Sat, 11/28/2009 - Squats, Bench, Get-ups

Stress: moderate
Diet: decent
Sleep: lots

My wrist mobility is back 100% in the left hand, but it's feeling weak. Will try to rest the muscles a bit more this week.

Workout (2hrs):
Jump rope warm-up.
Backsquat: RPE7.5
- 5x5: 135-205-235-235-235lbs
Bench Press: RPE9
- 2x5, 135lbs
- 6x3: 185-185-205-205-215-220
KB/BB Get-ups: RPE9
- Light on left side with 24kg KB, heavy BB on right side. See notes.
Accessory:
- Bent Over Rows: 3x6, 2x32kg
- Curls and JM Presses: 3x6, 95lbs

Notes:
- Squats were easy. Finally figured out how to keep the knees out by keeping tension in them both down and up.
- Benching was good with the glutes, feet and lats, but my elbows were wobbly. That's where all the difficulty came from.
- With the get-ups, I did a 24kg KB each side, then continued to do 24kg KB singles on the left after working through a 32kg KB, 95lb BB, 105lb BB, 115lb BB, and 125lb BB on the right side. Tried a 135lb BB on the right, but missed it. Then went for a 165lb on the right, but couldn't get it set up well and never left the floor. The barbell was feeling wild today. A lot of twisting, a lot of shifting, and a lot of tilting. Not sure what was up with it. Doing them on the concrete driveway was also no fun. It's rough scraping on the left knee.

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Thurs, 11/26/2009 & Fri, 11/27/2009

Slept a lot both days. Ate a lot both days. Eating included a lot of turkey, a lot of sweet potatoes, and a lot of chocolate. Pretty relaxing over all. On Thursday, I slacklined for about 45 minutes outside. Practiced kneeling some more - getting good at that. Still iffy at walking. I'm far from doing a side plank or going from kneeling to sitting on the line.

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Mon, 11/23/2009 - Wed, 11/25/2009

Catching up on a few days of logging.

Monday and Tuesday were both Gymkana days, 2 and 1.5hrs, respectively. Worked on handstands both days, getting holds in the 6-10 second range with about 30-50% accuracy now, with missed attempts just being minor misplacements. It's good stuff. On Monday, I spent a good deal of time also doing wall handstands and variations for practice. Then worked on the rings for a while, solidifying the dip to shoulderstand. Paired up with Colleen for some balancing and we got the heel-stretch on one shoulder, standing on the floor, unspotted. That was pretty sweet. Practice paid off. Ended the practice with some ab and V-sit work. Turns out that I'm oddly close to getting the V-sit, so I might go for it now. That night, I had pretty crappy sleep (duration-wise), but nothing too bad. Got to practice, then did hanstands, as I said before, and spent some time working on chairs. In large part, I was working on dip->shoulderstand->elbow lever, something I'd normally do on rings, but simply in a way that'd help me get used to chairs. Commenting a day after these practices, I can say that those two days of dip->shoulderstand work left me with some serious chest soreness in the morning, even though there's no actual pressing invovled in it (just an isometric pushing). Didn't do any rings work. Did work on progressions for flips on the DMT. Had a crappy diet when I got home. Not much time to eat, so all I had were my eggs for the day, and some milk. Less than 1500 cals, I'd estimate.

Had to lift Wednesday morning, because of going home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Wasn't feeling my best after the bad diet the day before, even though sleep was pretty good overnight. Started with reverse candlestick presses, working up to (24+12)kg kettlebells. That was some wobbly stuff. Then squatted 3x5, 230lbs, as planned. Maybe an RPE8. Not too grueling. Need to contract the glutes on the way down though, or I won't keep the knees out on the way up. Progressing slow and steady, as planned. Approaching my PR of a sloppy 1x5, 250lbs. Did three get-ups on each side with a 32kg KB, since that's all I felt was necessary for the day. Just greasing the movement. Warmed up the deadlift, and tried doing another max set with 315lbs, since that didn't seem to mess with my (weakened, injured) grip like heavy singles did, but that didn't work out as planned. The bar wasn't heavy, but my connection was weak. Felt very tempted to pull with the arms, a sign of the grip being weak. This left wrist is really screwing with me. There's only any weirdness in a few select movements now (rehab has been helping), but it's still damn weak compared to what it used to be, though I don't have any concrete comparisons, unfortunately. If I can't deadlift, I might just go back to Zerchers, bringing me full circle to where I ended in September. Spent about 2.5 months trying to progress from heavy Zerchers to heavy deads, but it seems to have flopped. Oh well. I've got plenty of 2.5 month training periods ahead of me. About 250 of 'em. So, one lost is no biggie in the big picture. I'm slowly figuring this stuff out.

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Sun, 11/22/2009 - Slackline and Gymkana

Stress: low
Diet: good
Sleep: 8

Had some free time today, so I slacklined for a full hour on the 14' gap. I'm getting pretty good at walking, but still no good at transferring slowly from a one-foot balance to two-foot, to the other foot. I can also now stand and lunge to one knee 8-10 times in a row, or lunge, drop the back foot to the ankle, and then pop up again to standing once or twice in a row. Also did some pistol-type work on there. I'm not that far from it, but it'll take some more left-right control at the bottom of the squat. Lastly, while holding onto a branch, I began to practice doing leaps, while standing in place. It takes a lot of drive to get off the line - I'll need to set the line higher in the future to get me farther off the ground while at the bottom of the descent before the launch.

Need to start working on side-plank type things.

Gymkana (2hrs):
- Warmed up, worked on handstands. Went pretty well. Need to hollow harder.
- Practiced wall HS->EL's.
- Gave my rings routine one shot. Went okay, but not as well as last Wednesday. The biggest issue was that my elbows largely missed the stab in the lever. The back lever also could have been half a second longer, but everything else was good.
- Worked on dips to shoulderstand on the p-bars then on rings. Got it a few times on rings, but it was sloppy. Eventually tired out too much for the muscle-ups. Hah.
- Worked on partner balancing with Colleen. Getting pretty stable with the heel-stretch on one shoulder now. At the very least, I never drop her while she's up there, which is a good start for safety, even if she can't always get a solid hold on the pose. With atleast the no-drop ability, we may be ready to go for the floor soon, rather than beside pit mats.

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Sat, 11/21/2009 - Presses, Squats, Get-ups

Stress: low
Diet: decent
Sleep: 8 | 0 | 1.5

Workout (1.5hrs):
- Started this one off some reverse candlestick presses using a 32kg KB. It seems that as the weight gets heavier, the forward presses are no longer doable, since the center of mass shifts too far behind the head. Maybe if the arms are also shifted in that direction, it could work, but I'm not sure.
- Decided to try maxing my press today, simply because I found myself talking about it with a friend recently. Used a 2" axle for these, since I like the way it sits in the rack position better - more comfortable on the wrists. Worked up to doing 165lbs for an easy single. Tried for 176lbs a few times, but couldn't get it. Then dropped down to 169.4, but it was still a no-go, of course, since I was tired (though I did managed to press it to forehead level). So, I tied a PR I set back in the summer, though using an axle this time, and with no overhead pressing in the past several weeks. I'm pretty happy with it. Didn't feel like I had done much by this point though, so I went for max reps with 132lbs for a single set. Got 8 - pretty nice.
- Backsquated, no box, up to 230lbs for a 3x5. Felt different without the box, but in a good way. Had some very minor knee caving without it though. Really need to focus on fixing that. Back arch was good (recorded the sets) even though it felt like I was rounding severely, since I used to overarch my squats.
- Did 10 get-ups on each side with an upside-down 16kg KB. Keeping it light on the left wrist and trying to find the source of some technique issues that cropped up. Having to balance the weight perfectly helps with that. It seems I'm relying on the internal rotation of the free hand in the first part of the get-up, to help me to get to sitting. I'm not sure how that'll pan out in the long haul. Need to maintain constant pressure with the weight bearing foot, particularly on right handed get-ups. Need to tuck the free hand in closer to the hip before going to the lunge for either side, or I spread out too far, and cause the weight to drift and have a sloppy step up to standing.
- Ended with some curls, and then light sledgehammer work for the wrist and rice bag finger extensions and wrist circles. For the sledge, I was grabbing it maybe 2.5 inches from the head of the hammer (hardly any torque), then doing wrist tilting in the plane of the palm. It was very difficult on the left side, which is why it needs work.

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Fri, 11/20/2009 - Rest & Slackline

Stress: low
Diet: decent
Sleep: 9

Just slacklined for about an hour or so. Actually spent most of the time trying to find a better place to put the line. When the city cut down one of the trees I used, the nearest other object (a phone pole) extended the line by about eight feet (more it looked like) which is too much. For that distance, I can hardly even put enough tension in such a long line with only 4 carabiners for pulleys. (In theory, increasing the length of the line shouldn't make a difference, because that would make the line's spring constant drop, but I figure there's already enough stretch in the line by the time it gets difficult that it's reaching it's limit and so Hooke's law would no longer hold.) Fortunately, after clearing some brush and dead branches, I was able to use a different 14 foot gap, though that's shorter than I'd like.

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Thurs, 11/20/2009 - Slackline & Rest

Stress: low
Diet: good
Sleep: 6 | 1.5 | 0.5

Just slacklined for a little while today. No idea how long it was, but wasn't much since it started to rain.

Back is sore. Not surprising.

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