Go with the flow!

[Lost Dog]

Espi, just know that you don't have to go all the way down for the suitcase deadlift. At least if you're using a db. Just go as far as you can, taking mind of your back.

It's common to suggest that you prop your heals on a plate for hack squats, too. It really helps.

[Espi]

Just wondering.. considering the difficulty I have with renegade rows, shouldn't I just start with the plank? It really looks very similar except that you keep the elbows on the ground instead of extending the arms.
Likewise I'm not doing the T-pushups yet, but do the simpler normal pushups. As long as I still can't do more than 10 regular pushups there's no reason to do a T-pushup, right?

[galya]

I let clients progress to renegade rows after they can do 2 minutes of the front plank and then 20 reps of the renegade rows without the weights.

[Espi]

Thanks.. I started with 30 seconds of the plank, that was with counting. Next time I'll take my stop watch.

[Espi]

Saturday March 24
Triple Anti-KISS – 3 week 4
all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC (NROL) STRETCHING
1 walking lunge with UB twist (5 each side)
2 lateral lunge with opposite hand reach & touch (10 each side)
3 ball bridge /Russian twist (10 each side)

BODY WEIGHT EXERCISES
A1 pushup
BWx 7

A2/B5 pull-up
BWx 2/1-1


WAVE LOADING
A3 Romanian DL
WU: 47,5 x 10
Wave 1 – 2
57,5x8 – 60x8
62,5x7 – 65x7
67,5x6 – 70x6 (last week: 67,5x6)

MEDIUM
A4 good morning
40x14-10 (last week: 37,5x13)

B4 bent over row
47,5x10
45x13 (last week: 45x13)

A5 pull through
13,8x22-19 (last week: 13,8x13-15)

B5 pull up
See A2

A6 plank
Held plank position for 30 counts

Will be training on improving with the plank position first and then back again to renegade rows.

PUMP EXERCISE
A8 single leg extension
12x22/22
B8 single leg curl
12x22/22

When starting with the leg extension, 12 kg felt so ridiculously light that I decided to do it with just one leg. Managed 22 reps both sides, which was hard.
Leg curls were not easy to do for the left leg as the right leg was an obstacle. Wonder whether anyone else tried these single-leg curls before.

ODD EXERCISES
A4 Deadlift Walks

This one is part of Chad Waterbury’s Next Big Three program, but it makes a cool stand-alone exercise as well.

First move the hooks or barbell supports to the front (outside) of a squat cage or power rack. They should be set up just below your knees. A couple of blocks will work, too. Now load up the bar with about 65% of your raw deadlift max and place it in front of the power rack about two full steps away from the supports. Take a shoulder-width stance and use a pronated grip (both palms facing you).

Deadlift the weight as you normally would, then take two steps forward, reset your stance and place the bar on the uprights, hooks or blocks. Release all muscular tension, re-lift the weight, take two steps backwards, reset your stance and lower the weight again. That’s one rep! Without resting, repeat for the desired number of reps. You may then go to the corner and throw up.



45x10 – 5 – 5 – 3

Oops, obviously I hadn’t read the explanation well enough. I’d already done 3 sets of 10-5-5 reps until I realized that the instructions called for just 1 single DL rep each and having you walk back and forth every single time. So, when I finally got that message, I was already too exhausted to do more than 3 reps. After all 7 RDL sets plus 3 deadlift walks is enough to wear out anyone, even with piddly weights of only 45 kg.

I had to be very inventive here as our gym doesn’t have racks. I used 2 benches which had to be placed really close together while using the shorter barbell. Couldn’t use the longer one as I’d have poked the guy next to me in the stomach.

Opinion: positive, but will have to try this one another time again, since being fully exhausted wasn’t helping here.


General
Still marvelling over the tons of extra time I have for casual lifting now I’ve dropped so many exercises. Feels good and comfortable. Also.. makes me feel strong!

Training statistics
Volume: 10032kg
# of sets: 27 - # of reps 235 - avg reps/set : 8,7 (7,6 w/o the pump sets) - kg/rep 42,7 kg

[Espi]

Yesterday I did my 2nd Body Pump class ever and things went better than anticipated.

There are several problems though:
- tempo doesn't allow for proper form, so people do only quarter squats and half ranges for DL
- which retard ever invented doing a combination of bent over rows (which I can do with 70kg max) and clean+press in 1 track?? Militaries are compound movements for the shoulders! I got hurt the first time I tried bodypump and had to walk out of the class 2 years ago. Now I was warned in advance and only took a piddly weight of 3,75kg for each side but I felt that I was wasting my time on the rows just in order to be able to do the presses.


In general, I wonder what people's thoughts are on BodyPump classes. Did a search for them but nobody ever seems to do them. Yet, they are immensely popular all over the world it seems. Not by true fitness enthousiasts?

[UConnJulie]

Glad you are enjoying your new program ... how's the body feeling?

[Espi]

After body pump you mean?

My neck got hurt somewhat because of bad form for abdominal crunches..nexst time I'll have to look up, not towards my feet.

Apart from that, shoulders hurt a bit because I never do that many reps for them in order to save myself from injury.
As for real DOMS, only triceps are felt, mostly because I did 2 sets of REAL pushups (not on the knees)

[UConnJulie]

No I just meant in general ... before when your workout volume was so much more including the cardio, you were having all sorts of problems with paresthesia and pain ... just wondering if that has changed since you swapped your program around?

[Espi]

paresthesia, got to look that one up.

I'm feeling tons better without cardio in my program. At first it felt weird, but I'm finally realizing that the intense cardio program held me back big time.
Held me back because I was continuously too exhausted. Since I was always doing it, I couldn't feel the difference until I didn't work out for 3 weeks on end and finally discovered that I wasn't gaining a ton of weight, contrary to what I always experienced before.

So the only thing I'm missing out on now is the major adrenalin rush from the cardio. Slowly that addiction is subsiding.

In a way I'm hoping that doing this new pump class will give me a bit of the same feeling.

Apart from being able to be more productive at home , I'm also having the distinct impression i might even be able to put on a tidbit of muscle during the cut. A bit unbelievable, but it just might happen because there's now less energy going to cardio and I'm never cutting on workout days, but instead eating at or over maintenance. So, who knows I might finally see some LBM gains?

Ah, wikipedia. It's the tingling fingers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paresthesia

Chronic condition
Chronic paresthesia indicates a problem with the functioning of nerve cells, or neurons. This malfunction, which is especially common in older individuals, is often the result of poor circulation in the limbs (such as in peripheral vascular disease), or may be caused by atherosclerosis—the build up of plaque on artery walls. Without a proper supply of blood and nutrients, nerve cells can no longer adequately send signals to the brain. Because of this, paresthesia is also a symptom of vitamin deficiency and malnutrition, as well as metabolic disorders like diabetes and hypothyroidism, and hypoparathyroidsim.

Irritation to the nerve can also come from inflammation to the surrounding tissue. Joint conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome are common sources of paresthesia.

Another cause of paresthesia, however, may be direct damage to the nerves themselves, or neuropathy, which can stem from injury or infection such as Lyme disease, or which may be indicative of a current neurological disorder. Chronic paresthesia can sometimes be symptomatic of serious conditions, such as a transient ischemic attack, a brain tumor, motor neurone disease, or autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis or lupus erythematosus. A diagnostic evaluation by a doctor is necessary to rule these out.

Paresthesiae of the mouth, hands, and feet are common, transient symptoms of the related conditions of hyperventilation syndrome and panic attacks.

Other known causes of paresthesia (aside from pressure on the affected area):

Alcoholism
Anticonvulsant drugs such as topiramate, sulthiame, and acetazolamide
Dehydration
Fabry disease
Fibromyalgia
Heavy metals
Hyperventilation
Lidocaine poisoning
Migraines
Multiple sclerosis
Radiation poisoning
Withdrawal from certain SSRIs, such as Paroxetine
Vitamin B12 deficiency
Immune deficiency, such as Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP)
Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS)
Obdormition

[UConnJulie]

Sorry! I forget that some of the terms I use daily are not in common language ... I just meant the pins and needles/tingling/numbness that you were having ...

[Espi]

They've not bothered me too much for the past few weeks, only when I had 2 low days in a row it came back in a mild form. Apparently it had a lot to do with both dieting and the intense cardio+lifting I was doing. Let's knock on wood.

[ljk]

body pump is quite lame. your opinions on it are valid.

[Espi]

Perhaps not lame, but not really a decent enough workout. Yet, I want to continue doing it as it's an endurance type of workout that comes closest to the cardio sessions I've been doing.
I could look into EDT as a more controlled way of metabolic workouts.

The tally of injuries from 1 body pump session is now:
- neck from craning it too much during crunches (my stupid fault!)
- wrists , but only slightly, could be unrelated, but if it is related.. going to failure = improper form
- rib cage, probably from the side-way crunches which were new for me, though I've been doing wood chops.. I'm not big on ab exercises, considering that I don't believe in spot reduction and think it's almost a waste of time.. at least thought so, but having a strong core is probably a good idea

[Espi]

Tuesday March 27
TRAINING Triple Anti-KISS – 3 week 5
all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC (NROL) STRETCHING
1 walking lunge with UB twist (5 each side)
2 lateral lunge with opposite hand reach & touch (10 each side)
3 ball bridge /Russian twist (10 each side)
4 lame (knee) pushups , still tired (8 reps)

WAVE LOADING
A1 Yates Row
WU: 42,5 x 10
Wave 1 – 2
52,5 x 7– 55x7
57,5 x 6 –60x 5
62,5x 5 – 65x 4(last week 62,5x2 ; then it was not the ‘opening’ lift)
Seems that I’ve been pushing myself a bit too much already in the first wave. Better to keep back a bit.

MEDIUM
A2 incline db press
30 x9
28x9 (last week (28x10)

B2 EZ curl
20x 8
17,5x13 (last week: 20x9-6)

ODD EXERCISES
Wrong Way" Pull Over
This movement was "discovered" by doing dumbbell pullovers the wrong way. With traditional pullovers, the lifter attempts to keep the arms relatively straight, but if he bends the elbows and keeps them fixed, he'll get one heck of a triceps exercise!

Lie on a flat bench and hold one dumbbell with both hands. The elbows should be pointed behind your head and the upper arms should remain relatively fixed throughout the movement. Lower the dumbbell into an extreme stretch position, pause, then bring it back up and squeeze your triceps for two seconds at the top. Given that the arms are kept at an angle, tension remains on the triceps for the entire movement. The end result is that the movement is much more effective than traditional seated dumbbell extensions.

Go heavy with this one and shoot for four to six reps per set.



9x 6 – 7

Ouch.. with the slight pain from doing oblique crunches on Sunday, this really felt like ripping apart my rib cage. Only a 9kg db was hard. Only thing I had a problem with is knowing how far up to raise the db. Above the face or keep the arm extended backwards all the time.

Opinion: positive, feels more effective than a regular pullover. If I want to do those again, I’ll definitely do them this way.

A7 Reverse Incline Hammer Curl

Take an incline bench and adjust it so that it's at a 60 to 70-degree angle. Then, after grabbing a pair of dumbbells, sit backward on the bench so that your chest is leaning against the bench. Let the dumbbells hang straight down, and using a hammer grip, curl both dumbbells up so that they touch your shoulders.

This is a cool movement for a variety of reasons. First of all, it's impossible to use body English on them. Secondly, it makes it really difficult to recruit the front deltoids, which allows for a more "pure" biceps movement. It also allows you to draw the elbows back a bit as you curl the weights up, which helps recruit the long head of the biceps, which seems to be underdeveloped in most bodybuilders. And lastly — and this is subtle — it forces you to straighten the arm out completely. Most lifters have some sort of a Popeye syndrome where they almost never fully extend their arms, but by doing this movement — straightening the arm out completely — it may actually feel like the elbow is hyperextended.


(2x6)x14
(2x7)x11

Apart from the funny way you sit, a good exercise Feels better than a normal hammer curl, even with less weight.

Opinion:neutral-positive. Too much isolation work to my liking, but if you must do a hammer curl, this is a good alternative.


General
Was a bit bothered by the small pains in the rib cage and afraid to hurt the already overworked shoulders and abs, so skipped both these exercises. Otherwise , good workout. So NOT tired at the end, but feeling strong.

Training statistics
Rep index: 192 reps/hr (45min)
Volume: 4784kg
# of sets: 19 - # of reps 144 - avg reps/set : 7,6 - kg/rep 33,2 kg

[Espi]

Tuesday March 27
TRAINING Triple Anti-KISS – 3 week 5
all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC (NROL) STRETCHING
1 walking lunge with UB twist (5 each side)
2 lateral lunge with opposite hand reach & touch (10 each side)
3 ball bridge /Russian twist (10 each side)
4 lame (knee) pushups , still tired (8 reps)

WAVE LOADING
A1 Yates Row
WU: 42,5 x 10
Wave 1 – 2
52,5 x 7– 55x7
57,5 x 6 –60x 5
62,5x 5 – 65x 4(last week 62,5x2 ; then it was not the ‘opening’ lift)
Seems that I’ve been pushing myself a bit too much already in the first wave. Better to keep back a bit.

MEDIUM
A2 incline db press
30 x9
28x9 (last week (28x10)

B2 EZ curl
20x 8
17,5x13 (last w