New BB reqs announced = head scratcher

Nov09
by Duf on November 9, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Posted In: BBR's

So for a long time it has been known that the Bar-barian requirements were going to change for 2013 although no exact specifics were mentioned.  A few days ago I heard the change was going to be bumping the amount of pull ups from 25 to 30 reps but keeping the same time limit of 6 minutes.

That was going to be a tough change. Doing 5 more pull ups would be a challenge and in turn will make getting the 5 muscle ups at the tail end even more difficult.

So yesterday I see that Zef OFFICIALLY announced the new reqs.  I was a bit dumbfounded.

The 2013 Bar-barian requirements were posted as:

6 muscle ups
60 dips
30 pull ups
60 push ups
6 muscle ups

6 minutes of time

This was close to a 20% increase in the total amount of reps.  The 33% increase in dip reps seemed the most extreme of all.

The announcement was linked to Deny’s video where he does the new req’s, barely.

Deny is a a tiny guy.  He has a video where he does 75 muscle ups.  Yet even he could barely scratch out the reqs. Hell he had to kip out the last few pull up reps.

To be honest, I just don’t get it.  It would be one thing if we had dozens of new Bar-barians each year but that is hardly the case.  Doing the current reqs with good form is a feat very few can accomplish.

By raising the reqs so dramatically I think you are in danger of making them too far out of reach,  only obtainable by the rare gifted individual or the professional gymnast and few others. If the carrot is held too far out in front of you, you lose sight of it and lose interest.  I am afraid this will have that affect, discouraging overall participation in the Bar-barian movement.

I also think that adding so many reps is going to make clean form throughout extremely difficult to maintain.  Form over numbers has always been the Bar-barian motto, this change seems to work against that a bit.

Of course my thoughts on the matter are simply that, just my thoughts.   The decision doesn’t affect me personally as I will be thrilled if someday I can manage to pull off the old, old requirements before my body breaks down too far.

If this is the trend the group wants to follow, maybe they need to establish some ranking within the class of Bar-barians as someone that qualified under the original reqs is miles away from the rare few that can hang with the new ones.

Pushing the numbers this high is definitely going to slant new BB status towards shorter, lighter athletes since it will focus primarily on endurance.

 

 

└ Tags:
2 Comments

Calisthenics at (nearly) 45

Nov07
by Duf on November 7, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Posted In: Injuries

One of the challenges of doing calisthenics for me besides trying to always improve is trying to do this without hurting myself.  As much as I hate to admit it, I am far from a spring chicken.  Parts of me break down pretty easily nowadays and require a careful balance of effort versus injury.

When I do my first set of pull ups in a work out the muscles and tendons in my forearms sound like dry rotted rubber bands expanding with lots of creaking and cracking.  My shoulders always have some sort of pain floating about in them.  My twice operated on right knee sounds like it is filled with Rice Krispies.

It’s frustrating for sure but I try to focus on what I CAN do after four and a half decade on the planet.

I do have two current problems that are really providing some roadblocks.  My left wrist has been bothering me for going on two months.  I tried resting it for like 10 days but it didn’t improve so now I am just trying to work around it the best I can.

I also have a problem across the top of my my left elbow/forearm.  I was trying to work slow muscle ups the other day and had terrible pain radiating across that area when I was in the transition position.  Once I released the arm was throbbing, almost how it feels when you bang your funny bone.

There isn’t a whole lot I can do about these sort of things except adopt a “if it hurts, don’t do it attitude”  I just hope I still have a few exercises left  that don’t hurt in a few years.

🙂

 

 

Comments Off on Calisthenics at (nearly) 45

Mudder training, Bar-barians answering the bell

Nov05
by Duf on November 5, 2012 at 3:29 pm
Posted In: Physical challenges

I did training for my upcoming Tough Mudder in a couple ways this weekend.  Obviously covering 12 miles by foot requires a certain amount of running endurance.  I tried to cover that by putting in over 10 miles on the local track.

Normally I would not choose to do that far of a distance on a track, I have never done it before.  The reason is, running that long on a short track gets mentally grueling, my plan was to circle 40 times.  However that is exactly why I decided to do it, mental torture is part of the Mudder.

I actually fuzzed out and missed lap 35 somehow so I wound up only running 39.  Even so my total distance was over 10 miles so I felt ready to go.

On Sunday I followed up with some work in my bar park, much of it humorous in nature.

I also caught on tape the worst bar over ever.

Finally I put up a lackluster attempt at hard mode of this month’s challenge. I wasn’t surprised my numbers weren’t great.  Because of my painful left wrist I have not been working dips hardly at all in the last month.

Speaking of this month’s BB challenge….

For quite awhile, participation in the monthly challenges has been steadily declining, despite both my and Iron Lou’s efforts to come up with different/challenging/interesting ideas each month.  I knew that despite our efforts to make each challenge fun there was something crucial missing, participation from any of the actual Bar-barians.

This month I made an effort to address that.

First the challenge was based on an idea pitched by Fletch whom just recently qualified to be a Bar-barian.  I also named it after him, “Fletch’s Fun”.

Second I contacted Lee and forwarded an email I got from one of our forum members, repeating what I already knew, that lack of BB participation really hurts the forum.   I told Lee that I thought for a Bar-barian to spend 5-10 minutes a month shooting an attempt at the challenge was a worthwhile investment and only helps the group in the big picture.  He agreed.

Lee wasted no time sending out an email to all of the Bar-barians, encouraging them to get involved.  He took it a step further, throwing down the gauntlet to his long time challenge nemesis, Jaz to step up to the plate and see who is left standing.

The response from the group has been in a word, overwhelming.  So far Lee, Jay, Mark and Fletch have posted attempts.  I am pretty sure we will also see attempts from at least Sai, Jaz and Hunt as well.

It is going to be a GREAT month on the forums.  🙂

 

 

Comments Off on Mudder training, Bar-barians answering the bell

Triple Gym is triple cool

Nov01
by Duf on November 1, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Posted In: Fitness Equipment

Last night after work I saw I had a box leaning against my front door, I was excited to see my Shamrock Triple Gym had arrived.

I saw the Triple Gym in a banner ad on YouTube last week.  It is a doorway based bar system with a twist, it includes dip bars as well.

I wasted little time before I started putting it together as I was anxious to try it out.  I had my Flip cam rolling as I hoped my review would be the first one to hit YouTube.

Assembly was easy although the directions for the made in China product were comically sparse.  I had it together in less than 10 minutes. I hung the main part of it on the doorway and gave it a try.

Beside the dip bars, the Triple Gym uses an elevated pull up bar that sits above the door frame, giving tall guys like me more room below.  When I do pull ups on the Iron Gym my knees are hanging just an inch or two above floor level.  With the Triple Gym the bar is about 10-12 inches higher.

I grabbed on and did a full reps.  The bar felt good to pull on.  I wouldn’t recommend trying to pound out fast explosive reps on it but it felt great doing controlled reps.

I then hung the dip bar portion and did more reps.  Again, it felt surprisingly solid and comfortable to push on.  The dip bars have three different width adjustments so you can tailor them to your liking.

I then unwrapped the cheap strap handles and tried them out for hanging push ups and Australian pull ups.  Despite the low quality straps, the exercise felt effective and good.

Overall my impression of the Triple Gym is very positive.  I can literally think of dozens of body weight exercises I could do on it using the various bars, handles and strap positions available.  For instance I can see the low bar between the dip handles being an awesome way to train levers since you are low to the floor.

Check out my full review below.

└ Tags: , , ,
2 Comments

Ancillary items

Oct31
by Duf on October 31, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Posted In: Fitness Equipment, General Fitness Talk

I forgot to mention that I finally got around to making some stability improvements to the parallelettes that Lou so kindly sent to me.  The bars are attached to the 4×4 base sections using a small flange that is inserted into the end.  Well there was only one bolt holding it in place.

This arrangement allowed the bars to shift slightly left and right depending on what stress you put on them.

My solution to this was to drill a hole perpendicular to the original and insert a second bolt, lock washer and nut on it.

The operation was pretty straight forward.  My biggest concern was I didn’t have much real estate to drill the second hole.  The flange did not extend very far up into the pipe so I had to drill below the first bolt.

After I finished up I did some quick testing followed up with some L-sit to planche reps last night.  The bars felt rock solid, just as I hoped.  I really do love these parallelettes.

On Monday I received another item from a distant bar enthusiast, this time all the way from the U.K.

Fi, (short for Fiona) sent me an old t-shirt that she took ownership of during her days working in the video game industry.  I saw her posting that it was up for grabs on Facebook.

I already have a small collection of items from bar enthusiasts from around the globe, including a Bar-barians shirt from Zef, a Crossfit Clitheroe hoody from Lee (U.K. as well) and a Crossfit Islander t-shirt from Dawalli who runs a gym in Newfoundland.  This shirt will join the list of “keep forever” clothing items.

Fi is unique as she is a female bar enthusiast.  Although there are a growing amount of women that are getting involved in the community, they are a very small minority currently.

Fi is EXTREMELY motivated in her work outs.  I know her efforts make me want to push hard.

She runs a great fitness blog, if you want to check it out look here.

Fi recently got her first muscle up, you should congratulate her.

Despite my nasty looking injury from my dip crash it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem when working out.  The only thing that was annoying was making sure the scabbed bruise was not rubbing against my body.  Otherwise I feel 100% functional.

 

└ Tags: ,
Comments Off on Ancillary items