First time since the crash

Dec21
by Duf on December 21, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Posted In: Injuries

dipcrashRegular readers may recall that a month or two ago I had an unfortunate accident on my home parallel bars while doing weighted dips. 

With 90 pounds hanging from my waist I tried to jump into dip starting position. Well I instantly turned into a large, out of control pendulum and wound up smashing my right bicep on top of one of the 4×4 supports. I actually still have a mark on my arm from the incident.

Anyway, today was the first time I had tried any weighted reps of any sort since the incident.  It went pretty well, I topped out at a body weight +80 pound pull up and a BW +90 pound dip.

It felt good to do some heavy reps but I can already feel the different kind of soreness they create setting in.

I hope everyone out there in the bar community that visits me here in my little corner of the internet has a joyous Christmas holiday!!

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Busting it on my birthday

Dec17
by Duf on December 17, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Posted In: Physical challenges

My 45th birthday rolled around Sunday.  Of course I had to “celebrate” by undertaking not one but two physical challenges.

First up was the tractor pull death crawl.  Some of you might recall I did a “regular” 500 foot death crawl several months back.  I then tried to do the same thing towing my 400 pound yard tractor but discovered that without a driver, the tractor had a mind of it’s own and was impossible to control.

Since that time I developed a left wrist problem that prevented me from trying the attempt again with a driver.  Well my wrist recently started getting better so I figured my birthday was the perfect time to give it another shot.

I recruited Alison to be my driver for the attempt.  Adding her to the equation meant I would be pulling in excess of 500 pounds to the fence line and back.

The pull/crawl was pretty grueling and did not go off as smoothly as I hoped.  As I approached the fence the tractor all of a sudden became very difficult to move.  It turned out the transmission had popped out of neutral, so I had to briefly get up and put it back in.

The second half of the pull my hip flexors were burning, I had to pause (staying on all fours) several times to quickly take a few breaths.  When I finally drug the tractor back across the imaginary finish line at the pull up bar I collapsed to my knees.  Once I unhooked and stood up my gassed hips caused me to stumble around like I just downed a few BLP’s.

Although not as technically clean as I would have liked to the attempt to be because of the transmission issue, I still pulled the damn thing all the way out and back.

I utilized the two camera system for this attempt which provides an interesting perspective.  I may use it some other videos in the future.  Here is the end result.

Later in the day I got the idea in my head that I wanted to try to do a 100 pull up attempt where the object is to get 100 reps in as little time as possible.  I had done a videoed attempt a couple years ago where it took me around 19:37 to get it done.  Watching the old video back revealed that my form back then was much sloppier than it is today.

My right hand still had some tender spots from the ripped open blisters the week prior so I slapped on my Under Armour wide receiver gloves for the sets to protect my hands.  (it worked)

Overall I was happy with my time and form, netting the 100th rep in roughly 14:14, over 5 minutes faster than my old mark.  It was a good way to begin my 45th year on the Earth.

 

 

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Inverted, kneedy, ripped

Dec13
by Duf on December 13, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Posted In: Injuries

My left wrist has been injured for somewhere around 3 months.  As a result I cut back a lot on certain exercises including a good portion of Metins program and pushing exercises in general.  Well finally the wrist seems to be close to back to normal so I am starting to add some stuff back into my routine.

The other night I spent some time working various movements, most of them requiring me to be on my hands.  I will be moving ahead very cautiously, the last thing I need to do is re-aggravate the wrist and start the cycle all over again.

I have noticed that my pushing performance has gone down significantly since the wrist injury.  My push up and especially my dip endurance seems really poor.  I plan to try to hit both of those movements a lot more.  I guess my triceps have gotten soft.

My swollen right knee is getting better, it looks almost normal at this point but I still don’t have full flexibility.  I am thinking that in about a week I will be ready to give it a test run.

I really hate when I rip open calluses on my hands doing bar work.  The problems come in multiple stages.

Of course the initial tearing of the skin hurts obviously, especially if the rip gets mashed in with chalk, as well as when you try to wash it out, stings like mad. Then there is the fun process of trying to cut off the dead skin without causing additional tearing.

Finally, the raw exposed skin, at least for me inevitably dries out, cracks and bleeds for several days afterward.  I have found that the location of these calluses makes it nearly impossible to keep a band-aid and Neosporin applied on a consistent basis.  Hands move around and get wet a lot, neither thing is good for wound care.

So I wind up just putting on my lifting gloves during workouts when this goes down to get by.  At least it keeps the blood from getting on the floor.

 

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Less swollen, more reps

Dec10
by Duf on December 10, 2012 at 4:34 pm
Posted In: Injuries, Physical challenges

My right knee which I injured in the Tough Mudder is slowly getting better.  The swelling has gone down quite a bit although I still do not have normal flexibility in the joint.  It would be cool if I could resume running before the end of the year.

This weekend I made my first attempt at mode 3 of this month’s BB challenge which is pull ups in a ladder configuration.  Coming off my strong 30 rep single set I was looking forward to see how many layers I could tack onto my “Christmas Tree”.

I did pretty damn well completing 6 levels + 7 reps into the 7th set for a total of 49 pull ups.  If I knew when I was on the bar I was one rep from 50 I would have hung on the bar for as long as it took to get one more rep.

For the attempt I chalked both my hands and the bar which gave me a very solid grip.  Unfortunately by the end of my 6th set my hands paid the price.  I had matching blisters torn open on both hands. High reps have their price….

I will need to wait for my hands to heal a bit to see if I can crack the 50 total rep mark.

Remember that chronic wrist injury I was suffering from for quite awhile?  The one that did not respond to rest or anything else?  Well since I decided to just deal with it and continued my normal routine it has actually improved.  The pain in the joint is almost gone.  Weird huh?

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Mauled by the Mudder, Christmas Tree

Dec06
by Duf on December 6, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Posted In: Exercises, Injuries, Uncategorized

So on Saturday I took on the Tough Mudder for the second time.    This year my good buddy Charlie flew down to do the race with me. For those of you unfamiliar with the race, the Tough Mudder is a 10-12 mile run that includes 20-25 obstacles along the way.  These obstacles supposedly were designed by British Special Forces.

Last year I managed to escape the course with minimal injury.  This year I was not so lucky.  The very uneven running surface was a disaster for my twice operated on right knee.  By the time the event was over the knee was already swelling badly.

By the time the next day rolled around the knee had ballooned up massively and the joint was close to locked up.  If this had never happened before I would be more worried but I have been down this road before.

It will take at least a couple weeks for the swelling to go away.  After that I basically need to play it by ear as far as impact activity goes.

If you want to read a full review of the Mudder you can do so here at my main blog.

After the event I did a set of pull ups on the Air Force bar.  Last year I managed to squeeze out 18 reps.  This year I did 20 and had gas in the tank for more if I hung longer but I had already secured the top prize they were handing out by hitting the 20 rep level so I called it as good enough.

So for the immediate future my workouts will pretty much exclusively be upper body focused. To be honest, they normally are  heavily weighted that way already.

My body weight workouts lately have been a weird hybrid.  I have been working endurance basics, chaining dip, pull up and push up sets together.  I also have continued to work in elements from Metins program, designed to help me achieve levers, handstands and the planche.

For this month’s BB challenge I brought back the Christmas Tree, a popular challenge from last year.  We tightened things up this year making the reps start at 2 and increase by two to shorten video length.  In addition to that we made all breaks no more than 30 seconds in between sets.

Since it is the holiday season I thought prizes would be appropriate.  I went to the local Under Armour outlet and picked up some various gear that will be sent to the winners in each category

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