Are Weak Men Allowed To Post Routines!?

[lifesnotfair]

10.07.2007

Tried some box-pistols, but I sucked way more than last time. I attribute it to my legs feeling so sore, still from saturday's running. I can't believe 3 days later they feel sore.. I mean, it's not like I never work them out!! I guess running at one's max-speed even for a very short distance hits one in places nothing else does. That's why I'm gonna try to run like that at least once a week, since it takes so little time and it's actually kinda fun, ya know, just run, Forest, run!! Heh.

Besides from the crappy box-pistols...

DB wrist curls: did like 6 sets, max. weight was: right: 60x4, left: 50x8-9 ... I tried 56lb leftie and only got 2 reps, so I got back to 50. Still, 6 sets was a low, and I was doing 10 reps for the first 4 sets or so, up to 50lb I think. It's just that I can't decide if I'm doing these for size or strenth :P ... bigger forearms look cool.. and 12" is a girlish size!

Pegasus extension: 7.5 x10, 9x10, 12x6, 12x6, 12x5 - tried to make that last 6th rep, got it to parallel, stuck there for what felt like 3 seconds, had to drop it. I'm doing these with my arms extended over a bench, elbow not bent at all. This way I can pronate my left wrist without pain, it's the only way.

These dumbells are kinda thin, I think I do better with a handle a bit thicker, because this feels like 7/8" at most. So I think it's progress compared to a couple of months ago. And to think I haven't done these seriously in a while, it's a good thing I guess.

On other news: I'm trying to purchase some blobs from Doc. Overseas shipping is a b*tch, but I'll use a freight forwarder who'll charge me less. I'm trying to get a 27.5 and a 30, since those are the smallest he has. I don't know if I could lift them, but I'm thinking I can't. I wonder how it would compare to the 2-25's that make 80mm combined that I have, I could only get like 2" of air with those last time I tried (which was almost a week ago, because it tore some skin on the base of my thumb and I have been waiting for it to heal, I will hit them back probably tomorrow or soon).

[Scott Styles]

I max at a 32.5lb blob. I think the weights you have selected are good ones for training, given your current pinch level. You might be ok with just the 30.

[vikingsrule92]

I don't know what to tell you about blobs but I might recommend a 30 and a 35. To give a bit of perspective I can't quite pinch my 2-25s which measure at 74mm but I can get the 35 righty for a few reps and can almost get it lefty. My 25 lb. blob has already gone to waste as it is too light.

[lifesnotfair]

I don't know what to tell you about blobs but I might recommend a 30 and a 35. To give a bit of perspective I can't quite pinch my 2-25s which measure at 74mm but I can get the 35 righty for a few reps and can almost get it lefty. My 25 lb. blob has already gone to waste as it is too light.

vikings: has gone to waste? Hold on a second... how were you training them? Singles? 3-5 reps range? Did you ever try tossing them from hand-to-hand for X seconds, or for X reps? I thought one needed a considerably smaller blob than one's max to do this type of thing, heh.

Scott: you can lift your Sport Authority ones, right? You said you have those too. Just to compare. BTW have you tried 2HP using those two and added plates through a pipe? I maxed at 116 last week.

[vikingsrule92]

I don't know what to tell you about blobs but I might recommend a 30 and a 35. To give a bit of perspective I can't quite pinch my 2-25s which measure at 74mm but I can get the 35 righty for a few reps and can almost get it lefty. My 25 lb. blob has already gone to waste as it is too light.

vikings: has gone to waste? Hold on a second... how were you training them? Singles? 3-5 reps range? Did you ever try tossing them from hand-to-hand for X seconds, or for X reps? I thought one needed a considerably smaller blob than one's max to do this type of thing, heh.

Scott: you can lift your Sport Authority ones, right? You said you have those too. Just to compare. BTW have you tried 2HP using those two and added plates through a pipe? I maxed at 116 last week.

Well, not gone to waste, I need to do more overhand tosses than I am but I'm concentrating more on grippers and bending right now so I haven't been using blobs as much as I should. True you should buy a lighter one for overhand tosses, I'm just saying for singles and stuff, 30 and 35 might be your best bet. Oh and btw when I do train blobs I do 5 reps of heavy blob, 5 negative reps of heavier blob and overhand tosses with a lighter one as Sean Dockery told me to do. Also, I'm not sure if he'll ship oversea but barbe705 has some here http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtop...mp;#entry300278 which is where I got my 25 lb. blob.

[Wes]

Negatives worked good for me to learn pistols. I went from not even being able to sit in the pistol position to repping them out in a month by greasing the groove with negatives. About 15 times a day I would sink down into the pistol position and get up with both legs. Eventually I could come back up

Edited July 10, 2007 by Wes

[Scott Styles]

I cannot pinch my Sport Authority 25's. I have a pair of Body Solid 25's I use for pinch work that are thinner, slightly rounded on the edges, and have a flat finish. They are easier. My best 2 handed pinch on good plates is 115. I doubt I could do that on the Sport Authority plates.

[lifesnotfair]

Wes: that even sounded funny. Getting down into a pistol sounds like something that wouldn't break a sweat, I could do that a few times a day, I might give it a shot!

Scott: I think I will get the 30 and 35. I don't wanna get 3 because of money issues, and if you max at 32.5 and we're on a similar level, then if I only get the 27.5 and 30 I'll be needing a bigger one maybe in a few weeks? So I'm better off with the 30 and 35, if I can't lift the 30 I'm sure I will be able to in a matter of weeks at most, and then I'll have the 35 which is a big step (no 32.5) so it'll be good for negatives or whatever. I'll also continue working on my wide 25's, wanna get 'em done!! I wonder if I should get some gloves or something to train, even if I use less weight.. because I don't wanna rip skin on the base of my thumb again. Maybe I should just keep the reps low, we'll see.

[honk]

You could cut blobs of any size from wood. Have a look at my gallery, works great for me at least.

[Autolupus]

Balsa blobs for aerobics, anyone?

[layla]

I thought about making blobs,but I cant bring myself to cut up a useful dumbbell, so where do I find your gallery? you get good weight from them?

You could cut blobs of any size from wood. Have a look at my gallery, works great for me at least.

[layla]

I have taken a dumbbell and taped the handle so that its thick and do my deads with it, good sledge work, I found the hammer handle hurts my hand and so got some pvc and made my own leverager and have been using sevenlbs and want to try 10 for 1

06.07.2007

1 hand deadlift, suitcase style: 60x5, 90x5, 110x5, 120x5, 130x5, 136x5 (only 2 leftie). Wanted to see what I'd get. I used my EZ-bar and wrapped a bit of spongy black rubber to make it a bit thicker and more comfortable on the skin actually. It's just too thin normally, I think maybe 7/8", it hurts to hold on to such a thin bar. The black rubber thing adds a little and also makes it easier on the hands.

6lb sledge front raises: working sets: 3x5 @ 11" down the handle. Actually got 9 or 10 reps right handed. I should've done this at least from 12" right handed. Left hand struggled big time, specially on the last working set.

6lb sledge twists: 8" x5, 11" x5, 14" 5 right handed, 14" x3 or so left handed.

I go to youtube and search turkish getups?

Second workout of today! I just had to try those Turkish getups. After watching a few videos on youtube, (including that 24kilos one on top of the link Scott just gave us!), I realized it must not be so hard. I tried without a weight and it seemed easy to follow, so I went ahead and tried with dumbells.

20 x5, WOW! I was soaked in sweat after just 5 reps a side. Very tough. I could get up without using the elbow though.. should I do it like that when I can?

20 x6 - wanted to go for reps, but just got 6! The arm gets tired. SPECIALLY left handed.

26 x5 - Left arm gets tired very quickly. I could still get up without the elbow from the start possition, directly to the hand.

30 x5 - I think I could get up without elbow for the first few reps, then had to start ussing it for support (support! not using it to get up).

36 x3 - I could barely get to the elbow with this weight, lol... very hard weight. I think this excercise has made me realize that my left shoulder's stabilizers are CRAP, because even from the starting possition, my left arm was shaking big time!!! My right arm wasn't. It makes sense that the left one feels easier to subluxate for me. (although the right one is the one that has been hurting for the past few months).

Wow, what a workout. This is insane, I love it. I don't know how my form looks, but up to 30lb I bet it looks good, judging from the videos I've seen and how it felt. I had a hard time looking at the dumbell the whole time, sometimes I looked at the roof

I think I will do this regularly. I'm loving some new excercises and have to think of a routine including them. Scott is one helpful guy Thanks for showing me these!!

Edited July 11, 2007 by strut

[lifesnotfair]

Yes, there are many turkish getup videos in youtube. A good, clear one is by a guy that calls his videos "minute of strength"... so try finding that one!

11.07.2007

5 mins eliptical.

Flat DB bench press: 30x10, 40x10, 50x10, 60x7, 55x8.

All reps lowered till DB touched the outer part of my chest, close to the armpit. I failed the 8th rep with 60lb, so I literally went to failure, something not recommended.. oh well

Romanian deads: 115x10, 165x10, 215x3 - I got frustrated and left the gym. The bar immediately rolled into my fingertips on the left hand. My goodness, I really have to do something about my supporting grip.... it's just so pathetic, it drives me crazy.

Extensors here @ work.

[lifesnotfair]

12.07.2007

5 min rope jump.

Box-pistols: 3 sets of 5 standing on a 20lb plate. (trying to increase ROM by adding height to where I'm standing, since I can't make the box lower. Quads are STILL DAMN SORE from the running I did 5 days ago. So are the hip flexors (or whatever they're called). And I think that's why these still felt hard as heck. In between sets, I did...

2HP, using my Sport Authority 25lb plates.

50x5, 75x5, 100x5 x3 sets, held at the top for 3-4 seconds on the very last rep. A bit of skin went off again on the base of my right thumb, where it was just about healed from last session. Damn, I guess I will never be able to hit pinch more than once a week if this keeps happening. It's just a small thing though, not with blood or anything.

Turkish Get-ups:

20lb x6

26lb x6 right, 5 left

26lb x5 right, 4 left

Darn. The soreness in the quads was again present here, when doing the "lunge" part of this move, I could really feel it, it was annoying. But it's not what made it harder.. the shoulder/arm just gets tired of holding that darn dumbell up!! I think I could've used a bit more weight and do the same reps.. because it would've been the same time under tension. I'm doing these rather slow... if I were superfast maybe I could do more reps, but that's not the point, so I'll keep doing them slow.

I weighed myself at the doctor (my son's doctor actually), at 84.9 kilos, fully dressed... that's almost 187lbs, which I assume would be a little less without the shoes, jeans, watch, wallet, cellphone... But I don't wanna fool myself so lets say I'm 185. Had not weighed myself in a long time. I feel fat, though, so I'm trying to eat "properly"..

[Chrisx9118]

Pistols are something that i still cannot even do 1 of for some reason.

[lifesnotfair]

Are you very thick?

Have you trained for it?

[lifesnotfair]

13.07.2007

Grippers:

LH:

Filed Tx10 wide reps.

#1 x5 wide reps.

Filed #1.5 x0 - 1-2mm, crushed at that distance for at least 7-8 secs. Did this two times actually.

Filed #1 x0 - 1mm or less, crushed at that distance for at least 7-8 secs.

RH:

Filed Tx10 wide reps.

Filed #1 x8 wide reps.

Filed #1.5 x1 - barely set it, was tough to close like this, bringing those handles together with my fingertips!

#2 x1 - overcrushed for several seconds.

#2 x0-1 - I think it touched, not sure, but crushed for several seconds.

Filed #1.5 x1 - overcrushed for maybe 8 secs.

I wanted to do some concentration curls just for fun, but this gripper workout gave me a big pain in my left elbow, and the curls were hurting. I did extensors after this. And for some reason I was doing 20 squats between gripper sets, don't ask me why.

[Chrisx9118]

I weigh 200lbs, no excuse. I really have never trained for them, i just cant descend into the position without losing balance or having my knees go over my feet really badly. I squat all the time though.

Nice job on the grippers.

Edited July 14, 2007 by Chrisx9118

[lifesnotfair]

14.07.2007

I was gonna just run some "sprints" in a park... but I felt a great pain in my left quad. It hurts when I try to run, when that leg wants to go from back to front. It doesn't really hurt when squatting or jumping, but it does when I try to do a leg-extension type of movement. So I just jumped to some huge rocks that were lying there. I jumped many times. I dunno the height, maybe 3 feet, but that looked like a lot to me, as my vertical was non-existant when I was fat, and I hadn't tried jumping in a looong while.

15.07.2007

I jumped to the jacuzzi in the backyard, don't know the height, maybe 3 feet tall again. It's like a second step though, so I had to jump from further, was more scary than the rocks I jumped onto yesterday, heh. Jumping is cool, and quad doesn't hurt while jumping.

I tried, for the first time ever, to do farmer's walk. I just remembered reading it was such a great excercise (I think it was Kubik in Dinosaur Training). I don't have two barbells so I used dumbells (and can now see that they suck for this!). I kinda measured the backyard to be maybe 11 meters long... lets say 35 feet. I was doing 3 round trips, which would roughly be 210 feet then. I think so many turns though, make it hard. I was trying to go fast, quad bothered me a bit but I ignored it. I couldn't run with the weights, but I didn't just walk, I tried to go fast like I said. I did 40lbx1, 60lbx1, and 76lbx3. (each rep being the estimated 210'). My traps are quite sore now. I wanted to do some more workouts today but I didn't have time, it was actually a busy day for me. I had a bunch of Dorito's for dinner, probably not the best dinner, darn.

Argentina lost to Brazil in the Copa America. It sucks. I know soccer isn't popular in the US.. but I lived in Argentina from age 1 to 8, and my mom's from there.. we love soccer. It sucked that we lost this game in the finals, oh well.

[lifesnotfair]

16.07.2007

I bought some duct tape and taped one of my very thin dumbells. Now it must be 1-1/4" or so, it's not THICK/FAT-bar by any means, but I was just testing the Duct Tape out. It works WONDERFULLY. It feels very comfortable, not slippery or anything, it was great.

DB stict standing press, one arm at a time: 3 warmup sets (too much!), then 42x5, then 46x5 x2 sets. Left shoulder actually missed the last rep on those last two sets. Right one is much stronger at these.

DB hammer curls: 3 warmup sets (too much!), then 36x5, then 40x5 x2 sets. Or was it 42? Don't remember. Either way, I'm only counting the plates, not the dumbell and collars.

Edit: I did these one arm at a time too, I think it's actually harder for me this way, than alternating!! Dunno why.

DB wrist curls: Loaded 56lb and got 9 or 10 reps right handed, then 9 on the next set, this was after warmup. This hand was feeling strong on these, that's good. Left hand did 9 reps at 46lbs, then at 56lbs only got 1-2, so had to lower to 50lbs where it got about 4 or 5 for two sets. I wanted to try 60lb rightie but would have to use my 20lb plates and wasn't in the mood for assembling that :S

Pegasus extension: worked up to 3 working sets with 12lb (4 3lb plates), and I got 4, 4, 3. Was kinda weak on these.

DB Tricep extension behind head: just 3 sets.. 20x10, 26x10R/8L, 30 (or 32? Not sure) x5R/4L.

Was wasted at the end. Traps and back of my neck are S-O-R-E!!! That attempt at a farmer's walk yesterday truly messed me up, but that's good I think.. I gotta keep doing that one, it's a keeper. My wife just came in and is massaging my traps now, wow, and I'm writing about this, what a coincidence... gotta love her.

Edited July 17, 2007 by lifesnotfair

[lifesnotfair]

18.07.2007

Today sucked, kinda... some grippers and RT. I can't do turkish getups coz my left quad still huts. Argh!!

I strapheld 13lbs with my filed #1.5 rightie, and same ammount with my #1 leftie.

RT was 2x12 @ 80lbs and barely got it. Felt weak overall for some reason, maybe coz I didn't eat meat at noon? :P Must be the first time I don't eat meat at noon in ages.

I ordered a Bench, just the bench, without racks, to start my home gym. Now I need a rack. I wonder how necessary is an olimpic barbell for me... oh well.

[Autolupus]

If your quads are too whacked to do TGUs, you could do some Windmills for your shoulders instead. They're a nice exercise to stick into your routine anyway!

[Autolupus]

Found this Windmill video, quite a good one.

[lifesnotfair]

It's a weird pain in my left quad... it's weird because, if I do a lunge with my left leg in front, that's the leg that is supossed to work the most, right? Well, nothing hurts like this. It's when this leg is BACK that hurts, when I do a lunge with my right leg in front, the left one hurts. Yeah, it's a weird pain. I can try to jump high - no pain. But I try to walk fast or run - hurts, hurts when I try to bring the legt from back to front. But it's going away, hopefully it'll be recovered soon. I just have no idea what I did to bring this up, I think it was those sprints at max-effort speed I did the saturday before last one, I had not tried sprinting in years and that left my legs sore for 5 days or so.

And the farmer's walk I did last sunday? My traps are still sore, unbelievable. I loved that one, gotta do it again.

I ordered a power rack that Scott Styles directed me to, it's cheap and he has it, says it works good. I also ordered a bench, 11-possition adjustable with a chin-up and a dip bar accesories (those were optional), also rather cheap. I'm building my small home gym.

[lifesnotfair]

19.07.2007

10 mins eliptical @ level 16 and 80RPM. Still tough. This might be the last time I go to the gym, the last 2-3 times I've asked to let me join, saying I'll pay later... but I wont. I already ordered most of the stuff for my home gym though.

Flat DB bench press: 30x10 explosive on the way up, 45x10 explosive on the way up, 60x8, 60x8 ... those were not explosive, but I can't move them so quickly as the previous weights. I struggled big time to get 8 reps, but I got them without any help, and lowering all the way, I was kinda happy about it. Strength is not bad for having trained so little bench in recent months.

Romanian DL: 115x10, 165x10, 185x10, 205x5 - grip gave in, as always. Rested like 1 min, added 10 lbs, and did: 215x2 ... LOL... rolled into my fingertips. My grip is giving in way before my back on this excercise, it's now very clear. I use DO, no straps, no hook, no belt, no anything.. damn, that's how I'd like to do it. I wonder if there are other ways to train the hammies/lower back without having to hold the bar? Maybe Good Mornings or something? .... Once I get my power rack at home, I am definitely going to practise timed holds on a barbell, pulling only from the knee or so and just trying to hold for time.... it's funny how some people say grippers will help in your supporting grip... in my case, it doesn't. I mean, I can get a few reps on a #1 leftie, and I can get to 1mm of closing my filed #1.5 (I would close it if not filed) and hold it there for a few seconds... I know it's not a monster grip, but damn, I can't hold 205lbs till I get 10 reps on this? No way. And since the "gripper addiction" is over with me (meaning I don't care ONLY about them), I'd rather improve my supporting grip than my crush right now, since it's also bothering me in excercises like dumbell rows and even chinups, when I do them... a truly pathetic supporting grip that needs a lot of work.