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Boneless' Bodyweight Training


Ivarboneless

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I must admit Ivar, with the weighed dips you've done (with people hanging from you), and your handstand push-up abilities... I'm a bit surprised with your benching to be honest. I say this with the upmost respect as you know that's all I have for you and your dedication, so please take no offense. I think in part I'm shocked because even I have done 225x5 on the bench. This might be the only exercise I have lifted more than you... and I suspect not for long as I'm not even training it currently and you're fired up to increase your bench. Do you think there is any particular reason why your bench isn't higher? You're so strong at other BW movements (weighed or not) and gymnastic skills.... or maybe I'm wrong to expect someone with your level of planche training and such, to bench a bit more in relation to their BW? Like I said I ask this with a lot of respect and hoping you don't take it the wrong way!!

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Well, if I can allow myself a 240lb max bench (235lb is the most I've done...never attempted 240) that is 1.5X my 160lb bodyweight. I did a little searching and it seems like 1.5X bodyweight bench is pretty solid and above average. I looked up some powerlifting results and while there are guys doing 300+ at my weight it seems that 240 is at least competitive.

It might not be that I'm weak on the bench...it might just be that you've found an exercise that you are fairly adept with. Or perhaps I'm a little weak on the bench, but I will say that I use strict form: I grip very close, I ALWAYS touch the bar to my chest, I unrack and rerack the weight myself and I receive no assistance.

Not trying to make it sound like I'm an elite level bencher, but maybe say that 1.5X bodyweight UNTRAINED IN BENCH is pretty acceptable to me :tongue

All that stuff about gymnasts benching 2X bodyweight untrained seems like a load of garbage to me. MAYBE some of the absolutely elite rings guys can do it....but I achieved a fairly high level and as you can see I'm weak on the bench :D

Dips involve a lot of lat/back strength which is why I'm so proficient at dips. My back strength is exceptional and I'm pretty sure it's exceptional regardless of bodyweight.

Tuesday:

Ran a mile. Hamstring felt okay. Slight tightness about halfway through, but for the most part acceptable. Ran maybe a 6:20 pace...so not the fastest, but it was easy and I didn't reinjure my leg.

Did 2 consecutive handstand pushups...pain is almost gone. Pain was maybe 2/10. I'll be fully healed by December hopefully.

Armwrestling practice tomorrow

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Thanks for your thoughts Ivar. I could have sworn that your dipping ability must have some carryover to benching, and maybe it does but not that much. You're right though, 1.5xBW bench untrained.... that's a GREAT start for ANYONE. It really is. I think I was just a bit confused since I tended to think that guys who did planches could bench near 2xBW. Those darn Youtube comments giving wrong information!!! :tongue :tongue :tongue

It would be totally unfair to compare you to powerlifters so believe me I didn't have that in mind when I asked. Just the planche and dips and ring handstand push-ups... thought it would translate to a "huge" bench. But your bench is great for being untrained and you being 160!! Can't wait to see what it looks like in a year or two! :rock

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Gymnastics strength positions involve a tremendous amount of small, stabilizer type of muscles...and the use of muscles in weird angles. A planch pushup is VERY hard on your anterior deltoids, when I'm in good planche shape I can hold 50lbs out straight in front of me either hand. However doing a planche pushup is only pressing 160lbs...the hard part is on my shoulders not my pressing muscles.

Try and find videos of gymnasts lifting these great weights...hard to find isn't it? Probably because they come up a bit short of these claims.

Here's a video of Anthony Naddour of OU bench pressing. He's about 160. http://www.youtube.com/user/DABIGNADDOUR#p/u/4/iCR6E6sOhcc Stronger than me in the gym for sure. This is about as strong as I think you can expect a gymnast to be without specialization. I'm sure these guys can get to 2X BW in relatively short order, but fresh out of the gymnastics gym not a chance.

Wednesday:

Bicep:

1X5 backpressure lift (towel not draped over hand) 80lbs

5X5 backpressure lift (towel over hand) 55lb

5X5 hook lift 80lbs

Core:

2X2:00 hollow hold

Hand:

3X1:00 store gripper hold armwrestling position

3X1:00 store gripper hold inverted armwrestling position

Armwrestling practice:

2hrs of toproll practice

Bench and running tomorrow. I weighed 158.8lbs this morning (Thurs)

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Great insight into all of this Ivar, I really appreciate it and now I'm glad I asked! :)

By the way, holding 50# in front of you with one arm is quite impressive. It reminded me of Bruce Lee who I have read was quite good at this. I just quickly googled this so I'll copy paste:

Joe Lewis

"Bruce was incredibly strong for his size. He could take a 75lb barbell and from a standing position with the barbell held flush against his chest, he could slowly stick his arms out, lock them and hold the barbell there for 20 seconds, that's pretty damn tough for a guy who at the time only weighed 138lbs. I know 200lb weight lifters who can't do that."

....

Although in Wikipedia and many other Websites I keep reading "125 pounds for several seconds". The 75# for 20 seconds sounds more believable than 125# even for a few seconds though. And the 75# claim at least has a credible witness, lol.

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I don't believe 125lbs for a second. 75lbs on a barbell ie less than 40 per hand for ~20secs is very stout and also believable.

Thursday:

Bodyweight: 158.8lbs

Leg:

Ran a mile. Probably ~6:10 pace. Leg felt solid I'll get back to sub 6 miles next week.

Hand:

5X10 25lb plate wrist curls

4X50 2 25's pinch passes

3X1 45lb hub lift pure claw

10X1 45lb hub lift half claw

5X1 45 + 2 5lb plates hub lift half claw

a lot of 45 hub clean attempts....almost kept dropping it up top for fear of broken fingers

Benchpress:

1X5X135lbs

1X3X185lbs

1X5X135lbs

6X4X205lbs

I'm a week ahead of schedule in my benchpressing. I hit 205 for six sets of four today. That was supposed to be my workout for next week. I'll probably end up doing the same workout next week for both days because I think I'll need more bench sessions to hit 205 for six sets of 5 than just next week. Never know though I've been improving by one rep a week steadily. Since I'm a week ahead I'll probably lift 235lb again next week and possibly go for some doubles with 225lbs.

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Ivar it's amazing how little Benching transfers to AW. Yo bench 235-240 but I'm willing to bet you can beat a HUGE percentage of men with a max bench 100 pounds heavier than you.. hell, I'd say men with a max of 365 to use a round number ("3 and half plates").

Yeah Bruce doing 75 x20 seconds is stout as he was also a tiny guy.

By the way, I also remembered another similar feat that you might be able to do! A fellow called Karl Nordberg or something (I'm telling you this from memory) was said to have been able to hold an olympic barbell at arms length and twist it back and forth!. I think I even saw pics of this. I always thought this was a tremendous feat. I think one day you could do this, maybe when you're heavier and a little stronger. Man you're really strong for 160# now that I think of it, 'cause this Norberg guy looked much heavier from what I remember. Sorry for replying so much in your log lately, gonna leave you in peace now... for a few days at least :tongue

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Don't worry about posting in the log, I enjoy reading the comments and feedback! I'll keep that olybar feat in the back of my mind...I fear I'm probably too weak to do it now.

I'm quite sure that I can beat almost any man, regardless of size and strength, if they are not competitive armwrestlers. I have beaten numerous guys with benches well into the 300 range and at least one confirmed 400+ bencher. Extremely large men will have a better chance ie 6'8" guys, even if they lift less weight, will fare better against me than 6'1" guys...but I'm sure the percentage of those guys that can beat me is still LOW.

I beg to differ about the bench press carryover to armwrestling! I've heard Corey Miller say that he used to be able to put up 300lb on bench, I've heard Ethan Fritsche say he can bench 315lb, Sean Lattimer used to be a competitive powerlifter with a 900lb shirted bench, and OF COURSE....who could forget Jerry Cadorette who is certainly partial to some bench press.

Now let me explain. If I'm sitting in my current form and I think that bench pressing will take me to an elite armwrestling level that would be foolish; however, bench pressing will expand my base athleticism. The more broad that your base is the higher peak performace that you can reach. If my benchpress improves to 315lbs I feel like my triceps will have significantly more raw ingedients for refining an extremely powerful tricep press. Being that I am powerful in all 3 moves AND being that I know how deadly a tricep press can be...I feel that improving my triceps strength through close grip benching is a good idea. Bench press is one area of my body where I feel like I'm lagging significantly behind the elites in my weight class. I can row, chin, wrist curl etc with the best of them...but on bench I'm sub par.

One last point: if one is capable of getting stronger in an area without gaining weight or impeding the progress of the sport in focus why not get stronger? I believe I can bench twice a week and significantly raise my strength in that area without gaining weight and without affecting my armwrestling.

Saturday:

1.5 hours armwrestling practice. Worked hook.

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Thanks for such detailed responses Ivar. About the oly bar feat: what I'd like about it is it's simplicity. You don't have to load plates, do strange, explosive movements, or anything. If you walk into any gym and just grab a bar and do it... someone is going to see, and I'm willing to bet that some men will feel curious about doing it and when they try they'll be like "holy s**t" and I bet within no time people will start talking to each other, "man, there was some dude over there twisting an oly bar in this fashion", etc.. In other words: It'd be a great feat to SHOW OFF and achieve "Legend" status in a gym!! LOL. We all wanna show off sometimes right? Hehe.

Good to hear about Cory and Ethan and their benches. Just so you know, Bob Brown once told me that John B. only ever benched around 385. His tricep press was.... well, strong, to say the least, as he's beat guys like Pushkar with it, heh. Devon Larratt doesn't have the build of a huge bencher, but maybe he's really strong. But I hear you on guys like Randall and Cadorette, and yeah Lattimer being practically a newbie started off really strong! So I have to agree, a very strong bench does help, it seems. You're so strong in other areas that I think you'll hit your benching goals very fast.

By the way, I just thought of some other lightweights... Fisher, Cobra and Engin... have you ever heard about their benches? None looks like a bencher. But then again, Ethan and Corey don't either lol. Size is certainly deceptive of strength!! I'm curious as to their benches now.

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Well with John Brzenk 385lb is an effin good bench for a ~200lb man like almost 2X bodyweight. Plus at a certain level your base strength is good enough. If cyplenkov is benching lets say 550lb you don't need to bench 475 to be in the ballpark with him because it's not super armwrestling specific....but you might want to bench over 220lb. John's 385lb is heavy enough to give him a BIG BASE to build armwrestling specific strength off of. It pays to specialize.

Allen and Engin I'm not sure what they could bench...probably similar to me unless they train bench specifically, but none (including cobra) are well rounded ie they don't hook or press hardly at all. The guys I discussed are all well rounded or are hook/tricep pullers. Cobra looks like he could put up some serious weight though. He doesn't look big on videos but he's pretty jacked and has a fairly large chest in real life!

July 4th, 2011

Hand:

5X1 lift 2 25lb plates + 5lb plate

3X1 #2 TNS

1X1 RB 240N MMS

2X1 BBSM MMS

1X1 #3 MMS (my 3 ie the hardest 3 out of 9 that i've touched)

6X2 BBSM MMS

3X10 wrist curls 80lb

2X10 wrist curls armwrestling position 80lb

Benchpress:

1X5X135lb

1X3X185lb

1X5X135lb

1X1X205lb

1X1X235lb smooth and easy, so....

1X1X245lb also smooth...but the next plate increment I have is 275 lol new PR anyway

6X2X225lb

Front Squat:

1X5X135lb

2X1X185lb

3X2X205lb

Tricep:

5X5 tricep press reps

3X3X10sec one arm tricep press isometric

3X1:00 tricep press isometric with 10 mini reps to start

My benchpress is going up FAST man. Put up 245lb smooth today. Was certainly good for 250, but I don't have enough plates. The next weight higher than 245lb that I can do is 275lb. Decided to rep 225. Made all my reps clean. Six sets of 3 with 225 coming up next.

Did some front squats. I liked the movement. I'd like to get up to doing some doubles with 245lb. I didn't want to over do it on my first day squating so I only did three sets of 2 with 205 even though I was moving the weight smoothly.

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July 5, 2011

Hand:

3X1:00 store gripper hold in armwrestling position

3X1:00 store gripper inverted hold in armwrestling position

Core:

3X3:00 side hollow both sides to hollow hold (1:00 each)

Bicep:

2X5 backpressure lift 50lb towel over hand

5X5 backpressure lift 80lbs

5X5 backpressure lift 60lb towel over hand

1X2 hook lift 85lbs

5X5 hook lift 95lbs

5X5 hook lift 80lbs

Hook lifts were feeling strong. 95lb used to be a max single and would seperate my angle a bit...now I hit it for 5X5 staying tight. I'll probably step up to either 100 or 105lb next workout. Backpressure with towel over hand could go up from 60lbs...perhaps to 70lb.

Benchpress today (6th July) going to see if I can hit 225 for six sets of three. If not then I'll do six sets of two again since I think I'm two or three weeks ahead in my bench program.

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July 6, 2011

As expected I still felt fatigued in my triceps and 225 felt heavy.

Hand:

5X15 wrist curls 80lb armwrestling position

5X5 sledge hammer curls 10lb sledge 20" from head

3X15sec rear weaver hold 16" from head

1X20 #1 TNS

Benchpress:

1X5X135lb

1X3X185lb

1X5X135lb

1X1X205lb

6X2X225lb + C

Leg:

1X5X225lb deadlift

1X5X295lb deadlift

1X15X295lb deadlift

Cleans

Tricep:

3X3X10sec one arm tricep press isometric

3X1:00 tricep press isometric with ten mini reps

Cleaned quite a bit. Managed 185lb quite easily, then spent the rest of the time seeking weights over 200lb. I ended up getting 205lb to my shoulders SEVERAL times...ie maybe 15 times, but inexperience found me dropping the weight over and over. I will absolutely get 205lb next time I do cleans, and 225 will follow shortly after. I certainly have the strength to do 225 easily, but my timing and technique isn't quite there yet. In fact, the way I was pulling 295lb if I had Pyrros Dimas's brain I could probably clean 300lb. I think my body is strong enough to get the weight high enough, but I just don't know how to get under there as quick as is needed.

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1x15 at 295# is pretty good. I remember a while back I saw a video of two known crosfitters doing 2xBWx15. For you I think that would be around 320# ? They were both light guys, I think the heavier was 165 and did 335x15. Bumper plates and bouncing the reps though. Were you bouncing your reps or were you resetting at each rep there? I figure you're close to that feat anyways, which always thought was pretty awesome, bounce or not.

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Touch and go first 7 then 1sec pause on the ground for the rest of the reps.

July 7, 2011

Hand:

5X10sec #1 hold armwrestling position

5X10sec #1 hold inverted in armwrestling position

10X30sec flat finger pulls

4X50 store gripper reps armwrestling position (2 inverted 2 normal)

4X1:00 store gripper hold armwrestling position (2 inverted 2 normal)

10X1 45 hex lift

5X1 45 hex lift last 3 fingers

2X1 45 hex lift middle 2 fingers

broke ground last 2 fingers, but skin was Fin up

Bicep:

1X5 hammer curls 50lb towel over fingers

5X5 backpressure lift 65lb towel over fingers

5X5 backpressure lift 50lb towel over fingers

5X5 hook lift 80lbs

Leg:

Ran 2-3 miles not really sure how far we just started running and ran for a good 20mins or more.

Two to three rest days in a row coming up for me. I'll Definitely rest Fri/Sat and if I still feel a bit off I'll rest Sunday. Hopefully I'll feel good after 2 rest days and I can train Sunday, rest monday, rest Tuesday and train Wednesday.

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Felt okay Sunday:

Hand:

2X10 plate wrist curls 25lb

3X10 plate wrist curls 25lb armwrestling position

4X50 passes pinching 2 25's with 5 sec holds for last 6 reps each set

Benchpress:

1X5X135lb

1X3X185lb

1X5X135lb

1X1X205lb

6X3X225lb

Tricep:

2X10 tricep press

1X5 tricep press

3X3X10sec one arm tricep press isometric

3X1:00 tricep press isometric

I was thinking that my benchpress gains were going to slow down now, but I'm still on pace adding a rep a week and making all my sets. I'm not sure if I want to go all the way through 225 for six sets of six or if I want to get up to four reps like last time and increase weight. Last time I jumped from 205 for 4 up 225 for doubles...and the thought of jumping from 225 to 245 for doubles is very attractive because that's getting into repping some legitimate weight. We'll see, it might not work out the same way...I might not be able to make that big of a jump with this higher weight.

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July 11, 2011

Leg:

Ran a 6:13 mile. Wasn't pushing the pace, I wanted to do a relaxed mile and see what kind of pace that was.

Ran a 1:05 400M. Couldn't push the pace due to my hamstring...and yet I managed to reaggravate that injury anyway. Pretty pissed off now.

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July 11, 2011

Leg:

Ran a 6:13 mile. Wasn't pushing the pace, I wanted to do a relaxed mile and see what kind of pace that was.

Ran a 1:05 400M. Couldn't push the pace due to my hamstring...and yet I managed to reaggravate that injury anyway. Pretty pissed off now.

Damn dude, give it time to heal !!! Don't know if you know this, but I've read numerous times that sprinting on hills is safer on the hamstrings as the stride length is much shorter, meaning it wont have to stretch so much and pull from there. As a sidenote I once had the awkward idea to try and 1-leg hop a very steep hill for about 3 sets... only used a short distance as you can't cover much distance (specially if it's very inclined!) but I gotta say the hamstring soreness the following day was truly epic. Regular two legged sprints on the same hill (and starting much lower) are limited by a huge quad-pump, heh, so they're definitely a different thing than flat sprints. Anyways your mile time is great!. :)

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Hills would certainly be safer. It just took me by suprise, I rarely pull or strain anything and I've certainly never had an injury like this. It's hard to tell when it's healed because I can run a mile and feel nothing because the pace is slower...but if I try to run faster it acts up and manifests itself again.

July 12, 2011

Chinup/Pullup:

1X1 one arm chin (neutral)

1X6 one arm chins (neutral)

1X3 one arm chins (neutral)

1X3 one arm chins (supinated)

1X2 one arm chins (supinated)

1X3 one arm pullups

1X2 one arm pullups

1X2sec front lever

1X5sec straddle lever

1X30 chinups (neutral)

1X30 chinups (supinated)

1X30 pullups

Core:

3X3:00 hollow hold (1 min each side and 1 min center)

I figured since I haven't done chins in a while that I would be a little stale in that movement, but nope I was PR strength. All sets were EASY. One arm chins were smooth, clean reps and the two arm chins could have been 3X35. I feel like the extra bicep strength that I gained improved my chinning strength.

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July 13, 2011

Leg:

Ran 3 miles.

10 hours in the warehouse today. That was a long day. Supposedly we've got another 40,000lb coming in tomorrow....I sure hope not.

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Rested until July 16, 2011 for an armwrestling tournament in Oklahoma.

1st place undefeated in 6 classes (3 right, 3 left). Weighed 158.2lb on my scale in the morning.

Unfortunately no Geoff Hale. I kind of went up there to beat him, but he had armwars next week so he didn't pull.

July 17, 2011

I got sore from the tournament. Decided to bench press anyway.

Benchpress:

1X5X155lb

1X3X205lb

1X5X155lb

1X3X225lb (felt heavy)

2X2X225lb (didn't attempt 3rd)

1X5X205lb (felt heavy)

6X3X185lb pinky fingers on ring

That day was terrible! I increased my warmup sets by 20lbs, I felt good until that first set of 3 with 225. I died at lockout on that 3rd rep and I had to max it out and break form to get it up. After that two reps were hard as hell, so I thought I'd do 6X5 at 205lb....but sure enough then I was tired from killing myself with 225...that 1st set of 5 with 205 again killed me because I had to dig for the 5th rep.

I refused to let the day be ruined by failing all my sets....so I decided to get some wide grip work. Probably could have done 6 sets of 4 and MAYBE 5, but the way the day was going I was not going to miss any more sets.

I think I'm going to top out my super fast gains at around 225 for six sets of 5. Then I think I'll start alternating my normal bench (index touching smooth) with wide grip. So bench 2 times a week one wide one close...possibly throw in some dumbell presses. Or maybe I'm wrong and I was just sore from the tournament and tired from the drive back to TX or something. Maybe 225 for 6 sets of 4 will be smooth next workout. Hopefully.

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Hand:

4X50 store gripper reps armwrestling position (2 sets normal, 2 inverted)

4X1:00 store gripper holds armwrestling position (2 inverted, 2 normal)

Tricep:

3X3X10sec one arm tricep press iso

3X1:00 tricep press iso

Armwrestling:

2 hrs of practice. Worked tricep press. Also did some toproll, and worked hits. Took video of a lot of stuff so that I could compare my form to other videos. Form looked excellent. My hit videos were extremely fast...like those russian lightweights. Very very fast.

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Hand:

3X10sec hold #1 armwrestling position

3X10sec #1 hold inverted armwrestling position

Hook:

1X100 hook rowing on level 1

2X25 hook rowing on level 3

2X50 hook rowing on level 3

Leg:

ran a mile

At work I drove a moving van all over Dallas. I left the warehouse at 8:00AM and didn't do any real work until 2:00PM. The client said they would be ready at 10:00AM and didn't get to the residence until 1:45PM. I couldn't believe it. I camped outside the apartment for a number of hours, went to lunch, drove around, came back and they still weren't there! THEN THEY DIDNT EVEN TIP FOR BEING FOUR HOURS LATE!!!

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July 20, 2011

Bicep:

5X10sec backpressure hold 60lb

5X10sec hook hold 60lb

Core:

3X3:00 hollow hold (1 min each side and 1 min center)

Armwrestling:

Toproll practice 2hrs. Worked a bit of hook too. I watched a lot of Roman Tsindeliani videos and started implimenting his technique. His style saves your elbow a bit.

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July 21, 2011

Benchpress:

1X5X155lb

1X3X205lb

1X5X155lb

6X3X225lb

1X3X185lb

knocked out 6X3 at 225lb smooth. Tried a 4th rep on my 6th set and missed it at lockout...barely. I should be good for 6X4 at 225lb next training session. I'm going to go to 6X5 with 225 before I jump to doubles with 245. If current trends continue I may be able to put up 275 for a single around about the time I go back to school. I'm hoping that I can knock down 300 by christmas.

I'm gaining on you fast Arturo....your 5X5 with 225 won't stand up too much longer :tongue

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