Fall Update

Well i haven't posted in a small while, but i figured i would get in a little writing just to keep this blog moving. My linear progression and weight gain has been going pretty smoothly; i'm loving squats more and more as i get stronger, and the same goes for deadlifts but as a hate thing. The deads are such an all-encompassing lift that as i see more weight go onto the bar each session, i'm almost getting annoyed at the knowledge of how tough it will be. That said, all aspects of my strength and power have improved, with my grip strength serving as a serious exclamation point to that-due to my wrists being messed up and weakened for so long, my grip has noticeably changed.

I've also been glad to see that incorporating a metcon/power/speed day has helped with maintaining endurance, while adding on to my strength gains for increased explosiveness in my movements.

Outside of training, i have been keeping busy with school, band (jazz, marching, and varsity) studying for the SAT and ACT, and trying to hang out with friends as much as possible. This means that i haven't been sleeping as much as i would like (8+ hours) but i've been taking steps to change that. I'm also continuing to work on my juggling, balance, and other projects, though these are more spare time affairs, whereas in the summer i had much more time to dedicate.

And most recently i was in Wisconsin this past MEA break to check out Beloit college and Madison-the drive up was tremendous, as the weather was great, and the fall colors were on full display as we traveled through rural Minneosta and Wisconsin. When we arrived, i found Beloit to be a pretty interesting school (and struck an incredible resemblance to the Animal House campus) what with the new science building, tunnels under the school, and native american burial mounds, but i think that it is too small for me; there are 3000 some students, and you can walk across the campus in 15-20 minutes if you take your time.

In contrast, Madison practically overloaded my senses when we got there-people were everywhere, it was very much like a city rather than a little college town, and with all that there was to see, i enjoyed it very much. We met up with some friends at the Union by accident, and after touring around with some older siblings and other relatives, got a pretty nice feel for the campus (or at least what can be done in 6 hours). I'll be heading back to visit in November, and i'm looking forward to seeing the Badgers football team play, as well as what else there is around the city.

From Summer to School; the Inevitable Transition

So here it is: the last (gorgeous) day of my summer away from school..i'm here at my computer, prepping for the day a quarter to 9 am. Before i embark on the rest of my day (which consists of lifting heavy and baking muffins and cupcakes) i decided that i should like to reflect upon my summer, which was full of plenty highs and a few lows.

In summers past, i had sometimes found myself at the 1st of September, wondering just where the hell my free time went? Today, i don't feel this way, and i realize why. This time, i went out of my way to constantly try to discover new things and work on various projects. I hardly played video games (though this weekend i played a ton of tower defense games) and watched less tv during the prime of the day. My mornings and nights had time for this, but i made sure that i always tried to get things done that i won't be able to even think about during school.

Anyway, let's start the recap!











-Bike trips to Hidden Beach (my favorite hippy/nudist/chill place)
-Buddhist Monks who did grandma's funeral came and spent time with us
-Got over my fear of heights in tall trees (40-50 ft)
-Played Missions at the new Highlands playground
-Botched Free Cooler Day, which we hoped would provide 200 free Caribou Coffee Coolers
-Bowling ball was bought at garage sale; made for fun in the pool
-I toughened my feet to the point where i can run and walk normally without worrying about where i step
-Went bridge jumping
-Worked on my table tennis game
-Went to the Irish Fair for Flogging Molly
-Attempted to read an entire anime series (all 26 volumes) for free at Barnes&Noble
-Tried goodies at the State Fair, like Fried Fruit on a Stick (no chocolate covered bacon though) and got condoms on a stick
-Went to the University of Minnesota, did parkour, met Zac Cohn as well as some guys from the Minnesota Parkour community
-Learned how to Canoe
-Developed a decent level of beginner's juggling (can get 4 balls at once)
-Balance is much improved; especially at heights
-Read oodles of good books..The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (vol. 1 and 2), The Celestine Prophecy, The Alchemyst, The Tao of Pooh, several Magic School Bus Books
-Won our House league soccer championship again
-Made a mesopotamian pyramid out of sand at Hidden Beach
-Saw Pineapple Express
-Learned Random Tidbits, such as why there are holes in Swiss Cheese, histories of Atlantis and John Henry, and the background of the musical group LadySmith Black Mambazo

There are still things that i want to do, however..
-Soccer Tennis
-Ping Pong Grand Slam Tour (this one i won't explain, as it's a secret..or i could, but i've got to wrap this up)
-Get the 200 free coffee coolers
-Play tree tag
-Missions at Highlands more
-Make Bow and Arrow
-Make a Boomerang
-More Concerts
-More Fun

Right, so there's my wrap up! This summer was a great one, and I'm hoping that this fall, winter, and spring bring more fun, more good people, and more memorable experiences.

New Cycle, New Focus

Ok, so after these past 3 weeks (+ a day or so) i have dropped my morning weight by about 7 lbs while maintaining muscle mass for the most part. Again, this was using a 4 days/week plan where i focused on metabolic circuits, sprints, and some compound lifting. I've noticed definite changes in my body composition, so i know that i've been making progress to back up what the scale has been saying, and since i've gotten down to the 160-162 lb area, i'm now going to transition into a reg-park inspired 5x5 program for strength.

The basic idea is this..

Monday:
5x5 back squat
5x5 barbell row
5x5 dips
RC work

Tuesday:
Metabolic Circuit

Wednesday:
Off

Thursday:
5x5 deadlift
5x5 seated row
5x5 overhead press
RC work

Friday:
Metabolic Circuit

Saturday, Sunday:
Off

For the next two weeks i will try to consume enough calories to maintain my bodyweight around 160-162 before changing the program to 3 str. and 1 met. days as i attempt to slowly gain weight.

Goals Revisited

So after realizing that i can back squat a good distance past parallel with solid high bar form as well as knock out 16 strict pull ups cold, i've decided to alter my goals a bit.

-1 muscle up (again)
-9 ft broad jump (measuring to heels)
-15 dips
-20 pull ups (i'll use strict for testing, but kipping to get there)
-5x235 back squat

Most of these are fairly short term; i'm confident that i can get the muscle up, 15 dips, and back squat by the end of my next strength cycle because most of this will be reestablishing central nervous system efficiency; i've achieved these before. Even the pull ups are a possibility, but after getting in the mid to upper teens, it seems that i will have to actually do specific high rep work to get the 20. The broad jump will be the difficult one, as it will take both heavy lifting, power and technical practice, but hopefully i'll have it sooner rather than later.

Mosh day

I wasn't planning on doing a write-up on my musical adventures yesterday, but i feel compelled..around 4 o'clock i went to a daytime gig of some friends of mine-they were playing near the university of minnesota campus in the dinkytowner "cafe" (pretty much a bar with a mini pit and stage). A "dank, dark, dungeon" we decided, but it served as the stage for my first mosh pit of the day, which was to the music of the Hospital Bombs, as well as others like Jesus and the Homeless Bastards, The Robert Downey Jr.'s..and so on. The music was pretty good, and i got a shoulder in the eye, cutting my face a little. As it turned out, this was just a little sample spooning of what was to come.

After the gig, i called around to get directions to Harriet Island, which was the location of this year's Irish Fair. I wish i had spent more time in the fair, but i only went to hear Flogging Molly this time round the bend. After hurriedly finding our friends who were waiting for us, Tom (buddy) and I took a quick biffy break and dashed over to the music stage, where a few thousand people were gathered, making it a little difficult to get near the front. Through a little jackassery and the kindness of strangers, we emerged within 100 ft or so of Flogging Molly, and in the thick of the second song's Mosh Pit. From then on it was nonstop chaotic, sweaty (yum) fun; the individual incidents are too many to name, but suffice to say i took on some beast of a guy wearing only suspenders and a beret, and was picked up and thrown by a fully clothed fellow who looked oddly out of place. The music was also terrific; the group sounded just like their recordings, though live singing always leaves the songs subject to a little change for the crowd. I'm hoarse from screaming so much (i can't say woo) but it was worth it..the night ended by continuing a little longer, as we called for "one more song!" to the tune of Oleeee, ole-ole-oleeee...


They went out with a bang, thanking the crowd, Minnesota, security guards, and the like while we regrouped and began to wander away from the stage in a happy haze. It took another hour or so for us to actually get home, but we agreed the outing was definitely well worth it, and certainly could have ended up worse: my phone was out of batteries, we were in St. Paul which we don't know that well, we had 2 or 3 gallons of gas left, it was night time, and we didn't have much beyond a foggy inkling as to what highways to take. However, in the end we got to enjoy friends, music, and meet some cool folks that made the night special.. all while making it home- bruised, happy, and tired, planning on absolutely doing this again.

The Start of My Offseason

Right, so im now in my offseason from baseball, and the only physical exertion i'm planning besides my training is the non-organized kind: climbing, parkour, exploring, canoing, biking, ping-pong (yay) and the like. That said, i'm going to spend the next 28 days on a fat loss period; i want to cut down before beginning a slow mass gain. I don't like the idea of getting fat for a short time, cutting, fat again, and so on, so i just want to get my body fat lower, and then maintain it while slowly gaining muscle.

I was gong to be following a Cosgrove method for fat loss, combining complexes and interval training, but i'm tossing out the complexes, and replacing them with bodyweight circuits and compound lifting. I'll be cutting back by only 500 or so calories (probably less at the start) while taking a protein shake to add about 50g of protein a day to maintain muscle.

The game plan is 4 days a week..

Monday: Bodyweight Circuit
Tuesday: Sprint Intervals + compound lifts
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: Bodyweight Circuit
Friday: Sprint Intervals + compound lifts
Saturday: rest
Sunday: rest

New Mexico Trip

So last weekend i headed down to New Mexico for the better part of three days for my aunt's wedding, hoping to support her, but also to go and enjoy the landscape and mountainous region of Taos. Getting off of the plane i realized that, prior to this trip, i had never seen mountains before. Not in person at least. So from the 2 hour trip from Albuquerque to Taos, all i could do was ogle the mountains that rose up on either side of us as we drove through valleys and along the Rio Grande River. To be honest, up until the last 1.5 days of the trip, i really didn't talk to anyone all that much-i kept daydreaming about scaling these steep cliffs and jumping all over them. For a period of time, it seemed that i wasn't going to get to do anything though; scheduling and a lack of initiative kept getting in the way..lucky for me, my mom and uncle wanted to hike on a mountain very badly, so we convinced ourselves to wake up at 5 am two days in a row (sunday and monday) so as to have enough time to enjoy the scenery. As for the wedding (the main reason i went, of course) it went just fine about 10 ft from the edge of the Rio Grande Gorge; an awesome view for anyone who's fortunate enough to see it. Anyway, i've uploaded some pictures, most of which i feel don't do justice to what i saw (to be honest i've heard this phrase plenty of times but didn't truly understand it until now).

where we hiked

me + uncles

my mama

awesome cliff face; you can't tell but it's incredibly steep from where i could see

bride and groom + random bikers from texas

Right Now

Well, I have begun doing a little physical training, which i've enjoyed, but i've really been focusing on improving my flexiblity, mobility, toughening up my feet, and balance. I've been doing a bit of tree climbing to become more comfortable at heights again, though i've had to cut down on any of that right now as my wrist tightened up out of nowhere the other day. It's getting better, but that's a little annoying.

I'm hoping that i'll make it through baseball season unscathed, then i can begin to train hard. In the meantime, i'm just enjoying my summer.

Summer's round the bend..

Well i haven't been training much, I haven't been exercising on my own very much, and though I wish i could be doing something more physical than just organized sports, my "sedentary" (relative term here) state isn't bothering me a whole lot. A year ago i wouldn't have stopped training for more than a week, but i feel confident i will make the cns gains that i had achieved pre-baseball season, and I should be able to surpass myself this offseason.

That said, my focus has definitely shifted from many things towards baseball; I've found a good balance of drive and fun, so that i'm not obsessing, but i'm certainly concentrating on my game, and at the end of this spring season, my play spoke for itself. I ended on a very solid note, and i'm hoping to improve more in the summer.

The one thing that i'm a little torn between is my love of movement and my sport of baseball; training for these things, while similar with some carryover in between, is different. In baseball, a bigger, stronger (when it comes to moving other objects) player is more ideal. In things like parkour, climbing, and just the games i like to play, a lighter, enduring physique is more desirable. I'm hoping to strike a balance, but right now i'm placing baseball over things like parkour, as I can do those anytime, but baseball is a seasonal thing, and i might stop once i leave high school.

So here's the plan: I'm hoping to gain around 10 lbs of muscle mass over five months this offseason (starting at the end of July) through a mix of weights and bodyweight; I won't have a problem maintaining things like speed and quickness, but i'd like to be able to still muscle up, climb, jump far/high, etc. Now, 180 lbs or so is not a crazy heavy body, so i don't think there should be a problem with the added hypertrophy. And if there is, i'll just have to get so strong that i can move my body easily anyway. It's all relative i suppose.

As for my crappy joints:
1) Wrists-i've been doing finger band extensions and light grip work for a couple months now, and they are peachy keen. I've even been able to push up off of them in games, so i'm feeling good about them.

2) Elbow(s)-i realized, thanks to lengthy batting practice sessions, that my left elbow receives most of its trouble from excessive elbow extension, so i've been countering that with bicep curls and some soft tissue work with a baseball.

basically, it's important that i work the opposite muscles to prevent injury, and i'm glad that i've had the break from training to realize that. Hopefully i will be able to train uninterrupted from August to Next January.

Pyrros Dimas

I found the video that youtube wouldn't allow to be shown.

Pyrros-Dimas-training-75 - Get Video Code

Update

Well i haven't updated in a while, so i'm just going to pop this one in.

We have had some gorgeous days here in minnesota over the past 2 weeks, but for every good one, there has been snow and rain showers. This erratic weather is really annoying; we're in april and i can see snow outside my window! Crappy weather aside, I've been focusing on school, music, and baseball right now, while maintaining (or slightly improving upon) my strength. In my last update, i said that i would be joining the rugby team, but that didn't happen due to conflicts with baseball. Despite the lack of outdoor playing time, my skills have been coming around nicely, though i pushed a little too hard with my arm at first, my swing was crap (better now though) and i seemed to have lost my glove..hopefully i'll have it before my first game monday.

As far as my overall bodily health is concerned, things seem to be getting better; my wrists are consistently fine, i don't have to fear holding onto heavy things for a long time (though i did have a close call while buildering over spring break). My elbows have been improving, since i have drastically cut down the volume on all of my training, and am hardly doing pull ups or dips. Just for a change of pace, rows and pressing have taken their place for the time being, though i'm slowly building up what i can handle with pull ups. I've also been stretching a lot more, so my squat depth is getting better and better; i'm hoping to get a more upright olympic squat by summertime, but we'll see.

So right now, i'm trying to do lower volume training on a more frequent basis, and in the future i'm hoping to continue doing so (maybe after baseball season or between spring and summer leagues..?) at a higher intensity. I'm also hoping to begin some hand balancing and olympic lifting this summer, though it really depends on how my wrists are.

Here come the Bulgarians!

1998 Training Hall. This was a teaser from ironmind..

Eduardo Guadamud squatting 310 kilos

the pyrros dimas video was taken off youtube (maybe infringement of copyrights by someone..? i don't know) so i'm putting up this video, as well as a following one of the bulgarians in their training hall.

Update: Spring is near!

Well i haven't posted anything in a while, so i'm just writing a quicky update as to what is going on.

Although there is plenty of snow and ice on the ground, spring isn't far off, and for that I'm ecstatic. Today i was outside and actually felt the warmth of sun on my face! Now don't get me wrong, this past winter has been fine, but because some projects/plans never got followed up on (like rebuilding a badass snow fort-gloo that melted last year) I'm looking eagerly towards spring. With it will come warm weather, fresh grass (which thanks to allergy shots i'm no longer allergic to!) and all those lovely outdoor activities along with it; slacklining, parkour not in the snow, missions games, and house league soccer. It also means that baseball season will start for me, as well as club rugby-I joined my high school's team, and i'm really looking forward to playing!

As for my training, my wrists are getting better, and i've restarted rehab on them after a set-back 2 weeks ago. I'm finally making progress with my overhead pressing strength as I have been doing unilateral work to sort out my dominant right over left imbalance, and in addition to the usual stuff (pull ups, dips, squats) I've been strengthening my midsection more to allow for better planches and hanging leg raises. Also, i've added in a couple sets of max broad jumps and dynos for some speed/power stuff before my heavy-ish sessions.

In photography class, we built pin-hole cameras, and i shot two images that i really liked. As it turns out, I prefer them as negatives, but if i get the chance, i'll upload them here before i lose them.

Como Zoo Photos

Accomplishment!

So today I realized that i had accomplished 2 of my goals for the new year already:
1.5xbw squat
1.75xbw deadlift
with both being for reps. I thought that this goal would have taken considerably more time, but it was more a matter of just going for a true maximal effort, which i just haven't really felt comfortable doing.

Anyway, the totals were..
4x275lbs for the squat, and
5x315lbs for the deadlift (though it was a trap-bar; i realize that this entirely removes the grip benefits of the deadlift, but since i was looking at this from a leg strength perspective, this counts.)

That just leaves:
5 consecutive muscle ups
20 comfortable, full rom dips and pull ups
30 sec Handstand
10 foot broad jump (measured toe to toe)
10 HLR's
1 arm push up

I think that i will be focusing in on the HLR's, broad jump, and high rep pull ups and dips for the time being, since my wrists aren't 100% yet, and i'm not focusing on strength stuff quite as much.
In other news, i managed a double at bw (170lbs) in the bench press test, and the other day i held a tuck planche on the floor for 10-11 seconds. Admittedly, that planche is measly, but considering that i couldn't even hold it for more than a second just 2 months ago, i'd say that i've gotten considerably stronger in the hold without practicing it. I'll be focusing in on that more so that when my wrists are solid, i can start working on pressing up into a handstand.

Damn.

apparently this is the czech republic's champion rope climber (i don't know if there are weight classes..?). I would love to see this as an olympic sport though.

Parkour, Movement, and Why? By Scott

This was written recently by Scott on .net, and I wanted to post this here so i can always come back and read it. Alot of the ideas i wholly agree with, and I hope to use this piece to remind myself from time to time as to why I train.

A Seed to a Forest
http://parkour.net/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=14126&view=findpost&p=171537

Some shots from Winter Break

For some reason i couldn't get these photos onto my computer at the time, so here they are. I took them one morning wandering around the house, and i was pretty pleased with them. Unfortunately, the lighting in the bathroom was much better in person, and i discarded one of the best shots because everything was far too dark after the transfer to the computer. I really need to learn how to touch up shots in the future.

First my elbows, then my knees, and now my wrists.

Back in the summer time, i encountered some serious issues with overtraining, resulting in me taking around 3 months to gradually repair and build up my tendon strength to handle lots of pulling movements. That process was slow and tedious, but very productive. I experienced a smaller scale version of this in my knees for a couple weeks, which i believe i'm clear of (though i'm not quite safe yet). For the past 2 months, i've been having issues with my wrists; sometimes quite painful with limited mobility, and sometimes just fine. Now I know what caused it; heavy wrist rollers followed by kicking up into a handstand cold, and they just haven't been the same since. I'm not sure as to why my wrists had been capable of handling handstands and other wrist dominant movements (as far as compressive forces) in the past, and not now. But currently, i cannot hold a push up position without pain, and this has me very worried, since i will be starting to prepare for the baseball season (hitting isn't exactly something that can be avoided) in a week or so.

This being the case, i can't say that i hadn't tried resting, and building up slowly, but now i realize that i'll have to do it far slower, maybe taking 3-4 months if necessary. I'm writing this post to document the first week of my rehab, which won't be particularly easy what with conflicts as far as sport goes.

The 3 major exercises that i'm going to do will be:
-wrist flexion
-wrist extension
-finger extension

A Change in the Winds?

For these past 6 months, I have been investing a fair amount of time (though not enough) into getting my dad into shape. As of this summer, he was turning 56, and weighed in a at a hefty 240 pounds, despite being only 5'10". He was quite out of shape, and was suffering from some knee trouble which kept him from walking and doing chores without pain, let alone exercising. The other issues came from his poor self-discipline and awful diet; he was taking in very large excesses of calories, and often ate only 1, maybe 2 meals of packaged or processed foods daily.

Towards the midway-tail end of summer, we finally began to do some basic exercises; he isn't incredibly coordinated, so we had to go through every single nuance of the bodyweight squat, fat man pull ups (i've never used this term around him though) and pushups. We spent about 1.5-2 months just developing his ability to go through basic joint warm ups and routines without a huge struggle.

When fall began, he had begun sporadically writing down what he ate, and we tried to have him exercise 3-4 days a week, topping out at a jaw-dropping 4, and sometimes getting only 1. Up until today, we didn't think that he had made a ton of progress, but he has cut back tremendously (gradually, but still tremendously) on how much he eats, getting in more meals with quality food, and not gorging on liquids and processed crap. I cannot say that he's anywhere close to eating "clean", but the progress has been stable from what i can tell now.

The thing about this project was that i was attempting to use the knowledge i had accumulated over the past 18 months of research and discussion with others to help someone that i care about. However, before 6 o'clock this evening, i was quite confident that i had been failing at this, until my dad emerged from the bathroom, naked (at least covering his giblets, but you know) and told me to read the scale, since his eyes aren't so good. I was astonished to see that he had dropped 18 pounds in these 4 months (mostly water weight, but hey, it's progress!) and was now down to 222.

We know that things won't get any easier, but at least this should give him a confidence boost for the future; hopefully with the emphasis solely on performance and improving his diet until it's somewhat clean, he will be lighter and fitter for it.

It's the New Year!

well, since it is Jan 1, i figure i should put together some goals for my training this year. From this point on, baseball is going to make it harder to focus intensively on my conditioning and drilling until the season ends in july(?), but i'll still be doing my best to accomplish these...


Goals for '08
5 consecutive muscle ups
20 comfortable, full rom dips and pull ups
30 sec Handstand
10 foot broad jump (measured toe to toe)
10 HLR's
1.75xbodyweight deadlift for reps
1.5xbodyweight squat for reps
1 arm push up

as for parkour, i'm not making any specific goals, as i will be focusing on a continual progression; i might make some spot-specific goals, but otherwise i'll just keep track of everything mentally.

Hopefully this is year is a healthy one that brings more progress in everyone's training.