Quick goal update.

Over in the left panel of this blog, it states my current goals. These goals have been in place for quite a while, and may not represent quite what I'm aiming for at the moment, but I'll see how I'm going with them anyway.

15 pullups - Last workout I did 3 sets of pullups with 3 kg's of weight, 8, 8, and 6 reps. I'll work it up to 3x8, then increase the weight. I don't know my max reps with bodyweight only, but I reckon I could do 15.

Handstand 10 secs - I'm still working on handstands, although I've been negelecting balance work for press work, so my times haven't really improved.

10 handstand pushups - I might be able to do these against a wall... not sure how many reps.

Flag - I still suck at these!


AbWheel rolls from feet - I don't own an abwheel at the moment, but they're fairly cheap, so I might invest soon.

Handstand press - Working on these from a frog stand position. I'm building the strength to get vertical, but my balance is still dodgy. I may be overtraining a little, as I'm getting some pain down the edge of my triceps and lats when I do these.

Strict form muscleups - My MU's are coming along nicely due to the weighted PU's and Dips progression I'm doing. I can kip MU fairly well now, working on getting both elbows over simultaneously. Strict form is still a prime goal, and will only come with proper progression. I see too many people getting complacent with only doing kipping MU's, and never trying to go any further. I am not these people.

2 x bodyweight deadlift - My DL is at 115kg right now, after not having trained it for a while... Irregular gym sessions mean that it will take a while to get back to where I want to be. My bodyweight is around 72kgs right now, so I need to pull 144 for my goal. I've done 140 before, for 5 reps, so this is a very realistic goal.

1.5 x bodyweight squat - My squat has suffered a blow very recently as I received some form critique from a huge guy (strength coach apparently) at the gym who incidentally was front squatting 140. Basically my thoracic extension has gone to shit, and I'm losing all rigidity in my spine as I come out of the hole, and it's generally not pretty. This is due to gradual form creep, and needs to be fixed. I think that one of my problems is that I'm pushing my ass too far backwards, which means I have to counterbalance by leaning too far forwards. This leads to a position at the bottom of the squat where I don't have the flexibility or strength to lock my spine, and it just bends.
I'm dealing with this problem in the following ways:

1. Thoracic flexibility exercises. Some of these involve tennis balls and pain.
2. Dropping 20 or 30 kgs off my squat until I can do it right.
3. Beaking down my form, and concentrating on cues to make sure I break at the knee and hip at the same time, and not "good morning" out of the hole.
4. Maybe doing some front squats, as without proper extension, you drop the bar.

As for getting it up to 1.5 x my bodyweight (108kg), It is within my grasp, but not at the cost of proper form.

I'll report back with my progress.

Training, training.

Just trained both days of the weekend, and I'm a little tired.

Saturday was a leaving jam for Panos, who I didn't know very well, but it turned out to be quite a good jam. We started off at Vauxhall, and for a while it was just me and Panos, Robin, and a few other guys. There is scaffolding up around the building there right now, which was too good to resist, and I trained a few laches (which I haven't done much of at all before) and tried some fluid movement through the bars. It was fun, but hell on the hands. Panos showed us a few wall runs, which I did (surprisingly) first time! It may have something to do with the supershoe grip of my FiveTens, but I was happy none the less! Also trained some catpass precisions, arm jumps, precisions (Vauxhall is very versatile).

Lauri and Dave arrived soon after, and by this time the area was becoming quite crowded. Apparently it was the 3Run Family Jam that day, so London was full of out-of-towners, sessioning all of the best spots.

We got together a small group of us and headed off toward Southbank, finding spots along the way. here was a huge catpass over a big block that I was very close to clearing... maybe next time. We made is o Jubilee Garden (I think?) just next to the Eye, and hung around for a while sizing up a cat to arm, which I couldn't commit to... so I went and practiced my handstand press that Lauri has been teaching me. It's from a frog stand position, but it's a good step in the progression. I was at this point that I found out that Lauri lives in Kilburn, which is quite close to me, so we organised to train together the following day.

Sunday I met up with Lauri at a park next to Kilburn Park tube station. It's a nice little park with some solid equipment, some picnic tables, and some nice walls. We warmed up, stretched, and found ourselves a nice couple of catpass precisions which we both had to work up to. After we both got it solidly, I began sizing up what it would take to clear the wall we were precisioning to, and nearly got the balls to do it... but left it for next time.
We played around a bit on the walls, and equipment, until a friend of Lauri's - Jo(?) - turned up to join us. Jo wanted to show us a little fitness area she had found at Primrose Hill, so we set off walking, stopping off along the way at various spots. By the time we made it there, my energy levels were waning, but I'm glad we made it. It's basically a little area with various fitness apparatus including bars (high, and parallel), rings, etc with some good spots to drill rail precisions at a safe height, and do quite a few other things.
It was a good couple of days training.

It's been a few days since if been to the gym, but my latest numbers are as follows:
Squat - 100kg 3x5
Press - 45kg 3x5
Dead - 115kg 1x5
PowerClean - 57.5kg 5x3
PullUps - 2kg 3x8
Dips - 4kg 10-10-8