Lew's Log

deodatus said:

LaughingTiger said:

I really wanted to do some more handstand work, and ended up doing a 3 x 20 sec of something that sort of looked like downward facing dog.

I don't know if it's just an expression or you really faced you dog, but I was close to fall into head and break my neck (last week, I think) when I was doing wall HS holds and the cat came close to my face and looked at me with a funny face. Luckily, I came back on feet fast, laughing... So, I'm no longer doing anything until I make sure the cat is not in the room, it's too amusing. Even if it's not looking at me, but it's crunching those food grains, that noise is funny.

I'm glad that you were safe when you were surprised by your cat.

I have had to face down a dog or two. When I was younger that usually resulted in me running for my life.

The downward facing dog I referred to in that post is a yoga pose. I think the proper name is Adho Mukha Svanasana.

I agree that sometimes it's best not to do things with dogs and cats in the room. There have been many times I was not aware a pet was in the room until the worse possible moment. My sister asks me to help her a lot with electrical, plumbing and computer problems. I learned quickly to identify where her cats were before I got too involved in making repairs.

Had a nice time in Orlando, Florida this weekend. It was a nice family vacation. Only exercise I did while away was twisting knee lifts. I suppose walking long distances in 80-90 degree weather while pushing a stroller, was exercise too.

Last night's exercise was fun. Some parts of the workout were very easy, other parts were a little more challenging. For now my concern is completing the entire workout. I did three rounds of each exercise. For the first round, I did 3 reps or held positions for 10 secs. The second round was 2 reps or 5 secs. The third round was 1 rep or 2 secs. I'd complete all 3 rounds for one group, before I went to the next group.

These are the exercises I performed yesterday:

Vertical

Chin ups[regular or chest to bar](reps)

Ring Support(time)

Inverted

Knees on Box HeSPU(reps)

Inverted Hang(time)

Horizontal

Pseudo Planche Push ups(reps)

Body Weight Rows(reps)

I'll give it a few days before I decide to increase reps/times on any of the exercises. I don't want to have a round where I do 5 reps or 30-60 sec hold times and then I'm unable to complete the workout. I also don't want to do too much on one day and then I can't workout the rest of the week.

After my planned workout, I did 20 reps of twisting knee lifts. While in Orlando, I'd do 2 sets for a total of 100 reps but yesterday 20 seemed like it was enough.

Yesterday's workout was nice. I was concerned in the beginning, but I kept going and things went well.

I did three rounds of each exercise. For the first round, I did 3 reps or held positions for 10 secs. The second round was 2 reps or 5 secs. The third round was 1 rep or 2 secs. I'd complete all 3 rounds for one group, before I went to the next group.

Vertical

Chin ups(reps)

Ring Support(time)

Horizontal

Pseudo Planche Push ups(reps)

Body Weight Rows(reps)

Inverted

Knees on Box HeSPU(reps)

Inverted Hang(time)

In the beginning, it didn't seem like I was going to be able to do the chin ups. I felt a weaker version of whatever kept me from doing chin ups last week. I decided not to give up, and my body figured out what it needed to do. For the second and third sets, I didn't have any issues.

After I'd completed all the exercises above, I did 2 rounds of 50 short jumps. I had planned to do these on my mini trampoline, but it was buried under a lot of junk. I was surprised at how my legs felt after the second set. They didn't feel fatigued or sore, just felt like they had done some work.

I ended the workout with tucked headstand presses. I don't remember how many of these I did.

I'm ready to increase reps and hold times on most of the exercises now. I think I could increase some exercise more than others, but for now my plan is to increase everything the same. I'll do 3 reps for each set and hold times of 10 secs for each set. Going on the assumption that I can do this until Saturday, I won't increase reps or times further until next week.

Tonight's workout was pretty good. I decided to strap on my 20 lb. weighted vest and see what I could do.

I did three rounds of each exercise. I did 2 reps or held positions for 10 secs. I'd complete all 3 rounds for one group, before I went to the next group. I did the pseudo planche push ups with my feet elevated on a chair.

Vertical Group

Chin ups(reps)

Ring Support(time)

Inverted Group

Knees on Box HeSPU(reps)

Inverted Hang(time)

Horizontal Group

Pseudo Planche Push ups(reps)

Body Weight Rows(reps)

After I completed the exercises above, I did two rounds of weighted hops for a total of 80 reps. An hour or so later, I did some tucked headstand presses without the vest.

I was pleased that I was able to complete my exercises with the vest on. I'll see what I can do tomorrow.

Edit: I've added this evening's workout to this post

I woke up feeling pretty good today. I was very hungry and slightly dehydrated, but I fixed those problems with breakfast.

Because of the exercise that I had been doing at home, I hadn't done any exercise at work this week. Still not really sure what I can and can't handle at this point. However, today has been such a slow day I decided that I would help pass the time with a little bit of exercise. I was able to do most of the workout that I do at home, here at work.

Office

Group 1

5 x leg assisted cabinet pull ups

5 x knees on Box HeSPU

Group 2

5 x push ups

5 x foot supported, bent knee, body weight rows under a table.

I did three rounds of each group. I completed the three rounds for group 1, before I went to group 2. I finished the workout, by hopping over a line in the floor tile for 25 reps. One hop over the line and one hop back, equaled one rep.

The workout was a little challenging, but I believe I should be fine to workout again this evening at home. I'm no longer in a hurry to achieve a particular skill by a particular date. I am in a hurry to regain and surpass the strength I had when I was younger. I have done a lot more this week than was in my original plan, and was surprised that I could manage.

----------------------

Home

I was able to do my evening workout a little earlier today. No one was home when I arrived. I put on my 20 lb. weight vest and did the following.

Vertical Group

(3 Rounds)

2 x chin ups

2 x ring support 10 secs.

Inverted Group

(3 Rounds)

2 x knees on box HeSPUs

2 x inverted hang 10 secs.

Horizontal Group

6 x push ups

6 x body weight rows

The workout wasn't too difficult. If anything, I may have been fatigued from the workout earlier in the day. When I got to the horizontal group, I decided to just do all 3 rounds as one set. I felt that transitioning from one exercise to the next was using up some of my energy. I was sure I could do 6 weighted push ups without a break, not so sure about the rows.

I'm done for the day and can now enjoy some much needed food and rest. I'll try to ease off the accelerator just a bit. If I can continue this pace and not increase in volume, I think I'll be ok.

I felt great this morning, no fatigue or pain. I'm seeing improvement and it is definitely encouraging.

Once again it's a slow day in the office, so I decided to do some exercise while here. I wanted to do something different today. I like the exercises I am doing, and appreciate that my stamina is increasing. However, I can only do so much of that stuff. I decided I'd continue to do body weight rows using the table. Maybe the leg assisted cabinet pull ups, but most of the other things, I'd only do at home while wearing the vest.

Thinking about some of the HSPU drills I've seen on youtube, I decided I'd try one at the office. I'd kick into a handstand, kick back down to the ground and do a push up. I did this 3 times with rest in between each attempt. I think only once, did I really like the way I kicked into the handstand. On my next attempt, I became aware of my old problem and stopped.

My right shoulder always seemed weaker than my left, whenever I'd do multiple kicks into a handstand. I don't have any problems if I get into a stomach to wall handstand by walking up a wall. I don't see any weakness when I do any kind of push up.

After searching around the board, I came across this topic.

http://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2947

I believe pike push ups will also help. I think these will be more benficial to me at the moment than knee supported HeSPUs.

Once this issue is a addressed and I can start to spend more time in handstands, I'll have more fun things I can do as I increase my strength.

Just completed my evening workout. I switched a few things around and think I'll try it like this for a while.

With my 20 lb weight vest, I did the following:

Group 1

(3 rounds)

2 x pike push ups

2 x chin ups

Group 2

(3 rounds)

Ring support 5-10 secs

Inverted Hang 10 secs

Group 3

6 x ring push up

6 x ring row

This was a short but intense workout. Most of the time I only rested 10-20 secs between exercise, but a few times I had to take it to 40 secs.

Tomorrow, I think I'll work without the vest and shoot for 3 rounds on everything. For each round I'll do either 5 reps or 20 sec hold times.

I took a break from working out this weekend. I was really busy on Saturday, I didn't have time to workout until late afternoon/evening. By that time, I could feel that my body was enjoying it's rest and healing/growing. I did something really quick just to see if I was able, and then went back to resting.

I really like the exercises I did last week and plan to continue to do them. I plan to have a high volume workout week again, but I don't plan to follow last weeks rep/round structure. Ring push ups and rows, can continue to be high volume, but for some of the other exercises I may only do 2-5 reps for the day.

I plan to spend a lot of time working on my shoulders this week. They seem to need the most attention as far as strength. I plan to do pike push ups, but not a high volume. I plan to spend a lot of time in the starting position for the push up and do leans and jumps while in this position. I believe I can do more volume of work that way than the actual push ups or kicking into handstand.

I also noticed that I couldn't do as much work with ring support last week. I know it was fatigue from the other work I was doing. It was a lot easier to do inverted hang than ring support. I want to increase time spent in support, so I'll use my legs as required to get that volume.

This will be a great week, full of fun, hard work and more growth.

Hi, Lew!

Glad to see that you're torqued for the weeks training. Just wanted to tell you that I like the way you organize your days training into groups instead of the standard A1, A2, A3, etc. supersets. They still serve the same function, but I think your system is a lot easier on the eyes and mental calculations of where you are in the workout.

Patrick Smith said:

Hi, Lew!

Glad to see that you're torqued for the weeks training. Just wanted to tell you that I like the way you organize your days training into groups instead of the standard A1, A2, A3, etc. supersets. They still serve the same function, but I think your system is a lot easier on the eyes and mental calculations of where you are in the workout.

Hey Patrick!

Funny, you were writing in my blog while I was writing in yours. I never knew A1, A2, A3, etc. meant people were describing super sets. I always wondered what it meant when I saw those things. I didn't know if those were indicators of difficulty or what.

Thanks for the compliment, I try everyday to make my blog easier to follow. Although I like to talk/type a lot, I do want my blog to be easy to read/somewhat useful for those who visit. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to do vids and pics, so that I won't have to incorrectly name moves or be too descriptive with what I'm doing on a particular day.

LaughingTiger said:

Patrick Smith said:

Hi, Lew!

Glad to see that you're torqued for the weeks training. Just wanted to tell you that I like the way you organize your days training into groups instead of the standard A1, A2, A3, etc. supersets. They still serve the same function, but I think your system is a lot easier on the eyes and mental calculations of where you are in the workout.

Hey Patrick!

Funny, you were writing in my blog while I was writing in yours. I never knew A1, A2, A3, etc. meant people were describing super sets. I always wondered what it meant when I saw those things. I didn't know if those were indicators of difficulty or what.

Thanks for the compliment, I try everyday to make my blog easier to follow. Although I like to talk/type a lot, I do want my blog to be easy to read/somewhat useful for those who visit. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to do vids and pics, so that I won't have to incorrectly name moves or be too descriptive with what I'm doing on a particular day.

ROFL!!

Yeah! Coach Poliquin uses it a lot and so does Ido Portal. It's a bit hard on the eyes, though.

That's funny, I have the same intention for the videos/pics, but I expect it will be a few months before I'm willing to put anything up. :oops:

Office

I did a few things in the office yesterday. I didn't really care about sets, just wanted to do as much work as I could. The exercises I did at work were:

pike push ups and leans (2-3 reps or leans were 10 secs max)

foot supported, bent knee table rows (5 reps each time)

toe supported, single bar simulated supports using a table (20-30 sec holds)

Home

I had a few interruptions, but managed to do most of what I wanted. I strapped on my 20 lb weight vest and did the following exercise.

Group 1

(6 Rounds)

toe supported ring supports, 10 secs

inverted hang, 10 sec

Group 2

knee on box HeSPUs, 3 reps

chin ups, 3 reps

Group 3

ring push ups, 3 reps

ring rows, 3 reps

Next, I wanted to do something fun and different as a part of the workout. I wanted to do circles on the pull up bar, but I felt a lack of strength and fatigue would not let me be able to do a circle in one direction. I knew I couldn't do a circle to the left and then right without a lot of rest. I thought about taking off the vest, but I felt that would hurt my spirit to do so.

After a few minutes of thinking, I came up with an idea for something fun and different. I finished the workout by taking a neutral grip on both of the bars of my pull up bar, and moved back and forth as if I were on monkey bars. I was pleasantly surprised, to see that I could move both hands back and forth for a reps before I had to come down.

-------------------------

Notes:

I really liked the single bar simulated support exercise. Instead of being on my toes, it was more like I just had the front edge of my shoes on the floor. I was pushing down on the table with hands and tensing my core as if I were trying to lift my lower body up. I could lift myself some, but I don't believe I could do a full ROM single bar dip at this time.

I got the idea to do toe supported ring support from this video

4gglpAcixZ0

This allowed me to do more work in the support position. I didn't have the rings turned out all the way, but I had them turned more than I did last week.

I also decided to do both pike push ups and knee supported HeSPUs as a part of my normal routine. I'm not very flexible, so I don't get as vertical as I'd like during pike push ups. I figure doing both exercises will accomplish what I want, which is stronger shoulders.

Yesterday, I decided that I would do things differently for the rest of the week. Once again, I didn't really care about how many sets I did. I just wanted to work. I'll try be better about this in future logs. If I don't record number of sets, I'll record the amount of time I spent overall on the workout. Since I don't have the benefit of pics/or video I hope this post will make sense and be useful to someone out there.

Office

I found some time to workout while in the office yesterday. Most of the time was spent using the table as if it were a single bar. I also did a few sets of foot supported, bent knee table rows @ 5 reps per set. I did a few knee supported HeSPUs, but spent the least amount of time on this exercise.

Exercises I did while simulating that I was on a single bar were, toe supported support, leg supported dips and a press. My intention was only to do support while on the table and nothing else. After doing a couple of sets of supports for 20 or 30 secs, I decided I wanted to try other things. Doing support wasn't too easy, especially since I required assistance to hold the position. However, I felt doing something that was more difficult would be more beneficial than to continue to simulate support.

Single Bar(table) Dips

First I used my legs to assist in doing dips on the table. I learned pretty quickly that even with assistance, this would be a tough exercise. While pretending that the table is a bar, my grip is the same as if one were on rings with them turned out. It took me a while to figure out what range of motion I could do with this exercise. If my upper body was too vertical, I could only lower down so far. If I leaned more of my upper body over the table, I could do a lower dip.

Single Bar(table) Press/Lift?

For the press, I would start in support on the table and press/lean forward. My shoulders would come forward over the table and my feet would lift off of the floor. My feet didn't get very high, but I did enough that I felt a nice amount of tension in my chest, shoulders and arms. Once I figured out a nice ROM for this exercise, I did several sets @ 3 reps per set. I spent more time doing this exercise in the office than I did anything else.

Home

I was really busy when I arrived home. I also didn't know what I wanted to do as far as exercise. I strapped on the 20 lb vest and decided I'd do my routine from last week. As soon as I grabbed the pull up bar, I decided I didn't want to do a "normal" workout.

I was a little fatigued from my workout at the office and with the vest on, I was too heavy to do circles or other things on the pull up bar. Once I removed the vest, I came up with a nice circuit that I did for a few minutes.

Ring push up, 3 or 5 reps

ring row, 3 or 5 reps

simulate monkey bars(horizontal ladder) on pull up bar, maybe 15-30 secs.

For the monkey bar simulation, I used multiple grips and I moved back and forth and side to side for as long as I could without putting my feet on the floor.

I think I'll add some sort of horizontal ladder to the list of things I'd like to place in the garage.

Bless those of you who found a way to make it through this log. Since I've already explained most of the things I plan to do this week, the rest of my posts should be shorter.

Whew! I'm tired. I believe I'll be ok in two or three hours, but if not I think I've done enough for the day. If I do anything later, I'll make it a separate entry instead of editing this.

Office

Table Rows

I spent part of the morning, playing around with exercises on the table. I'm happy to say that I can now consistently do foot supported, bent knee table rows @ 6 reps per set. Even when tired, I can complete all 6. I think I'll try to build up the capacity to do 8 to 10 reps per set.

Single Bar(table) work

I combined the table dip and press into one exercise. I did various amounts of sets and reps simulating single bar work this morning, that might total to 5 minutes overall. I reached a point where I decided, there were better things I could do than this exercise. It's not worthless, but I feel that I need a certain amount of height between the table and the ground to get more benefit from it.

HeSPU/Handstand Work

After deciding to end the "single bar" work, I started doing knee supported HeSPUs. Depending on how vertical I was, I could do 3 to 5 reps each time. I then had the idea of holding a knee supported handstand for 20 secs before doing 1 rep of knee supported HeSPU.

While reading, I came across an article and decided to spend some time doing knee supported handstands. Not sure why I didn't think about doing this before. I had held the position as way to make knee supported HeSPus more difficult. However, I had not thought to use knee support to increase my strength/stamina to hold a handstand.

I was tired by the time I had this idea. With my fatigue, I was able to consistently do knee supported handstands for 20 secs at a minimum. I want to build my capacity to hold this position to two minutes. I think once I can hold the position for two minutes, my shoulders will be strong enough for me to handle multiple attempts at regular handstands.

Not sure how much time I spent doing exercise overall. I'm feeling the effects of the handstand work and rows. I feel some tension in my muscles, but not soreness or pain. I feel drained and energetic at the same time.

If I am able to workout this evening, I'll probably spend most of the time working on ring support and inverted hang. If that doesn't wipe me out I'll use my pull up bar to do more horizontal ladder work.

My shoulders are really feeling the love this week. I was so busy and tired yesterday, that I only did 1 round of ring push ups and ring rows last night @ 6 reps each.

Today was a day spent doing a lot of research. I stumbled onto this website and thought some of the information was useful so I'm sharing the URL http://www.gymnasticscollege.net/ After checking out the sight, I'm actually interested in doing some of the easier tumbles.

In addition to reading, I did a little workout in the office

3 rounds

knee on box handstand, 30 secs

foot supported, bent knee table rows, 8 reps

90 sec rest

I was really happy that I was able to complete three rounds. I'm happy that I feel I'm addressing the weakness in my shoulders. The exercise was challenging, but I already feel like I should have no problem working out at home this evening.

My evening workout only lasted for a few minutes. I played around on the rings and had some fun. I also had another reminder that at some point, I need to start doing something to improve my flexibility.

I worked with transitioning from inverted hang to skin the cat and dislocate. I didn't have any problems as far as strength was concerned. My bent inverted hang looked horrible, because of my lack of pike flexibility. Since my feet were on the floor during the skin the cat/german hang, I didn't feel any pressure/pain while I figured out how to do the dislocate.

Even though I felt the routine looked ugly as I performed it, I felt great after the workout. I guess part of me got a nice stretch in addition to some strength work.

I'll add pike and straddle flexibility to the things I'm researching. I'm a 38 y/o male who probably hasn't been too flexible since he was 2 or 3. While standing, I can touch my toes but need a slight bend in my knees to do so. If anyone has knowledge they'd like to share, I'd appreciate it.

I wonder where I'd rate on the DBZ scale? I'm probably not even at Hercule/Mr. Satan's level yet. What do I have to be able to do before I'm rated at Yamcha's level? A freestanding full ROM HSPU? :|

I just finished another workout here at the office. I've increased my times and reps on my chosen exercises this week and am happy it.

3 rounds

knee supported handstand, 45 secs Rounds 1 and 2, 30 secs Round 3

foot supported, bent knee table rows, 10 reps

rest, 90 secs

In round 3, I didn't want my body to fail and have my head go crashing into the ground so I stopped at 30 secs. I feel by Monday or Tuesday, I should be able to do 3 rounds of 60 sec knee supported handstands.

I've reached 10 reps on the rows and don't plan to increase it.

This evening, I plan to work on the rings again.

I had two birthday parties to attend on Saturday, so the office workout on Friday was the last workout for the week.

After a pretty busy morning, I finally had time to try something here at the office. I did the following exercise:

Office workout

(4 rounds)

wall handstand, back to wall, 15 secs.

foot supported, bent knee table rows, 10 reps

The amount of rest between each round varied. There was a BIG break in between the first and second round, maybe 15 mins. The last three rounds were closer together, maybe about 5 mins of rest.

I decided not to pursue doing 3 rounds of 60 sec knee supported handstands. My initial reason for doing knee supported handstands, was to increase strength and stamina so that I could consistently work wall handstands. I decided that if I was going to continue with knee support, it would only be as a way to increase volume after I'd worked wall handstands.

I'll see if I can handle doing 2 mins worth of wall handstand work each day. I'll work more with the inverted hang to skin the cat dislocate transition.

I guess I'm no longer an infant and can start classifying myself as a toddler.

Home

(Yesterday evening)

Last night was a little busier than I thought it would be. So I decided to change my plans and just have some fun.

I did two rounds of 15 sec wall handstands. Next I went to the rings, and played with rolling from inverted hang to skin the cat. I also played with doing dislocate into a german hang and rolling through inverted hang and back to my feet. This was a lot of fun. I definitely like the stretch I feel when doing the dislocate. Only pain I felt, was when I bumped into the door frame.

I ended the workout by doing a few rounds of support on the rings. I was able to turn the rings out and support myself for 5 to 10 secs. I plan to practice rings turned out support for the rest of the week. I think by Monday, I should be able to do a couple of ring dips with the rings turned out.

Office

I did a quick workout this morning.

Two rounds

wall handstand, back to wall, 20 secs

rows, foot supported, bent knee, 10 reps

push ups, 10 reps

rest, 3 min

My plan was to do 3 rounds. As I was about to start round 3, my fatigue made me too afraid to kick into a handstand. I was afraid that as soon as I went up, my arms would give out.

It's getting easier to kick into a handstand. I still have a problem with my right shoulder not always being as tight as it should. I'll rest for a bit and repeat the office workout for a few more rounds before I leave to go home.

Home

Night of Aug 2, 2011

Last night's workout was pretty much the same as the previous night. The only difference is I tested dips while having the rings turned out(RTO). I could only lower myself part of the way, before I had to push myself back to support. My arms aren't ready for RTO dips yet. I'll just work on RTO support the rest of the week.

Office

I came into the office hungry and tired from the previous day's workout. I was able to address hunger with breakfast. The meal gave me lots of energy and my body felt better, but it was still tired. I wasn't in pain and I wasn't too tired to move, so I did some exercise.

Group 1 (4 rounds)

wall handstands, stomach towards wall, 10 secs

rows, foot supported, bent knee 5 reps

push ups, 5 reps

rest, 60 secs

Group 2 (1 round)

knee supported handstand, 20 secs

rows, foot supported, bent knee 10 reps

push ups, 10 reps

rest, 60 secs

Group 3 (2 rounds)

wall squat, 30 secs

rest, 60 secs

I was able to kick into a handstand against the wall, but felt that used up too much energy/effort . I decided stomach towards wall would be easier to do. I kept my hands 2.5 to 3 ft from the wall. I kept my back straight and didn't let it arch.

During my wall squats my thighs weren't parallel to the ground.

The fatigue from the workouts, makes it a little difficult to workout again but isn't affecting any other activity I do during the day. For my next handstand workout, I'll see how I handle a 50/50 split on wall and knee supported handstands.

I felt better this morning than I did yesterday. This week, I've had one cooked egg with breakfast. After yesterday's workout, I also had a cooked egg with lunch and a lot of the extreme fatigue I had went away. I really don't like eggs, but believe they will join the list of foods I have at least once a day.

This morning's workout was a little shorter than the previous workouts. I felt I needed to lower the volume a bit in order to make it through the week.

handstand, 20 secs, wall supported, stomach towards wall, hands about 2 ft away from the wall

rows, 10 reps, foot supported, bent knee

push ups, 10 reps

rest, 60 secs

handstand, 20 secs, knee supported

rows, 10 reps, foot supported, bent knee

push ups, 10 reps

rest, 60 secs

Wall Walks

I finished the workout with wall walks. With my back facing the wall, I leaned back and used my hands to walk down the wall as far as I could. I can get my hands below my waist, but wasn't confident enough to go to the floor. I did this for 2 sets of 3 reps. I also tried to do a bridge up with my feet in a chair, but was unsuccessful.

I like today's volume for handstand work. I believe I'll keep this volume for a while. It's a challenge without being too much of a challenge. I believe I'll increase volume on the wall walks, but not try to get any lower yet.

This week, I was almost tempted to change the title of this log. Something like, Lew's Office Workout Log or the flashier and longer Just because you have a 9 to 5, doesn't mean you can't still train like a gymnast log!

I'm glad that I've been able to do exercise with just an equipment cart and a table. Makes it easy to work and hard to come up with excuses as to why I can't do something. I'm doing most of the exercises that I want to do 6 days a week and it doesn't feel like I'm wasting time. However, I'm not happy that lately my time on the pull up bar and rings has not been consistent.

My evenings are certainly busy with family activities, but not so busy that I can't find 5 to 10 min for exercise. Right now if I can consistently perform the following, I'll be happy: RTO support, inverted hang, and some pull ups or chin ups. I don't know if it was failing to plan or planning to fail, but I'm going to try to remedy the situation now.

Here's my daily plan of exercises I want to do for the remainder of this week and the following week

Inverted Exercises

wall handstand or knee supported handstand runs

inverted hang

Horizontal exercises

push ups or pseudo planche push ups

rows

Vertical Exercises

RTO support

pull ups or chin ups

bridge wall walks

The reps and hold times may change, but I plan to do the listed exercises each day. Since I'm doing most of the workout while at the office, I should have no problem sticking to this plan.

On August 15th, I'll do some kind of review/test.

Home

Night of August 4th, 2011

Last night I was able to stick to the plan! I did 15 secs each of ring support and inverted hang. I did 3x3 chin ups.

Initially I was unable to do the chin ups, and thought that I might have overdone it again. For a moment I was disappointed and frustrated. Next I tried to give myself a pep talk by saying I'd been doing a nice amount of rows this week. I was about to do jumping chin ups, when I decided to examine my chin up technique.

Most of the time, I don't do chin ups or pull ups properly. I just pull with my arms and lift towards the bar. Once I thought about recruiting all of the muscles needed to do a proper chin up, I was able to complete them. For future workouts, I'll do my pull ups or chin ups before I do anything on the rings.

Office

handstand, 25 secs, wall supported, stomach towards wall, hands about 2 ft away from the wall

rows, 10 reps, foot supported, bent knee

pseudo planche push ups, 10 reps

rest, 2 min

handstand runs, 10 reps, knee supported

rows, 10 reps, foot supported, bent knee

push ups, 10 reps

I plan to do another workout similar to this before I leave the office for the day. I think grouping the exercises the way I have, makes this workout a little tougher than it needs to be. I'm hoping that the result will be a continued increase in stamina. Sticking to the plan until the 15th.

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Edit:

Due to flexibility issues, I'd been avoiding doing work on the L sit. I've decided that even if my legs have a little bend in them I want to achieve an L sit. I saw a few videos on youtube and will play around with different things from each to help me achieve this skill.

I feel like my upper body is almost strong enough to achieve a tuck planche. So now I need to do more to address the weakness in my core.

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I don't plan to have an L Sit or tuck planche by August 15th. I do feel I'm at a point where I want my workout's to be more than just calisthenics. The exercises laid out in the plan will be the core of what I do. I'll add other things on various days to supplement that work.

I decided to change things this week. I've decided my plan is to just do exercises that are horizontal, vertical and inverted. I probably won't post much this week, since outside of saying what I'm doing I won't have any sets/reps/hold times to share. I'm doing exercise through out the day, for 10 secs to about 3 minutes at a time.

Exercises I am doing this week:

Knee supported handstand shoulder or side tappers.

From a plank or reverse plank with my fingers facing out to the sides, I've been doing pocket or side tappers.

Using the arms of a chair or foot board on my bed, I've been doing tucked l sit holds and rocks.

On my pull up bar, I've been doing hangs with a neutral grip.

push ups

rows

inverted hangs.

I'm finally ready to start doing some band assisted planche work. I had planned to wait until I moved everything into the garage, but I don't see any reason to delay an exercise I can do with my current setup.