. Before I left for work this morning, I repeated the leans on the rings. It was a nice way to start the day.

While sitting in the office, I thought about things I could do to strengthen my core. I decided to do reverse plank alternating leg lifts(on hands not elbows.) I was surprised at how difficult this exercise was. Nothing like the alternating leg lifts I'd done from hollow position. On my first attempt, I was only able to do 2 lifts on each side. After I got used to holding myself up while raising one leg, I was able to do 5 each side. Later, I got up to 7 on each side.

I'll be making changes to my workout routine again. For now, I'll continue to do reverse plank alternating leg lifts. I also plan to start doing false grip rows on the rings. I'll continue doing pull ups and dips. If I can manage it, I'll either do a version of my ring routine or some tucked 360 pulls. Not sure what order I'll put the routine in yet.

I turn 38 on Monday the 20th, I hope to either have a muscle up or 2-3 sec tuck planche by then. Will be even better if I am able to achieve both.

Last night, I found a little time to do some exercise. It was once again more of a feeling out process.

I did false grip rows on the rings at a couple of different heights to scale the exercise. First I was very low to the ground and had my feet on a step ladder. Next I did the exercise with the rings much higher. I'm not sure that my grip was correct the whole time I performed the exercise, but I didn't revert to a normal grip.

Next I tried a ring chin up. I was able to get the top of my head above the rings this time, but still can't pull myself up as high as I would like. I didn't spend too much time with chin ups, since that wasn't something I had planned to focus on.

I decided to do some more leans on the rings. I performed the move a little different than I had previously. My hands were in a false grip and I leaned forward, but instead of lifting both arms at the same time I alternated them. For some reason, my right arm reacted strangely to the movement. Not sure if it was bad form or temporary fatigue, but eventually it was alright.

I decided to finish the session with some ab work. I did some more reverse plank alternating leg lifts, but didn't do too many. I was tired from the work earlier in the day. I wasn't doing a great job in keeping my core elevated as I lifted my legs. I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to form, but for this exercise I felt bad form would make the exercise a waste of time.

Since I didn't do as many leg lifts as I would've like, I decided to do something else. I grabbed a pillow and did some headstand reverse leg lifts. Instead of doing them with straight legs, I did them tucked. I had fun with this exercise. I haven't really done any head or handstand work in a while. I think I will lower the volume on the reverse plank leg lifts and use headstand reverse leg lifts as a companion exercise.

Feeling pretty good this morning! My core is feeling pretty good and it's making me feel very energetic.

Yesterday, I did a many sets of headstand tucked reverse leg lifts while in the office. Since I didn't want to put my head on the hard floor, I performed my headstands in one of my chairs. I didn't let my back rest against the back of the chair. I also didn't have the chair in front of a wall. I only did 3 to 5 reps per set. I didn't really count the sets but it was a nice amount spread out over 8 hours.

After a busy evening, I was finally able to do some exercise at home. First I got into inverted hang and did some reverse leg lifts. These didn't have the same feel as when I did them from a headstand position, so I didn't do too many. Next I did some rows on the rings, these were with a regular grip instead of false grip.

I attempted to do some reverse plank alternating leg lifts, but I couldn't convince my feet to get off of the ground. After some serious effort, I got each leg off the ground for one rep. Soon I wasn't mentally up to trying tucked 360 pulls, pull ups, or my ring routine.

I was a little frustrated and started thinking about the constant need to scale this and scale that. "How do you get to the point where you can handstand, planche, fly on the rings, if you're too weak in the beginning to use your own bodyweight?!"

After a few minutes, I decided to just grab some light weight dumbbells and do 50 reps of an easy exercise. It would be beneficial psychologically as well as of some use physically.

I grabbed my 10 lb dumbbells with arms at my sides and my palms facing my body. I locked out my elbows and swung the weights from my hips to chest level. Doing 50 reps of this was very easy and I felt a little better.

Next I grabbed my 30 lb dumbbells. This time I let my arms hang in front of my body and kept my palms facing the body. Once again, I locked out my elbows. I raised my hands in front of me so that the weight went from the top of my thighs to about the height of my navel. I did 6 X 10 with 10 secs of rest between each set.

I noticed that this exercise challenged my core in addition to other areas! Satisfied that I had gotten a decent workout, I called it quits for the evening.

The next morning, I repeated the same lift(I'll try to find it on youtube so I can learn the name) but used my 50 lb dumbbells and did a 2 X 5 with 10 secs of rest between sets. I had enough energy to do more sets, but didn't want to be late for work.

As I said at the beginning of the post, I'm feeling pretty good today. Better than I've felt in a while. I'm going to evaluate things this weekend and see how my routine will change. I will definitely be adding the dumbbells into my routine.

This weekend, I didn't have any organized workouts. When time allowed, I did various leg lifts while in a headstand. I did the dumbbell lift once or twice. At midnight this morning, I also found a new exercise to play with.

While in headstand, the majority of my leg lifts are tucked. However, I've started playing around with straddle and straight leg lifts as well. Once in a while, I can actually start in a straddle and lift my legs so that I end in a headstand, The rest of the time, I have to start in a headstand, and then lower into straddle or straight legs and then return to headstand. My abs felt nice the whole weekend.

I wasn't near my dumbbells for most of the weekend. I did a couple of lifts with the 30's and 50's and maybe one 20 rep set with the 10's, but I didn't spend much time on them.

At midnight, I was doing laundry and had the idea to do some assisted one arm chin ups. At first, I couldn't figure out how to try this. In the past, I had tried to use a towel for my assisting hand. The towel I selected was too thick and I didn't get anywhere with the exercise. This time the good Lord saw fit to grant me a little wisdom to help me succeed.

I remembered some videos I'd seen from forum members and became aware of the fact that my rings hang from my pull up bar! I could simply put one hand on the bar, and the other hand on one of the rings. I don't know if what I did would be called an assisted one arm chin up, or if it would be called a chin up/dip hybrid. I'm leaning towards the latter being correct.

I was able to do one rep of the exercise with each hand without needing a rest. Before long, I was able to do two reps before switching to repeat the exercise on the other side. Before I got too carried away, I put my last load into the dryer and got some rest.

I think for now, my main exercises will be this chin/dip hybrid, leg lifts while in headstand and some version of a squat.

I was pleased with yesterday's effort. I'm getting a better idea of how to scale things which is allowing me to progress towards harder exercises.

While at the office, I found time to do some leg lifts while in headstand. I think they were all straddled. Doing them with my head in the chair instead of on the floor, made it easy to jump from a straddle into a headstand. It was a nice psychological booster, but I know I still can't consistently lift from straddle to headstand without that extra momentum.

I also tried out pike push ups at the office. Instead of having my hands and feet on the floor, I had my feet on a raised surface. In the past I'd tried HeSPU negatives and very short ROM HeSPUs but I didn't really feel I was getting much benefit from the movement. At the time, I simply couldn't handle the strain of my own weight. Based on how I feel while doing pike push ups, I believe I could probably start HeSPU negatives again. However, I want to wait one or two more days before I test that assumption.

At home, I did a brief workout, that consisted of pike push ups, bar chin ups, and my chin up/dip combo exercise. I picked up my 10 lb dumbbells and was going to do some high rep lifts for energy, but stopped at 12. I realized that my body didn't feel tired or worn out. My stamina is finally increasing to a point where it's not quickly limiting the strength work I can do.

This morning I did my chin up/dip combo exercise, before I left the house to watch my oldest son graduate from middle school.

The world won't end if I can't do a tuck planche or muscle up by Monday. However, I'm going to do my best to really increase my pushing and pulling strength by this weekend. I'll consider all of next week my birthday and hope to achieve one of my short term goals before the week ends.

Yesterday's workout was pretty good. I also continued to learn things that will be useful to as I move forward.

I did 3 rounds of the following routine

2-4 reps pike push ups

3-5 reps bar chin ups

60-90 secs of rest.

It was challenging but not exhausting. I was able to vary the intensity of the push ups based on how far back I walked my hands. During one of the rounds I also let my elbows flare out to the sides and saw how it was much easier. I could have done a lot more chin ups during each round, but I wanted to save most of my strength for the push ups.

After I completed round 3, I decided to weigh myself and then see how much of that weight I supported during pike push ups. I was pleased to see that at the top of the pike push up, my arms are supporting 75% of my weight. Getting myself into position on the scale and waiting for the reading to come back was a little workout in and of itself. I didn't walk my hands back as far as I could, because then it would've really been difficult to get on the scale and wait for the result. I figure I'm supporting a little more weight when I walk my hands back as far as I can, but was fine with 75%.

Once I was finished playing with the scale, I felt fresh enough to do my chin up/dip combo. I would do a rep and then alternate hands. I noticed that depending on how I leaned, I could feel more tension in the bicep of my pulling hand.

Maybe by Thursday I'll be ready to lower the height of the rings so that I'm not getting as much assistance from my pushing hand. I know that I'm not ready for OAC negatives yet. I did some recently and know it's not something I can repeat continuously without injury.

I had planned to use my dumbbells to do some overhead presses, but didn't get around to it. I believe this exercise will compliment the other work I am doing.

My plan for today is to try HeSPU negatives and short ROM HeSPUs again. I actually like short ROM HeSPUs more than I like doing negatives, so I'll probably focus most of my time on them. If I feel like I can handle this exercise, I'll scale back or drop pike push ups. I'll be sure to do overhead presses so that I'm still doing an exercise that works that full range of motion.

I'm feeling pretty good this morning. I believe I did a nice amount of work yesterday and learned more about where I need to improve.

At the office

While sitting in the office, I decided it was time to do some HeSPU negatives. I was feeling good and had lots of confidence that this would be fun. Once I got down onto the floor to kick up into a handstand, everything changed. Suddenly both of my elbows felt weird and there was something wrong with my arms. I knew it was psychological not physical. I kept telling myself to kick up but the rest of me kept saying, "NO!"

I thought about the fact that I had no pillow to catch me. I thought about the fact that the pike push ups didn't require my back to be against the wall. I decided instead of doing HeSPU negatives, I would put my feet on an elevated surface and push out of a headstand.

I got into my headstand, put my feet onto my elevated surface and pushed... There was tension in my arms and legs, but I wasn't moving out of the headstand. Soon I got a nice cramp in the back of one of my legs and had to come down. After taking a few minutes to reset, I made a second attempt. This time, I lifted myself high enough to get my head off the ground! Then I got a cramp in the back of the other leg. I came down again to reset.

The next time I did it, I couldn't get off the ground at all, but I didn't cramp. I decided I must be tired and gave myself a half hour or so to rest. On my next attempt, I was once again able to get off the ground and had no cramps. Unfortunately no matter how hard I pushed my arms barely moved beyond a 90 degree bend. I was high enough that I could do a little bounce but that was it. I decided to end things there and wait until I was home to do more.

At home

At home, I decided to see how I handled the overhead press with my dumbbells. I started with 30 lbs in each hand. I did 3 x 5 w 10 secs of rest between each round. It was pretty easy so I decided to use the 50's. I did 5 reps rested for 10 secs and when I went to do the next set the dumbbells seemed a lot heavier, so I dropped down to 3 reps. After another 10 sec rest I did another 3 reps. I stopped there and decided 10 secs of rest wasn't enough for me to handle to the 50's.

I did an extended set with the 30's, where I would do 3 reps with my hands facing my head and 3 reps with my hands facing away from me. I stopped the set after I had done 12 reps.

I thought about the fact that I couldn't push myself high off of the ground when I was in the office earlier. I decided instead of working the full ROM for the overhead press, I would do a shorter ROM for a higher amount of reps. I would keep my elbows bent to near 90 degrees and just keep pushing in that range.

With the 30's, I did 50 reps and felt pretty good. Without much rest, I grabbed the 50's and was able to manage 20 reps. Since I had not done any pulling, I went over and did 3 chin ups. I was surprised by the fact that without much effort, I touched my chest to the bar on each rep. I decided that the rest of my chin ups would be in that upper ROM instead of the full range.

I did a couple of rounds of

20-30 rep short ROM overhead press w 50 lb dumbbells

10 reps upper ROM chin up

very short rest between rounds

Next I did my chin up/dip combo for a couple of reps and followed that with a pull up/dip combo for one rep.

It was my plan to do some HeSPU negatives but I didn't find the time.

This morning

This morning before work, I did

30 rep short ROM overhead press w 50 lb dumbbells

10 reps upper ROM chin up

I'm full of energy and not sore at all. Will do more research in preparation for this evenings workout.

After all of that typing this morning, I was inspired again to work on handstands while in the office. Through the power of prayer, meditation, and the use of my cabinets, I was able to kick into a handstand.

I kicked hard enough to get one foot on top of the cabinet and then pulled the other foot there. I didn't let my feet rest there for too long. I didn't want to try HeSPU negatives without a pillow. I didn't want to just sit there in a handstand either. I didn't feel strong enough to do short ROM HeSPU's, so I started bouncing. The bounce was mostly just me bending my elbows a little. I also moved my shoulders some but it was mostly my elbows. After about 10 bounces I returned to my feet.

The next time I wanted to kick up against the cabinet, I felt like I did yesterday. I decided that I might have had some legitimate fatigue going on yesterday, but still not enough to keep me from working. After a false start, I kicked up against the cabinet again. Raised my feet off the top of the cabinet and did some more bounces.

I did this 4 or 5 times so far. I think that may be enough until I go home. With the pike push up, I could at least lower my head to the floor and push back up. In the handstand I know that if I put any significant bend in my elbows I'm not going to be able to push myself back up. The good thing is I'm not worn out. In the past, even a few minutes of handstand work wrecked me for a day or two.

Time to decide on what I'll do when I work out later this evening.

Yesterday evening, I was able to work out, but didn't do everything that I had planned.

Using my 30 lb dumbbells, I did 3 rounds of overhead presses. The first two rounds were 15 reps, the third round was 11 reps. I only rested for 10 secs between rounds. Next I did 3 rounds of chin ups. The first two rounds were 4 or 5 reps, the third round was 3 reps. Again I only rested 10 secs between rounds.

After I completed those exercises, I decided to rest. I thought about doing squats while I rested but instead decided to actually rest while reclining. I was soon involved with other things, and hours passed.

Later in the evening, I thought about trying to find ways to increase my strength so that I could easily support my weight. I had a thought that I haven't fully worked out yet. I thought about the fact that I recently had one of my sons doing incline push ups to help improve his technique with regular push ups. Could I apply this same technique to pseudo planche push ups?

I didn't put too much time into it last night, but I was surprised that I felt more tension near my elbows than I did anywhere else. For the next two days, I'll play around with different ways to try to get used to holding myself up. I'll post my thoughts/results on Monday.

My thoughts on this weekend's training will be 2 or 3 posts.

Friday

Lately my thoughts on handstands have been that the necessary strength is the most important thing needed in order to achieve them. I keep thinking about the process like a baby learning to walk. The baby certainly needs to learn how to balance on those legs, but without strength those legs won't be able to support the baby. With this in mind, I thought about more ways to support my weight while I build the strength I need to support myself. (That last sentence seems wrong for some reason. I believe it makes sense, just seems like it's a bad sentence. :? )

Office

Browsing the handstand forum, I decided that finding a way to do handstand wall runs would be a key element to increasing my strength. Fortunately my cabinets volunteered to give me a hand. I placed my feet on the top of the cabinet and had my body at an angle instead of having my stomach pressed against the cabinet. For the first test of cabinet runs, I did 5 taps on each side.

The cabinet and angle of my handstand provided enough support to allow me to perform the wall runs. The difficulty was scaled nicely, I was still supporting much of my weight on my hands. For the next sets I did 10 taps on each side with a 15 - 30 min break in between sets. Next I decided that I wanted to do 15 reps, but I couldn't achieve this initially. For a few rounds I could only manage 12 taps per side. After a few hours, I eventually managed to do 15 taps per side.

As the sets and reps increased, I had to be conscious of my form. Since I was doing these at an angle, it was easy to relax my core and my body would no longer be in a straight line. When I became aware of what I was doing, I was always able to straighten out. If it had become impossible to straighten myself, I would have ended the set at that point.

As the day went on, I thought about the volume of work I had done. I wasn't able to do 10 mins of consecutive wall runs, but if you added up all of the time I'd spent on the wall runs it was well over 10 minutes. Since it was almost time to go home anyway, I decided to stop.

Home

I grabbed a ladder out of my garage with the intention of recreating wall runs on it. The height of the rungs didn't allow me to recreate the support that I had on the cabinets. However, the ladder did allow for supported HeSPUs!

I did a couple of rounds of supported HeSPUs and chin ups. I didn't do too much, because I could still feel the effects of the supported wall runs I had done at the office.

I had a pretty good weekend, my wife was nice enough to give me plenty of gifts for Father's Day. The gift that stands out the most right now, is the Shake Weight. I'd always been curious about it and at $30 it wasn't really expensive, but I could never convince myself to by one. I kept saying I'd do more research first. Well now that I have one, I can honestly say I'll put it to use(probably just not when anyone can see. :oops: )

Saturday

After a day that involved a lot of resting, I finally did some work during the evening. It was 2 or 3 rounds of 5 reps ladder supported HeSPUs and 5 reps chin ups. I felt fresh again and was able to have fun during the exercises. I decided against doing any other exercises, just in case I wasn't as fresh as I thought I was.

Sunday

Normally I don't do any workouts on Sunday and this week was no exception.

This was the day that my wife gave me my Father's Day presents, so I tried out the shake weight. I haven't watched the dvd yet but tried the exercises that are pictured on the box. I felt the two handed exercises were more beneficial than the one handed exercise. I only did 60 secs of work on the 3 exercises, I actually felt a nice amount of tension in certain areas. I thanked my wife for the gift and we believe we've found a workout that we can do together.

While making room to put away all of my new gifts, I finally found my old 20 lb weight vest. I was able to find all of the 1 lb weights and filled each of the pockets. I plan to do weighted chin ups and pull ups from now on. When it seems appropriate, I'll wear the vest while doing ladder supported HeSPUs.

Happy Birthday, Tiger!

I enjoy reading your workout log (it's really funny) and watching the training movies on your website.

Wish you accomplished all gymnastic goals set for this year.

Have fun.

deodatus said:

Happy Birthday, Tiger!

I enjoy reading your workout log (it's really funny) and watching the training movies on your website.

Wish you accomplished all gymnastic goals set for this year.

Have fun.

Thanks for the birthday wishes Deodatus!

I'm glad you enjoy reading my log. I feel humor and humility help me to have a happy life.

I don't have any movies yet. I've used other people's movies to show moves/techniques that have inspired me. I plan to start uploading movies of my own soon. I just needed to find a good location for filming. The room that my chin up bar and rings hang in front of is not photo ready. :oops:

I will be getting a new garage door soon. Once I've cleaned all of the junk out of the garage I'll move my equipment there. I'll then be able to do videos to go along with my logs.