Affichage des articles dont le libellé est upper body press. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est upper body press. Afficher tous les articles

jeudi 13 octobre 2011

GYM 2.0

Headstand pushups failed. after the 6th one... to much built up soreness from the change in level, I guess.
L-Pull-ups done, fairly hard have to work towards a more controlled way of doing it (helped a little with dynamic and elasticity to go full ROM).
Muscle ups training (I left it over in the explaination but I remembered it after.) Well Bad...
Tonight is the Hard statics again. I feel pretty fresh but gosh it's going to be painfull again...

mercredi 12 octobre 2011

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.

jeudi 15 septembre 2011

Insanity D47 / half. Gymnastic bodies

Chronological order, so Gymnastic Basic strength training. A little update on the upper body pull and press for week 6 :
- Yesterday's press was headstand push up, with wall help (actually I use my bar cause the wall is behind my bar and other walls are not useable/ accessible). It's week 6 of this cycle (remember I named this cycle "cycle 1.5" cause I stopped my first cycle half way when I got my bars and I decided to start insanity) which means actually the 6th time doing it in this way since I do it once a week (3 press exercises a week / but each time a different one).
This press exercise is certainly the hardest of my current cycle (Ring push ups are ok, bulgarian variation is hard but I don't feel as much, and dips are ok at my level of variation :simple dips on p bars).
Because I have been able to inish the 3 reps set without breaking the sets, I've decided to try to focus more on control. So a (slightly?!) slower upward movement and a (slightly again?! I can't really tell) slower down negative movement. Result, the last of the reps was really hard, harder than last week, so I guess it works.
Does it count as breaking the steady state cycle, it's a modification of the move... whatever, I don't count it as a modification, I count it as executing the move correctly, the overload period is over and I'm supposed to be at the load period. I didn't change the ROM nor the leverage (which are the 2 things that define a variation normally) so let's say it's ok and it allows the end of a cycle to still be nice and interesting.

-About the upper body-pull, L-chin ups, same thing as for the press, I was able to do 3 sets of 4 to 5 reps, so I decided to focus on control and slowing down the move. Resuls, 3 sets of 3 reps with the last set being a little hard, and feeling my abs as well (which didn't occure when I was faster).

-And I also did the hang to back hang (going through front lever/ reverse hang/back lever....all tucked) this time I did less but I controled it more and I didn't bend the arms.

Now about the first half of Insanity this morning : Max Cardio Conditioning.
I have quite mixed feelings about what I did this morning...
The warm up was not hard but I didn't feel like giving a lot during the warm up. The knee lift (which I usually start without jump for the first round) was really easy.
Then I feel that at the en of the warm up I wasn't totally warmed up and didn't have enough oxygen flowing to my muscle (still felt somehow in an inactive state).
And once more I feel that the stretching is so light.... so didn't give much during the stretching part, resulting in a feeling of being stiff for the kicks exercises.
Then the first exercise I couldn't give my all, I felt the burn and didn't do the maximum ROM I should have done.
After that I somewhat realised that if I didn't do anything, this would be wasting today's training. I still didn't do great but little by little I went in and actually gave it, not my all, but a lot. I was even surprised for the in&out + push up jacks I was able to do full ROM and fast 4 times in a row before being worn out.
I still find the ski hops hook the most ridiculous movement of the entire insanity program.
I still finished the workout sweating like crazy, with my legs burning (oh yes I actually did do the last exercise, squat speed bag something.... not a full squat but still enough for the legs to burn and when it was to hard I actually went down little by little instead of going up).
So mixed feeling as you can see, I feel that I didn't give enough at the beginning, but I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made for some exercises (maybe I did better because I didn't give much at the beginning).

dimanche 4 septembre 2011

Insanity D36 (no D34) & gym

Woooohooo Max Interval Circuit!!!
Yeah finally starting the serious part of Insanity!
I have to admit shamefully that saturday I didn't do D34. I was really bored. Maybe it was a bad thing and I should consider that I won't complete Insanity. But I don't care. The fun part begins! and I''m finishing this.
So what's different? what's new?
Well it's longer, about 20 minutes longer which is not small. How does it impact the training? One more serie of exercise (instead of 2 series we go up to 3).
What about the training itself?
The warm up is a little bit harder, with inclusion of exercises that were in the series like the switch kicks.
The exercises in the series are not "harder" by themselves but they include more different parts of the body in one rep.
What do I think of the overall difficulty level felt?
Gosh it's tiring. It''s not like going from almost no exercise to the first week of Insanity but it's quite hard. it is actually a lot harder, in the third serie I had to modify a little bit one or two moves cause I was too tired to do the jumps for the squat hooks, but I did squat... hard to explain easy to show...
I'm still a little bit pumped up by the training, but I think I'll have a big feeling of tireness at noon.
At least, that''s what I like in training... pushing the limits.

Saturday I actually did more dips than the "standard" I still did 3 reps per set. I tried to increase the ROM to the maximum of my current capacity (which is go down to a position where the shoulders are slightly above the hands) and do the move in a more controlled manner (go slowly and stop at both the top and bottom).
I did that quite randomly during the day (good being in week end) and actually didn't really count, but I can tell it had an impact, cause I felt my shoulders and chest muscles yesterday (more than usual).

I think this evening it will be very hard for me to do the gymnastic training... lets see.

jeudi 1 septembre 2011

Gymnastic body (cycle 1.5 / week 4)

Don't know what happened but I was able to do the 3 sets of headstand push ups quite "easilly"
It maybe thanks to the handstand wall run, or it maybe because I changed the training method from series to circuit (I called serie doing 3 sets of one exercise in a row with rest in between, and circuit doing one set of each exercise then start over again, I hope it's the same definition for most of the people). I added a leg work exercise too so that it gives me enoguh rest (in circuit mode).
I tried to do one tuck front lever row.... as I thought it is hard. and I tried one tuck planche push ups the ROM is really small (using pushup bars) and it's already hard.
A really small explaination on the title. Cycle 1.5 is because I stop in the midle of my first cycle when I got my bars to be able to include the levers in my training. And hten week 4 it means it's the 4th week of this cycle.
I'm doing a "steady state" type of training so I'm doing the same every week for 8 weeks. It allows the 3 phases of training (overload, load, underload). It might feel a little bit boring at the end, but you have the psychological advantage of a "success" period to boost the confidence before entering a new cycle. I''m at week 4 and I'm starting to get positive result like less struggle to end a workout an/or success trying harder variations.

mardi 30 août 2011

Insanity D31 + gymnastic body

recovery... recovery. Going smoothly.
Did the bulgarian variation for ring push ups and rows. I think I have to be a little more focused on the core, I may not be in the right position. push ups(bulgarian)  are not that hard but the rows are quite hard as it is now.
I also tried a core exercise  I saw yesterday, it's quite hard. I don't really know how to describe it but it's a bit like doing a partial front lever without the strain on the shoulders and not horizontal. Let''s say it's sort of a negative front lever from pseudo hanging position to horizontal

jeudi 25 août 2011

Gymnastic body: basic strength training

A little update on the basic body strength.
Rows and Ring push ups are note THAT challenging (feet approximatively level with rings) 3sets of  5, usually the last few reps feel harder, I will stick with this once a week.
Headstand push ups are hard ( have to break up the last set to finish doing the 3 last reps) and the L-chinups are just "perfectly" challenging 3sets of 4 reps, I feel like I could eventually do a 5th rep but the form wouldn't be good.
Found out another exercise that seems really nice HandStand wall runs. Seems like it's a realy good exercise to do once a week to get strong shoulder. Have to see were I can put them in my training without overtraining and without lengthening the training too much. I may have to do that on saturday... (best day I think as Sunday is an exercise free day)

mercredi 17 août 2011

Gymnastic body : Upper body press / pull

here is the dependency graph from the exercises in the book:
Upper body press

Upper body pulls

To make it short there are 4 different types of exercises for pull and press.
3 are one plane and one is "multi-plane".
If you pay enough attention you can see that you can easilly couple the exercises by agonist/antagonist workout groups, well I'm not sure this definition is really good, but the pulls/press pair up pretty well :
- push ups and rows
- pull ups and handstand push ups
- Dips and Reverse curls
And multiplane goes with multiplane but I won't be interested by those for a moment as I'm really building the basic level skills (basics within basics as this is all suppose to build basic strength).
So that's what I'm going to do for a while, alternating between each pair in a "steady state" workout style (choosing something chalenging doing it for 8 weeks until it's no more challenging and go up or down as in my graph).
The static position takes quite a reasonable amount of time so I'm only going to do this pair 2 days a week... should be 3 days so that I can do each pair in a week... I'll see about that...
for now I have monday wednesday friday for static and tuesday thursday for pull/press, lets see if I can motivate myself enough to do saturday also...
I'm still in the process to find the right exercise to start like simple rows were a little bit easy I think as well as simple ring push ups. maybe I should do the elevated version.
Headstand push ups are ok, I mean ok hard.
I''ll see for L-sit chin-ups...

mardi 16 août 2011

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).