L sitting

Mar12
by Duf on March 12, 2013 at 7:34 pm
Posted In: Exercises

This month’s BB challenge includes a couple of L sit hold variations, one hanging from a bar and another with your weight on top of your hands.

I tried the hard mode variation and managed 13 measly seconds.

Believe it or not that is an improvement for me.  When I first tried the move a few years back I could only hold it for two or three seconds.  My long legs and big feet are difficult for me to support when fully extended.

It amazes me to see some of the guys on the forum holding for close to a minute.

I then shot a video for a simple drill I have been using to help my L sit holds.  When I do an L-sit, I don’t feel the most strain in my abs, I feel it in my quadriceps.

The drill involves sitting on the floor with your back towards the wall.  I start with my rear end approximately 8 inches from the wall.  I lift my straight legs off the floor and keep them up until failure.  After about a minute of rest I will move myself closer to the wall and repeat the hold till failure.  On the third and final hold my rear end is only an inch or two from the wall.

You will notice that the hold will get progressively more difficult and your hold times will be shorter as you move towards the wall.  I do this a few times a week.  My hold times doing the drill have been inching up and my hold time for a real L sit has crept up along with it.

The last couple weeks I have been trying to work 100+ pushing reps in with whatever else work I am doing.  I get the push ups or dips in in between regular sets of other movements.  Today I had a total of 135 dips by the time my 40-45 minute work out was done.  My hope is using this condensed “greasing the groove” technique will help my one set numbers as well as my endurance between movements.

 

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Half behind me, what I have been doing

Mar06
by Duf on March 6, 2013 at 9:30 pm
Posted In: Endurance activities, Exercises

530912_10152136383112841_1078202427_n[1]So I completed my third half marathon last weekend, netting a new personal best by roughly 30 seconds.  The second half of the race was pretty grueling for me and I struggled.  Luckily I was fast enough during the first half to make up for it. I was quite happy escape from the race with very little injury.  I hardly had any swelling of my bad right knee.

Now that the race is behind me I hope to refocus on my calisthenics training.  I have not felt very focused in this area for awhile.  Some of it is due to just life getting in the way.  I haven’t had the same level of focus and intensity that I normally carry.

My work outs have been a mixture of the basics (pull ups, push ups, dips) while still incorporating some of the movements from Metins program.  Big movements like the muscle up have been basically ignored for months because of pain in my elbows/forearms from the transition part of the exercise.

The skills that I really would like to nail down this year are back/front lever and solid, controlled hand stands.  Anything else I pull off will be gravy.   All of these skills are going to require me to put much more consistent effort into them than I have been.  I need to get my head clear.

 

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100, slow

Feb28
by Duf on February 28, 2013 at 6:12 pm
Posted In: Endurance activities

The other night I tried a 100 push up pyramid breaking the sets down like this:

5-10-15-20-20-15-10-5

My goal was to just stand up in between sets and go right back down into the next set.  I was able to more or less do that for the first 50 reps that I completed in 1:30.  The last 50 were a tough grind, I finished rep 100 at the 4:50 mark.

I am signed up for a half marathon this weekend.  In my normal less than perfect timing, this week I have felt pretty blah, mentally and physically.  I am actually wondering if I am getting sick which would really suck.  My training has felt uninspired which leaves me feeling uninspired as well. It’s a big reason you haven’t seen a post in here for 17 days.

For a good portion of my adult life I have gone through these peaks and valleys.  You would think after this long I would have a solid plan on how to get out of the funks when they come.  I really don’t, besides ride it out and hope tomorrow brings a better day.

 

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Good start, fail finish

Feb11
by Duf on February 11, 2013 at 8:22 pm
Posted In: Injuries

Yesterday I wanted to get some bodyweight work in.  I started off with making my first attempt at normal mode of this month’s BB challenge.  Normal mode is 20 dips, 10 pull ups and 25 push ups as quickly as you can go while utilizing proper form.  My time of 1:25 was firmly middle of the pack thus far.

I had my gymnastic rings out, something I haven’t done in months.  I wanted to use them for back levers but first thought I would see if I could still get a muscle up on rings, a skill I haven’t worked in eons.  Well I got my answer, and it was NO.

I have been having some joint issues lately beyond the normal everyday joint issues that are part of being 45.  Specifically my shoulders and elbows.  My shoulders, despite a lot of effort to keep them loose just hurt doing lots of movements.  However in the ring muscle ups the problem was in my elbows.

The hard compression of the joint that occurs during transition was causing me a lot of pain.  After my third attempt I gave up as my right arm was throbbing and tingling.  Instead of calling it quits I still tried a couple back levers on the rings, not exactly smart.

I found the swinging that takes place doing the movement on the rings to be detrimental.  I tried two slow descents and didn’t do well controlling it either time.   I was frustrated.

I then got down on the ground and did a few dragon flag reps.  They felt better than they looked on film.  I have too much bend in my flag.  I ended my session wishing I could wave a wand and transplant the 1985 version of my joints back into my 2013 body.

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My Turn at the Century

Feb08
by Duf on February 8, 2013 at 2:06 pm
Posted In: Physical challenges

dannyI have been doing Al and Danny Kavadlo’s Century workout as a warm up at the gym a few times since I read about it last week.  The fastest I have been able to do it indoors was something like 3:17.  Doing it indoors is a bit of pain because of the lower bar which slows down the knee raises. Last night I headed into the back yard to see how I would do with the workout.

I did significantly better, completing the circuit in 2:47, a full 30 seconds better than my best indoor time.  The 8 foot high bar and the motivation of being on video contributed significantly to the improvement.

I am still having a lot of pain in my shoulders, elbows and forearms.  I just keep stretching, bending and hoping it subsides at some point.

 

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