Prepare
Set up rings
Practice
Pair 1
Inverted Press on Parallettes w/ 4-sec. negative - 3 sets of 6-7 reps. - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid
Pullup on Rings w/ 4-sec. negative - 3 sets of 3 reps - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid
2 min. rest between all sets
Pair 2
Incline Pushup on Rings w/ 4-sec. negative - 3 sets - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid
Arch Rows Rings w/ 4-sec. negative - 2 sets of 3 reps - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid
2 min. rest between all sets
For last set of horizontal pulls, I gambled and attempted Tuck Front Lever Rows on the rings. It was easier than expected and I did at least 5 reps. Shoulders felt comfortable too. I last attempted Tuck Front Lever Rows 2 years ago. Despite not practicing them I don't feel like I lost much strength in this movement. Perhaps the reverse rows that I've done helped.
Play
Attempted Hanging Leg Raises on rings. Still uncomfortable for the shoulders. I guess the shoulders feeling good during my Sunday attempt was either an anomaly or the shoulders tolerate the movement better after several days of rest.
Attempted external shoulder rotation with rings just for laughs. The load is still too much. I'll stick to using mini-bands.
Practicing the motion of a pushup while standing, with focus on keeping the scapula protracted. I'm not used to this yet.
Push
Pike Handstand Hold for 2 min. total practice
Ponder
I've been practicing the Inverted Press with parallettes about forearm width apart. This was recommended by GMB for general parallette work. However, in the tutorial videos for Handstand Pushup/Pike Pushup, FitnessFAQs recommends the hands be working about shoulder width apart or even a bit wider. So for the next session I'll try setting the parallettes about shoulder width apart. I'm also going to try practicing this move with the P-Barz on the stair landing so that I can elevate my feet on the stairs. The P-Bars are high enough that I'll have to elevate my feet in order to shrug my shoulders at the top of the movement, as advised by both FitnessFAQs and GMB. My toes are rising off the ground at the bottom of the movement so I'm likely strong enough to deal with the slightly increased load of the elevated feet. On the other hand, I could switch to rings for my Inverted Press work, since I've got a ladder I can put my feet on as I progress. I'll have to ponder this over the weekend.
Pullups on the rings feel way better for my shoulders. My shoulders feel better with hands in pronated position in the dead hang and palms turned to face each other at the top of the movement. One benefit of lowering slowly is I can zero in on the best point in the movement to start rotating the rings to reduce or eliminate any irritation on my shoulders. I want to eventually progress to One-Arm Chinup on the rings, which would require rotating the ring all the way to supinated grip at the top of the movement. In order to do that, I need to get really good at timing the rotation of the rings correctly, to prevent reinjury to the shoulder, and keep getting stronger so I can worry about the shoulder less and less. Also, incline pushups on rings is a better core workout than knee pushups on rings.
I needed some extra time to figure out a good setup for incline pushups on the rings, which seems to be with the ring straps about 30-45 degrees away from vertical. Next time, to improve comfort for the shoulders, I'll try starting at the top position with the palms down, and rotate the rings as I lower myself, so that the palms are facing each other at the bottom position.
Front Lever Rows is what I should do for my horizontal pulling going forward. More comfortable for my shoulders than all the other reverse row variations and it's better training for my core, even in the Tuck Front Lever position.
I'm cutting Hanging Leg Raises from my routine. Now that I'm doing pullups, pushups, and front lever rows on the rings, my core is getting enough of a workout. My hamstring flexibility gains should be adequately addressed on my lower body training days, between the Low Windmill, Single Leg Deadlift, Front Scale Leg Lift, and Weighted Pike Stretch (Mindful Mover style).
Some recent conversations made me reflect on who I'm allowing to influence my exercise ideas and why I'm letting that happen. Thanks to Youtube, Instagram, and the need for fitness information at a time that working out at indoor gyms is unsafe, certain social media "influencers" have built a following over the Internet. These are the ones who are influencing me:
GMB - Their mission to help people achieve Physical Autonomy will always be a draw for me
Mindful Mover - They make me think of Bruce Lee, absorbing what is useful and rejecting what they deem to be useless exercises - or at least exercises for which they claim you can get "free gains" by limiting your training to their "Big 5", which is really a Big 4 family: Handstand Pushup, One-Arm Chinup, Planche Pushup, Front Lever Row. Their 5th exercise family is Squat, but they mostly squeeze 2 exercises under that family - the Poliquin-style Split Squat and the Pistol Squat, both preferably with weights. So what I've been taking from them is the Accommodating Resistance concept, slow negatives in strength exercises, and structuring my upper body training around their Big 4. I don't think I'll adopt their approach to Pistol Squat though, because it involves wearing a weight vest and having a partner apply Accommodating Resistance to you. There's no way to do AR with kettlebells while training solo, unless I guess you do eccentric with two KBs, somehow put one of them on the ground without losing your balance, and then do the concentric with one KB. I think though the difference between eccentric and concentric weight might be too much to be useful - all the examples I've seen of AR on Instagram show a smaller difference in resistance between eccentric and concentric movement.
FitnessFAQs - The main coach, Daniel Vadnal, is both a fitness trainer and a physiotherapist. What I've gotten from him are the details for scapula usage in upper body exercises - details that most other trainers leave out. Thanks to him, I'm now working at protracting my scapula for pushing exercises, to better protect my shoulders as well as improve performance.
Tom Merrick - He has some interesting ideas of how to progress towards the Handstand Pushup
Mark Wildman - His coaching is focused on kettelbells, clubbells, and mace. What I get from him is ideas for lower body/core training with kettlebells. His upper body training ideas also look interesting, but it will be a while before I take a break from my pursuit of the HSPU. I presume the time will come that my progress towards the HSPU will plateau, even with Mindful Mover's uncommon training ideas. When that time comes, I'll probably switch to working towards Turkish Getup with the 24kg kettlebell, and maybe my first military press with it too.
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