Oyvinds log/program

Hi all!

I have been lurking around on the forum for about an year, soaking up valuable information, without posting much myself. I am quite new to strength training. Started doing some barbell and bodyweight training 2,5 years ago, got some sickness we call "kiss sickness" in Norway, which sat me back to scratch about 1,5 year ago. Back to scratch for me means 1.90m tall and 70-73kg, and not being able to do one chin, pull-up or push-up.

Since then I have been doing bodyweight training, and gradually following the exercises in BtGB and some nice ones found on this forum. My progress have been varying, but I have learned much about my body and program design.

I live in Norway, got all the equipment I need for training at home, and is soon hitting 30 years of age.

When I first got the BtGB I was expecting to find a ready design program I could follow. The lack of this made me a bit disappointed, but I now see why it was lacking. Instead of trying to list up a fixed program design, coach gives advices on how I can myself design a program, which in time is the best way I believe now. I am sure I could have gained much more progress the last year if I had went to the gym and used a personal trainer, but I doubt if I would have learned as much as I have done now. Learning by doing, on my own, and listen to others experience and advices is the way for me:)

I am now 84 kg and feel strong and healthy. I am far away from the shape some of the guys on this forum, but an year ago I had no chance pulling up to an tuck front lever. And now I can do 3x3 360 tuck pulls, so it feels good. Feeling strong is related to how weak you where in the past;)

Anyway, now to my program. Until now, I have only been training upper body, and my programs where getting too monotone. I was training mo, tue, thu and fri using only two programs. I had progress, but started to feel some slight shoulder pain. So this week I constructed a new program. It is based on what coach writes on top of page 176 and bottom of 178 in BtGB.

Also this article has inspired me: http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2010/03/t ... -training/

This means basic strength and static strength paired and integrated, and also working one plane of movement plus leg and core on every day.

Every day I have the same start and finish.

Start:

Wrist warmup

Wrist pushups against the wall. (Started this week with WP, and I have no chance doing them on the floor)

30s Arch hold, 30s hollow hold, 60s plank, 60s reverse plank, 60s PB support, 60s chinup dead hang, 50s handstand face against the wall.

Finish:

10 Shoulder dislocates using an 1.5inch rope

10 wall extensions (Surprisingly hard, makes me breathe like a whale)

30-45s weighted pike (This one is superb, have been doing it for 5-6 weeks, and is seeing progress)

Monday:

3 sets of:

- 3 negative HeSPU (face against the wall), followed by 15s adv frogstand

- 5 XR pull ups, followed by 15s german hang

3 sets of:

- 5 HLL half, followed by 10s L-sit PB lowish

- 5 SLS on each leg using some arm help, followed by 10s tuck front lever

Tuesday:

3 sets of:

- 3 PB dips, followed by 15s adv frogstand

- 3 XR chin ups inverted (ROM very reduced during the sets), followed by 15s tuck back lever

3 sets of:

- 5 archups, followed by 10s L-sit PB lowish

- 5 natural leg curls (assisting heavy with arms), followed by 10s tuck front lever

Thursday:

3 sets of:

- 3 XR push ups, followed by 15s adv frogstand

- 3 XR tucked front lever pulls (ROM very reduced during the sets), followed by 15s german hang

3 sets of:

- 5 wind shield wipers supine, followed by 10s L-sit PB lowish

- 5 deck squats jumping, followed by 10s tuck front lever

Friday:

Should have MPPu and MPPr, but I am not strong enough for any MPPr, so I just enjoy some 360 pulls.

3 sets of:

- 3 XR 360 tuck pulls, followed by 15s tuck back lever

- 15s adv frogstand

3 sets of:

- 5 bridge wall walks, followed by 10s L-sit PB lowish

- 5 natural leg curls (assisting heavy with arms), followed by 10s tuck front lever

The program feels good, and I have felt great after every workout. Looking forward to use this program for the next weeks. I think it will be much less monotone than my previous program.

I'm also planning to use the steady state process, that means only changing the program every 6-8 weeks.

Comments, advices and corrections are more than welcome, and highly appreciated. I have learned a lot the last year, but I know I still have lots to learn. And compared to others on the forum, I would call myself an beginner.

"Kiss disease". You mean Pfeiffer's? Because that sucks, man.

Yes, "Infectious mononucleosis" or Pfeiffer. It sucked. Fever between 39 and 40 celsius every evening for 4 weeks. Lost 12-13kilos...

Oh, Epstein Barr Virus, why does one disease have 30 different names? That one hit me first year of uni and set my grades back 40 odd percentage points. Didn't lose 13kg though :shock:

I have been following the program above for about 7 weeks now. It feels good, and I will stick to it. I have had a few weeks I have had to skip one day due to a cold and some travelling, so now the friday-program have become the monday-program. I never skip a workout, I just move it.

I will start posting here whenever I do a change in the program, so I can keep track of it and stay with steady state.

I have done the following changes:

Wrist pushups against the wall, have changed to on the floor 11th June. But I do them with knees on the floor and very piked hips. Tried doing one on the knees with straight hips and back, and I just smashed face flat into the gym mat.

Wish I started the wrist training a long time ago.

30s Arch hold, is the same but feels much better and more correct. I am now holding the arms much more straight forward than in the beginning. 30s Hollow hold has changed to 35s.

50s Handstand is the same, but my body is in a more straight line than before.

All the FBEs is at the same number of reps. Dips is the same in reps, but I am able to go deeper without feeling pain.

15s adv. frogstand was changed to 20s one week after startup of the program, as I have been doing 15s for a long period before. 22nd June I changed the style a bit, and it feels harder. Before my knees was resting on the outside of my arms, and my back was very curved. Now my knees are resting against (behind) my arms, just bellow my elbow, and back is almost flat.

I've uploaded an old picture of my frog stand and a new one.

10s tuck front lever, have changed to 20s from 22nd June. Tried to change to avd. tuck, but my shoulders cant hold more than one or two seconds.

15s tuck back lever, have changed to 20s from 22nd June

15s german hang, have changed to 30s form 22nd June

L-sit is still at 10s, but with better form. Some days I manage to keep the legs parallel with the floor, at least on the first set, some days not. I think L-sit will stay at 10s for a long time, but gradually looking better.

In the finish routine I have added some more stretching. I do 30s pancake split. And I do 30-60s with holding 15kg behind my back with elbows pointing straight up.

The wall extensions is still hard, but I can absolutely notice an improvement.

Changed my "Friday" program today

At the beginning it was:

3 sets of:

- 3 XR 360 tuck pulls, followed by 15s tuck back lever

- 15s adv frogstand

3 sets of:

- 5 bridge wall walks, followed by 10s L-sit PB lowish

- 5 natural leg curls (assisting heavy with arms), followed by 10s tuck front lever

Today I did this:

3 sets of:

- 3 XR 360 tuck pulls

- 20s adv frogstand

3 sets of:

- 20s tuck front lever

- 20s tuck back lever

3 sets of:

- 5 bridge wall walks, followed by 10s L-sit PB not so lowish as before

- 5 natural leg curls (assisting heavy with arms, but not as heavy as in the beginning:))

It felt good, and I will stick with it. I didnt want to embed the back and front lever into the 360 tuck pulls, as I am sure I wouldn't be able to do 3x3. However I still wanted to have them right after 3x3 pulls, as it targets much of the same muscles.

I see that my actual program that I am following is getting a bit unclear by all the changes, so I post the complete program bellow.

My current program.

I try to do Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. And I just cycle trough routine 1 to 4.

Every day I have the same start and finish.

Start:

Wrist warmup

Wrist pushups on the knees and with piked hips

35s hollow hold, 30s Arch hold, 60s plank, 60s reverse plank, 60s PB support, 60s chinup dead hang, 50s handstand face against the wall.

Finish:

10 Shoulder dislocates using an 1.5inch rope

30s holding 10 kg behind my back with one hand (30s left, 30s right). Elbow pointing up, and arm touching my ear, trying to get the elbow as far back as possible.

10 wall extensions (Surprisingly hard, makes me breathe like a whale)

30-45s weighted pike (This one is superb, have been doing it for 11-12 weeks, and is seeing progress)

30s "pancake split" (Far from a pancake split)

Routine 1:

3 sets of:

- 3 negative HeSPU (face against the wall), followed by 20s adv frogstand

- 5 XR pull ups, followed by 30s german hang

3 sets of:

- 5 HLL half, followed by 10s L-sit PB lowish

- 5 SLS on each leg using some arm help, followed by 20s tuck front lever

Routine 2:

3 sets of:

- 3 PB dips, followed by 20s adv frogstand

- 3 XR chin ups inverted (ROM very reduced during the sets), followed by 20s tuck back lever

3 sets of:

- 5 archups, followed by 10s L-sit PB lowish

- 5 natural leg curls (assisting heavy with arms), followed by 20s tuck front lever

Routine 3:

3 sets of:

- 3 XR push ups, followed by 20s adv frogstand

- 3 XR tucked front lever pulls (ROM very reduced during the sets), followed by 30s german hang

3 sets of:

- 5 wind shield wipers supine, followed by 10s L-sit PB lowish

- 5 deck squats jumping, followed by 20s tuck front lever

Routine 4:

Should have MPPu and MPPr, but I am not strong enough for any MPPr, so I've just made something different from the other routines.

3 sets of:

- 3 XR 360 tuck pulls

- 20s adv frogstand

3 sets of:

- 20s tuck front lever

- 20s tuck back lever

3 sets of:

- 5 bridge wall walks, followed by 10s L-sit PB lowish

- 5 natural leg curls (assisting heavy with arms)

Feeling good after just completed routine 3 today. Had a day in Finland for work, so the program got moved one day into the weekend.

The last two weeks the negative HeSPU have started to feel very good. Suddenly I went from almost falling towards the floor, to be able to take it real slow with some lock offs. This week I even did a few "3/4" HeSPU, I could push up again from a bit bellow middle. Had no chance pushing up again from the floor.

This week I felt much stronger in the XR chin ups inverted and tucked front lever pulls. My ROM on the first repetition in every set feels very good now on the tucked front lever pulls.

In routine 2, my L-sit is not lowish any more. I was able to to them on my parallets innsted of PB as normal. In routine 1 and 3 I have no chance doing them on anything else than PB. Will see about routine 4 on Monday.

Today I changed the order of my "warm up statics" I did 60s plank, 60s reverse plank before the 35s hollow hold, 30s Arch hold. This felt good, and I will stick with that. The plank feels quite easy now, and it warms up the muscles nicely for the hollow hold.

Also started doing 2x30s weighted pike this week instead of just one. Felt good. Also I tried something Joshua mentioned in a post I stumbled across. To "push" with the hamstrings, it worked great:)