Shoulder Pain

Yesterday morning I felt a little twinge of pain in my shoulder. It was as if a tendon got hung-up or was tracking incorrectly. There was no pain if I kept my arm still, but if I moved it a certain way it clicked and felt as if my arm would pop out of the shoulder socket. Your shoulder shouldn't hurt when you're just windmilling your arms- no load, just your arm tracing gentle arcs in the air. Argh.

Anyway, I'd thought about how the pull-ups, HSPU and push presses are probably stressing out all those little muscles in the shoulder. I broke out a small rubber ball, placed it between a wall and my deltoids, and rolled. The medial and anterior aspect of the deltoids seemed to be where the hotspots were. After about 5 minutes of rolling, I gave my arms a spin and presto, no clicking, sticking or pain.

1-27-12
-10 mins shoulder mobility with the sledgehammer
-10 mins skipping rope

1-26-12
-28 tuck front lever body rows
-2x3x2 assisted OACU (doubles with 1 finger assist), 2x3x10 sec assisted one arm isos
-HSPU 4x(8+10 sec bent arm hold)
-100 kb swings
-100 goblet squats
-10 min skipping rope

1-25-12
-10 mins rope skipping
-ab kneeling (eccentric) to standing (concentric) roll-outs, 2x10

Exercise to beat stress

If you're reading this, you probably already know that exercise helps you deal with stress. I've been trying to convince my wife and older daughter of this with limited success until today. Usually, I get the"I'm too busy for exercise," brush-off. The stars aligned for me today and I got my wife and daughter to skip rope: 1000's turns for me and the kid; 500 turns for the Mrs. It's a start.

1-22-12
-26 front tuck lever body rows
-rope skipping
-straight arm isometrics on the Akro Wheels

My younger daughter didn't take part in the rope skipping, but I give her props for working on pull-up progressions. Boo-yah!

west and wewaxation at wast

I caught a bug mid December. It started in my sinus, I developed a cough, and I got tired, so tired that I lost motivation to work out. At first I worried that I'd lose whatever progress I'd been making in the search for the OACU and Maltese progressions, but as the bug persisted I surrendered to it. I went to bed early, and woke up much later when I could.

Yesterday
-8x10 DB HPC

Today
-40 sec bent arm hang
-8 weighted pull-ups (24kgs)
-assisted OACU (1 finger) 2x4x(1+5 sec holds)
-inverted pike push-ups 2x(15+15 sec bent arm hold)
-5x10 db front squats

The db front squats were crying out for 100 reps (10x10), but my back was crying out louder for me to stop. I stopped.

OACU is so close

All righty then. The One Armed Chin-Up (OACU) is so close, one finger away. I'd spent so much time with weighted chin-up progressions that eventually I found the 100 or so pounds dangling off the dip belt unwieldy. I also feared damaging the door frame from which I hung the chin-up bars. With the switch to off-set, bodyweight only chin-ups and now assisted, one arm isometrics, I am nearly there. Two days ago I pulled a single one-armed chin-up with the assistance of one finger of the free hand, and held on for 10 seconds of bent-arm isometrics. Today, three sets of of the same on each hand followed by 2x3x5 one armed chin-ups (with three finger assist).

12-7-11
-24 tuck lever body row
-20 HSPU (no pike!) + 30 sec bent arm hold
-2x3x(1+ 10 sec hold) assisted OACU
-50 burpees
-pseudo Maltese hold 2x25 secs

I've stalled a little bit on the Maltese progressions. The OACU and handstands distracted me from doing the straight arm isometrics I think are essential to the Maltese. Once I get the OACU suitable for YouTube, the Maltese will have my undivided attention.

A word on the tuck lever rows-intense. I didn't think the tuck lever body row worked my abs so much until I tried tuck planches afterwards. Tuck lever rows followed by tuck planches is a recipe for severe abdominal cramping. The first time I got the cramps, I got one goose-egg shaped knot in my gut. Yesterday, after 23 tuck lever rows, the tuck planches set-off a half dozen goose-egg shaped knots in my gut that doubled me over.

Assisted, single-arm-bent-arm hang (ASABAH)

The Assisted (with two fingers), Single-Arm, Bent Arm Hang-try saying that ten times- is the latest evolution of my OACU training. I've got one of my Rock Rings mounted on the bar for the two finger assist. Pull-up with one arm (with assistance) then hold for 10 seconds. No negatives at this point, so put your feet down and stand between reps.

12-2-11
-20 tuck lever rows (close grip today)
-11 inverted pike push-ups
-6x10 sec tuck planche
-bent arm, dip hold (2x30 secs)
-2x6x(1+10 sec hold) ASABAH

rethinking the OACU

I've often advised those seeking to increase their pull-up performance to use bent arm hangs and negatives. The strategy worked for me in getting from 10 bodyweight pull-ups to 20. Ironically, in my attempt at the OACU, I've completely forgotten this advice. Instead, I've pursued a path of increasing resistance with weighted and assisted one armed work and it seems to be taking forever. Back to square one.

What I'm going to do is work towards a one armed bent arm hang, then the one armed negative and see how it goes from there. A one armed bent arm hang is just outside my grasp, so I supplemented my purchase on the bar with two fingers of the free hand. This is what I did today.

11-30-11
-20 advanced tuck lever rows
-2x5x6 single-arm db C&P (back is still wonky)
-2x6x10 second, assisted one arm bent arm hang (2 finger assist)

TFCC interim report

In case you were wondering, I was, how long the treatment phase is, it's 8-12 weeks ( checked to make sure). Yup, I've got to wear the brace a bit longer. What I can report up to now is that it no longer hurts to do simple things like wash my face or grasp a frying pan. On the weight bearing test, however, I am still not at 100%, more like 80%, and it's still a struggle closing the COC grip trainer on the affected side.

I haven't been sitting on my hands all this time, as you know. I'm still working out, but activities like Sambo and Karate have been discontinued, at least while the wrist is recuperating. Whether I continue with them after recovery is the big question. Don't they say doing the same thing over and over again, in my case fighting, but expecting a different outcome, not getting injured, is a mark of stupidity?

Anyway, my daily workouts over the past week have consisted of 20 tuck lever body rows on the pull-up bar followed by elevated pike push-ups. The pike push-ups are an intermediate step towards handstand push-ups (HSPU). A good base with HSPU's will help in attaining the Maltese (and flag). I've done HSPU's and handstand holds before the wrist injury. The torn TFCC requires this intermediate step. To get into the elevated pike position, I stand a leg's distance from a wall, rest my feet against the wall and assume an inverted pike. Usually I'll do 5x5, with a 10 second bent arm hold after each set. So far, so good. No wrist pain. Yesterday, I used push-up handles to increase the range of motion.

The day after Thanksgiving I did a short workout comprising burpees and tuck-lever body rows: 5x10 of each. It was one of the few times, (second?), since tearing the MCL that I did burpees. I don't know what I was afraid of. I've been doing lots of squats, cleans, swings and rowing anyway.