NaterMania

8.5%...? You're so fat!!!!

No but really, how many people can even say they have been close to 8.5% body fat. How many wannabe-body builders have even come close - especially if you count out the ones doing "supplements".

Very nice work dude.

Thanks Staying in energy balance makes it a lot easier to minimize badness from crap diet and to get back to where I belong without having to really pay too much attention to it.

Won't be making the seminar this time either, have just mostly gotten over some bacterial respiratory crap that kicked my mom's butt but just made me a bit tired for a few days. I don't want to pass that around, it's no fun. I also have a crapton of work to do for Organic Chemistry, and one or two other things so that sucks, but that's the way it is.

Next post will be video updates.

Oh organic chem. fun fun. I actually enjoyed it. Was one of my favorite classes.

Nic Branson said:

Oh organic chem. fun fun. I actually enjoyed it. Was one of my favorite classes.

It is really cool, a lot more like language than science in many ways. At least for now

So this is a few progress videos. Much of this actually started as rehab and just worked so well that I have kept it for strength work. There will be more to come.

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Great vids!!!! Cant wait to see more! request for oaol pushups and freemotion vids! And trap work on the freemotion lol :twisted:

Slzz, so do cross pulls/butterflies/pullovers hit the lats more than pullups? What about yewkis?

It seems maybe im hitting the teres major more on pullups.

Or maybe just the top of the lats, not sure

I also read that culs below 90 degrees work the brachialis and brachiradialis more than the bicep. True?

What a nifty machine, Josh! I've never trained in a modern gym but that looks really useful!

The straight arm DB work has inspired me. Maybe I'll add a set or two here and there to see how it goes. I'll probably use 5 lbs to start with and take it really slow. The form looks complicated, tho.

Great stuff Joshua. Always inspired by your methodicalness and creativity with your training.

mikelmarion said:

Slzz, so do cross pulls/butterflies/pullovers hit the lats more than pullups? What about yewkis?

It seems maybe im hitting the teres major more on pullups.

Or maybe just the top of the lats, not sure

I also read that culs below 90 degrees work the brachialis and brachiradialis more than the bicep. True?

It's really more like from 0 to 30-40 brachioradialis has a great line of pull and around that range brachialis starts contributing more to actual torque and BRS starts contributing less, and the biceps are TRYING but don't really hit their full stride (so to speak) until you're at 80-ish degrees of elbow flexion.

In my experience, butterflies and cross pulls are the only exercises that actually work coracobrachialis to any significant degree. What you feel working will depend on where you're weak, but at the moment I feel it more in scapulothoracic and scapulohumeral muscles than in the lats. You do feel the lats some, but not nearly what you would think and it's mostly the arm-to-hip and rib section that's working when you do feel them.

I have always felt that yewkis are probably the single best lat exercise I have ever done, if you want to classify things like that.

FL rows are also fantastic in that respect.

I feel like FL pulls are the best for working long head of the triceps specifically, along with victorian pulls using DB or a FM machine.

Pullovers, done properly, are heavy on the serratus and lats (mostly the longer part going to the hips and ribs). Of course lots of other things work, but these are generally the focus groups. Doing these with straight arms is important if you really want the serratus to work, at least in my experience but that may simply be due to the fact that it is easier for me to focus on scapular movement with the straight arms. I get a better retraction which means a fuller ROM for the serratus.

I currently feel like DB PLPU are the best single serratus exercise I've done, but all straight arm work is good for that.

I won't be getting into too much more detail.

I appreciate the support as always, guys!

Great, thanks for the info!

What is the difference between front pulls and front lever pulls as far a muscle activation, or are they the same?

Also, Are you saying that the db plance pushups are better for the serratus than th one arm/leg pushup? I remember you saying that was the best.

Would the oaol pusups be your next vid? Or the work on the freemotion for the lower traps?

Are you at 230 and 8% yet? :twisted:

I am 225, probably 11% right now. My girlfriend prefers me this way, but I am slowly getting leaner. Putting on about 1.5 lbs every 2-3 weeks right now it would seem, nearly all of it muscle so far.

Got my first straight arm inlocate on the rings, will be putting up video next week now that I know I can do it. Just tried it out of the blue on a whim Hooray for already having very strong internal rotators.

Got some cross trainers, will post a little of what I actually do with them in 6 months or so from now. For now, just finding that they are very useful for a surprising amount of bent arm strength. I can also do a comfortable full butterfly with them... barely. Freemotion has paid off.

Outside of that, starting to branch off into meathooks and developing a few awesome exercises to really build strength into no-lean muscle ups and whatnot.

XR support is coming back strong. Started doing PL leans, FL holds in flat tuck, and full lay yewkis again. Everything feels great. WIll be doing much more rope climbing in the future, slowly building into that now. It is very good stuff, as is basic PB and HB swinging.

Unfortunately my swinging will be pretty gentle for the next few weeks.. like the next 6-8... because I have some (probable) grade 1 strains in my deep lumbar muscles. Bad front squats after a lot of biking was stupid. I'll never do that again

I will probably *shudder* use machines to maintain my legs while my back heals up. Repulsive, but you do what you must.

Got my first straight arm inlocate on the rings, will be putting up video next week now that I know I can do it. Just tried it out of the blue on a whim Hooray for already having very strong internal rotators.

This was pretty awesome to see. Nothing like a 200+ guy doing slow inlocates. us smaller guys with a lot of flexibility couldn't get this.

Joshua Naterman said:

I will probably *shudder* use machines to maintain my legs while my back heals up. Repulsive, but you do what you must.

Be brave, Josh.

Well, this is my advanced training log.

Right now I am not in a huge position to say much, because of recent back injury due to stupidly doing 6 sets of front squats IMMEDIATELY after a hard bike ride to the gym. Most likely my deep spinal muscles were somewhat inhibited, and I didn't do any arch hold or back extension warm ups like I literally just realized (while typing this sentence) I should have done. As a result, during the bottom of my 3rd rep of 205 I felt strings snapping from L5-S1 up to L2-L1 or so, and I just dumped the weight the last inch onto the rack. Totally sucked, had a little bruising Wednesday night in the lower back that Dan noticed but it was gone Thursday morning. Got lucky, it's a good thing I'm built Ford Tough.

Anyhow, current level:

Decent planche lean, short tuck planche.

Getting a solid handstand back

Working on pike and straddle pike, will probably have to be VERY gentle with this for the next 6 weeks... sad but true

front squat 215 x 5 reps, personal best and ATG to boot. Of course, right now I can't do any

Solid, nearly open handstand for 15-20s. Have just started practicing this again.

Something I noticed with handstands: Just switching to doing basic pull ups and hangs with fingers only (and deadlifts for sure) will significantly enhance hand and wrist comfort and strength during HS work. I would expect it to take 6-8 weeks to really see large benefits as it will take time for the wrist to adapt. In the beginning this may lead to temporary discomfort if you don't do your handstands the day BEFORE your finger grip pulling.

Cross trainers:

So, Dan and I played with a pair I bought. First off, what Mirrordrain was doing is much harder than it appears. This only enhances my opinion that this extreme difficulty is what led to his current injuries. Still, proper respect to him for what he developed: It is pretty legit, if also fairly useless in the grand scheme of his current overall progress as a gymnastic athlete.

Immediately I started thinking of non-traditional uses. Yes, I can do a full butterfly with them, which was INCREDIBLY difficult by the way, and yes I can do a few presses from cross to maltese and back, which is a nice way to start becoming familiar with the positions if you are strong enough and know how to do this safely, but much more important for us all right now the following is what I want to share:

1) These are absolutely, positively BRILLIANT for advanced muscle up work. I'm talking about no-lean regular and wide MU. Man, when you keep your arms and shoulders at 90 degrees and pull through you really feel subscapularis go BANANAS. You will also immediately find out whether your scaps are as stable as you think they are They may not be, and I think that this is a big reason why certain stalls in progress occur.

2) Backward roll (haven't tried forward roll, as it is honestly pretty easy if you can do a few MU):

You have to be particular about forearm placement on the pad because there isn't enough room to roll the arms across the trainer as you rotate the shoulder, but these are also absolutely amazing for backward roll development. You can do these slowly and learn to feel EXACTLY where you need to keep tension, and you don't need a spotter. Again, it is hard to overstate how useful this can be for those of us who train alone or without a trained spotter. It is also a great way to build volume into some skill-specific work that is adjusted to YOUR level of strength and ability.

3) Reverse muscle up.

4) Back lever curls (not doing these right now, for obvious reasons a) back injury and b) I don't have a solid BL right now, probably from back injury lol)

for both 3 and 4, you are basically adjusting the length of the arm and able to start the movement with something like an 80% reduction in effective loading at the elbow. Hello high rep 1/2 reverse MU. Same for BL curls.

Now, I want to be 547% clear about this: You should not, I repeat SHOULD NOT replace any of the GB progressions with this stuff. It is very simply assistance work!

Your progress will SUCK if you do not also go through the full leverage progressions, and I am not going to get into huge detail about this because everyone here has been to the seminars, had extensive experience with GB work and should understand from personal experience how the current state of progressions that will be coming out later this year in GB 2.0 truly address step-by-step developmental concerns to make sure you become a balanced athlete.

We do thrive on variety, both in exercise variation AND in rep range!

I realize that even in here there are going to be a lot of people who don't know enough about training effects or don't have enough experience yet to make any real use of this post, and that's fine.

Under no circumstances should you consider this to supercede anything. It is simply an intelligent way to fill in certain gaps, and to do so with a one-time purchase that can be used anywhere.

Used correctly, this falls directly into the same category as dumbbell/plate bicep curls and dumbbell/band work we have been taught: Assistance work for prehab and structural development so that we will be ready for later elements as they come.

Fellow Mods and Coach: Feel free to delete anything in this post that you think is just totally not a good idea to have even in here. I will not mind at all. I personally don't think it's an issue but... I mean I can understand that this post may cause confusion for a lot of people. I think it will be useful for several of us as well.

I also want to point out that I am following the same progressions from 2.0 that Daniel Burnham is and have been for a few weeks. They work very, very well. I am feeling great, and he has made substantial progress.

I am really, really impressed with where he has gone in his abilities from 6 months ago to now.

Personal log. I would hope those in this forum would understand the things we do are not necessarily recommended for others.

Slizzard stuff is highly experimental!

Indeed, indeed!

Straight arm slow inlocate video coming up tonight!

I'm very impressed with the butterfly you mentioned. I just barely achieved one (with proper grip) in my trainers and it kicks my ass every rep, (an I'm only 120 lbs). Congrats you beast! And how interesting that free motion machines really do seen to carry over...

mirroredrain said:

I'm very impressed with the butterfly you mentioned. I just barely achieved one (with proper grip) in my trainers and it kicks my ass every rep, (an I'm only 120 lbs). Congrats you beast! And how interesting that free motion machines really do seen to carry over...

To an extent they do, much moreso for butterfly and straight arm stuff than for inlocate, since the the vertical arc angle is higher than on regulation rings during inlocate. That actually makes a huge difference. Just an FYI

Until you know how to actually use your body in these movements it's not a good idea to train them, for anyone else reading this

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Beautiful! I really enjoyed that. The slow inlocate was nice and the MU was art! Good job with the no-lean on that. And your grip seemed to go from false at the start to pretty much neutral during the transition. Bella. Makes me wanna train MU's again.

Thanks! In a week or two (or three) I will film a really nice muscle up and put that up. Coach is right... I can do much, much better than what is shown.