Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The saga continues

It's been a while since I posted and I have completed my 14th day of training on the 40 day program. A couple weeks ago I took off 4 days in a row, with the exception of bending a SCF ultralite #2 to 180 degrees and rolling a frying in a demo I did for some students. Having that time off I came back strong on Monday, the rest of the week though I backed off a bit, went lighter than usual and focused on movement. This week I'm back to pushing the numbers a bit.
I'm noticing some things with the biofeedback. Initially chins, then pullups tested the best. Now they aren't testing well but 1 arm rows are. I am still testing pretty well with my soft tissue and stretching work but joint mobility is testing well now where as it didn't a few weeks ago. Kalos Sthenos style get-up give me a huge testable increase in ROM.
My DL numbers are climbing significantly and pressing numbers are going up slowly but consistently. I'm also testing well for adding in some grip work or bending at the end of a session.
I'm just barely 1/3 the way through and seeing good changes. I have a feeling things will progress faster for the rest of the program. I'm also noticing an increase in my appetite.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Day 4

I'm now 4 days into the 40 day workout. I've had 3 on 1 off 1 on and scheduled for another day on today. Posterior chain has varied between conventional DL and single leg DL. Pressing has been BB press and ring push ups. Pulls have consistently been chins and kneeling ab wheel roll out have tested well daily. And snatches testing well every day.
In the past I had shied away from stretching and foam rolling because of what I had read from the folks promoting Z health. But since Adam and the folks behind the biofeedback movement challenged me to test everything I've added it back in with very positive results. Warm ups consist of movement prep with primarily FMS drills and a couple sets of light goblet squats. Not the mention the testing itself provides some warm up. Yesterday was able to get in a few shoe iso's and gripbell curls, meaning they tested well.
Goals for the next 6 months:
DL 300+ lbs
MP 32kg kb
Snatch 16kg bell 100 reps in 5 mins
Body comp under 10% - current 14%
and Adonis Index, which is shoulder to hip ratio, to 1.42 - currently 1.36

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Thing a day

Starting the new year I'm starting a new routine. Hopefully this weekend I can get my hands on a bigger bell to test the results of the Radiant Dawn program I finished.
But this week begins an idea from Dan John, the 40 day workout. Very similar to PTTP concept, you perform the same exercises daily at sub-max levels to perfect your movement. I'm doing this with biofeedback so it may not be the exact exercise daily but at least similar movement patterns. The plan is to warm up with some kind of squat movement. Then a posterior chain move such as DL , an upper body push and upper body pull. Then a ballistic ala swing or snatch and wrap it up with an anterior chain like the ab wheel.
Last night goblet squat tested well. Single leg DL beat out conventional and sumo DL. Ring pushups beat BB press and kb push press. Chins trumped pullup and 1 arm row. Snatches tested well at 16 kg and ab wheel kneeling roll outs. Which I've been feeling all day. 1 set of 5 sure beats 200 crunches.
I am going to try to test to see if performing exercises in a certain sequence tests better. Not sure how that will work out but I'll keep you posted.

Today conventional DL, BB press and chins tested best. Squatting as a warmup didn't test well today. First set of DL and chins for reps didn't test as well so I adjusted the amount of tension I was using and both improved on 2nd set. Snatches and swings tested equally well today so I went with snatches. Kneeling ab wheel tested well again today. Finished up both days with frog stretch and it tested well also. My warm-ups usually consist of ASLR and toe touch drills from FMS, Brettzel, etc if they test well and they usually do. I also do some stick work to quads, TFL and ITB and it always tests well. I throw in some joint mobility such as ankle tilts, toe pulls and thoracic AP glide if they test well but they've been all over the place. Some work, some don't , some only work on one side. I've seen several folks saying that static stretching, massage and foam rolling are bad and joint mobility is good but for me, that doesn't seem to be the case. But like Adam says, don't believe anyone because what works for them might not be the best for you. TEST IT before you take someone's word for what's good or bad.