full body isometric exercise

9-28-11
-200 kb swings
-weighted shiko dachi hold (24 kgs, 1.5 min)

I came up with the weighted shiko dachi a couple of days ago. In the past I had walked around with dumbbells held up by my shoulders in a rack position. It's a great full body isometric exercise, but as I get fatigued, I tended to let the curve of my spine take the weight-not a good thing. Enter the weighted kiba dachi hold. Shiko dachi, for anyone who hasn't taken a karate class, is a wide legged stance where your knees are bent close to parallel, knees and toes are angled outwards. Grab a kettlebell by the horns and draw it up to your chin, hold it close to the body. Assume the shiko dachi position and hold. Don't forget to breathe. After a few seconds, it will be hard to find a muscle group that is not quivering from the effort: pecs, delts, traps, lats rhomboids, abs, erector spinae, glutes, quads. Like Nana's soup, it's all in there.

9-26-11
-weighted pull-ups with off-set negatives (2x5, 3x6, 24 kgs)
-rack hold (2x24 kgs, 2x1 min)
-weighted shiko dachi hold (24 kgs, 1 min)

Clean the db's to your shoulders and walk around for a minute. Rest and repeat. There's your rack hold. I felt like I strained a pec on the weighted off-set negative. Gotta watch that. Maybe more warm-up.

9-24-11
-3hrs of sambo with sambosteve

I have been looking forward to this striking and throwing seminar for weeks. Although the turnout was small, some of the most progressive and influential Kyokushin instructors in the tri-state area were in attendance. My orthopedist would not have been happy to hear what I was doing, but I organized the event. I had to be there. Besides, good buds were signed-up.

For some, throwing and falling were new experiences. I was pretty happy to work on closing-in with a technique Steve called Key 2.

9-23-11
-circular pull-ups (8x10)

Pull-up Project:
660 bw
121 weighted (24 kgs)
25 weighted (26.5 kgs)
25 weighted (25.2 kgs)
44 weighted (40.8 kgs)
40 weighted (42 kgs)

single-arm db clean and press

I seem to have tweaked something in my knee the other day when I was doing my db clean workout, so for now I'll stick to single-arm db exercises. Yesterday I gave the knees a rest and did weighted pull-ups with off-set negatives. As I mentioned before, I would give these a go before trying weighted circular pull-ups. Off-set negs are challenging with 24 kgs on the dip belt.

9-20-11
-weighted pull-ups with off-set negatives (5x5, 24 kgs)

9-21-11
-10 minutes of single-arm, db c&p (24 kgs, 60 reps)

Pressing continues to bother my left wrist. The smart thing would be to stop.

---------------------
Pull-up Project:
580 bw
93 weighted (24 kgs)
25 weighted (26.5 kgs)
25 weighted (25.2 kgs)
44 weighted (40.8 kgs)
40 weighted (42 kgs)

New thoughts on the pull-up project

9-19-11
-hang-power cleans (6x10)
-roll-outs (5x10)

If I were limited to one workout this might be it, just 10 minutes.

9-18-11
-weighted chin-ups (40.8 kgs)

I struggled a bit trying to hang on more plates to the dip belt. It just got too unwieldy. I decided to back off the weight just a little and go for doubles instead of singles. Seven sets of doubles felt tougher than ten sets of singles.

9-16-11
-100 goblet squats
-circular pull-ups (7x10)

Circular pull-ups are not to be underestimated. I wonder if instead of going to heavier, conventional weighted pull-ups to achieve the OACU, I instead use moderately weighted circular pull-ups. Hmmnn. Better to start with weighted, off-set negs.


---------------------
Pull-up Project:
580 bw
68 weighted (24 kgs)
25 weighted (26.5 kgs)
25 weighted (25.2 kgs)
44 weighted (40.8 kgs)
40 weighted (42 kgs)

Recovery

So the orthopedist says that my MCL tear is healing well. I'm not to do anything but keep the knees parallel. That means no Sambo for at least 2 months, and then no contact for a little while longer. Argh!

9-14-11
-200 kb swings

9-13-11
-5x5 weighted chin-ups (26.5 kgs)
-5x10 db hang power cleans
-5x10 kneeling ab roll-outs

I haven't done hang power cleans in a while. I remember how they helped out my wrist when I injured it years ago. I'm putting the hang power cleans back in rotation. Maybe they'll work the same magic on my wrist. The pull-up project proceeds steadily.

9-10-11
-4x10 db hang power cleans
-4x10 kneeling ab-roll-outs

How many sets of hang power cleans and ab-roll outs can I do in 10 minutes? The sad answer was only 4. The next time, 5. I think up to 8 is doable.

---------------------
Pull-up Project:
510 bw
68 weighted (24 kgs)
25 weighted (26.5 kgs)
25 weighted (25.2 kgs)
30 weighted (40.8 kgs)
40 weighted (42 kgs)

goblet squats and my knee

As long as my knee is restricted to just hinging forwards and backwards the MCL tear doesn't seem to balk. A jolt to the side will remind me that things aren't normal, but otherwise, things seem normal.

9-8-11
-200 kb swings

Nothing new here, but it is pleasing to note an absence of pain.

9-9-11
-circular pull-ups (5x10)
-100 goblet squats

OK, so I increased the number of circular pull-ups by 10. If you don't usually feel your lats working when you do regular pull-ups, the circular variety will remind you how integral they are to pulling. I was feeling good at the 50 rep mark, so pushed on until I completed 100 goblet squats with my 24 kgs kettlebell. To perform the goblet squat, grasp the KB by the horns and hold at about chin height. You'll have to brace as well as squeeze the bell to keep it in position. The end result is a nice isometric upper body workout along with your squat. Nifty, huh?

---------------------
Pull-up Project:
510 bw
68 weighted (24 kgs)
25 weighted (25.2 kgs)
30 weighted (40.8 kgs)
40 weighted (42 kgs)

Haywire

Gina Carano would kick my butt, at least in the guise of Mallory Kane, a black ops killing machine in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire, due January 2012. I caught this trailer (click title) in the theater over the weekend and was hooked. With Soderbergh directing and a cast that includes Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, and Gina Carrano, this movie promises to pack a bigger punch than Colombiana (Luc besson and Zoe Saldana) which was good entertainment in my book.

9-7-11
-2x10 pushpress, 2x10 overhead press
-50 goblet squats
-20x1 weighted pull-up (42 kgs)

---------------------
PUP:
460 bw
68 weighted (24 kgs)
25 weighted (25.2 kgs)
30 weighted (40.8 kgs)
40 weighted (42 kgs)

Beyond the MCL tear

Today I tested my injured knee by doing some goblet squats with my 24 kgs kettlebell. I know from the swings that as long as my knees tracked over my feet there would be no pain, and there wasn't. I didn't go ass to grass on the squats, but just below parallel was doable.

9-05-11
-100 kb swings
-50 goblet squats
-2x30 secs kneeling roll-out holds

9-04-11
-200 kb swings
-4x10 circular pull-ups

Circular pull-ups are the next step beyond off-set negatives as they comprise an off-set concentric pull-up with the eccentric off-set negative. Your body essentially traces a circle parallel to the plane of the pull-up bar. I had planned on doing 100 of these, as they were "only" bodyweight, but I underestimated how difficult the off-set concentrics turned out to be.

---------------------
PUP:
460 bw
68 weighted (24 kgs)
25 weighted (25.2 kgs)
30 weighted (40.8 kgs)
20 weighted (42 kgs)

File under pull-ups

The Pull-up project is looking like this: a body weight pull-up day; a moderately weighted, pull-up day; a heavy, weighted pull-up day. This week, I increased the weight of both weighted pull-ups by 1.25 kgs; the smallest weight plate I've got.

9-2-11
-200 kb swings
-5x5 weighted pull-ups (25.2 kgs)

---------------------
PUP:
420 bw
68 weighted (24 kgs)
25 weighted (25.2 kgs)
30 weighted (40.8 kgs)
20 weighted (42 kgs)