I had an easy workout on Friday and played around with the tylergrips.
Tried using them for DB bench press and hated it. The weights just did not feel right in my hands. 1-Arm rows are much better suited for using the grips. 75 lbs felt like a whole lot more and really gave my hands a good workout.
Then I tried some reverse grip push downs on the cable station and they didn't really feel right either. Using the straight bar I just couldn't get my wrists into a position that was very comfortable.
I threw in a few sets of face pulls, then some cardio and ab work and called it a day.
I think from now on I was reserve the tylergrips for pulling movements. Rows, shrugs, pulldowns, etc...
I had an easy workout on Friday and played around with the tylergrips.
Tried using them for DB bench press and hated it. The weights just did not feel right in my hands. 1-Arm rows are much better suited for using the grips. 75 lbs felt like a whole lot more and really gave my hands a good workout.
Then I tried some reverse grip push downs on the cable station and they didn't really feel right either. Using the straight bar I just couldn't get my wrists into a position that was very comfortable.
I threw in a few sets of face pulls, then some cardio and ab work and called it a day.
I think from now on I was reserve the tylergrips for pulling movements. Rows, shrugs, pulldowns, etc...
Tonight is my next o-lifting session!
tylergrips are fun... Doing holds at the end of the wrokout you'll see a big improvement in grip strength
Power Cleanfrom knees into full front squat
worked up to 60kg x 5 x 3 sets
Power Snatchfrom knees w/ OH squat after catch
20kg x 5
45kg x 5
40kg x 5 x 3 sets
Clean Pull
50kg x 6
60kg x 6
70kg x 6 x 3 sets
Front Squat
90kg x 6
100kg x 6
125kg x 6 x 3 sets
Superset OH Press
40kg x 8 x 3 sets
Plyos
Jump from small box onto the floor and immediately up to high box
6 x 3 sets
Core Work
Alternating Jacknife x 20 w/ 5kg med ball
Crunch situp pyramid. 1 crunch, 1 situp, 2 crunches, 1 situp, up to 10 crunches w/ 5kg med ball
Crunches w/ legs straight up x 20 w/ 5kg med ball
Knee extensions x 20
He told me that my technique is already starting to improve. I'm learning to stay forward more and shrug earlier. Dropping into a full squat for the cleans actually feels more natural to me. I find it easier to either drop to a full squat or not dip at all, there is no in between for me.
Snatches were a little off and I felt like I wasn't getting enough speed and pressing the weight up at the top.
Front squats felt solid. Great workout overall!
No work with the tylergrips today. Sorry to disappoint you honey.
What's with all this interest in improving one's "grip" anyway? Teehee...
Improving our grip can be good for them
__________________ It all starts with the mind, but the thoughts, the intention aren't enough. Action needs to come next. Dream it, believe it, plan it, execute it, celebrate it. - Wendy
I really need to put together a routine that I can do on my non olympic lifting days because right now I'm really confused when I walk in the gym.
I did a few sets of OH squats just to try to get myself more used to the OH bar position. Then I did some DB bench press, worked up to 2 sets of 6 with 100's. Next some face pulls, working up to sets of 10 with 100 lbs. I threw in a few sets of triceps pushdowns and cable curls.
Last was 15 minutes of intervals on the elliptical.
You can do all sorts of accessory lifts, do stuff from the hang... 2 days out of the week I'm stuck in the ghetto gym with NO oly equipment at all. If you look at my weekday lifting, especially early on in the log, you might have an idea or two you could liberate.
Since it seems to be the cool thing to do these days, it's time for me to put up a few pics and some measurements. Ok, maybe it was my wife nagging me because she did it.
Just catching up on things, I didnt realise you were such a big unit, your damn hyooge
and the oly lifts look like a lot of fun, there seem to be some good numbers in there for just starting out. nice work
You can do all sorts of accessory lifts, do stuff from the hang... 2 days out of the week I'm stuck in the ghetto gym with NO oly equipment at all. If you look at my weekday lifting, especially early on in the log, you might have an idea or two you could liberate.
Thanks Tina. I'll take a look. Or maybe I should just ask my new coach to give me some suggestions. That would probably make the most sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MindPower
Just catching up on things, I didnt realise you were such a big unit, your damn hyooge
and the oly lifts look like a lot of fun, there seem to be some good numbers in there for just starting out. nice work
Thanks. The oly lifts are a lot of fun and just as addictive as Tina and Jill lead me to believe.
And thanks for using the term "big unit" in my log, leaving me wide open for another round of jokes.
She had us doing planks, holding them, going down slowly into a full pushup and coming back up and holding some more.
Lots of moving with very little rest in between, lunging in one dirction, pivoting back to center, then pivoting the other way for more lunges. We went back and forth a number of times. I even did a forearm stand at the end. Forearm Stand – Pincha Mayurasana
We were against a wall for balance but I managed to stay upright on my own for a little while. This was one of the more challenging classes I have taken so far.
Split Jerk
Practice with just the bar to get used to the movement.
5 sets of 5
Back Squat
100kg x 8
130kg x 6
140kg (75% 1RM) x 3 x 5 sets
Romanian Deadlift
115kg x 6 x 4 sets
Last we did some core work. 2 rounds of the following.
Jackknives with 6kg medicine ball and large ball held between my feet. - x 20
Russian Twists with 6kg medecine ball x 20
Crunch/situp combo. 1 crunch, 1 situp, 2 crunches, 1 situp, 3 crunches, 1 situp, etc... Made it all the way to 10 this time.
I don't know what this one was called. Plank position with forearms on ball, then extend arms out and pull back in x 10, then hold the starting position and move arms in circular motion x 10 in each direction.
This was a tough workout and squats felt heavy tonight. I'm used to doing squats first in my workout and all of those cleans really took it out of me.
Thanks Jill. I'm getting there, and having fun doing it! When he loads up the bar with 300lbs 45 minutes into the workout and says that I need to do 3 sets of 5 I just want to run away, but I know what I need to do.
I wanted to try something different tonight and work on my conditioning so I tried some of the body weight complexes from Power Training.
First round was explosive pushups (or at least they were supposed to be) followed by jump squats. 10 reps of pushups, 10 squats, 9 pushups, 9 squats, all the way down to 1. 10 seconds rest between pairs, down to 5 reps, then no rest from there down. Needless to say, it kicked my ass, but in a good way.
Next was an all lower body complex. 12 reps each of the following:
BW squats
BW jump squats
Alternating lunges
Split squat jumps
Superset Neutral Grip Seated Row
80 x 10
120 x 10
150 x 10 x 2 sets
Dips
BW x 10 x 3 sets
OH Squats
45lbs x 10 x 2 sets
I finished with 15 minutes on the elliptical.
I did the OH squats slow with just the bar, really concentrating on getting my arms into the proper position. Again, my arms started to go numb half way through the 2nd set. All the way from my shoulder down my biceps along the top of my forearm and into the tip of my thumb. It feels like I woke up from sleeping on my arm in the wrong position. The feeling gets much less intense shortly after I stop the exercise, but does not completely go away. This is getting really annoying and I hope it gets better with time. I am going to see my ART guy tomorrow, and hopefully he will be able to help me.
I think that adding the BW complexes into my routine is going to go a long way to help with my conditioning. It's amazing what kind of workout you can get in a short amount of time with no equipment at all. There is nothing quite like the burn of super high rep leg work.
Needless to say, it kicked my ass, but in a good way.
Whenever I hear someone say "kick my ass" I think Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records.
Not sure why your arms are falling asleep (mine do all the time too), but I do quite a bit of stretching and warming up the upper body before doing snatches/OH squats. Those are tough.
I do a pretty extensive warmup, but could probably add some more stretching.
I went to see my ART guy today and he thinks that my radial nerve is getting caught up somewhere in my triceps. He gave me a good workover getting deep into my triceps, forearms and did a little work on my subscaps. You gotta love the pain of a good ART session.
He also told me that I should try to do more stretching for my pecs and recommending the doorway stretch 3-4 times a day.
Right now my arm is a little bit sore from the session, but I feel like things are improving. It has kind of gone from a numb feeling to a tingling sensation, like it's slowly waking up again. We'll just have to wait and see how it progresses.
I did 1 round of the BW complex again, this time with 20 reps of each of the following with no rest between exercises.
BW Squat
BW Jump Squat
Alternating lunges
Split squat jumps
Then I did some light cable internal and external rotations, some pulldowns and finished with 20 minutes of intervals on the elliptical.
And here is tonights oly session, from memory again, weigts might be off.
Monday 6/23/08
The usual warmup with the additional of some scapular wall slides.
Power Clean from knees into full front squat
worked up to 65kg x 4 x 3 sets
Clean Pull
50kg x 6
60kg x 6
70kg x 5 x 3 sets
Front Squat
90kg x 8
100kg x 6
125kg x 5 x 3 sets (The last 3 sets were supersetted with the box jumps)
Plyos
Jump onto 36" box x 5 reps x 3 sets
Core Work
Russian twist x 20 w/ 5kg med ball
Plank with forearms on stability ball:
extend and retract arms x 10
circle left x 10
circle right x 10
Cable twists x 20 each side x 40lbs
Tonight was supposed to be a snatch workout, but because of my shoulder/arm issues we changed it up. I also got to work with a physical therapist after my lifting session. He found a lot of tightness in my pecs and shoulders and gave me a really good stretch. I posted more detail about it in another thread if anyone is interested. Numbness after OH squats
I have been reading a lot about Tabata and thought I would see what all the fuss was about and give it a try myself.
For anyone that is not familiar with the Tabata protocol, it is a form of interval training where you work at max capacity for 20 seconds and rest for 10. Repeat 8 times and you are finished in only 4 minutes.
I decided to start with front squats.
Front Squat Tabata protocol
65lbs x 15, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8, 8, 8
Next I tried pulldowns, because doing real pullups in this fashion would not have been possible. I started with 100lbs and got 15 reps, then 12, then my strength really started to drop off and I only got 8. I dropped the weight to 80lbs and got 10 reps for another 2 sets, then dropped the weight again to 70lbs to finish the final 3 rounds with 9 reps each.
I wasn't done yet and thought I would give pushups a try. This was a major failure. I made it only 4 rounds, completing 19, 11, 7, and 5 reps at which point my arms refused to lift my body for another single rep. I need to work on these.
Onto situps which were more successful and I finished the 8 rounds with 15, 14, 13, 10, 8, 8, 8, 8 reps.
Finally I moved onto the rowing machine for one more round. This was an intense 4 minutes and really got my heart pumping.
On my way to the gym I was trying to decide what weight to use for the front squats and was very close to trying 95lbs. I sure am glad that I didn't because it probably would have killed me. These things are not easy. The first round or two may seem like it, but from that point on the heavy breathing starts and your quads start to burn. 10 seconds rest seems like only a fraction of a second and then you are pushing out more reps. In total I did 89 squats in 4 minutes.
I didn't get the same effect from any of the other exercises, but will probably be adding some more tabata work to my routine again.
my favorite is BW squats B2B - that is, take your 10s rest at the bottom position.
Thanks for stopping by Lisa. I read about the B2B squats, but didn't think it was a good idea to try them for my first attempt at Tabata. Sometimes during a regular squat session I'll sit in the bottom position between sets for a little while to help stretch my quads so B2B may actually help prevent my quads from tightening up. Maybe next time.
Thanks. My shoulder is feeling good, but there is still some residual numbness. From what I read, it could take a long time for things to get back to normal after a bad pinch. Between the extra stretching and just getting my body adjusted I think things will work themselves out eventually.
Tonight was yoga and it was probably the most difficult class that I have taken so far, especially after the tabata front squats yesterday. We did lots of holding in a chair squat position and lots of fast movements with very little rest in between. My quads were burning like crazy.
My shoulder gave me no problems and actually felt a little better after the class, even with an inverted L and forearm stand at the end. I considered skipping the class tonight because of my shoulder would, but I actually felt more stable than I usually do.
What other reason could there be? 
Linear Mode
