Results matching “Bird”

Another Friday workout saw another mixed bag. Following a few sets of standing L-flyes, I jumped in to a combination of lat and grip work.

Standing L-flye 3×7@6.5kg

The muscle soreness that resulted from Wednesday's chin-ups had all but disappeared; and this led to a healthy (but quick) dose of lat work :

Gorilla chin-up 10@bw
Chin-up/Barbell pullover (supersetted) 2×10@ bw/20kg

The grip session included a bit of plate pinching, bar hanging and single-handed deadlifting (using the barbell). Following the deadlifting I decided to try out the Jefferson lift, which is essentially a deadlift whilst straddling the bar. Unusual to say the least. No doubt I'll devote a bit more time to it in the future.

Plate pinch 2×10kg, each hand, untimed
Bar hang - on squared edge of rack, untimed
Jefferson lift - worked up to a comfortable 90kg, will establish max in future workouts

After spending a few days in Glasgow it was time to return to the usual Wednesday fun of the bench (or more accurately, the floor). Tonight's routine followed the pattern of last week's with only a couple of subtle changes; as well as the odd weight increase.

The first slight change was to test out my current chin-up performance without the weight belt. Getting there.

Chin-up 22@bw

Somewhat pre-exhausted, I was more than happy to hit the ground for a bit of Floor pressing.

Push-up 20@bw
Floor press 10@40kg, 8@50kg, 6@60kg, 4@70kg, 0@80kg

Once again I found myself stapled to the floor with 80kg in the Floor press; it seems to be the middle part of the lift that is not helping out as much as it could. Looks as though more tricep work is called for.

Today's miniature helping of tricep fun included extensions both with the bar and dumbells. A few weeks of those should help things.

Tricep extensions (barbell) 4×8@35kg
Tricep extensions (dumbell) 4×8@11.5kg (each side)

Finished off with a few painful sets of Hise Shrugs.

Hise shrug 20@60kg, 20@80kg, 20@100kg, 10@110kg

Tonight's workout was quite close to last wednesday's session; aside from an extra rep or two here and there.

As part of warming up I decided to knock out a handful of weighted chin-ups - this time with an additional 20kg on the belt. My chin-up performance (in all of their glorious forms) is certainly something I'm keen to improve: primarily in terms of their number, not the additional weight. A short-term goal of 20+ (bodyweight only) seems reasonable.

Chin-up 5@bw+20kg

The workout proper followed a pretty similar pattern to that of last week, aside from a quick substitution of dumbell tricep extensions for the close grip floor presses. This was more about keeping the time down (my flatmate was also working out) than anything else. As well as keeping the blood pumping before tricep extensions of the barbell variety.

Floor press 20@20kg, 10@40kg, 8@50kg, 6@60kg, 4@70kg, 0.5@80kg (almost)
Dumbell tricep extension 4×10@6.5kg (each side)
Barbell tricep extension 4×8@30kg

Once again we finished off with shrugs, including a quick set of the hideous Hise shrugs. Painfully fun.

Barbell shrug (behind back) 20@60kg, 20@80kg, 20@110kg, 4@130kg
Hise shrug 10@60kg

After a long day, a simple squat routine was on the cards. This included four exercises :

Lying leg curl 10@20kg, 10@30kg, 8@35kg, 6@40kg
Squat 2×10@20kg, 2×8@40kg, 4×6@60kg, 2×4@70kg
Romanian deadlift 10@60kg, 8,8,6 @100kg
Good morning 10@20kg, 4×8@40kg

It's been a long time since I've done any leg curls, and it looks as though my hamstrings are still somewhat on the weak side; in their knee flexion capacity at least.

Today was a mixed bag of hand/arm exercises; as well as the fun of Hindu squats and pushups. And a few gorilla chins thrown in for good measure.

Before things began came some shoulder rehab - largely in the form of standing L-Flyes and hyper push-ups. Slow, strict and certainly doing their thing.

Standing L-Flye 3×8@6.5kg
Hyper push-up 20@bw

Following a couple of rounds of Hindu squats/pushups (bordering on aerobics) came a barrage of grip/wrist exercises, all for time :

Plate pinch (2×5kg, 2×10kg)
Grippers T and 1
Bar hangs (from top of rack, not using thumbs - pictured)
Dumbell hold (16.5kg each hand)
One hand deadlift, together with dumbell hold (worked up to 70kg)

plus

Gorilla chin 13@bw

Time: a little over an hour

Recent bench sessions have made use of slightly higher-rep sets - particularly since cutting back to three training days per week. Whilst this is being well received by the shoulders, I'm a little unsure whether to treat the bench day as an ME Bench day and forget about the explosive lifting altogether. Another few weeks of the current routine should make things somewhat clearer.

The positive side of the higher rep/slightly lower weight bench presses was the extra energy left for the remaining exercises - particularly the weighted chin-ups, which were slow, strict and painfully good.

Bench press 2×10@20kg, 8@40kg, 6@60kg
Bench press (close-grip) 7@60kg
Dumbell tricep extension 4×10@6.5kg (each side)
Chin-up 9@bw+10kg, 10@bw, 4@bw+10kg, 6@bw (no rest between sets)
Shrug 10@60kg, 10@90kg, 10@110kg, 10@120kg

Time over an hour

I'm not entirely sure where the Zercher deadlift falls in the new routine (which calls for alternating of squat and deadlift exercises - and the Zercher deadlift has attributes of both), however it seemed like an appropriate hamstring-warming move to start things off.

Fortunately the serious threats of cramps remained just that - threats - and Romanian deadlifts followed the Zerchers without any problems. The idea of trying a few GHRs (sans-bench, with a weighted bar pinning the ankles to the floor) briefly made an appearance, but the strong possibility of hamstring cramps pursuaded me to leave that one for another day.

Managed to keep it under an hour once again, though it was more than enough to finish off the weekend. Sleep beckons.

Hanging leg raise 4×10@bw
Zercher deadlift 10@20kg, 8@30kg, 6@40kg, 4@50kg, 3@60kg, 3@70kg, 2@80kg
Romanian deadlift 10@60kg, 2×10@80kg
Good morning 10@20kg, 3×8@40kg

Time: 50mins