Newguy5000 Newbie Training Log

I never get around to updating my Log on any reasonable basis. So instead i am putting up a log that will include what exercises i am doing on this cycle and random posts now and again about how my progression is going. I am at the basic (very basic) level of strength and the plan is to slowly build volume while giving my connective tissue time to adapt. More of my time is spend on prehab / rehab of shoulders and dynamic and static flexability than actual working out for this cycle.

Prior to my current cycle i did 6 weeks of work strengthening and rehabiliting my shoulder girdle and working on my mobility and flexability. I am currently 2 and half weeks into my first 6 week Steady State Cycle.

Steady State Cycle 1

Frequency: M/W/F (Tues + Thursday i usually swing a light kettlebell for a few sets to keep blood flowing)

The Work Out

Warm Up

1. Dynamic Stretches

2. Rotator Series

a. Band Pull Downs

b. Whippet (band at back)

c. Band Shoulder Dislocates

d. 10 External Rotations

e. 10 Lateral Rotations (45 degree behind back)

f. 10 Swings in every direction high / medium / low (hold last 10 sec)

g. 10 Stick Cuban Press (have progressed to light 7kg Bar)

3. Scapular Stability

a. Shoulder Blade Pinches 3 x 30 seconds

b. Can Openers 3 x 3

c. 10 Bat Wings (Rhomboids) (thumbs to armpit)

d. 10 Stick OH Squat (have progressed to 5 stick OH Squats and 5 20kg O Bar OH Squats)

e. Scapular Push Ups 1 x 10

4. Basic Static Holds X 30 seconds

Ring Series

a. Ring lock out hold

b. Dead Hang

b. Inverted Hang

c. False grip hang feet on ground

Floor Series

c. Plank (have progressed to psuedo planche lean)

d. Side Plank

f. Reverse Plank

g. Hollow Hold

j. Arch Hold

g. V Up

Actual Work out

a. L sit 10 sets of 6 seconds

b. Wall Handstand 3 sets of 10 seconds stomach facing wall with hand walk out at the end of each set.

c. Trap Bar Squats 1 x 5 @ 60kg

d. Muscle Ups 1 x 2

Stretching

a. Wrist strengthening and stretching series

b. Isometric stetches

c. Static stretches

I am noticing steady gains from my past 6 weeks of rehab and current 2 and half weeks training cycle. I have put on a small amount of muscle across my body and my core is noticeably stronger. I could barely hold a V Up or Hollow Hold or ring lock out and now can hold those much easier for 30 seconds at a time.

In particular my shoulder flexability seems greatly improved. I can now do Overhead Squats with a 20kg Olympic bar with my hands a little ways from the end of the bar. Two years ago when i tried this i could barely do one overhead squat at this weight and my hands were pressed to the limit of the bar and it felt like my back was ripping apart. I think the band dislocates, isometric stick dislocates and the rest of IDO's shoulder routine has really loosened up and strengthened my whole shoulder girdle.

Perhaps more surprising is the muscle ups. WIthout any upper body pushing or pressing i am now able to do muscle ups. I think the strengthening work from planks (front, side, reverse), the ring lock outs, and short false grip hangs just made it easier.

Below is a video of my muscle up. As you can see in the video its not a 'pure' muscle up because i start with my knees on the ground and arms quite bent due to clearance issues with the roof. But i tried it on bars down the park from a full deadhang and can also execute it. The only difference is the initial pull is a little longer and the transition slightly harder.

Below is my failed attempt to embed the video. How the hell do you do that?

managed to raise the height of my rings so muscle up has more pull to it. Made me feel a bit more awkward transitioning at first, but after the first couple it began to feel smoother.

Workout today was good. The two muscle ups at the end felt good and no twinges in the shoulder. I tried holding some of my static 30 sec ring lock out with wrists facing forward. This slight change in hand position compeltly fried my triceps and left my arms shaking when i moved on to my L sits. Will keep normal position on rings until i build up to a strong 60 sec hold.

Otherwise feeling strong. I am swinging a light kettlebell on off days and my lower back feels worked from it. Makes me realise how weak my lower back must be so i will keep working the KB swings gently and slowly ramping them up.

Tested my L Sit max just for fun this weekend. I can hold it on PB bars for 20 seconds before my form slips. So i am defeintely getting strong at it and am very happy with that progress. I also tested myself on fingertip L sit on the floor and can hold it for around 3-4 seconds. I could not even lift myself off the floor on my fingertips before starting this program. The fingertip push ups have definately increased my finger strength.

I currently do L sits 3 times a week. I am going to make the middle session done from the floor so i can work on PB lsits and floor lsits at the same time. It feels a ton harder on the floor and i have heard good things from the forum about the extra compression from the floor transfering well over to L sits on the bars.

ideally long term i would like to be able to full floor l sit and straddle into shoulder press into handstand. But that is further down the line. Many months of work before that dream can be realised.

Have noticed dramatic improvements in my false grip. I can now hang with feet touching ground for 60seconds in false grip and i can do it for a fair bit with false grip hands turned out with full arm extension. Can also dead hang on it, but it is difficult for full dead hang due to height limitations of rings. Only a couple of weeks ago false grip seemed impossible so that is really amazing.

After watching some videos i realised i am not doing strict MU's. I thought strict MU was just one without using a huge crossfit-esque kip. However, having said that i am probably not too far away from one. Perhaps a few months training. I am still doing a small 'push' during transition and i have some pike in my body going over. After watching a vid by Sslizardman i did a slow strict MU negative tonight. I can really control it nice and slowly on the way down. Less so on the way up, but getting slower and more controlled. Once i have a nice slow MU up and down i will try and consistantly reduce the pike in my body.

My other latest gain is a HeSPU i couldn't do one 6 weeks ago when i began training and i haven't tried to do any since that time. Today i finished each wall handstand set with a single HeSPU before coming off the wall. Not quite full ROM on 1 of them but i can not bad. I attribute this increase in pushing strength to my wall handstands. I plan to continue doing a single HeSPU at the end of each wall handstand now and just try and do it controlled with good ROM. Really trying not to overdo it so i think this is a nice simple way to slowly build up the strength. Slow and steady wins the race!

Attempted a L sit on the rings today. Could not even raise my knees 6 weeks ago while on rings, but now can hold a solid L sit on the rings for about 8 seconds. I don't plan to begin training L sit on the rings yet though until i can hold a solid one on the bars for 60 seconds. The ring lock outs in my warm up have obviously increased my stability on the rings a fair bit.

switched to working out at a gym now. Using a tall power rack to hang my rings from which is better than my pergola i used before in terms of clearance. Felt good doing more full ROM on the muscle ups. L sits felt weak today, probably because my core is fried from basketball yesterday and my legs are hell sore. Otherwise good consistant work. Still can't do full ROM on the HeSPU. Probably half the rang at the moment. Will look to increase range as strength improves.

Got proper nutrition for the first time in weeks today before i worked out. Made a HUGE difference. I ate a good breakfast before training and sipped on a protein shake while i trained. I felt a lot stronger through all motions. Being at a normal gym i no longer have my trap bar. I deadlifted with a straight bar earlier in the week and it felt awkward and clumsy, so have to really work my technique.

Today i squatted and my form felt really solid. Just started at 1 x 5 @ 60kg. Will only slowly increase the weight as i want to keep good form and avoid injury or any excessive strain on the lower back. 60kg isn't bad as a starting weight considering i weight 66kg.

Handstands feel a lot stronger. I am beginning to rotate between a wall handstand (stomach facing wall) and next session a wall handstand (back facing wall). I find the Stomach facing wall is more of a workout because you wall walk in and out of the movement, but that the back facing wall is much better for practicing balance as you can kick off a little bit at the end of the static and try to hold a free handstand for a second or so.

My only fail today was in Muscle Ups. I did my first one fine like normal, but for some reason kept noobing out on the second one. I don't know if i was doing something intuitively with my body when i normally pull and i stopped doing it or what was going on. I eventually forced a second rep out but it was ugly.

When i hit moments like that i try to take it as a wake up call to go over my form and technique. So from now on i will not do full MU's but instead work on the parts of the motion with strict form like i saw Lizardman doing in one of his vids.

Otherwise good session.

Was over the moon with my muscle ups. After a couple of noob outs on the MU earlier in the week i decided to do them a lot slower and just stop at the transition point. However, when i went very slowly and strickly i just rolled over into the movement so easily i was amazed. I did 2 strong, fairly strict muscle ups so i was very happy and stopped there. I plan to continue just pulling slowly through the movement and not trying to push it at all. If i roll over into sweet if not then i work the slow neg part.

I did some wall runs for the first time. 1 set of 10 followed by 2 sets of 5. They felt fine when i did them, but i was aching in unusual places today. I will continue cycling them in to my wall handstand training but think i need to ease into them nice and slowly.

Otherwise really strong work out. Deadlifting felt a lot better today as well. My form is slowly coming back and i sticking to light loadings until my 'groove' is back. did 1 x 5 of 60kg on the DL. Have also switched to doing my Legs last rather than first as the squating and DL fatigues my lower back and makes it harder to hold flat back form on the gymnastic moves.

Began phase 2 of my training today. Phase one was mainly L Sits and light handstand work with lots of pre hab. This next phase is introducing my body to some of the basic pushing and Pulling for a couple of months. Nothing too crazy, just slowly building up while continuing to work on my shoulder girdle rehab / prehab. I am considering doing this till April next year and just slowly increasing weight / time as i progress before i begin full lever work and a more integrated training cycle. Probably a bit over paranoid, but i just don't want to bung my shoulder again and not be able to train which would be really frustrating.

I was very happy with my light beginner cycle. Slow and steady progress and the rehab work on my shoulder girdle was excellent. I may add even more prehab work in during this cycle in the form of shrugs and face pulls, but will see how i go. My next training cycle will consist of two pull / push / core / leg days and one multiplane day. See below for the workout.

Workout A

Pull

1 x 5 High False grip Ring Pull Ups

1 x 5 High Pull bar Pull Ups (move up to weighted)

Core

L Sit Bar 2 x 20 seconds

Push

1 x 5 Ring Push Up

1 x 5 Planche Push Up

1 x 5 DB palms in BP 15kg

Leg

DB Snatches 1 x 5

Static

Wall Handstand Front

Workout B

Push

1 x 5 Ring Dip (moving up to Bulgarian

1 x 5 Weighted Dips

Pull

Rows 2 x 5 Weighted Rows

Core

L Sits 2 x 20 seconds

Leg

Back Squat 1 x 5

Static

Wall handstand back

Workout D

Muscle Ups 1 x 5

Skin the Cat 1 x 5

Ring L Sits 2 x 10 seconds

Front Lever Pulls 1 x 5