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Well, I've long past the point of exercising just to look good. Going to the gym and pumping weights got boring after a couple of years, so it's time to up the ante.
Here are my training goals:
A) 1-armed pushup with feet closed, hips straight.
B) Stand-to-stand bridging.
C) Perfect pistols
D) 1-armed unsupported handstand pushups
E) 1-armed pull ups with my body perfectly aligned
F) L-sit-to-handstand-to-bridge
G) full directional splits
Okay! That's a lot of work for one man with only a hand full of books to guide him. Let's see where I'm at:
A) 1-armed pushup, feet wide apart, hips moving
B) Wall Walking
C) Pistols; I can go down, and i can come up, but I can't do both. My right leg loses balance, too, even with a weight.
D) I can do a close handstand pushup (supported) or a 30 second unsupported headstand
E) I can do a couple of uneven pull ups. I had to take 3 months of rest for a wrist injury from these. However, I was able to get up to 14 pull ups!
F) I can do a 20 second L-sit
G) Hah! nowhere near close to any type of split
High tension techniques have led to major stiffness in my neck and back. I get headaches and feel weak, even though my body is rearin' to go. I'll have to look up some muscle relaxation techniques to help me out. If anyone has any bright ideas, I'm all 'ears.'
For the next month I'll be doing the following:
Monday: Pistols, Pushups,
Tuesday: Pull Ups, handstands
Wednesday: Bridges, Pushups
Thursday: L-sits and Pistols
Friday: Handstands and Pull ups
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Flexibility
I don't want to be so rigid with my flexibility training that I have a set schedule. I think what will be more effective is to build up a new range of motion and then sustain it afterwards.
It would therefore be more effective if I focused on 2 or 3 new movements and worked to improve them continuously. Here are my chosen movements:
A) Splits & Split Switches because I will be that much farther ahead when I become a gymnastics coach (which is looking like the distant future at the moment)
B) Reverse Cossack will help me will my IT band and the hip discomfort I have as a result
C) Bent Press Stretch will compliment the above by stretching the lower back, the glutes and the hamstrings
Maintenance is much less effort. My thinking is that once I get these movements perfected, I can move on to something else.
This is still tentative. I'm not exactly sure how to mix up flexibility training with strength training. Time will obviously be an issue; i don't want to be spending 3 hours daily working on this. The pushups and pull ups will go pretty fast, since I can't do too many, however they cause some major tension in my upper body, so I'm going to try to couple them with some upper body flexibility drills.
I'm redesigning my routine. I'll list everything here and link it up from the OP.
Monday: Pushups
Tuesday: Squats
Wednesday: Handstands
Thursday: Pull ups
Friday: Lsits
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
So here's my new plan:
1 movement a day during the business week, plus greasing the groove on the missing movement. That means I'll be bridging every day + doing what I listed above.
Here's what the day will look like:
Warm up
-Using a ball to loosen tissues up and resetting the length of shortened muscles
-Primarily in my hip flexors. I do a lot of sitting and I'm almost positive this is affecting my posture, robbing me of gluteal power and negatively impacting my hips. There is a lot of clicking and snapping in my lower lumbar and hip region and I think if I can reset the length here, I'll fix other problems I'm noticing.
-joint work
-2 sets of a lower progression to prepare the musculature
Movement
2 sets max of the highest level of progression in the movement
Stretching
Using the PNF stretch to increase mobility in my hips and legs. I'll be doing:
- Splits
- Split switches
- reverse cossack
- bent press stretch
Truth be told, I have no been stretching as much as I would have liked the last month. Why? Well I put so much time and effort into the movements themselves that I ran out of energy. With this new program, I'm hoping to have some mental focus left over to get some good stretching done. I'll pick one of the 4 and work on it on a daily basis.
My weekends are going to be for rest. I'll do what I can to keep up with the hip flexor stretching and the flexibility training, but my body will need complete days off. We'll see how this goes.
Here are my training goals:
A) 1-armed pushup with feet closed, hips straight.
B) Stand-to-stand bridging.
C) Perfect pistols
D) 1-armed unsupported handstand pushups
E) 1-armed pull ups with my body perfectly aligned
F) L-sit-to-handstand-to-bridge
G) full directional splits
Okay! That's a lot of work for one man with only a hand full of books to guide him. Let's see where I'm at:
A) 1-armed pushup, feet wide apart, hips moving
B) Wall Walking
C) Pistols; I can go down, and i can come up, but I can't do both. My right leg loses balance, too, even with a weight.
D) I can do a close handstand pushup (supported) or a 30 second unsupported headstand
E) I can do a couple of uneven pull ups. I had to take 3 months of rest for a wrist injury from these. However, I was able to get up to 14 pull ups!
F) I can do a 20 second L-sit
G) Hah! nowhere near close to any type of split
High tension techniques have led to major stiffness in my neck and back. I get headaches and feel weak, even though my body is rearin' to go. I'll have to look up some muscle relaxation techniques to help me out. If anyone has any bright ideas, I'm all 'ears.'
For the next month I'll be doing the following:
Monday: Pistols, Pushups,
Tuesday: Pull Ups, handstands
Wednesday: Bridges, Pushups
Thursday: L-sits and Pistols
Friday: Handstands and Pull ups
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Flexibility
I don't want to be so rigid with my flexibility training that I have a set schedule. I think what will be more effective is to build up a new range of motion and then sustain it afterwards.
It would therefore be more effective if I focused on 2 or 3 new movements and worked to improve them continuously. Here are my chosen movements:
A) Splits & Split Switches because I will be that much farther ahead when I become a gymnastics coach (which is looking like the distant future at the moment)
B) Reverse Cossack will help me will my IT band and the hip discomfort I have as a result
C) Bent Press Stretch will compliment the above by stretching the lower back, the glutes and the hamstrings
Maintenance is much less effort. My thinking is that once I get these movements perfected, I can move on to something else.
This is still tentative. I'm not exactly sure how to mix up flexibility training with strength training. Time will obviously be an issue; i don't want to be spending 3 hours daily working on this. The pushups and pull ups will go pretty fast, since I can't do too many, however they cause some major tension in my upper body, so I'm going to try to couple them with some upper body flexibility drills.
I'm redesigning my routine. I'll list everything here and link it up from the OP.
Monday: Pushups
Tuesday: Squats
Wednesday: Handstands
Thursday: Pull ups
Friday: Lsits
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
So here's my new plan:
1 movement a day during the business week, plus greasing the groove on the missing movement. That means I'll be bridging every day + doing what I listed above.
Here's what the day will look like:
Warm up
-Using a ball to loosen tissues up and resetting the length of shortened muscles
-Primarily in my hip flexors. I do a lot of sitting and I'm almost positive this is affecting my posture, robbing me of gluteal power and negatively impacting my hips. There is a lot of clicking and snapping in my lower lumbar and hip region and I think if I can reset the length here, I'll fix other problems I'm noticing.
-joint work
-2 sets of a lower progression to prepare the musculature
Movement
2 sets max of the highest level of progression in the movement
Stretching
Using the PNF stretch to increase mobility in my hips and legs. I'll be doing:
- Splits
- Split switches
- reverse cossack
- bent press stretch
Truth be told, I have no been stretching as much as I would have liked the last month. Why? Well I put so much time and effort into the movements themselves that I ran out of energy. With this new program, I'm hoping to have some mental focus left over to get some good stretching done. I'll pick one of the 4 and work on it on a daily basis.
My weekends are going to be for rest. I'll do what I can to keep up with the hip flexor stretching and the flexibility training, but my body will need complete days off. We'll see how this goes.
Member of the month June 2013
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