Acorn's Training Log

[acorn]

And if anyone does try the above program I would love to hear how it worked for them. My inclines alone have gone from 5x185 to 5x245 in a month thats a 70lb calculated 1RM increase.

- Aaron

[acorn]

Week 7 KTA. Lotsa work with goal gripper of #3 on RT and BBSM on LT.

PR's today

Grippers

#3 to 1/8 a few times on RT

BBSM to 1/8 on LT a few times.

Also got HG250 filed 1/4" Strap hold with 15lbs on RT

Began this week using sublingual Creatine before grip training and other supplements are multivitamin, Glucosamine, and Vanadyl Sulfate with B12. Trying the Supplements to help with recovery.

TTK PR's

5x1x15lbs on RT with 10 and 5 with full control. (had done them before with 10, and 2 2.5's)

5x1x12.5lbs on LT with full control.

I need to make some fractional olympic plates.

Did a set of 6 with 6lb sledge @ 31" Front RT

On LT did 6@28" Front

Did a bunch of extensors throughout the day, Finally moved up to Red band on RT and blue band on LT.

My hands are definately feeling alot stronger and beat up but still good.

- Aaron

[lifesnotfair]

Nice numbers, nice progress.

How much do you expand your fingers with the bands??

[acorn]

Nice numbers, nice progress.

How much do you expand your fingers with the bands??

Thanks! Using the Ironmind Expand your hands bands for the extensors. THey are basically thick rubber bands that you put around the outside of your fingers and thumb and then try to straighten and extend all of them. It really works your finger extensors which is a good thing for keeping the flexor/extensor strength ratio similiar so you don't get injuries or certain pains.

- Aaron

Edited August 1, 2006 by acorn

[TelegraphKey]

Aaron, great stuff. I have 3 questions:

1) You do each workout as a full-body workout, approx. only once every 6-10 or 4-7 days?

2) What were your lifts in all the "superlifts," Squat, BP, Deadlift, Clean & Jerk, & Snatch?

3) How, exactly, do you position your hand on the TTK for dynamic thumb work?

Thanks, man.

[acorn]

Aaron, great stuff. I have 3 questions:

1) You do each workout as a full-body workout, approx. only once every 6-10 or 4-7 days?

2) What were your lifts in all the "superlifts," Squat, BP, Deadlift, Clean & Jerk, & Snatch?

3) How, exactly, do you position your hand on the TTK for dynamic thumb work?

Thanks, man.

1) I do a full body workout once every 6-10 days if not on creatine, or 4-7 days if on creatine. With this workout I'm shooting for full muscle recovery and growth. These times were what I needed for that. I determined full recovery as being the day or 2 after the last day that I have soreness.

2) My bests on C&J and Snatch were from college before I did this program so I will specify body weight @ time of lift. Squat 850lbs @ 308 BW, BP 550lbs @ 308 BW, Deads 865lbs @ 303 BW, C&J 465 @ 265 BW, Snatch 295lbs or 305? @ 260 BW, 1 hand Barbell snatch 185lbs @ 230 BW. All were Gym lifts no in meet, Deads and Squats were in single ply suit with elastic wraps.

3)spread fingers under bottom and thumb on top plate with edge at first joint of thumb.

Hope that helps,

- Aaron

[TelegraphKey]

That helps greatly, thanks so much.

You must know your lifts in total are pretty spectacular. I don't know if higher bodyweight would improve or decrease the Olympic lifts, but if we just took those 5 lifts in total, they are pretty frigging high -- 3,030 lbs for the 5 lifts! Mark Henry, of course, is famous for his 5-lift "superlift" total, but I don't know if his total would be 200 or even 100 lbs ahead of yours!

Edit: BTW, what do you mean by "Front Lever?" Thanks.

Edited August 1, 2006 by TelegraphKey

[acorn]

That helps greatly, thanks so much.

You must know your lifts in total are pretty spectacular. I don't know if higher bodyweight would improve or decrease the Olympic lifts, but if we just took those 5 lifts in total, they are pretty frigging high -- 3,030 lbs for the 5 lifts! Mark Henry, of course, is famous for his 5-lift "superlift" total, but I don't know if his total would be 200 or even 100 lbs ahead of yours!

Edit: BTW, what do you mean by "Front Lever?" Thanks.

Thanks, yes they were pretty cool when I was that strong. The higher body weight would have probably helped. I was always mutant explosive strong. To put in perspective, when I was a Freshman in HS I did 245lbs on Clean and school record was 265lbs. Sophmore year I did 335lbs in clean, and Junior year I did 385lbs. I didn't lift my senior year of HS just Plyo's and technique work for Discus. If it would have been suggested to me I probably would have tried to do the WSM stuff but honestly it never crossed my mind. But that was quite awhile ago and before I blew the disc in my back. The lifts at 260 - 265 BW were about 10 years ago at age 22 I think, the ones at 300-308 were a year to 18 months later.

Front lever refers to sledgehammer work I'm doing with me holding the sledge at the specified length elbow at my side and arm bent at 90deg so that the hammer is vertical. Then I lower the head of it until it is parallel with the ground and lever it back up.

- Aaron

[TelegraphKey]

"Mutant" strong just about covers it!

Okay, 1 more question on front lever: So you mean you hold it vertical, then tilt it forward (away from you) to horizontal, then back up? If so, then 6 lb really is pretty fricking good.

[acorn]

"Mutant" strong just about covers it!

Okay, 1 more question on front lever: So you mean you hold it vertical, then tilt it forward (away from you) to horizontal, then back up? If so, then 6 lb really is pretty fricking good.

Yea my college strength coach called me "the mutant Troll Beast".

Yes, on the lever description. Thanks, I kept thinking that my wrists were really weak because I keep seeing posts with people doing 10, 12, 16, 20lbs on their levering.

- Aaron

[TelegraphKey]

Yes, on the lever description. Thanks, I kept thinking that my wrists were really weak because I keep seeing posts with people doing 10, 12, 16, 20lbs on their levering.

- Aaron

That's with the opposite motion of what you're doing. In fact, you're lowering the hammer down to horizontal, or 90 degrees from vertical, while in the other direction (what everyone else usually does), we only lower it down till one end of the hammer touches the foreheard. If the arm is parallel to the ground, this means the hammer lowers down to maybe 60-70 degrees from vertical. Moreover, it's just plain harder to do the "front" lever, even extending the hammer out to only 60-70 degrees, let alone 90 degrees (like you're doing). Extending an 8 lb hammer out, holding it about 60-70 degrees, is actually really strong. (I can't quite do it yet.)

Another thing to do is something I saw Dan Praydis do in a video: With the hammer on the ground, put a coin on the head, then deadlift the hammer till you're standing upright, the hammer sticking straight out -- making sure the coin doesn't fall off.

[acorn]

Week 7 KTA still. I will close the #3 very very soon on my RT. Today I did grip workout after a decent weight workout at the Gym and on my RT got the #3 to less than 1/16 on the first GG try, maybe 1 mm Big PR . On my LT I may have closed the BBSM or got within a hair from closing Big PR . Either way I won't record it as a close until I feel the click or see it closed. I will probably get them both within the week. I may need to order some bigger grippers my #3 is the toughest I have otherwise I am doing negs with my PDA ISG-DA @ 327 for RT and #3 for left. Everything felt pretty good today. Bodyweight was 264lbs

Gym lifts

Incline Bench

7x245lbs No spot

Hammer Strength Rows

6x270lbs

Hammer Strength Military press

10x230lbs

Straight bar standing curls

8x135lbs

Lying triceps press(head bangers)

10x155lbs

Grippers

Ok time to finish up with TTK and eat.

- Aaron

[ObsceneJester]

Week 7 KTA still. I will close the #3 very very soon on my RT. Today I did grip workout after a decent weight workout at the Gym and on my RT got the #3 to less than 1/16 on the first GG try, maybe 1 mm Big PR . On my LT I may have closed the BBSM or got within a hair from closing Big PR . Either way I won't record it as a close until I feel the click or see it closed. I will probably get them both within the week. I may need to order some bigger grippers my #3 is the toughest I have otherwise I am doing negs with my PDA ISG-DA @ 327 for RT and #3 for left. Everything felt pretty good today. Bodyweight was 264lbs

Gym lifts

Incline Bench

7x245lbs No spot

Hammer Strength Rows

6x270lbs

Hammer Strength Military press

10x230lbs

Straight bar standing curls

8x135lbs

Lying triceps press(head bangers)

10x155lbs

Grippers

Ok time to finish up with TTK and eat.

- Aaron

To be honest I have to say it's quite refreshing to see you almost get that #3 also kinda getting to me a bit because I seem to stand still..

Congrats man, I know it's a lot of hard work you've put into it so it's great to see you accomplish so much

[acorn]

Week 7 KTA still. I will close the #3 very very soon on my RT. Today I did grip workout after a decent weight workout at the Gym and on my RT got the #3 to less than 1/16 on the first GG try, maybe 1 mm Big PR . On my LT I may have closed the BBSM or got within a hair from closing Big PR . Either way I won't record it as a close until I feel the click or see it closed. I will probably get them both within the week. I may need to order some bigger grippers my #3 is the toughest I have otherwise I am doing negs with my PDA ISG-DA @ 327 for RT and #3 for left. Everything felt pretty good today. Bodyweight was 264lbs

Gym lifts

Incline Bench

7x245lbs No spot

Hammer Strength Rows

6x270lbs

Hammer Strength Military press

10x230lbs

Straight bar standing curls

8x135lbs

Lying triceps press(head bangers)

10x155lbs

Grippers

Ok time to finish up with TTK and eat.

- Aaron

To be honest I have to say it's quite refreshing to see you almost get that #3 also kinda getting to me a bit because I seem to stand still..

Congrats man, I know it's a lot of hard work you've put into it so it's great to see you accomplish so much

Hang in there man. It is tough, my hands ache my skin burns and it is definately a challenge just to finish the daily workouts much less give it your all. But if you do walk that fine line of overtraining vs. getting enough work, you will get good gains when the load lets up. during the week my gains often go backwards into losses most of the time. Then after a day off or a bit of unloading I often get gains.

- Aaron

[acorn]

I just ordered a BBE, and BBSE those should be fun. Also Forgot to mention that when I had my best 1st and best attempt on the #3 last night I just about passed out I was squeezing so hard. I also started charging up my video camera just in case I feel strong tomorrow. I also got 2-35's pinch on my right last night at the gym without chalk, very slippery. Taking the week 7 extra rest day today. I think I might file some more off of the HG250 too. I'm thinking I might want to do the Mash Monster cert thing in a month or so but I gotta find a witness. It does not seem like there are many board members in AZ and possibly no one else in tucson.

- Aaron

Edited August 2, 2006 by acorn

[lifesnotfair]

You progress really fast, I'm jealous!

[acorn]

Last day of week 7 KTA today. I thought I might close the #3 on RT or BBSM on left so I setup a vid camera. I don't think I got either, I was busy trying to keep the gripper in frame on the close by myself. I got pretty close though for sure. I will have to go back and look at the tape to verify. I will try to post it if I get a chance.

- Aaron

[Scott Styles]

You are doing great! Mind sharing how your back got hurt?

[acorn]

You are doing great! Mind sharing how your back got hurt?

Helping someone move actually. We were carrying a floppy heavy queen sized mattress up some steep narrow stairs with me on the bottom. Then a freak combination of events happened the mattress began to fall/twist to the side, I was midstep trying to regain balance and the guy on top dropped his end and it gave me a nice jolt with everything in the wrong position. It was just enough to blow the guts out of my bottom disc L5/S1. I did not know it for a number of years though. When I finally got diagnosed I was able to trace the symptoms back to starting right after that.

- Aaron

[pdoire]

Last day of week 7 KTA today. I thought I might close the #3 on RT or BBSM on left so I setup a vid camera. I don't think I got either, I was busy trying to keep the gripper in frame on the close by myself. I got pretty close though for sure. I will have to go back and look at the tape to verify. I will try to post it if I get a chance.

- Aaron

Yeah, closing it and closing it on video are two different animals, you have to own it to catch it on video usually.

[acorn]

Last day of week 7 KTA today. I thought I might close the #3 on RT or BBSM on left so I setup a vid camera. I don't think I got either, I was busy trying to keep the gripper in frame on the close by myself. I got pretty close though for sure. I will have to go back and look at the tape to verify. I will try to post it if I get a chance.

- Aaron

Yeah, closing it and closing it on video are two different animals, you have to own it to catch it on video usually.

Thanks, I should have thought of that. I'll see how it goes tomorrow without the vid camera distraction. Oh yea I split open a callus on left middle finger yesterday like a big fat sausage, lol. Thank god for superglue.

- Aaron

[Scott Styles]

Wow, that's really bad luck with the back. Amazing that with the heavy weights you were moving an accident carrying something up the stairs could do that to you. Definitely something to think about next time I move.

[acorn]

Started week 8 on KTA yesterday. Also closed my #3. I have gotten to the point where I am doing Overcrushes with either the BBSM (about 2.5) or hg300 slightly filed. I did a TNS of #2 today in warmup. Also got a SH of 5lbs on BBSM on RT. Have not quite closed the BBSM on left yet but I am very close maybe 1mm. TTK dynamic thumb work is going well also I began making some fractional plates to help the progression on the TTK and wrist-a-lator. I've got a 2oz, 9oz, 9.5oz, 1#2oz and also 2 60d nails is about 3oz. I need to make a few more when I get time. I did get 17#2oz PR on my RT on TTK today and 14#2oz PR on LT. I've been able to add 2 to 4oz per workout most of the time. Did some sledge levering too. I think I'm gonna go soak my hands before bed.

- Aaron

[acorn]

Oh yea here is the link for the

before I closed the #3. There are a few attempts at the BBSM on LT and #3 on RT. I gotta get a camera person though before I try that again.

- Aaron

[Teemu I]

That camera action can be harder than the gripper close itself, it took me ages to get a decent vid of my CCS attempts with #3. It's hard to keep hand on frame. My first #3 close vids were like "blink and you'll miss it".. Anyway, great progress Aaron!