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Newest update

Last week I had trouble getting anything to test well so I've mostly abandoned the 40 day concept and am just going with what feels right and tests well. Generally just having fun with it. Last week I had a day of nothing but BB MP and BB curls. I haven't done curls since my mullet days, with the exception of plate curls and gripbell curls. But intuition struck me and it tested well. Had another day that chest expanders tested well when nothing else would. I'm still sticking with general principles of a hip hinge movement, a squatting move, pressing and pulling. I test a couple of these first each time. I try to find two opposing moves if I can, such as goblet squat and chins the other day or conventional DL and BB MP yesterday. I go until they stop testing well or I feel I've had enough, whichever comes first. I then typically test a swing or snatch, perform 20-50 reps using the above principles. If I still can get a good testing response I throw in some fun stuff like bending or grip work. I must say this new strategy is very liberating. I train 4-5 days per week, sometimes continous.
Hopefully my Gym Movement DVD will arrive today, it's been over a week and a half now. Though I'm getting a grasp on this I still have a bunch of questions.

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.

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

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.

My experience with Biofeedback

So for the past 2-3 weeks I've been using biofeedback with my training. I'm still following the Op Radiant Dawn program to get me pressing the 32kg bell. This is based on video posts started by Adam T. Glass. Be sure to check out his site for full details but here's the quick and dirty - test a range of motion, perform and exercise, retest. If it got better then that move is beneficial to your nervous system. If you only perform exercises that are best for you, then you will get the most efficient results with your training.
So I've learned a few things. Weights that are too heavy for me to complete a rep still tested well. This doesn't mean I stuck with that weight, just interested that it was still "good" for me. When a particular weight tested poorly I did not continue to bang out sloppy reps, I lowered the weight, retested and continued if it tested well. Sometimes, but not that often I had to veer off course and mix up exercises to find one that worked for me, that day. Some days I was actually able to add a few fun exercises such as gripbell curls or leverage block curls or some Iso's on horseshoes.
This past week I've even taken it to the point of testing my movement prep. Surprisingly more than a few times even the basic Z health R phase drills tested poorly. Now I'm no expert, just following some high payoff areas from the the DVD. On the other hand the FMS corrective stuff tests well 95% of the time. This is not intended to reflect badly on Z health, and as I said, I have had very little instruction with a certified Z trainer. Just stating what worked for me.
This week I also attempted to test maxing out my sets and the few times I tried it actually ended up not even getting to numbers that tested well in previous weeks. To clarify, I would stop sets before if they tested poorly, but if the day called for 5 sets I would stop there. Now I'm trying to see if I can perform 6-7 sets and still test well.
I trained strength on monday and tues. this week. Yesterday wanted to do a little bit of a cardio type session. Swings tested poorly, rope jumping tested poorly, box steps tested poorly. At that point I settled for testing some corrective drills. Naked get-ups tested well. Don't get too excited, naked meaning bodyweight. Did several of the Kalos Sthenos varieties. Half kneeling lift, leg lock bridging, prone bow stretch. Pretty much everything focused in hip flexor/ hip extension issues. My left side is lacking. So just a little moving was all I needed yesterday.

Over half way done

Two weeks of Op Radiant Dawn are completed. And half way through the 3rd week. Feeling pretty good, my muscles are tired the next day but not sore and I'm able to perform well each day. This week I've gone up in weight on stacked pressing and LPP.
Also got my VFF, it's a very interesting experience. I've been wearing them with the Injinji socks and they are ok but much more comfortable without socks but that's just too cold this time of year. I've been wearing Sanuk shoes for over 2 years now and they have very flexible sole and not much padding or support but they don't even compare to how my feet feel in the VFF. It's like barefoot but better. In the Sanuk's I still have a tendency to heel strike but not in the VFF. Just this week I added a pair of SoleMates to them, these are adhesive pads that correct for Rothsbart foot which is what the PCI's do. Instead of attaching them to the ball of my foot I stuck them to the inside of my VFF and hopefully will get a lot of use out of them.