Look Mom One Hand

So last night I decided to give hard mode of this month’s BB challenge a try which is a one hand handstand against a wall.  I have tried this hold multiple times in the past and had zero success.  It felt like I just could not support my entire 175 pounds of bodyweight on one arm. I also had issues with the balance part of the movement even if I tried wedging one of my feet into the corner.

Last night I tried a different approach.  In the past when I attempted a one hander I would just quickly pull my off hand off the floor and come crashing down.  This time I took more gradual approach.

I first got up into my normal wall handstand position.  I then slowly started shifting my center of balance on top of my right arm, keeping my left hand on the floor progressively less.  In conjunction I spread my legs wide on the wall to provide counterbalance.

Eventually it felt like I hit a balance point and I pulled my left hand off the floor.  Surprisingly, I felt pretty solid.  My right arm was working hard to support my weight but I held myself up there for close to 30 seconds.

It felt great as I came down, knowing I just pulled off another calisthenics first.

 

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.

 

 

Chopped down to size

So today at the gym I targeted as the day I was going to try the routine suggested to me by Ray.  In a nutshell it went like this.

Five 3 minute rounds, during each round you must complete 20 dips, 10 pull ups and 25 push ups.  The sets must be unbroken, meaning you can’t get off the dip or pull up bars or break plank in your push ups.  If you finish before the 3 minutes is up that gets added on to your two minute rest period between sets.

The 20,10 and 25 rep counts was where Ray started at.  I figured our endurance level was somewhere in the same ballpark so I decided to start there as well.  For the workout I utilized  “Round Timer”, (thanks Fi!) a great free app for the Iphone that lets you easily create your own flexible timing system.

I was kind of excited to see how I would do.

So round 1 begins and I waste no time bouncing between the three exercises with negligible rest in between.  I look at the app and I still have 90 seconds to go in the first round.  Hmmm I am feeling a bit winded already, I guess it is good I have extra rest time.  Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to blow through the first set like that…

After a lengthy 3:30 rest I began round two.  Well I certainly didn’t blow through those reps and I tried to give myself a little time in between the sets.  I completed all reps, this time with only 30 seconds left in the round.

“Damn it”, I thought to myself, “why am I so tired already, this is where Ray started!”

So the two minute rest period expires and I am on to round 3.  I get to rep 17 in the dips and my tri’s lock up. Mother f!  I was pissed as I stepped off the bars, pretty disgusted with myself.  I quickly determined I had two options, quit right there since it was an official fail or complete all 5 rounds with whatever reps I can manage. I chose the latter.

So I was able to squeeze out the 10 pull ups and 25 push ups in round 3.  On to round 4. The 2 minute break which seemed overly generous at first was now feeling brutally short.

As expected my tri’s stopped working even sooner in set four, locking me up on the 12th rep.  I only managed 8 pull ups and 15 push ups in that round, pretty sorrowful.

In round 5, I rebounded a bit netting 14 dips, 8 pull ups and 20 push ups although the round actually ran long since some guy started talking to me in the middle of it.  I was pretty damn beat by the end of it, despite only netting 239 of the 275 required reps.

So all in all that was a pretty big fail.  I don’t know if I expected that I would be able to complete all 5 rounds the first attempt but I know I didn’t expect to have my first fail in round 3.

So what Ray has been doing is once he is able to successfully complete all 5 rounds at certain rep numbers two times in a row, he bumps the rep counts up a couple for each exercise until he can complete it again at the higher level.  In my case I will be doing the same thing, in reverse.

So the next time I try this I will do something like 18 dips, 8 pull ups and 23 push ups in each round and see how that goes.  Eventually I will find my own starting point and will build back up from there.

Despite failing today I do think this is a really good way to make some significant progress towards BBR level endurance and strength.  Thanks Ray, I think.. 🙂

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.

F x T till you D = 300

So I tried a different variation of the 5×10 endurance sets this week.  I did sets of 5 chin ups and 10 dips.  Difficulty wise it was definitely a level above last week since I can definitely crank push ups easier than dips.  I wound up doing 20 sets of the circuit in a little over 27 minutes (a slower pace than last week).  That worked out to 100 chin ups and 200 dips, a total of 300 reps.

I am working in a sleep deficit so I went into it feeling substantially less than 100%. I seriously need a nap right now.

I will have to see if I can come up with any other combos that work out well in these type of sets.

Lesser to Greater, rolling rolling rolling

I had my first shot at hard mode of this month’s BB challenge.  I had missed the gym at lunch so I was anxious to get out there and put up a good showing.

My first set of chin ups went well, I netted 20 reps which I think either sets or ties my all time chin up best.  I wanted to try to truly max out each set instead of cutting each set a bit short to save some energy for the next.

I only managed 8 regular pull ups and 6 behind the neck after that.  I just didn’t have any juice left.

In general this seems to be the same issue that has been limiting my goal of hitting the BBR’s.  MY body does not seem very willing to recover quickly, an absolute necessity for the BBR’s.  Yea I can throw up decent single set numbers but if my rest period in between is very short, my numbers go WAY down.

I will keep experimenting to see if I can find a way to get this old body to bounce back faster.

I have been using my new roller pretty regularly.  The extreme discomfort I felt when I rolled the first time is getting more and more manageable which I assume is a good thing.

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.

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.

March challenge, shooting for another PR, juicing with a kick

Last night I filmed an intro video for the March Bar-barian forum challenge, “Maximum Fatigue”.  The challenge involves pre-fatiguing your muscles before trying a max rep set of several exercises.

I was surprised how much of a difference it made doing a brief 20 second hold before repping out, it was uncomfortable.

I also dedicated a lot of time in the video demonstrating acceptable versus questionable form as this is an issue that is always present with these challenges.  We have had some issues with guys cranking some high rep upper body exercise sets but utilizing lower body momentum to help their numbers.

Many times guys don’t even realize they are not using great form as they are concentrating on just getting as many reps as possible.  Most of the time once we point it out to them they clean it up on subsequent attempts.

I still catch myself from time to time not concentrating on form like I should.  When you are in the midst of the pain of high level anaerobic activities it is easy to forget.

This Sunday I will be running the second half marathon of my life.  After I ran this same race last year I was in no rush to repeat the experience.  Even though running 13.1 miles is very tough physically, it is your mental endurance that is tested even more.  As the race progresses you develop lots of internal arguments in your head between the reasonable person who says “this is really uncomfortable now, just stop” and the tough guy that says “run and then when you feel tired, run faster”.

This back and forth dialogue can get to be a bit maddening.  That is why I wish I had a designated running partner for the race, I think it would make the experience a lot more bearable.  Anyway I have set my target at breaking the two hour mark for the race.  I have done that pace for a 10 mile run several times but never for 13.1.

I was happy to see that right now the forecast for Sunday morning includes temperatures in the mid to upper 50’s.  Running in cooler weather will be a big help.  It will be even better if it is overcast.

I plan to resume my juicing routine next week, it got side tracked when my family was in town.  I plan to supplement my dinner juices with some plant proteins.  We have a tub of hemp protein that has been sitting around unused.  Ali has bought a lot of these type of supplements with the hopes of including them in her normal diet.  However the implementation of that plan always seems to get derailed.  If I start handling it you can be assured it will be included on a consistent basis.

Dan Kalosthenos, a fellow 40+ year old bar enthusiast (much more advanced than I am), is a vegan.  He uses a number of these plant based supplements in his nutrition plan as well.  If it is good enough for him it is good enough for me.  It is because of Dan that I have started drinking more and more almond milk and less of the dairy variety.

20 BY 12

I have been wanting to try one of Lee & Jay’s 20 by 12 workouts for awhile now.  I bypassed last month’s because of a busy schedule and not really wanting to do the high impact box jumps due to my shady knees.

This month’s challenge goes like this:

4 rounds of:

12 chin ups
12 push ups
12 jumping power squats
12 body weight dips
12 knee raises on dip bars

Going into the challenge I was a bit hesitant to do the jumping power squats, again because of their potential knee implications, but other than that everything else seemed totally doable.  Having the reps for each set at 12 didn’t sound very daunting.

I had watched a number of 20 by 12 attempts.  Some of the elite level guys managed to do the entire circuit in less than 10 minutes, the not so elite have taken over 20 minutes.  I figured I would wind up solidly in the middle.

Well after one rotation through the 5 exercises I knew this was going to be tougher than I anticipated.  By the fourth set I was gasping for air and just looking desperately for the finish line.

The only exercise that I could not do all four sets unbroken were the chin ups.  I had to break my last two rounds into a couple mini-sets.  I was pleased that the jumping power squats went relatively well although they are indeed tough.  In the later rounds I felt quite light headed after completing them.

Watching the attempt back I saw several spots where I could have saved decent time by just being smarter about taking breaks.  I probably wasted close to a minute resting where I shouldn’t have.  For instance, although I was panting like a dog after doing dips, I should have jumped right into the knee raises since it utilizes a different body part that wasn’t as fatigued.

It took me between 18:15 and 18:30 to complete everything.  It wasn’t a great number, I was hoping to get closer to 15 minutes.  I am pretty confident if I try again I will be able to shave a couple minutes off based on my experience the first time around.

Although I wasn’t thrilled with my time I was happy with my form during the exercises, it was spot on pretty much the entire time.

At lunch time I did an accurately timed 5150 practice run.  I discovered my timing must have been inaccurate on Tuesday as I only got 38 pull ups and 80 push ups this time around.  Oh well.