Training Archives

June 26th, 2007

I held it for barely a second and my elbows felt like they were going to explode. But it's something. And it's the best progress I've seen on the iron cross yet. I'm not going to call it total victory on this skill until I can hold it for a second or two longer.

I switched my approach to the skill. Rather than putting my feet onto blocks and lowering down into the cross position I decided to use bands to assist in pulling from below the rings up into and through the iron cross (For those familiar with gymnastics, it was a band-assisted butterfly mount). I feel the greater speed in which I could do this new assisted exercise helped to build up the strength needed.

The biggest limiting factor right now is that my elbows hurt quite a bit as I was holding the position. Perhaps adding back in some sets of lowering down and holding the iron cross with my feet on a block might help temper my elbows and give me further progress. In any case, I'm happy with the progress now and look forward to improving the skill.

In other training news, I managed to add a couple inches to my vertical and I'm very happy to report the ability to grab a basketball rim. If you haven't seen it already, take a look at a recent video I submitted for an online contest (please vote for the video too! thanks!)

A couple months ago I was a bit shy of the rim with a vertical of about 32 inches (~81 cm). Breaking down my leg workouts into maximal strength days and speed days, like Westside Barbell, added more than 2 inches onto my vertical, with my highest recorded vertical being 34.9 inches (~88.6 cm). More specifically I started doing speed box squats with around 60% of my max squat as well as ankle jumps onto a small box.

I may not have followed the best protocol with my choice of sets, repetitions, rest time, or whatever, but I got myself under the bar, busted my butt, and moved some heavy weight. That's all that matters.

March 22nd, 2007

It's been quite some time since I've posted up my training information. I'm happy to report everything is going better than it ever has. I've switched up my training routine from three total body workouts a week, to a four day a week upper/lower body split. I'm also working a day or two of conditioning with sled pulling, putting it in generally the day after a lower body workout.

So a typical week might break down like so:

Monday- Upper

Tuesday- Lower

Wednesday- Rest or Sled Pulling

Thursday- Rest or Upper

Friday- Upper or Lower

Saturday- Rest or Lower

Sunday- Rest

By week's end, I'll try to get two upper body workouts and two lower body workouts done.

So now for an upper body workout, I might work a pushing exercise and a pulling exercise with heavy weights, low repetitions (1-5) and high number of sets (5-10), and then sometimes finish off with a pushing and pulling exercise for 3-4 sets of 6-10 repetitions.

Lower body workouts follow a similar model, in that I'll start off with the heaviest exercises first, or the ones requiring the most power (Olympic lifts), and finish off with some accessory lifts for the squat and deadlift.

The real important point to pull out of all this is that fact that I've split the upper body and lower body exercises into separate days which allows me to focus more on fewer exercises during each workout, rather than trying to jam in too much each time. Doing as little as two exercises for a workout has not been uncommon, but I can really focus on those exercises, load them up heavy, and get a lot of sets done. It's a matter of "less is more", and it's been working very well for me.

For instance, you probably already saw the one arm chin-up on a rope when I posted it on the front page. Here's a pic someone took, as well as the video of it (I'm near the very end). It feels very strong.

I've still got my sights set on a one arm rope climb, so it's a good sign that this skill feels so easy now. Now in training for a one arm rope climb, I've tried weighted rope climbs long before, which was pretty intense and beat my elbows up a bit. This is most likely due to the descent, which is essentially a series of one arm comedowns with a lot of weight.

60 lbs (~27 kg) extra in the rope climb, no legs = elbow killer

Unweighted rope climbing for many sets was good, but could still beat up the elbows a bit from all the descending on one arm and I didn't feel it gave me the training effect I was looking for.

Rather than beating up on my elbows and arms so much, what I really need to do is save the elbows while greatly taxing the grip. Hence the reason I've recently added weighted rope chin-ups to my workouts. As you can see from the picture above, in my gym I've got the advantage of two ropes hanging side by side. Chin-ups while grabbing a rope in each hand becomes easy, although I'm sure I could chin-up on a single rope if I needed.

The whole point is that my hands never leave the ropes. Rather than killing the elbows with a series of heavily weighted one arm comedowns, the biggest stress I feel is on my grip. I can also weight down the rope chin-ups heavier than I ever have for a weighted rope climb. There's also no fear of dropping 15 feet to the ground with plates chained around my waist when my grip gives out.

I've been increasing my strength in my pull-ups and chin-ups in general, adding more weight to the two arm chin-up recently than I've ever worked. I attribute this in part to the great chin-up bar I received from Delta Fitness, as well as the incredible dipping belt that we recently purchased from Ironmind.

Even back in January, before we got in the dipping belt in from Ironmind, I could tell that splitting up my week into upper and lower body workouts was building up my strength, as I managed a one arm chin-up, starting with my toes on a box, with an additional 10 lbs (~4.5 kg). This is a personal best for me.

 OAC with an additional 10 lbs. Doing curls in this position is an excellent bicep exercise!

In the area of pushing exercises, I'm happy to report great progress as well. I'll whole-heartedly thank Ironmind's dipping belt for my recent success with weighted dips.

Using an old weight belt and chain has worked well for me in the past, but as the weight as been increasing, I've broken several of these weight belts. With the new dip belt, there was no fear of breaking it, and it sat very comfortably on the hips. Sometimes the investment in quality equipment is well worth it.

So here at a weight of 165 lbs (~75 kg), is me doing a dip with an extra 180 lbs (~81.6 kg).

The lockout felt so strong that I got overzealous and tried 200 lbs (~91 kg) next. I missed that, then tried and missed 190 lb (~86 kg) next. After checking the video of the 190 lb (~86 kg) miss, I feel confident that I could dip with 185-190 lbs when fresh.

Dips and chins aren't the only thing I'm weighing down heavy again. I'm finally starting to get my squat and deadlift numbers back up. I'm no powerlifter, but I've cracked 400 lbs (~181 kg) in the deadlift for multiple reps, and I'm fast approaching 300 lbs (~136 kg) in the front squat. Both lifts are feeling strong and I'm enjoying the steady progress up to the higher numbers.

I include my lower body lifts and numbers as a way to show that one doesn't need to (and shouldn't) neglect leg training just because one wants to build up a high level of upper body strength. Don't be afraid of the weights.

On to the bodyweight skills of the iron cross and one arm handstand, both are progressing very well. The iron cross is feeling stronger for the first time in a long time. I've totally simplified my exercises for this skill by only doing band assisted iron crosses. I'll start up with a weak assisting band and do a low number of tough repetitions, then finish off with a stronger assisting band for some higher repetition work to get more volume for the skill in and groove the technique. So far, so good.

I've been working the one arm handstand a lot and seeing longer and more consistent holds. I'll say that I'd be comfortable writing up a tutorial on the skill in a couple months time if training continues to progress like this. The one arm handstand isn't a skill that you just one day "get". It's a skill that you get better and better on, and that's what I'm doing.

For the one arm handstand, I started adding an assisting exercise that I first read about in the York Handbalancing Course No. 2. In it, there's a picture of a handbalancer using a box to assist the one arm. Not having a fruit box lying around the weightroom, I decided to use two benches placed at a 90 degree angle to each other instead. This has worked fairly well, as I can stay up on one hand longer and really focus on where my body and legs should be during the skill.

Be extremely careful though, as it's easy to fatigue quickly and topple over. This is dangerous to do on top of two benches with your arm posted down in between them. So again, be careful.

So that's my progress for the first several months of this new year. Learning how to split things up, as well as doing less but focusing more, has pushed my training forward.