Rich's workout log...

I've been a member for a while now and thought I'd start a log to help motivate myself and keep track of my progress.

I'm 6ft 4"/193cm, 209lb/95kg, I'd like to improve my body composition, improve overall ROM, pick up a few skills along the way and have fun. I can get to an adult gymnastics session twice a week which is handy as the gym is only 10 mins away and they spot and correct my poor form which is helpful!

Short term goals are...

Address muscle imbalances (from plastering for 6yrs)

3x30s German Hang

L-sit

Tuck planche (even if only for a few seconds)

FL adv tuck

get a consistent HS, even if only for a few seconds

Current abilities...

6x15s German Hang

2x30s Ring support (rings turned out, almost of lats)

3x30s Frog

3x20s FL tuck

A PL or FL would be awesome but for the time being I'll be setting my sights much lower and consolidating my current skills, strengthening tendons and improving ROM.

More important than the exercise for me is what I eat. I used to be up and down all the time with regard to energy levels and mood so I did a fair bit of reading on this over the winter while I had no money. Since I started working again I've fat adapted and am cycling carbs on Weds and Sun, I've been doing this for a couple of months now and while it wasn't easy at first I feel loads better, have more energy and find sleep onset much more consistent. The only downer is that my girlfriend gets annoyed that we don't always eat together!

I've had problems with my elbows over the last 8/9yrs which has been a concern and an issue at times when working out. Since changing the way I eat I've been drinking only water (apart from a couple of coffees in the morning) which has helped loads. This is why I have also decided to start the WOD despite having to scale right back. I think I'll make a lot more progress following Coach's programme and hopefully I won't run into elbow problems. Though I've tried my best to organise a programme myself, I don't know what I'm doing and seem to run into elbow issues fairly swiftly. I'd rather go with something I know will get results even if I struggle with it to start with.

I'll leave it at that for now and update with how my first weeks worth of WOD have gone later this eve..

Rich

I feel exhausted this evening! I've not done this much work in a long time and have been sore since Tuesday!

Here's what I've been up to this week...

Monday:

Warm up - took the dog out for about a mile or so, Ido's shoulder prehab, general stretching, few pull ups and push ups.

WOD - 2 rounds of,

1 Embedded German Hang + 6 Tempo Pull ups (small push with feet)

1 Embedded Frog Stand + 5 Tempo HeSPU Neg

1 Embedded FL tuck + 5 Tempo Pike to Candlestick

I'm going to ache tomorrow, I can tell! A good work out and like nothing I've done before. I thought scaling back I'd be able to complete the four rounds but no chance!

Tuesday:

Group warm up at adult gymnastics session

4 rounds of,

2 L sit press to tuck PL

7 Germans

2 L sit press to tuck PL

5 dips (feet supported level with waist)

2 L sit press to tuck PL

3 Hopping HeSPU (against wall)

I can't do a tuck planche yet so tried to tuck and lean as far forward as I could manage for that element. The Germans were fun though they probably looked pretty rough. I've not done them before so I was trying to get a feel for the movemnet more than anything else. Stared the first round with unsupported dips but soon scaled down so I could complete the four rounds! The 3 Hopping HeSPU were more of a shrug! I also started to feel sick on the third round but this passed by the fourth.

I was so impressed I'd finished all four rounds that I completely forgot about the wrist pushups at the end! Really enjoyed this WOD!

Thurs:

Up late this morning, took the dog out for a walk, Ido's shoulder prehab and some stretching followed by 3 rounds of:

5 GHR - half

10 lunges

10 squats

3x10 Hip Extensions (front, side, rotations)

I don't have room for sprinting in our apartment and as my right hip mobility isn't great I thought I'd do some squats instead. Finally managed to put enough stuff in the sideboard to be able to do the GHR - half and really enjoyed these, they really showed up my weaker right leg.

Fri:

Took the dog out for a 3.5 mile walk, came home for lunch, waited and hour and started warming up with Ido's shoulder prehab, general stretching, a few pull ups, push ups and HS's

2 Cast Wall walks/8 HeSPU Neg

5 Tuck Press to HS

10 Tuck Press to HS

A few more handstands

2x10 Wrist pushups (on knees)

I felt exhausted today and felt like I had very little left in the tank. The Cast wall walks I managed to walk my legs up but when I tried to go back down my arms just collapsed so I did the HeSPU Neg instead. I just had to figure out what was gonna work with the press to HS and ended up going with the tuck. I don't think I had quite enough weight on my hands but I was struggling after these. No chance of doing the 12 HS cycles despite having a go so I just did a few more HS.

Its been a good week but a lot of work, for me at least. I guess the workload I can get through will increase with time and once more familiar with what to expect it'll become easier to scale appropriately I'll be taking it easy this weekend when I'm not working, maybe just some stretching!

Hi Richie,

I also just started following the WODs. The first few weeks were mostly about finding the appropriate version of the exercises for me, and see how I could do them best with the equipment I have. Now, a few weeks further down the road I am mostly increasing the volume / workload. Diving in slowly.

Have fun training!

Well, its been a couple of weeks since my last post and I've not been up to much. After the first week of WOD something weird was going on with my left shoulder (kind of underneath anterior deltoid). No problems raising my arm above my head but when down by my side and a little away from my body there was a bit of pain. Its felt like something was being impinged but I don't know really so I decided to rest it last week which was really frustrating as I enjoyed the first week of WOD that I achieved. I ordered a medium weight resistance tube and started regularly working Ido's shoulder routines after about three days and by this week its was a lot better so I decided to test my statics and work on those this last week. Heres how I did

FL tuck 37s

Adv Frog (bent elbows) 30s

L sit low 30s

I was really struggling with getting into the Adv Frog and found Slizzardmans suggestion to start with bent elbows and gradually phase it out so that's the plan at the moment. I was a little disappointed with the L but to be fair I've not been focused enough on it till now.

So I'm now working on

3 x 20s FL tuck

4 x 15s Adv Frog (bent elbows)

4 x 15s L sit low

After doing the statics this week my shoulder feels ok. Its not 100% but there's no pain so I'm going to ease back into the WOD next week . I think I lost sight of my current abilities on the last WOD and tried to get to the end when I should have recognised that I was really tired and rested till the following week. I can put it down as a learning experience and hopefully one I won't repeat!

Hey Danniboi I hope your enjoying the WODs! Its all about finding a balance at the moment. I find its very easy to over estimate what you're capable of. I hope its all going well for you and you're seeing results!

I got back to doing the WOD today which was such a relief, I felt a bit lost without it! Heres how it looked

3 rounds of

1 Embedded Frog + 5 Tempo MU Neg (4)

1 Embedded GH + 5 Tempo Back Crunches (412)

1 Embedded FL tuck + 5 Tempo V ups - tuck (412)

5 Bridge Wall Walks

It was nice to get back to it. Really enjoyed doing the MU Neg as I've never really worked these before. I can do RLL here at home but have no weight to add (ordered some kettlebells today ) so I had to settle for the back crunches for now. I really enjoy RLL's so I'm looking forward to getting some weights to make these more fun. I went with the V ups tuck variation as I wanted to get a feel for the movement and my leg flexibility is poor.

My shoulder felt ok throughout but I didn't do the last two German Hangs. I could feel myself tiring and decided to back off. I was only just making the FL tuck in the last set. Overall, a great workout, thanks Coach.

Todays exercise:

Warm up:

3 mile bike ride to gymnastics club, group warm up followed by some playing on trampettes.

WOD:

4 rounds of:

2 Front pull tuck neg

5 Wide arm rows (feet elevated)

2 Front pull tuck neg

3 Pullovers neg

2 Front pull tuck neg

10 Towl pullup neg (feet supported)

My grip was really struggling by the end of this! I got some advice from one of the coaches on pullovers and had a play around before the workout but decided I wasn't strong enough and went with rolling over the bar from a support to get a feel for the movement. I'm back at the gym club on Thurs so I'll try and get some practice in with these after I've done the leg WOD. Its kinda funny watching everyone else tumbling and doing skill work, I feel a bit out of my depth sometimes but its fun and I can get some good advice from the coaches there. I know if I follow the programme I'm sure to improve!

Last nights workout

FSPs at home L, PL Adv Frog, FL tuck, ring support followed by group warm up at adult gymnastics followed by WOD:

3 x 10 SLS (assisted with stall bars)

3 x 5 NLC

3 x 60m sprint with 15 kg weight

3 x 10 Hip Extensions

I followed this with a 3 mile bike ride home which felt pretty good. My legs by the time I got home felt shot to bits though and I was struggling to walk down the stairs to the front door when I took the dog out for a walk later on. Spent some time on the foam roller before bed and a bit of time stretching out. My legs are so sore 24hrs after the SLS!

Todays workout followed on this morning and consisted of

Ido's shoulder mobility, pushups, pullups, handstands to warm up

WOD:

2 Cast Wall Walks and 5 HeSPU Neg

1 x 5 Tuck Press to HeS (lowering in pike)

1 x 10 Tuck Press to HeS

Walking HeSPU Ladders

Finished with 2 x 10 Wrist Pushups (on knees slightly piked)

I was careful when doing this workout as it was the one that caused the problems with my shoulder a couple of weeks back. After two Cast Wall Walks I was exhausted. Next time round I'm going to try having my feet up on a table to take some of the strain and then walk my hands in and out and see how that goes.

The tuck press to HeS felt much better than the first time round and the HeSPU Ladders I managed two rungs. I can't yet do HS Wall Runs so scaled down to trying to shift my weight from arm to arm 6 times.

I really didn't feel like going out and doing the leg workout on Monday as my legs were still sore from last Thursday. I decided I'd feel better for it and rode down to the beach and found some walls to do the following WOD.

4 rounds of:

40' Senders

12 Jumping Squats

8 Box Jumps (up steps)

4 Depth Jumps (from about 5' 10")

The Senders looked more like a load of tuck jumps along the promenade and were quite hard compared to doing them on the sprung floor at gym, good fun though. I had to make do with some steps for the box jumps. Good workout and I'll be glad to give my legs a rest till next week now!

I went to adult gym last night and did the following WOD after group warm up and Ido's shoulder routines.

3 sets of

MU Neg > Support > Back Roll > Inverted Pike > Inverted Hang > BL Tuck > Inverted Hang > FL tuck

3 x 15s FL tuck

3 x 15s Wall HS

3 x 15s GH

2 x 10 Wall Extensions

I really want to be able to do a muscle up so I can do this without getting off the rings to get into a support! I had a go and saw some improvement but just know that I'm not ready for this stuff just yet. I enjoyed Ring Strength 1 but think I need to repeat the above sequence 2 or 3 times per set to really feel like I'm having to work.

Two things I noticed this workout were that my GH felt much more solid, to the point that I could start opening up my hips a bit from the piked position. My MU Neg was much slower than last week through the transition so I'll keep persisting with these over the next few weeks and see how it goes.

Thurs: Started with Idos shoulder routines, some press ups, HS's and pull ups followed by some stretching.

WOD 110609

1 Embedded GH + 5 Tuck Yewkis (214)

1 Embedded L-sit low + 5 Press ups and 5 HeSPU Neg

1 Embedded FL Tuck + 6 HLL half (214)

Finished with 10 Bridge Wall walks

Good WO though i took me a while to get through it. GH are definitely feeling stronger but I'm gonna resist the temptation to open my hips more for now. After my MU attempts on Tues my right shoulder is really tight and my tricep tendons are feeling the strain.

Fridays WOD:

4 rounds of

2 L-sit press to tuck PL

3 HeSPU Neg

2 L-sit press to tuck PL

5 Dips

2 L-sit press to tuck PL

15 single clap Press ups

I felt really tired for this WO. I've had little time off work and due to elbow not being too great I backed off after 1 round and left it at that.

Had a good long stretching session on Sunday and today I went out cycling in the morning to do a few things in town. This afternoon I started with Idos shoulder routines, some stretching and FSP:

Adv Frog 3x20s

FL tuck 3x20s

RTO support 3x20s

WOD:

3 rounds of

10 Overhead lunges with 12kg KB

5 NLC

Run down and back upstairs with 16kg KB

Finished with 4x15s L-sit low

Enjoyed this WO though I don't think it was quite challenging enough. Right leg was getting a bit fatigued at the end of the lunges so I'll stick with the 12kg KB for now. The sprint up and down the stairs I should have used the 20kg KB I think.

Todays WO:

Warmup with some pull ups press ups and FSP's

RTO Support 2x30s

L-sit low 4x15s

Adv Frog 4x15s

FL tuck 4x15s

WOD:

10 Cast Wall walks (with feet on table and a short break after 5 reps)

1x5 Tuck press to HeS (lowered legs in pike)

1x10 Tuck press to HeS

4 Wall HS cycles

2x10 Wrist Push ups (on knees, piked)

The CWW variation I tried today seems more attainable for me, it was still pretty hard work but I managed all 10 with a short break so I'll stick with this method for now. The second lot of Tuck Press to HeS started to get really hard just after half way through. Took a short rest after 7 reps then finished. Wall HS cycles got shorter and shorter each time. I was surprised I made the first 30s to be honest. Just wondering whether to adjust the intensity or the volume now??

Hi, Rich. I do the same thing with the CWW. They're hard, but it's probably important to just get the volume in, even if you have to take rests.

I once found that by doing sub-maximal sets of WHS followed by a short rest, I could manage almost double my originally planned volume for that workout. For example, if I was planning to do 5x30 seconds, by doing 20 second holds, I could manage over 8 sets before my time dropped.

Hey Patrick, yeah I was also thinking it would be more beneficial to get the volume in with the CWW, I like doing them but they're hard! As for HS cycles I think sub maximal sets of 20s are probably the way to go for now as you mention and the time can be built upon.

Thursday:

Idos shoulder ROM at home followed by group warm up at adult gymnastics.

WOD:

2 Front pulls tucked neg

5 Pullovers

2 Front pulls tucked neg

7 TOPs pulls tucked

2 Front pulls tucked neg

9 Rows

Good workout, though I was pretty red faced by the end of it! I'm going to persist with Pullovers as I really want to be able to do one. I did them on a low bar with one leg tucked and the other giving me a small push. They reckon at the gym that I should increase the height of the bar as I improve. I did manage the first round like that but the second I only managed two so went back to doing slow negatives. I really enjoyed the TOPs pulls and surprised myself when I managed 7 straight off! As each round went on though I was really tiring and only managed to get halfway through the last round (they were also turning the lights off in the gym!).

Finished with a 3 mile dash home on the bike to EAT!

Fridays WOD:

3 sets of:

MU Neg > Support > Back Roll > IP > IH > BL tuck > IH > FL tuck

5x15s FL tuck

5x15s Planche Lean

5x15s German Hang

2x10 Wall Extensions

Really tired doing this today. I'd had about 12 hours between this and yesterdays WO so not ideal but I managed to get through it. In hindsight I may have been better leaving it till Saturday morning and getting more rest in. It just felt a bit like I was struggling the whole time.

Mondays WOD:

3 sets of

1 Embedded L-sit low + 5 chair dips

1 Embedded BL tuck + 5 12kg KB curls

1 Embedded FL tuck + 5 HLL half

Finished with 10 BWW

This WOD went really well and I was surprised I managed the BL tuck for the duration of the WO. I was astonished at how poor my curling ability was though. After trying the bodyweight curls on rings described in the book I tried the 16kg KB and failed so went with the 12 kg. Maybe if I hadn't tried the bodyweight curls first I may have managed the 16kg KB. Not to worried as I'm still trying to find my way with all this at the moment and am logging it all in a new 18 month diary

Tuesdays WOD:

1 round of:

60s Jump Rope

20m sprint carrying foldup bike (12kg?)

60s Jump Rope

12 Jumping Squats

60s Jump Rope

5 Depth Jumps

After the first 60s of skipping just above my right achilles was really tired. As the first round went on it felt weaker and weaker so I stopped and decided to knock this one on the head, it just didn't feel right. Really gutted as I had been looking forward to this WOD since it was posted last week! I think I may have just overdone it with the skipping rather than take it steady. I fractured my calcanium on this side 12 years ago and never did the rehab very thoroughly and its always been a weak link so this is a wake up call to give it some proper attention in the coming weeks and months!