Yesterdays gym session
My wife is really motivated and is following one of Bret Contreras’s programs
Pull up
bw+ 25kgx 5, bw x 3
bw+ 25kg x 4, bw x 4
bw+ 25kg x 2, bw x 3, bw x3
25 kg might be ambitious for sets of 8. Still, it’s not so long ago I was failing in the same way with 20kg. so I am not yet ready to drop the weight to 22.5 but I am torn between wanting to get that extra power for better muscle ups and wanting slightly wider lats.
Standing band suspended suspended ohp
17.5 kg x 8
17.5 x 3 +17.5 no suspension x2 + 15 x2
15kg x 8
I’ve never got on with standing presses. So I did it with a little less weight than the sitting variation, and tried to tighten my core for a stable base, but can’t help feeling I’m doing it wrong still!
During this set, I took a break to help my wife. She hit 90kg on the box squat for 6 i think. The box was set up a little high, but it was still great to see her pushing herself so hard.
Suspended Chest dB fly
2 wraps
15kg x 6
too cross over
12.5 kg x 8
15 x 5 no suspension +3
I really liked @FlatsFarmer s idea about flies, and because I am suspending the dbs with bands it was easy enough to incorporate them into my workout. (notably, I am using straight arms, though)
Weirdly 15kg was too hard so I ended the first set early, during the second set I realised that because of the ways the dbs move I could let my hands go past each other and still have the elastic and dbs try and rotate my arms out. Similar to what athleneX often say.
12.5kgs was far too easy - so after the set, I tried another set with the 15s but with my arms reaching their stopping point, instead of 90dsgrees fro the trunk of the body but 60 degrees from it (perhaps half way to the position that you use in maltese cross). The idea was that this would let me use a little more front delt to assist the movement.
My overall impression is that files are a lot harder with dumbells that are suspended. I am not convinced at all about the extra adduction i added on the chest- perhaps I’ll give that its own space in a future version of my program
Suspended db row
25 x5 too easy
30 x 8
30 x 8
30 x 8
Adding bands to a db row was worth trying, but ineffective. I think because you are pulling the weight towards you rather than the bands adding the chaotic movement you need to stabilise against in your most contracted position they add that movement at the bottom when your arm is extended. Or at least they would if the db didn’t just touch the floor.
This is probably a less useful version of this exercise, but its always worth experimenting in life.
Iyatwl suspended (2 wraps)
2.5 x 3
This added a lot to the exercise. At this stage, I was done, but it turned out my wife had 3 more exercises to do so I had time to kill.
I really like the approach to farmers’ walks in this video so I tried wrapping up 60kg of plates in bands and carrying them on one side. This didn’t work - they dragged on the floor, so I just walked around the gym with a 40kg db in one hand.
Eventually, I got bored. 40kg is not a lot for a farmers walk. So decided to try carrying a 20kg db in one hand overhead, and tried to get some benefit by giving the weight a bigger lever to us against my core. I got a nice shoulder pump from this, but it still seemed like a dumb approach to the exercise.
My gym is pretty cluttered so its not great for farmers’ walks. I am going to ask the owner if I can take a db into the car park and just walk there.