Dufisthenics

Today at the Gym – today we had another demonstration of totally ineffective ab exercises.  The demonstrator was a younger guy who may have not been old enough to drink legally.  He was on the ab slant board.

After locking his legs in he reclined fully on the board.  As he did this he brought his 90 degree bent arms over his head until his upper arms were next to his ears.  Then like the trigger of a gun, he threw his arms forward as he came up off the board.  He continued his reps from there, reloading and firing off his ab momentum gun again and again.

I saw his friend doing another questionably effective but at least more visually interesting ab exercise.  He had about 8 or 9 of the Reebok steps stacked next to him.  (the risers, not the platforms) He assumed a droopy V position with his upper body and legs and then unstacked the risers from one side and restacked them on the other.

There at least 3 younger guys at the gym that have been trying to get their first muscle up.  All three are very close but can’t quite get their chest over the bar.  I have to admit it makes me feel good to grab the bar and still be able to get up and over, albeit in a very ugly manner, with roughly 25 years more on the odometer than these young guys.  I have been trying to give the guys some tips to help them get their first rep.

The muscle up aspiration at the gym has reignited my interest in the movement.  Within 6 months of getting my first muscle up I found I almost completely stopped training the movement.  I was having some elbow and forearm pain associated with it and I just found myself focused on other things as a result.

Well I am going to try to see if I can get things cranking again, that is part of the reason I have been working high pull ups into my routine.  I did a couple muscle ups today, as I said before, ugly ones.  I also tried a false grip, slow MU, something I was able to do consistently when I was really working the movement.  I couldn’t even get close to the transition point today.  It was a good indication of how far my muscle up ability has atrophied.

I did some wall handstand push ups today.  First time I have tried those in awhile.  I only got 3 reps per set but they were head to floor reps at least.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

20 pull ups

3 sets x 3 reps wall handstand push ups

3 sets x 5 reps skin the cat scalpula pulls

2 sets x 10 reps straight bar shoulder shrugs

1 set x 10 reps straight bar inverted shoulder shrug

2 x 1 muscle ups

6 minutes of A2G hold time