Highland games training with bourbon and a bum ticker

[Urban]

I've been better about working out than posting my workouts

** Deadlift **
- 150.0 lbs x 11 reps
- 195.0 lbs x 8 reps
- 255.0 lbs x 3 reps
- 295.0 lbs x 12 reps * 5 lb post surgery PR

** 2 Handed Swing - Neutral grip - 1" Handles **
- 72.5 lbs x 19 reps
- 87.5 lbs x 13 reps * 3.75lb PR
- 67.5 lbs x 30 reps * 2.5 lb PR
- 75.0 lbs x 19 reps
- 80.0 lbs x 18 reps
- 82.5 lbs x 14 reps

Deadlifts felt really good this week, my swings made my back sore, but I got the 87.5lb PR i've been chasing for a couple weeks. I think I'll do it that way more often, putting my PR's earlier in my worksets.

 

[CRZA]

Dan John's was always a bright spot on t-nation back in the day and when I rediscovered this grip test, I thought it'd be great way to add some grip work to my pullups, now I think its a great way to add pulling volume to my grip training. His articles are what originally gave me pause over the inherent necessity of back squats over front squats for low rep training, the absolute necessity for low rep training when squatting. It's strange little training quirks I'm leaning on heavily as i age for a number of reasons, not the least of which is my own experience with both higher reps and front squats.

but I digress... Thanks for the congrats! "405" is a big milestone to me, even if it is in quotes. 495 is a lifetime PR so when I get back there, I'll have real reason to celebrate.

Dan John always has a way of simplifying lifting for me. When I suffer from paralysis of analysis or wanting to add more or different exercises, I read a page from Dan John first. Do you have any favorite books or articles?

I also love the fact that with all the home gym and bodyweight programs that has come out during quaratine, Dan John released his old school 10 000 kettlebell swing workout. Simple, but not easy. And the program will probably give better results than 90% of the quarantine workouts out there.

 

[Urban]

Dan John always has a way of simplifying lifting for me. When I suffer from paralysis of analysis or wanting to add more or different exercises, I read a page from Dan John first. Do you have any favorite books or articles?

Honestly barring the intensity diet article and his love affair with the overhead squat (not bad just probably overrated) I think it's all good stuff by him. No article stands out in my mind as particularly noteworthy, but there's a couple thoughts that have always stuck with me.

"If you have to eat a whole plate full of frogs, eat the biggest one first."

"If you want to run faster and jump higher, increase your front squat by 20 lbs"

Today's workout:

** Deadlift **
- 155.0 lbs x 15 reps
- 180.0 lbs x 11 reps
- 200.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 135.0 lbs x 36 reps *36 rep PR
These high rep PR's are actually feeling pretty easy. Spent long enough working in the low twenties, I think It paid off in the higher rep ranges.

** 2 Handed Swing - Neutral grip - 1" Handles **
- 77.5 lbs x 18 reps
- 88.75 lbs x 14 reps *14 rep PR
- 70.0 lbs x 30 reps * 2.5lb PR @ 30 reps
- 75.0 lbs x 18 reps

These started off really good but as I began the fifth set, my lower back started to tighten up again, so I called it done. I think I'll lower the overall volume on these to better reflect what I can tolerate.

 

[Urban]

** Indian club Front Circle, Back Circle With One Arm, Back Circle Front Circle With The Other **
- 5.625 lbs x 50 reps
- 6.25 lbs x 14 reps * did this reverse... the coordination was way harder.
- 6.25 lbs x 47 reps
- 6.875 lbs x 38 reps
- 10.0 lbs x 20 reps
- 13.125 lbs x 4 reps

Working my way through "indian clubs and how to use them" Since I am without a pullup bar at the moment, and I actually really like these. My clubs are "maces" made of 18" x 1.5" pvc pipe with the weight at the end. First 4 sets were 2.5 minutes of work, 5 minutes of rest, last two were 1 minute work, 5 minutes rest. Some serious coordination issues going the opposite direction, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Thought I'd be able to get 16 reps at 13.125, but my forearms were shot.

 

[Urban]

** Deadlift **
- 170.0 lbs x 13 reps
- 220.0 lbs x 9 reps
- 285.0 lbs x 3 reps

** Deadlift + Mini Band Over Bar Held Under Feet **
- 300.0 lbs x 5 reps

I only have 305lbs in weights, so for any weights that call for more I've decided to use some bands to make up for the weight. So these are supposed to be 335 at the top with the mini band, doubled over the bar and held under each foot. But I think I'm going to have to take 5-10 lbs of iron off if I don't get this next time since they were much tougher than expected. I did some rough measuring a week or two ago and got 35, 50, 75, 115 lbs for mini through medium bands done this way, but I should have been able to get 8 reps here, and while I might have been able to do it, I caught myself using some valsalva on the later reps and decided to stop.

** 2 Handed Swing - Neutral grip - 1" Handles **
- 80.0 lbs x 10 reps
- 92.5 lbs x 13 reps
- 71.25 lbs x 30 reps
- 75.0 lbs x 10 reps
- 85.0 lbs x 9 reps
- 87.5 lbs x 6 reps

These felt really good. Best day with swings so far really.

 

[Urban]

indian clubs - 2 Front Circles, 2 Back Circles With One Hand, 2 Back Circles 2 Front Circles With Opposite Hand
- 6.25 lbs x 17 reps
- 6.25 lbs x 24 reps
- 6.88 lbs x 15 reps
- 6.88 lbs x 15 reps
- 10.0 lbs x 6 reps
These began with some coordination issues, and then moved on to some fatigue issues. All in all it wasnt a bad day.

 

[CRZA]

How are you liking the indian clubs? Are you doing them for rehab, strength work or whats the goal?

 

[Urban]

How are you liking the indian clubs? Are you doing them for rehab, strength work or whats the goal?

Like all decisions I make there's a long convoluted path to get here. I started with my dead hangs so I could get my money back at the fair, I paid 10 bucks to win 50 and couldn't so now I'm coming for my money. And it was all going fine, but then coronavirus hit and I took a month of of work... which is where my pullup bar is. So I started doing rows with similar times and loading parameters. Then my shoulder started to hurt. Badly. and it got a little better when I went back to work and started doing hangs again, but the pain never really went away.

Now I'm no strike at work. Yeah strike. can you believe it?! Who goes on strike? So I'm home again where there is no pullup bar, and I don't want to do rows, and my shoulder hurts. Enter the indian club.

Truth be told I like indian clubs (or clubbells or maces or whatever) for a lot of reasons, but one of them at the moment is that they make my shoulder feel good while putting an appreciable amount of support grip requirements on my hands. It's not the same as a pulllup but I think it will fill the gap. I like the mobility, core, and coordination requirements of them too, but I'm not totally sold on their utility just yet. As a side effect, they seem to be making my hip (which has had some bad sciatica/bursitis pain these last few months) happy too, So I'm going to keep on keeping on. I'm kind of working my way through the exercise progression in "indian clubs and how to use them" by E. Ferdinand Lemaire and it's kinda fun.

Wednesday 15th July 2020

** 2 Handed Swing - Neutral grip - 1" Handles **
- 80.0 lbs x 10 reps
- 92.5 lbs x 9 reps
- 105.0 lbs x 9 reps
- 72.5 lbs x 30 reps
- 80.0 lbs x 10 reps
- 97.5 lbs x 7 reps

Last friday I skipped squats cause my hip hurt badly (probably from my banded deadlifts last week) so I tried doing some barbell hip thrusts, which made my hip hurt aftwards, but it did feel better on wednesday. So I did some swings, and hit both of my requisite PR's. I may move swings to before deadlifts in the future, they felt good and I felt ready for more after them.


Thursday 16th July 2020

** Front Circle, Back Circle With One Arm, Back Circle Front Circle With The Other **
- 6.25 lbs x 48 reps

Did this by accident, went the wrong way but it was a 1 rep PR anyways.

** Reverse Front Circles, Reverse Back Circles With One Hand, Reverse Back Circles Reverse Front Circles With Opposite Hand **
- 6.25 lbs x 31 reps *1 rep PR*
- 6.88 lbs x 29 reps *volume PR*
- 6.88 lbs x 24 reps
- 11.25 lbs x 8 reps
- 13.13 lbs x 7 reps *heavy set PR*

I'll likely increase my 2.5 minute sets (the higher rep ones) to a 6.875lb weight to start and my 60 second sets to 13.125lbs. These weights seem to still get me volume PR's without being impaired by how many reps I can do in the given times.

 

[CRZA]

I see, so the reason you started the dead hangs was to win your money back? Haha, thats awesome. Ive seen those spinning pull up bar challange around and ive always been temted to try it. But You need to train for that kind of bar.

Strike during the pandemic? That seems a bit off. Hope it works out for you!!

I need to look into them. Seems like a good tool to have, just in case. Seems like you can work around certain injuries and quirks. Thats always a good thing. Hope you heal up fast man!

 

[Urban]

** 2 Reverse Front Circles, 2 Reverse Back Circles With One Hand, 2 Reverse Back Circles 2 Reverse Front Circles With Opposite Hand **
- 6.88 lbs x 17 reps
- 7.5 lbs x 15 reps
- 7.5 lbs x 14 reps
- 7.5 lbs x 11 reps

It was hot out today, but I was only expecting 15 reps on the first set so 17 was a pleasant surprise. No luck matching it at 7.5lbs though. Went for a heavier set at 13.125 at the end but it didn't feel safe or controlled at all.

 

[Urban]

** 2 Reverse Front Circles, 2 Reverse Back Circles With One Hand, 2 Reverse Back Circles 2 Reverse Front Circles With Opposite Hand **
- 6.88 lbs x 17 reps
- 7.5 lbs x 15 reps
- 7.5 lbs x 14 reps
- 7.5 lbs x 11 reps

It was hot out today, but I was only expecting 15 reps on the first set so 17 was a pleasant surprise. No luck matching it at 7.5lbs though. Went for a heavier set at 13.125 at the end but it didn't feel safe or controlled at all.

 

[Urban]

Built a pull-up bar at home. Let the hanging begin!

** 1 hand Bar Touches - 1 Inch Bar **
- Bodyweight x 2 reps
- Bodyweight x 4 reps
- Bodyweight x 1 rep

This was something I saw on a Magnus Midtbo video as somebody's warmup. Hang from one hand, touch the bar with the other hand, extend the arm back down, then repeat. Thought I'd give it a couple reps. and it got hard in a hurry. these were pretty controlled reps, about 5-6 seconds in between each one.

** Dead Hang - 1 Inch - 2 Hand- Overhand **
- bw x 90 seconds.
My records call this a PR, and that makes me happy since I have been using Indian Clubs/maces exclusively for grip work.

** Pull Up - 1 Inch **
- 1.0 lbs x 8 reps

Looks like I've lost a couple reps here as a result of not doing pullups for over a month, but it could have been worse.

** Dan John Pull up - 1 Inch - Thumbless **
2 x 4 reps @ 12 seconds each (hang + pullup = 12 seconds)

** 2 Handed Swing - Neutral grip - 1" Handles **
- 80.0 lbs x 9 reps
- 87.5 lbs x 9 reps
- 95.0 lbs x 15 reps *new 15 rep max
- 75.0 lbs x 30 reps *1.25 lb PR
- 82.5 lbs x 9 reps
- 90.0 lbs x 4 reps

Honestly fell into a pretty good groove with these despite some substantial hip pain. Got my 2 PR's so I can't complain and it hurt less than squatting or deadlifting. Sat on an icepack afterwards though.

 

[Urban]

FitNotes Workout - Monday 3rd August 2020

** Indian club - Back Circle + Lower Back Circle **
- 7.5 lbs x 36 reps
- 8.13 lbs x 32 reps
- 8.13 lbs x 32 reps
- 8.13 lbs x 28 reps
- 10.0 lbs x 15 reps
- 11.25 lbs x 15 reps

Started with the 7.5 club with the goal of 32 reps, crushed it. 8.125 for volume, then did some 1 minute sets with heavier weights and they went really well too.

** Sotts Press (In Front) **
- 45.0 lbs x 7 reps
- 50.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 55.0 lbs x 5 reps
- 45.0 lbs x 12 reps

Did this for some mobility work, still stretching out my hip, although this week I might do some step-ups since I was climbing off and on a chair last week drywalling a ceiling and had no real discomfort to speak of while doing it. so maybe being able to work in some unilateral work after swings twice week for a bit will keep me from falling behind on my road to "495"

 

[Urban]

Hip feels great today. Did weighted step-ups on friday, was sore as hell all weekend, and today i'm down to a 1-2 out of ten for pain. down from a 4-5 saturday/sunday.

** two clubs Parallel - 3/4 Front Circle, 3/4 Back Circle, Move To Starting Position Of Reverse Front Circle, 3/4 Reverse Front Circle, 3/4 Reverse Back Circle, Move To Starting Position Of Front Circle **
- 7.5 lbs x 16 reps
- 7.5 lbs x 22 reps
- 8.13 lbs x 22 reps
- 8.13 lbs x 22 reps
- 12.5 lbs x 7 reps
- 12.5 lbs x 8 reps

These felt good, the heavier sets bugged my shoulder a bit but it feels fine as I sit here typing this.

** Dead Hang - 1 Inch - 2 Hand- Overhand **
- 230.0 lbs x 60 reps
- 230.0 lbs x 60 reps

** Dan John Pull up - 1 Inch - Thumbless **
- 14.0 bpm x 7 reps
- 14.0 bpm x 5 reps

Did these at the same time, did my pullups to the timer, then waited out the remainder of the minute. Getting a lot of volume on my hands with the clubs, so I'm really just doing this for some stretching, callous maintenance, and get some pullup practice.

** Sotts Press (In Front) **
- 45.0 lbs x 15 reps
- 47.5 lbs x 13 reps
- 57.5 lbs x 13 reps

Got into these recently from a megsquats video a week or two ago. Was watching some olylifting mobility stuff and then the megsquats vid showed up on my feed. I kinda like them for some mobility work. The goal is about half your jerk, your jerk should be 40% of your deadlift, I pull a calculated 415 last time I checked, soe 57.5 x 13 is about right on the money for these. Really I just think of them as a stretch more than anything else. May go heavier for fun.

 

[Urban]

This was supposed to be yesterday's workout but my hip wasn't having it so I spent time stretching and resting. Woke up feeling g great today, so no reason not to make myself feel worse by working out!

** 2 Handed Swing - Neutral grip - 1" Handles **
- 80.0 lbs x 9 reps
- 90.0 lbs x 9 reps
- 98.75 lbs x 14 reps
- 76.25 lbs x 30 reps
- 85.0 lbs x 9 reps
- 95.0 lbs x 4 reps

Last week I had to stop after the third set, this week I pushed all the way through. Longer rests than I'd like (over three minutes instead of two even) but I got what I cam for and my hip wasn't too too bad.

** Step Up (13.5" Platform) **
- 15.0 lbs x 28 reps
- 15.0 lbs x 15 reps

As I discovered last week I can do these without pain, which is awesome. My axle is roughly 15 lbs so that the bar I used today to try and get max volume in 60 seconds. 28 seems slow, I'll shoot for 30 next time and see if I can squeeze some extra density into 60 seconds.