VBing it

Aug21
by Duf on August 21, 2012 at 8:16 am
Posted In: General Fitness Talk

Before bar work and calisthenics type exercise became my passion several years ago, volleyball was the exercise activity that was the focus of my fitness life.  I used to live, eat and sleep volleyball.  I played all the time, sometimes as much as 3-4 times a week.

Well this weekend I took a step back in the time machine and played a mini-tournament with friends of mine on the east coast of the state.

Despite being in overall good shape from my body weight exercise and triathlon style training, I was beat after 10 games on the court.  Running, diving and jumping in deep, hot sand for hours is pretty damn exhausting.

I stepped on the scale on Sunday night and was a bit shocked when the number 179.6 popped up, especially considering all of the activity from the weekend. (biked on Sunday as well).  Well I like to keep my body weight between 170-175 so that number was all I needed to kick the diet discipline back in order.  I had been a bit sloppy.

This is exactly why I recommend to people to weigh themselves everyday.  Some “experts” will tell you this is a bad practice but in my world it serves a very important purpose.  When you weigh yourself regularly, 10 pounds don’t sneak up on you like a Russian sub in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.  You get plenty of warning to correct whatever the issue is before it gets out of hand.

Here are the videos I have edited so far of this weekend’s volleyball action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya5n3pCn8g4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5-gQuWksrQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok7c9dj95pc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8BSGwem2CM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcZqVMGLIb0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlje7YMn1bs

 

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Getting heavy

Aug17
by Duf on August 17, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Posted In: Exercises, Fitness Equipment

So today I decided to pull out my dip belt.  It had been collecting dust for several weeks since I tweaked my shoulder.

I alternated between doing weighted dips and pull ups.  For dips my sets went like this:

20 – BW only

8 – BW+45

1  – BW+90

1 – BW+110

2 – BW+90

8- BW+45

The 110 pound weighted dip was a new personal best, eclipsing the 100 pound dip I pulled off several weeks ago.  It was quite the struggle, I barely got back up to the lock out position.

My weighted pull ups didn’t go as well as I hoped.  The sets were:

10 – BW only

4 – BW+45

1 – BW+70

I then got half way up with BW + 75 pound.  After that I decided to try something different and just do a static hold with my chin bar high with higher weight.  I was able to hold BW+100 for around 10 seconds.   I then bumped it up to BW+115 but I couldn’t really hold it so I just did a controlled descent.

One thing I struggled with a bit was my abs hurting doing the pull ups.  I did some dragon flags yesterday for the first time in awhile.  I had been avoiding them because they hurt my shoulder as funny as that seems.  You don’t realize how much your abs come into play while doing pull ups until you try doing reps with sore abs.

It felt good to do some weighted work again after steering clear for three weeks because of my shoulder/deltoid injury.

 

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Ray’s Way

Aug16
by Duf on August 16, 2012 at 8:22 am
Posted In: BBR's

So yesterday I made my second attempt at the program I have now named “Ray’s Way” (I like to name things).  The way it works is once you successfully complete all 5 rounds at certain rep numbers twice, you then add reps on the next attempt.

This was my second go at five rounds of  18 dips, 8 pull ups and 23 push ups.  It was once again a pretty epic struggle, especially in round 5.  The last 3 or 4 dips and push ups are right on the edge of failure.  As I did my last few push ups my legs were shaking.  However I did successfully complete the circuit with 8 seconds left, an improvement from the 1 second the first time through.

I am considering only upping my reps by one based on how much of a struggle it was for me.  Even small bumps in per set reps add up to significant numbers overall.  Even if I only go up to 19,9,24 it will add up to 15 more reps over the 5 rounds.

I definitely like this routine as it hammers away at the biggest obstacle in my quest for the BBR’s, recovery in between exercises.

 

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The Death Crawl

Aug14
by Duf on August 14, 2012 at 10:11 am
Posted In: General Fitness Talk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM5eJDs9V9A

Last night after seeing Lou’s Atlasthenics video which was filled with unconventional exercise like lugging a huge atlas stone around, I was inspired to do my own unconventional workout, the Death Crawl.

I tried the Death Crawl once before back in January of 2011, it is actually part of this video below.  (the crawl starts at the 4:30 mark)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJkXVY-5sDw

A Death Crawl is basically covering ground on your hands and feet (knees don’t touch the ground).  It is simply uncomfortable and is tough on your shoulders, ass, legs and core.

When I tried this in 2011 I made it to the fence but then stood up and took a break before coming back.  This time I wanted to make sure I never broke death crawl position.

My pace was slow and steady but I was able to complete the roughly 500 feet of crawling successfully.  By the time I crossed the pull up bar finish line I was breathing quite heavy.

Doing unconventional stuff like this is a great way to shake up your body.  Sure pull ups, push ups and dips are awesome but you can never have enough variety in your exercise routine.  Maybe next time I will try the crawl with some weight on my back.

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Locked in

Aug10
by Duf on August 10, 2012 at 8:48 pm
Posted In: General Fitness Talk

I finally have the Dufisthenics blog locked into Facebook correctly. Yay.

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