Front handsprings
~30 mins
Consider powering forwards with legs in order to land directly on feet.
Master swipes
~an hour
Putting weight on upper body between swipes helped with landing with hips higher. After making that discovery I seem to have strained my left shoulder in rotating out of each swipe, so I had to cut it short. Damn it.
Handstands
8x2
best: 22sec. My wrist hurt again.
Handstand walks
3x2
Got a bunch of OK ones, no PR today though. I will start doing more of these and less of the normal boring handstands.
Forearm headspin
~an hour
Got a 1/4 turn, solid progress for having learned the move just 1-2 weeks ago. Will have a video today or tomorrow if my friend who took it e-mails it to me.
Well I managed to spend three hours on five things. And I didn’t even get around to nikes or headswipes. (which I can do, but like to do anyways just for fun)
And June has ticked on by. This puts just one last heavy week and a deload week after that, and it’s time to max out and see how much stronger I really got.
Right thigh: 23 1/2 (+1/8)
Left thigh: 22 3/4 (+3/8)
Increase in measurements probably due to water bloat from the substantial amount of soy sauce (that stuff has a lot of sodium, but it’s worth it for the flavor though) I had with a chicken breast yesterday.
Breakdancing
More freezes practice, it’s been loosening up my wrist really well.
Airbaby freezes note: Hands close, right knee on right elbow. This is a good mental cue that helps me transition into an airbaby freeze quickly.
Going to have to start going for reps before I can increase weight on the assistance exercises, which I’ve done before once or twice with good results.
Breakdancing practice. Holiday so the gym was closed. I had to practice in my basement, which was solid once I made some space for myself and set down some slippery linoleum. I honestly can’t say that it was a detriment to my performance today.
However, no finisher for grip today as there was nothing heavy to hold on to in my home.
Master swipes
~2 hours
“Lock out” each swipe by engaging glutes, before doing the next swipe. This is helping me keep my hips high. The faster I can do this lock out, the more they look like legit master swipes. I should take a video.
Handstands
8x2
Getting a bunch of OK ones instead of a few really great ones.
best: 32sec
Forearm headspins
~1 hour
Keep belly tight and maximize force on bringing legs around. Got a couple 3/8 spins today with mostly 1/4 spins.
Also: Keep weight forward, don’t let left leg pull me back because then I’ll fall down.
Going on vacation tomorrow until Friday/Saturday. There should be a gym there. If I don’t have time to do a full workout I’ll just resort to the “I’m not doing jack shit” program.
Also, updates will probably be late.
Finally: 3 hours, 3 moves. Have I got an attention span or what.
Nothing today, am a day behind. The hotel’s “fitness center” was 5 treadmills, a set of DBs going up to 25s, a bench, and not even enough space to practice b-boying.
Got back from vacation today so I trained and I can get back on track if I don’t take a day off on Sunday. Was happy about the 2x225. Also, the 5 pull-ups with +10 lbs was a PR.
DB BP
1x5:F - 65s
1x6:F - 60s
1x5:F - 60s
1x8 - 55s
2x6 - 55s
Trying to make sure to stop a rep short of failure.
DB hold
120s, 2 towels
17sec,17sec,6sec
Got weaker from last week on this.
Breakdancing
Nikes move sets
Kick up with left leg from behind, not from the side. Also, focus on putting tension on right shoulder for more stability. Also, get the left leg past the head, which I’m getting better at. Finally, put on a little flair by using my left hand to grab my nuts at the top of the move. Getting better at doing them well and landing with just my right hand and right foot.
This year of training is finished (with the exception of deload and 1RM week but you get the idea). Here is my progress in the PR sets for each core lift over the course of the year (upper body lifts):
Increase in measurements might be from how I ate on Thursday and Friday (was away from home). I wanted to make sure to eat enough because I’d rather have a little extra than risk losing any strength.
Master swipes
~90 mins
Got noticeably better at keeping hips high. Slow it down with the upper body, making it easier to land the legs with little impact, making it easier for them to land without making the hips cave in downwards. Shoulder feels fine if I don’t over do them or half-ass my rest-periods.
Handstands
8x2
best: 48sec (PR)
Handstand walk
4x2
Going for “laps” now. Go a certain distance, marked by lines on the b-ball court, turn around, go back. Got a bunch of good distance ones but none were especially great.
Headspins
~45 min
Hoodie helps with keeping forearms from burning on the ground, and with spinning more. Balancing while spinning is the key; it’s tough to avoid falling forwards or backwards. Might’ve got a 1/2 turn today. In that case it would be a PR. I honestly can’t remember though, stupid me :/.
I prefer practicing the tough b-boy moves on designated b-boy practice days, while leaving the easier stuff like nikes, airbabys, and headswipes for post-lifting finishers.
Today was the day that I expected to start my final ME week to find my new 1RMs. However it all got pushed a week back because I did a ME week after cycle 4 to find my squat 1RM without the smith machine because I decided to drop my squat training wheels. And so next week, I will see how much stronger I truly got.
Breakdancing
2000s
Kick legs halfway and then bring them together. This sacrifices power but gives me more stability. Might be a solid idea for forearm headspins
too. Practiced going in from standing position, and from handstands. I feel like I’m doing it right but my hand just isn’t spinning on the
floor. Got mostly 1/4 and 1/2 turns.
Also practiced one-arm handstands against a wall. Doesn’t feel like doing these will improve my 2000s though, probably better if I just keep practicing the actual move.
Took a video, will post it later because that youtube business takes forever.
Breakdancing
1990s
Right hand goes directly under body. Kick legs up and bring them together quickly for most spin. Turn hand to right a bit before kicking up to cheat out a little extra spin. Felt like solid improvement today.
Well that’s all 13 cycles down. Nice. Next week I’ll be testing my maxes. From my PRs in week 3 of this cycle I can tell I probably won’t get the goals that I set last year. I’m a little irked by this as the planned progression was already slow as it was. But I should accept it before I go thinking that 2x135 translates into 1x160 and end up with my spine on the other side of the weight room. I’ve learned a little patience/humility when it comes to 1RM testing from when I did it after cycle 4.
So, here are my new 1RM goals for the week. I am 100% confident that I can get all of these, maybe even a little more.
Deadlift: 315 or 2xBW, whichever is heavier
OHP: 140
Squat: 230
Bench: 165
Airswipes
~10 mins
Couldn’t find a reliable way to minimize strain in left shoulder on these. For some reason I was working on master swipes one day doing just fine and my left shoulder started hurting. I think it’s a mobility problem with how I’ve been focusing on keeping my hips really high recently, it stretches out my body as a whole. I’ll take a break from air swipes/master swipes and stretch out my shoulder in the mean time.
Handstands
9x2
best: 50sec (PR) was happy about this
Handstand walk
4x2
Slow and steady. Small steps. Heel of stepping hand should not pass finger tips of standing hand while taking a step. This way I can keep pushing forwards but I also avoid losing control.
Forearm headspin
~90 mins
Got multiple that were >1/2 turn. Making progress. Tuck neck when bringing legs around to avoid falling forwards. Took a video but I’m too embarrassed to post it. From looking at it it looks like I have too much weight on my forearms and too little on my head, something I’ve just started focusing on fixing last week.
Waist increase probably constipation. Haven’t dropped a decent duke in a while and my diet has been (as always) very consistent so I doubt I put on a 1/2" of fat around my gut in a single week.
Deadlift
5x135
5x185
3x215
1x245
1x275
1x305
0x315:F - palms were sweaty
1x315 - the guy watching me to make sure I locked it out was nice enough to give me some chalk when I asked for it (don’t tell the gym manager)
0x325:F
Breakdancing
1990s
Bending right arm makes it easier to put more weight on it and spin the hand more which will ultimately help with getting more rotation. Experiment with it.
Got my double bodyweight, 3-plate deadlift so I’m happy for today.
I used Tim Henriques’s article to warm up, except I started with 5x135 instead of 8x120 (too lazy to deal with the 35-lb plate) and calculated it all off of a 1RM of 305.
