I was out of town for a week visiting my dad. The trip included 3000 miles of driving, a lot of poor eating and a lack of regular exercise beyond one run of about 3 miles with my brother. When I got home I did a small workout out in the bar park and felt weak, really weak and my endurance felt poor as well.
I am not sure if I should attribute it to a week off my normal routine or just a side effect of all of that travel. It seems illogical that one week would sap my strength/endurance so dramatically.
There isn’t much I can do about but get back to work. Maybe a set of 10 dragon flags today will snap me out of it.
I am heading out of town for a week starting tomorrow so last night I got some work in at home.
I did my first normal mode attempt of this month’s challenge which is maximum push ups in two minutes. This month we are being stricter on push up form, requiring full chest to floor depth with full extension at the top which makes the reps considerably tougher then when the depth requirement is only a 90 degree elbow angle.
I managed 58 reps in the two minutes, not a great number, I wanted to at least crack 60.
I then tried a pull up challenge that I came up with in my head. The goal was to complete 5 sets of 10 pull ups with a maximum of 60 seconds of rest in between sets. There was a point in time where I couldn’t even complete 3 sets of 10 with the same rest parameters.
I really don’t like doing high rep pull up exercises indoors. The bent legs required indoors messes up my form and center of gravity. I barely was able to complete the 4th set of 10 and bailed out after rep 4 on the final set. I’d like try this again outdoors to see if I can take this challenge down.
My buddy Max from the Ukraine suggested that he and I do a coordinated exercise video for the New Year. He suggested we work the video around the numbers associated with the end of the year, 12, 31, 20, 12. We talked back and forth about it, even hooking up for a Florida to Ukraine Skype connection to talk about it.
We came up with doing a total of 12 muscle ups, 31 dips, 20 pull ups and a set of 31 push ups, a 12 second hold, 20 more push ups followed by another 12 second hold. We agreed we would both shoot our own footage and I would mix it together.
Max is much more advanced than I am in calisthenics so I knew it was going to be hard for me to complete some of the sets like the 31 deep, full ROM dips and the push ups with holds mixed in. I was hard pressed to get it done before the year expired but I got this posted a few hours before 2013 was rung in. If I had more time to spend on the editing it would be better but it was fun to do regardless.
I did my first 5K race in more than a year on New Year’s Day. I was very surprised that even with the lack of a regular running schedule I posted my fastest 5K time ever.
I attribute the result to my improved overall fitness level thanks to calisthenics and being pulled along by a desire to not be beaten by a very fast 75 year old runner. 🙂
The first Bar-barian forums challenge of the new year has been posted, called The Resolution. It is based on some suggestions given to me both by Fletch and Makc. It has a little bit of something for everyone.
Normal Mode – Maximum push ups in two minutes. Keep doing push ups for two minutes. You can “rest” in the top plank position but you can not raise the a$$ or have your knees touch the ground for the entire two minute period. Bar-baric push up form required, chest to ground with full extension at the top.
Hard Mode – 15 second pull ups. Pull to top position (chin over bar) and hold it 5 seconds, drop to middle position (top of head pressed against bar) and hold for 5 seconds, drop to hang position and hold for 5 seconds. Repeat. As soon as your feet hit the ground the attempt is over.
The biggest issue with this challenge is making SURE your holds are at least 5 seconds. If you just count in your head to five I can guarantee you will wind up being short on your hold. Either count longer or have someone call out the 5 seconds for you. If your hold in any position is short the attempt officially ends there.
Bar-baric Mode – Muscle Up/Bar Dip/Pull up circuit. Do one muscle up, once on top of the bar do a bar dip, drop down and do a pull up, repeat. Scoring is on a point system, 3 points per muscle up, 2 points per pull ups, 1 point per bar dip. Your attempt ends when you leave the bar. No one arm muscle ups will be allowed in this challenge.
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Micke from Barstarzz posted a brief clip of him doing something called a Crucifix Push Up. It gets it’s name from the body position, where you spread your arms very wide and then try to press your body off the floor. Micke posted his video with a little challenge to see how many others could do.
I had never tried the move before and had no idea if I would be able to do it. The long arms that are hanging off my torso makes this kind movement pretty tough. I managed to barely squeeze out 3 reps and felt lucky to manage just that. The torque across my chest, arms and shoulders was pretty severe.
I followed up with some more back lever practice on my Triple Gym.
I first tried a couple palms down holds. I was able to keep inching a couple degrees closer to that elusive 90 degree parallel back lever. Right now I’d say I can hold briefly at around 50-60 degrees of angle.
Cody, one of the young guys I know from the BB forums said I should do more work on the palms up variation of a back lever as it works the biceps and bicep tendons in a way that is beneficial for the planche, another hold I am working on.
I figured I would be able to hold that grip almost as well. Boy was I wrong. As soon as I tipped past vertical I lost the ability to hold myself. I couldn’t believe the difference. I tried again and had the same results. I then did it tucked, which I could hold but even with my legs bent I felt serious strain across my biceps and the associated tendons. Obviously I need to work that grip a lot more.
I have been toying around with a couple features here on the blog. One of them is allowing people to log into and interact with the site using their Facebook accounts. You will see a big blue button to do so in the top left corner of the screen. This will allow you to post comments using your FB credentials which is convenient.
I also installed a test message forum (link in the menu) which utilizes the extreme versatility of WordPress to allow a fully functional message board. The only drawback I am fighting with right now is screen real estate. The theme I use utilizes columns that are too narrow for the forum, giving it a cluttered look. I am working on it.
Yesterday I got to talk to Slick Rick from the Bar-barians on the phone. I have been helping him run the message board for a little while. I was talking to him about giving the Bar-barians website a face lift. I offered my help in whatever capacity he needed for the process.
I tried to mix in a little exercise among the multitude of holiday responsibilities of the past few days. On Christmas Eve I took my first crack at the push up mode of this month’s BB challenge.
I went into it with a loose goal of pulling off 10 layers. Since my left wrist injury I have been laying off most pushing exercises for the past two or three months. I only started doing them again regularly within the last couple weeks.
For my attempt I tried to utilize solid form, making sure my chest was hitting the grass below with full extension at the top. I surprised myself a bit, getting 11 full layers plus 10 reps for a total of 142 push ups. If I wanted to push the limits of my plank endurance, I may have been able to squeeze out that 12th layer.
On Christmas afternoon I headed out to the pull up bar, hoping to set a new personal best in pull up reps. In my head, I thought it would be awesome if I could somehow manage 32 reps which would beat the 31 rep video Mariusz from Poland posted a few days prior.
The attempt started strong, a little too strong. I had so much upward pull that my body started to swing badly. I had to pause at rep 7 for a bit to slow down, something that probably killed my chances of breaking 30 reps. I struggled to a 28 rep effort which is the second best number I ever posted. I was a bit bummed I missed my mental goal.
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