NaterMania

Well, good eating and good sleep has brought back my strength and then some!

I busted out 6 tempo HeSPU with ease, I didn't go for more. I did two more sets, all of which were submaximal.

I also played with squats. With no warm up, and without having been under a bar for months, 275 was laughably easy. I was shaky because I'm detrained, but the weight felt really light! I did two easy reps and racked it. I then did front squats with 135, pretty light, but my form felt perfect! Quite exciting! I'm going to work these back in once a week, along with a little thick bar bench pressing once every week or two. I seem to be making my best gains with a combination of 20-30% weights and 70% calisthenics, as a total volume breakdown.

Well, I'm actually taking my shoulders seriously for the first time ever. I've been doing lots of band work, mostly with chest expanders. External rotation, internal rotation, front expansions at varying angles, all concentrating on building proper motor patterns. I just started stretching with the expanders too, and it's brilliant. I can't believe I never thought of this before.

I'm being similarly cautious with my elbows. I'm making sure to do calisthenic bicep curls a few times a week with my rings 3 feet off the ground and my body straight, heels on the ground, curling knuckles to my forehead. These are pretty tough. I may just do these once a week and do an easier incline the rest of the time, because I need to get my inner elbows to where they have no strain. I am also doing chest expander curls every other day as prehab for biceps. Pretty light stuff, I'm using the 60lb chest expanders for regular and reverse curls.

I've gone back to 20-30s sets of frogstand, which is ridiculously easy, and I am slowly straightening my arms into advanced frog. I'll probably spend the summer and possibly fall building up to a 60s advanced frog with straight arms. At that point my planche progress should go very quickly. I won't start training BL or Tuck PL again until I achieve the 60s advanced frog.

I've started doing less intense FL work, which is surprisingly easy. 4x20s flat tuck FL with perfect form isn't very hard, even with 80s rests. I think I'll be sticking with this until my shoulder feels right during it. I am also going to start seriously training L-sits for the first time.

I will be doing some weighted work as well, with back squats, front squats, and deadlifts coming back into the mix. I think what I will do is deadlift 3-4x a month, and use FS and BS to warm up for some work sets of SLS, with 3-4 serious BS/FS workouts a month as well. It just seems like this will work really well. We'll see!

I've had a lot of time off lately, because school has been overwhelming since my free time has been taken up fixing a septic system. Ugh. Things seem to be getting back into reasonable order, so I'm hoping I will be able to get this routine going and be able to have some real fun at the Seminar this may! Hell yea, I'll be there! Kick ass!

I've been a good boy, working multiple sets of chest expander work and external/internal rotations. I'm doing full-contraction ROM "row" work with the bands to re-engage my scapular retractors... it seems like they aren't doing anything on the right side. I feel very unbalanced all of a sudden in my front levers. I'll have to bust my camera out from now on to make sure.

Monday 05Apr2010:

4x20s advanced frogstand, 75s rest. Pretty easy. My arms are a few degrees from being straight, I'm working into it slowly to accustom my elbows to the strain. It feels fantastic so far!

seated pike lifts for compression. Well, I'm better than I used to be thanks to the HLL work lol! Still far from ideal.

2 sets 10 reps reverse curls 15 lb dumbbells

3 sets front squats 12x135, 10x155, 5x185. Haven't gotten under the bar in months, and I've NEVER trained non-smith machine front squats, so I'm taking it slow. Not bad for the first day.

3 sets deadlift, 12x135 single arm deadlifts per arm, 10x225 double overhand, 8x275 double overhand, 6x365 double overhand. Pretty easy, honestly. I'm not even sore hardly.

All the squats and deadlifts were done in 10 minutes. The school gym was closing lol! I did supersets of the FS and DL.

Tuesday 06APR2009

Stretching, some PPP, nothing major. Some OAPu progressions, but not a full workout. More band work, but lighter.

Wednesday 07APR2010

30 minute jog, very slow. This was fun, it was nice to see how short this was. Less than 3 miles, I know that for sure.

3x25-30s flat tuck FL, 2x20s. Had to download a stop watch for my phone so first three sets were longer than they were supposed to be! Ugh

1x3 freestanding HeSPU! I'm getting there! I did these as slightly separated reps, but I'm almost able to do these as a solid set! Feels neat. It's harder than the wall.

2x20s rings support, slightly wide. Elbows feel great! I like this. I want them to feel this way forever. Hooray!

I think that's about it. I did some stretching, and I'm about to do more, along with a contrast shower.

Friday 09APR2010 Upper body push

Due to my shoulder issues I am not working much pulling stuff right now, I don't want to aggravate my shoulder while it heals. The pushing seems to be fine. THe only pulls I do right now are sub-maximal flat tuck front levers.

Mid-class break:

HeSPU. 5x5, 1x2. lol. 2120 pace.

stomach to wall: 5, 60s rest, 5

2.5 minute rest

back to wall: 5, 5, 2 minute rest, 5

between classes: 4 sets PPP, 60s rest.

1010 pace, pretty fast.

13, 9, 10, 8 reps.

4 sets close grip push ups. first and last sets were centered, middle two sets concentrated on one hand for half the reps and then the other. This was accomplished by moving my left hand to the center of my chest and my right hand somewhat to the outside, for auxilliary support. These really work the triceps HARD. Wow.

12, 10, 10, 12.

After class: 4 sets 20s advanced frog stand. This is getting super easy. 60s rest. Two more weeks and I'll straighten my arms even more. I'm at the last inch before straight, but it's a big jump in elbow force so I am taking it slow. I can hold a bent arm flat tuck planche pretty good lol, sometimes I fall forward into it! I've done momentary straight arm to see how it feels, and I am slowly getting there! I can feel the improvements session to session! Still going to give it at least 6 weeks before trying straight arm.

I am going to be doing thick bar work again soon, as soon as my forearms feel up to it and the workout area is clean enough.

Weekend: rest, LOTS of sleep, lots of food.

Monday: Dips and pulls.

2 sets 20 dips on parallel bars. Not very hard, but I haven't dipped in forever so I took it easy.

4x20sx60s rest flat tuck FL, 1x20s straddle FL to flat tuck. First 9 seconds were straddle, then I went back to flat tuck.

4x20sx60s rest advanced frog: getting easier and easier! I love it! I straightened my arms more this time, with no problems at all. I even slowly lifted out to a straight arm tuck, slightly bent flat tuck, and about 75 degrees bent arm straddle, then back to frog to finish the last set. I am SO going to do a planche one day.

4x10 reps 31X0 tempo flat tuck FL rows

3x7 reps bulgarian dips, 3111 tempo. Really easy, easier than ever actually. Didn't push it much on these.

3 sets calisthenic bicep curls. 1x10 with feet lower than body, 2x4 with feet even with body at the start. These were much easier, no elbow stress. Yay! I really like these a lot. A LOT.

I did some chest expander work before as warm up and after as some cooldown/ rotator conditioning. My shoulder is feeling much better. I am happy about this.

5x20s adv frog stand, 70s rest.

5x20second sets of FL work, 75s rests. First 5-10s were straddle for the first three sets and the remainder was adv tuck. Last two sets were just adv tuck. I'm slowly transitioning. I'll keep doing this for about a month before trying to do the first half of all 5 sets in a straddle.

4x17s L-sit, P-bars. Damn, these are hard. I knew I should have been working these for the past year!

3 sets 5-7 reps bottom position squats, 225, 245, 265. Pretty easy, it's my first time in forever so I didn't go heavy.

2 sets 3 reps per leg SLS+20-25lbs on floor. Not as easy after the squats, but still good stuff. Haven't done these for a little while so I'm just working them back in.

Did some kettlebell swings yesterday. Pretty easy sets, 2x10 reps per arm, 72.5lbs.

2 sets XR support, getting easy again. I played with some flat tuck planche, it actually feels ok! I was just showing some people what it was. Always seems to get a WTF out of anyone who tries.

Did rotator work yesterday, chest expander work today. I may get up and go for a slow run now. In fact that feels like the right thing to do. one 30 minute jog coming up.

Edit: 30 minutes later, the run felt great. Noticeably better than the first time.

Friday 16APR2010

4x5 HeSPU

5x20s frogstand, 70s rest

5x20s adv tuck front lever, 75s rest

I don't remember what the hell else I did, I waited too long to record this.

Monday 19APR2010

5x20s adv frog

5x20s adv tuck front lever

5x3-7 reps bulgarian dips

5x20-30s wall handstand

1xfail rings handstand

2x15s p-bar L-sit

2x15s xr L-sit

3 sets bw xr curls, feet on ground

2x8 inverted curls

3x8 XR standing chest spread

2x6 arms in straps cross pulls. These are easy but they were too much for my left elbow, it's sore now. Probably not a big deal since I'll wait a while and slowly work into them again, but still frustrating to do something stupid. It's delayed pain, which is not good. Probably lost a few weeks worth of healing.

You gotta tell me, what's the deal with you and chest expanders? I don't know much about them, and instead of googling it, I'll just ask you. I've heard a lot about people using them, I just don't really know more than that.

slizzardman said:

1xfail rings handstand

HAHA cracked me up!

slizzardman said:

2x6 arms in straps cross pulls. These are easy but they were too much for my left elbow, it's sore now. Probably not a big deal since I'll wait a while and slowly work into them again, but still frustrating to do something stupid. It's delayed pain, which is not good. Probably lost a few weeks worth of healing.

This sucks Well at least you know your strength is good.. good luck on your recovery again.

Do you do the frogstands on rings, p-bars or floor? Just curious since you seem strong enough to be further in the planche progressions. Going light and longer reps for injury prevention?

Seiji: The chest expanders allow a lot of prehab/rehab work to be done that really can't be done with anything else. For my purpose, "chest expander" includes both the actual Lifeline Fitness chest expander set as well as any stretchy band that can be used the same way. I personally only use the Lifeline equipment, it's totally worth it in my opinion. The pre-hab eventually turns into legitimate strength work on its own when you get strong enough, but like everything else it's all about proceeding only after a SSC-like period to make sure that your joints are ready. It's working absolutely great for me.

Razz: Thanks man! The ring handstand fail was pretty funny, but I knew it would go poorly. I have to do those somewhere else. In the meantime I'm turning out my hands for my wall handstand to start preparing my biceps for GB-style ring handstands. I got spotted up once but didn't include it in my workout description. The bicep pressure, as Coach says, is pretty extraordinary. Certainly beyond me on the rings at the moment.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I also did a 10 second arms in strap flat tuck maltese hold... that did most of the damage lol!

My set-back was very minor, apaprently. My elbows didn't feel funny at all today, so I'm free to continue forward. Man, pre-hab rocks!

jocke: I do my frogstands on the floor because they are harder there than the p-bars or the rings for me. More pressure on the elbows and hands/wrists. I actually really like the strength I am gaining on the floor... I close my #2 COC like a joke now lol!I am strong enough to do quite a lot of things, but my body is not ready for it. To borrow a favorite quote, "The elevator to success is broken. You'll have to use the stairs, one step at a time." It works great! I'm gaining strength in the tuck and advanced tuck without even working it! For me, at least, planche will always be limited by my elbows and wrists. I take my time working those with the frogstand and later tuck/advanced tuck, and I work my muscular strength with ring dips, PPP, HSPU, cast wall walks, some bench press, some weighted dips, etc. It's all about doing things that make your muscles stronger through the same ROM. It doesn't have to be the same thing all the time.

Wodin's Day: 21APR2010

5x20s advanced frog, 75s rest. Last set was straight elbows, no problem.

5x20s adv tuck FL, 75s rest. Good progress, I am extending out more.

Superset deadlift and front squat. Total rest time was 2 minutes or less per set.

Deadlift:

10x225, 6x325, 3 sets 4x375. Double overhand, fingers only. I've decided that I'm going to work double overhand only for a while. It's much better for the grip. I'll probably switch between this and thick bar every time I deadlift or so.

Front squat:

10x135, 4 sets 5x185. Easy.

After the superset I did 4 reps per leg FX SLS+20lbs, and 3 reps per leg second set.

3 easy reps of fairly slow straddle front pulls. Very easy and strong, no shoulder discomfort. I will probably wait a month before slowly adding these back in, I'm doing band work for the lats and shoulders right now.

3 sets PB L-sit, 15s sets 60s rest.

2 sets XR L-sit, 15s sets 60s rest.

2 sets PPP:

9 reps with hands above belly button

3 reps with hands between belly button and hips, didn't like the possibility of elbow injury so I switched back to above belly button for more reps of FX PPP plus. Pretty neat!

I walked a half circle around one of the machines in a handstand, stopping for 1-3 seconds every step. I am pleased.

I did a set of 12 jefferson curls on a bench with a 50 lb dumbbell, followed by a weighted pike stretch for about a minute. It felt GREAT! I am so excited that I am doing such a good job of breaking out of the "try to work at your max" mindset. My strength and other abilities are improving so much better now!

I am also working reverse cross flyes standing for some re-hab on my upper back. I DID get video of the gymnastic part of most of the workout, so I will be putting that up reasonably soon, perhaps this weekend. I've got tests to study for, so I'm not trying to get that up right away.

I would like to note that I have gotten a high quality ZMA powder as well as Ribose. Nutrabio.com is an amazing, amazing site. They have 5.95 shipping for all orders right now through july 1st or something, and they sell just about everything that works. It's pretty amazing. All amino acids are 100% vegetarian and naturally fermented, so no chemical processing at all. You can get many of their products in pure powder form. When they say pure powder, they are not bullshitting! There isn't even an anti-clumping agent, so when you buy 500 grams it is ALL THE ACTIVE INGREDIENT! You also get a special dosing scoop with each product that is the exact size for accurate doses for that particular product. Level scoops. They have molecular diagrams of each compound as well as very detailed information on how to use them for various purposes, taste and solubility characteristics, and prices that are better than anything I have seen. I got 500 grams of ZMA pure powder, which is a 300 day supply, for 52 bucks. They use the patented formula. It's been forever, but I seriously noticed the difference right away. That shit is powerful. The ribose was 23 bucks for 500 grams, which ends up being about a 50 workout supply for me. Not too bad! I'll be getting pretty much everything from them in the future. The coolest thing is that everything you get has been manufactured within the last 2 weeks, so they can guarantee freshness and product longevity. They have purity ratings on every jar as well as the lot number and when it goes bad. My ZMA is good through February 2013! I thought I'd share that with you guys since I am quite excited about such a cheap and great site!

Edit: I also did some shoulder stretching and active flexibility work at the end for my legs.

I told my weightlifting coach a while back about jefferson curls... I explained they were a rehab exercise, but with more weight could be a spinal erector work out. He thought they were dangerous, and I completely believe they are if you don't know much about them.

Interesting website, very cheap vitamins! From a first glance looks to be quality stuff aswell, but what do I know about that? Man that maltese thing you did was probably not smart HAHA, thank god your elbows are fine! Also what is your purpose of consuming ribose? Has it been proved effective?

EDIT: I see they sell prohormones which I don't like about a website, but then again it is american (it's legal 'over there' ) so is that normal, even for quality supplement websites?

Sounds like a good approach. I started doing planche work (flat tuck) on the floor instead of p-bars and rings lately and it's been great for my wrists aswell. I'm gonna try going back to tuck for longer times next session and see what happens. Keep on

Seiji said:

I told my weightlifting coach a while back about jefferson curls... I explained they were a rehab exercise, but with more weight could be a spinal erector work out. He thought they were dangerous, and I completely believe they are if you don't know much about them.

It's like everything else: you have to start slow. Real slow. I deadlift 400+ with ease, but I do jeffersons with 50 lbs because they are fairly new to my body.

Razz said:

Interesting website, very cheap vitamins! From a first glance looks to be quality stuff aswell, but what do I know about that? Man that maltese thing you did was probably not smart HAHA, thank god your elbows are fine! Also what is your purpose of consuming ribose? Has it been proved effective?

EDIT: I see they sell prohormones which I don't like about a website, but then again it is american (it's legal 'over there' ) so is that normal, even for quality supplement websites?

Eh, I just looked because what you said bothered me. They sell DHEA, but that's it. Can't count tribullus as a prohormone. DHEA is natural, and also apparently something of a bad idea, but who knows? I'm not messing with it. According to around 3 hours of reading studies and abstracts online, it apparently converts preferentially into estriadol(main estrogen in women) in the body even though it CAN turn into testosterone or a few other hormones. Screw that lol! If they sold any of the others I'd be suspicious, but yes... DHEA is pretty normal. Plus they sell natural DHEA, not synthetic, which is a good thing. My understanding is that as long as you take good estrogen protection with it, DHEA can really be a good bodybuilding supplement. I don't know if it's particularly good for strength, haven't read much on that. The literature seems to be all about size, but then it usually is. Lots of athletes use it here. A lot of 'roiders use it to get their nuts to make testosterone again and grow back to normal size, and anectodal claims speak highly of its ability to do that, though there are also complaints of sore nipples. Hence my lack of interest, and my statement about using good estrogen controls like Nolvadex.

Yes, the maltese was really, really dumb. it wasn't that hard though! Stupid elbows.... stupid 225 lbs...

My Wednesday run was supposed to be 30 minutes, and it was super easy even though I went a little faster, but then I ran into a friend on the way back and the run ended up lasting around 80 minutes. I did not get sore! I run in my Vibrams, so it's basically barefoot. I love it! We jogged, sprinted, and had one 5 minute rest around the hour mark because his girlfriend had side cramps lol! I'll start running 35 minutes from now on, and I'm going to start having a second run day on the weekends where I start working into sprint work. Bodyweight is steady at 224-226.

Sounds really nice over summer I'll hopefully be doing a bit of running in the form of interval sprints aswell..if forum member søren is up for it that is

Lol! I think someone just got called out!

Friday 23APR2010

5x5 HeSPU, 2 stomach to wall,2 back to wall, 1 stomach to wall. Cast wall walks up and down each set stomach to wall. 75s rest, 90s rest, 4 min rest, 3 min rest

1 MU to XR L-sit 15s just for fun. I'm pretty weak on the transition since I haven't been practicing for it due to shoulder problems, but I still muscle through it like before.

5 supersets of L-sit, FL, and adv frog. 15s XR L sit, 45s rest, 20s XR flat tuck FL, 15s rest, 20s FX adv frog, 90s rest. 3 min, 25 seconds per superset for 17 minutes and 5 seconds total time. Not bad.

3 sets 6 reps tempo flat tuck and tuck FL rows, 60-75s rest.

2 strap cross pulls, only down to around 80 degrees. Not trying for perfect.

I should have done some push ups and whatnot, but I didn't. I'll do them tomorrow, along with some dips. Not much though, I'll do harder dip work Monday probably.

Edit: I did some external rotation work as well, 60 lb band.

Ha ha, I'm definately up for some running.. but sprinting? :roll: We'll see about that

It was the DHEA that bothered me, but whatever I'll probably order from their site soon. Just annoys me they don't have multi vitamins, but I guess more vegetables and fruits is what I want then

Monday 26APR2010

So far: 5 minutes and 57 seconds total handstand work on the wall, focusing on stretching the shoulders and put the load squarely on the shoulder girdle, at the same time trying to depend more on the lower traps than the upper, which seems to be the natural effect of opening the shoulders and getting more weight directly on the shoulder girdle and off of the upper chest.

40s, 40s, 40s, 40s, 40s, 40s, 40s, 30s, 20s, 27s.

Edit: 2 minute rests for the first 4 sets, 2:30 for the next, and 3:00 for the last three.

1x5s tuck planche, just for fun.

7x20s adv tuck, 60s rests between sets.

Later I will be doing FL work and some pressing, but not much. I'll be doing a LOT of rotator work, trap work, and stretching.

Times are looking pretty good. How long are your rest periods between the sets.

Slizzardman, it seems like you're a big fan of the ZMA I got to ask you, what difference do you feel when you're using it? I know the manufactures claim that it will improve your sleep, increase your levels of growth hormones and decrease your chances of muscle cramps, but I've allways been afraid that it was just some advertised crap. Of what I've heard from ohters who have tried it, it's true when it comes to the improved sleep, but that was it. Since it's pretty expensive here in Denmark, I haven't tried it myself yet, even though I would love to.