Results matching “Bird”

Tonight's workout certainly moved along faster than the last couple - partly aided by today's cooler weather. Makes a great change.

I started out by simply copying a previous DE BENCH workout (from just before I started benching with bands) and added a set here and there as things felt a little easier than last time. Always a nice surprise.

Warmup: wide grip pullups

Incline bench press (15 deg) 20@20kg, 5@30kg, 5@40kg, 5@50kg, 5@60kg
Bench press (close grip) 8×3@60kg
Tricep extension (barbell) 20@25kg, 4×8@30kg
Band pushdown 50@blue, 50@green
Neider press (plate) 4×10@10kg

I agree wholeheartedly with Alberto's recent comment that sometimes you have to treat yourself as an absolute beginner. After reading through the comments on my somewhat ordinary (read abysmal) squatting form, I'll be giving Patrik Nyman's Prilepin treatment to my posterior chain.

Before embarking on this project, I needed to test my current leg curl performance. The other major player in the routine (see below) is the Romanian Deadlift; I used my current max of 110kg as a starting point here.

Lying leg curl 10@20kg, 5@30kg, 5@35kg, 3@40kg, 2@45kg

As suggested by Alberto, the following is based on the above numbers for the curl and RDL and the Patrik Nyman script on tsampa.org :

ME SQ/DL
Week 1 : Leg curl 3×2@40kg, RDL 5×3@90kg
Week 2 : Leg curl 5×3@35kg, RDL 5×3@92.5kg
Week 3 : Leg curl 5×3@37.5kg, RDL 6×3@80kg
Week 4 : Leg curl 3×2@40kg, RDL 5×3@90kg
Week 5 : Leg curl 5×3@35kg, RDL 5×3@92.5kg
Week 6 : Leg curl 5×3@37.5kg, RDL 6×3@80kg

DE SQ/DL
Weeks 1-6 : Box squat

NB: accessory work will take the form of the regulars - calf raises, arched back GMs, waiter's bows, pull-throughs and ab work.

I'll be starting this program next week, giving me a chance beforehand to test my current max deadlift. I suspect, however, that this work will also benefit the deadlift somewhat - so I should probably test it again in another 6 weeks.

Once again the heat last night persuaded me to postpone yesterday's workout until this morning. After warming up with a couple of sets of Gorilla chins, I began duplicating my last ME BENCH workout from a little over a month ago.

Nothing felt quite right from the start, and when the rack lockouts started feeling heavy at 90kg I elected to call it quits. Tomorrow, tomorrow.

Gorilla chin 2×10@bw
Standing L-Flye (plate) 4×5@5kg
Bench press 4×5@40kg, 4×3@60kg
Rack lockout 4×3@80kg

After a fattening few weeks on the road I've decided to jump on the FitDay bandwagon. My diet is slowly slipping back to the sorry state it was in a few years ago - a decline which I intend to stop as soon as possible.

No doubt I'll get sick of logging every single meal pretty quickly; I'll be happy as long as I can establish some good dietary habits before I reach that point.

To see what my diet's like at the moment : http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=scottbird

After a fattening few weeks on the road I've decided to jump on the FitDay bandwagon. My diet is slowly slipping back to the sorry state it was in a few years ago - a decline which I intend to stop as soon as possible.

No doubt I'll get sick of logging every single meal pretty quickly; I'll be happy as long as I can establish some good dietary habits before I reach that point.

To see what my diet's like at the moment : http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=scottbird

After nearly three years of living in Edinburgh I still can't get used to the fact that it occasionally gets hot here. Today was one of those uncomfortably warm and humid days where the promise of a cooling storm goes unnoticed for 12 hours.

I put off the workout until it cooled down a little around 10pm. After warming up with a few sets of Hindu squats (plus a bit of light regular squatting) it was time to wrap a pair of sweaty hands around the bar for a return to the Lightened Method of deadlifting.

The combination of sweat and overall lethargy saw a near repeat of the previous performance - 140kg was all that was going up; to lockout anyway.

Warmup: light squatting

Deadlift (lightened - green bands) 5@60kg, 5@100kg, 4@140kg

Regarding the Hindu squats, there are two varieties I currently employ - regular and sumo. The regular variety uses a narrow/medium stance, and the heels come off the ground as you squat down. For the sumo version, the stance is much wider and the heels remain floored throughout the movement. Whilst it doesn't have quite the same benefits to overall leg strength, this latter version is much closer to a deadlift action.

Here's a brief video (1MB, .wmv) clip showing the difference between the styles. Note that this is actually a bit slower than I usually do them - it's just easier to see what's happening.

I arrived back in Edinburgh last night, having had my fill of ruined castles, churches and bridges over the past few weeks. Also - somewhat surprisingly - I managed to gain a bit of weight. Trekking around three countries was apparently equalled by the proceeds of a diet rich in pork pies, hamburgers and chips. Mmmm.

The 'on the road' workout routines were great, although I substituted a healthy dose of early morning mountain air for a workout about half of the time. The only change I would make for future trips is to increase the dose of ab work slightly - the rest of it seemed to go down well.

Overall it felt like a well-balanced routine (for my current needs at least); although I'll need to wait for the results of my next few workouts to verify that. Whilst I wade through the several hundred emails that have come my way over the past couple of weeks, here's a bit of (video - 2MB, .wmv). Unfortunately there wasn't enough room on the card to record the following session (Hindu squats), so I'll do those separately.

As for photos, I'm just wading through several thousand of them now. The joys of digital photography.

After a few days of feeling somewhat ordinary it was great to get under the bar once again - no matter how briefly.

Following the first part of last week's brief session I warmed up with a couple of sets of band push-ups; and Alberto, the regular push-ups do feel slightly easier afterward. I suspect I'll need to greatly increase my push-up endurance (three sets was beginning to wear me out) before I see any major difference. As for range - the bands kick in near lockout (perhaps the top 3" or so).

John, for the band benching I added a little weight to the bar (in addition to the bands), giving the dubious benefit of stabilising the bar a little whilst making sure I'll feel it tomorrow. Ouch.

Band push-up 2×10@white band, 10@bw
Bench (explosive, band) 8×3@30kg+doubled red bands

I awoke this morning with the idea of doing suspended band push-ups - this afternoon I decided to try them out.

Setup: I choked two Iron Woody Large bands (about 68kg/150lb) at the top of the rack, and put my hands in the bottom of them. Feet were elevated to bench height (slightly below the starting drop of the bands).

This setup increased the use of stabilisers for both the vertical and horizontal (the bands have a tendency to spread apart) plane. Much harder than I thought it was going to be.

On the blog front, my flatmate has finally been convinced to begin blogging his workouts. You'll find the latest at All Bar None.

In a slight departure from the scheduled rack pulls, I decided to try out the Lightened Method. This is a deadlift with band tension aiding the start of the pull, and not contributing anything to the top part of the lift.

Setup: the bands were tied to pins set about 70-75cm (27.5-29.5") from the top of the rack, with the other end looped around the bar. I was using the Iron Woody Medium bands, which take off about 54kg (120lb) at the start of the lift.

Worked up to a 5RM at 140kg, but failed to reach lockout with 180kg. A little ambitious perhaps - though not all that far away.

Warmup: Gorilla chins

Deadlift (lightened) 5@60kg, 5@100kg, 5@140kg, 0@180kg

Frustrated (hey, if Rufus can do 3 plates at 3 months of age) I quietly finished with a bit of ab work.