Muscle up cleansing

Mar26
by Duf on March 26, 2013 at 6:04 pm
Posted In: Muscle Ups

I got my first bar muscle up back in September 2011.  Since accomplishing that long term goal I sort of moved more onto other things like trying to build up my BBR endurance, hand balancing and levers.

A couple weeks ago I committed myself mentally to continue working on my muscle ups which form-wise have never been good.  My reps always have a lot of kip and the kip itself is often very ugly with one leg or the other flailing out of control.  Last night I wanted to see if I could clean up the movement.

calmerlegsI would film a rep, watch it back and then try again with the goal being to keep my lower body under control and perform the movement explosively using mostly upper body strength.  The first several reps weren’t good.  Some I didn’t even get over the bar and the ones where I did, still didn’t look great.

Each fail or messy rep was turning up my internal frustration dial a few degrees.  Finally on my 6th or 7th attempt I had a good strong pull that had a small but much more controlled kip.  I tried to imprint that feeling in my mind so I can build upon it going forward.

Watching back the reps  pointed out some more weirdness in my muscle up form.   As I am hitting the transition, my left elbow is much higher than my right.  They are supposed to be more or less aligned during the transition.  This probably explains why I typically will do the left side first when my reps become “one overs”.

There are so many things I try to think about when I do my muscle up reps that they sort of start running together, pull hard, drive your shoulders over your wrists, exhale as you pull, control the kip, go around the bar….  now I need to add to that, keep your elbows even.

Anyway I was pretty happy with that last rep as it showed me that technique is my biggest obstacle to better reps instead of strength.

I wound up the session doing a few bar overs, another one of those moves that should be easy that I have struggled with in the past.  After taking a few pointers I did a couple reps that weren’t beautiful as my ostrich legs flipped up and over the bar but still a big improvement from the video below where you see my starting point awhile ago.

 

 

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New eyes

Mar25
by Duf on March 25, 2013 at 2:43 pm
Posted In: Soapbox

My Dufisthenics page on FB recently crossed the 100 likes threshold.  Evidently Facebook is trying to promote their paid ad service and as a result presented me with a code worth $50 in FB credits.  I was skeptical about the effectiveness of such an ad, but if they were going to let me try it for free I figured I had nothing to lose.  I set up my ad and launched a 5 day campaign, budgeting $10 per day.

Well to say the least, I was quite surprised by the response.  With one day left in my ad campaign I have more than doubled the amount of people that “Like” the page.  Needless to say I am now a FB ad believer.

So anyway, if you are new to the site, this is where I talk about my success, failure and challenges related to using primarily body weight exercise to maintain my fitness level at currently 45 years of age.  I have built my own little bar park in my back yard over the last couple years which currently includes an 8 foot high pull up bar, a set of parallel bars and most recently an 11 foot high bar that is used primarily as a mounting point for gymnastic rings.   There are links in the top menu that talk about my bar park and how I built the equipment.

I am active with the NYC based Bar-barians fitness group and manage most of the monthly fitness challenges that are posted on the site. I started doing body weight work outs as part of my fitness routine back in 2007, starting with the “300 work out” .  Nowadays my workouts consist almost exclusively of body weight exercises.  I have found that this kind of work provides me with real functional strength as well as keeping my physical appearance as good as it has ever been in my life.

barparksunset

I don’t portray myself as any sort of expert in the field.  I simply try to honestly relay my personal experiences in calisthenic/bar based exercise. My hope is that somewhere among the pages others can cherry pick information that helps them on their own personal path to fitness.

If you happen to find some of the stuff I write interesting, you may also be interested in my personal blog, that I have maintained for over a decade.

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Keep working the skills, sucking at the simple

Mar19
by Duf on March 19, 2013 at 2:10 pm
Posted In: Endurance activities, Nutrition

My fitness routine certainly is diverse if nothing else.  Over the weekend I did my own personal triathlon, bundling a 4 mile run, 12.25 mile bike ride and a 1000 yard swim together.  It added up to almost 1:45 in cardio time.

My exercises at the gym yesterday and later at home included 150 push ups, set of 20 pull ups, 3 sets of back to wall L-sits, lateral raises, set of slow rep pull ups, handstands (with wall safety), and back lever hold progressions.  I like trying to keep my daily routine anything but routine.

My exercise schedule has been going pretty well recently however I have found that I am having issues with my diet.  In the past few months I have found myself stuffing my face with empty calories, normally the sugary variety.  I am sure some of it is emotional eating related to some of the ups and downs in my personal life.  I’m hoping to apply some more discipline to my food intake to help maximize my output.

I have an odd problem sometimes doing moves that should be simple.  One of these simple things I have been trying to work on is front rolling out of a handstand.

When I over balance on a handstand I typically will try to pirouette out of it.  Sometimes I am successful, sometimes I just wind up kind of falling onto my side.  A much simpler bail would be to forward roll out of it.

A forward roll is a simple move that kids learn very early on in gym class.  Well for whatever reason, when I try to pair this with a handstand exit it becomes difficult for me.  I did this out in my yard and found myself crashing onto the base of my neck when trying to roll which is at it’s least, painful and at it’s worse, dangerous.

As you can see in the picture, the goal is you roll onto your upper back, keeping your neck out of the impact zone.  If I become efficient at safely rolling out of bailed handstands it would make practicing them more enjoyable.

Gotta work on my bar overs while I am at it, another movement that should be pretty simple that I struggle awkwardly at.

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28

Mar15
by Duf on March 15, 2013 at 1:52 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

Last night I wanted to try to equal or better my one set pull up rep max of 30 that I set a few months ago.

I started off pretty strong but developed a bad swing during the first 10 reps.  Getting the swing under control burns up precious energy that probably cost me a rep or two at the end.  After nearly two minutes of hanging and 2 reps yet to go my grip was just on fire.

I’ll get 30 reps again and hopefully a couple more to boot.

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Low L times, 60 second pull up

Mar14
by Duf on March 14, 2013 at 1:32 pm
Posted In: Physical challenges

Last night I did an attempt at a hanging L sit hold.  I only managed to hold it for 22 seconds which is the worst posted attempt time of anyone in the contest this month.  With this hold not only do my long legs get in the way, my shoulders do as well.  For whatever reason, most likely mostly just being an old fart, this position hanging on a bar is REALLY uncomfortable/painful for my shoulders.

I literally can not hang straight up and down and hold my legs out, my shoulders instantly light up in pain.  The only way I can do it is to lean my upper body backwards to take some of the stress off.  So anyway, it all adds up to an unimpressive hold.

I followed up with a few muscle ups, the form felt worse than it looked on video.  I still need more upward pulling velocity to get the movement where I want it to be.

I finished up with a 60 second pull up, something that just popped into my head.  I started with a 20 second dead hang then holding halfway for 20 and finally a 20 second hold with my chin over the bar.  To try to keep the hold times legit I counted off the seconds out loud however as I reached the end of the hold the call outs were sporadic because of exertion.

It was tough, a little tougher than I thought it would be. I’d like to try to get a 90 second variation with 30 seconds at each hold point.

I have seen these static hold pull ups many times but they always seem to start with the top hold.  Starting at the bottom and working upward definitely cranks up the difficulty.

 

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