Man - great pushup numbers.
Start doing clap pushups and experiment with different hand positions to smack the tris and pecs.
Make it harder.
I actually discovered quite by accident that I can do 1 armed pushups now - I overheard some guys discussing these a while back and one opinion was that they can be murder on the shoulders - any thoughts on that anyone? I’d love to try and start working these in.
Today’s log:
Didn’t get to eat much today - only one real meal but I “supplemented” with peanuts and dried lima beans…no joke…
I’m going to have gym access for three days - tonight I decided to use the opportunity to do some complexes, my workout is messy I was a little like a kid in a candy store.
Warmup - 10 supinated pullups *PR
Back squats 135lbs - repped till I was comfortable (between a dozen and 20 I’d say)
Complex: I completed 8 reps
135lbs:
Deadlift
Stiff leg deadlift
bent over row
high pull
hang clean
front squat
overhead press
back squat
overhead press
So you guys know what a complex is I’m sure, but if any don’t you do the movements all in sequence, once I picked up the bar for the first deadlift I didn’t put it down till after the last overhead press. Pretty killer.
I did pullups between sets - but didn’t keep track of them, I don’t really want to think about it I’m just trying to do lots of pullups right now to get stronger on that lift. I also did a set of hanging leg raises from some ab straps (I told I was running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off)
After the complexes I tried some front squats for reps, but my lower back was too tired. I ended up with this:
Front squat 135lbs 1X8
Zerker squat135lbs 2X10
Finally I did some single arm dumbell rows just to finish off my back. 100lbs 2X8
It was a little messy, but it was effective and it sure did feel good to get back in there.
thanks for reading.
[quote]makblue13 wrote:
I actually discovered quite by accident that I can do 1 armed pushups now - I overheard some guys discussing these a while back and one opinion was that they can be murder on the shoulders - any thoughts on that anyone? I’d love to try and start working these in.[/quote]
Yeah I don’t know how your shoulders would react to these, I couldn’t do 1-arms as a regular thing (assuming I could do enough of them to make them worthwhile that is!), but I guess you won’t know til you try them out.
Personally I would rather increase the difficulty of regular push ups, by adding stretch bands or chains if you can get some in your vehicle?
Another option maybe could be a weighted vest…wouldn’t take up much room or damage anything much if it fell about. Also you could then use it for other exes too.
You should have some nice soreness tomorrow from the complexes etc 
[quote]makblue13 wrote:
I just feel I have the right to complete control over what goes into my body,[/quote]
Damn straight! Great log, man.
I second trying out clap push-ups. They can be quite a lot harder and, more importantly, they look bad-ass. Ha!
I’m a big fan of jumping (vert or broad are good) when I don’t have access to weight. Keeping track of your max jumps is a good way to judge your progress that’s not based on rep maximums too.
Hey guys, thanks again for all the suggestions and encouragement. Again, I’ve learned an important lesson recently I don’t have complete control over my situation right now, including were we are. I thought I’d have a gym again today, but we split early to cut the drive down. So I hit the gym thursday, Friday I was mad sore - but felt good. We actually partied pretty hard Friday night, but I was in good shape to come back for tonights circuits. If you’ve read this log for a while you know I really don’t drink - and when I do I keep it reasonable.
I used the suggestion for clap pushups and you’ll see that reflected in my numbers. I’m excited with my results and I will be posting new photos tomorrow/monday (it’ll either be late at night or early in the morning, we’ll see).
Today’s log:
Circuit “phase 2”, again 1 min maxes for reps
Clap Pushups - - - - - 26 / 24 / 25
Crunches - - - - - - - 45 / 35 / 35
Pullups (wide grip)- - 6 / 6 / 5
Side Plank (r) - - - - 1 / 1 / 1
Alternating Lunges - - 11 / 13 / 12
Side Plank (l) - - - - 1 / 1 / 1
Okay, so those pushups kill, very hard but I’ll master them eventually. I’m also going to consider single arm pushups as I get stronger, but I do have a little twinge in my shoulder from time to time so I should watch it. I’m happy to say I can now do 10 narrow grip pullups in one set…but I need to get my wide grips caught up.
sThanks for reading.
Holy crap! 26 clapping pushups? Nice job, that.
You can alternate push days using one arm pushups, increasing reps while slowly moving the hand closer to the torso over time and clapping pushups so you don’t get stale. Another way of progressing in the handclap pushup is to start doing pushup leaps to a support and keep raising the height of the support. No clapping necessary for that.
Eventually you’ll need to increase limit strength to justify making the support higher, and there’s a practical limit on how high you can go, but it’s always a solid session when you put those in. Watch shoulder health if you choose to do the drop portion on those.
Thanks for the friend request. Your dedication to training under such dynamic and challenging circumstances is admirable.
So I got a picture or two after my workout today - I’ll snap another couple when I wake up in the morning.
Had a nice surprise today - cable crossover machine in the hotel “gym” and so I got to mix it on on recovery day.
Unilateral Bicep curl: 30lbs X 12
50lbs X 8
60lbs X 8
70lbs X 6
Tricep Extension: 100lbs X 12
150lbs 3 X 8
Seated Row: 150lbs 5 X 12
Oblique “Push-Pull”** 60lbs X 8
80lbs 2 X 8
Serratus Cable Crunch 150lbs 3X20
Tabata dumb-bell swings*** 25lbs
All of these exercises are really straight forward except for a couple of notes.
** This push pull exercise involves taking a knee between the cable towers. You face one tower, with your hands up almost like you’re in a front stance for boxing or karate. For example, you’d set up like you’d just thrown a jab with your left arm, and your right arm is cocked near your rib cage to throw a straight. You’re on your right knee, with your left foot out in front (like you just dropped into a super deep lunge and let your knee touch the ground). You square your shoulders up and throw the straight with your right hand (single arm chest press) simultaneously you pull your left arm back in (single arm row). All the while you fire your obliques to keep your shoulders squared up. Try it - it’s tough.
*** I did a variation on the normal dumbell swing - I’d read in Nate Greens kettlebell article recently about a swing he does where he lets go of the bell at the peak of the swing and catches it with his other hand for the downswing. He alternates hands on each swing. I did this with my 25 pound dumbells, it was really fun, but if I don’t get something heavier this exercise will be useless soon - even using the tabata method.
thanks for reading.
I wanted to post this pic post-workout because I’ve noticed something interesting in the last week or so. The way I’ve been forced to train on the road involves much higher reps than I would normally use, and obviously less weight. I’ve noticed that I blow up during workouts, I get these tremendous pumps that are really motivational, but then the rest of the day is a bit of a let down. I’ll post a shot in the morning of what I look like when I first wake up. But here’s a current shot of my upper body in a generic “flex” post workout.
[quote]donpalmero wrote:
makblue13 wrote:
I just feel I have the right to complete control over what goes into my body,
Damn straight! Great log, man.
I second trying out clap push-ups. They can be quite a lot harder and, more importantly, they look bad-ass. Ha!
I’m a big fan of jumping (vert or broad are good) when I don’t have access to weight. Keeping track of your max jumps is a good way to judge your progress that’s not based on rep maximums too.[/quote]
DP, I can definitely keep track of my own jumps - but where do I start? I mean, I expect to suck, but can you define “good”?
okay, these are me first thing this morning
again this morning
today’s log:
Circuit “phase 2” - 1 minute for max reps
clapping pushup - - - - 29 / 20 / 19
reverse crunch- - - - - 33 / 29 / 30
wide pullup*- - - - - - (1)7 / 9 / 10
side plank (r)- - - - - 1 / 1 / 1
alternating lunge - - - 14 / 12 / 19
side plank (L)- - - - - 1 / 1 / 1
Clapping pushups whippin my ass…not much to say there. With the reverse crunch I’m really working hard to hit the full length of the rectus abdominus - so my speed is slower - I’m getting fewer reps but the range of motion is complete and I’m getting peak contraction. With the wide pullups today, I tried negatives, with the exception of one true pullup that I did at the beginning of the first set - everything else was a negative.
I felt sort of stupid by the last set, pretty much jumping up to the bar and falling like a kid having a temper tantrum. The planks are doing their job. Somehow I really blew up on the last set of lunges, that was cool, I’ll push that hard all the time now.
One thing I’ve come to appreciate about this training style is the diversity, and the willingness I’ve found in myself to change. I think to be successful training like this requires a certain element of surprise. On my recovery days for example, I don’t know what I’m going to do until I start working out - my body has no way to adapt from day to day. I’m pleased with my results so far but I know I can intensify and have even greater achievement.
thanks for reading
Off day today guys, see you tomorrow.
Definitely looking leaner, and your arms/shoulder show signs of improvment. Keep it up.
Been an ugly couple of days, sleep deprivation so I’ve been down on training. Couldn’t do it wednesday and tuesday was a day off. Trained today and it was alright - I was raging most of the evening though and still feel generally angry. I want to say it’s because I’m frustrated over the last two days…I hope that’s why.
today’s log:
still in phase two…
Pushup - - - - - - 24 / 23 / 57
Crunch - - - - - - 41 / 38 / 41
Row- - - - - - - - 14 / 17 / 13
Plank (l)- - - - - 1 / 1 / 1
Lunge- - - - - - - 16 / 21 / 13
Plank (r)- - - - - 1 / 1 / 1
These nice ass hotels have wide doors - my pullup bar doesn’t fit. I have a really chunky desk in my room that is just the right height for me to lay under it and touch the edge of the top with my hands at arm’s length. So, I put my feet on the bed, laid under the desk, grabbed the edge with an underhand grip and pulled myself up - like doing bent-overs, only on your back.
With a couple days off I decided to do a pushup test to see how far I’d come. I did clapping pushups in the first set, and then in the second set I put my feet in a chair with a really wide hand position. Finally I did traditional pushups and went for speed, my goal was 45 reps in the last set - I sorta shattered that.
My head hurts bad, I need to get to sleep. See you tomorrow.
thanks for reading
Hey guys - so the last couple weeks down here in TX have been sort of rough. Not a lot of sleeping and in comparison to the norm - it’s been fairly debaucherous. I’m looking forward to getting back into a more normal routine soon. I was forced to miss a workout yesterday because I just can’t crank these routines out on 2-4 hours of sleep. If there’s a way to train on that kind of rest I don’t know it.
I’m not saying it’s okay, and I don’t want to consider it an excuse - I just consider it one of the challenges of training this way. I don’t just deal with diet and program - I have to deal with the rest of my world too and the fact that I invent most everything I do in terms of the physical space where it happens.
I appreciate all your support and it’s very important to me to keep you all posted - so I wanted to drop you a line as I anticipate my final workout for “Phase 2” tomorrow.
thanks for reading.
Well, I had another sleep deprived night, but I grabbed a four hour nap today and was able to go after it in my workout tonight. It really felt good and I’m going to sleep like a baby tonight. This is the last workout in phase 2 of this calisthetic progression. I move to phase 3 on Friday.
Pushup - - - - - - 27 / 20 / 20
Crunch - - - - - - 41 / 37 / 57
Pullup - - - - - - 9 / 8 / 11*
Side Plank (L) - - 1 / 1 / 1
Lunge - - - - - - 15 / 15 / 15
Side Plank (R) - - 1 / 1 / 1
Okay so, the pushup numbers are alright, the first two sets of crunches were intense, the last one was full range of motion and I went hard for max reps so the contractions weren’t quite as intense. On the pullups, I decided to spot myself on a couple reps in the second set (using my feet on the ground), and then the last set are basically negatives. Finally - with the lunges, I really don’t think it’s a good idea to do alternating lunges any faster than I do. I could probably do more than 15, but 15 has a nice rhythm and I don’t really want to slam into the lunge any harder than I am just so I can do them faster. I feel good about this one.
thanks for reading.