WRP and GMB Elements : Week 2

I began the week thinking that I would work up to 10 sets of 3 reps in each of the drills in WRP. I thus did 4 sets of 3 reps per drill for my Monday session. By Wednesday, I decided to increase the reps per set instead of number of sets with each session. My hypothesis is that this will be a shorter path to 10 sets of 5 reps, than working up to 10 sets of 3 reps, then increasing the reps per set per session. So for Wednesday, I did 5 sets of 4 reps, and for Friday, I did 5 sets of 5 reps. I had just enough stamina do be able to do the sets of 5 reps without getting so exhausted that I could not control the club anynmore. This is not to say my club technique was perfect - I did have a rep here and there where I tried to bring the club back to Order position but then lost control of the club. Overall, however, I did not have any accidents resulting in injury.

On Tuesday, I did GMB Elements Session 9: Crab and Frogger. 30 min. sessions are just right for me to get some endurance training

On Thursday, I did GMB Elements Session 10: Backwards Bear, Monkey, Transitions between Bear and Monkey. This was also a 30 min. session. I found it more exhausting than the Tuesday session because Crab is not as demanding as the other animal movements in Elements.

One change I'm noticing in GMB Elements compared to my previous work through the program, is the Prepare and Push portions of the workout now vary more from session to session. Last time, both portions were the same in every session. This makes sense as we may have to vary how we prepare the body for training, depending on the movements we expect to train. Similarly in the Push section, which in Elements can be conditioning intervals followed by mobility drills for cooldown.

I noticed that the Effective Strength and Conditioning website has a summer discount code. I used it to buy the new Mark Wildman Introduction to Heavy Clubs program. This program is designed for two-handed heavy club, which Wildman defines as a club being 10 lbs or heavier. I don't plan to switch from WRP to this program at this time, because I'm focused on improving my endurance by working up to 20 sets of 5 per drill. Nevertheless, it's interesting to watch videos from this program to see what the training for 2-handed club would be like. One significant difference compared to WRP, besides 2-hand vs. 1-hand, is the cycling through 3 levels of movement sophistication instead of just building up volume at one weight.

I would like to eventually traing this two-handed club program with my 45 lb. club, which I bought from RMax back in the day. I've done two-handed swings and pendulums with the 45 lb. club. However, I have yet to do a shield cast or what Wildman calls a pullover. I've never felt strong enough to push the club over my shoulder to the back position. There appear to be a couple of paths to develop the strength to practice the pullover and all the other Level 1 exercises in Wildman's program with the 45 lb. club. One path is to build up my strength via other modalities - most likely the Isochain, and skill-based calisthenics - eg. front lever row progression, handstand pushup progression, etc. I would need the strength to push the club up over the shoulder, as well as the strength to pull against it as the club's center of gravity shifts from the front of my body to the back.
Another is to get an Adex adjustable Club or Arc - such a device would allow progression towards the 45 lb. club by incremental loading. I started watching Wildman's Adex Arc videos and am intrigued.

Today's Music Discoveries

OP-1 Tape: Erasing only one track

The OP-1 has an easy method to erase all the Tracks in Tape at once, as documented in the official OP-1 guide. 

However, if you only want to erase just one of the 4 Tracks, more work is required if the Track is longer than 90 seconds. The button to press to erase content from one Track is the Lift/Erase button. If there is more than 90 seconds of audio, you will an error message. 

The workaround is to use the Split button to split the audio on the Tape into smaller regions. You have to keep splitting the audio until you get regions that are 90 seconds or shorter. Then you can use Lift/Erase to erase the regions

.... one

... at

... a

... time.

Wildman Reconditioning Program (WRP) Week 1

After the Monday session of Isochain Iron Man program, I decided to switch to the heavy club program as previously described. Mark Wildman does not seem to name the programs that he designs so I'll just call this one "Wildman Reconditiong Program" because the program is intended for deconditioned individuals, as well as those who are overweight, and/or coming off of injury. I don't think there's anything wrong with the Iron Man program. I tried it because I was curious about how it would feel to train like that, and coming off of injury, I knew my body would benefit from endurance-focused training. I observed modest improvement in the hold times in the Shoulder Press and Zercher Squat, as well as the average force numbers. The reason I decided to switch programs is I missed dynamic exercise and wanted to do more of that.

For the Wednesday session, I did 5 reps of each of the 3 exercises, per side with a 15 lb. Clubbell. Wildman calls all Clubbbells "heavy clubs" - even those that are 15 lbs. or lighter. Using the GMB performance scale, I scored Ease=Challenging, Quality=Rough. The following day, I didn't feel any DOMS in my upper back. The back of my neck though was sore.

So for Friday, I did 3 reps per set. I still scored Rough Quality, but the Ease was down to Solid. I'll stick to 3 reps per set until I get to 10 sets.

For my Tuesday and Thursday exercise sessions, I did GMB Elements sessions 7 and 8, 30 min. each. When I work up to 10 or more sets of 5 reps in WRP, I'll need to make sure I don't overtrain via my Elements sessions. I may cut down to 15-min. Elements sessions.

If I finish GMB Elements before I reach the goal of 20 sets of 5 in WRP, I may try Red Delta Project Micro Workouts on the in-between exercise days. Whatever routine I choose for those in-between days should not interfere with recovery from my WRP days. I'll probably try one of the leg-focused ones, because while I can feel WRP working my feet, it's not particularly taxing on the legs. Another type of Micro Workout I may try is a chest-focused one, since WRP doesn't seem to hit the chest hard either, and any improvement in chest strength and conditioning should beneficial when I get around to focusing on horizontal pressing again.

This is the chest Micro Workout that I'll probably try

Planning for Deconditioned Person Heavy Club Routine

I've mostly recovered from my latest shoulder and elbow issues, thanks to adopting the technique taught by Red Delta Project for pulling exercises, and the evidence-based rehab exercises for Golfers Elbow taught by E3 Rehab.

As previously mentioned, I found Mark Wildman's videos recommending a choice of two exercise programs for people who are overweight, deconditioned, and/or coming off of injury. One program is built on 3 kettlebell exercises. Another is built on heavy club exercises. I chose the heavy club program. If I make it to the end of the program without hurting myself, there should be significant improvement in the endurance of the shoulder external rotators and both the strength and endurance of the forearms.

I searched for any videos Wildman may have made on a warmup routine for the heavy club program. I found this video:

I extracted this routine from the video:

Warmup:
1. Shield Cast variation with light club - 30 sec/side
2. Neck Mobiltiy 1 min.
3. Spine/Roll 1 min.
4. Shin Box 1 min.
Repeat above four exercises, for a total warmup time of 8 min.

Wildman mentions a separate video covering Shin Box. I found this videow which shows 4 ShinBox variations and what GMB calls the Around the World Squat

The work part of the routine for the first session is this - Wildman presented the exercises in a different order but I arranged them by difficulty, with the hardest being first:

Shield Cast - 3 to 5 reps per set, per side. Alternate sides, without rest, until 3 total sets per side is done.
Rest - I think about a minute but I'm not sure
Outside Circle - Same guidance for reps and sets
Rest
Inside Circle - Same guidance for reps and set

Wildman says to add a set with each new session, until you have done a session with 10 sets per side, per exercise. In one of his videos, he says if you cannot do 5 reps in one set, go for 3, and stick with 3 reps a set until you get to 10 sets. Then, I think, you work up to 10 sets of 5 reps. After you have achieved 10 sets of 5 reps, then you work up to 20 sets of 5 reps.

I could not find mention of a cooldown routine. I'll just try various mobility/stretching exercises

Isochain Iron Man: Week 3

Here are the results for the 6 selected exercises for Iron Man:

Romanian Deadlift at High Angle - Was able to hold for the full 120 seconds with one pause to reset my grip as the bar was starting to slip a little. Average was 64-65 lbs.

Bicep Curl at High Angle - Was able to hold for the full 120 seconds. As with last week, I felt the golfer's elbow start to act up, so I had to increase external rotation by extra effort from the back to reduce the load on the elbows. My upper back again got as much of a workout as the biceps. Average was 13-19 lbs.

Shoulder Press at Medium Angle - Was able to hold for about 40-50 seconds, then took a break before resuming. I did about 100 seconds total. Average was about 13-15lbs.

Bent-over Row at High Angle and Supinated Grip - Was able to hold for the full 60 seconds. Average was 65 lbs.

Zercher Squat at Medium Angle - Was able to hold for 50 seconds. Had to stop because my quads were on fire! Average was 36.2 lbs.

Calf Raise - Was able to hold for the full 60 seconds. Average was 96 lbs.

I tried GMB Elements Session 5: Crab Walk after the Wednesday Iron Man session, and GMB Elements Session 6: Bear and Bear Play after the Friday Iron Man session. After my Friday training, I noticed less irritation in my shoulder while practicing brachial hang from the pullup bar.
I continued doing GMB Recovery sessions on the recovery days.
I also continued playing with my RMT Club. I think the Clubbell folks might call these moves front-back circles, but what's in a name, right?

On my recovery days, I did some sessions of GMB Respiration and GMB Recovery. My Friday Isochain workout was a repeat of the Monday one, in which I try to go for 120-second holds. Something about how I trained Romanian deadlift, followed by body shaking and hang pose, triggered soreness in my left buttock. I did the Chen Zhenglei style "nervous kick", followed by modified pigeon pose to get rid of the soreness. Then for good measure, I did some drills from GMB Recovery that seemed to focus more on lower body.

First Clubbell session in a while

Forearm rotation exercise with a hammer, as part of my Golfer's Elbow rehab, got me thinking about doing some Clubbell training to continue strengthening and conditioning my forearms.

I came across a recent Mark Wildman video which recommends three heavy club exercises for overweight people, deconditioned people, and people coming off of injury such as myself.

He actually considers these to be the 2nd best set of 3 exercises for people who fit in these groups, the best set being suitcase deadlift, box squat, and military press - all with a kettlebell. What both sets of exercises promise is improved ability to stand up, grip strength, core rotation, and shoulder mobility. I'm going with the clubbell exercises for the benefits to the forearms and the shoulders, particularly the external rotators. Wildman also likes side-to-side heavy club exercises for improving the foot arches.
Mark Wildman's programming guidelines for single-arm heavy club training for beginners, overweight people, deconditioned people, and people coming off of injury such as myself.

Here he states why there should be breaks between sets, and for how long.

Here Wildman expands a bit on the thought process behind his recommended kettlebell and heavy club movements for overweight and deconditioned people, as well as giving an overview of next steps after the 3 recommended kettlebell and 3 recommended heavy club exercises:

Here Wildman goes more in depth with the Inside Circle, but says to work up to 10 sets of 5 reps, instead of 20 sets, then increase load. I think he had the ADEX adjustable club in mind. Working up to 20 sets was, I think, with non-adjustable heavy clubs like RMAX Clubbells in mind. What I will do is work up to 10 sets of 3, since 3 reps per set at 15 lbs. is what I feel comfortable with, and restart the cycle with 4 reps per set, eventually working up to 20 sets of 5 reps.

Following the guidelines the session I did Tuesday of last week was:

Shield Cast
Outside Circle
Inside Circle

3 sets of 3 reps per side, per exercise.

By the evening, I was started to feel some delayed soreness (DOMS) in the upper half of my upper back and the back of the shoulders. The DOMS were a little more intense this morning. I followed one of the Prepare routines from GMB Elements to try to alleviate the DOMs, as well as a move from GMB Recovery meant to alleviate upper body soreness. 

 The DOMS persisted through the weekend!

On a different note, I found an updated wrist strength routine from GMB.  This routine has new content that is not in the GMB Wrist Prep routine popular on the bodyweightfitness Reddit.

Isochain Iron Man: Week 1

Here are the results for the 6 selected exercises for Iron Man:

Romanian Deadlift at High Angle - Was able to hold for the full 120 seconds with one pause to reset my grip as the bar was starting to slip a little. Average was 48-49 lbs.

Bicep Curl at High Angle - Was able to hold for the full 120 seconds, although towards the end I felt I had to apply extra spiraling force from my back, which became a struggle. Some elbow pain started to flare up, so the extra force was needed to reduce the load on the elbows. Average was 14-19 lbs.

Shoulder Press at Medium Angle - Was able to hold for 80-90 seconds. Average was about 12 lbs.

Bent-over Row at High Angle and Supinated Grip - Was able to hold for the full 60 seconds. Average was 36.2 lbs.

Zercher Squat at Medium Angle - Was able to hold for 41 seconds. Had to stop because my quads were on fire! Average was 36.2 lbs.

Calf Raise - Was able to hold for the full 60 seconds. Average was 66.8 lbs.

To try to improve shoulder mobility, I tried some sets of what David Weck calls shoulder rolls with my RMT Club. I think the Clubbell folks might call these moves front-back circles, but what's in a name, right?

On my recovery days, I did some sessions of GMB Respiration and GMB Recovery. My Friday Isochain workout was a repeat of the Monday one, in which I try to go for 120-second holds. Something about how I trained Romanian deadlift, followed by body shaking and hang pose, triggered soreness in my left buttock. I did the Chen Zhenglei style "nervous kick", followed by modified pigeon pose to get rid of the soreness. Then for good measure, I did some drills from GMB Recovery that seemed to focus more on lower body.