NaterMania

slizzardman said:

27Oct2009

I feel like I am missing something, but I can't remember what.

time to breathe? haha. geeze.

You think we can look forward to a video in ze log soon?

Razz said:

You must have been running from station to station in that workout :twisted:

I was, just about. I felt nauseous after the deadlifts and sat down for a few minutes with a wet paper towel over my eyes and forehead

I'm going to have to put something up soon, for sure. I did do some back lever work n a bar last night, and the full tuck is hard on the elbows! It'll be a while before I'm back in the straddle. At least, I'm going to make sure I take my time. Not going to try straddle before next summer, even though strengthwise I'll be there long before. I am tired of getting hurt

29Oct2009 Moderate Intensity

warmup:

jump rope

arm circles

workout:

5 cast wall walks: 1 set of 3 and one set of 2. These are tough

30-40 total pullups, sets of 4-6. half on rings, half on bar. Rings pullups were L pullups. Bar was a variety of grips.

2 sets 8 front lever rows: 1 set tuck, 1 set adv tuck.

30s total of back lever, beginner tuck. Wow! Tough I did some shrugs in this position, slowly. No elbow pain the . day after so I guess it was ok!

1 min support work, neutral and RTO. Some swinging as well, very tough. 3 sets of 20s.

10 s tuck planche on rings, why is this so much easier than the floor?!

20 bw squats

4 sets per leg of 1 rep SLS+15 lbs dumbbell! I can do these totally freestanding! I feel like a freaking NINJA!

2 sets flat bench, 9x185 and 6x225. Some shoulder weirdness, not terrible.

2 sets incline press, 8x155, 8x175. Again, some strangeness in my right shoulder, not too bad.

1 set per arm 13 reps concentration curl,. 35 lb dumbbell.

1 set 12 reps victorian dumbbell press, 25 lb dumbbells.

7 reps standing raise in plane of the scapula, 15 lbs.

2 sets 12 reps standing upper rotator work 70 lbs on cable w/rope attachment.

1 set various shrugs

1 set 12 reps back squat, 185. 6 reps regular, 6 reps wide.

1 set 8 reps straight leg deadlifts with shrug at the top, 285. Started to feel tired, so I stopped.

01Nov09 High Intensity

I am getting sick, performance was below average. To make matters worse, I had planned on working out at 5 but the girlfriend changed plans on me and came to pick me up instead of meeting her at 6:30, so my workout got pushed from 5 pm to 1 am. SUCK.

3 sets 3 reps 277 lbs bench : Definitely felt a little heavier than it should have, but not a problem.

2 sets 3 reps 247 lbs incline bench: Again, felt heavier than it should but no biggie.

3 sets 3-5 reps 135 lbs dips: FAIL. 125: FAIL. I ended up getting a few sets of 3 reps with 90 lbs. Ridiculous. That's when I knew I was WAY off

3 sets 6-8 reps 225 lbs bent over row: pretty good form, actually!

1 set front lever rows, extended flat tuck. Too weak to do straddle

4 sets 2-3 reps pullups, BW+90 lbs. 2 sets neutral, 1 set reverse, 1 set regular with last rep neutral. Tougher than I expected. I blame the sickness.

4 sets 3 reps squats 287 lbs, 2 sets regular 2 sets wide. Harder than they should have been, but not bad.

4 sets 3 reps deadlift 435 lbs, not too bad, but still harder than it should be. Grip is better than last time. For some reason I can always deadlift.

horizontal external rotation: 9 reps per side with 25 lb dumbbell per arm, followed by 10 reps of internal with same weight.

1 set concentration curls 3 reps 60 lbs. tough.

2 sets reverse curls 15 lbs. feeling ok

Workout took one hour on the nose.

Took 1 hour exactly.

Increase C-vitamin of ascorbin acid (the cheapest you can get), drink more, go to sleap early.

Yea I know the feeling when the sickness is getting you.

Thanks, I'm going to have to do that. I don't think I'll get whatever I've got very bad, but I'm going to try and minimize the impact I'll probably train lighter than usual the next two workouts. SLeep is huge, I haven't been sleeping well for weeks, steadily getting worse. Shoulder pains Like, I'll lay on them and wake up after an hour. I massaged with a tennis ball yesterday on the wall for 10 minutes twice through the day and I slept great, so I'm going to keep doing that and get a real massage as soon as I can!

HeSPU went great yesterday!

I did 6 sets of 3, and I did the first 3 sets in less than 5 minutes!!! I expected the 6 sets to take 20 minutes at the least, but they ended up taking about 14 minutes. I took a 5 minute rest between sets 3 and 4, and I did cast wall walks into and out of the last 3 sets. I did take around 2 minutes rest per set on them, but I am excited!!! I feel my shoulder working better, and pretty soon in a few weeks I will start increasing the ROM by piling books or something for hand rests. I figure there's no point in doing more reps until I have a full ROM This is very exciting for me I could barely do one with some help in February!!!

I was going to take some videos this last workout but my stupid camera is either broken or out of batteries. I can't tell, but I'm leaning towards broken

Congrats good work!!

Thanks I'll have video up as soon as I A) borrow my girlfriend's camera, or B) fix my camera or get a new one.

I am very excited about my progress with the handstand, and I can absolutely tell that the cast wall walks are going to be a huge asset to my training. I'm thinking about eventually changing my medium day from weights to kettlebells, after I buy some handles and learn how to use them.

Great, it's always good to be suprised in a good way

Yes it is! I am officially on the comeback!!! I was doing some inverted curls, and decided to turn it into a full lay reverse yewki(or yewki, i forget which) and I held the full lay front lever for about 3 seconds before slowly continuing down. It was really funny, I was doing this off the dip bars so the whole gym stopped and was like HOLY SHIT. I was even surprised that I held it.

04Nov2009 lightish day

10 minutes jump rope. I'm still pretty damn fast! skipping as fast as my feet can go for 30-60s at a time, then some moderate paced jumping and jogging for a minute, and repeat. Sort of like intervals.

3 sets 4-8 inverted curls, hips above hands at the top, getting good! I haven't been practicing these, I was honestly surprised. I have gotten stronger. Go free weights!

3 sets 20-30s RTO support, short rings. No elbow tension, that's good for business!!!!!

1 set 10m forward 10m backward foot wheel straight arm shrug walk. So, pushup position, ab wheel strapped to feet so I can roll.

I then walk forward and then backward 10m each, with locked elbows, all locomotion coming from shoulder shrugging movement, sort of like cast wall walk.

1 10 second handstand, with a step every other second or so. Getting better! My shoulders feel better too.

1 set 15 pavel situps, i need to make my ghetto-fied ab pavelizer 2! I'll post instructions once I do it, it's so easy it could work the street corner.

I did some rotator work both with the rings, with elastic bands, and with the cables. Not the most productive workout, really. Being sick, I was a bit more interested in talking to people It so happened that I got to pick the brain of a competitive powerlifter. I learned some interesting things about developing the explosive strength I lack. Unfortunately until my shoulder is better I won't be able to do too much of that. I also learned about Gravitational Gymnastics, search for it on google. It's quite interesting. I just so happen to live about 20 minutes from the guy, I'm going to go for a massage if I can afford it and learn more about the gravitational gymnastics.

slizzardman said:

Yes it is! I am officially on the comeback!!!

Great and congrats for your front lever!

Congratulations your absolute strength must be pretty insane with your size and bw :shock:

Thanks guys! Yea, my maximal strength is fairly high. I'll be getting this on video soon, maybe tomorrow. I'm trying to get better, I tell you what... I'm going to kick my girlfriend's brother's girlfriend in the box if she sends us her kids when they are sick again. That's just plain inconsiderate.

Well, I'm finally getting over being sick. I didn't feel 100% today, so I did heavy partials on everything, and some increased ROM HeSPU, on 3.5" blocks. Well, books stacked on each other.

10NOV2009 heavy partials

3 sets HeSPU 2 reps on floor for "warm up", 3 reps on 3.5" elevated hand blocks, 2 reps on elevated hand blocks with a slow negative on the second.

The following are heavy partials done on smith machine. We have no free weight power rack

Partials for me are the last 3-6 inches of the movement. On this machine its more like the last 5 inches.

3 sets heavy military press 10x185, 10x205, 6x255.

3 sets heavy flat bench press 10x285, 10x385, 8x435.

3 sets heavy bent over rows 10x285, 8x365, 6x395.

3 sets deadlift lockouts, 10x435, 5x505, 3x530.

3 sets heavy partial pullups 2 reps to 90 degreesx135 neutral grip, 1 90 degree and 2 partials regular grip x 135, 1 full rep and 2 partials reverse(chin) grip x 135.

leg press: 10 full reps with 585 for warm up

10 partials with 855

10 partials with 945

for these, partials were half reps.

Still weak, but believe it or not this stuff doesn't take that much energy. I also won't be able to go as high as I used to because the plates this gym has are unbelievably wide. only 5 45's and a 10 fit on each side of the damn machine. I guess with the various ankle, wrist, and waist weights I have I could up the weight to 540 or so, but that's a far cry from the 675 I used to do on the bench. I guess I can up it with bands and whatnot, though I haven't got a CLUE what that'll bring the total to. AH, future experiments. It will be interesting to see if this addition to my training will make a noticeable impact on my recovery and progress. Elbows feel good.

Well, there's definitely been progress with the elbows. Feeling much better than a month ago. I am starting to work planches on the swiss ball, which is a great training aid, and I am using chest expander-type exercises to work on my shoulders in general, low volume and fairly low intensity, with TUT principles. I don't know EXACTLY how the old strongmen used these, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it is with TUT-like protocols.

Off days are some playing with the kettlebells, learning snatch, clean, and swing form. I've got it down pretty good now, and the 50 lbs feels like nothing. I am also playing with learning a version of the bent press. It's amazing, it works some part of the lats that I really haven't felt before. I've gotten a lot of great ideas from the old strongmen. Did you know that kettlebells were a regular part of their training? Did you know that the reason the old dumbbells and kettlebells had those big balls on them was so you could increase the load ounces at a time with lead shot? That's how those guys got so ridiculously strong.

I have been working with resistance bands, cables, chest expanders, whatever you want to call them. I've been doing some external rotation work as well as straight arm shoulder work. I will make a video at some point, it's really good stuff. Makes my shoulders feel good. Essentially I take a one foot resistance band loop and with straight arms spread it as far as I can horizontally. Maintaining that width as best I can, I move my arms in as many different directions as possible. I draw figure eights with my outstretched straight arms in front of me, to the sides, down, and up. This is fantastic for my shoulder stability. Shoulder pain is reducing more steadily each day, a good thing in my book. My strength in this exercise has increased considerably in the one week I have been performing it. Those old guys really had something with this chest expander business. They work.

My elbows have felt great, I can actually hold a tucked planche with completely straight arms and no pain, something I don't think I even did correctly before I got hurt. I think there was always a very very slight bend, and slight pain. The swiss ball has been an important instrument for me in this improvement, and I think it will continue.

I've been doing 1-2 sets of 20-30 kettle bell swings a day, nothing taxing. One set of a few snatches and one set of a few cleans as well, just to get used to it. I'll be upping the weight to 60 lbs soon. I've started doing 1 set of bent press work as well, just a few reps. The bent press happens to work a lot of the same muscles that a one arm handstand would work, so I think in the long run this will benefit my hand balancing as well. All of this is just active recovery. Interestingly, it appears that the kettle bell swings are what the old-time strongmen credit their ability to perform 11+ foot STANDING BROAD JUMPS. That's a long ass jump for not even taking a step. It makes sense though, since the kettle bell swing requires a powerful extension of the hips, as does the broad jump.

I have completely neglected stretching. This will change soon. I'm getting better about being diligent with everything else, and the stretching will come soon.

I don't have the videos uploaded, but I went ahead and made videos of some gymnastics basics and some heavy partials. I did front lever (straddle, slight hip pike, then closed to full lay, with the same piking). Back lever started with tuck to flat tuck to flat straddle. Iron cross was to around 60 degrees or so, any more and I have to bend my elbows. Planche was ok, arms were straight. Pretty decent flat tuck in the beginning and at the end. I was a few degrees low at the end, but arms were perfectly straight. No pain! Very exciting. I did a short L-sit for fun, and then dropped.

I then did my heavy partials, with 505 on flat bench, 505 on deadlift rack pulls, 405 on bent-over rows, 255 on military press lockouts( i was tired from benching... I KNEW I should have done these first! I actually pressed 225 from my shoulders to slightly above the halfway point, and I was just a little too weak to get it all the way up. If I had done this first I would have gotten it. I absolutely credit the handstand pushups with being able to press 225 from the shoulders with no momentum.). I then did one set of thick handle deadlifts, just to show you guys what they are, and then I did one set of 10 body levers. My neck was kind of stiff, and i felt like i was piked a little, but my girlfriend says they were very straight. I have not seen the video to confirm this. It will be posted soon!

I lied about going slow with the kettlebell. It's 72.5 lbs now. Finally, it feels like something. It took the whole week, but I have the form down really good for the snatch and the clean, so at some undetermined point in the future I will be cleaning gigantic weights. I know I can do 100 lbs without too much trouble right now, but more of a lift than an exercise. I'll probably stick with this for a month or two and then go up to 95 lbs. That'll be as much as this handle can hold, I think. At least until I change the hardware around some! Muahahahahahahahahaha

That sounds like fun. I always wanted to try kettlebells.

THey are definitely fun. I fully intend on using over 200 lbs at some point in my 30's. I intend to become an all-around strongman: gymnastics, handbalancing, regular lifts, odd lifts, jumping ability, bending, grip, etc. I figure that I should at the very least be able to do the strength portion of the routines that college guys do, but my goal is to eventually be able to do the stuff that Gregor and the other pros do. As for the swinging, that'll come. I'll make time for that eventually

When I read 200lbs I was like: WHAT?!

I've never heard of anyone using that high of bells. Although, I never really looked into the subject, so

Have you ever seen the pictures of old strongmen and muscle beach? I love them so much. http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/blog/

Oh, yes. Louis Cyr PRESSED 273 lbs, or 278, or something like that. Not jerked, not push pressed, straight pressed from his shoulder into the air. Holy motherloving crap. I'm definitely going to get to 200 someday. THAT will be a cool video