Monday Training

Didn't do workout #2 last night so I could rest... of course I end up not being able to sleep. But that's another matter all together.

• Incline Bench
• 45 x 20
• 95 x 10
• 135 x 5
• 180 x 3
• (210 x 1, 180 x 3) x 4
• 135 x 10
• Seated Cable Row
• 35 x 10
• 50 x 10
• (77.5 x 8) x 4
• Paused Bottom Squats
• 45 x 10
• 135 x 5
• 185 x 5
• 225 x 5
• 275 x 4
• 305 x 3
• 340 x 1
• (305 x 3) x 3

Saturday Morning Training

• Weighted Chinup (Neutral Grip)
• 0 x 5
• Pyramid of 27.5 x (1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1)
• Weighted Dip
• 0 x 5
• Pyramid of 27.5 x (1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1)
• Barbell Squat
• 45 x 10
• 135 x 10
• 3 x (185 x 10)
• Barbell Hip Thrust
• 135 x 6
• 185 x 6
• 4 x (225 x 6)

Next Workout

Not sure if I"ll have time to hit the gym tonight or tomorrow morning. Planned, however, is:

• Weighted Pull-Ups
• Weighted Dips
• Barbell Hip-Thrust
• High-Rep Squats
• Ab-Wheel Rollout

Friday is traditionally my light-weight lower body day. In my first cycle I used dumbbell cossack squats. I love the cossack squat, it's one of my favorite lunge/squat variations. Not only does it look cool but it gives a wonderful hamstring and hip stretch. Lately, however, my hip flexors have been giving me a bit of pain. I've been more mindful to stretch them every day and have been paying strict attention to my squat form. There's a point in a weighted cossack squat where I do feel my adductors/flexors fire hard, so I took them out to give things a rest.

Barbell hip-thrusts are a wonderful glute-dominant movement so they seem like a good idea to throw in. High-rep normal squats as well. Something I can hold my form easily in while getting the blood moving through my lower body. I'm thinking sets of 10-20, somewhere in the 135-225 pound range.

Goals

Because I like lists so much:

• General Goals
• Strength: 2/3/4/5 Plates
• Bench 315 (currently? estimated 250-270)
• Squat 405
• Deadlift 495 (last time I maxed 455 w/out straps, my squat max was 370 then)
• Pull-up + BW equivalent (1RM currently ~50% BW)
• Bodyweight Skills
• Hold free hanstand for 60s
• Back lever
• Circus Skills
• Juggle 5 balls
• Juggle 4 clubs
• "Banana Peel" Handstand
• Standing 1-handed back lift

• Training Goals/Guidelines
• Increase OHP (useful for acro lifts)
• Paused-bottom squats (useful for acrobatics)
• Upper-body pulling (useful for aerial)
• Increase vertical leap
• Static holds
• Stability
• Bodyweight skills
• Work on lines (toes pointed!)
• Increase flexibility

Since I started training regularly a few months ago I noticed my strength seems to work in 6-8 week cycles, so I'm programming for that. Two weeks ago I maxed out my squat and hit 405, but I'm pretty sure I can't do that regularly. If all goes according to plan I should be doing three sets of 405 x 1 in 4 to 5 weeks. Once I do that I may swap out my goals a bit. Work towards cutting weight + bodyweight skills for a cycle or two. I'd love to drop the belly-fat, it'll help for shows a lot. I know that I have a lot of goals, but it seems to work well for me. Instead of only focusing on one thing, I have some guidelines that I'll swap out during cycles. Each cycle can focus on a handful of items while still working towards overall goals elsewhere. This cycle is a strength cycle, so I'm working towards those numbers. Next one may be a flexibility and bodyweight skill cycle. We'll see how I'm feeling!

What I'm Reading Today

• Training the Unstable Client
• 6 Benefits of Creatine
• Examine.com's page on Creatine
• Shoulder Instability and Rotator Cuff Issues
• As an acrobat and an aerial teacher I'm always interested in shoulder health!

Thinking about buying this book too. We'll see; I've got enough to read on my plate as is. 

Tuesday Conditioning

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my conditioning and stretching days. Lately I've been doing an hour or so of "movement play". Think yoga + playground + acrobatics training + whatever seems fun at the moment. Mostly influenced by what I see happening at Bodytribe Fitness. 

I somehow managed to pull a muscle just under my ribs during my private lesson Tuesday afternoon. It's a really strange injury, as it doesn't hurt unless I'm bending or twisting in odd fashions. My aerial lesson was with a 9-year old we'll call "Tigger". Because of his age I've created a series of "animal" warm-ups to start our lesson with. Duck-walks, gator craws, bear crawls, crab-walks, etc. They're extra fun to do when we make animal noises. We were doing Peter-Pan leaps when I pulled my muscle. No idea how it happened, but it doesn't seem to affect any of my strength or stability, so I'll work through it and be aware of it.

After my lesson I spent about thirty-minutes doing soft-tissue work. Foam-rolling and Lacross-ball massage. I've found my hamstrings don't feel anything from a foam rolling. Instead I take a stool, put the lacross ball on it and push my leg down as hard as I can. That really digs into the muscle. My hamstrings have a history of knots and cramping so I've been paying extra attention to them as of late. 

This was followed up by an hour of movement play. Started off with some tumbling. A few sets of 5 cartwheels (leading with both sides) and 5 somersaults (leading with both sides). Basic yoga followed after, then I started combining it with fun movements. Rolling across the floor, jumping on the the trapeze and going giant-rolls... somewhere in there I also did a bunch of sets of handstands against the wall, holding for 60s. I even played with one-handed handstand against the wall, though I didn't time them. The session was finished up with some yin-style long-hold yoga poses. Pigeon, Bound-Angle, etc. 

Later on that night Alison and I spent a lot of time running our Acrobatics routine. It's getting pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. We added in a one-handed back-lift. Not sure if it's going into the routine for this Sunday's show, but I'm really really really psyched about getting that lift down. 

Wednesday Training

Late night training (midnight-1:30). Had a cup of double-bagged-ultra-steeped green tea pre-workout and it kept me going strong. Tastes like shit, but once you get past the vomit taste the caffeine makes you want to jump through a wall. Anyhoo:

• Squats!
• BW x 10
• 45 x 10
• 135 x 5
• 225 x 5
• 315 x 3
• 350 x 3
• 380 x 1
• 430 x 0 (no squat, just walked out to feel the weight)
• 350 x 3
• 385 x 1
• 350 x 3
• 385 x 1
• 350 x 3 
• 185 x 10
• Behind-the-Neck Press (strict, no push-press)
• 45 x 10
• 75 x 8
• 95 x 8
• 105 x 8
• 95 x 5
• 95 x 6
• Pull-ups (variety of grips)
• 10
• 10
• 10

I also spent about 30 minutes doing some yoga at the end, interspersed with the pull-ups. Last time I tried supersetting the pull-ups and presses, but my shoulders couldn't keep up as much. I think I may try supersetting squats and pull-ups next week. While I know it's important to stay steady and keep on my program, I feel a little variety is A-OK. 

Next workout I'll be doing weighted pull-ups and dips. Still trying out different methods of programming there. I used to simply work up to heaviest I could do, then back off to sets of 3. Last week I tried at pyramid 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps at 25lbs. I think this week I'll do that again with 27.5. At this point my weighted dip feels stronger than my pull-up, but I'm sticking with the same weight so I don't have to go messing with my belt. 

Monday's Numbers

• Incline Bench
• 45 x 16
• 95 x 8
• 135 x 5
• (175 x 3, 205 x 1) x 4
• 175 x 3
• 135 x 10
• 45 x 25
• Seated Cable Row
• 30 x 20
• 45 x 10
• (75 x 8) x 4
• Paused Bottom Squat
• 45 x 10
• 135 x 5
• 225 x 5
• 275 x 4
• 335 x 1
• (300 x 3) x 3

By the time my second workout rolled around I was exhausted from the day's work. Got to the gym around 1am, so I toned the volume down and didn't do as many single-triple sets. Didn't deadlift either, just threw in some goblets squats to get the blood flowing. My rowing numbers dropped when I got more strict with the movement. I've been keeping an eye on my hips to avoid any hip movement in my row. 

• Close-Grip Bench
• 45 x 10
• 45 x 10
• 95 x 10
• 95 x 10
• 135 x 5
• 135 x 5
• 190 x 3
• 220 x 1
• 190 x 3
• 190 x 3
• Bent-Over Row
• 45 x 16
• 95 x 12
• 145 x 8
• 175 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• Goblet Squat
• 50 x 10
• 50 x 10
• Dumbbell Alternating Curl
• 25 x 45
• 25 x 45

Monday Training

Beginning of the week, beginning of a blog. Seems appropriate. 

I'm currently running a three-day full-body weights program of my own devising. I've tried to keep it pretty simple, which has helped me to stay consistent and steady in my workouts. The gist of it is as follows

• Upper body push movement
• Upper body pull movement
• Lower body movement
• Abdominal work
• Joint work

Each day picks a movement for heavy loading, one for medium loading, and one for light loading. They cycle through so as to maximize recovery. Abdominal work is sometimes skipped (I do a lot of it during teaching days at the Flyhouse). Joint work means picking a joint (elbow/knee/etc.) and doing very-high reps with very light weights. The goal is to get blood flowing through and to strengthen the connective tissue. Sometimes I'm able to fit two workouts in (one morning, one evening), and that seems to be helping things as well.

Monday's workout will be:

• First Workout
• Incline Bench Press (H)
• Seated Cable Row (L-M)
• Paused-Bottom Squats (M-H)

• Second Workout
• Close-Grip Bench Press (H)
• Bent-Over Row (M)
• Speed Deadlift (L-M)

• Somewhere in either workout
• Ab wheel roll-outs (probably from standing)
• Dumbbell Curl
• Skin-the-Cats

I really like a lot of the ideas I read from Paul Carter over at Lift-Run-Bang. As such I haven't "classic" bench pressed in a while. Incline press appears to be letting me develop strength without worrying about form nearly as much. Close-grip bench press used to really bother my wrists, but as I've slowly built it up my hands and wrists have started to become accustomed to it. Which is awesome; it feels like a really solid and safe movement for my shoulders.