Daniel Burnham's New Training Log

Nice!

I am noticing that my joints are steadily feeling better and better too, though I'm nowhere near where you're at anymore

I have gotten some excellent handstand tips from DIllon when we talked last night, really put together what I think is the last piece in the press handstand story.

The same coach that posted the ring swing video I sent you also has a handstand video, and if you notice the beginning progression, it is just an inverted pike press at 90 degrees. This is "to get the gymnast used to the position."

I didn't understand the significance of this until last night. Dillon and I were talking and I was telling him about how I'm able to use my back properly now and we got to talking about presses and he said he has a whole group that is developing nice straight arm presses.

His trick, if you want to call it that, is the leg-supported pike press. Let me explain. You start off with the legs on one of those blocks, and you hold handstand with the chest against the block. You then try to pull your butt behind you, and then put it back over your shoulders repeatedly. This gets you used to how you have to move during a straight pike press (not a planched press) as well as straddle presses. Then you do static holds as well, in the position where your center of mass is stacked over your shoulders (this is with the butt behind you) until you can hold that position without any weight on the box. At that point you are holding the most important part of the pike press, and from there you use Coach's box presses to progressively build the motion as well. He has found it to be a very simple and highly effective method of teaching perfect press handstands.

This fills in the gap between the stomach-to-wall straddle press negatives that I've noticed work so well for me, and made all the super beginning stuff make so much sense!

He basically said that a lot of people think that the handstand is just being upside down, but the trick is to understand that it's about always being stacked with shoulders and center of mass directly over the hands. You don't want to be planching at all, in fact just like we see in Yuri's videos you want to almost be very slightly "reverse planched" when performing the presses, and this is the part I have had extreme difficulty learning even though I know I need it. Now I feel like I have the final tool I need, so I'm excited!

I will be 100% satisfied if the most difficult thing I can do this coming May is a proper straddle press.

Yea I seem to planche a bit on the press handstand.

For the others who don't see me on a weekly basis I am working stalder press strength during my handstand sessions.

Today I got some good tips on my ring swings. I've tightened up the body motion and learned a neat drill on the floor to help the feel of the back and front swing shoulder strength. I have found a massive hole in my strength and plan to work the motion before I do too much more with swings.

Still recovering from a stomach virus. Had a fever for 4 days and was sick for 7 days. I plan to use thanksgiving as a jump start and get back to my main training schedule next Monday.

First real day back. I am behind by two weeks on training now. It was a tough day. Rope climbs and hollow back work were especially difficult. I dropped 4 pounds but I figure I will gain them back quickly.

Still working on crosses at a super low volume and intensity. It's getting much easier using my bands. I think I'll take it to wrist supported in a few weeks once I feel fully adapted.

My hip flexor has been bothering me. I need to get it under control before I develop an injury. It's very tight and gives me limited movement in things like straddle L. I also feel it pretty good after straddle planche.

The last week went pretty well considering.

I have upped my training schedule yet again. I now do 6 days on with saturday being dedicated to learning new skills and doing flexibility/mobility.

I have ordered some high bar grips to start training that directly. Until this point I was just working on kips and tap swings. Ill be on strap bar in the next couple of weeks as well. My only goal at this point with high bar is a giant.

Some of the guys at the gym have finally convinced me to do some tumbling too. Ive always hated tumbling, but I really need the body awareness if I am going to compete. Hoping this leads to a better dismount and maybe ill even compete a floor routine in the next year.

Strength wise Im still progressing according to coach's seminar routine. My most coveted simple ring skill right now is the backwards roll. For some reason I cannot seem to get this down. I always allow my arms to move outward away from my body where I can not push up from. Its very frustrating considering I've taught others the skill.

Ive also started including straddle some compression drills in my routine. I found that my straddle-l was very low so I am trying to pick that up. I don't have too much trouble with v-sit though.

Almost done with the first 12 weeks of the GB routine.  Next week I deload and work on the new exercises.  This week has been pretty tough but I have been able to complete all exercises as prescribed.  

After a lot of failed pommel attempts I found coaches progressions.  Definitely different than the ones I was using.  Emphasizing the hang has really helped.  Unfortunately the p-bars not long enough for me to fully extend in the front and back so I have improvised by putting too beams together.  It is also more comfortable on the arms.  Let me know what you guys think.

Sorry for the edit, I accidentally pressed enter when looking for what I knew must be a youtube link. The video pane didn't show up for me, don't know if anyone else had this issue.

That's a cool drill! 

Joshua Naterman said:

Sorry for the edit, I accidentally pressed enter when looking for what I knew must be a youtube link. The video pane didn't show up for me, don't know if anyone else had this issue.

 

That's a cool drill! 

Added a Youtube icon on the edit bar.

I didn't even notice the edit.  BTW Corey quotes are not working correctly in safari.  They did initially but I have had trouble today even after clearing cache.

It is a cool drill.  The difference between pushing your straight body around and feeling the hang and swinging it around is pretty substantial.  My bucket circles have already improved after only two days of doing it.  Im not even going to hop on the mushroom until that feels fluid.

So I know not too many people do a lot of skill work here but I thought I'd post my training schedule anyway.  Im getting into more the skills more and plan to compete in the upcoming year so Ive focused my apparatus work instead of just trying to get something new every week.  

Mon - 

Handstand work (presses, and static)

Basic tumbling

Static (FL, Planche)

High bar (swings, giants, kips, casts)

Ring (swings dislocates, inlocates)

Basic Strength (Rope, PPU)

Tuesday

Handstand work

Basic Tumbling

Static (Manna work)

Parallel Bar (support swings, uprises, kips)

Pommel Horse (circles)

Basic Strength (side lever progressions, Legs)

Wed

Handstand

Tumbling

Some vault drills

Strength same as Monday

Thurs - Same as tues

Friday - same as monday

Sat- New Skill day/ Straight Arm with Dream Machine and Dedicated Mobility

Sunday- Rest

Over the christmas holidays I may do the static and basic strength work in the morning then do skill at night when I can go to the gymnastic gym.  

Went to the gym tonight. My elbow pain is starting to come back. Occurs on the lower inside of the elbow above the joint. I believe it to be the triceps tendon. I've added in higher rep extensions with 15 pound weights but recovery is slow. I've been battling this pain for about 11 months now ever since I tried to get OAC prematurely. I guess that makes it tendonosis?

Maybe I can find a good sports massage therapist and get it worked out along with some rehab work.

The break has basically killedy routine. I have tried to go to gyms but traveling has made it hard. Did some of the basic stuff and even squatted at one gym. I will workout at a crossfit gym tomorrow that has a rope and rings so that will help. I never look forward to working out in a new gym unless it is a real gymnastics gym. Those don't open back up until the 2nd though.

I have taken the excess time to read more. I'm trying to educate myself on diet and nutrition more. In the past I always found it boring. I had read Robb wolfs book and bernadots text book and found them to be ok. But each was somewhat specific. Yesterday I bought the new edition of Perfect Health Diet. It's basically a new take on paleo and contains a lot of science and references. I am nearly done with the book and have found it tremendously informative and think it would be a good read for a diet novice and intermediate if you can guage knowledge that way. The breakdown of the need of macro nutrients was pretty thorough and mimicked the new recommendations comig from some of the paleo guys who aren't too proud. I also noticed that it agreed with most all the things I have heard from josh (barring timing). Anyway I recommend it if anyone is curious about diet.

Neat!

Hahaha, the timing will come. Especially when it comes to high-end performance.

Traveling realy kills your training. I'm away for 2 weeks and you realy have to use your imagination. Hardest thing is to get good food.

I'm realy trying to stay away from gluten and at airports thats more or less impossible and like Josh said in another post dont forget to bring the protein powder!

Ha , Mats I never forget about the food. I've had pretty good success with gyms while traveling. Several crossfit gyms have basically given me free unlimited access. I'm pretty sure one even took a picture of me for their website. Ring HSPU seem to impress non gymnasts. I was also invited to teach a class at another but I just told them to buy the book.

At any rate I'll be glad to be back home tomorrow and desperately need to get back to work on my skills for my routine.

I took the opportunity of the break to work on mobility and my weakness in straight arm. My assisted cross pulls have gotten much easier and I am doing 5 reps per set now. I guess that means I should try and wean off the bands. I also had access to a free motion machine so I was able to work on reverse muscle up and butterflys.

Going to failure in tricep work has been pretty beneficial for my elbow pain lets hope it continues to get better

Glad to hear you're doing better with the elbow!

I've been stretching a lot, like watching entire anime episodes in a standing pike. It works

Ha. Over the summer I would stretch every Sunday afternoon while watching the weekly law and order marathon. It's amazing how fast flexibility comes when you do this. I would also sit and watch while squatting down. It's a great ankle and hip mobility position.

NICE. I'm about to watch some "A certain magical index" episodes... doing one squatting and one with hip flexor stretching shounds like a winner!

You back in ATL?

I finally got back into a gymnastic gym today. It felt great after bouncing around several crossfit and chain gyms. I worked out with the level 6-8 and got smoked :0. It was fun though. They were actually pretty helpful in pointing out some flaws. I also noticed that the strength conditioning most coaches are doing seems flawed. They basically did a ton of push-ups and pull-ups. I doubt most coaches go through the number of progressions coach does.

Tomorrow I am teaching a crossfit gym how to do muscle ups. Maybe I can convince them that kipping muscle ups are not a great progression.

Wrists and elbow feel good. The only issue is my hip flexor which has gotten worse despite the therapy I've tried and the rest I've done. Not a good sign. Hopefully I can get some good pointers when I get back to Atlanta.

I am currently working straddle planche and straddle front lever. Not a good time to have straddle flexability issues. Bent arm strength is coming along fine though chest rolls are sometimes hit or miss. It seems to depend on my roll as the strength doesn't seem to be an issue. I find them very easy when spotted. At any rate I can't wait to get back into the groove.

Tonight I got two new skills. Consistent glide kip to support on pbars and a full mushroom circle.

For the glide kip I had been working on compression in the basket hang this helped me a lot but I didn't have enough power to go trough to the top of support. I worked on floor kips tonight and then transferred it to the bars. Just that work gave me the kip.

The mushroom has been a struggle. I've only been training it seriously for about 2 months and only twice a week. I kicked it up to a small session everyday and made better progress in the last 3 weeks. Coach's hanging circle swings helped a lot as did lean drills. I worked bucket until I felt confident on it but had problems with the last quarter on mushroom. Tonight I went through all the fail points like lean and body shape and found that it was my hips. I wasn't leading correctly which caused me to collapse. After correcting this I got 3 non subsequent mushroom circles in a row.

Strength work is still coming fine. This week is a deload. I am in the final rope pull-up progression. Front lever is really the only position giving me trouble.

http://youtu.be/XLn94msIGKQ

Pommel circles.  Still a work in progress...

Next week I enter into the last progressions for the Foundational strength in rope climb and planche.  I am still somewhat behind on front lever and side lever.  I am focusing more on scapular control these days with both the integrated mobility and the assistance exercises that I do after my big work.  Not really any new skills in the last weeks.  Still working on swing to handstand on p-bars, ring handstands, Giants on high bar, and circles on pommel.  Ring swings are the sticking point for me now.  Hopefully I can find some good instruction in the next week to get the technique figured out.

I realized I've not talked about nutrition much recently in this thread so I thought I would write down a typical day. My days are skewed by late nights so I wake up very late compared to a normal schedule now.

For "breakfast"I eat eggs every morning and have for a long time. I will occasionally eat left overs from the night before but this is kinda rare.

Breakfast 10am-12pm

-4 eggs

-handful of berries (blue or black)

-1/4 cup of buckwheat or some sweet potato

-spinach in eggs

-light sprinkle of cheese on eggs(seldom)

Lunch 3pm if I ate breakfast at an early time otherwise I just have a small snack and wait until pre-workout

Generally something quick

Typical macros

-30g protein

-30g-50g carbs

10-20g fat

Preworkout dinner 1-2 hours before workout

Same macros as lunch sometimes extra fat

Workout nutrition

I follow Josh's nutrition plan and consume about 50 grams of carbs during workout 20g protein before.

30g protein after with 40-50g of carbs

Post workout meal. This ends up being around midnight and occasionally later. I go to bed around 2 each night

Similar to lunch macros with more fat added in. This usually entails eating cheese or a fattier meat.

My meals consist of a lot of rice, chicken sausage, grassed beaf, squash and sweet potatoes, greens of all kinds, shellfish, cheese, various other vegetables that go with the dish like onions or tomatoes.

I have had some success with this plan but am always looking for improvements. Typically I get rushed during school and missing lunch often happens. I never miss pre or post workout however and always get a good breakfast in.

Got sick this week. Everyone at school seems to have something... I guess that's what I get trying to train until the wee hours of the morning and ignoring the signs.

Anyway besides that there has been some good progress.

Strength wise still chugging along. I was doing the rope climbs and the non pulling hand is so low it was getting in the way so I just decide to do one without it. Ended up getting a single arm rope pull-up. Who knew... I went back to open tuck planche after realizing mastery was 30sec not 15 that has helped straddle planche tremendously. Foundation works!!

Skills have been picking up too. Been hard at work on pommel. Personal best is still just 6 circles on mushroom but numbers are getting more consistent. Ring swings, pbar swings, and high bar have all improved a lot. Also I'm breaking down and doing tumbling 3 times a week. I really dislike tumbling.

Still training 6 days a week with one day being prehab/stretching and watered down routines if there is a meet coming up. I have noticed some symptoms of overtraining. So I am looking to increase food and drop one day of strength conditioning while still working some skills on that day. I'm finding myself relying more on unnatural food sources as I get busier. This is definitely not optimal for me or anyone really. I plan to correct by using my crock pot.

I actually had my first gymnastics competition last weekend. I didn't have too much to show but it was a lot of fun and I definitely am looking forward to more.

 I went back to open tuck planche after realizing mastery was 30sec not 15 that has helped straddle planche tremendously. Foundation works!!

How far have you gotten with the 30sec template for open tuck?

I started from week 1 and got stuck  on 4x24 week 9   . I finished that week took an active rest week and tried again but it didn´t work so now I went back to week 5 4x12. We´ll se how it goes...