Today's headstand practice and first chest expander workout in a while

In today's headstand practice, I had a tiny, yet meaningful breakthrough. I was able to lift each knee at least half a foot from my elbow. For the first time I felt like I could use my core to not only pull my knees into the headstand, but also lift my hips so that they're closer to being stacked over my shoulders. The more active core made it easier to lift each knee. I alternated between holding the headstand as long as possible - about 20 seconds - and working on raising each knee, which shortened the hold time.

After the 10-minute headstand practice, I did ring dips for my Push session. I did 9 sets of 3 for a total of 27 reps. There was some left shoulder pain on the first set, but after I got the hang of doing a hard reverse shrug at the top of the dip, and maintaining depressed scapulae while going down into the dip, I didn't feel any more shoulder pain. I still felt some clicking in the left shoulder though.

I tried cleaning a 16kg kettlebell. I was still feeling irritation in the thumb side of my right forearm. If my forearm felt fine, I would have tried cleaning a 20kg KB, then I would have tested my 20kg clean+press rep max and planned to do The Giant next week.

In the afternoon, I did my first chest expander workout in a while. The instability of my left shoulder which led to some pain on my first attempt at parallette push ups made me think about revisiting chest expander training - especially for the pull apart drills which are said to improve shoulder stability. I did mostly the same workout shown in Alex Leonidas' video. One change I made was to do the Overhand Vertical Pullapart behind the neck, as shown in Alex's more recent video. Doing this move behind the neck feels more natural than doing it in front of the neck.

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 3 springs - 19 reps

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 2 springs - 20 reps

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 sets - 3 springs - 7 reps

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 sets - 2 springs - 14 reps

Horizontal Pullapart - 1 set - 2 springs - 6 reps

Mechancial drop set of Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs - 7 reps

Horizontal Pullapart (back off set) - 1 set - 1 spring - 16 reps

Bicep Curl - 2 sets - 2 springs - 15 reps/set

Tried Reverse Curl but it was too annoying for my right forearm/elbow. It's the same kind of pain that I get when cleaning a 16kg or 20kg kettlebell.

I decided to make the following changes for my training next week.

• Switch from the planche mini course to Prismatic Strength's Handstand Push Up Mini Course. The HSPU mini course is also built on the GMB method with the 5 P's; and is structured very similarly to the planche mini course, with each week containing 5 Prepare sessions, 2 Practice A sessions, 2 Practice B sessions, one Play session, one Push session, and 5 Ponder sessions. The main reason for the switch is I just want to try the HSPU mini course. The HSPU mini course has more bent-arm overhead pressing, which might carry over a wee bit more to kettlebell pressing, if anything carries over at all. In any case, today's attempts at cleaning the KB showed my forearm isn't ready to to back to doing The Giant, so the other reason I'll do the HSPU mini course is, it's a way to work on overhead pressing strength until the forearm feels good again for KB work.
• Drop the Strength Side Master Mobility program. I made it to Week 7 out of 12. I think it's a pretty good program. Any fitness program that is written for a general audience - rather than written by a coach for a specific individual - makes assumptions how quickly the trainee progresses. Week 7 of the program seems to assume that my mobility had progressed further than it actually has. The best mobility gains from this program was being able sit on the floor in straddle with straight legs for the first time in my adult life. This happened by the end of Week 2. My hip flexor mobility enjoyed the 2nd best gain. My lat and pectoral mobility didn't improve as much as I'd hoped, though those are not the reasons I'm dropping Master Mobility. Actually, the main reason is I want to make time for chest expander training.
• Do a chest expander workout 3 times a week. My left shoulder has been feeling unstable of late. I injured it years ago, and was diagnosed with possible shoulder impingement and subluxation. The chest expander pullapart exercises work the rear delts, external rotators, and upper back. to improve shoulder stability. I suspect I will get some shoulder mobility gains out of this as well.
• Practice the straddle side bend and a selection of exercises, out of the Master Mobility Pike exercises, that I think could fit with the straddle side bend in a circuit.

IsoMax 6x6: Week 6 Log

4/27
Last-rep max force (lbs):

Zercher Squat 158.8
Overhead Press 97 PR!
Drag Curl 151.8

MM Pike


I've been focusing on getting more of a stretch in the chest before applying the minimum 61 lbs of force for Overhead Press. Today I felt my pecs firing harder than before. I hit a PR of 97 lbs. Week 5 of Master Mobility brought yet another selection of exercises to practice. I still like the Weeks 1-2 exercises the best for Pike, because they resulted in tangible progress in hamstring flexibility. I really like the Straddle Side Bend in particular and would like to see it again on the schedule. That said, I continue to trust the program.

4/28
MM Horse Stance
MM Bridge

The new Bridge exercises include the 1-arm Bridge, which GMB calls the 3-point Bridge. I've practiced this stretch on a somewhat regular basis. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to reach overhead more easily and with greather range than before.

4/29
Last-rep max force (lbs):

Zercher Squat 206.4
Overhead Press 93.2
Drag Curl 163

MM Pike

After the IsoMax bar falsely reported 14 lbs. on my last Zercher Squat rep, I started looking at the max score on my 2nd to last rep, in case the bar malfunctioned again on the last. It happened again today. The max force on the 2nd to last rep was 206.4, which is a PR.

4/30
MM Horse Stance
MM Bridge

I had some time left over so I added a Pike superset. I didn't do the Week 5 Pike superset because I already did it on 4/27 and 4/29. I did the Week 2 superset instead - substituting elephant walk for bear walk - because I missed doing straddle side bend.

5/1
Last-rep max force (lbs):

Zercher Squat 177.6
Overhead Press 99
Drag Curl 159.8

MM Pike

I hit a PR again in the Overhead Press, this time 99 lbs. Because I hit 2 PRs in the same week, I decided it was time to raise the target load from 61 lbs. I didn't want to spend another session on 1-rep max retesting just to determine the new target load, so I chose 66 lbs. as the new load. If 95 lbs. is my new 1-rep max the new target load would be 66.5 lbs, which is 70% of 95. The IsoMax only allows whole number loads so I'll just go with 66 lbs. It's higher than 61 lbs. so it should be more than enough to stimulate higher force output. My Drag Curl performance seems to be trending up a bit as well, so I decided to raise the target load from 110 to 112.

I can finally sit on the floor in straddle with my legs straight!

A few months ago I tried sitting in straddle for 1 min., about 2-3 times a week, as inspired by this video:



I did it as part of my cooldown routine after strength/hypertrophy training. I kept it up for a few weeks, then changed my cooldown to focus more core work.

I just could not get my legs straight because of my perennially tight hamstrings. The adductors might have been tight as well. Ryan does say in the video that bent knees is fine, as well as leaning your torso back with arm support.

During the 4/7 mobility session, I noticed I was able to spread my legs wider than I did last week, during practice of the straddle side bend from the Pike superset. I was following the instruction to sit on an elevated surface so I could sit in straddle with straight legs and straight low back. For elevation I was using a stack of almost all my puzzle mat tiles.

So today I thought I'd test my straddle sitting. I was able to straighten both legs! My low back was curved, though I found I could straighten it by contracting the abs with medium effort. I'm only in the middle of the 2nd week of Strength Side's Master Mobility program, so I'm impressed with the flexibility gain after just a short time.

For the straddle side bend exercise, I still want to sit at a height that allows my back to stay straight, when upright, without additional effort from the abs. This exercise is done with a weight held in the hands to help deepen the stretch. Even though I do use a light weight as recommended, I still don't want to take any chances with the low back. So, tried straddle sitting on 5 stacked mat tiles, and still felt I had to consciously straighten my low back. I then tried 8 stacked tiles and found that was a good height for me - with legs and back all being straight without extra effort. This new height is still quite a bit lower than before. So at this new, lower, height I should be able to stretch my hamstrings more than before.

I'm using a 4kg plate for my straddle side bend practice. To reduce shoulder fatigue, I don't force my arms to be straight, and hold the weight above and slightly behind my head, so that the load goes more to the back than the shoulders. I only try to straighten my arms when it's time to hold the stretch for the prescribed number of seconds.

IsoMax 6x6: Week 1

The Strength Side Youtube channel was mentioned a few times on the Strongfirst forum, so I started watching some videos on it. This led to buying their Master Mobility program. This program has exercise routines designed to be practiced 2-3 times a week. It also has exercises that should be practiced daily. Thus, I adjusted my warmup routine for 6x6 as follows:

1. GMB wrist routine (quick version) - Overhead Press and Drag Curl on the IsoMax bar both work the wrists. I feel the thumb side of the forearms working hard on the overhead press. I feel the wrist flexors working on the drag curl.
2. Diaphragmatic breathing in Child's Pose 1 min. - Breathing practice to wake up the core. Helps loosen the lower back
3. Dead Bug 1 min. - Activates reactive core stabilitye
4. Crab Walk 1 min. - Warm up the posterior chain and stretch the anterior chain including the pecs
5. Bear Walk 1 min. - Stretch the posterior chain, warm up the shoulders, etc.
6. Tabletop Hold (also called Crab) 30 sec. - One of the dailies from Master Mobility. Warm up the glues. More intense stretch of the anterior chain (hip flexors, pecs, etc.)

As usual, I recorded the max force on the last rep for each exercise. My Zercher Squat max jumped from 84 lbs. on Wednesday to 137.6 lbs on Friday. I think most of the gain is from looking for body positioning that makes me feel confident I can exert as much force as possible without pain in the lower back. I was tentative in my Zercher Squat execution on the testing day, and on the first day of 6x6 training. On Friday I felt like I found a good body positioning and thus more confidence, which was reflected in the force increase.

My Overhead Press performance was more modest. I'm more familiar with this drill, so a dramatic jump from first to second session was not to be expected. Lingering sensitivity in my right wrist, on the thumb side, had some impact on how much force I could put out. For the Friday session, I tried different grip widths. I could feel that sensitive thumb side of the wrist get irritated when the grip was too narrow, as well as too wide. On the final rep I settled on a grip that was slightly wider than the grip I used on Wednesday, resulting in about a 10 lb. force gain.

I did the initial assessments for Master Mobility. Pike assessment was not good. Hamstring flexibility was the limiting factor as always. Couch stretch assessment looked great but maybe my knee was too elevated. I had not trouble sinking low enough into Horse Stance that my thighs were parallel to the floor while still maintaining an upright torso.