HANDSTAND PUSH-UP
On my first set I managed four, but really struggled with the third and fourth reps both in terms of strength and balance. Then I did two sets of two, which felt ok, and finished with a 20 second hold. I feel that handstand push-ups might really benefit from ?greasing the groove? like I did with pistol squats, I think I?ll try that this weekend.
INCLINE WEIGHTED PUSH-UP
30kg: 8-8-8-8-5
CLOSE GRIP PUSH-UP
BW: 9-9-9-9-9
HINDU PUSH-UP
BW: 5-5-5-4-4
Bodyweight: 95.4kg
I decided to give hindu push-ups a shot and really liked them. They are harder than I thought they would be, and I’m definitely going to start doing them regularly.
My back is still sore from testing my pistol squat max. It seems fine when I do it to a box, and that seems to have a good carryover, so I’m going to keep doing the box version in all my training and will only do the full version when I test it.
Front Lever Progression (Tucked)
I did 6 sets of this. On the first 3 I played around with technique, attempting harder progressions, and for the last 3 I did tucked holds for 10 seconds.
Turkish Get-Up (Initial)
28kg: 5-5-5
10kg: 20
Side Bend
10kg: 30-30-15
Bodyweight: 96.5kg
I didn’t do this with on-the-minute rest and I think it worked better. I was surprised at how comfortable the 28kg get-up was while not under time pressure. In the future I think I will train this way for core, and just slowly try to increase reps without worrying about rest times.
I watched The World’s Strongest Man Round 1 this evening. I think the more I train the more I appreciate how really awe-inspiring it is; Zydrunas doing the keg toss was just unreal. However, pathetic as it is, watching the events mostly just makes me think of how badly attempting them would ruin my lower back haha.
This was a good session. My rows and curls suffered from pushing hard on the chin-ups, but I’m not too worried about that.
My progression for pull is going to be on working towards getting 5 reps on all chin-up sets and once I’ve achieved that I’ll increase the weighted pull-ups to 20kg.
And finally, may I introduce Fyodor - my new pet rabbit haha. He is a Black and Tan and should hopefully grow to gargantuan proportions. Right now he is 9 weeks old and very un-gargantuan.
I’m actually thinking of seeing if there is any way to weight train him when he is fully grown. Sounds stupid lol, but all animals are designed to move and any pet won’t get to move as much as their wild equivalent. I was thinking I could buy a harness (you can buy ones for walking ferrets etc) and getting him to drag small weights. I could sew a little pocket for 1kg weights that he can drag behind him lol.
Today I went fishing with a friend. We spent 10 hours at the reservoir and caught absolutely nothing haha. A man nearby caught a 12.5lb pike and we went over and watched him bring it in, it was very impressive.
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
Your rabbit idea is mental lol, cute bunny tho.
Your legs are thick as fuck btw, no need for me to wonder anymore how you are 15 kilos heavier than me![/quote]
Haha thanks, he is awesome. Thanks buddy, very kind of you to say so. I think my legs have always been proportionally bigger than the rest of my body, but unfortunately they’ve never been proportionally stronger - you have been squatting significantly more than me in your recent videos. But weirdly my lunge seems more acceptable. Who knows how these things work?!
EDIT: I think my higher bodyfat levels contribute significantly to the 15kg too lol!
I’m still ill. It’s not too bad, hopefully I’ll be training again tomorrow. My bodyweight seems to be consistently around 96.5kg now, I’m not sure if I should cut back down to 95kg or just not worry about it.
[quote]furo wrote:
I’m actually thinking of seeing if there is any way to weight train him when he is fully grown. Sounds stupid lol, but all animals are designed to move and any pet won’t get to move as much as their wild equivalent. I was thinking I could buy a harness (you can buy ones for walking ferrets etc) and getting him to drag small weights. I could sew a little pocket for 1kg weights that he can drag behind him lol.[/quote]
My cat used to wrestle with my girlfriends cat before she moved. The two of them kept in pretty good shape like that.
I actually have a harness for walking my cat (yes, weird, I know). Maybe trying to get him to drag something might not be a bad thing. Bizarre idea, but it might just work.
You really think your rabbit can move a kilo though?
Did some hindu push-ups and side bends today as I was beginning to get quite stiff. Couldn’t manage a proper session because I still feel rough.[/quote]
My cat used to wrestle with my girlfriends cat before she moved. The two of them kept in pretty good shape like that.
I actually have a harness for walking my cat (yes, weird, I know). Maybe trying to get him to drag something might not be a bad thing. Bizarre idea, but it might just work.
You really think your rabbit can move a kilo though?[/quote]
Haha yeah it is a bizarre idea, but I thought it might be worth a try! Not until he is fully grown though. I have attached a photo of a fully grown Black and Tan - they can get pretty massive! I’m sure he’ll be able to drag a kilo or two if he gets anywhere near that size.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Maybe try some high-dose vitamin C?
Like… pop 2000mg every hour or so?[/quote]
Thanks, that is a good idea. I’ve been drinking a litre of orange juice a day haha.
[quote]furo wrote:
Haha yeah it is a bizarre idea, but I thought it might be worth a try! Not until he is fully grown though. I have attached a photo of a fully grown Black and Tan - they can get pretty massive! I’m sure he’ll be able to drag a kilo or two if he gets anywhere near that size.[/quote]
I still feel rough, so I’m taking the rest of this training week off.
Reflections
I thought I’d do some more reflecting on my training, as it easy to just focus on the present and forget about the bigger picture.
In terms of joint pain and stiffness I feel the best I ever have on this current routine, I think due to both exercise selection and lower frequency
Subjectively I feel I haven’t lost any strength or power since dropping the barbell lifts, I can’t think of a better way to say it other than I feel I’m at my all-time most “athletic”
Having said that I feel that my upper body is smaller, I think due to a lack of heavy horizontal pushing and pulling. I plan to rectify that by getting a heavier kettlebell for rows and possibly incorporating kettlebell chest press (though I’d need to buy a bench)
