Sunday, March 07, 2021

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Week 4

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with 4 reps at a target load of 35 lbs, with max reading of 47. I was surprised to see the 47 lb. reading because on that last rep, I felt I was straining without feeling that I was pushing all that strongly. I might be using "muscle-jin", which is creating a jin path from my feet to the bar to supply most of the force, and then adding localized upper-body muscle to increase the force just a bit. In theory, a pure jin path should generate more force than muscle-jin, but I'm not that good at manifesting jin up to my hands with my arms extended overhead. I've been trying to keep my 6H training separate from my "external" strength training. On the other hand, restoring full, pain-free, range of the shoulder is more important to me than purity of jin right now.

Reverse Curl (medium angle) - Switched to Reverse Drag Curl because progress in the regular Reverse Curl had stalled with my max being around 30 lbs.  I could just keep at the regular Reverse Curl and hope that gains in the Bent Row will eventually carry over, but I figured, who not try the Drag.  The Drag Curl variation is supposed to reduce the load on the shoulders and cause the biceps to contract more strongly. I felt my forearms working harder. I felt the biceps working a tad more but that's about it.  Finished with target load of 15 lbs. with max of 24.6.

Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 160 lbs, with max reading of 195.8. I'll do a couple more sessions at the 160lbs. to give my grip a chance to get stronger, because I can feel that if I increase the load to 165, my grip won't be strong enough to prevent the bar from slipping, and thus aggravating my elbow, even wih the action of my thighs pushing the bar towards my palms to reduce the grip demand.

Chest Press - Finished with target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 38.2.  The max isn't much improvement over last week, but the technique improved enough to merit an increase for next week.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 85 lbs, with max reading of 166.4, which is about a 70lb. improvement over last week's max reading.  The reason for the improvement was a change in form.  I was practicing with my torso parallel to the ground, with my body closer to an L shape.  With the torso more diagonal, I am able to row the bar towards my stomach with much more force, and less concern for the shoulders rising or being pulled forward.  This video by a fellow Isochain user helped me a lot. 



Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 150 lbs, with max reading of 221.4.   With the arms a little wider apart, and thus so that the shoulder blades being pulled together as force is applied, I'm feeling more work on the upper back.

I've been addressing my elbow issue using exercise ideas from GMB and E3 Rehab, as described here.  I now do at least 10 reps per side of Side-Lying Thoracic Windmill as part of my daily warmup. I do 3 sets of 10-15 reps of Wrist Flexion and Elbow Rotation, 3 times a week. I do 3 sets of 15-sec. holds of Finger Roll with the Isochain after my regular Isochain session, with the bar behind the back because it's easier to get the chest up and take the slack out of the arms. In the early going, the results are promising

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