Heavy-ass weight!

No delusions of grandeur here, don't worry. I don't even consider myself a bodybuilder.

All the same, Coleman's quote is immortal. Just replace "bodybuilder" with your strength-training goal and it fits.

Today was a "life fitness day". I didn't hit the gym. I didn't touch a metal weight of any kind. The most I did in terms of "fitness" training, in fact, was some core work I'll describe below.

Today I woke up, played with my kids for a bit, then drank some milk and a beer (!), and napped again for a few hours.

Then I really got up, had some oatmeal and eggs and coffee and my usual humble supplements. Then I did some core work before my wife and I took the babies on a stroller walk for nearly an hour. When we got back I practiced hand balancing for about 10 minutes, between bursts of yard work, which then shifted to me mowing the front yard.

But here I am rambling--and on my own blog, no less!

The core work I did this morning is, according to Tamir B. Katz, M.D., a "flat bridge".

Or you could just call it a straight bitch.

Of which more in a moment.

I started with two 50-second neck bridges. Felt great on the hamstrings and back.

Then I rolled over into a butts-up headstand... and slowly backed my feet up until I was into a basically horizontal, hands-free plank position.

On my forehead.

Yeah. That's the flat bridge which Katz presents.

I held that for 30 seconds, twice.

Then I tried it again for another 30 seconds.

I can't find an image of what Katz advises, so here are some photo grabs from a pre-publication version of his book that I printed out a few years ago:

When I got inside from mowing the yard, I tried Katz's flat bridge again for 30 seconds. Then I tried it on a chair, thinking that a higher elevation might provide a way to train the exercise more progressively and less aggressively.

How wrong I was.

Friends, I tell you: Just stick with the floor.

The two fulcra are how far back you position your feet and and how "flat" you put your face on the mat. The closer your feet are, and the higher your rest on the crown of your head, the easier it is. And vice versa.

Anyway, what are the heavy-ass weights which birthed the title of this post?

Amidst hand balancing and yard work, I finally got my "bigger" dino-dumbbell out of the plastic bucket this evening.

And, holy cats, is it ungainly.

It's at least 10 lbs heavier than I had intended, and, honestly, may not even be symmetrically heavy.

Which...makes it that much cooler, in a weird, dinosaur way.

That bad boy weighs in at just shy of 74 lbs, with a 2-inch grip. 

I chipped off a little bit of it today trying to get it out of the bucket, but if I want to, I can just patch it up with a few dollops of cement. Seeing, however, as it's heavy-as-shit already, I will not be doing any patching up until it gets more chipped over time. 

Grip session PLUS

[See update at bottom...] 

Crush training
27 min., 225 lbs.

Warm-up (10 min.) - gyro ball, Chin-Na drills, stretching

Ghetto Gripper* - 10 closes

CoC #1.5 - 6 closes

CoC #2 -
1 near-close L, 1 close R
1 near-close L, 1 close R

CoC #1.5 - 10 closes

Ghetto Trainer - 20 closes

[...deal with babies...relocate to garage...] 

Hand balancing - 5 min.
one-arm db snatch - 5/5, 5/5 @ 35 lbs.
one-arm kb swing - 80 @ 35 lbs. [switched hands every ten swings]
one-arm db snatch - 5/5, 5/5 @ 35 lbs.
one-arm kb swing - 80 @ 35 lbs. [ditto]
[^ 15 min.]

+ + +

Yesterday I began assembling my first dino-bells. I call them dino-bells in honor of Brooks Kubik's Dinosaur Training. I will make a 30 lb. and 60 lb. dino-db with a 5" grip width, and a 125 lb. dino-bar with about 4' of grip width. I am using 2" electrical conduit, plastic buckets, and Sakrete. I forgot to spray silicone lubricant into the bucket when I set the first 15 lb. "plate" yesterday, so it will either come off with some help from a rubber mallet, or my 30 lb. dino-db will have both ends covered in white plastic, and I'll have to invest in a third bucket. I'm giving each batch at least a day and a half before I mess with it, so hopefully I can set up the other half of the 30 lb. dino db tomorrow.**  

At The Home Depot, when I asked the plumbing helper to cut the conduit into shorter segments, he said, "That grip's too thick, it's too hard to handle." I explained that that's the entire point of making such devices, but as I learned long ago, thick bar and "rough" training is counterintuitive almost anywhere you go. 

--------------------

* Yesterday I got a spring clamp for a dollar at The Home Depot. I gave my Heavy Grips 150 to a friend when I left Taiwan, so I need something again for warm-up reps. The Ghetto Gripper feels like the Captains of Crush Point Five, I reckon. If I need it to be tougher, of course, I'll just wrap rubber bands around the pincers, like I did with an alligator clamp back in Taiwan.

** UPDATE 20 April 2014 - The rubber mallet worked like a charm. This half currently weighs a little more than 18 lbs, but once I cut off the excess bar and (perhaps) grind down the inner edge of the concrete so it won't cut my forearm [I'll probably just wear large wrist bands], it should weigh about 18 lbs. So by the end of the project, the dino db will weigh at least 35 lbs, with a total cost of about $5 and a couple hours of puttering. 

AYCE notes... (The plot thickens)

Friday, 11 April 2014 
43 min., 227 lbs. 
MOOD: felt very fun, felt energized, wore pants and hoodie 

Warm-up (3 min.) - movements, stretching

FSQ: 7, 5, 3, 3, 3, 2 @ 135, 155, 205, 225, 245, 265 lbs.

CLP: 5, 5, 5 @ 115, 125, 135 lbs.

HSN (hang snatch): 5, 4, 3* @ 115, 125, 135 lbs.
[Rule of thumb: if you're not sure that you're being explosive enough on Oly lifts, then you're not being explosive enough, especially compared to this beast. Not only did I not pull myself under the bar, at least not once I passed 115 lbs., but I also didn't really drop into a squat. Plus, my feet were kind of all over the place, rather like a flying squirrel. The * indicates that I only pulled off the last rep of the final set. Humble pie is quite tasty! Still, it was a fun lift.]

PNF: 5 min.

+ + + 

I've learned this much:

- Squatting every day is not only not impossible, but almost a given for strength and power athletes. 

- I believe in majoring on The Big Three (SQ, DL, BP) and using everything else for adding volume (esp. for myofibrillar synthesis), honing technique, and training assistance lifts for The Big Three. 

- I enjoy "hobby strength training" (i.e. neck, grip, hand balancing, tires-and-sledge-hammers, plyometrics, boxing, kettlebell, keg conditioning, mace, etc.) too much to commit my entire week to "mainstream" weightlifting.  

- The above axioms have been percolating in this blog for years; my constant fiddling with my regimen--without, I maintain, trying "a whole new program" every week or two--is my attempt to articulate and synthesize them. 

My biggest discovery of late is that Matt Perryman is correct that avoiding "overtraining" is more often than not an excuse to settle for mediocrity. I would, however, restate Perryman's thesis to read, "squat in every workout." Perryman himself admits in the introduction to Squat Every Day that the title is not meant to be taken literally; even three days a week of heavy squatting would just barely qualify as "squatting every day," as he uses the phrase.

Having said that, whilst reading McCallum's The Complete Keys to Progress last night, I was faced with the reality that, while the past few weeks of almost daily training have not "done me in," by any means, I do not currently practice a lifestyle which affords me adequate rest on a daily basis to see the benefits of such frequent training. Having a day off, plus a light weekend, is probably something I need, unless I discipline myself to get a full eight or more hours of sleep every night. That would be nice, but for now, between nightly feedings, bathings, prayers, and a rising time of 5:30 AM, it's really hard for this night owl to be asleep by 9:30 PM.

The upshot of all these musings is the following proposal:

Monday & Thursday: FSQ + BP + MP + PNF  

Tuesday & Friday: DL + HSQ + PU + PNF 

Wednesday or Saturday: hobby training [i.e. tongue press, neck bridging, mace, farmer walks, CoC]

Sunday: REST 

[NB: Warm-up: prone & supine scorpions + neck bridging + movements] 

As always, the above exercises can be swapped with other, related lifts. ZSQ or OHS instead of HSQ, guillotine or dips for MP, SDL or CL or SN instead of DL, rows instead of PU, etc.

It's a basic "squat every workout + push/pull" split. (As I've said before, I'm not going to use SQ until I can FSQ 285 lbs x 4.)

I'm not interested in parsing the rep scheme in great detail right now, but, following McCallum, I'll go for something like [UPDATE: Stupid me! Stick with 5x5!]:

a 12, 10, 5x5 scheme for FSQ, SQ, BP; 

a 10, 5, 3x3 scheme for DL; and 

a 12, 10, 5x5 scheme for MP and PU. 

The first two sets will be with light, warmup weight, and the final sets will be at roughly 70%, 80%, 90% 1RM. I will only add weight when I can complete all the reps with clean, slow form. I will start modestly next week and go from there.

Of course...

if I do finally decide to spring for Kelso's Shrug Book and Kubik's Dinosaur Training, ...

revisit and read Strossen's Super Squats in full, ...

and as I keep reading McCallum's Keys, Pavel's Power to the People, Zinchenko's Rough Strength, ...

don't be surprised to see yet more adjustments. [grin]

As long as I keep having fun, staying humble, and making gains, I figure I'm on the right track.

Stay tuned.

Gym regimen - November 2012

Friday, 2 November 2012
Even Keel "B" 
50-60 min., 218 lbs. (98.5kg)

Warm-up 
motions, stretching, imaging

Circuit 1
FSQ - 9, 6, 3 @ 185lbs, 205lbs, 225lbs
Dips - 10, 10, 10
DL -  9, 6, 4 @ 225lbs, 275lbs, 315lbs

Circuit 2
Pulldown (close V-handle) - 9, 9, 6 @ 190lbs, 200lbs, 210lbs
Flye-away - 9, 9, 9 @ 120lbs
Supine cable curl - 9, 9, 9 @ 110lbs, 120lbs, 130lbs

Finish 
db farmer walk : 20-25 sec. w/ 190 lbs. x 3

+   +   +

I didn't post my records from last weeks workouts and then left the notes at work on Friday, so I can't show any detailed comparisons. Nonetheless, my A regimen last week was up in every exercise from the week before and this B workout is, I'm pretty certain, up from last week, too. Actually, the DL felt a little too easy. But... patience, humility, confidence, double progression.

I decided to switch dips into circuit 1 instead of the flye-aways, mainly because dips are harder and thus fit better with the compound, HIT nature of circuit 1. I also liked staying at the same weight for the flye-aways, since it took out the psychological snag I have sometimes with heavier weights in chest training.

Felt a little squishy on the first two sets of FSQ, but that was largely due to mental distractions (guy on a cell phone behind me talking about money, etc.). I'm still not totally sure about my foot position on the FSQ, but I loved going wider than usual on my SQ for regimen A. I had bruises on my delts the next day from the FSQ--hoorah!

The farmer walks at the end were a lot of fun. (Errm, as in "fun".) I've decided to train my abs mostly by daily vacuuming and off-day planche/plank training. A nice idea: finish my workouts with a farmer-walk/high leg raise triplet circuit.

Also, I hadn't mentioned it before, but on off-days what I like to do (aside from procrastinate, read and think about how I should be training) is the following, which I've done three or four times in the past couple weeks: jump rope, sledge hammer drills, medicine ball drills, jump rope, repeat x 3, then finish with hand balancing.

Onward (but not FORWARD)!

Grip training & fitness update - August 2012

Sunday, 26 August 2012
30 min., 99kg

In the following order… 

Jumping jacks, T-bell swings, med ball slams

Jumping jacks, T-bell swings, med ball slams

Stretching

Hand standing

CoC #2 - 4 reps (2 closes)

Hand standing

CoC #1.5 - 10 closes (+3 l.h.)

Hand standing

CoC #1.5 - 10 closes

Jumping jacks, T-bell swings, med ball slams

+ + +

Monday, 27 August 2012
De Lisle SEAL exercises - beginner

Warm-up & stretching - 15'

Upper body - 11'30"

Lower body - 9'15"

Aerobic - ø

TOTAL TIME - 35'45"

[I was interrupted by family just at the end of my lower body routine, so it could have been a little faster, and I probably would have gone for a run. I'll be doing this routine every (week)day for the next two weeks, though, so giving myself a little break today will have to be fine.]

Fitness update - August 2012

Wednesday, 15 August 2012
45 min., 100kg

Warm-up: Jumping jacks, lunges, medicine ball tosses - 5 min.

Stretching: 10'

Upper body: 11'30"

Lower body: 10'20"

Aerobic: 7'30"
T-bell swings - 25 @ 15kg x 2
Lunges with 5kg medicine ball - 24 x 2
Walking medicine ball tosses - 15 x 2
Walking high kicks with medicine ball - 20 x 2 
Medicine ball slams - 20 @ 5kg

+ + +

I used a sling I had hung over a rafter, with a sturdy dowel in the loops, for my reverse and narrow-grip pull-ups, as well as for my hanging knee lifts. Next week I'd like to start using my eagle loops for reverse, close-grip, wide-grip pull-ups, and knee lifts.

My time on the circuits dropped again, which is nice, even allowing for some delays due to messing with equipment here and there. I like using a lumbar support I found on a chair at home for my ab exercises (it's the Ab Mat on the cheap!). Due to my shin splints, I did not run or jump, but the drills I did were a good challenge.

I think I'll practice head stands, hand standing, and grip crushing tomorrow.

Fitness update - August 2012 …

Tuesday, 14 August 2012 
40 min., 100kg

Warmup: 3/8 mile jog, 20 medicine ball slams, stretching - 10 min.

----

T-bell swing: 20 @ 15kg x 6

Hand stand: 4 sessions, some good holds

----

Grip training:

CoC #1.5 : 10 closes

CoC #2 : 1 close + 4 reps

CoC #1.5 : 10 closes r.h., 10 reps (8 closes) l.h.

+ + + +

This whole workout took about 40 minutes. My shin splints are a problem, to be sure, and I may need to replace jogging/sprinting with lunges, box jumps, striding, calf raises, split jumps, goblet squats, and high kicks for a while.

Closing the CoC #2 was a nice surprise! I guess doing more pull-ups and push-ups and hand stands has paid off. Apparently, "greasing the groove" with my eagle loops a week or two ago was very beneficial. As such, I intend to replace the reverse grip pull-ups (aka "chin-ups") and wide-grip pull-ups in the SEAL regimen I'm doing with eagle loops pull-ups.

Fitness update... Life update...

Where were we? And where should I start?

The latter half of July, at least, was consumed by preparations to move my family to Florida for a new teaching job. My last workout in the gym was around July 12, I guess. Likewise, the first half of August has been consumed by settling into a new home and job. But fitness is a must.

From then until now, in order to maintain fitness, I've mainly been applying Rich Bryda's methods, a lot of "greasing the groove", in other words. I was doing 100+ pull-ups every day for two weeks, and then 200+ T-bell swings, and nearly 100 pull-ups the past week. I have assembled a T-bell, purchased a "real" 12-lb. medicine all (yippee!), hung my eagle loops up in the garage as soon as I arrived, and just today purchased a great floor rug to serve as a jump rope mat (face-down) and as a handstand pad (face-up). I'm itching to get some gymnastic rings, but I will wait until Christmas.

I'm going to be very busy with a new job-- a "real" teaching job, mind you, which entails lots of red tape and new-teacher meetings and on-going steps for certification (oooyyyy...)-- so I'm trying to find a realistic but rewarding regimen for the present and next few weeks. To wit....

At my favorite used bookstore, Chamblin Book Mine, I stumbled upon Mark De Lisle's 1996 Navy SEAL Exercises (though it now goes by the less judicious name, The Navy SEAL Workout). I was impressed and have decided to give it a go for the next twelve weeks. Two reasons I liked what Lisle was offering were 1) he places major emphasis on stretching before, during, and after working out, and 2) he provides beginner, intermediate, and advanced regimens. It's also a very low-hype book, with a classically deceptively simple pyramid structure. All in all, there's a magnificent emphasis on progression and discipline.

So, I decided to begin today... at the beginner level. Not that I have no background in fitness training, but I realized that, between my new responsibilities as a teacher and the cumulative demands of the intermediate (versus beginner) regimen, I should give my body time to progress and "desire" more challenges as time goes on.

So, my workout today was:

Lisle SEAL-B
20'
22'
8'51"

Without reproducing the whole book here, I'll explain the regimen and my goals for the next twelve weeks.

I. Warmup and stretching
A. I'll do jump rope, T-bell swings, medicine ball drills, etc. to warmup, and go through the whole series of stretching as Lisle advises.
1. This, he says, should take 15-20 minutes. It took me about 20 minutes today, mostly because I had to keep referring to the book, which took up extra time.

II. Upper Body
A. Pull-ups - 5 kinds
B. Dips - 4 sets of 5
C. Push-ups - 4 kinds

III. Lower Body
A. 15 kinds of abdominal and core exercises, divided into 5 triplets, with a "cobra stretch" (fore, port, starboard) between each triplet

IV. Running / Swimming
A. Lisle specifies running, jogging, sprinting, stairs, etc. and freestyle, side stroke, and breast stroke
1. Happily, I have access to a pool at my school... and roads wherever I am. Stairs, though, are harder to come by here than in Taiwan! 

As Lisle specifies, I rest 15 seconds between each exercise. I take a slightly longer water break between exercise changes (I.A. to I.B., from upper to lower body, and before running).

(Indeed, I bought a Timex Expedition Classic watch for this new regimen! Granted, it will serve me well in class and in the gym, but, gosh, there's nothing like inspiration. Maybe I like Lisle's program because it reminds me so much of my crew training.)

The upper and lower body circuits took me 22 minutes and I ran for 8'51" (a mile and change). All in all, therefore, counting transition times, this took me under and hour. Very reasonable.

For the first two weeks I do this only on MWF. On "off" days, I will do a combo of T-bell swings, jump rope, medicine ball drills, hand/headstands, and grip training.

The beginner pyramid is a "measly" 1-2-1 for each kind of pull-up, 4 sets of 5 dips, and 2-4-2 for each kind of push-up. The key is not to sacrifice form on any rep.

After 2 weeks (weeks 1 and 2), up the pyramids (on MWF) to 1-2-3-2-1, 4 sets of 5, and 2-4-6-4-2.

After 4 weeks, switch to training M-F.

Once those first four weeks have passed, I will move to the intermediate regimen for MWF. The pyramid structure is too tedious to explain here, but it's a good jump up from the beginner load. After two weeks on MWF, I will do the intermediate regimen M-F.

I'm so pleased with Lisle's program, I also recently acquired his newer Navy SEAL Breakthrough to Master Level Fitness, and I'd actually recommend it over the first SEAL Exercises book. It provides a much better organized weekly schedule, I like the choice of stretches better, and the inclusion of actual leg exercises (!) in the lower body routine is more satisfying. Once a rower....

Stay tuned.

Fitness notes - July 2012

Wednesday, 11 July 2012
20–30 min., 104kg 

I felt too nervous trying handwalking and handstands on the stone floor in the quad outside my apartment, which made it hard to focus and really try, so I ended up doing wall stands. I used four interlocking rubber mats to protect my head on the floor.

Stretching

Wall stands: 5–15 sec. several times

Wall-aided salamba sirsasana (asana column): 5–15 sec. several times

Tripod headstands: 10–30 sec. several times

By the end of this workout, sweat was literally dripping off of me. 

The key, I realized today, for training the salamba sirsasana, is to move my body a little farther from the wall each time I practice, so I can gradually learn to balance with confidence, until I can do it without a wall at all. 

Thursday, 12 July 2012
30–40 min., 103kg

I was still quite sore from my Quick Mass workout on Tuesday, but I was also antsy and needed some kind of exercise, so I walked the track for thirty minutes while practicing Pimsleur Spanish. Every lap I did about 50 meters of jump rope jogging, followed by another 50 skips or so in place. After all that, I practice handstands for about ten minutes. Boy howdy, what a difference practicing on a firm, safe surface made! I wasn't scared of crashing onto stone (as I had been Wednesday night), but also wasn't weakened by an uneven grassy surface (as I was last week). I did several good tries at handwalking, and held a few handstands for nearly ten seconds. The key, as Patrick Barrett in How to Do a Handstand advises, is that I didn't just blindly hop up into a handstand again and again. Rather, I analyzed how I fell, to which side I leaned, etc., and tried to correct for those flaws on the next attempt. I really felt secure when I tucked my buttocks and pointed my toes upward as high, so to speak, as they could go. My traps have been nicely sore from the handstands, though my neck is a bit kinked from last night's practice.

Until next time!