The schedule will be:
- Monday - Leg (Pistol Squat and Hip Extension)
- Tuesday - GMB Elements
- Wednesday - Vertical Upper Body (Pike Pushup and Pull Ups)
- Thursday - GMB Elements
- Friday - Leg
I rewatched this video, in which Matt of Red Delta Project shared his updates to Grind Style Calisthenics. One thing I missed from earlier viewings of the video, is the recommendation to not use the same exercise for both the Strength and Finisher phases of GSC. For example, if you were doing pull ups for your Strength phase, doing an easier pull up variation for the Finisher phase is not recommended. What he recommends instead is to choose a different exercise, for your Finisher phase, that works the same tension chain as your Strength phase exercise. So if you did pull ups for Strength, do a row variation instead of pull ups for Finisher. The idea is change enough variables - bilateral vs. unilateral work, angle, cadence - to flood your system with new information. I'm not really keen on adding yet more muscle mass to my already large - for my size - thighs, so I will skip Finisher for my leg sessions. In my Upper Body sessions, I will do drop sets of push ups on the NOSSK, as the Finisher for the Pike Pushup; and drop sets of rows on the NOSSK as the finsher for Pull Ups. I believe I saw a post from Mindful Mover somewhere recommending being able to do a set of 10 pull ups before beginning training with Mixed Grip Chin Ups, which is the next exercise in the progression towards One-Arm Chin Up. If I do progress to Mixed-Grip Chin Up training, I probably won't do a pull-chain Finisher, because I don't want to risk a flareup of Golfer's Elbow but I'll see how it goes.
I also rewatched the RDP video on why Matt prefers close grip for pull ups. The reasons sound pretty good to me, and I am all for anything that is easier on the joints.
The Monday session went fine for a first Legs session. The first set of pistols required a lot of effort and were a bit sloppy, which was not a total surprise as I hadn't done pistols in almost 2 years. The 2nd and 3rd sets were better, because I increased the amount of assistance from the NOSSK, while trying to be mindful of not taking too much load away from the working leg. The hip extensions were about 6 reps per set. For finisher, I did a set of walking prisoner lunges, then a set of close squats, then a set of regular bodyweight squats. The legs, especially the quads were hit by DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) lasting several days.
The GMB Elements session for Tuesday focused on Baby Frogger and Bear to Crab transition. I did not try too hard to achieve Baby Frogger stalls, which are practically a Tuck Planche, as I had the heavy upper body session scheduled the very next day.
The Wednesday session was also fun and interesting. I set up the P-Barz parallettes in front of two armless chairs facing each other for the Pike Pushups, with the idea of putting my knees on the chairs, as that is the easiest variation shown in Mindful Mover's pike pushup video. My main fear that I had to overcome, was that I might drop too fast into the bottom of the pike pushup, and somehow hit my head on the floor. This fear went away with I did my first rep, and felt like I was in good control of the movement. In fact, the movement felt too easy. Also, the chairs started sliding because the legs have sliders on them to prevent scratching the hardwood floor. So I paused to move the chairs next to the wall to stop them from sliding, and finished the set trying to keep the feet instead of the knees on the chairs. The pike pushup felt too easy with my knees on the chairs, so I tried to shift my weight to my feet, when I needed to shift weight away from my hands. I was surprised to see my feet floating in the air, even for just a second or two, when I was in the bottom of the pike pushups. From the bottom position, when I started grinding the concentric, I kind of got stuck when I tried to shift my weight to my feet, to reduce the load from my hand just enough to continue the concentric. The problem was my hamstrings were not flexible enough to let my legs extend the feet to the chairs with enough leverage to take the load. Thus I ended up falling to my knees for a bit, before I got high enough in the pike pushup to shift more of the load back to the hands and get the knees off the chairs. So next time, I'll try setting up the P-Barz further away from the chairs, so that the angle of my legs to my torso will be greater, and thus tight hamstrings should be less likely to stop my legs from extending and applying pressure to the feet when I need to shift weight there.
It was a fun first pike push-up session AR, despite the hiccups. It's always more fun when you discover you're stronger than you thought you would be, after more than a year passing since the last time you did full-range pike push-ups, with the shoulders going down to the height of your hands. I finished my latest Isochain session with my 1-rep max in the Shoulder Press just under half bodyweight, so I did not think I would be this far up the pike pushup to handstand pushup progression. However, I did not account for my overhead pressing strength being greater at the lowest position of the Shoulder Press, which is also the lowest position of the pike pushup.
The pull-up session also went better than expected, despite not practicing pull-ups in a year. I got nowhere close to 8 pull-ups in one set last year, partly because the Golfer's Elbow bothered me more and my shoulder was not feeling that great. I felt the Golfer's Elbow a little this time around, but for most part, I was able to do the pull-ups without any pain as long as I focused on initiating the pull from between the shoulder blades and allowing the palms to turn with the movement.
By Thursday, I had upper body DOMS from the Wednesday session, as well as some lingering leg/glute DOMS from the Monday session. So, I decided to do a GMB Recovery session, instead of GMB Elements.
For the Friday leg session, I went lighter, by using more NOSSK assistance for the pistol squats and setting the foot slings lower for the hip extensions. I did 3 antagonist pair sets, and 4 pistol squat reps and 8 hip extension reps per set. For the Finisher phase, I tried a few reps of the plie and grand plie squats, from this ballet dancer exercises article. I tried them out of curiosity about how it feels to do those movements. My fitness goals are to achieve a handstand pushup, one-arm chin up, full planche push up, front lever row, and pistol squat with a 32kg kettlebell. I've had those goals since I saw B-Boy Junior flow into planche push ups with ease, saw Jackie Chan do handstand push ups, and learned about front lever and one-arm chin ups in the Dragondoor forum. Thus I bought into Mindful Mover's fitness methods when I realized their Big 5 matched my 5 goals. So, I don't know if those ballet dancer exercises are relevant to my goals. I might even get free gains from those exercises from Big 5 training and weighted mobility drills advocated by Mindful Mover, Tom Merrick and others. win a movie despite not being convinced I need to do them to reach my fitness goals.
In the afternoon, I tested myself a little to see if I would be comfortable with practicing pike pushups with the parallettes about 2 feet or more further away from the chair. I found I could indeed put enough of my weight onto my hands to move the feet back and forth on the chair. 2 years ago, I would have been shaking because working with this much weight on my hands was more difficult. I still have some DOMS from the Wednesday session but that's fine.
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