A piece of Iron

Yesterday I received a large box at my front door from New York, it was my Iron Lou parallelettes.

Parallelettes are great for many body weight exercises.  In some ways it is like having a portable set of parallel bars that you can use almost anywhere.

I had considered making myself a set using schedule 40 PVC several times but never got around to it.

Well what prompted Lou to send me these heavy duty beauties were the floor planche progression pics I posted last week.  Lou said doing these moves on parallelettes was easier.  Shortly after that he told me he had a spare set of parallelettes he made that he would send to me.  Wow, awesome.

Lou made these from some spare parts laying around and 4×4’s.  He said they are nice because they are far sturdier than PVC parallelettes.  Once I unboxed them I saw what he meant. Lou no longer needed this set since he went out and bought a high quality set of his own.  He sent me his old ones for FREE, despite my repeated offers to pay him for the expense.

Late last night after I got home from a football game I quickly set the bars up in the office and did an L sit to planche transition.  It wasn’t very good but a starting point.  The bars are the perfect diameter and feel very stable.

I am hoping some of Lou’s extreme intensity rub’s off on me via his bars.  I hope to put them to good use and keep them in my exercise equipment collection until I am no more.

Thanks Lou.

I did a test run at the normal mode challenge yesterday at the gym.  I sort of fuzzed out in my count.  I amassed either 100 or 110 reps in the 5 minute time limit.  Either number wasn’t all that great.  I opted to do an initial set of 40 reps and then just tried to pop out reps of 10 the rest of the way.  Evidently I was eating up too much time with breaks, a common issue for me.

Planche play, epic equipment

Yesterday after I put in some time in the treadmill I wanted to work on my handstands and planche holds a little bit.  Well the handstand practice quickly went out the window after I repeatedly banged my three bad toes coming down from attempts.

So I decided to try out some planche holds.  I first did an elbow planche, a hold I started messing with a month or so ago.  It is a move that focuses more on balance than strength since your weight is perched on top of your elbows.

I then widened my hand position on the ground and tried something new, getting off my elbows and just pinning my arms to my sides.  I was surprised I actually could hold it for several seconds.

I then went even further apart with my base where my arms were barely touching my sides.  I could only hold that momentarily, but it was still a hold.

Lou saw my video and recommended I try the hold on parallelettes, a small version of parallel bars.  Supposedly doing it on the floor as I am is one of the more difficult ways to do the hold.

Later Lou said he had an old set of parallelettes that he made/modified that I could have.  He shipped them off today.  I joked with Lou that maybe some of his hardcore work out intensity will rub off on me hopefully. I can’t wait to get my hands on them.

They instantly will become one of my more prized pieces of work out equipment.

 

One last shot, roll it out

I made one last attempt at hard mode of this month’s Bar-barian challenge, flying pull ups.  This was the same thing that ripped my right hand open earlier in the month when I stupidly chalked the bar and my hands.  I managed to get 18 reps this time although the last 2 or 3 were pretty anemic.

I’d like to take a shot at increasing my clapping push ups total but both of my elbows are very sore.

I hopped on my parallel bars to try a couple things like a bent arm planche, elbow planches and a odd looking attempt to press to a hand stand that never got there.  It all looked like a pretty big mess so I didn’t even bother to post the video.

I finally got to utilize my new roller last night.  To be honest I was kind of avoiding it just because I know it is painful.  Well it was indeed painful, especially rolling out my IT bands which involved a lot of grimacing and grunting.  However when I was done the lower half of my body did feel better which is the point after all.

Since I started learning the elbow planche a few weeks ago I have pulled it out as a party trick.  It is a move that looks more physically impressive than it is.

I pulled it out at a Memorial Day picnic by the gulf.  I would really like to progress on these type of holds (and handstands) but a combination of nagging aches and pains and shortage of time to devote to exercise are slowing me down.

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.