Fitness notes…

Thursday, 30.6.11

Swim: 1000m (a mix of breast, back, and crawl… the pool water was at half volume since the water was being replaced)

Fitness notes…

Saturday, 25.6.11
Pullups: 14, 14, 14
2" bar bench: 15/15 [neutral/wide], 16, 12 @ 50kg, 55kg, 60kg
2" db standing curl: 15, 12, 10 @ 14kg, 18kg, 22kg
db tricep press: 15, 12, 10 @ 12kg, 16kg, 18kg
2" bar front squat: 15, 12, 10 @ 50kg, 55kg, 60kg

Sunday, 26.6.11
swim: 2200m
[200m breast & back, 1500m crawl, 500m breast]

Monday, 27.6.11
Jump rope & striding: 800 skips, 10 min. striding, 750 skips, 5 min. striding
[Striding is power-walking slowed by the presence of one's gf.]

Tuesday, 28.6.11
Jumping jacks / jump rope: 50/100, 100/50
Gut wrench: 32 x 3 @ 12kg
Drawing water: 16/16 x 3 @ 12kg
Grapple up: 16/16 x 3 @ 12kg
Ab wheel: 20 x 3
Neck iso's: 30 x 3 [all 4 angles]

Wednesday, 29.6.11
Swim: [40 minutes of… aquatic motion… I was teaching my gf how to swim]
Gut wrench: 30 x 3 @ 14kg
Drawing water: 15/15 x 3 @ 14kg
Grapple up: 15/15 x 3 @ 14kg
Ab wheel: 12 x 3
Neck iso's: 30 x 3 [all 4 angles]
Crushing grip:
Heavy 150: 10 closes, 5 closes
CoC #1.5: 10 closes
CoC #2: 4 reps [1 close r.h.]
CoC #1.5: 20 sec. overcrush r.h., 20 sec. overcrush l.h. [l.h. came open last few seconds]
Heavy 150 (without using pinky): 2 closes
CoC #1.5 (without using pinky): 1 close

+ + +

The crush training on Wednesday was interwoven with sets of core drills. Frankly, I was stunned by my grip performance tonight. I was diffident about training grip tonight and was therefore shocked, indeed, confused, by how well I did. 10 closes for both hands on the CoC #1.5! Yes, I also closed the CoC #2 with my right hand, but I want to do so with more authority before saying I've really done so. After some persuading (against buying, mind you!), my gf agreed that she will wait until I can close the #2 with both hands before she buys the #2.5 for me. I can only surmise two factors for my success: 1) I have been using my flail at random times and the motion ("greasing the groove"?) may be the right kind of therapy for my forearms; 2) I did some solid overcrush training (also spontaneously) last week with my "naked" red crushers (i.e. with the rubber bands removed) and that seems to have boosted my grip. I think the wider grip of the handles helps my pinky, which is the weak spot especially on my left hand. Despite having done a good deal with the crushers tonight, I feel no pain or stiffness. Just confidence! If only other crush maniacs knew how beneficial swimming and jump rope is for crushing, haha!

Fitness notes…

Thursday, 2011.6.23
Swim: 30mins: 1100m freestyle (50m/50m of breast/back)

+ + +

I focused on "being long" without overgliding and my spl (strokes per [50m] lap) went from 42–44 last time to 38–40 this time. I had trouble coordinating my exhalations under water before turning into a breath on every 3rd stroke. Doing as I normally do, though, felt more or less copacetic, so I think some of the problem is building up the respiratory stamina to make do with how much air I can reasonably and efficiently get each breath. Apropos, I felt a lot less tired this time, which suggests my aerobic capacity is improving, slowly but surely. I think the only way I'll be able to swim 2–3km is by going to the pool in the morning, or maybe Wednesday nights, when I get off work an hour earlier than most nights.

+ + +

Friday, 2011.6.24

And tonight, not long after getting home after viewing Terrence Malick's… highly ruminative… often touching… and long-awaited Tree of Life…, I did the following (or so) for grip:

Midi red gripper [WITHOUT RUBBER BANDS]: negative/overcrush @ ~30 secs
Midi red gripper ("): negative/overcrush @ ~15 secs
Heavy red gripper (") negative/overcrush @ ~30 secs
Heavy Grips 150: negative/overcrush @ ~15 secs

Gym regimen - June 2011

Wednesday, 2011.6.22

CARDIO

Jog: 600m, 600m

Jump rope: 150, 150

WEIGHTS

db bent-over row: 12, 12, 12 @ 32kg, 36kg, 40kg

db bench: 12, 10, 10 @ 30kg, 34kg, 38kg

2" db seated curl: 15, 12, 10 @ 20kg, 22kg, 24kg

tricep extension: 12 @ 5-spring expander, 12 @ 5-spring expander, 20 @ 12kg

front squat: 20 @ 9kg, 20 @ 36kg

Also did 3 sets of 30 neck iso's in all four directions last night.

Fitness notes…

Saturday, 18 June 2011

swimming: 40 mins: 1200m
[I "kanked" my knee Saturday morning, specifically the LCL, helping my gf move her scooter… which is to say I impatiently yanked in the direction she wanted to turn it and the 50-c.c. chassis chopped into my knee. I screamed, despite myself, and nearly stumbled. It was weak and sore the rest of the day, but I still went for a swim, though only freestyle didn't hurt it. It feels better now.]

Monday, 20 June 2011

swimming: 30 mins: 1000m
[My cardio is improving, but I still need to shed some gut fat. And I am "in my reletnless way" about improving my swimming technique (again once more). Shoulders never move, exhale underwater, touch buttocks on end of stroke, high elbows, rotate hips, forward fingers extend during inhalation, scissor-kick instead of foot-thrashing, etc.]

Grip training:

Warmup: gyro ball, flail
Heavy Grips 150: 10
[all closes, l.h. & r.h. {though the l.h. had to work!}]
COC #1.5: 10
[r.h. 9 closes? l.h. closes?]
CoC #2: 5
[ø closes… but withing a millimeter with the r.h.!]
CoC #1.5: hard negative
[~12 secs l.h., ~20 secs r.h.]

I did most of the left-hand crushes with the gripper inverted, which showed that that hand is not so far behind my right hand. So, all is well-ish. There was a distinctly more painful patch in my left hand, around the abductor pollicis longus area of the forearm. Onward!

Gym regimen - June 2011

This eczema in the crotch is becoming a real bore. I've got three different tubes of medicine for it, as well as some "Anti-Flamme" I apply now and then (with whisky, to dull the shrieking burn), and some Seba moisturzier and Seba soap. Frankly, I'm at a a loss. If I make it dry (with 痱子粉), I get bumps in the morning. If I make it wet (with etc.), I get a nagging rash. Tonight, I was so wound up, that I was crabby with my gf… until I did the following in my gym-room (in circuits, mind you):

chest expander flye 3-spring: 12
chest expander flye 4-spring: 12
chest expander flye 5-spring: 12
chest expander flye 7-spring: 6
[The c-e handles are latched under the stool legs as I lie on the stool.]

db rows: 12 @ 33kg
db rows: 12 @ 33kg
db rows: 12 @ 33kg
[Could have gone much, much heavier, but I need to invest in heavier plates, when the time comes.]

db tricep extension: 15 @ 11g (only first set)
2" db tricep extension: 12 @ 15kg (second set)
2" db tricep extension: 10 @ 15kg (third set)

tricep extension chest expander 3-string: 12
tricep extension chest expander 4-string: 12
tricep extension chest expander 5-string: 10

chest expander 3-string curl: 12 (only one set)
db curl: 10 @ 21kg
2" db curl: 9 @ 15kg

chest expander 9-spring: 15
chest expander 9-spring: 18
chest expander 9-spring: 20

neck harness raises: 15 @ 7kg
neck harness raises: 15 @ 7kg
neck harness raises: 15 @ 9kg

+ + +

In all this, I may have done a few more reps for my right arm on flexes and and few more reps for my left arm on extensions. But let the numbers stand.

The chest expander (c-e's) flyes were nice, but I need to keep tweaking the angle. I don't want to ovetax my shoulders on a chest exercise. Indeed, on the last set of tricep extensons with the c-e, I went from behind the back to in front of the chest, since I could tell the behind-the-back was ultimately more of (or just as much of) a trial for my shoulders as for my triceps.

It's uncanny to me that my left-arm curls are so much easier than my right-arm curls, yet my right-hand crushes "pwn" my left-hand crushes.

I finally found a way to make a neck harness, after many months of pondering: a mid-size dog chest harness put on my head with weights hooked below. Voilà. I also discovered later that a good way to use the harness is to latch it onto a doorknob and then do iso's in all four angles.

The latest from…

I'm kind of missing the gym. Oh, that heavy deadlift. And, oh, those heavy shrugs. Even a real squat rack. Ahhh…. Hard it is to go "native", but I am hoping to swim at least three times a week, which is nice, and I do still plan to workout "heavy" twice a week. In-betweens will be grip training. More jump roping and jogging. Must shed some of my fat-piggedness.

In any even, yesterday I did…

Pullups: 14, 14, 14
db chest press (per hand): 12 @ 30kg, 14 @ 30kg, 12 @ 32kg
2" db seated curl: 12 @ 15kg, 10 @ 17kg, 9 @ 19kg
2" db tricep extension: 12 @ 12kg, 14 @ 11kg

Tonight I did…

• 40 mins of swimming:

• ~1km (100m breaststroke & 100m "leg turbine", 600m freestyle)

• random crushing session:

• Heavy Grips 150 x 2 closes with overcrush, CoC #1.5 x 2 closes, CoC #2 x 1 attempt

Recent doings…

I've been well out of the loop, I know, but this is mainly because I've picked up some new extra classes and have moved into a larger apartment. What I should have posted in the past week or two is roughly (from memory) the following:

6 June 2011
Warmup: gryo ball, flail
Midi Red gripper: 10, 9
Heavy Grips 150: 9, 8
CoC #1.5: 8, 8 (l.h. 4 closes? r.h. 8)
CoC #2: 8, 6 (l.h. 3 closes? r.h. 4 closes?)

9 June 2011
Warmup: flail, gyro ball
1" wrist roller:
2" wrist roller:
Wrist levering:
4x4 pinch block:
1x4 pinch block:

10 June 2011
Sling rows: 15, 15
Kettlebag curls: 12 @ 9kg
Kettlebag-sledgehammer curls: 12, 10 @ 12kg
Pushups: 50, 50

11 June 2011
Kettlebag sledgehammer curls: 12, 12 @ 12kg
Pushups: 50, 50
Kettlebag delt flyes and press: 5/5/5, 5/5/5 @ 9kg
Tricep extensions: two chest-expander coils

14 June 2011
Swimming:
35 mins, 800m: 100m breaststroke, 100m legs only, 100m freestyle, 300m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, 100m freestyle
[It wasn't until about 350m that my old training came back: hands slice in high and close to the head, torwue the hips and shoulders, stretch each stroke. By the end, I had remembered to count how many strokes I took per 50m: 42, 41, 39, 38. A good progression! I need to get my cardio back up to snuff. How I love swimming!]

Grip training:
Warmup: Midi Red gripper (10 closes), gyro ball
Heavy Grips 150: 9 reps (l.h. 6 closes? r.h. 9 closes)
CoC #1.5: 9 (r.h. 7 closes? l.h. 4 closes?)
CoC #2: 1, 1 (ø closes)
Heavy Grips 150: 9
[I finally determined tonight a major factor in the disparity between my right and left hands: the design of the crushers favors the right hand! To wit, in the right hand, the spring inserted into the handle in the thenar-phalanx joint is nearly a centimeter from the flesh. By contrast, when the gripper is "flipped" into the left hand, the thenar spring is only a couple millimeters from the flesh.

I have discovered the handicap in this, namely, that the closer the origin handle is to the palm of the hand, the less leverage that hand has. This is because, as the fingers closer towards the palm, the sooner they "run into" the palm, the less power, indeed, the less geometric space they have to crush inwardly. Those extra millimeters in the right hand give the right fingers the essential extra geometric leverage to crush, a space lacking in the left hand. Indeed, this is why setting the gripper correctly is so important. The thenar handle is placed towards the center of the palm precisely to increase the leverage of the fingers to close to that handle. A gripper casually set too far back in my right hand will make that hand as weak as my left hand.

The upshot is that I think I have taken to training my left hand with the gripper (at least a heavy gripper) upside down. This puts the thenar spring farther from the flesh and gives it a "right hand feel." To wit, whilst writing this note, I ran into my training room and did a few upside reps for my left hand (Heavy Grips 150 x 4, CoC #1.5 x 2, CoC #2 x 1), just to see how it felt. And it felt stronger, considering I was already tapped out from a proper grip session a couple hours before.

Oh, and, incidentally, if you're psychotic, or me, you'll notice a difference between June 14's grip training and the previous crush training is that I did fewer reps for warmups so I'd have "more left" for the heavy grip training.]

I've also done some random drills while watching movies: chest expander curls, shrugs, bowshots, tricep extensions, etc. But, frankly, due to a very unpleasant case of eczema in the thigh-groin region (!), I've basically been unable to do serious lower-body training. Which is immensely frustrating and irritating. That's what finally got me back into the pool, and I invested in a book of 30 tickets to keep my feet to the fire, as it were (a little sunken capital is good for rationality).

Home workouts, making them faster…

Because swapping plates and pipes is too time-consuming for workouts in my room, I'll be switching to whatever is most efficient, namely, sticking to exercises that use the same equipment until the next moves need different equipment.

Even Keel 1

WARMUP

PULL Bent over row (wide T-bell or 2" bb):

PUSH 2" bb one-arm standing press:

PULL 2" db seated curl:

PUSH 2" bb BP:

PUSH Front squat (pike bar):

PULL Snatch DL (pike bar):

An interlude with the pike before I stick to moves with the 2" bb.

The above three exercises all use the 2" bb, so it's just a matter of adding and removing plates. Using a near-standard grip on the DL would allow me to use more weight, though I love the snatch DL. I may use my pike for that, since it's wider and can hold tons of weight. If so, though, I'd need to do the DL last.

Even Keel Workout 2

WARMUP

PULL Pullup:

PUSH Squat or Lunges:

PULL 2" bb curl or EZ bar curl:

PUSH Tricep extension:

PULL Stiff-leg DL:

PUSH db flye:

+++

Another way to think about it…

PIKE BAR:

Bent rows

DLs

Squats

Bench

DUMBBELLS & "KETTLEBAGS":

Curls

Presses

One-arm row

Tricep extensions

2" BARBELL:

Standing press

Curls

Tricep extensions

Bench press

Gym regimen - June 2011

[The following notes are a bit of a "slurry", i.e. the numbers are probably off in many details, since I shuffled a lot of plates, some in pounds and some in kilograms, and pipes in two sessions, before and after work, and this was the first time I did a "full-on" Even Keel workout at home.

I have, in fact, chosen to let my gym membership expire. Mainly, I want to save time and money. Having been at the gym the past year has given me great gains in my strength, knowledge, and skill, but it's a basic principle of mine that real strength can always be developed, even without "real" equipment.

Even so, my biggest worries were these:

Without a gym… How can I substitute for heavy squatting? How can I train heavy deadlifts? How can I train my back as heavily? How can I improve my bench press and chest without a real bench?

Well, in order:

Heavy squatting is simulated by doing…

one-leg squats (or intervals or double- and one-leg squats),

heavy lunges,

extremely deep though-slightly-lighter squats,

jumpies,

piggyback squats [squatting with someone holding onto you… and a barbell],

squats with a backpack full of weights on your back,

and even "body-board" presses [I just made those up! Imagine a sheet of sturdy ply wood, or a mesh of lumber, on your feet as you lie on the ground and a friend pies on the board.]

Heavy deadlifting is simulated with…

heavy stiff-leg deadlifts,

prone hamstring curls [lie facedown, have someone, or something very secure, pin your feet to the ground, and then rise up as from a prostrated bow. I sort of just invented that.],

hanging leg curls [hang from a pullup bar and lift a weights chain/bag with your feet],

or prone leg pulls [lie facedown and have someone pull your feet down as your try to keep the soles of your feet parallel to the ground. Again, I may have just invented that.].

Heavy back training comes from…

weighted pullups (!),

heavy bent over rows (one- and two-arm),

deep and explosive leaning sling rows, á la Lifeline slings [you can also wear a backpack with weights inside to add more weight; something pretty much like these loop-handled loading slings are what I use],

face pulls,

heavy shrugs (standard, overhead, Hise shrugs, etc.),

and pullovers.

Heavy benching can be simulated by…

weighted pushups (and pushups with hands/fingers/feet in various positions),

medicine-/sports-ball, sling, and one-arm pushups,

plyo (clapping) pushups,

planching [ha! good luck, schlub!],

handstand pushups,

muscle-ups,

heavy floor presses,

heavy db flyes,

thick barbell benching,

and pullovers-with-press.

I've always known "you don't need a gym to get strong," but I did decide about a year+ ago to see what regular time at a gym would do for me. I am pleased with my results. I will most likely be in a gym again in the future, but for now I want to push myself with more bodyweight and home training. Patience, humility, confidence….]

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

95kg

SESSION 1, 45 mins:

Chest expander flye: 15, 15

[I pinned one handle of each expander under a leg of a bench on which I lie and did some wide-angled flyes.]

db flye: 12, 14, 12 @ 30kg (per arm)

Front squat (2" bar): 15, 12, 12 @ 60–65kg

Romanian db DL: 14, 13, 12 @ 60kg, 64kg

Standing db tricep extension + rear tricep extension: 8/5, 10/6, 10/5 @ 12kg, 10kg, 12kg

Seated db curl: 12, 10, 8 @ 11kg, 14kg, 18kg

Bent-over row: 14, 14, 14 @ 65–70kg

SESSION 2, 30 mins:

Front squat (2" bar): 12, 12 @ 65kg

db flye: 12, 8 @ 32kg, 34kg

Romanian db DL: 14, 14 @ 68kg

Standing db tricep extension + rear tricep extension: 10/5, 10/5 @ 12kg

Seated db curl: 12, 8 @ 19kg, 21kg

Bent-over row: 14, 12, 10 @ 65–70kg

+ + +

Lots of sweat and chalk. I will take tomorrow off and train core and grip (sans crusher!) Friday. Obviously, some of my new home regimen would be safer, and more productive, with a spotter, so I am trying to convince a friend to join me.