Fat Gripz New Year

Dec31
by Duf on December 31, 2013 at 6:25 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Injuries

My last workout of 2013 was nothing exciting, another Fat Gripz bicep and tricep session.  I have been a bit limited the last couple days by a kink in my neck that seemed to come out of nowhere.

My 2013 was filled with a nice amount of new personal bests, I am hoping that trend continues as I push deeper and deeper into middle age.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

10 Fat Gripz pull ups

10 Fat Gripz chin ups

Fat Gripz standing barbell curls 75lbs x 10, 95lbs x 5, 115lbs x 1

Bench dips 30 reps x 3 sets

Standing one arm side Fat Gripz hammer curl 25lbs x 10, 30lbs x10

Standing one arm Fat Gripz overhead tricep extension 20lbs x 10, 25lbs x 8

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More catch up

Dec30
by Duf on December 30, 2013 at 6:33 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Ray's Way

My exercise routine around Christmas was rather spotty.  It did include some highlights like this:

1504073_10152693859492841_486000255_n[1]I really wanted to get 400 pounds off the ground.  Well I did get it off the ground momentarily but could not pull it upright, something I managed to do a few minutes later, barely, with 390 pounds on the bar.  Of course I had to utilize lifting straps to keep the bar attached to my arms.

This was the first time I lifted enough weight that it bent the olympic bar slightly, COOL!

On Christmas Day I did a 20 mile bike ride.  Other than these two events, I didn’t do that much exercise at all, I kept myself busy doing post Christmas duties and other chores around the house.

Today I got back into the swing of things with an informal Ray’s Way.  I felt weak, heavy and slow.  I plodded through 5 sets of 16 dips, 9 pull ups and 21 push ups off the clock.

Although surely a decent portion of my current nighttime body weight of 183-184 pounds is additional muscle from doing the deadlifting, it still feels I have an unhealthy hunk of 3-5 pounds to shave which would help me in both endurance exercise and endurance sets like Rays Way.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Ray’s Way

5 sets of 16 dips, 9 pull ups, 21 push ups

 

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Week in review, Ray’s General Direction

Dec23
by Duf on December 23, 2013 at 7:12 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Lifting Heavy Things, Ray's Way

So last week was an odd one for me exercise-wise because I was doing at home training, meaning all of my workouts occurred in the back yard.  I didn’t have time to post them here but I did make videos of most of them.

The last video is some stuff Cindy did at the house Sunday afternoon.  There were some highlights and lowlights from the week.

On the good side was my funny FLY video where I was practicing jumping onto the pull up bar from further and further distance.  My 8 reps deadlifting 340 pounds with lifting straps was pretty epic.  On the downside, my max pull up attempt clicking in at only 23 reps was pretty disappointing and my Friday workout felt very uninspired.

Today was my only day at the gym so I wanted to make it count, doing a Ray’s Way style workout.  It didn’t adhere to all Ray Way standards as the only clock I used was the one on the wall to tell me it was time to get back to work.  Also I was unable to keep my dip sets contiguous (other movements I could), I had to come off the bars later and get back on to finish the reps.

I did try to up the challenge by upping the reps, doing 5 sets of 20 dips, 10 pull ups and 20 push ups, making for a nice round number of 250 total reps. It felt good to grind through it.

Today’s Workout

Ray’s Way

5 sets of 20 dips – 10 pull ups – 20 push ups

 

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Turkish gets ups will f you up, THE app

Dec12
by Duf on December 12, 2013 at 6:22 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts

tumblr_ln76a6RYdO1qdcvmc[1]Today was shoulder day more or less but I added a full body movement in as well, Turkish Get Ups.  This is a movement I remember playing with once or twice before many years ago.  It is ideally performed with a kettlebell but since my gym doesn’t provide any I used a plain old dumbbell.

I wasn’t really sure what weight to start at so I grabbed a 35 pounder.  Well it became obvious this was too ambitious for just starting out.  I dropped down to a more manageable 25 pound weight.  The object of the movement is to go from flat on the floor on your back to standing while holding the weight extended over your body the entire time.

It sounds simple but in practice it’s quite difficult.  I did alternating sets of three with each arm and was struggling, especially after yesterdays deadlifting session.

Hey did you know there is a Dufisthenics app??!!!  Yes I am not joking, you can get the app for your iOS or Android device by following the links on this page.

dufisapp22The app basically consolidates all of my online content from two blogs, my YouTube channel and Twitter into one easy to navigate place.  Of course it’s FREE so you have nothing to lose by trying it out!

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio

Straight arm lateral front/side raises 12 x 15 lbs, 10 x 20 lbs, 10 x 20lbs (palms forward)

60 second belly to wall handstand hold x 3

Turkish Get ups – 3 sets of 3 reps each side with 25 lb dumbbell

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Old men lifting heavy things

Dec11
by Duf on December 11, 2013 at 6:37 pm
Posted In: Bar-barian Forum Monthly Challenges, Daily Workouts, Lifting Heavy Things

deadlift1[1]

Last night was another BB challenge attempt.  I did a pretty good job on my pull up Xmas tree.

Today was an abnormal Wednesday at the gym for me.  I wound up skipping squats because some dummy was doing 100 sets of shoulder shrugs on the squat rack.  Instead the entire workout was nothing but dead lifting.

The workout was also unique because I did all of the deadlifting with a buddy of mine.  I ALWAYS work out alone so this was a nice treat that Jim also happened to be doing DL’s today.

Jim, although very strong, has been leery of doing heavier deadlifts since he hurt his back pulling 275 lbs years ago.  We started out light  and worked our way up.  Jim surprised himself by equaling and then surpassing the weight he hurt himself at years ago, clearing away a large mental hurdle.

Along the way I gave him a very simple but effective tip to help him handle the heavier weight, take off those damn Nike Air sneakers! As soon as he did his form looked dramatically better and stronger.  He yanked 275 lbs off the deck 6 times and went up again to 280 pounds and got four more solid reps.  Jim was excited he PR’d and I was excited for him.

Like I said, he is very strong and I have no doubt that now the mental hurdle has been knocked over, Jim will be surpassing me in deadlifting numbers shortly.

I had a good showing as well, setting another first, doing 5 reps at 325, 330, and 335lbs for the first time ever.  Considering I will be 46 years old this time next week I am happy that most of my numbers keep going up instead of down.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

15 prisoner squats

Deadlift

135 pounds x 10

185 pounds x 10

225 pounds x 10

275 pounds x 6

325 pounds x 5

330 pounds x 5

335 pounds x 5

 

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