Starting this week, I worked on sustaining my force all the way to the end of the timer, when I use the Isochain in Timer mode. When my force reaches the target load in Timer mode, the Isochain bar beeps with a certain tone, then beeps once for each second that I sustain the force. When I reach the end of the timed interval, which by default is six seconds, the bar emits a longer tone to signal the end. I have had a tendency to relax my body as soon as I hear that tone. Instead, I should continue applying force until the end of the long tone, to ensure that I have applied effort for the full six seconds.
Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 40. I seem to be able to generate more force at the high angle with a narrower grip - about the same as what I used for the low angle. I've been trying a wider grip but have not been able to exert as much force with the wider grip.
Reverse Curl (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 31. Not much change from last week. Just have to keep working at it, particularly squeezing the bar with a tight grip.
Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 145 lbs, with max reading of 247.2. When I practiced brachial hanging, I developed the habit of gripping the bar loosely, so that the middle and proximal phalanges of my hands would be resting on top of the bar and my thumbs would not wrap around the bar. This habit carried over to how I grip the Isochain bar for deadlifts. My golfer's elbow - if this is indeed what I am suffering - is aggravated when I attempt a deadlift with this loose grip. It seems that the fix is to wrap the thumb around the bar and squeeze the bar hard. Thus I have slowed down my progress on this drill by incrementing the load 5lbs instead of 10 lbs, because at this time it's more important to work on that strong grip than it is to work on setting a new PR.
Chest Press - Finished with target load of 20 lbs, with max reading of 28.2. I was puzzled as to why hit a max of 47.6 last week, yet have been unable to push anywhere close to that this week. I realized it was because I was forgetting to protract the scapula. The serratus anterior is the muscle group that protracts the scapula, and amplfies pressing strength when activated. So later in the day, I attempted another chest press on the Isochain, this time with protracted scapula, and got a max reading of 41 lbs. I hope I can remember to protract the scapula on my next full training session with this drill.
Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 75 lbs, with max reading of 135. As with the deadlift, while the numbers are better than last week, grip is a concern because aggravating the golfer's elbow ia s risk here too. Also, I felt a bit of irritation in the shoulder. I realized I was pulling the bar towards my stomach, which was a habit I got from practicing tuck front lever rows. The shoulders and scapula feel more stable when I pull towards my sternum instead.
Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 110 lbs, with max reading of 180.5. Progress seems to be going smoothly with this drill.
My body seems to love doing Bridges, so I started incorporating the Bridge hold into my warmup routine. I do one hold for as long as I'm comfortable - so no tests of endurance - for 18-20 seconds - before proceeding to Crab Walk and Bear Walk to finish the general warmup.
For the Friday session, I tried Twist Hold from the Trifecta after Isochain training, before beginning the cooldown routine. This felt mostly good, except I need to make sure I don't let the shoulder travel out of its socket. I've progressed enough to start working with a towel or cloth for assistance. I first tried using a towel a couple of months ago, but I felt I was straining too hard and was concerned about triggering a back spasm or a hernia. I've been working on practicing the Twist Hold with smooth breathing and gently increasing the stretch without straining. The Convict Conditioning 2 book suggests practicing until the back of the hand, on the arm pulling against the vertical leg, can touch the instep, before moving on to using the towel to help pull the hands together. I'll probably go back and forth between working on twisting the arm to get the back of the palm closer to the instep, and working with towel assistance.
Shoveling snow aggravated my golfer's elbow. I understand this could have been avoided if I knew how to shovel with 6H techniques, but unfortunately I'm not advanced enough. From what I understand, the technique involves loading the front foot, using reverse breath to "inflate the suit" and thus stretch the side of the body that needs to be pre-stretched, then release with weight transfer to the back foot. From what I recall, there are two basic motions for "pole-shaking" training with a waxwood spear or a long nylon rod. The forward motion is loading the rear foot then releasing to the front foot so that the pole is driving downwards. The backward motion is probably the one for shoveling, because the pole would be driving upwards. I haven't done much pole-shaking. I don't want to order a nylon pole until my golfer's elbow condition has improved, because I don't know what working with the pole is going to do to my elbow.
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