Calisthenics: Week 8

Monday session: Assisted Pistol Squats: 5 5 5 Suspension Hamstring Curl: 4 4 4

Wednesday morning, my shoulders felt fine enough for resuming upper body calisthenics. I did not feel as much soreness when reaching out to the side or reaching up and to the side.

I did 3 antagonist pair sets of Pseudo Planche Push Ups and Archer Pull Ups, both with Accommodating Resistance.

I think I did ok in leaning forward into the planche lean to start my Pseudo Planche Push Ups, at a sufficient angle for a 3-5 second isometric hold - not too easy, and not too hard to hold for the minimum 3 seconds. I might be tending to reduce the leans as I go down, which would make the eccentric easier. I did have one rep in which I leaned even more after the isometric hold to force the involuntary eccentric, and that felt more intense than on my other reps. This is probably the correct way to do the exercise.

I call my chosen pulling exercise "Archer Pull Up", but I am really practicing it as a variation of the Mixed Grip Chinup. I practice pullups on Duonamic Eleviia, which are a pair of pullup handles that clamp onto a wide variety of door frames. The handles can rotate, which is great for protecting the elbows. I followed the guidelines for Mixed Grip Chinups with AR as much as I could in my practice of the Archer Pullup. I practice Archer Pullup with my working palm facing the side at the top position, and pronated in the bottom position. In the Mixed Grip Chinup, the working palm is supinated at the top position and may turn out at the bottom position. The reason I went with Archer Pullup instead of Mixed Grip Chinup is it seems less likely to cause reinjury to my shoulder or elbow. My shoulder does not feel good when the arms are extended overhead with supinated palms, although it does feel better when the palms are rotated more to the side. Any position from the bicep curl movement, with the palm supinated, can trigger Golfer's Elbow unless I am being very mindful of using the spiraling action from the back to reduce load on the elbow.

The Mixed Grip Chinup guidelines stipulate full range of motion - from elevated scapula at the bottom position to working elbow pulled back as if you are trying to hit someone at the top position. Both shoulders still feel uncomfortable when the arms and scapula are pulled p past a certain point. So, I worked within the ROM that was comfortable for me. I may not get the same gains as I would have gotten with full ROM, but any gains will be better than nothing.

One point where I need to improve though is initiating the eccentric. The guideline is to shift so much weight to your working arm, that the added weight forces you to start sinking. What I did instead was voluntarily start sinkng, then shift weight to the working arm as I was sinking. I was afraid I'd shift too much weight and thus cause an accident. Oh well that's part of the learning experience.

Mindful Mover feels the One-Arm Chin Up is the best calisthenic (bodyweight only) exercise for pulling strength, because of the intense load on pulling muscles of the arm, back, etc. It makes sense to being the journey towards the One-Arm Chin Up by first achieving the pull up, then progressing beyond that by redistributing the load, so that one arm takes more load than the other. I feel like I was able to split the load maybe 53-47 - 53% on the working arm, 47% on the assisting arm - on the concentric and maybe a 60-40 split on the eccentric.

I finished the workout with drop sets of incline pushups and rows on NOSSK suspension trainer.

Friday session: Assisted Pistol Squats: 5 5 6 Suspension Hamstring Curl: 4 4 4

For a finisher, I did assisted shrimp squats, then cossack squats for some lateral mobility.