Results matching “Bird”

The new year sees the inclusion of additional lat work in my routines. A large part of this will be based around the humble chin-up (in all its wonderful variations); with the remainder made up with the current selection of rows and pulls.

Following some explosive incline benching - using only a slight incline, around 15 degrees - I sampled a version of the chin-up seldom seen (although Sylvester Stallone seems to like them): the Side-to-side chin-up. Execution is similar to a standard chin-up, with the only difference being that the chin is alternately brought to each wrist; rather than over the centre of the bar. Certainly a good way to help rectify any lateral imbalances.

Some weighted chin-ups followed - hopefully a few weeks of these will encourage respectable figures for the unweighted variety. They were certainly enough to see the subsequent reverse-grip bent rows finishing a little earlier than anticipated.

For the past few days things have gradually been moving into position for Hogmanay celebrations here. Temporary fences have been erected along footpaths, roads blocked and prime positions marked for viewing the concerts and fireworks displays in the Princes St Gardens. All solemnly overseen by Edinburgh Castle.

Keen to head back out into the festival atmosphere, today's workout was a somewhat abbreviated one - once again bringing the Zercher Squat into the light. Despite the odd nature of supporting the bar for these, the Zercher Squat still feels more natural than other squat varieties.

Now, time to see whether today's mild (and reasonably dry) weather holds out until midnight.

Apart from excellent GPP that is.

Prior to heading out for celebrations (of the 'another day older', not the 'deeper in debt') came a fairly intense ME BENCH workout. Fun stuff.

Worked up to a new Floor Press PR of 80kg, which will hopefully translate to a slight increase on the regular bench press next week. Although I'm still working out the subtleties of bench press leg drive, so it'll be an interesting battle.

Followed the pressing with a bit of dumbell rowing, which - when combined with a quick set of chin-ups - ensured that I was nicely pre-exhausted for the back exercises to come next. After a few sets of bent rows and a bit of shrugging (not to mention a pool of sweat that had gathered on the floor around me) I was more than ready to call it a day.

It's been a long time since Seiza formed a semi-regular part of my daily posture. I realised just how long when - in the interest of variety - I decided to try kneeling squats.

After a couple of light warmup sets I began working up to what I hoped was a respectable max (at least in light of regular squat totals). Discomfort soon turned to cramp, and as the followup attempts at the Romanian deadlift didn't do anything to alleviate matters (even the impromptu stretching didn't help as much as I'd hoped); it was time to arm myself with Thomas Kurz's Stretching Scientifically and spend some time reacquainting myself with this beautifully simple posture.

Following last week's testing of the various angles of my bench, today seemed like a good time to test out the decline possibilities. The bench really only allows a single decline position (approximately 15 degrees), yet that was quite enough to feel somewhat awkward. Leg drive was quickly replaced by a subtle hanging on as I slid further down the slope with each rep. Perhaps that's why I've been subconciously avoiding them.

After several relatively light sets (with a large part of the effort going into resisting the slide, rather than lifting the weight) I decided to move on to a bit of shoulder pressing, which at least meant I was sitting up for a while. Tiring as always.

Finally it was time to time to revisit Charles Poliquin's Gymnasts Extended Set Back Routine - guaranteed to have anyone recycling the air in the room after a few minutes. Twice through (rather than the expected three times) was enough for a satisfying, deep breathing, sweat inducing assurance of a good night's sleep.

There are a number of areas I'd like to improve in my squatting form, and the first of these is reducing the number of steps taken when unracking the bar and moving clear of the rack. Up until now I shuffled in a manner only Cliff Young would have appreciated.

After reading recently of the benefits of an offset starting position, I warmed up with a few sets of walkouts, using an offset and 2-3 steps. The offset certainly helped increase awareness of foot position, which in turn translated to the maximum 3 steps desired.

Following the walkouts came squats in three varieties - regular, box-free back squats; zercher squats using a sumo stance and hack squats with a conventional stance. The three of these conspired to make sure there was as much water hitting the floor here as on the ground outside.

Just came across a video of 23 year-old strongman Clayton Edgin rolling up a frying pan. Fantastic stuff.

For those interested in grip strength, Clay's article on tearing a deck of cards is definitely worth a read. Incidentally it's much, much harder than it looks.

After a couple of days living in a flat which was roughly the same temperature inside and out, the central heating was fixed late this afternoon - just prior to the scheduled workout. What followed can only be described as lethargic; by the end of the session the room could almost be mistaken for a sauna. Apart from the rack, of course.

Despite the heat however, I managed to add a rep or two to each exercise - particularly on the bent rows, which are fast gaining favour. With the upper back warmed up a little I decided to test out Kelso Shrugs; soon discovering that the limited usable space beneath the seat of my bench didn't afford quite enough room to do them properly. Time to look for alternative ways of doing them - on a board suspended across the pins of the rack perhaps.

Today I decided to test out the various angles my bench allows (by default - there are many more if I slip something under the feet) with some incline bench pressing. The gradual shift towards shoulder emphasis as the bench is inclined is all the more noticeable when sets are performed at each setting.

In addition to flat and decline settings, the bench (certainly not what I'd buy now, but it's a worthy workhorse) has adjustable settings at low, medium and steep inclination. These correspond approximately to 15, 30 and 45 degrees respectively.

All incline bench sessions prior to this one have exclusively made use of the steepest setting, however I think a little more experimentation with the other angles is in order.

Following a bit of tricep work I returned to the strange angle of the incline bench press - this time standing, for some bent rows. Together with the Upright rows (video - 4MB, 2min53sec, .wmv) which rounded things off, these are set for a lot more action in future workouts.

I don't consciously avoid squatting, yet a brief glimpse through my recent workouts shows that I probably don't perform this wonderful movement as often as I should. I'm going with a 'strange, unconscious fear' theory.

In order to rectify this situation I started today's workout with some box squatting (more accurately bench squatting, which will take its place until I have time to construct a box for the purpose). It wasn't until I put a bar on my shoulders that I was reminded of wednesday's Hise shrugs. It's actually the first trap excercise I've done that's prompted any sort of pain the following day. Definitely one to include in future back workouts.

The squatting was followed by some ab and calf work; the calf exercises also being overlooked almost as often as the squat. Not quite sure why, but it's something that's set to change in future sessions.