GPP training in progress.

Before I start anything really intense in the way of training I still need to do the GPP part where I 'work in' the muscles so I'm sure that my flexibility is intact, my joints, tendons and ligaments are up to the stress, and muscles are ready for heavy loading.

Oh yeah, and so I don't accidentally cripple myself by training everything in new ways so I get DOMS all over, dammit. That hurts ;)

Btw: sorry about not getting back to you on the mobility issue: I'm borrowing some of the exercises from 8 Weeks to Monster Shoulders and Essential 8 Mobility Drills adapted to address the specific issues with A.s shoulders. I've given him some homework to do, but so far he's only been half-assing them which is why I'm nagging him to call the PT he's got a referral for ;)

Some notes on yesterday's workout:

It was an early Sunday morn and sunny for once, so I went for a bit of a walk. 15 minutes out the front door at the fastest clip I could manage, and turn around to head home at same speed. Not much of a workout in terms of physical strain but the movement helped dispose of the last bits of DOM lingering from the previous workout.

Some notes on today's workout:

Warmup: General calisthenics/agility/dynamic mobility drills somewhat inspired by what Nick Tumnello's been doing in his seminars.

Exercises performed:

1: Power clean to front squat to push press; 5x3@110lb, 1min rest between sets.

2: Strict form chinups/ Dumbbell floor press@50lbs; 5 reps/5reps ea. hand, 3 sets, 45/90 sec rest.

3: Renegade rows@50lbs/dynamic bodyweight lunge; 10 reps ea. arm/ 10 reps ea.leg. 0/90sec rest.

Mostly just finding my correct training weight - I need to go up by about 10-15lbs on the floor presses, add more reps to the chins, the renegade rows were about correct weight so next time I'll just add 2-4lbs, and the lunges are strictly for mobility/flexibility work. Legs get hit enough on squat days that I don't need to add more pain to the mix, but it's good to work in some mobility/stability/flexibility work as well wherever appropriate.

Right now I think this is a "good enough" workout; I'm going to try doing some more of this GPP with higher intensities in the coming week leading up to trying one of Cosgrove's programs later on.

Oh man, been a while...

Well, I was feeling a bit uninspired, and then the bleeping surgery sidelined me for weeks, dammit, and various things sidetracked me.

Anyway. I'm still coaching A. - his shoulder mobility has improved somewhat though I'm still nagging him to pick up the phone and make that appointment with a physiotherapist. We'll see how he does today; the mobility restrictions in his shoulders means he can't squat due to not being able to hold the bar. Not being able to squat is teh suck for my favourite beginner's program so I've been making him do stepups instead. He thinks I'm mean and says he's got trouble walking for days afterwards, which I think is a good sign ;)

'Course, I've but on a couple pounds due to the downtime that I could do with not having on me so I suppose I'm going to have to start counting for real again if I want to get the sixpack instead of this 4-pack I have right now. The interesting thing is that while I've gained about 10-11lbs since my low last summer, I haven't lost much of anythign in the way of definition. Which I think is pretty encouraging, all things considered.

Some notes on today's workout:

I'm engaged in what I have to call general physical preparedness right now; I'm not pushing myself nearly as hard as I am capable of. I'll be sticking to a conditioning program like this for at least this week, and then I think I'm going to commit to doing one of Alwyn's workouts again.

Warmup: Tabata jump rope intervals - these are probably not true Tabatas, that would require a bit more loading to hit 170% of VOMax but 4 minutes of 20sec all-out/10sec rest still kicks my ass. especially since it's been forever since I've done them.

Exercises performed:

superset 1: Chinups/stepups - 5 chins, then 5 stepups ea. leg. No weights, no rest between sets.

Superset 2: 1-arm elevated t-pushup*/1-legged elevated stiff-legged deadlift - 5 reps ea. limb, 60lbs DB on the deads.

superset 3: Gironda dips/1-arm row 5@60lbs ea. arm.

4: curl-to-overhead press, 38.5lbs, 3x5 reps ea. arm.

Each superset performed 3 times.

*elevated pushups look like this - I added difficulty by continuing into a T-pushup on reaching the top of the elevated pushup. Fun ;) One-legged deads performed on top of same elevated blocks, so ROM is increased. Also fun.

Well, when I count reps I must say that the last chinup series I didn't get 5 reps, I got 3, then had a 30 second pause and did 1.5. So 3x5 with the recovery period being the time it takes me to do 5 stepups per leg is more in the way of a goal than actuality.

Yeah, exercse 4 is pointless when I've already done chins, but it was still fun to include ;)