Isochain Burn Count: Week 3

I completed the third week of Burn Count. Results:

Day A drills:

Romanian Deadlift Low Angle: Aborted (see below)
Shoulder Press Low Angle: 34s, 40lbs
Drag Curl: 30s, 20lbs

Day B drills:

Zercher Lunge: 21s, 35lbs
Chest Press: 45s, 15lbs
Seated Row: 30s, 55lbs

I had to cut short the Romanian Deadlift training for my one Day A session for this week. I tried attaching the Isochain bar's carabiner assembly directly to the spring. Normally the carabiner assembly is attached to one end of the chain, and a single carabiner attaches the chain to the spring. I have color-coded zip tie tags attached to various links in the chain so that I can set the chain length, between the spring and the bar, for each drill without having to guess which link is the correct one for the drill. When I started Burn Count, I had the spring carabiner attached to the link that I tagged for high-angle regular Deadlift. This proved to be too high, in that Romanian Deadlift felt just like regular Deadlift. I wasn't feel much of a stretch in the hamstrings. So I started lowering the bar. For my previous Day A session, I had the spring carabiner attached to the carabiner assembly on the bar, which felt fine. I had thought that attaching the carabiner assembly directly to the spring would set the bar to the same height. However, I did not account for the length of the spring carabiner. Eliminating the spring carabiner actually lowered the bar by the equivalent of about 3 chain links, which for my lower back is actually a significant increase in load, along with risk to the lower back. So for my next Day A session, I'll use the spring carabiner again, attaching it between the spring and the bar carbiner assembly. The load will be set to 105lbs instead of 110lbs because I want to see if I can get closer to a 45-second hold. Burn Count after all is more about holding for time than just force output.

Good progress in Shoulder Press and Drag Curl, increasing the hold times to 30 seconds or more at their respective loads.

After my Day A session, I did the club work again, but because of the effort expended on the Shoulder Press and Curl, I did only 4 sets of 5 reps of the Shield Cast, Inside Circle and Outside Circle, because my form dropped significantly for the 4th set.

I tried lowering the load for Zercher Lunge to 35lbs to see if I could get a better hold time with either leg. The answer was no. Oh well. The position is just hard for me to hold for time. Clearly, lowering the load more is not going to make a difference, because at 35lbs the slightest pressure is already triggering the Isochain's beeper.

For the Chest Press, the decision to lower the load to 15 lbs. turned out to be useful. I could focus more on just sustaining the minimum required effort for 45 seconds, instead of struggling to reach the target load and then also sustain force at that load. Having the display on the bar facing me continues to be a good decision, as the angle of the display helps me ensure the eye bolt on the bar is in line with the chain. Holds of 45s or more were easily achieved for the Friday session, so I'll set the load back at 20lbs. next time.

After the Friday session, I did these miniband exercises for the shoulder to try to strengthen the slow-twitch fibers in the external rotators. I slightly modified the External Rotation and Overhead Press to have the palms facing away from me as that seemed to feel a little better for my shoulder.

The video does not include suggestions for how many sets and reps to do. I knew I wanted to make sure I train the slow-twich fibers as those are better known for stabilizing the joints than the fast-twitch. This article on fast and slow twitch muscle training suggests 3 sets of 15-30 reps. I could not do 15 reps at least one of the drills, even with the lightest miniband. So I'll stick to the 3 sets of at least 15 reps for now. I went for a basic 2-sec concentric, 2-sec. eccentric tempo.
Dragondoor put up a new article by Matt Schifferle, the man behind Red Delta Project, on 3 ways to integrate Isochain into a dynamic workout, regardless of what tools (kettlebells, barbells, etc.) are being utilized, or if the workout is bodyweight-only. This expands the possibilities quite a bit beyond the tempates in the manual for incorporating Isochain with weightlifting, kettlebell lifting, etc.