Wake up call

So anyone that has read my online ramblings over the last few years know about how long I struggled with getting my first muscle up.  It was literally at least a couple year process due to injury and just not getting the technique until I finally got my first rep in September 2011.
Once I got my first rep I was excited to keep going, keep building my reps as well as cleaning up my form which I did for several months.  I got my one set rep max to 7 and was slowly improving my form.

However right around the new year a new goal popped to the forefront in my head, the BBR’s.  For the first third of 2012 I was really pushing to work the core movements of the BBR’s, dips, pull ups and push ups, figuring my muscle ups will take care of themselves.

Well once again the injury bug bit and I also hit a plateau where it seemed I just couldn’t significantly improve.  I derailed my BBR focus and continued various body weight exercise but never picked back up my quest to improve my muscle up.

Well today at the gym put an exclamation point on how my muscle up has eroded.  I tried to do a slower, false grip muscle up at the gym and didn’t really get close.  I tried multiple times and just did not have the strength through the transition portion of the exercise.  It also felt like it put a ton of stress in my elbow tendons since they haven’t been used that way on a consistent basis for quite awhile. The extra 8 or 9 pounds I have on my frame compared to when I first did a muscle up doesn’t help either.

So the muscle up is once again in focus and more generally calisthenics in general.  I am thinking about almost eliminating the weight portion of my daily lunch workouts at the gym (right now 4 of the 5 days are mostly weight work) and instead use that time for calisthenics.  I wish my gym was better equipped for calisthenic work outs, there are no good bars and depending on how crowded it is, sometimes there is an issue getting access to certain equipment/floor space.

I think going almost exclusively with calisthenic type workouts will give me the results I am looking for.

 

13, hanging around

Last night when I got home I decided to give the Bar-baric mode of this month’s BB challenge a shot which is maximum muscle ups in a 5 minute time period.

I used a pretty unconventional strategy in the challenge, relying primarily on single reps started off the ground.  My thought was I typically am able to do better reps starting low than high which goes against normal MU practice. Well my strategy didn’t seem to work out all that well.  I scratched out 13 reps were I wound up on top of the bar.  There were probably 5 or 6 failed reps in there as well.

I wasn’t very pleased with the end result but it is what it is.  I’d like to try it again before the end of the month to see if I can do better.

After I was done with the challenge I screwed around some more on my high bar working on various holds like a clutch flag and shoulder flag.  I also climbed the pole using arms only and finished with a static one handed chin grip hold 11 feet up in the air.

If you watch the video there are some funny moments, the funniest of all is how I always forget exactly how to place my arms to do the clutch flag.  I tried about a dozen combinations until I finally figured it out.  My trying to do a shoulder flag is kind of funny too.  I have a hell of a time trying to hold that one.

Later in the evening I wanted to make my Tivo viewing time more productive so I dropped Lou’s parallelettes in front of the TV.  I tried to work handstands (didn’t go well) and L sit to planche transitions.  My session ended when I was trying to go from a frog stand into a hand stand.  As my weight shifted forward I got a sharp burn in my left abs which made me collapse towards the floor.  That ended my body weight work for the day.

I don’t feel any pain in that area today but I am worried the next time I do ab/core work I could feel it.

I think I am going to try to make Lou’s parallelettes even more awesome.  I am going to take one of them apart and bring it along to Lowe’s.  I am looking for some mounting hardware that will make them even more solid.  If I do find what I am looking for I will fully document the upgrade process.

 

 

1 day break

So I followed my edict about not shooting as many exercise videos by shooting an exercise video. 🙂  It actually was intended to serve somewhat of a purpose.  Ray had mentioned something about how he has issues with a bar false grip muscle up.  I told him I would shoot a video that went into a little more depth regarding how I do it.

My form in there is far from stellar but I think I at least explain the basics of how I get it done.  There are a couple funny moments in there at the 2:30 mark and again at 4:45. I followed up the video by doing some conventional muscle ups off camera.

I have set a mental goal to get a set of 10 muscle ups.  They won’t be very pretty for sure towards the end.  I need to try to catch up to Luis!

Today I am going to try something different at the gym based on a suggestion of Lou.  I am going to be doing just below max 1RM dips, 1 at a time for a total of 20 sets.  A couple weeks ago I squeezed out a 100 pound dip so I am planning on giving this go with 90 pounds hanging on my waist.  I am giving myself roughly a minute between sets and during that minute I want to drop down and knock out 10-15 push ups which would add up to 200-300 push ups if I manage to complete 20 rounds.

I have no idea how this will go but it will be fun to try.

Too much (You) Tube time

They later cut me out of the film….

As I have said many times and in many places, I feel so fortunate to be involved in the bar/calisthenics/body weight exercise community.  It is a great source of positive energy and motivation that helps me in other areas of my life.  My biggest regret is I didn’t discover it sooner when I was a younger man.

A lot of the motivation I receive is courtesy of the endless amount of YouTube videos I have seen that document scores of people working hard to achieve impressive feats of strength, power and endurance.  I have been an active participant in that stream of video content myself.  I have over 300 YouTube videos and counting, with the majority of them being work out related.

I also think that it would be fair to say that most people that are posting videos do so not only to motivate others but also because it puts their hard work on display.  Now to the casual outsider, there is no doubt that a lot of this would be branded as narcissism and to a point they are right.  I could not honestly say  it isn’t cool to have others watch your stuff and respond positively.  I think there is an element of that (narcissism)  in most people that have a substantial YouTube collection, myself included.  I’m not flagging it as a good or bad thing, just a thing. I’d rather be known for exercising than for smacking myself in the face with a 2 x 4.

So what is the point of this you ask?

Well last night after work I wanted to go out and do some work in my mini-bar park and I instinctively was reaching for my Flip cam to record it.  I decided to leave it inside.

I have realized that I need to concentrate more on just doing the work and be less concerned with capturing every second of that work on tape.  So that is exactly what I did.  I went outside and worked muscle ups, push ups, pole holds and a few other things with absolutely nobody else watching.

My hope is focusing more on the work instead of video accolades will lead to greater gains.

Of course this does not mean there will be vast void of videos coming out of my household. Hey after all, I like doing them and generally speaking, a good chunk of people like watching them.  But I am hoping the balance will shift more from quantity to quality.

Bar-baric mode, how to (almost) break your own collarbone, 375 reps

So last night I made an attempt at Bar-baric mode of this month’s BB forum challenge which are a series of progressively more difficult muscle ups with only 30 seconds rest between the sets.

I immediately cringed when I watched back the video.  I had popped some gum prior to going outside, I was chewing on it like a cow.  I’ll be sure to spit it out first in the future.

I have not worked muscle ups in awhile for whatever reason so I really didn’t know what to expect.  Well maybe I do know the reason, I don’t spend the amount of time doing body weight exercise that I would like to.

I think to really progress at BW stuff, especially at my age, you need to really put some time in.  I know a lot of the Bar-barians are putting in a couple hours per day in.  I get in 40-45 minutes at the gym over my lunch hour.  Of that time there is still a lot of more conventional weight work mixed in along with my pull ups, push ups etc.

Then I sprinkle in my after work evening mini-workouts that aren’t anything that serious.  I am either hungry as hell for dinner or have other things to get done around the house (or I just feel like giving myself a break).

I now have a pretty clear definition of what I need to do if I want to make serious progress, it’s just a matter of if I want to make the time to do it.

Then there is that fine line us old guys have to walk where you have to balance pushing yourself with risk of injury. If I go too nuts it is a recipe for pain/injury that can derail me if I am not careful.

So anyway, my muscle up sets were good and bad.  My first four muscle ups were really solid, possibly the best 4 consecutive muscle ups I ever have done.  Then all of a sudden I missed on the 5th rep which really frustrated me.  I eventually got the 5th by hanging, swinging and doing an ugly one over.

The narrow grip and wide grip muscle ups didn’t go great, I knew I wouldn’t have much gas in the tank with only a 30 second break between both.  I netted 2 reps of each.

I had a couple fail reps where I was RIGHT at the transition point and wound up falling out of it.  I need to be able to lock in my grip when that happens and use my forearms to power me through.  Up until this point I seem to forget to do that.

My 9 total reps is nothing to write home about but it gave me some push to start working my MU’s more.

Later in the night when I was dumping stuff in the compost bin I walked over to the high bar.  I had wanted to try the move pictured to the left.  To be honest I am not quite sure what you call it.  It is kind of doing a dragon flag while holding on to a pole.

So I grabbed on to the pole and braced the back of my right shoulder against it.  I got up and extended but I am not quite sure how straight I was.

I then had the brilliant idea that maybe if I started with my feet above me in a vertical position and lowered into it like you do in a dragon flag, I would do better.

So I awkwardly threw my feet above me and tried to hold on.  Well the way I was positioned all of my weight was resting on my collar bone, against the pipe.  I felt searing pain so I quickly lowered myself back down.  It hurt like crazy, I was worried that I did some damage.  Eventually the pain went away.

I’ll attempt the move on video to see how close I can get to a good hold.

Oh, I forgot to mention on Friday I tried to do as many 5 x 10 sets as I could, 5 pull ups by 10 push ups. I named it “10 x 5 Until You Die”  The rules were simple, the sets could not be broken, for instance I couldn’t drop off the pull up bar or break plank position in the push ups.

I did half decent, netting 25 sets in just under 28 minutes of exercise.  For those of you that are weak in math that adds up to 125 pull ups and 250 push ups.  The pull ups towards the end were getting VERY difficult.  The push ups however felt surprisingly strong all the way through.

I am thinking of making this a semi-regular challenge with a bit of variation.  Like maybe next time I try to break it into 5 chin ups and 10 dip sets.  That could get pretty damn tough on the triceps but worth a shot.

I need to catch up to Lou’s Hulk-like physique somehow.

The best part

When I got into doing body weight exercise several years ago it was inspired from watching others doing incredible things on the bars via endless YouTube videos.  Despite being right around 40 years old at the time I decided I wanted to pursue this as well despite  the bar scene being dominated by people that are considerably younger than myself.

I have gotten many things from my work on the bars, an improved physique, a better outlook and a sense of pride in my accomplishments are just a few.  Well  things have started to come full circle.

If you are reading this, you more than likely have seen some of my numerous videos that detail my journey in improving at body weight movements.  My videos are kind of unique as I do a lot more talking in them than what you typically see in the genre.  I try to express what is going through my head when it comes to some of my triumphs and struggles on the bar.  It seems like some people actually kind of like that.

Despite a skill set that is definitely not all that impressive  I have become relatively well known in the bar community because of my weird videos and my participation running contests in the Bar-barian forums.  It’s sort of strange.

Well anyway I mentioned about coming full circle.  One of the things that I really like is when somebody gets little nuggets from my videos and uses it as part of their journey to accomplish a new feat or skill.  I just had that happen again today.

Chris is a guy very much like me (49), an older guy that fell in love with body weight work and more specifically, focused on pulling off a muscle up, something I targeted for a couple years. (he has been trying for 8 months) He has commented on a bunch of my videos and communicated with me several times about them, looking for advice on getting his first muscle up at just under the half century mark of years on the planet.

Well yesterday he finally pulled it off, it was great.  After he triumphantly got off the bar with the sounds of his family cheering him on he took some time to outline his experience, thanking several people along the way, including me.  I was touched and thought that was awesome.

My experience with the bar community has been nothing but a bright shining light in my life that often finds itself shadowed by other dark aspects of my personality.  Being able to help motivate others to push themselves to achieve new personal bests is a great thing and only motivates me to keep going.  We all feed off each others accomplishments, it is a very healthy and positive cycle.

Seeing Chris get his first muscle up has now put a fire in my belly to go out and get better at my own muscle ups, it’s awesome how it works.

Way to go Chris.

 

Fail, Fat Gripz

I have had a couple unsuccessful challenges lately.  First on Sunday I tried normal mode of this month’s Bar-barian forums challenge, clapping pushups, and posted a number about 10 reps less than I hoped for.

Then last night I went out to try a 1/2 BBR, hoping to finish doing 3 muscle ups, 23 dips, 13 pull ups, 28 push ups and 3 more muscle ups in 3 minutes or less.  Well not only did I not finish in three minutes, I didn’t finish, period.  I was too fatigued to complete the final three muscle ups.

I found myself feeling quite frustrated that I fatigued so quickly.  I had to pause in my push up set after rep 7 which is ridiculous.

There is a funny moment after I dropped off the bar after my second failed MU attempt.  It is a reflex anger move I do sometimes.  I was disappointed in my set.

After I caught my breath I pulled out my new Fat Gripz and gave them a try.  The concept with Fat Gripz is they allow you to transform a smaller 1″inch or so diameter bar into a thick bar instantly.

Having to move identical weight with a thicker bar translates into much effort as you utilize more muscle to grip.  The reviews on Fat Gripz across the board are very high.

They appear to be very well made, constructed of very dense and hard rubber.  It reminds me of a material similar to what Crossfit style bumper plates are made of.

Attaching the grips to the bar is easy, you just pull it apart at the seam and it snaps on top of the bar.  I did a few sets of pull ups on the Fat Gripz and immediately felt a big difference in my forearms.  The grip is too big to wrap your thumb around them.  The bar felt even fatter than the fat TSP bar.

The only negative I noticed was as I got deeper into my reps the grips rotated a bit, forcing me to regrip once.  I think that could be lessened if you put a layer of chalk on the bar.

I plan to take the Fat Grips to the gym today to utilize them for some dumbbell exercises.  All of the reports I have seen indicate there isn’t a bar/dumbbell/barbell exercise around that won’t benefit from using Fat Gripz.

Fixing my muscle ups

Last night I tried to do a tricep intensive challenge, the hard mode version of this month’s BB challenge.  I bailed out abruptly when I realized I wasn’t going to get anywhere close to where I should be. It was ill advised anyway since I worked triceps hard at the gym during lunch.

I wanted to even out my poor dip effort by doing some muscle ups, some clean muscle ups.

Ever since I pulled off my first successful muscle ups in September of 2011 I have had some issues being consistent with my form, specifically the transition portion of the movement. Most of the time when I have been doing reps it winds up being a one over where my body sort of collapses to my left as I reach bar height.  I then am briefly “laying” on the bar while I get my hands/arms repositioned to do the pushing part of the movement.

It’s bad form, plain and simple.

I have been wondering why this happens, perhaps pointing the finger at my uneven strength levels that are put on display when I work one handed static chin up holds.  I can hold that position dramatically longer on my right side versus my left. (which is weird because I am sort of left handed)

Anyway I wanted to really work on making my reps smoother and more efficient.  Well I did just that for the first two reps of my 5 rep set and the correction was stupidly simple.  All I did was focus on pulling hard evenly with both arms.  I was able to sail right past the transition point without my chest even touching the bar, exactly what I was looking for.

Unfortunately I was only to get that type of pull for the first two reps.  The remaining three got progressively uglier.

So at least there is no excuse going forward.  I don’t have some sort of weird bio-mechanical thing that is preventing me from doing smooth reps.  I just think I was getting lazy with the pull, relying too much on the swing and the kip.

I always love “a-hah!” moments.

 

Three video night

Last night I got my first chance to head outside and do some bodyweight training for the first time in a week or so.  First I gave normal mode of this month’s Bar-barian Challenge a try.  The challenge is much harder than I imagined it would be.  You are doing pull ups with 5 second static holds at the top, middle and bottom portion of the movement.

I only managed 5 total reps which believe it or not is a decent number.  The most anyone has managed thus far is 7.

I then taped a simple set of 30 dips.

Finally I taped a rather frustrating session of trying various muscle ups on my parallel bars, most of which were miserable failures.  After watching back the footage I see why I struggle on the p-bars with the movement.  With my long arms and relatively low height of the bars I am unable to do any appreciable kip, instead any motion I do with my legs generates side to side momentum which isn’t very helpful.

I also did the muscle up work after everything else so I was somewhat fatigued going in which probably contributed to the lack of success as well. By the end of it I was very frustrated.  Anyway ,if you like watching muscle up fails, this is the video for you.

Documenting

Yesterday at the gym my legs actually felt decent enough to do some squats.  Considering I almost needed a walker on Monday I was quite happy the rebound my body has made after running the half marathon.

Last night after work I shot a video documenting where I am at with my form on muscle ups, slow muscle ups and static one handed chin up holds.  With the muscle ups my focus has been using less swing, less kip and keeping my legs together and in control.  In the video it looked like I succeeded on two of the three items.  My swing is about as small as I can make it and my legs did stay together.  However even though it felt like I didn’t use my legs much for lift in the video, it’s obvious I have a powerful knee raise going on.

My slow muscle up was pretty clean.  I made sure I was fully extended below the bar before pulling up and I did not use any appreciable kip to get over the bar.  I find the keys to the slow muscle up are of course a false grip (or wrists resting on top of the bar in my case) and trying to really pull hard during the transition phase so your shoulders get up and over the bar to a point where your center of balance is on top of the bar.

My static one handed chin holds documented the large discrepancy in holding power between my right and left sides. I held on with my right arm for almost a full 10 seconds.  On my left side I barely could hold a second which actually is a slight improvement where as normally I will drop almost immediately on the left.

I need to keep working to narrow that gap in strength as it will affect any pulling body weight movement.