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Started by Joshua Slocum, December 15, 2012 · 42 Replies · 541 Views
Followed the WOD today. Except that I did not make it to the ladder because it was getting late and I didn't want to finish stretching:
Thursday the gym was closed, so I ended up not working out.
Today was a good day. I ended up being stronger than I had anticipated! I'd thought given my performance on Monday I wouldn't be able to do 6s hold with a 20lb counterweight, but in fact I felt quite strong doing so. I ended up doing part WOD and part static strength work; since the WOD included some static strength, I omitted that part.
3x6s maltese hold, 20lb counterweight
1x6s rings planche hold, 20lb counterweight
3x6s cross hold, 20lb counterweight
3x6s inverted cross hold, 30lb counterweight
One other important thing that happened yesterday was that I found my IC is strongest by far when my shoulders are heavily protracted *and* elevated. So I'm going to stick to training in that position.
2x16s cross hold, 35lb counterweight
2x16s inverted cross hold, 45lb counterweight
1x16s rings planche hold, 45lb counterweight
1x16s rings planche hold, 35lb counterweight
On the first superset, I forgot to take off 10# after doing the inverted cross. I felt really strong in those 45lb maltese and planches. Then I realized my mistake 
. After the straight-arm strength work, I started on the WOD. However, I quickly found that the SA work had already sapped most of my bent-arm strength. In retrospect I probably should have allowed myself some more rest, and possibly eaten something.
2 sets of:
-Embedded 15 second L-sit followed by 5 tempo half-muscle ups
-Embedded 15 second straddle back-lever followed by 5 tempo chin-ups (yes, chin-ups! I had almost no bicep strength left)
-Embedded 15 second advanced tuck front-lever followed by 5 tempo v-ups.
Followed by 1x10 bridge wall walks.
I was unprepared for the degree to which the straight-arm work had fatigued me. I'd assumed that since I generally do 2 more sets of straight-arm work, I'd be fine doing the WOD. Maybe my weekly split should be full straight-arm work on Mondays and Fridays, and WOD's on Tuesdays and Thursdays only.
Today I did the WOD pretty much as laid out:
Four rounds of:
2x Advanced L-sit press to advanced tuck planche
7x HeaSPU
2x Advanced L-sit press to advanced tuck planche
5x Korean dips
2x Advanced L-sit press to advanced tuck planche
5x Weighted leg lifts (12lb weight on the ankles)
2x10 wrist pushups on the knees
2x10 wrist flexions in half lay
The only change I made was substituting wheels for leg lifts, because I wasn't really sure what they were.
Also, as a side note, my shoulders, elbows and wrists are all feeling excellent. I would attribute this primarily to vastly improved mobility/preparation work, as well as a decrease in volume of straight-arm strength work.
I'm hoping the Foundations 1 book will also have some good info on ankle mobility/prep work. What I've been doing in the past for my ankles is essentially just an adapted version of the wrist work I've been doing, so I don't know whether I could be doing something even better.
Did some press->Japanese handstands today during floor work.
Boss!
Polished off a shiny new copy of Foundation 1 today, and accomplished 4 masteries (though there were some 'trouble' areas that may or may not indicate I should spend a training cycle working on it)
FL/PE1 5x60s
FL/IM1 5x5
sPL/PE1 5x15r
sPL/IM1 5x5 My knees are distinctly lacking in mobility here. External rotation is fine, but internal rotation is quite limited.
SL/PE1 5x60s
SL/IM1 5x10
MN/PE1 5x15
MN/IM1 5x5
I began doing the SLS exercise as well, but after the second set I decided that it was going to be too much for today, since I am scheduled to do a light workout today. I noticed that my mobility with the skiers was also questionable, probably due to the tight IT band that makes the sPL/IM1 difficult, too. Overall I'm very happy with the book so far, as the mobility exercises are fantastic.
Some low-volume, high intensity work today. Upped the hold time slightly over last week.
2x8s maltese hold, 20lb counterweight
2x8s planche hold, 20lb counterweight
2x8s cross hold, 20lb counterweight
2x8s inverted cross hold, 30lb counterweight
Some more foundation work today.
SLS/PE1 1x15
SL/IM1 1x10
SLS/PE2 1x10
SL/IM2 1x10
Mastery set:
SLS/PE3 5x10
SL/IM3 5x5
I noticed a fair amount of creaking in my joints while I was doing this exercises. I am going to integrate skiers and twisting squats into my daily warmup routine.
HBP/PE1 1x15
HBP/IM1 1x10
HBP/PE1 1x15
HBP/IM1 1x5
Mastery set:
HBP/PE3 5x10
HBP/IM3 5x5
Did a straight-arm strength workout yesterday. I did a foundation 1-esque template: each element's sets were done in succession, with an integrated mobility element in between.
2x16sx35lb maltese
IM: 10x wall-extensions
2x10s straddle planche on pbars
IM: 5x sPL/IM1
2x16sx35lb iron cross
IM: 5x german arm swings
2x16s stagged FL
IM: 5x table shrugs
2x16sx45lb inverted cross hol
IM: 10x skiers
2x10s MSH
IM: 5x windmils
I quite liked this template. I think my work was a bit faster than normal, and adding the integrated mobility in between sets certainly makes it more productive. I think that if I were to increase the number of sets to 3x or 4x I would have to decrease the difficulty of the programming, though. Lacking liquid steel™, though, I'm not sure how this programming would optimally be applied to intermediate/advanced rings strength. Perhaps an 8-week steady state cycle is the right way to go.
Later today I'll be testing my mastery of the SAS foundation exercises at level 2. Other than possibly the arch-rocks I don't think I'll have any trouble with the strength, but mobility may be an issue.
Yesterday I did some more F1 assessment. This time, level 2 FSAS. As I expected, the FL, sPL and MN elements were cake, but the side-lever was not (ironically, I have a very strong side-lever! But my endurance is lacking, it seems).
5x60 FL/PE2
5x5 FL/PE2>IM
Mastered
5x60s sPL/PE2
5x10 sPL/PE2>IM
Mastered
1x60 SL/PE2
1x5 SL/PE2>IM
5x15 MN/PE2
5x5 MN/PE2>IM
Mastered
More straight-arm work today, this time at less weight/more intensity
3x8sx25lb maltese
IM: 5x german arm swings
3x8sx25lb iron cross
IM: 10x wall-extensions
3x8s stagged FL
IM: 30s table
3x8sx35lb inverted cross hol
IM: 10x skiers
3x15s MSH
IM: 5x windmils
3x8s straddle planche on rings
IM: 10x sPL/IM1
On the third planche set, I astounded myself by lowering from the planche into a picture-perfect iron cross, and holding it for a second. This was on the third set, after having the straddle planche for 8 seconds 
. Of course, I was entirely unable to replicate this breakthrough after resting for 3 minutes and trying it without the planche beforehand.
Some good things are coming very soon in the future 
. This is my fourth week of this style of strength training. I'm probably going to go steady-state (maybe some very slight, very slow increases in volume) for another 2-4 weeks before taking a deload week and mixing things up again.
I forgot to log it, but on the 8th I did some more foundation testing. Passed SLS and HBP with flying colors, but failed RC on the 8th rep of the 5th set 
Oh well, I need more pulling/retracting work anyways, so working horizontal rows will be good for me. I'm going to start on the 9th week for those since I came so close to mastery.
On monday I did a routine very similar to last monday:
3x16sx35lb maltese
IM: 5x german arm swings
3x16sx35lb planche on rings
IM: 5x sPL/IM1
3x16sx35lb iron cross
IM: 10x wall-extensions
3x16sx45lb inverted cross hold
IM: a retraction/pec stretch of my own devising
3x8s elevated MSH
IM: 5x windmils
I found myself starting to fail a little early on the third hold for most of these, so 3x16s without rest may be a little bit much. If I end up with the same problem on wednesday when I do 8s/20lb holds, it may be time for a deload week.
I will be traveling on Thursday and Friday, so my workout abilities will be limited. Most likely I'll continue demonstrating or working on mastery in those F1 elements that I can do without equipment.
Next training cycle I will definitely be focusing more on dynamic work. Strength routines with a hand spot, assisted presses/pullouts and the like. Hopefully I'll be able to do an inverted cross pull with the straps on my wrists.