GYM 2.0 follow up

Didn''t do any HIIT training since monday. Planned to do one wednesday, but got hit in the foot so waiting for full recovery before doing anything violent involving feet moves.
I will resume Insanity second gear on monday so need to be sure I'm ready for that.
This painfull foot didn't'' however hinder my gym basic strength training (Maily upper body and core training at the moment).
Non static I did since last time : Pseudo planche ring push ups and Bulgarian ring rows.
Both are as expected a level higher and I'm far from the full ROM of those moves.
For pseudo-planche push ups (PPP) I go down all the way, but I can tell that my hands are not as close as the hips as it should be.
For the Bulgarian Rows I got a problem both  for the height of the move and the wideness between my hands.
As a reminder Bulgarian rows are sort of an inverted wide arm push ups except that wide arm push up sort of make the ROM a little smaller when you train on the floor (ROM is still pretty good with rings though).

I also did the second day of static training:
1) warm up didn't do any jumping moves to avoid straining my foot any more, and concentrated on arms... I think that's actually a better preparation. Also did quite a lot of leg stretching.
2) I worked on the Straddle instead of the L-sit (I will alternate cause the moves even though different for the arms have a good synergy regarding abs and legs.. I can tell because of the burn in the thighs).
So 3 * 20 seconds too, and quite the same, first one was ok second hard, third I was really fighting to keep my legs from touching the ground.
3) Bar Handstand 60seconds. Felt a lot easier but have to notice that because I was playing with balance as well I fell 2 times and even though I got back up as quick as possible, it certainly reduced the strain on the shoulders. Another note, I'm not sure my shoulder are completly opened... maybe a little lack of flexibility
4) Tucked Back Lever 3 * 20 seconds. That was the first surprise of the training. And this was a bad surprise. It was insanly hard compared to the first time I did it.
Possible reasons :
- because I found it not so hard the first time, I was not mentally giving it my all.
- because I found it not so hard the first time, I tried to concentrate on a better form, making it harder.
- Maybe the first time was only an illusion and I'm actually weak.
I hope the second reason is the real one... at least it means I'm going towards progress.
5) Tucked Front Lever 3*20 seconds. That was the second surprise of the training.
This one was kind of good. I didn't find it quite as hard as the first time...
Possible reasons :
- I was afraid of the move and did not do it as well... I don't think because I checked my position while doing it, but still possible.
- I was aware of the part of my body that were taxed more and concentrate better on those.
What is sure is I do was more carefull with my shoulders and tried to lock the position as much as possible.
And second part the grip is still a very hard part of the move and the one for which I lack the most for now.
6) the reverse pseudo planche 3 * 20 seconds. This one is ok, didn't fight but felt the burn. It works mainly one triceps and core I would say for me.

7) Abs... as planned I jumped from 2 minutes to 3 minutes. I do 4 different exercises 45 seconds per exercise with 5 seconds break. I alternate static/slowmo with dynamic exercise (otherwise I think I wouldn't be able to do it) and I can tell that my abs burn for every single exercises... It burns way more than all the other insane abs or ab ripper ... I guess that the exercises will have to evolve over time, but I like this formula.


Momentary conclusion : I really like this cycle 2.0, because total training per exercise is much shorter I can pack more different things into one session. For now I can't do L-sit /Straddle and Pseudo-planche/reverse pseudo planche in the same session. But it's more a question of lack of strength than lack of time. As the cycle will continue I will be able to do more in one session and reduce the break between exercises (the inter exercises breaks are maybe a little long.. I don't count, I just wait till my arms feel ready to go on).
I plan to continue this cycle longer than 8 weeks. Mainly because the jump in difficulty is quite big and also because I want to be able to do all the exercises in one session without taking loooong breaks in between.
If everything goes right at the end of this cycle I will also  "play" with planche and mana training. (I started those but I think my overall condition is not good enough).
Hopefully the next cycle will be 60 seconds reps for all exercises (another very big jump) plus a real start at practicing the planche and mana skill variations.... can't wait to be there, but I won't rush anything! the stronger the basics the better the potential progression.

Another comment... As next week I'll start over the second gear of Insanity, I think I will hit a wall in terms of fatigue... will certainly need to have more food and certainly some vitamins.

Insanity D37 / Gymnastic body cycle 1.5 week 5

First gymnastic strength training :
Both good and bad :
-it was really hard to do the "pseudo wall HS run" (call it pseudo because of my modification to make it possible at my level, id est straddle HS with feet on the bars to help the balance and certainly the arms, I'll keep it like that for a time cause otherwise I won''t mke it through without injury I can tell).
-it was somewhat hard to do the levers at first, but then I could finish the sets more easilly than usual (I mean the last rep was not way harder than the first one)
-The really bad part is I was totally burned after the levers, tried to do a tucked planche but crashed. The reason is certainly the insanity gear 2. I hope I'll be able to catch up quickly, I''ve not been doing the L-sits for a while either ( I do the L-chin ups but it's not as hard for the abs).

Insanity D37 : first I want to say I was wrong, The exercises are harder, yesterday it didn't feel harder because I was fresh, but today I know it's a lot harder I got muscle soreness I didn't have for a few weeks.
about the Max Cardio Plyo. It's crazy hard. There's only two series plus one isolated set, but I have to admit it, it's "Insane". The first serie by itself can burn you up entirelly : full body moves, more core twist, more arms.
My favorite move the "Power push ups" it''s not one step from the abs/push up combination I''ve seen in my gym training. basically it's a push up plus a straigth legs inverted V-up (understand get the feet and hand to the same level on the ground). The one I'd love to do is just a little bit more dynamic / plyometric : same move except you touch your feet while airborne and you get right back in the push up position.

I have to be honest, I don't really know how the people on the video did and I can't tell if I took more break than them, cause I was to focused on myself. It's a hard one and I''m worn out.

Gymnastic body : static training

Although this morning insanity cardio recovery was bad, yesterday's static strength traiing was quite good.
I timed myself for the levers and I think I was taking a lot more rest time when I didn't time myself.
It resulted in a herder time finishing the sets for front and back lever. Another modification is the height of the bar I use. I set it up quite higher (a little bit higher than shoulder level). This resulted in some changes to get in position. It was much harder to get in a tucked back lever and it seemed much more easy to get in a front lever. BUT from the 8th rep of front lever it started to be really hard with a failure on my left shoulder (had to focus and control a lot more my moves to finish the last wo reps).
The exercises I did after seemed harder as well, L-sit seemed difficult from the middle of the reps and the low straddle was even more difficult. But the pseudo planche and pseudo reverse planche seemed easier. I also did some static finger hold. I tried a few tuck planche on the push up bars, I think 3 seconds was the best I did. I will continue working on the pseudo planche and try the "ball planche" (as my friends call it) until I can hold it long enough to put it in the workout routine.
Normally today I should do a short dynamic workout one pull exercise and one press exercise. If I can do it (understand not too dead to do it) I will go for a headstand pushup set and a pull up set (I'd like to try the L-sit pull ups but not sure I can make it yet).

Gymnastic body : static training

Remember when I said I was doing approximatively sets of 10 6 secondes repetition for the levers. That's because I wasn't timing it. Starting today, I will time it so that it's the same as the other exercises.
I will try putting some dynamic basic strength training in my routine 2 days a week (the days I don't do statics) should be a short training as I'll do an upper body press exercise and an upper body pull  exercice each time (so no more than 15 minutes as I do 3 sets of 3 to 5 reps as advised in the book). I will keep you updated on those (there are some graph I made for those progression as well).

Static training.

Friday evening I did again the static training.
I couldn't do the frog stand (Planche progression) and the middle split hold (Manna progression)
but did everything else plus Pseudo planche and pseudo reverse planche (that's the name I gave it).
While pseudo planche doesn't help for the balance of planche, it helps for shoulder strength and I hope the reverse pseudo planche is a little bit the same for Manna.
I can't train every day, it's actually a lot more demanding than I thought. Just as a reference yesterday (sunday) I still had soreness from friday (when I mean soreness it's not just the sensation of stiffness it's enough to tell me I couldn't have trained yesterday).
Some notes about the levers (yeah I like the levers... well it's the newest exercise in my training) :
-Front lever is a lot more difficult for me than back lever.
-If I train Back lever with palm facing the floor (that's the direction recommended in "gymnastic body") it has a big impact on biceps.
I have done only two times the levers... I hope I will get used to it shortly enough, cause I'm a little bit afraid of the front lever, the strain on my left shoulder is sometime so intense that it's painfull (proof once again that my previous training was not symetric... I new it but that's a really visible consequence..my right shoulder doesn't have a problem when I do the front lever.)

Gymnastic body : static training

My installation is done (actually not completely but enough to get to do the static bodyweight workout I described).

My current static training :
-1)L-sit 12sec * 5
-2)Straddle PB Low 12sec * 5
-3)Middle split hold bent 6sec * 10 (it's even a level under that cause I still can't push my hips off the hands)
-4)Frog stand advance 6sc * 10 (when I can find the correct balance)
-5)Back lever tuck 6sec *10 approximativelly (if I can't hold I just relax.. it's a new move)
-6)Front lever tuck 6sec *10 approx (same as above)
Exercices that are not in the graphic :
-7)Pseudo planche 12sec *10 (it's just static hold of a pushup position with hands near the hips and arms straight, supposed to help me for the planche later on).
-8)Pseudo back-planche position 12sec*10 (supposed to help for mana... not sure though but definitely helps for advance variation of the L-sit)
-9)Finger hold 6sec *10 (standard push up position just on the fingers)

Usually I can't do everything in one evening and yesterday I started back and front lever for the first time.
I did everything except 3, 4, 9 (that's for tonight...)

My feeling on the levers : front lever is a lot harder than expected and back lever involves different muscles from what I thought. The thing is I can still feel my arms so I guess it's really effective.
I have to say I like doing the levers, even in tuck position it still needs a lot of focus and works in a lot more different muscles than it would first seem.
My shoulders are sore.

There is a synergy between all those moves I hope that I can have faster progresses but I keep in mind that while it comes to training I have to "hurry slowly" to avoid any problems.

Gymnastic body : static training

I will soon be able to train on front and back lever. Just need to finish the installations. and I will officially start a 8 week circuit (although I already started static training for a while now).
If all is good today I''ll be able to try my "max rep" for front and back lever in tuck position, I used to do it a little and my overall strength is better than it used to be for this kind of things, so I expect something like 15 /20 sec for max.
After that I'll introduce the "dynamic basic strength" training in the book. It's mainly upper body training which is good for me as it''s my weakness, and insanity works a lot on legs.

Gymnastic body : introduction to static strength

In my first post I said I was not using insanity for strength building, but rather inspiration from a book I found by chance : "building the gymnastic body" You can use your favorite search engine to find more about that. here is the graph I've made for the static strength progression in the book.

Static strength progression

According to the advices found in the book here is how it works :
-For each progression you check wich move you are capable of.
-For this move check how long you can keep the position.
-Divide this number by two this is how long is a rep, divide 60 by the rep time and you have your number of rep in a set.
-Add between 45 to 90 seconds of rest between reps.

Ok now an exemple: Say you can do an L-sit for 20 seconds, now your rep time is 10 seconds (20/2) and your number of rep is 6 (60/10). I try to get rest time as short as possible for reps of 5 second I consider 45 sec and for 10 secs reps I use 50. So for this exemple I would do:
 10 / 50 * 6. a total of 6 minutes rest included.

Now that this is understood 2 more things:
-XR and PB stands for Rings (gymnastic rings) and parallel bars.
-For Static work you can usually use paralleletes or pushup bars instead of parallel bars, and a set of ring with straps attached to a pull-up bar can work instead of  real rings.

Ok so now that we have the starting point, how do I go through to that last awesome move in the graph?
I can't really tell you cause I'm not there yet (far from it actually) but this is what I intend to do (following the advices of the coach in the book):
-Keep the same training level for 8 to 12 weeks (The first weeks should be challenging and the last weeks should feel quite easy). The reason is that you need time to improve by challenging yourself, but also time for your muscle to repair itself, well the explaination is better in the book but in short it avoids overtraining and training injuries.
-When your rep is higher than 15 seconds it means you need to level up the exercice
-If you should level up the exercice but can't perform the new exercice, continue with the easier version while experimenting with the new version until you can do the new version.