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5/3/1 - Back from the Dead(lift)

Nice seeing the videos. Those off the bench pistols are crazy deep!

Thank you sir! Yes, I try to go rock bottom here so I can milk these for all their worth. Not having weights, i really want to keep my legs strong!
Where's your training log @Antti ? I don't see it come up in the feeds anymore. Everything going well?
 
I have to echo what Antti said... nice pistols.

I understand the mobility issues...my knee and hip limitations keep me from doing proper pistols, so I rely on one legged box squats (weighted from time to time). Well done Philippe!
 
Thank you sir! Yes, I try to go rock bottom here so I can milk these for all their worth. Not having weights, i really want to keep my legs strong!

Where's your training log @Antti ? I don't see it come up in the feeds anymore. Everything going well?

Thanks for asking. Everything goes reasonably well.

I have mostly recovered from my lower body injury. Though I haven't gone really heavy in the competition lifts so I don't know if it would act up then. The lower weights and variations go well, way better, even if I go near failure. But I can't still do a sumo deadlift with a bigger load. I will give it time, maybe I can in the future.

I'm taking a break from logging my training online. I've gone back to pen and paper. See if it's easier to check back when necessary. There wasn't much discussion in the log so that too played into it.

I still train a lot and refine my methods all the time. I will try to get into part time coaching in the near future now.
 
I have to echo what Antti said... nice pistols.

I understand the mobility issues...my knee and hip limitations keep me from doing proper pistols, so I rely on one legged box squats (weighted from time to time). Well done Philippe!

Thanks @T_M you’re killing it with that barbell though!Impressive strength there sir
 
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Thanks for asking. Everything goes reasonably well.

I have mostly recovered from my lower body injury. Though I haven't gone really heavy in the competition lifts so I don't know if it would act up then. The lower weights and variations go well, way better, even if I go near failure. But I can't still do a sumo deadlift with a bigger load. I will give it time, maybe I can in the future.

I'm taking a break from logging my training online. I've gone back to pen and paper. See if it's easier to check back when necessary. There wasn't much discussion in the log so that too played into it.

I still train a lot and refine my methods all the time. I will try to get into part time coaching in the near future now.

Oh man didn’t know you got injured I’m sorry to hear this! Yes, we used to have great strength discussions on these boards butthe worlds been strange lately!

I hope you’ll be feeling bettersoon. You still can do lighter lifts though yes? Maybe these will serve you well for the time being and be a nice recuperation before you go back and smash old records! I sometimes discover neat exercises that prove beneficial in times of injury that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise so hopefully you find something in this time that will boost you higher then before! Good luck my friend and hope we see more of your stuff back here soon!
 
Oh man didn’t know you got injured I’m sorry to hear this! Yes, we used to have great strength discussions on these boards butthe worlds been strange lately!

I hope you’ll be feeling bettersoon. You still can do lighter lifts though yes? Maybe these will serve you well for the time being and be a nice recuperation before you go back and smash old records! I sometimes discover neat exercises that prove beneficial in times of injury that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise so hopefully you find something in this time that will boost you higher then before! Good luck my friend and hope we see more of your stuff back here soon!

I've had a couple of odd injuries in the last year or so. Likely related. Also saw a specialist who told me my ankle was crooked, in a way, for how long, longer than I've been lifting. I understand it was fixed, and there may have been some underlying pelvic tilt as a result as well.

Lately I've had reoccurring pain in my right glute, right next to the hamstring, with hip extension after a stretch. Like a hip extension with a little dip won't hurt, but a squat will. Load or wide stance makes it worse. Somehow the box squat also didn't agree at all. But now it's mostly fine, just the sumo deadlift wouldn't do. Though I could do it heavier than at my worst, ramping up to the target load I was perfectly fine.

Lighter weights and different variations work well. Like after my latest strain I started doing front squats and rack pulls, and have gone up to 10RM and 8RM with both with zero issues.

I don't mind passing on doing some lifts as I'm very big on exercise variation these days. Almost like Westside.
 
Week 2 of Pistols, Pullups and Pushups (one arm)

Day 1

5 rounds
Pullups- 12, 10, 10, 9,9 (50)
O.A.P. - shin height 1,2,3,2,1
Pistols- heel Elevated-1,2,3,4,5

Day 2
3 rounds of
Descending leverage sets

O.A.C Practice- 3 finger assistance - 3 reps/ 2 finger assistance -2 reps /1 finger assistance -1 rep
O.A..P -Waste height-3 reps/Knee height-2 reps/Shin height-1 rep
Pistol (to box) Waste height-3 reps/ Knee height - 2 reps/ Floor (negative) 1 rep

3 rounds
Chins-10,10,10
Pushups-15,15,15
Airborne Lunge-5,5,5

Day 3
O.A.P- 5 x 5 (waste height)
Box pistols (shin height) 5 x 5
Pullups - 15, 10, 8,7,5,5

Day 4
3 rounds of Descending Leverage sets

O.A.C- 2 finger assistance- 3 reps/1 finger assistance- 2 reps/Band Assistance- 1 rep
O.A.P. - Knee height-x 3, Shin Height x 2, Floor (negative) x 1
Pistol- Heel elevation 3 in 3 reps/ 2 in- 2 reps/ 1 in 1 rep

3 rounds
Chins (neutral grip) - 10,10,10
Pushups (C.G. feet elevated)-20,15,15
Renegade Lunges-10,10,10

Day 5
Pullups-x 10,10,10,10,10
O.A.P. (knee height) - 4,3,4,4,4
Pistol (off ledge)-1,2,3,4,5

Added some more groove work on the light days. The O.A.C is definitely a long term project, but I'd think it'd be a nice complement to NW training. o have a pistol, O.A.P and O.A.C would complete a trifecta of bodyweight strength movements. The O.A.C is surely the hardest to achieve. Practicing the O.A.P seems to have much more of a need to attend to detail then the pistol, which is very close. However, progress is coming slowly. The tucking of the elbow makes the exercise ten fold harder. I added negatives for the O.A.P. to prep from doing them on the floor. A slow negative with FBT is killer! Indeed hard and analyzing my right side, wondered why my torso can't keep in line and my hips are not level. After thinking it's because of my older shoulder injury and compensations occurring, I had a mild revelation while doing GTG O.A.P. on the rail/wall. I found it wasn't an issue in my shoulder, but actually in the opposite leg. Before, I'd concentrate all my energy on my arm, and I'd fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes, hurting and wonder why??? My hips wouldn't be level, torso very twisted, shoulder hurt. It was frustrating. I wanted to take my mental efforts off my arm, which I knew was strong enough. After tensing through my thigh, and torso on my left leg, my body became rigid and lighter. The pistol is getting closer. On Thursday, the last single with heel elevated was like an inch of elevation. However, I still fall with no elevation with my left leg. Right leg is solid, not perfect, but solid. Hit 15 on my push set of pullups on Wednesday. Moving along.

Monday Height for O.A.P


Knee Height O.A.P.


negative rep


Some close to floor reps, though need work.




Gtg Height
October 24, 2020

I like to GTG for the O.A.P., though I have to find the right things to work off and I get shy about doing them in public.
 
I've had a couple of odd injuries in the last year or so. Likely related. Also saw a specialist who told me my ankle was crooked, in a way, for how long, longer than I've been lifting. I understand it was fixed, and there may have been some underlying pelvic tilt as a result as well.

Lately I've had reoccurring pain in my right glute, right next to the hamstring, with hip extension after a stretch. Like a hip extension with a little dip won't hurt, but a squat will. Load or wide stance makes it worse. Somehow the box squat also didn't agree at all. But now it's mostly fine, just the sumo deadlift wouldn't do. Though I could do it heavier than at my worst, ramping up to the target load I was perfectly fine.

Lighter weights and different variations work well. Like after my latest strain I started doing front squats and rack pulls, and have gone up to 10RM and 8RM with both with zero issues.

I don't mind passing on doing some lifts as I'm very big on exercise variation these days. Almost like Westside.

Tis a good time to do these other lifts. I think it can rejuvenate training motivation to do different lifts and get PRs and these other movements, heck they be the movements your body needs. Stay strong, @Antti
 
So I did a cool thing today


It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I’ve been training very frequently, amidst COVID, confinement, midterms and moving, I’ve found time to hit training daily. I’ve wandered back in to my habit of conjugate calisthenics. I honestly think for any strength goal I have, it can’t be beat for me. I can train full body daily as long as I rotate exercises. While this contradicts GTG, do fewer things better etc, I really feel it’s my strongest training modality. Doing just OAP led yo sore elbows, angry QL while pistols pissed off my knees. However, moving in pistols with FS, and adding dips, handstand pushups, and many other variations oddly seems to ease lingering overuse wears. I found a bar, and life’s been good. Of course, I’m pleased to find once again despite the absence of the bar, my strength hasn’t waned one bit and my squat, pulling and pushing strength are right where they were when I was only training with the bar!!! Alas, my body feels great. I can lift heavy often (there’s a lot of free time rn with breaks and confinement) and training is fun this way. My right arm is coming along with OAP, but I’m trying to even out my torso lean on reps. I’ve been able to lower myself completely to the floor on my left leg (but fell on very bottom and “successfully” did a rolling pistol? and hit 18 full pull-ups the other day, nearing me towards my goal. I will try to be better about recording training and will have more time now as school has eased up and I finally have a place to stay in Paris that’s not a hostel!

Bridge Press 105 kg x 5 (Easy)


FS 105 x 5 (not so easy but maybe lifetime Pr)


OAP practice

 
OAP and bridge press are in the can't do category for me, but I would like to manage to do those someday.

Yes my friend, I understand. How about just start practicing One Arm plank or OAP with hand elevated to waste height? Bridge press can be cranky on the neck but the floor press is also gray and does more for pure pressing strength. But practicing wrestlers bridge, reverse bridge, or even glue bridges would be a good start.
 
Yes my friend, I understand. How about just start practicing One Arm plank or OAP with hand elevated to waste height? Bridge press can be cranky on the neck but the floor press is also gray and does more for pure pressing strength. But practicing wrestlers bridge, reverse bridge, or even glue bridges would be a good start.
Thanks for the motivation. I might try those.
 
A few recent workouts

Tuesday 11/10
A1) OAP 1,2,3,2,1
A2) Pull-ups 10,10,10,10,10
B1) Pistol practice

Wednesday 11/11 (my birthday!)
A1) FL work
A2) Dips- 10,15,20,15
B2) Weighted Pistols 26 kg x1,2,1

Thursday 11/12
A1)Deadlift (Conv)- 156 kg x 1,2,3, 10 (AMRAP)
A2) CG pushups feet up x 20 x 5 sets
B1) Weightsd Chins (26 kg) 3,3,3
B2) Lunge (26 kg) x 10,10,10

Was happy my dead felt great. This bar is a lot shorter then the previous, this I can only fit 6 x 26 kg plates and only pull conventional (lest I lose my toes!!!). My friend had a belt which brought me joy. I can mix in weighted dips, belt squats and weighted chins now! High rep for legs, which endured two heavy pistol days in a row and high rep for the shoulders and elbows as they were baggy after doing too much OAP work. We’ll see what’s good for tomorrow.
 
Friday 11/13

A1) Press - 52 kgs x 3,4,5, 10
B1) BW Rows x 20,20,20
B2) Lunge- 26 kgs x 10,10, 10



Saturday
OAP practice

A1) Dip -1 x 4 sets w 52 kg, 10 x 1 set w 26 kg
B1) Front Lever raises 3,3,3
B2) Heels elevated goblet squat w 26 kg x 20,20





Sunday (OFF)

Monday
A1) Squat 125 kgs x 3,4,5 104 kg x 10
B1) HSPU x 8,8,8
B2) Chin-up x 12, 12, 12



Found my right arm cooperates better with OAP starting from the bottom. Think I’ve overworked them as I’ve obsessively pursued one with my right arm. Like overwatering a plant hoping it’ll grow faster. No worries, some lighter easier work may do my shoulder good.

Tickled my press is still there. The bar is precarious following a clean so I stumble, as the plates diameter is a bit larger then the bars, thus they rotate upon the clean giving the bar a bit of chaos.

Did some very heavy dips which were quite fun and not the prettiest to watch but with only 26 kgs possible, had to make a go! Another malfunction of doing too many OAP attempts has been a bit of back staleness which I noticed on squats. Couple that with the uncertainty that these weights are perfectly balanced (doubtful) led to them feeling somewhat topsy turvy. Hoping I can build this to where I can hit 6 x 26 plates for a single or double. With no belt, it will require a bit of extra work, namely for the abdominals...work I’m not necessarily fond of.

Been training with a friend in Paris and he’s quite a strong fellow. We have three different parks we visit regularly, one with a bar and weights, one with a higher variety of bars and dip stations and one under the over pass at Cygnes for when it rains. I’m thinking of getting a dip belt again, as I use my partners, as mine was sadly confiscated because I left it in my backpack during a flight back to the US in August ?. Don’t know how many I’ve owned at this point. Six at least...

Deadlift set from other day
 
I love Science fiction. This year, I was lucky enough to sneak into a Sci-Fi analysis film class. One of the greatest sci-fi films I’ve ever seen is 2001:A Space Odyssey. I recently revisited this perplexing yet hypnotizing film for my class to rekindle my curiosity at answering the sub conscience questions that have always lurked beneath the surface. I wished to rediscover a truth about my nature, our nature, as human beings.

Aside from the first five minutes of completely black screen with a hauntingly shrill orchestra and a chorus of echoing Gregorian like droning, we are introduced to the first act “The Dawn of Man”. On a beautifully desolate planet, unburdened by man’s touch, primates roam, living under the basic primitive functions of survival. The group of apes, gathered around a waterhole, pound their chests, roar at one another, drink, eat and sleep. One day as the sun scorched the horizon, the apes arise to the same shrilling, terrifying chorus of awakening to see the grand black monolith, an item with no business being present during these times, constructed of perfectly symmetrical architecture and obsidian black. They go nuts, encircling it in a craze of confusion, worship and awe. Following this event, a competing group of apes ‘invades’ their hole and chases them off.

Desolate, despondent and dejected, a single ape of the overrun clan wanders through the amber desert, arriving at the skeleton of a deceased animal. While he seemingly aimlessly lingers here, he picks up a bone in his despair and starts toying with it. It is in this precise moment, we first see the primate on the brink of discovery, in the midst of perhaps his first ever conscience thought, he witnesses the bone colliding with the ground as rubble and debris fly up with contact. The discovery of technology and the power of destruction coming from his own hands becomes suddenly available to him and in a glorifying dance of rapture, proceeds to bash the skeletal remains to bits with his newly discovered weapon in a torrent of ballet accompanied by the iconic theme music whilst possessed by the thrill of discovery. With this tool, he goes on to ward off the invaders of his waterhole. It is this moment I recently had in the despair I fell into with my OAP and pistol training when I finally discovered my weapon.

I’ve practiced every variation of the OAP and pistol possible to master each however still fell short on one side for each move. I was capable of doing 3 OAP on my right side on 2 inches of elevation off the floor but not a single with a flat palm on the ground. I could pistol on my left leg with a slip of cardboard under my heel, and also with a 26 kg plate with no heel raise but still tumbled backwards every time I was flat footed. No move I’d done had been specific enough to transfer to the floor: not elevated OAP, archer pushups, pushups with one finger on one hand or heels elevated pistols, box pistols or pistols off an edge. Each was the main lift slightly altered, but altered ever enough to not transfer. I was back to square one. How could I GTG, if I couldn’t do a single full rep of each? How could I practice the exact movement I wanted to improve but lighten my weight? My own unalterable bodyweight. Enter the band.





Of course this was always something I’d known, but having something to attach the band to in my apartment was hard to come by. It wasn’t until I opened my window to look out did I realize the knob was the perfect spot, almost as if the monolith has led me right there. It was perfect, this discovery. Not only did I have access to them (the band and the anchor) throughout the day, but also the movement exactly mimics what I’m trying to master. I don’t hurt my shoulder going down and was immediately able to practice without this fear. The pistol version allows me to use just enough aid to get through the trouble zone, slowly and methodically, allowing me to focus on that zone instead of fearing it approaching and falling. Now, I’m going through the movements successfully, as they’ll be done without assistance in time. The band forces me to clench my abs and lats at the critical zone in the pistol and allows me to travel through the zone of fear in the OAP with confidence. Are these reps perfect??? Not yet. But at least I have the opportunity to practice them under more control and aim to perfect them. For the first time in a while, these seemingly unreachable goals seem to be approaching my reach. Whether it leads to me salvation or destruction will remain to be seen. But for now, I found myself enraptured in the same jubilance as that primate.

Wednesday Lifting
PP= a pulling progression I incorporate that changes as the weight climbs. We start with snatches, and as the bar is loaded move to cleans, then jump shrugs then snatch grip jump shrugs. This is done an alternating fashion with the weights of the floor press.
A1)PP x 3 reps each
A2) Floor Press - 105 kg x 3, 3, 4
B1) WG Pull-ups - 10,10,12
B2) FS Lunge - 53 kgs x 8,8

Once again I must thank BW training for preserving my barbell strength.

 
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