Rollouts

Just thought I'd post my roll out progressions. Last July I posted a question on Ross Enamaits forum about how to progress into the full rollout. It took months of work to get there and I got some good advice that actually helped too:


http://www.rosstraining.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32155


I used the following strength exercises:

Superman pushups
Bodyweight triceps extensions (see NG)
Rotational core workouts
Dead lifts (the back is important)

And the following progressions:

Get past 30+ reps kneeling rollouts
One arm kneeling rollouts
Rollout to wall, inching back each time

It takes time, but you have to stick at it. My next agenda is the muscle up which is coming along nicely. But heres how my rollouts are doing at the moment. Not perfect, I need to get lower and extend the arms more, but that will all come with time. Once I hit 30+ reps standing rollouts I guess it'd be time to add some weight or try the one arm rollouts :mozilla_oops:

Off Loading

I cut the weight by 15% today from my previous best. I performed the workout as normal except pushed for more reps to get the same fatigue I would from the heavier weight. It seems to work quite nicely and I felt an overall sense of fatigue at the end of the session.

In the afternoon I tried something new. I did some very light weight work for time. This involved performing extremely slow (almost isometric) reps mixed with fast reps and half reps working individual muscle groups over the period of half an hour. My shoulders and legs burned like mad with lactic acid build up and I felt a sense of relief at the end (not had that for a while), so all in all a good session.

Friday - 20 Feb 2009

I did a slightly lighter loading on my strength workout in the morning. I was able to bang out many more reps with the load which is a significant improvement when I started on the same load 4 weeks ago.

In the afternoon I was determined to get my arse back in shape on the cardio front. I gave the ICT 1 workout a try from Ross Enamaits Never Gymless. Attempted this once before, but this time it was dismal. However, my disappointment led me into a 700 metre run and 1500 metre interval sprint on the ConceptII. My PB on the rower is 1:27 over 500 metres with a maximum drag factor. Now I can barely manage 1:40 with a DF of 7, so I have some work to do to get back what I have lost. I will persevere and aim to beat my PB!

Next week will be a pure off-loading week, so much lighter weights and sees the return of some beaut routines from Never Gymless. The ConceptII is going to be a big part of my workouts over the next few weeks, its great for getting cardio improvements very quickly.

Strength - 17 Feb 2009

This morning I continued my strength training. This week I have experimented slightly by doing my strength workout after my conditioning workout the day before to see what the affects are. I have to say I noticed a decrease in overall strength performance, not able to lift my usual mass. Bench was maximum of 97.5 kg @ 3 reps. A reduction by 1 rep and I had to drop the weight on subsequent sets. Chin-up was restricted to a mere 20kg and I really struggled with my 45kg dips.

Next week I will extend the experiment by hitting strength on Monday and doing two days of conditioning followed by a day of rest and finishing with a strength on Friday. This should give me plenty of time to recover from Monday.

The idea of the experiment is to find the optimal days to perform strength and conditioning routines in a 5 day period (only get access to gym equipment Monday - Friday). So in that five day period I have to cram in rest and strength in such a way that the strength gains are not forgotten by the following week and that I am not still fatigued from the previous strength workout. Thus far I have been following a simple 2 day routine:

Monday - Strength
Tuesday - Condition
Weds - Rest (swim, sauna).
Thursday - Strength
Friday - Condition

The problem with this is that Thursday sees a drop in strength, while the Monday recovers what was lost on the Thursday after the weekend rest period. Ironically, it seems the optimal period for rest is three days between strength. But fit that in around a 5 day rotation and things get a little awkward.

Conditioning - 16 Feb 2009

Yesterday afternoon I extended my conditioning workout from the morning. I warmed up for 2 mins with the rope, ran 600 metres at 13kph and began my 100 burpee pullup attempt littered with some wheel rollouts. I did 20 burpee pullups with a set of 4-5 rollouts between each block. I eventually gave in at 90 BP's, just 10 short of the 100 I was aiming for, but considering my awful workout this morning, I am quite happy with the result. Will keep persevering...

Unmagical 50

Gave this a go this morning. My attempt was absolutely miserable. Firstly I was a bit too ambitious with the weight (using a 28kg dumbbell). This caused my legs to fatigue extremely quickly and resulted in my taking stupidly longer and longer rest breaks between sets. In all the 5 sets took over 15 mins (of which I chopped some out for the sake of youtube), so a shameful effort. But I will come back on Thursday with a brand new attempt using a slightly lighter weight this time. Doh!

Was it rest?

This week I blasted my bench press personal best with a 97.5 kg @ 4 reps max. Prior to this I have only managed 95 kg @ 3 reps max. I was expecting to be weaker since I was ill last week and took the entire week off from any exercise. But the rest appears to have given me greater gains in the week that followed. I also bettered my muscle up progression on an assisted pull-up machine. Basically 10 kg of assist subtracted from my body weight (85 kg) ~ 75 kg. Though its better. I managed 4 sets @ 4 reps this week but previously have only managed 4 sets @ 3 reps with an assist of 12 kg (73 kg). And no I haven't got lighter ;-)

With this in mind I plan to experiment by moving my strength workout after my cardio and taking a day of rest immediately after my strength workout. I hope this will bring some more positive results...

I had a go at some squats on a smith machine (bad for form I know but no alternative unfortunately). I managed 4 sets @ 5 reps of 140 kg. Thats the most I have ever lifted on there, but still felt there was room for more. I will give it another go next week with an additional 20 kg. After that there isn't any weight to add, might have to start hanging paint tins from the bar or something :-D

Trudging the snow

I had to get out this morning to get some supplies. Speaking to the neighbours I realised taking the car was a no go, so I walked the 4 mile round trip to the super market to get the basics. But if you have ever seen Dumb n' Dumber, you'll know that I bought more than just the basics. Figuring they would have some sledges on sale I could use to drag the shopping back, I thought it would be quite fun. However, sledges were sold out so I had to walk back carrying the carrier bags; that combined with the deep snow was actually hard work. But along the way I managed to capture some interesting shots of the nearby river and of a snow plough.

Snow again

It snowed again last night and is still snowing as I type. There was as much last night as on Monday with our garden covered by about 5 inches of snow. As for training, I am still sniveling with this stinking cold, so nothing to report on that front. I probably won't resume training until Monday next week at the earliest.

Cold

Well today is going to be an abandoned day. What with the weather outside and the fact I am suffering from a cold, smashing any prospects of training today. I have some footage of my attempted journey to work to share, which I might add was hell frozen over. It took an hour to drive just 14 miles, then the same coming back when I finally gave up and turned around.

Weighted Dips - A personal milestone

Yesterday I had a go at increasing the weight I was using on my dips. I strapped on two twenty kilo plates and gave it a shot. I surprised myself somewhat and actually cranked out about six fairly decent reps. At the moment I am aiming for between three and four reps on all of my workouts during strength training sessions. This should hopefully maximise on my "maximal strength" gains and minimise on "endurance strength" gains (endurance is something I train for seperately).

New blog

This is just a post to introduce my new training blog. Here I will post some interesting articles about training related topics and provide an insight into my own training. I hope you will find the information informative and enjoyable to read.

Craig.