yesterdays dream machine session
1/2 bw flow
Because these are skills and my weight varies day to day i thought it was worth having some fun and seeing what could do before i got back to training hspu and victorian
planche
i was supprised that i could hold it so i decided to try and initiate movement from that position
messy plance to handstand
had to press to handstand from a headstand position in the end
attempt at inverted cross
drop to attempted victorian corss ends in front lever
rotation to back lever
I can still do most things, just not very well. I’ve moved across the UK so it’s not easy for me to see my old coach. In the autumn I’d be interested in looking for one again depending on the other elements of my life.
yesterdays gym session
neutral grip Pull up
Bw+ 25x 3, x 2 bw +15 x 3
Bw +25 x 2, x1 bw +15 x 2, bw x 2
Pull down machine
135 x 0, 120x 0, 105 x 1 90 x4, 80 x 4
i started doing my last set of pull-ups as a drop set of lat pull-downs when I was finishing my PhD and didn’t have money for a dip belt. It made sense - because I wanted to always get a little high-weight training with all the volume. It’s starting to make less sense now as the higher weight pull-ups are now meaning I’ve got a lot less of that energy reserve for this movement.
So I think I’ll start doing 3 sets of pull ups. rather than including this on pull up days.
band Suspended Db bench
25kg x 8 2 loops
Huge contraction
touching floor 
25kg x 5 2 loops failure + 25 no suspension x3
20kg x 7
I was happy-ish with this - it’s taken a while for me to get to a place where I can do sets of this exercise, and i definitely feel a deep burn in my chest today as I write this. Notably, I have the dbs touching the floor at the bottom so I am losing some of the activation I could be getting with a different set-up, so there are still good reasons to play around with the loops.
Honestly I really like the fact that you can start with the dbs on the floor at the bottom of the movement though rather than awkwardly have them in your lap and fight to keep your back in a good position as you get them above you.
It may be just that this movement is new to me so i am getting a much bigger impact but i have never enjoyed db press this much.
Horizontal row machine
Supinated wide grip
8 x 87kg
8 x 87 kg
Feeling a bigger contraction in the lower portion of my lats
79kg x8
I started using a shoulder width grip on rows primarily to simulate Front Lever rows on rings which I love but struggle to hit any volume with. I really enjoyed doing this with a more classic grip
I had done horizontal push/pull, vertical pull but no vertical push - as I haven’t been doing HSPUs at home for a little while I wanted to get a quick experimental set in
suspended lat raise
7.5kg x 8
7.5kg x 8
7.5 kg x 8
My idea was that if my arm was at 90 degrees to the band the impact of the elastic would be much bigger because the lever arm would be bigger. Here is a video on the physics behind this
I was right, but this is probably not worth doing. Classicaly bodybuilding has you do a lat raise and lead with your little finger or at least have your hands horizontal. This puts your elbows in a position where they are vulnerable if you have to heavy a weight or extraneous bouncing (which is exactly what the elastic provides).
Inverted cross avoids this by having your palms face up relative to your body, which keeps them protected because you can use your biceps to resist the force that’s trying to dislocate your elbow.
Also, inverted cross is a much more favourable position because having hands face up brings in a ton of front delt.
I have a decent amount of straight arm strength, so my elbows are fine ( a lot of iron cross training is just doing things that would normally hurt your elbows in progression for a year or so until they are ready to not get destroyed by the final position) but I can see why none of the people who like doing things by suspending things by bands do this.
(please reply if you can find anyone else trying this on the internet, perhaps no one else is smart/dumb enough to try it)
Weirdly chest fly might actually be good with bands - because your elbows face the direction of motion it’s easier to bring your biceps in to protect your elbows. But i really like machine flies that give you resistance to bringing your hands together
one-handed farmers walk
3 walks with my gym heaviest db, 45kg
I used to do suitcase deadlifts a lot, so I was disappointed to find out I had more difficulty getting the DB off the floor than taking it for a walk. Ahh well, clearly that’s another thing that should be somewhere in my training