I took about two weeks off from Isochain training because I had a house guest and had not figured out a way to reduce the noise of the chain against the footplate. My guest is a very nice person who does not complain about noise, but I still felt self-conscious abou it. I then resumed training for a few days, then halted my Isochain work again when I learned that my sewer line had a break. I decided to stay at a nearby hotel while waiting for the work to be authorized by HomeServe, then scheduled, then finally begun.
The Isochain can be brought along on travel. However, the combined weight of the footplate, chain, and bar was enough to make me feel too lazy to bring it with me to my hotel room. Instead, I brought my newly acquired NOSSK Twin Pro suspension trainer, because I wanted to try some ideas gleaned from Red Delta Project videos. One of those ideas was training my back to create a spiraling, pulling force all the way to my hands, to help recover from Golfer's Elbow or other elbow issue, or prevent it from happening during pulling exercise. What the spiraling action does is spread the load throughout the back instead of allowing stress to accumulate at the elbows.
This video does a great job of introducing the spiraling, external rotation action to reduce elbow stress, as well as teaching a simple exercise for training this spiraling action.
The above video also offers advice on applying the the spiraling, back-driven external rotation action to pushups. However, with the NOSSK trainer at hand in the hotel, I was able to try this concept more readily with RTO pushups on the NOSSK than with regular pushups on the ground, due to the hands being able to rotate all the way to a supinated position at the bottom of the movement. Red Delta Project shows RTO pushups with his NOSSK here:
The spiraling action worked really well for eliminating elbow pain while doing rows as demonstrated in the above video.
Thus, I am now in Week 7 of the current Promethean cycle, even though I started the cycle in April and it's now June. Because of all the time off from training, I reset all my target loads 15lbs. lower for my first Isochain session after the layoff, then worked up from there. My progress so far on the drills:
Shoulder Press (medium angle) - Working at a target load of 50lbs. Last time I reached this target load, I was unable to do 4 full reps of 6-second holds. I could get the Isochain to beep, indicating that I hit the target load, but was unable to sustain force at that load. As of this week, I can do at least 4 reps for the full 6 seconds. I may take several more sessions at the 50lb. target load, to focus on improving my technique. I'm getting better at generating force from my feet up to my hands, but there's still plenty of room for improvement.
Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished the week at a target load of 125lbs or higher. My Golfer's Elbow pain is almost entirely gone. There is no elbow pain when performing this drill. I still get a tingling sensation in my index finger and thumb, so I try to pull through the ring and pinky fingers instead, using spiraling force from the back as taught by Red Delta Project for rows and pullups.
Zercher Squat (low angle) - Finished the week at a target load of 85 lbs with a max force of 122lbs. which is my 3rd highest reading for this cycle.
The shoulder feels about 95% healed. I can do almost all the movements from GMB Elements without pain. Before, I had trouble with the Monkey and Frogger movements. I still have to be careful with the 3-Point Bridge, which is part of the cooldown routine. I think if I avoid putting my support hand too far away from my butt the shoulder will be fine.
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