I've been doing a lot of handstand holds on my off days and it is a lot of fun. Doing things like trying to accumulate 5 minutes in a handstand against a wall will have you feeling it the next day. This past week I tried doing some partial handstand pushups and was amazed at how much range I had. I was ablt to come down about 6 inches from the ground. I am going to keep greasing the groove on these in hopes that I can get to a full handstand push (against a wall)by Christmas. I think this is a goal for a lot of us and here is a plan to get there. This is intended to be approached as skill work on days off. There are certainly more aggressive ways to get a handstand push up but so far this has worked for me and kept it fun, relaxed and injury free.
1. Get comfortable kicking up into a handstand against a wall. 2 weeks 2. Hold the handstand for time building up to 1-2 minutes. 4 weeks. 3. Do 5-7 sets of handstand holds of 30s-1min. Rest a couple minutes between sets and stop once you have accumulated 3-5 minutes. 2 weeks. 4. GTG on partial handstand push ups (put something soft under you in case you biff it) Do multiple sets of 5 reps through out the day on your rest days. Increase ROM as you feel fit until you reach a full handstand pushup. 1-3 months. (depending on how big of a guy you are).
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I helped the fam move last week and I have to tell you, I felt strong. Sometimes we get distracted by the gym and lose focus on why we are in the gym in the first place. For most people it is so we can be healthy and function efficiently outside the gym in the real world. I was lifting heavy boxes, squatting, deadlifting and push pressing all day long. I just felt rock solid and it built my confidence in why I work out. I work out so I can do shit. Years ago I used to run all day long and I thought I was fit. Now I can still run all day long if needed but am much stronger and much more explosive. It's all thanks to lifting heavy weights, climbing movements and sprinting/jumping. I can do more work now. I am a more functional human. People need to understand that cardiovascular fitness is only one piece of the puzzle. You need stamina, strength, balance, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility and accuracy as well. And these aspects need to be trained. All day long I see clients at my gym donig 45 minutes of cardio and they have a tire around their belly and have a hard time jumping onto a 12" box. Gone are the days of constant cardio and low fat diets. Now is the time of functional movement, smart training and ancestral/unprocessed foods.
Who would you pick to help you move your couch? My knee and achilles have been bothering me for a couple months now. It all happened when I did too many double unders followed by a little weirdness while front squatting. My calves tightened up and now anytime I squat heavy I wake up the following with achilles pain and a bit of knee junk. I took last week off and have committed to doing just bodyweight movement for one month at least in hopes that it will rehab me a smidge. I have also been wanting to devote more time to gymnastics type stuff so this will allow for that too. I talk to Dan aka "Kalosthenos" from The Bar Union pretty frequently and he has also been an inspiration on this journey...that guy is a beast! The program I will be doing is from Zach Evan Esch of Underground Strength Nation and it's legit. Currenlty I am at 15 pull ups, 1 weak ass excuse for a muscle up, 25 push ups and I can hold a handstand against a wall for 1 minute. I am hoping to get 20 pull ups (overhand grip), 50 push ups and a headstand push up by this time next month. If I do it will be a very merry christmas for me. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Thanksgiving is soon and I just finished making a couple pies. One pecan and one cranberry(secret family recipe). Anyways I am going to post another quote I heard from Art Devany. It was something along the lines of "exercise is not meant to burn calories. Exercise is meant to fundamentally change your metabolism." "Exercise creates physiologic headroom." I like the fist one because so many people are worried about burning off calories. They eat a slice of cheesecake and follow it with a comment like, "guess I'll be on the elliptical for an extra 30 minutes tomorrow!" Proper exercise stimulates the release of hormones that increase lean muscle mass and burn fat. Sprinting, lifting heavy weights and walking/light running constitute proper exercise. If your diet is right that is all you need. 3-4 sessions of sprints and weightlifting with some slow walking on the side. Sprinting increases endurance as well as it trains the anaerobic and aerobic systems, see tabata and wingate sprints. See CrossFit Endurance for more on that.
I'm not sure what the point is of this post is other that TRAIN SMART. It is quickly becoming common knowledge that it is better to go real fast and real slow and stay out of the real medium place when it comes to fitness. Man I have been busy and still am so I am just going to post a quote from a paper I just read by Art Devany. He agrees that routine is the enemy. Here it is:
"Activities are spaced randomly according to a power law distribution which not only fits the hunter-gather activity rhythms but also virtually every process in a healthy human being---healthy heart beats, brain waves, cellular ion channel pulses, and the coordination dynamics of movement all have the distinctive signature of self-similarity and power law variation. It is when these patterns show too much regularity that organization and coordination break down; for example, epileptics show too much, not too little, regularity in their brain waves. Heart attacks are the result of too much regularity in contractions that leads to a loss of coordination and seizure." check out the rest of the article here : http://www.arthurdevany.com/categories/20091026 As I watched the 800 meter finals I again took notice of how rigid the torso of the winner, Rudisha was. When I compared it with Nick Simmons there was a large difference. I should say that these are both great runners and I was rooting for Simmons but when looking at his for I always feel like there is a tightness to him, he runs in a less fluid manner than Rusisha. In the final turn of the race the runners gave it all they got and started pumping their arms HARD. This got me to thinking. If you are lacking in shoulder extention and internal rotation, might that inhibit you keeping a stable midline on your arm back swing? If you lack that flexibility your shoulder may very well bring your torso with you and break that tightness we strive for. Here is a mobility WOD from Kelly Starrett to work on your internal rotation, He relates it to the dip but I think it can improve your sprinting/running as well. First video is explanation and second video it the stretch. Check it don't wreck it. Cheers. Today I just worked on handstands and other various hand balancing for about an hour. I had my longest handstand hold yet and my longest walk as well. I can really see as I continue to practice this skill I get better and better. More practice = more prowess in skill...who would have thought!!
The same goes for running folks so practice those running drills. Every time you run, EVERY TIME!!! Do it, or else. Just going out and running 5K is not practice, you need to reinforce the correct movement patterns frequently with drill that are designed to do just Oh man I could not believe my eyes when I saw it! He was a sure shot to win and due to a recent rule change you get disqualified if you false start. My heart goes out to him. Congrats to Yohan Blake. In watching the Track Championships I noticed two things. 1. great runners get to full hip extension when their foot is in contact with the ground. 2. great runners have rock solid midline stability. If you sit at your job do the couch stretch compliments of Kelly Starrett to work on getting that hip extension that is so important in ALL athletics. Also take a look at the video from Brian Mackenzie, founder of CrossFit Endurance and see how a press can fit into your running routine. BELLY TIGHT!! So I have been lagging on the blog. I stopped doing GOMAD since I took some time off and haven't been lifting heavy. I am still holding steady at 171 so that's great. My workout today was:
5 rounds for time of 20 Double Unders 20 Wall Balls (20#) It took me 15:40. I suck at double unders so that's what slowed me down the most. I have not spent a lot of time trying to get them down and have a hard time stringing them together. I usually do one double under followed by a single then a double under and so on and so forth. Tomorrow morning I am going to wake up bright and early and CrossFit at 6:30 am. The WOD is 4 rounds for time: 30 DUs 10 Deadlifts 185/115 Yay more Double Unders! I will probably do 115 or even 100 for the Deadlifts since the last time I did it I injured my back. I feel healthy but I am going to keep it light. Even at 115 that is 4600 lbs of deadlifting and I got injured deadlifting a volume of 4305. That 4305 was at a weight of 205 though. So my question is, will higher volume at lower intensity hurt my back? I don't think so. It is kind of like a sprinter pulling a hammie in the 100m. Will a light 400m reinjure them after the heal? No. Nonetheless, I will do some research just to make sure and let you know. Last week was very busy. I had a few interviews and was buying a car. I feel healthy and commit to not being an idiot whilst deadlifting in the future.
Today my workout was: 3 rounds: 1 min Double Unders 1 min pull ups 1 min lunges 1 min box jump 24" 1 min push ups 1 min rest |
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