Weekly Progress Report: 2012-05-15
What a weekend. Such great weather!
Challenge #6: Straddle Press to handstand
Planche work still does me no good these days, but I think working presses is where I need to focus to get closer to the goal. As handstand push-ups get easier, it will allow me to start progressions on actual press-to-handstands, which is the biggest part of the full motion.
Challenge #10: Iron Cross
Muscle-up progress is still looking good. What felt well recently was to Read more
Weekly Progress Report: 2012-05-06
Almost a week back from vacation! My first (except holidays) in pretty much 5 years! A lot of shenanigans happened with my fellow classmates, and it was nice to press the reset button, mentally and physically.
Now I’m back to business with my last semester to go and many other projects this summer. It’s gonna rock, let me assure you.
On with the challenges.
Challenge #6: Straddle press to handstand
Tuck planche holds starting to feel good again. I’ve also been working handstand and pike push-ups regularly in the last few weeks; progress is being made.
Challenge #8: Iron Cross Read more
Weekly Progress Report: 2012-04-16
Hiyaz! Most of my exams are done (1 left!) so I finally have some minutes to write this up.
Challenge #6: Straddle Press to Handstand
Moar presses on the handstand push-up!
I tested less planche positions in the last moth or two, but recently Read more
Weekly Progress Report: 2012-04-02
End of term, quick update, no time, blah blah blah.
Challenge #8: Iron Cross
Intensity PR on the Muscle-Up! I was able to use the -50lbs deloading band for the first time this week. Here’s me doing 2 of them:
I started exploring my options to improve my keeping close to the bar as I come up. It turns out I have the flexibility, but lacking the strength to pull while closer. As I’m working up the load, I’ll also be working smaller movements with the bigger band (-75lbs) to increase strength in weaker areas of the muscle-up.
Varia
The technical constraint I was talking about in my previous report, was that this website’s server went down. Since I had no control over it and/or contact information, I realized I was really vulnerable to that kind of event. Of course I make regular backups, but it still had been a while.
Now I have transferred the site over a hosting service with which I have full management control, and paying for my own account. Uptime should be pretty decent in the future.
Weekly Progress Report: 2012-03-25
This is gonna be a quick report; it was intended for last Sunday, but time and technical constraints made it come out later. But here it finally comes.
Challenge #8: Iron cross
Recently, I started practicing the full Muscle-up movement using deload bands (and wondered at why I hadn’t thought of it before). I started off at 2 or 3 and I’m already at around 7-8 for a set; it’s getting easier.
Filming myself, I think the most important point to work on for more efficiency, is to try to keep closer to the bar, so as to eliminate the superfluous back-and-forth movement away from it. For some reason though, so far it has seemed more natural for me to do the movement like this, despite attempts at aiming my head to cross the bar at the top. I shall analyze further why that is the case.
Challenge #10: The Picletters
Hey I guess I’m on a spree these days. Last week I went to Chicago for work; those pictures were taken really fast, on the spot as we had very little time to visit downtown. As a side comment, Read more
Weekly Progress Report: 2011-11-13
Hope you’re having a good weekend! Mine is all about schoolwork. And even then, I wish I had more time for it.
Challenge #6: Straddle Press to Handstand
Added another second to my Tuck Planche. Not the best stability on this one, but I do feel progressively more secure on the position.
I think however that I should test/practice it more often. This doesn’t take a big toll on my body, it’s really just about building the strength to hold it. It should allow me to add the seconds more quickly.
Challenge #8: The Iron Cross
I have never gotten this close to a full muscle-up: Read more
Weekly Progress Report: 2011-10-10
Challenge #6: Straddle Press to Handstand
So like I mentioned last time, since I’ve succeeded on my Tiger Bend goal, I’m now moving forward to practicing my kick-ups.
When I get my Elbow Planche down, I will practice freestanding handstands. As it happens, I’m pretty sure that by then, it’ll turn out to be fairly easy. All hail progressions! But let’s not claim victory before it happens. Not mentioning that after that’s there will still be quite a bit of work to do.
Challenge #8: Iron Cross
Weekly Progress Report: 2011-09-21
Making progress on the challenges has proven to be ah… challenge, in the last few weeks, as school has begun again and I needed to adjust to my new schedule, fitting in work, and yadda yadda. Moreover, the Dragonboat season was ending and much work and practice was done for the last competition, which occurred in the past weekend. Not one to completely fall for such petty changes, I have still have some progress to show and new elements I’ve been working on. As I mentioned in a previous post, I find that keeping my focus on no more than two or three challenges at one time will prove the most efficient to handle.
Challenge #6: The Straddle Press to Handstand
Handstand progression (#8) and other Training Shenanigans
Within the last year, my training has been directed a lot towards general weightlifting strength, endurance and ability. Some of my favorite progressions:
- 1 rep max Deadlift: 275 lbs to 375 lbs in 4 months;
- Power Clean & Jerk : 135 lbs up to 195 lbs 1RM in 6 months;
- Clean & Jerk : Ditto;
- Push Press : 12 642 lbs to 61 305 lbs in Volume (200+ reps @ 115 lbs in 20 minutes)
- Plate Curl: 25 lbs with each hand
These are among those I’m the most proud of, but they definitely are not the only ones. My PR (Personal Records) log is getting bigger everyday I train, thanks to the beauty and genius that is the Gym Movement Protocol. I’ve been using this protocol regularly for almost a year now, without a single need to switch to something else. I highly recommend you to have a look at it.
In the recent weeks I’ve felt an intrinsic need to alter my focus towards more of my bodyweight goals of strength and ability. The arrival of summertime definitely is part of the factors in this change.
