Writing as Sets x Reps x Weight now to make it less of a pain to log.
Deadlift
5x130
5x160
5x190
Clean
5x6x90
LDL
10x100
4x10x105
10x115
Breakdancing
Windmills
40min
Practiced with just a t-shirt, no hoodie or beanie today because it was so damn hot and I figured I might as well do it eventually. Wasn’t any big deal, didn’t see any loss in performance from only going with a t-shirt.
Get better. I will have a video of three mills with legs wide and perfectly straight by Saturday.
Now that you mention that tip to eat more, I was hungry all day today, even though it was a deload day and I was eating as much as usual. Huh. And I’ll do those tips you gave me starting next cycle. Thanks
In between barrages of 8 year olds throwing half-court shots, I managed to do:
Warmup
~15min
Forearm headspin
~80min
best: a little under 7/4
Loosen hips once legs spin around and make contact = instant, consistent spin duration increase. First time since sickness that I got a headspin worth noting.
Windmills
~40min
Sweep legs + land on back = more power. Got a video. Getting better but it’s not the real deal yet.
Handstand work
~15min
Handstand jumps, also practiced “diving” into a baby freeze
Breakdancing
Windmills, 40min
Got some good ones, but tired out a lot quicker than yesterday. Didn’t push it since I was also a little bruised up and I need to recover from that if I want to push myself on this move tomorrow.
Halfway to testing those maxes.
Changes for this upcoming cycle:
Stop going to failure on assistance work (thanks Brian14)
To prevent myself from hitting failure but still get around the 6 to 10 reps that I plan on, here’s what I’ll do:
One heavy set where I push myself
The rest, sets at 90% of the first set’s weight.
Example would be cleans, say I get all amped up and do 5x200, near-failure. Then I take 90% of that and do 4x6 more with 180, which I know I can do but I also know it would push me a little.
Eat more (thanks Brian14, again)
I always try to get as much protein as possible but it’s hard to get more than 180-200g/day since I’m a dependent and my parents already think I eat too much. But I’ll knock back some extra carbs, ~30g extra per day? to see if that would give me more energy to train harder, for longer.
Fix bent-over rows.
They have decayed into some retarded bar-humping deadlift. Cut some weight off the bar and fix that shit. Some leg drive is alright but if it’s a bent-over row, then I should be BENT OVER, not deadlifting the weight and then shrugging it up a bit like I’m doing now.
Warmup
25min
Front handsprings: Slight slowing/pause at the top really helps nail the landing. Not even a pause, just more of controlling the movement so I’m not just flinging myself ass over head.
Forearm headspin
95min
best: 3/2
Consistently getting noticeably more than just 1 spin (9/8s, 5/4s, 11/8s). This is important. It means I’m spinning on my head, not just doing a 360-degree upside-down self-takedown.
Helps to extend the hips while setting up, don’t let them sag.
Windmills
60min
I know you’ve all been DYING to watch these windmills that I promised at the beginning of this week.
This video isn’t perfect, which in a philosophical perspective is impossible anyways so while my earnest attempt at using accountability to internet people as a motivator did significantly boost my performance in windmills, I could have planned it out a little better. I have a kind of before/after, here:
I gave up on caring too much about my measurements, they just bounce around too much.
Breakdancing practice:
Warmup
20min
I practice front handsprings as part of my warm-up. Once I can land good ones consistently, I know I’m warmed up enough to do my other business.
Handstand hops
50min
Landed some. Getting better.
Jump to baby freeze
20min
Getting better, not as challenging mentally with head falling to the ground.
Overhead press
5x95
5x110
9x120 - This is the PR I got on 18,1 - the day before my stomach flu started making me weaker.
DB OHP
5x55s
5x6x50s
Dips
6x+35
8x+15
3x6x+15
Pull-ups
4,3,3 x BW
Breakdancing
Windmills, 60min
Couldn’t hold any decent amount of tension. During the deload I have enough energy to lift, then turn out some solid breakdancing practice. But now I’m back to going (relatively) heavy, and I just don’t have the energy left after lifting to hold the tension I need to keep the right technique on these. It ended up being a wasted hour of time since every set involved slow, buckling, bent-ass windmills.
So, I’ll put that carb intake to 350g/day and see what happens there.
Warmup
30min
Spent more time than usual on front handsprings, I want to get them consistent.
Forearm headspin
100min
best: 3/2
Took an hour to get used the movement. I will practice these more frequently to prevent wasting time relearning the move.
Windmills
40min
Sweep legs strongly for more power. Power lets me move more quickly and have better form. I might have gotten some no-stab windmills today - I tried a couple sets going as fast as I could and then just “jumping” off my back and skipping the re-stab. It might not be as hard as I thought it would be.
Smith BB hold
18sec, 7sec, 10sec
265 lbs of gravitational resistance
Squat
5x170
5x195
7x220 - Before getting sick my best was 8x220, just got to keep at it I guess. But I really liked this set - I stayed tense and kept my back straight and didn’t do any of that twisty bendy shit that I do on higher-rep PR sets.
Front squat
6x200
4x6x180
Light squat
7x185
10x165
2x11x165
2x10x165
Damn these were so boring, I seriously felt like sleeping. I mean, the sets were tough, but just so boring damn.
Pull-ups
5-6,4,4 x BW
Breakdancing
Hand hops
15min
It’s official: I got one. My hands cleared the ground and I landed back in a handstand. woo
Bench press
5x110
5x125
14x140 - Beat 13x140(17,2). This is the first actual PR, as in, the best my bench has ever been, PR, since I got sick.
Bent-over row
9x175
2x10x160
9.5x160 - #10 didn’t come all the way up. Stupid of me to push it.
10x150
My form is still loose. However, I keep my back straight, and am actually bent over when I make the pull, and the tension I got in my upper back today is better than it ever was when I was doing them with really crappy form and too much weight.
DB BP
6x70s
6x65s
4x65s
3x6x60s
DB hold, 2 towels, 130s
21sec, 7sec, 10sec
Skilz
Forearm headspin
15min
best: little under 11/8. I don’t think it’s too important that I get a new PR headspin every day, what matters is I practice it a bit every day so on Wednesday and Saturday I don’t have to spend an hour re-learning the move.
Windmills
20min
Had some more shots at mills without stabbing, need a video to know where I’m at.
Warmup
25min
Front handsprings: Hold some air in the belly helps make landings more consistent.
Forearm headspin
115min
best: Almost 2 full turns, except by the time I spun that much I had fallen down, so I wouldn’t really call it a PR.
Head to ground, fingers overlap behind head, extend hips while setting up, whip legs around quickly through full ROM. <-helps but still not consistent. Got like 5 good ones out of the whole day, the rest were ~7/8-9/8s. So while that setup helped, I was still like “how the hell did that happen?” after the really good ones.
Windmills
40min
Nothing new to say, tried to get some more no-stab mills but my hip keeps banging the ground with them, and I remember having that problem while learning stabbed mills, and I would like to avoid it.
Handstand hops
15min
Getting more consistent with landing these.
Wall-flip
45min
Too damn scared. All I did was some tries at running up the wall, a couple steps and then land back on my feet. I tried to pitch my head back, even put a basketball behind me to focus on looking at, but no luck. I need a good cushy mat on the ground, or maybe I could bring a mattress to the basketball court. So 45 minutes of getting psyched out. >_<
Numbers all over the place. Meh, with how small I am it could easily just be measuring error. We’ll see how I do with deadlifts tomorrow.
Practice,
Warmup
25min
front handsprings/footwork/easy things as usual, no big deal
Wall-flip
120min
No, didn’t get it. But I did get braver about it by practicing falling flat on my back on some small mats, I figure that will teach me to get my feet out from under me so I can actually flip. I also jumped off the wall and forced my head back to look at the wall behind me. It seems easier if I jump off a higher spot on the wall. I seriously think I was getting close, but I started getting tired so I left. One thing that might help is throwing my arms back after jumping; I completely forgot about that today.
I must say, it’d be easier if I had a 2-foot tall mattress to land on.
Today I realized that avoiding failure is not a license to be a sissy. I still have to push myself, just because I get out of breath and a rep takes a little longer than usual, doesn’t mean I don’t have a little more in me.
Overhead press
3x100
3x115
7x130 - My knees came unlocked going into the seventh rep, but it still beats 6x130(17,3) where I didn’t get a seventh rep at all.
DB OHP
6+1Sx55s - I HAD the seventh rep. I FUCKING HAD IT. Was just about to lock it out when someone came up behind me and pushed my elbows together. Shit.
8x50s
6x50s
7x50s
2x6x50s
Dips
8x+40
8x+30
6x+30
5x+30:F - Spent, like, 5 seconds trying to get the sixth rep. D:
7x+20
Pull-ups
6,4,4 x BW
Breakdancing
Windmills
50min
Tired. When in doubt, focus on landing on back properly and the rest will fall together just fine, although they won’t be the fastest mills. Some guy challenged me to a battle for fun and then gave me a small bag of cookies.
Today was a little shorter than usual. Which was a shame, since I got out of school early and was looking forward to practicing for five hours straight with a friend of mine. Even brought along some extra food to stay carbed up. But something came up so I had to leave, and I didn’t get to have that excuse to knock down that bag of cookies from yesterday.
Was a good practice though, learned a good bit about my moves and performed well. Better than going in for three hours and coming out beat up and feeling like crap.
The cookies are still in my room if anyone wants them. PM mailing address, we can cut a deal.
Warmup
20min
Fhsprings: Start with shoulders and elbows bent, then at the top of the motion, pause for just an instant and push the shoulders against the ground. Very consistently solid landings.
FA headspin
70min
best: >7/4(PR)
Don’t start spinning until the legs have been fully whipped around. Relax the hips when legs make contact to get a little extra range of motion for more spin. Once the legs spin all the way around, release the tension like a spring and spin spin spin. Consistently got well over full turns, and much more smoothly too.
Windmills
50min
Good sets. Got a video of quicker mills (starts halfway through the video). It turns out that what I thought were “no-stab” mills was just spending less time on my front. shrug
Well shit. The first snow of the winter has come, and it’s serious. All branches of the YMCA near me are closed, and it’s too slippery to drive safely anyways. So squats are waiting until tomorrow…
Breakdancing
Forearm headspin
45min
best: 7/4
Whip legs around through full range of motion, don’t move until they’re all the way around. More good ones, but still getting too many full-turn-plops. Might just be fatigue, oh well. Still met my PR so far for this move, which is pretty good for after a squat workout.
Bench press
3x115
3x135
10x150 - Matches the PR from 17,3, the week before I got sick.
Bent-over row
10x175 (PR since I started using technique that actually resembles a bent-over row)
3x10x160
7x160
DB BP
7x70s (PR)
2x6x65s
5x65s
7x60s
6x60s
DB hold, 2 towels, 130s
10sec, 5sec, 25sec (PR)
Bunch of small assistance PRs, nothing amazing
Breakdancing
Windmills, 30min
Keep at it, getting faster and cleaner
Hand hops, 5min
Got one, which is alright for only five minutes.
I spend too much time practicing moves I already pretty much know how to do. I mean, of course it would be nice to get more rotations from my headspins or perfect my windmill technique, but I have to start increasing my repertoire of moves, too, or before I’ll know it it’ll be next year and I’ll still just be that guy at the gym that does windmills a couple times a week in the racquetball court.
I’ll start learning 1990s again, or maybe experiment with some kinda flip move.