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.

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!

I scream, you scream

we all scream for ice cream makers. . .


I've fallen off the weighted pull-ups program. Actually, I haven't done weighted anything for a while it seems. I think it's the summer heat. I have no interest. I didn't lose my taste for bodyweight exercises though. I'm still doing headstands and handstands. I'm running. And on the pull-up bar, I've been doing these ice cream makers, but not as quickly as in the video. I go for slower reps and try to hold the horizontal position for a beat. Check 'em out.