steve's log (bw/gymnastics)

[Steven Low]

3/21 -- 10 hrs or so... woke up a couple of times but I guess that's to be expected when I train 3 days in a row unrecovered.

Full body stretching. I am likely going to take this whole week off except maybe some manna work in order to hopefully mostly recover from my cortisol issues.

I've been MUCH more rested even waking up with the phosphatidylserine. I'll probably write an article on this stuff too in the near future as it works well, and there's a bunch of good stuff in pubmed about it.

Reevaling goals. Probably gonna do a short cycle after this rest week (3-4 days?), and maybe cycle off the PS for a bit and see how I do.


Goals in progress
RECOVER FULLY.

~Improve shoulder ROM and stability
~manna

~restarting maltese work...

~Improve knee
~be able to DL consistently 1-2x a week
~Sprint sometime in the near future

Long term goals
~floor GHR / BW HS curl
~2.5x BW DL
~weighted dips to 200 lbs / 1.5x bodyweight
~OAC +25 lbs/5 OAC + OA pullover, OA rope climb (?)
~Break 11s 100m & 50s 400m + vertical to 36", broad 10'
~butterfly cross, inverted cross, OAHS

Goals completed! (vids may not reflect completion date)
~Iron cross 06.12.08 & solidified at homeshow.
~2x bodyweight dip 07.03.11
~2x bodyweight deadlift 07.03.20
~one arm pullup 07.08.01 1x4 L, 1x4 R
~straddle planche 07.10.30 & solidified.
~front lever 07.12.24
~2x bodyweight pullup 08.07.28

Current PRs
+130 lbs pullup 08.07.28
+190 lbs dip 09.06.18
+70 lbs muscle up 08.12.04
30 MU for time 2:08 08.10.07

9'5" broad jump 07.08.XX
30" vertical leap 07.XX.XX
51" box jump 09.04.07
100m: 11.96 09.06.07
400m: 106:93 08.06.23
285 lbs DL (triple) 07.07.20

[Steven Low]

3/22 -- 9.5 hrs. woke up thrice. Still very good quality though, hopefully this will go away as I recover more.

Full body stretching today. Rest day overall.


Finally published this primer on bodyweight work. Have at it.

The fundamentals of bodyweight strength training

[Steven Low]

3/23 - 6 hrs
3/24 - 8 hrs
3/25 - 5 hrs
3/26 - 9 hrs

I am reinstituting my go to bed before 12 policy, except I am going to make it 10:30....

Mostly stretching these past few days. On 2/24 (weds) I was able to get in a bunch of handstand work, and other pbars/rings related skill practice which was good.

Sleep quantity hasn't been great, so I know workouts wouldn't have been great either. Sleep quality has been good the days I actually got more than 7 hours... phosphatidylserine definitely works.

Gonna try to get much more sleep this weekend, but I am afraid I may not be able to.

[Steven Low]

3/27 -- 7.5 hrs very bad I took a nap so it SUCKED.
3/28 -- 9 hrs pretty good

Helped out with CF wv/va/dc sectionals. Was pretty fun. Got to meet some new people, and saw a bunch that I haven't seen in a while. The community is still good even if HQ is on the fritz.

L-cross pulls: 3x5
Maltese leans: 3x5
manna: 3 * (shoulder stretch + 3x5s high hold + 3x press forward)


3/29 -- 11 hrs decent

Rest.

Workout yesterday was good.

But I think the poor sleep from last week and Sat set me back a bit. Overall I feel better since starting to take the phosphatidyl serine though, but I think I'm still a far bit from 100%. I still don't have the capacity I used to.

Going to schedule according to 2 heavy workouts per week with cross/maltese/manna, and 1-2 very light ones. Probably just some manna and skill work for those.

Hopefully I'll be recovered enough by a couple weeks to start working sprints back in as well.

[Steven Low]

3/30 -- 7 hrs. Pretty good stuff.

Stretching for shoulders and hips

Cross pulls: 3x5

Ended up doing some today anyway, and demonstrated some other rings/parallettes skills. Feel pretty good right now. I'll see how I am tomorrow.

Am probably going to do a bunch of chairs work tomorrow, and get about 6 hrs of sleep. We'll see how it turns out.

[Steven Low]

3/31 -- 6+3 Not bad but not good.

Lots of handstands among other things today because I was doing some chairs stuff.

Got back late so unfortunately am not making my before 10:30 sleep time (however, I have been keeping it up all week besides tonight) so we're good so far.

Trying to get about 6 hours tonight, and then good sleep fri and sat... workout on Fri or Sat depending on how I feel.

[Steven Low]

4/1 -- 6 hrs

shoulder stretching

4/2 -- 7.5+1.5 +2 hrs

Feel pretty good today. Gonna hold off on any significant work besides full body stretching.

Extensive hip and shoulder stretching today.. feel like I made some progress with the shoulders.

At the very least I'm doing manna tomorrow see where I'm at.

[Steven Low]

4/3 -- 7 + 2. Ugh.

Shoulder stretching -- german hangs

Manna: 4 * (1 press attempt + 3 pushing hips high)

So I'm pretty much nearly about the same place I was a bit ago. ~45 degrees past vertical. I *feel* like I'm close to being able to push it to 60 past which feels promising, but I can't yet. I need more shoulder flexibility, and pressing power.

Going to work press attempts for the next week.

We'll see about cross work and maltese depending on how I feel.

[Steven Low]

4/4 -- 6 + 1 + 1

8 sets of manna press attempts. 1-3 reps per set. I can consistently push up to ~45 past. I got very close to 60 past, but couldn't hold it.

I also started working some speed pushes (accelerated) near the end, and they seemed to help a lot for developing the triceps/posterior shoulder power to push my hips forward more.

So I think what I am looking at is a combination of 50-60% work on pushing from the ground, 25% work on speed pushing to develop power to the position, and maybe another 15-25% supplemental work with high holds and assisted pushing the hips fowards. I think this translates into about 3-4 sets of pushing, 1-2 sets of speed pushing, and 1-2 sets of high holding/hips assistance pushing.

Of course, german hangs/shoulder mobility work is a must.

-------------------

Manna is my primary goal within the next few months. Since I am still recovering from low work capacity cross work is second, and maltese is third. I also want to get out and sprint and DL some more, but we'll have to wait and see how the recovery goes first.

If I decide to do Gymkana again (during PT school) I am planning to have butterfly cross, a resolidified rings straddle planche, and manna by this time next year. One arm handstand solid is primary focus for skill work. I am also going to aim for maltese, but with my long arms and current strength it would be a bonus as well.

If I can solidify the manna, I can just maintain it which would be a HUGE burden lifted off my training. Then I would be free to focus on one arm HS, buttefly cross, and maltese which would make life a lot easier.

--------------------

Secondly, am running low on phosphatidylserine, and it has done very well for my recovery so far. Still not where I need to be at though. As you may or may not have known I've been looking for some cheaper sources, so I ordered some more from puritan's pride (via this thread: http://www.performancemenu.com/forum...ead.php?t=4431 ).

It's significantly cheaper so I'll let you guys know how it turns out. When I have the time I am going to write up an article on this stuff. I think it should be the next thing coming out on EMI.. if not some stuff dealing with about 3-4 other works in progress I have on injuries, overtraining, etc. We'll see.

[Blair Lowe]

Straight arm kip to V-straight arm press to HS would be two very impressive B+B.