Monday, May 7, 2012

tuck planche

My progress towards the Planche/Maltese on the floor was stalled by my inability to hold a tuck planche.  I would get intense cramping in my abs, specifically the top left bump of the six-pack.  It looked like a hard-boiled egg was implanted subcutaneously, and man did it hurt.  I encountered no such pain nor cramping when doing roll-outs, front lever progressions, or any other ab exercise.  It then occurred to me that some pretty taxing ab exercise usually preceded my tuck planche attempts.  Aha!  A thought bubble formed above my head.  Forget the intense warm-up, just do the tuck planches.  And so I did.

5-7-12
- single db C&P (2x5x5, 24 kgs)
- tuck planche holds (6x10 secs)

On Mondays I like to do squat cleans, but the thought of hoisting the 2 db's was unappealing today.  I grabbed a single db and performed alternating sets of 5 reps at a fast pace.  Before you knew it 50 reps had flown by, and I was breathing hard.  The tuck planches weren't so onerous by themselves.  How far away are advanced tuck and straddle planches I wonder.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

more db squat cleans

Yes, I am back. . . not that I had ever left.  It's just that I have been working on the db squat cleans, HSPU and advanced tuck front lever rows with very limited progress.  Just to refresh your memory, the HSPU and the advanced tuck, front lever body rows are laying the ground work for the one armed pull-up and human flag.  The db squat cleans are for general strength and conditioning.

When I reported here last, I was doing sets with 100 lbs.  I have since added a little weight to the db's (104).  Just 2 days ago I completed 50 reps, resting one minute for every minute of work.  I averaged 5 reps per set.  Today, I tried to go for 6 reps per set and burnt out at 24 reps.  Any more and I would have strained a muscle, I'm sure.  It was tremendously difficult to get my breathing under control during the rest periods.  Oh man.  I think I'll build a bigger base of work capacity at 5 reps per set.

5-3-12
-advanced tuck, front lever rows (3x20)
-HSPU (3x10, 3x10 sec bent arm handstand hold)
-db squat cleans (4x6, 104 lbs)