Training 9/18-9/24

Wednesday, September 18th

30 minutes squat work, variety of positions; felt like crap today, took it easy.

Thursday, September 19th

Squat work
Shoulder pre-hab (both of Ido’s routines)
F7

Friday, September 20th

50 reps grip w/ Trainer
Squat work and mobility, mixed with
5 minutes jump rope
Shoulder pre-hab and scapular mobilization
2x:
A1. Back body line drill 45s, 15s
A2. 10x Jefferson curl 55 lbs.
Wrist warm-up
2x:
B1. Chest-to-wall handstand 25s
B2. Weighted pancake good morning x10, 30 lbs.
H1
Floreio workout 1, w/ 5 “perfect pull-ups” after each round (on rings)
50 reps w/ Trainer

Saturday, September 21st

Ankle mobility (30 minutes)
Squat work
Roll triceps, rear deltoids 5 minutes
T spine extensions w/ weighted bar, double lacrosse balls, 5 minutes
Shoulder pre-hab, scapular mobility
F7 (no manna, left shoulder felt a little tweaked)
QDR practice 2x5s, 4x10s tucked
100 reps w/ trainer

Sunday, September 22nd

AM, fasted:
Jump rope 3 minutes
Swivel hips, hip flexor banded distraction, front rack banded stretch
Hang power clean: warm up, 115×3, 135×3,3, 145×1, 1, 1
Front squat: 115×5, 135×5, 145×5
Deadlift: 5×185, 235, 255, 265 – felt great, could have pushed for more
PM: 40 minutes ankle mobility/squat work, 10 minutes double lax ball spine rolling

Monday, September 23rd

New HBP progression: Pushup, start at week 5, 4×6
Move to week 9 on H1 PE1, 4x48s

40 minutes ankle mobility/squat work
F7, no squat

Tuesday, September 24th

40 minutes soft tissue work, ankle mobility

Wrist warm-up
H1 (4 rounds: 48s tripod alternating w/ 10s static seated shoulder flexion, weighted bar)
A1. 10x Jefferson Curl, 55 lbs. (10s hold at end)
A2. 10x bend backwards (10s hold at end), 3x
B1. 30s back-to-wall HS
B2. 10x weighted pancake good morning, 30 lbs. (10s hold at end), 3x
Shoulder dislocate, weighted bar: 3x44in, 5x42in., 5x42in.
Floreio workout 2 variant
3 rounds, relaxed pace
A1. Slide into low bridge x5
A2. Rotations into wall x10
A3. 1/2 Au Cortado x8
A4. 4 ring pull ups
10 minute rest
Split squat 90×5,5

 

F7 is back to normal, pushing towards the last microcycle on most of the progressions before moving on to new movements. My ankles are still being recalcitrant, so I’m dedicating more time to using all of the tricks in my MWOD tool bag to get them back in action.

Today’s Training

This is a deload week for the Foundation and Handstand programs, so everything drops to 1/2 volume; it’s also my last encounter with my nemesis, the first progression for the Hollow Body Press, incline pushups… 75 reps in a 3-4 minute window was not doing it for me.

20 minutes soft-tissue work: scapula, traps, rear delts, pecs
5 minutes double lacrosse ball T-spine mobilization
Squat work (mostly weighted), hip mobility
3×10 weighted pancake good morning (30 lbs.)
Shoulder pre-hab
F7 (no squats)

Later:
More squatting
QDR practice in between
100 reps w/ Trainer gripper, sets of 5

QDR is starting to feel pretty good, I played around with extending my legs out for a bit, and did some 10s tuck holds as well.

Last week’s training

Tuesday, September 10th

Squat work, mobility
Shoulder pre-hab
3 sets seated pancake good-morning 15 lbs. x5,7,7 10s hold on final rep of each set
Accumulate 60s back body line drill (30s,15s,15s)
Jefferson curl 10 reps, 45 lbs., 10 second hold on final rep
Accumulate 45s front body line drill (15s,15s,15s)
5 arch backs (no hold)
QDR practice
Floreio workout 1
H1 (3x24s tripod, iM PE1)
Split squat 3x5x90 (7 plates per side)

Wednesday, September 11th

Squat work
F7 (no deck squat)

Thursday, September 12th

Rest day (flooding…)

Friday, September 13th

Hip IR mobility
Squat work (some weighted)
3×7 Weighted pancake good morning (25 lbs.)
Shoulder pre-hab
2x Back body line drill (accumulate 60s), 10 reps Jefferson curl 45 lbs.
Front body line drill 2x20s
QDR practice
Floreio workout 1
H1
Deadlift 3x5x255
50 reps with Trainer gripper (sets of 5)

Saturday, September 14th

Short squat work
Shoulder pre-hab
F7 (no squat)

PM
30 minutes
Squat work, alternating with
QDR practice (still tucked; 5s holds, alternating sides moving through squat)

Sunday, September 15th

Squat work (mostly weighted)
10, 5, 10 Weighted pancake good morning (25 lbs.)
Shoulder pre-hab
Wrist warmup/prep
H1
QDR practice (tucked 5s holds, alternating, about 10 reps per side)
Floreio workout 1 (tried to do rotations into low bridge, fail)

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The QDR holds are improving, still a little intense on my wrists. After a few days of practicing rotations into low bridge on the wall along with low bridge slides, I tried to do a full rotation into low bridge on the floor…. suffice to say it was discouragingly awkward. I think I have more work to do. Boulder flooded hard this week, so I took Thursday off the help take care of our house, which, thankfully, had pretty minimal damage.

Today’s Training

I tweaked my left anterior deltoid last Friday, so I took it easy this weekend and warmed up slowly today to make sure it was good to go (it was). To help recovery I applied Traumeel, ginger oil, Helichrysum italicum oil (per Ido Portal), and a “trauma salve” my housemate (an herbalist) gave me 3x each Saturday and Sunday. Ido recommends the following anti-inflammatory protocol:

3x per day:

Ice 20 minutes

Apply Traumeel, Helichrysum italicum and wintergreen essential oils

On third application, apply with cotton ball soaked in hot water, leave on affected area and wrap in plastic overnight; remove in morning

Shoulders are hard to plastic wrap, shockingly, and my wintergreen oil is in the mail, so I did what I could. I’ve been hesitant to ice since Kelly Starrett reversed his position on the practice (one-year follow up discussion here), so I did a short ice massage before each application instead, hoping to induce a refractory increase in circulation. My immunology conscience always wondered why icing was recommended across the board for acute injury, even while people started to question the efficacy of NSAID use in the same context…

Today’s training:

F7 (as described previously)

30 minutes squatting, mostly weighted (40 lb. dumbbell)

Warm up for F7: Ido’s shoulder mobilization routine, squat mobility work, dislocates (unweighted with a dowel), jump rope

Felt good today; this is the third week of progressively increasing volume, and next week is a deload week. The rep scheme was:

1. Bent hollow body hold 5x36s; integrated mobility (iM) 5 reps cat/cow in between sets

2. Scapular shrugs 5×9; iM 10 reps swivel hips

3. Arch body hold 3×24 seconds; iM 10 reps hip circles

4. Tuck up 5×9; iM 5 reps per side stiff leg windmill

5. Deck squat – skipped today; waiting until my squat mobility improves to push the single-leg squat progressions

6. Incline pushup 5×15; iM 10 reps german arm swing

7. Incline body row 5×9; iM 30s side lat lean

Incline pushups have been my nemesis; the German arm swings take about 15 seconds to finish, so my shitty endurance makes it hard to complete 75 reps with little rest. Stiff leg windmills, my other goat, have been improving too as the impingement in the back of my left shoulder improves.

Training

After a few weeks of running around the Rockies and getting settled in, I finally got going about two weeks ago. I started the Foundations and Handstand programs from Coach Christopher Sommer, which work towards seven fundamental gymnastics strength training (GST) movements: straddle planche (SPL), front lever (FL), side lever (SL; human flag), manna (MN), single-leg squat (SLS; pistol), rope climb (RC) and hollow back press (HBP; the handstand program works towards a 2-minute handstand). Each movement is approached from the ground up, using “preparatory elements” to build a foundation (get it?) for the more advanced goal movements; in this way, each movement stands as a proxy for a variety of related skills and movement patterns that you pass through along the way. As an example, working towards the rope climb movement takes you through body weight rows and pull-up progressions while developing a fair degree of volume. Each exercise has a mobility element integrated into it, and workouts are completed by working one exercise at a time superset-ed with a mobility element, giving you minimal rest in between sets (which should develop not-insignificant work capacity).

I’m completing the F7 format variation, which requires working all seven movements in a single session 2-3 times per week. Right now these seven are:

Bent Hollow Body Hold (FL progression; goal is 5x60s)

Scapular Shrug (SPL progression; goal is 5×15 reps)

Arch Body Hold (SL progression; goal is 5x60s)

Tuck Up (MN progression; goal is 5×15 reps)

Deck Squat (SLS progression; goal is 5×15 reps)

Incline pushup (HBP progression; goal is 5×15 reps)

Incline Row (RC progression; goal is 5×15 reps)

Each exercise progresses over the course of 12 weeks while you build volume towards the goal sets and reps, at which point you move on the the next progression. The Foundation series is divided into 4 blocks (only the first two are out so far), and will soon be combined with progressions for ring strength (4 blocks), a “Movement” series of progressions (3 blocks), another Handstand block, and a capstone “Hungarian” block, as detailed on the gymnasticbodies forum. This is the first publicly available, detailed, progressive program for developing gymnastics movement in adults that I’m aware of.

I started messing around with Ido’s floreio workouts too; if you haven’t checked out his old blog, head over there and do some exploring. Here’s an old sampler of some floreio-based movement, if you’re unfamiliar:

As I build volume I hope to end up with the following general weekly training load:

Foundations workout (F7): 2-3x per week (depending on recovery)

Handstand workout (H1): 3x per week

Floreio: 3x per week

Parkour: 2x per week

Weights: 3x per week (1 day each split squat, deadlift, power clean)

30 minutes ATG squat per day

Grip training (Radical Reps Baseline Program) every day

My goal coming down here is to take two years to MOVE as much as possible, while staying injury free, nailing down sleep, nutrition, etc., and to push my meditative practice a little bit further (more on that at some point, I’m sure). I’m taking it slow at first so that I don’t mess myself up and waste time down the road; hopefully by the end of the month I’ll feel strong enough to jump into some parkour training without having to worry about getting hurt. My prerequisite for this is to get a legit ass-to-ground squat, and to that end I’ve been squatting for a minimum of 20 minutes a day, trying to accumulate 30 when possible (per Ido’s recommendation), combined with some ankle and hip mobility work courtesy of MobilityWod. Having eliminated most of the physical impingement in my ankles at this point I’m focusing on lengthening my Achilles, which is slow going, to say the least; I started holding a 40 lb. dumbbell today while squatting to increase the loading and hopefully the efficiency of the time I’m spending down there. 30 minutes a day isn’t crazy, but when you have to rest after every 1.5-2 minutes, it adds up.