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.

Isochain Iron Man Prep: 1-Rep Max test results

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

Romanian Deadlift at High Angle - 231 lbs. The very first time I tried Romanian deadlift with Isochain, I think it was at this angle, and felt uncomfortable for my lower back. This was several months ago when I was considering alternatives to the regular deadlift. I ended up choosing the Hack Deadlift. This time I was pleasantly surprised to find my lower back held up fine. Perhaps the conditioning of my lower back was improved by working on Zercher Squat, Bent-over Row, and maybe even Shoulder Press. In any case, I felt more confident about applying more force for the 1-rep max test.

Bicep Curl at High Angle - 62 lbs. I tried not to apply too much force during testing, to avoid aggravating my Golfer's Elbow. The spiraling external rotation action taught by Red Delta Project helped.

Shoulder Press at High Angle - 51.8 lbs. I decided to train at medium angle instead, even though I tested at high angle, because it seems like the best angle to work at for building up the desired slow-twich muscle fibers. At medium angle, I was started to max between 55 and 58 lbs. towards the end of my latest Promethean cycle. Iron Mman protocol calls for a minimum load of 20% of 1-rep max, so at my current level, I'd be working with about a 10lb. target load if I go with about 52lbs. as my max, or 12lb. target load if I go with 60lbs.

Zercher Squat at Medium Angle - 190 lbs.

Bent-over Row at High Angle and Supinated Grip - 141 lbs.

Calf Raise - 259 lbs. I didn't expect to score this high, but then again I haven't worked much with weighted calf raise.

End of Isochain Promethean cycle and Next Steps

The Isochain manual recommends changing your routine every 6-8 weeks, to prevent your gains from slowing down. This is based on the research of A.S. Matveyev who found that isometric accommodation occurs in approximately 6-8 weeks. What needs to be changed is the nature of the stimulus. The change could be as simple as changing the training angle of each Isochain drill by at least 20 degrees, if you want to continue with an Isochain routine. As of this writing I have done 22 sessions under my current Isochain Promethean cycle. Without interruptions to training, this would have been 7 weeks. However, I stopped training for 2 weeks because I had a house visitor and wasn't able to figure out a way to reduce the noise of the chain. Then I had another 1.5 week interruption due to the sewer line from my house being busted. So I figured I could do another 1-4 weeks under the current routine.

Then I saw No Limit Squad's video:

What he says about hypertrophy and muscular endurance reminded me of Thomas Kurz's recommendation to build up slow-twitch muscle fibers that stabilize joints and to improve blood supply of the muscles and their fibrous connective tissue, which speeds up muscles’ recovery and is needed for increasing structural strength of their fasciae and tendons. Thus, I started thinking about trying the Iron Man routine from the Isochain manual. This is an Isochain program that emphasizes muscular endurance, as opposed to Promethean, which emphasizes strength development with some hypertrophy. While my back has held up fine these past few months, I like the idea of improving muscular endurance for more insurance against future injury to the back, shoulders, or knees.

Iron Man requires measurement of 1-rep max values to start, because the target load is based on 20-40% of the 1-rep max. For back safety, I am not going to exert my maximum possible effort in the deadlift variation for my 1-rep max measurement session. Similarly to prevent another elbow problem, I'm not going to exert full effort on my 1-rep max test for the bicep curl.

The exercise selection for Iron Man:

Romanian Deadlift at High Angle - Recommended position for people with back issues.

Bicep Curl at High Angle - This will hopefully build up the slow-twitch fibers in my biceps, as well as the structural strength of the bicep tendons. Bicep tendon strengthening was one of the areas of emphasis in my prescribed rehab routine for my first shoulder injury.

Shoulder Press at High Angle - This will hopefully make my shoulders more resistant to injury, again per Thomas Kurz's statement. The shoulders are most vulnerable with the arms extended.

Zercher Squat at Medium Angle - This will hopefully make my knees more resistant to injury.

Bent-over Row at High Angle and Supinated Grip - The supinated grip mimics the grip that I would be using with bodyweight rowing movements on the. When I perform the row on the NOSSK suspension trainerutilizing the spiraling external rotation action taught by Red Delta Project, my hands end up in a supinated grip at the top of the movement, so the supinated grip on the Isochain at this angle mimics that. I chose the high angle because I worked the medium angle for two cycles in a row - the just-ended Promethean, and the Promethean Mk. 2 before that; and the low angle might have too much overlap with the deadlift.

Calf Raise - This is the last prescribed exercise for Iron Man in the manual. Maybe this will improve my foot arch and reduce occasional aches and pains in my feet while walking.

Isochain Promethean Mark I - Getting back on track

I took about two weeks off from Isochain training because I had a house guest and had not figured out a way to reduce the noise of the chain against the footplate. My guest is a very nice person who does not complain about noise, but I still felt self-conscious abou it. I then resumed training for a few days, then halted my Isochain work again when I learned that my sewer line had a break. I decided to stay at a nearby hotel while waiting for the work to be authorized by HomeServe, then scheduled, then finally begun.

The Isochain can be brought along on travel. However, the combined weight of the footplate, chain, and bar was enough to make me feel too lazy to bring it with me to my hotel room. Instead, I brought my newly acquired NOSSK Twin Pro suspension trainer, because I wanted to try some ideas gleaned from Red Delta Project videos. One of those ideas was training my back to create a spiraling, pulling force all the way to my hands, to help recover from Golfer's Elbow or other elbow issue, or prevent it from happening during pulling exercise. What the spiraling action does is spread the load throughout the back instead of allowing stress to accumulate at the elbows.

This video does a great job of introducing the spiraling, external rotation action to reduce elbow stress, as well as teaching a simple exercise for training this spiraling action.

The above video also offers advice on applying the the spiraling, back-driven external rotation action to pushups. However, with the NOSSK trainer at hand in the hotel, I was able to try this concept more readily with RTO pushups on the NOSSK than with regular pushups on the ground, due to the hands being able to rotate all the way to a supinated position at the bottom of the movement. Red Delta Project shows RTO pushups with his NOSSK here:

The spiraling action worked really well for eliminating elbow pain while doing rows as demonstrated in the above video.

Thus, I am now in Week 7 of the current Promethean cycle, even though I started the cycle in April and it's now June. Because of all the time off from training, I reset all my target loads 15lbs. lower for my first Isochain session after the layoff, then worked up from there. My progress so far on the drills:

Shoulder Press (medium angle) - Working at a target load of 50lbs. Last time I reached this target load, I was unable to do 4 full reps of 6-second holds. I could get the Isochain to beep, indicating that I hit the target load, but was unable to sustain force at that load. As of this week, I can do at least 4 reps for the full 6 seconds. I may take several more sessions at the 50lb. target load, to focus on improving my technique. I'm getting better at generating force from my feet up to my hands, but there's still plenty of room for improvement.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished the week at a target load of 125lbs or higher. My Golfer's Elbow pain is almost entirely gone. There is no elbow pain when performing this drill. I still get a tingling sensation in my index finger and thumb, so I try to pull through the ring and pinky fingers instead, using spiraling force from the back as taught by Red Delta Project for rows and pullups.

Zercher Squat (low angle) - Finished the week at a target load of 85 lbs with a max force of 122lbs. which is my 3rd highest reading for this cycle.

The shoulder feels about 95% healed. I can do almost all the movements from GMB Elements without pain. Before, I had trouble with the Monkey and Frogger movements. I still have to be careful with the 3-Point Bridge, which is part of the cooldown routine. I think if I avoid putting my support hand too far away from my butt the shoulder will be fine.

Red Delta Project Micro Workouts

I'd previously come across videos from the Red Delta Project channel, featuring trainer Matt Schifferle, while surfing Youtube.  I started to pay more attention to Red Delta Project after I saw that Dragondoor had Schifferle instruct the Isochain video course.

Red Delta Project has some interesting training ideas that I would like to explore after I finish my current Isochain Promethean routine.  I've been looking a lot of his micro workout videos in particular.

Flexion Extension Lateral Support Chain Micro Workout

Push Pull Squat Micro Workout targeting chest, lats, and hips

Chest and Core Micro Workout (pushup and side crawl)

No-equipment Core Micro Workout - suitable for warmup

Quad and Hamstring Hypertrophy Micro Workout 

Comparison of Nordic Curl to Hamstring Curl on suspension trainer, and how to regress/progress the difficulty level of the movement.

Chest Micro Workout - should help improve engagement of the chest for pressing movements.

 Cooldown Exercises

There are many more Micro Workout videos on the Red Delta Project channel.  Some of the exercises are demonstrated on NOSSK suspension trainers.  I went ahead and ordered my own pair.  So far I can report they work well with a door.

Pausing Isochain training for Convict Conditioning

I have a house guest for almost 2 weeks, so I'm pausing my Isochain training.  The chain is noisy as it rattles against the plate.  My guest is a chill and easygoing person, but I still feel a bit awkward about the noise.  I'll resume my current Promethean routine after the guest leaves.

For simplicity I chose the Good Behavior routine from the Convict Conditioning book.  It's a 3-day a week routine with a different pair of exercises each day.  Before starting the routine, I tried a set of pullups on my doorway pullup bar to observe how my elbow, recovering from Golfer's Elbow-like symptoms,  might feel.  Supinated grip of course was out of the question.  Neutral grip was uncomfortable.  Pronated grip with hands less than a foot apart felt the most comfortable.   I also tried a set of incline pushups to make sure that my recovering shoulder can at least handle those.

For today's session, the exercise pair was pushups and leg raises.  The hardest pushup variation I can handle turned out to be knee pushups.  So going forward my pushup routine will be 20 wall pushups and 15 (at most) high incline pushups on my dining table for my warmup sets.  My work sets will also be high incline pushups until I can do 40 reps.  In the past I would have advanced to higher difficulty more quickly by setting a lower standard, but now I understand the advantage of building up endurance at the lower difficulty levels for injury prevention.

I similarly tried 3 different lower level leg raise variations to determine the levels I should be working at for my warmup and work sets.  My warmup will be 20 flat knee raises and up to 15 flat bent leg raises.  My work sets will be flat bent leg raises.

Barry Harris Sixth Diminished Scale Explanations

This video is a very thoroough treatment of the Barry Harris Sixth Diminished Scale, not to be confused with the more common diminished and half-diminished scales.

More resources:

Barry Harris Harmony Hacks

Rich Cochrane's interpretation of Barry Harris's own explanation

Barry Harris-tagged posts by pianist John Elliot 

Isochain Promethean Mark I - Week 2

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (medium angle) - Finished with a target load of 45 lbs, with max reading of 57. a 13lb gain over last wee.  In last week's post, I said "I think that not trying to stand all the way up, so that I'm sitting/squatting just a tiny bit, makes it easier to connect my feet to my hands, and thus improve stability of the chain during training. I think this will also allow me to apply whole body power to this drill. "  Turns out I was on the right track, but I was still missing something.  During the Wednesday session, I figured it out!  This discovery made all the difference between struggling to sustain more than 45 lbs. of force for more than 3 seconds, to sustaining force output at that level for 6 seconds without much of a struggle, and scoring almost 20% above my 1-Rep Max.  More details on this discovery later in this article.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 110 lbs. with max of 200.2. which is more than 50lb gain over last week, and well above my 1-Rep Max.   I no longer have to grip with maximum gripping force to protect my elbow, which is great because gripping the bar with maximum force grinds into my thumb and causes some tingling sensation in the hand.

Zercher Squat (low angle) - Finished with target load of 70 lbs, with max reading of 106.4, for a 20lb gain over last week.  The required body positioning taxes the body more than any of the other drills.  The full 4-set suggested warmup for this drill is kind of brutal, as I barely have the endurance to sustain the 20-second hold, even at the lightest load.  I was so tired from the warmup sets that I could barely hit the 65 lb. target load last week.  So for this week, I cut the warmup sets to the 10-second and 5-second holds.  This resulted in greater force output in general for all my sets in this drill for this week.

The new procedure for the Shoulder Press, incorporated the newly discovered technical details:

1. Start with your hands under the bar as usual and squat down a little. 
2. Try to feel your feet pressing up to the bar - like there are invisible lines of force between the the feet and the bar.   This is basically jin (or muscle-jin).
   
3. Squat back up as you ramp up your force against the bar - you're like one of the Star Wars heroes trying to stop the Trash Compactor in the Death Star from crushing you.  This activates the legs, glutes, and core (abs, back, etc.) for the shoulder press and thus adds their force to the overall force.
   

I think this is a good start for this latest program. I'm already getting close to, or beating my 1-rep max scores in the Shoulder Press and Bent Row. I was a little tired from being awakened early on the day I took my 1-Rep Max measurements, which made the scores lower than they might have been if I had better rest beforehand. However, the purpose of thee scores is just to set the starting target loads for work sets and the warmup sets in Promethean, as well as establish metrics than can be used for calculating strength improvement by the end of the program. My elbow is feeling better as well. I'm still doing 15-sec. finger holds on the Isochain at a 70lb load, after the regular training session. I also still do the supline thoracic windmill as part of warmups and mobility work and wrist rotations with the hammer. I don't do the wrist curls with the bag of canned food anymore.

Isochain Promethean Mark I - Week 1

This week marked the start of my latest Isochain program, Promethean Mark I. I'm not going to say "modified" any more just because the exercise selection is a little different than what is described in the book The Ultimate Isometrics Manual, because other than the exercise selection, I am following the protocol specific to this program. For my first session, I measured my 1-rep max for each of the three drills, using the 1-Rep Max protocol from the manual, which is basically some warmup sets, followed by 3 max attempts and taking the average of the 3 force readings. The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (medium angle) - Started with 1-Rep Max score of 48.8 lbs. Finished with a target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 46.8. I think that not trying to stand all the way up, so that I'm sitting/squatting just a tiny bit, makes it easier to connect my feet to my hands, and thus improve stability of the chain during training. I think this will also allow me to apply whole body power to this drill. We shall see.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Realized that what I thought was medium angle for this drill in the previous program was actually the low angle already. This was because at the start of the previous program, my torso was closer to parallel to the floor. After changing my body positioning to put my torso at more of a diagonal angle, the arms were lengthened and thus I was actually working at the low angle.  Now, I'm working with the bar much closer to the middle of the rowing motion.  Started with 1-Rep Max score of 152.8 lbs. Finished with target load of 80 lbs. with max of 158.

Zercher Squat (low angle) - Started with 1-Rep Max score of 114.4 lbs. I think part of the reason I'm weaker at this angle is just squatting in this position is taxing for my quads, without even trying to apply force.   Finished with target load of 60 lbs, with max reading of 75.2.

I think this is a good start for this latest program. I'm already getting close to, or beating my 1-rep max scores in the Shoulder Press and Bent Row. I was a little tired from being awakened early on the day I took my 1-Rep Max measurements, which made the scores lower than they might have been if I had better rest beforehand. However, the purpose of thee scores is just to set the starting target loads for work sets and the warmup sets in Promethean, as well as establish metrics than can be used for calculating strength improvement by the end of the program. My elbow is feeling better as well. I'm still doing 15-sec. finger holds on the Isochain at a 70lb load, after the regular training session. I also still do the supline thoracic windmill as part of warmups and mobility work and wrist rotations with the hammer. I don't do the wrist curls with the bag of canned food anymore.

Today's Music Discoveries

 

Rising Sun Music

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - End of Week 8 and Concluding Thoughts

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with a target load of 40 lbs, with max reading of 45.8.

Reverse Drag Curl (medium angle) -  Finished with target load of 25 lbs. with max of 27.2.  I started the week attempting to hit a target load of 30lbs. but failed to reach it.  Both reverse curl variations have been frustrating for me. The Isochain force sensor does not seem to respond if the angle of the bar to the chain and the line of force directed through the chain is not absolutely perfect, if the person using the Isochain is weak. Once the person has achieved a certain threshold of strength, then the exact angle does not seem to matter as much.

Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 165 lbs, with max reading of 223.8.

Chest Press - Finished with target load of 20 lbs. with a max of 23.2 lbs.  Perhaps I should have tried training with my hands further apart.  They were almost at the very ends of the bar when I hit 47 lbs in this drill.  I never came close to that number ever again in this program.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 105 lbs, with max reading of 213. 

Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 210 lbs, with max reading of 263.8.  

Thus ends this 8-week Promethean Mark II program.  My lack of progress in upper body pressing strength and any reverse curl variation is disappointing, but I'm still recovering from shoulder and elbow issues, so maybe the best I could have expected was just to be able to train and heal without further aggravation to those issues.  I had to sacrifice Deadlift performance to protect my elbow. but it seems to have paid off with modest gain in grip strength and reduced elbow pain.  

My initial 1-rep max in the Zercher Squat was 184.5.  With a final max reading of 263.8, that is a 43% gain.   

My initial 1-rep max in the Bent Row was  127.3.  With a final max reading of 213, that is a 67% gain,  which is by far my best strength gain, even accounting for errors in my technique that were fixed during the course of the program.

My elbow feels so much better after practicing the rehab exercises as advised by E3 Rehab and Steven Low.  I'm not sure it's quite ready to tolerate pullups and Front Lever training yet but it's not as sensitive as it was at the start of the program.

My shoulder also feels better, though still not good enough to tolerate inversion training on the Feetup Trainer that I recently purchased.   Thus I'm not quite ready to take on one of the combined Isochain-bodyweight programs from the Ultimate Isometrics Manual yet.

Some fellow trainees have reported flexibility gains from Isochain training.  In the Trifecta mobility routine from Convict Conditioning 2, I've progressed significantly in the Twist Hold and  Bridge.  I can put my on the other side of the knee and use a shirt to pull the hands towards each other without undue strain.  I can hold a full Bridge Hold for 20 seconds without much effort.

For the next training program, I plan to do 6-8 weeks of Promethean Mk. I with the following exercises:

Shoulder Press (medium angle) - This is the angle I was unable to train at when I first received my Isochain, because of the pain.  Moving my arms into this angle is not entirely pain-free, but I can at least get my arms in that right-angle position with the weight of the Isochain bar, and begin applying force without pain.  There's no guarantee that 6-8 weeks of training at this angle will finally eliminate my shoulder issue, but being able to even start at this angle is very promising.

Zercher Squat (low angle) - All my lower body training on the Isochain so far has been at high angles to reduce the risk of re-injury to the low back.  I think the low angle for this drill should be fine because the drill prevents the low back from rounding.  The low angle should put more load on the thighs.  The glutes might get more work too, as well as the abs.

Bent Row (low angle) - This will be to work the start of the pull .

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Week 7 Results

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with a target load of 35 lbs, with max reading of 45.2.

Reverse Drag Curl (medium angle) -  Finished with target load of 25 lbs. with max of 30.4.  I hit a max of 34.8 on the Monday session.  I did 4 reps that session.  For the Thursday session I did 6 reps.  I wouldn't be surprised if my max effort started dropping off after the 4th rep.  That said, I will go ahead and raise the target load to 30lbs. with a rep goal of 4 to start next week.  I have some confidence that I'll be able to hit the target.

Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 160 lbs, with max reading of 195.6.  At this point, the Deadlift is primarily a grip-training exercise for me, so my priority is on how much load I can handle without a setback to my healing from golfer's elbow.

Chest Press - Finished with target load of 25 lbs. with a max of 31lbs.  For the Tuesday session, I hit a max of 38lbs against a target load of 20lbs.  I will start next wee with a target load of 30lbs and just go for 4 reps.  

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 100 lbs, with max reading of 140.2.  I felt li e I was on the edge of aggravating the elbow but since pain was avoided, I'll go ahead and raise the target to 105lbs for next week

Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 205 lbs, with max reading of 243.   The gains are starting to slow, as the drill is starting to feel hard but I still have yet to be forced to back cycle.  I had to move back a little from the chain as it was starting to grind against something between the legs.

Handstand Pushup Tips from Eduardo Orihuela

Looks like only one video but there are actually a bunch of them packed into this one post. Lot of great training tips by GMB Trainer Eduardo Orihuela to complement GMB's HSPU Tutorial.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eduardo Orihuela (@eorihuela)

Also some great tips for achieving a Tuck Bent Arm Stand

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Week 6 Results

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with a target load of 30 lbs, with max reading of 39.4.  The chain does not shake as much as it did last week.  I'm getting a more solid connection up to the bar, without thinking about jin.  I think it has something to do with not straightening the legs - probably the height of my center of gravity, even if jin is not being consciously manipulated.

Reverse Drag Curl (medium angle) -  Finished with target load of 20 lbs. with max of 27.2.  My grip is getting better.  It wasn't where I wanted it to be for the last rep, but before the last rep I was feeling stronger than before.

Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 150 lbs, with max reading of 212.4.  I switched to a mixed grip, after making sure my elbow could tolerate effort with a supinated palm.  Pronated grip was actually more of an issue.  I had to flex my wrist a little in pronated grip to protect the elbow from aggravation.  If I'm lucky this won't lead to another unintended consequence but I'll see.  Barring further setback, looks like a mixed grip is the way to for further progress in this drill without aggravating the elbow.

Chest Press - Finished with target load of 30 lbs.  It took a lot of effort to get the bar to beep in Timer mode, even though I can feel my chest working hard.  I continue to struggle to get the technique just right.  The instruction is to apply pressure up and outward, but the bar also has to be in correct position - if it's rotated too much in either direction, the chain will be at the wrong angle in relation to the bar.  I looked at my training log and was surprised to see that I had not yet back-cycled in this drill.  So next week, I'll set the target load to 20lbs. 

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 95 lbs, with max reading of 133.  As with the deadlift, I may have to start flexing the wrist a little more for better protection of the elbow.

Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 190 lbs, with max reading of 248.8.   This is the one drill where I'm experiencing seemingly runaway gains in strength.  The only hitch for the 2nd session was letting the bar pull my forearms down.   This was easily fixed though by resetting.

Today's Music Discoveries

 

Today's Music Discoveries

 

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Week 5 Results

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with 6 reps at a target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 44.4.  I gave up trying to work in jin and focused on scapula protraction.

Reverse Drag Curl (medium angle) -  Finished with target load of 15 lbs. with max of 30.2.  I have the bar set 2 links lower than where I had it set for the regular Reverse Curl, because I felt my hands were a little too high.  I stayed at the 15lb. load level because I wanted to make sure my grip stays secure during the entire set.

Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 145 lbs, with max reading of 194.2. It was a challenge to maintain a grip tight enough to prevent the elbow from being aggravated.

Chest Press - Finished with target load of 30 lbs, with max reading of 43.  I had a couple of reps where the bar timer was not triggered because it wasn't reading a 30lb force from me, which in turn was because I wasn't using my chest muscles properly.  Thus I generated the target force by what feels like proper technique for 4 out of the 6 reps.  I want to do it for  6 out of 6 reps before I raise the target load.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 90 lbs, with max reading of 144.  As with the deadlift, the main concern is to be able to exert the target force without aggravating the elbow.

Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 170 lbs, with max reading of 233.   Progress continues to be steady.  I'm not feeling DOMS in my upper back, especially around the scapula, anymore.

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Week 5 Start (needing to back-cycle)

I started today's session with the Shoulder Press, going through the drill-specific warmup. However when I got to the work set, I failed to reach the target load of 35lbs for 2 reps in a row. I dropped the load to 30 lbs and did four more reps of 6-second holds to finish the set. So for the next session, I decided to drop the target load back to 25 lbs. and work my way back up. Sometimes, there's no solid explanation as to why strength fluctuates like this. I felt my general warmup was sufficient to get my shell temperature into training range. This is only the 5th week out of 8 for this routine, so no need to stress. With my elbow still recovering, I really do not want my grip to slip when I attempt a deadlift. I struggled to prevent the bar from starting to slip down my fingers, and thus cause elbow pain, at the target load of 160lbs. So I dropped the load to 145lbs to finish the set. For the remainder of this routine, I will have to treat the Deadlift more as a grip exercise than a leg/core/posterior chain exercise.

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Week 4

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with 4 reps at a target load of 35 lbs, with max reading of 47. I was surprised to see the 47 lb. reading because on that last rep, I felt I was straining without feeling that I was pushing all that strongly. I might be using "muscle-jin", which is creating a jin path from my feet to the bar to supply most of the force, and then adding localized upper-body muscle to increase the force just a bit. In theory, a pure jin path should generate more force than muscle-jin, but I'm not that good at manifesting jin up to my hands with my arms extended overhead. I've been trying to keep my 6H training separate from my "external" strength training. On the other hand, restoring full, pain-free, range of the shoulder is more important to me than purity of jin right now.

Reverse Curl (medium angle) - Switched to Reverse Drag Curl because progress in the regular Reverse Curl had stalled with my max being around 30 lbs.  I could just keep at the regular Reverse Curl and hope that gains in the Bent Row will eventually carry over, but I figured, who not try the Drag.  The Drag Curl variation is supposed to reduce the load on the shoulders and cause the biceps to contract more strongly. I felt my forearms working harder. I felt the biceps working a tad more but that's about it.  Finished with target load of 15 lbs. with max of 24.6.

Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 160 lbs, with max reading of 195.8. I'll do a couple more sessions at the 160lbs. to give my grip a chance to get stronger, because I can feel that if I increase the load to 165, my grip won't be strong enough to prevent the bar from slipping, and thus aggravating my elbow, even wih the action of my thighs pushing the bar towards my palms to reduce the grip demand.

Chest Press - Finished with target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 38.2.  The max isn't much improvement over last week, but the technique improved enough to merit an increase for next week.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 85 lbs, with max reading of 166.4, which is about a 70lb. improvement over last week's max reading.  The reason for the improvement was a change in form.  I was practicing with my torso parallel to the ground, with my body closer to an L shape.  With the torso more diagonal, I am able to row the bar towards my stomach with much more force, and less concern for the shoulders rising or being pulled forward.  This video by a fellow Isochain user helped me a lot. 

Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 150 lbs, with max reading of 221.4.   With the arms a little wider apart, and thus so that the shoulder blades being pulled together as force is applied, I'm feeling more work on the upper back.

I've been addressing my elbow issue using exercise ideas from GMB and E3 Rehab, as described here.  I now do at least 10 reps per side of Side-Lying Thoracic Windmill as part of my daily warmup. I do 3 sets of 10-15 reps of Wrist Flexion and Elbow Rotation, 3 times a week. I do 3 sets of 15-sec. holds of Finger Roll with the Isochain after my regular Isochain session, with the bar behind the back because it's easier to get the chest up and take the slack out of the arms. In the early going, the results are promising

Golfer's Elbow exercises

I may have mentioned before that since sometime in December, I get some pain in the inside of my left elbow when I apply force with my left palm towards my right, like when I wash my hands. I also feel this pain when I lift anything with my left palm supinated. This condition seems to match Mayo Clinic's description of Golfer's Elbow. Fortunately the pain is about 3 when ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being worst pain ever, when I wash my hands, and about 5-7 when lifting in supinated grip, depending on the load. I lifted some boxes that my neighbor had ordered but were mistakenly delivered to my home instead and those were heavy enough to cause more pain than usual. So because the pain has been relatively minor, I haven't consulted a doctor and thus been officially diagonosed with Golfer's Elbow.

To start trying to address this issue, I first tried some exercises from the GMB Elbow Pain article. Some comments:

Open Chain Rotation - Because of the shoulder issue, I can't really do this with the straight arm. With the bent arm, rotating from pronated hand to neutral hand was fine. However, anywhere between neutral to supinated hand was painful. Most of the time, GMB is on point, but there were some missing details that I found later.
Band Elbow Flexion - Seems fine. Is it working the same muscles as the Isochain Reverse Curl? Not sure.
Grip on Towel - Tried it once and felt pain. Haven't tried it again yet.
Ring Pullup - Feels fine with feet on floor to reduce load and strict pronation of hands - no neutral grip. Full bodyweight load was a little questionable.
Elbow Extension - I didn't try because straightening the arm has not been an issue for the elbow.

Later, I found this video by E3 Rehab for Golfer's Elbow, which they state is based on latest research. The GMB article was published in 2017. The below video was uploaded in 2020.

Comments on the exercises, based on when I tried each exercise for the first time:

Wrist Flexion - 6-15 reps dynamic, 10-45 seconds isometric - I started with a bag with one soup can for load. I ended the week with 3 cans. What feels good for me is slowly opening my palm during the eccentric movement until the the load is resting on the phalanges of my fingers, then during the concentric, forming a fist before raising my hand.

Elbow Rotation - 2-3 seconds up and down, 6-15 reps dynamic - This basically half of the Open Chain Rotation movement shown in the GMB article. For Golfer's Elbow, the E3 Rehab doctors did not see any value in rotating the hand all the way to pronated position. At first I choked up a lot on the hammer and only allowed it to pull my hand towards pronated position, to the threshold of pain. After reading the Overcoming Tendonitis article (below), I started letting it pull my hand through the pain zone all the way past pronated position, as far as my hand could rotate.

Side-Lying Thoracic Windmill - Shoulder rotation placing high valgus stress on elbow structure is one possible cause of golfer's elbow.  Recent research found that elite golfers have sport adaptations which give them greater than average range of motion in internal and external shoulder rotation.  Research also found that greater degree of thoracic motion leads to greater degree of external shoulder rotation. Thus, this exercise works on thoracic motion and shoulder rotation together.  This exercise feels fine if I start with a slightly smaller circle of rotation for the first couple of reps, then gradually increase the range of motion, paying attention to when I rotate the hand on the working arm.  I just have to remember to include it in my warmup routine!

Prone Shoulder Extension - 6-15 reps - Researchers found that Golfer's Elbow sufferers showed significant strength deficits in different shoulder motions. This exercise addresses one of those motions. I tried this empty-hand and it was too easy.

Arm Raise Variations - Tried with a soup can in each hand. I managed one rep with no pain, but it's difficult to do this without any shoulder pain, for the same reason I can't do a standard front raise or side raise. Taking into account what the Overcoming Tendonitis article says about painful vs. aggravating exercise, I can't really tell if this movement is aggravating to my shoulder or just painful. Since Isochain Shoulder Press has been delivering results, I see no reason to gamble here.

Overcoming Tendonitis article by Steven Low is yet another useful resource that I found. One point that surprised me is that pushing through pain in a movement is acceptable as long as the movement does not aggravate the issue. The article goes on to describe the differece between painful exercise and aggravating exercise. The article agrees with the E3 Rehab video about the effectiveness of eccentric movement, and the choice of Wrist Flexion and Elbow Rotation for rehab exercises. Where it diverges is the recommended number of reps (a lot more reps!) and the recommended range of motion for Elbow Rotation. Also, it recommends a 3rd exercise for directly rehabbing the issue which is the Heavy Finger Roll. I was thus inspired to try adding a few sets of isometric "finger roll" on the Isochain after my regular Isochain workout.  I changed the exercise by positioning the bar behind my back, which makes it easier to keep the chest up and the arms straight. Based on the Isochain readings at various levels of effort, I settled on a target load of 50 lbs and used the Timer mode in the default setting, thus a 6-sec. hold at 50lbs.

Today's Musical Discoveries

Viking's Choice: Cubist Dance, Hag Blues, Heavy Shoegaze

Today's Music Discoveries

 

GMB and Mindful Mover on Alternatives to Deadlift

Once upon a time, I had a barbell set and practiced the deadlift using the basic program prescribed in the book Power To The People by Pavel Tsatsouline.  This training program had only two exercises - the side press and the deadlift.  Pavel has always been a strong advocate of the deadlift.  Aside from training the lower back, this quote from the book describes the other muscles trained.:

You work your shoulder girdle, your traps, your biceps, your forearms and your grip. Also, for athletes from sports where hypertrophy in the legs is not recommended, the deadlift is a great exercise.

I eventually achieved a double-bodyweight deadlift.  My deadlifting days came to an end when I loaded up the bar a little heavier than I should have and forgot to press hard on the heels of my feet to stand up.  The pain in my back was immediate and intense enough to let me know that I did something wrong.  I consulted with the sports doctor who treated me for my shoulder injury and he recommended a spine specialist.  I went to the spine specialist and he recommended rest and light exercise.  While he did not give me a precise diagnosis, he did say I might have a disc issue at worst, but otherwise did not need surgery, which I took as good news.   Shortly after, I got rid of my barbell set when it was time to move out of my apartment.

During all this time between getting rid of the barbell set and getting the Isochain.  I had pondered what bodyweight exercises I could do as alternatives to the deadlift.  Al Kavadlo recommended four bodyweight exercises as alternatives: Bridge, Single Leg Deadlift, Pistol Squat, and Lever Holds .  I eventually learned and practiced all four exercises.  Without a barbell or an Isochain, I could not really test the effects of these four exercises on my deadlift strength. 

GMB has an article in which they state that there are no bodyweight exercises that can truly substitute for the deadlift or other barbell exercises, and then go on to elaborate this statement.  One key passage of the article is the description of the benefits of practicing the deadlift, listing the requirements for a strong deadlift, then listing bodyweight movements that would help you meet those requirements.  Perhaps another way of describing GMB's recommendations, in response to the question of what bodyweight exercises can serve as deadlift alternatives, is to practice bodyweight exercises that will deliver the same benefits as a deadlifts - those benefits being a strong grip, a strong back, etc. GMB acknowledges in this article that you won't gain the same strength in those areas as somebody who has worked up to a triple bodyweight deadlift, but you'll be stronger in those areas than someone who just sits around all day and doesn't do any exercise.

Around the same time that I saw the GMB article, I saw Mindful Mover's opinion of the Deadlift expressed in this Instagram post.   Their message seems to be different than GMB's.  It seems to be intended for people who have already achieved a double-bodyweight deadlift.  The message is that once this level of strength is achieved, it is no longer necessary to practice the deadlift, but instead practice Single Leg Squats, Nordic Leg Curls, and One Leg Back Extensions.  In response to a question about whether Single Leg Squats and Nordic Leg Curls can deliver the same benefits for lower back strength that the Deadlift does, their answer is yes, with Accommodating Resistance.  I saw in one the post replies that Phil of Mindful Mover practices the Single Leg Squat (that is, Pistol Squat) with a weighted vest, loaded with over 100 lbs of weight - maybe 120lbs?  I forgot.  Occasionally, he has a partner add her own bodyweight for extra load.  Anyway, they train the eccentric motion with the full load , then use hands (Accommodating Resistance) to assist in the concentric portion of the movement.  

Mindful Mover has a video on how to train the Nordic Leg Curl with Accommodating Resistance.  E3 Rehab has an informative article that does not mention Accommodating Resistance but does describe in detail how to set up for it.  Their view seems more balanced, in that they mention the barbell deadlift as an effective exercise for the hamstrings, yet cast the Nordic Leg Curl as the best exercise for preventing hamstring injury, rather than as an exercise that is superior to the deadlift in multiple aspects.

One other thing I learned from reading through that Instagram post and all the replies is that Mindful Mover no longer considers the Single Leg Deadlift to be essential for improving hamstring flexibility.  They now think that the Weighted Pike Stretch is all you need.   Hamstring flexibility is not a super high priority for me right now, but I'll keep this in mind for future reference.  I'm practicing the L-Hold progression as part of my Trifecta mobility sessions.  When I reach the full L-Hold/L-Sit then that exercise will become more of a hamstring stretch.  I also plan to try the Single Leg Romanian Deadlift on the Isochain at some point, even if Mindful Mover no longer favors the dynamic version of this exercise for hamstring mobility.

It was  interesting to see what GMB and Mindful Mover think about how people who desire the benefits of deadlifting but are unable to deadlift for whatever reason, be it lack of access to a barbell or something else.  I don't plan to drop the Deadlift from my exercise menu anytime soon.  It's just too quick and convenient to practice with the Isochain.  My Deadlift training on the Isochain takes 6 seconds per rep = up to 36 sec. total, plus 100 seconds total rest time between reps, plus 30 sec. rest between Deadlift warmup sets and the start of work sets, plus about 60 sec. total for the warmup sets = 266 seconds or 4 minutes and 26 seconds.  This is so little training time that it makes no sense to me to drop this exercise to save time.

One possible next routine after the 6-8 weeks with Promethean Mk II are up, is the combined Isochain-bodyweight routine that appears in the manual as "Option C".  One of those dynamic exercises is... single-leg squats!   The routine will let me continue building absolute strength with the Isochain.  As GMB states, while pure bodyweight exercises can make a person very strong, these exercises cannot compete with weight training at loads of double-bodyweight or higher, for developing the greatest humanly possible strength.  This routine would let me improve my mobility, motor control, and balance by including single-leg squat, while also letting me continue building my overall strength by including the Deadlift, Zercher Squat, etc. as Isochain drills.

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Week 3

For the first session, I really focused on performing the Reverse Curl and Deadlift with a strong grip.  The golfer's elbow is unforgiving when I let my grip slip in the Deadlift.  I've no doubt this affects my Deadlift performance but I'd rather get by with less than maximal effort in that drill if I can avoid aggravating the golfer's elbow.  My Reverse Curl .

I wanted to see if my elbow could handle Front Lever and pullup training, so I set up my nice wooden rings.  Front Lever is doable with strict attention to keeping the grip pronated. I cannot allow my palms to face each other. Pullups at full bodyweight load is problematic, even with pronated grip. Pullups with feet on the floor to reduce the load is doable. While I want to try one of the mixed Isochain and bodyweight training programs from the manual, I haven't decided yet on whether to go with Option A which is all-isometric, or Option C which is mostly isometric but also incorporates one dynamic exercise each training day.

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with target load of 30 lbs, with max reading of 38.8.  I'll do one more session at this target load because I felt the effort going by GMB's Ease Scale, was still challenging.

Reverse Curl (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 25 lbs. Progress appears to be stalled from a numbers perspective with the max was still in the low 30.  On the other hand, my grip feels stronger.   What frustrates me about the Reverse Curl is the force readings are dependent on the angle of the bar with respect to the chain, because the force sensors are inside the bar.  The force readings for all the Isochain exercises depend on the bar to chain angle, but the Reverse Curl is particularly unforgiving.  I'll try dropping the target load to 20 lbs next week.

Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 150 lbs, with max reading of 199.2.  The max reading is down quite a bit due to only applying as much force as my grip can handle.  If my hand starts to open up, my elbow will hurt, so I'm only applying as much pressure as I can while still maintaining a tight squeeze on the bar.

Chest Press - Finished with target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 39.2.  This is an improvement over last week, but my technique is not consistent so I will do one more session with the 25lb. target load.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 92 lbs, with max reading of 92.4. As with the deadlift, I only apply as much pressure as I can while still maintaining a tight squeeze on the bar..

Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 130 lbs, with max reading of 183.4.   I need to work on performing this drill with the arms a little wider apart so that the shoulders are less likely to be pulled forward.  Otherwise, progress remains steady.

I have some other thoughts on Golfer's Elbow and alternatives to Deadlift, which will be addressed in separate posts.

Today's Music Discoveries

 

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Week 2

Starting this week, I worked on sustaining my force all the way to the end of the timer, when I use the Isochain in Timer mode.  When my force reaches the target load in Timer mode, the Isochain bar beeps with a certain tone, then beeps once for each second that I sustain the force.  When I reach the end of the timed interval, which by default is six seconds, the bar emits a longer tone to signal the end.   I have had a tendency to relax my body as soon as I hear that tone.  Instead, I should continue applying force until the end of the long tone, to ensure that I have applied effort for the full six seconds.

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 40. I seem to be able to generate more force at the high angle with a narrower grip - about the same as what I used for the low angle. I've been trying a wider grip but have not been able to exert as much force with the wider grip.

Reverse Curl (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 31. Not much change from last week. Just have to keep working at it, particularly squeezing the bar with a tight grip.

Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 145 lbs, with max reading of 247.2. When I practiced brachial hanging, I developed the habit of gripping the bar loosely, so that the middle and proximal phalanges of my hands would be resting on top of the bar and my thumbs would not wrap around the bar. This habit carried over to how I grip the Isochain bar for deadlifts. My golfer's elbow - if this is indeed what I am suffering - is aggravated when I attempt a deadlift with this loose grip. It seems that the fix is to wrap the thumb around the bar and squeeze the bar hard. Thus I have slowed down my progress on this drill by incrementing the load 5lbs instead of 10 lbs, because at this time it's more important to work on that strong grip than it is to work on setting a new PR.

Chest Press - Finished with target load of 20 lbs, with max reading of 28.2. I was puzzled as to why hit a max of 47.6 last week, yet have been unable to push anywhere close to that this week. I realized it was because I was forgetting to protract the scapula. The serratus anterior is the muscle group that protracts the scapula, and amplfies pressing strength when activated. So later in the day, I attempted another chest press on the Isochain, this time with protracted scapula, and got a max reading of 41 lbs.  I hope I can remember to protract the scapula on my next full training session with this drill.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 75 lbs, with max reading of 135. As with the deadlift, while the numbers are better than last week, grip is a concern because aggravating the golfer's elbow ia s risk here too. Also, I felt a bit of irritation in the shoulder. I realized I was pulling the bar towards my stomach, which was a habit I got from practicing tuck front lever rows. The shoulders and scapula feel more stable when I pull towards my sternum instead.

Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 110 lbs, with max reading of 180.5.   Progress seems to be going smoothly with this drill.

My body seems to love doing Bridges, so I started incorporating the Bridge hold into my warmup routine.  I do one hold for as long as I'm comfortable - so no tests of endurance - for 18-20 seconds - before proceeding to Crab Walk and Bear Walk to finish the general warmup.  

For the Friday session, I tried Twist Hold from the Trifecta after Isochain training, before beginning the cooldown routine.  This felt mostly good, except I need to make sure I don't let the shoulder travel out of its socket.  I've progressed enough to start working with a towel or cloth for assistance.  I first tried using a towel a couple of months ago, but I felt I was straining too hard and was concerned about triggering a back spasm or a hernia.  I've been working on practicing the Twist Hold with smooth breathing and gently increasing the stretch without straining.  The Convict Conditioning 2 book suggests practicing until the back of the hand, on the arm pulling against the vertical leg, can touch the instep, before moving on to using the towel to help pull the hands together.  I'll probably go back and forth between working on twisting the arm to get the back of the palm closer to the instep, and working with towel assistance.

Shoveling snow aggravated my golfer's elbow.  I understand this could have been avoided if I knew how to shovel with 6H techniques, but unfortunately I'm not advanced enough.  From what I understand, the technique involves loading the front foot, using reverse breath to "inflate the suit" and thus stretch the side of the body that needs to be pre-stretched, then release with weight transfer to the back foot.  From what I recall, there are two basic motions for "pole-shaking" training with a waxwood spear or a long nylon rod.  The forward motion is loading the rear foot then releasing to the front foot so that the pole is driving downwards.  The backward motion is probably the one for shoveling, because the pole would be driving upwards.    I haven't done much pole-shaking.  I don't want to order a nylon pole until my golfer's elbow condition has improved, because I don't know what working with the pole is going to do to my elbow.

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II: Week 1

I don't know for sure if I have golfer's elbow in my left arm, but the Mayo Clinic's description seems to match.  It's not a constant pain.  I feel it when my left palm is facing the right as I apply pressure, like when I wash my hands.  Fortunately, I don't feel it when I play my guitars with the lowest action, like the Breedlove Discovery Concert nylon-string or my Fender electrics.  

I found that the way to eliminate risk of aggravating the golfer's elbow during the Deadlift on Isochain is to squeeze harder with my thumb.  I don't know exactly how this works, but the action of squeezing harder with the thumb seems to prevent the golfer's elbow pain as I exert maximal effort on the Deadlift.

For first half of Week 1, I ran the 1-Rep Max protocol to set the 1-Rep Max values for the Day 1 and Day 2 drills. For the second half, I practiced my first regular training sessions for these drills, with target loads set to about 50% of the recorded 1-Rep Max loads. Not really much data to see for just one session for each set of drills, but for what it's worth, here are the results:

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Trained with target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 38.6.

Reverse Curl (medium angle) - Trained with target load of 20 lbs, with max reading of 30.4

Deadift (high angle) - Trained with target load of 130 lbs, with max reading of 239.2

Chest Press - Trained with target load of 20 lbs, with max reading of 47.6.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Trained with target load of 65 lbs, with max reading of 103.

Zercher Squat (high angle) - Trained with target load of 90 lbs, with max reading of 150.

I think it's a solid start for the new routine.  The Chest Press is the Isochain drill that is the most dependent on technique to properly execute.   The first trick is to find a good height for the bar, which should be around sternum height.  If it is too high, it will feel too much like the Shoulder Press.  If it is too low, it's more difficult to get the proper feeling.  The Ultimate Isometrics Manual says it should feel like being iat the bottom position of a bench press.  The funny thing is, I've never done a real barbell bench press, because it typically requires a spotter.  I've only used the plate-loading machines that were supposed to simulate a bench press.  Anyway, the next trick after that is to hold the bar as close as possible to the sternum.  Next after that is to grip the bar with a wide enough grip, then flex the pectoral muscles before ramping up the pressure on the bar, which cues you to use your chest to power the press - hence the name of the drill.  A final trick is to pull the scapula down, then protract them (spread them apart).  This scapula action further reduces the involvement of the shoulders and fires up the chest even more, as it is the serratus anterior muscle in the chest that protracts the scapula.

I'm starting to observe results from practicing the technique for the Chest Press instead of just blindly straining at the bar.  The max force reading of 47.6 lbs is quite a bit higher than my 1-Rep Max score for this drill, which was 36.1 lbs.

Today's Music Discoveries

 

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Day 2

As planned, I ran the 1-Rep Max Protocol for the Day 2 drills for my Modified Promethean Mark II program. These are the results in pounds:

High-angle Zercher Squat: 184.5, Single-attempt max: 194.2
Medium-Angle Bent Row: 127.3, Single-attempt max: 131.6
Chest Press: 36.1, Single-attempt max: 37.4

Unlike the Day 1 drills, I have not practiced these drills before so I had no expectations for the numbers.   My first max attempt on the Zercher Squat was a bit tentative because I wasn't fully confident that my back would hold up, despite stacking the odds in my favor by going for the high angle, ensuring that my torso was upright, and tucking my butt to the rear.  I applied a bit more force with each successive attempt. Perhaps I could have cracked 200 lbs. if I applied as much force as I did on my last Deadlift attempt yesterday but I didn't want to take the chance.  My back felt fine during all three Zercher Squat attempts but it was the lack of familiarity that made me cautious.  I viewed today's test more as a means of setting my starting target load values for this program, than a test of my true strength.

It will take a while to develop good technique for Chest Press.  The manual says the first trick is to set the bar at a good height, about the level of the sternum, so that the pectorals can be engaged more than the shoulders.  Next is to get the bar as close as possible to the chest.  Then, tense the pecs to ensure they're activated and use them to push the bar both up and outward, so that it feels like the bottom of a bench press.  I found a wide grip helps activate the pecs.  I've accepted that my performance in this drill will be weak until I get the technique down.

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - Day 1

As planned, I ran the 1-Rep Max Protocol for the Day 1 drills for my Modified Promethean Mark II program. These are the results in pounds:

High-angle Deadlift: 265, Single-attempt max: 287.2
Medium-Angle Reverse Curl: 38, Single-attempt max: 39
High-angle Shoulder Press: 49, Single-attempt max: 50.2

The numbers for Reverse Curl was what I expected.  My Shoulder Press tested about 10 lbs. higher than I anticipated, based on my performance at the low angle in the previous program, and what I recall of struggling at the high angle position.  

I'm finding that the Shoulder Press at the higher angle is more optimal with my hands a little further apart than they were for the low angle.  There's a sweet spot where I can generate the most force, when I protract the scapula.  If the hands are closer together than that sweet spot, the elbows start to want to flare out and the wrists start feeling awkward.  If the hands are further apart, there is a dropoff in force production and scapula protraction gets less effective for preventing shoulder discomfort.

The biggest surprise was the Deadlift.  Before I switched from Deadlift to Hack Lift, the highest reading I recall seeing was around 180 lbs.  I thought that Hack Lift would hit enough of the same areas in my posterior chain enough to see improvement in the Deadift, but I didn't anticipate this kind of jump.

An article that hinted at carryover from Hack Lift to Deadlift:

Hack Lift Pros and Cons

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II Planning

This is my modified version of the Promethean Mark II program from the Ultimate Isometrics Manual, which I am planning to follow for 8 weeks.

Modified Promethean Mark II
Day 1 - High-angle Deadlift, Medium-Angle Reverse Curl, High-angle Shoulder Press
Day 2 - High-Angle Zercher Squat, Medium-Angle Bent Row, Chest Press
Day 3 - Off

Today I tried out Isochain positions for the selected drills at the desired angles, and added color-coded tags to the chain to mark the positions. if the tags were not already there.  I also tested the Max readings in Feedback Mode because I had overlooked that the Max button works in Feedback mode so I wanted to make sure that it works for the 1-Rep Max testing sessions that I will be using to set the official 1-rep Max values for each of the 6 drills for Promethean Mark II.

The Day 1 exercises are mostly the same as in the manual, except for Reverse Curl, which I have substituted for Curl because of soreness in my inner elbow that is aggravated by Curl.  I'd been working at the high angle for Reverse Curl so it made sense to switch back to a medium angle.  I experimented with positioning the bar so that it is vertically above the base plate, versus positioning the bar a little further in front of me so that the elbows are in line with my torso, resulting in the chain being at an angle to the base plate instead of vertical.  I found that the Isochain measured a greater Reverse Curl force with the elbows in line with the torso, instead of the elbows behind for a vertical chain.  I went with high-angle Deadlift because it's the least stress to the lower back, and it engages the abs the most.  I chose high-angle Shoulder Press because it's more comfortable than medium-angle, and I'd been working so much with low-angle already.  

The Day 2 drill selection is also mostly the same as in the manual, with Zercher Squat substituted for Front Squat, based on the benefits described by Christian Thibideau.  The high angle seems to engage the abs the most. 

Maybe it wasn't smart to go for some max force readings on the very next day after a serious Isochain session.  But it was fun.

Isochain Modified Promethean Week 5

Shoulder Press - Started Week 5 completing 4 reps of 6-sec. holds at a target of 65lbs, which is an improvement over the end of Week 4 when I managed only one full 6-sec. hold out of 4 reps.  Finished the week with 5 reps at a target of 65 lbs with a max reading of just over 70lbs.

Reverse Curl - Finished at a working load of 30 lbs, with a max reading around the 40 lb. range.  The week began with a max reading of 44.4 lbs, which is a new unofficial PR for me.

Hack Lift - Finished at a working load of 190lbs, with a max reading around 215 lbs.  Week 4 ended with the 190lb session feeling hard and barely achievable.  Week 5 started with 190lbs still requiring effort, but feeling easier to achieve, with a max reading back in the low 240 lb. range.  Finished the week with 6 reps at 190lbs with a max reading of 266lbs.

I'm pretty decent now at breathing steadily while practicing Hack Lift.   Not holding my breath while practicing Reverse Curl or Shoulder Press has been a challenge but I'm getting better.  Whole-body isometric contraction raises blood pressure quite a bit, so the Ultimate Isometrics Manual advises not using the Valsalva Maneuver - which is basically exhaling while holding the breath to maintain internal pressure - on top of that.  Valsalva Maneuver is ok for moving exercise because the extra tension it generates is only needed for a second or two.  On the other hand, the Promethean program has you holding muscular contraction for as much as 6 seconds.

Reviewing my training logs, I realized I've been training under the Promethean program for 2 months, when I combine my time under the book version of Promethean with time under my modified version of Promethean.  Earlier in the week, I thought of going for a 6th week under modified Promethean.  After today's session, I decided to go ahead and switch to my modified Promethean Mark II program next week.   I'll post more about my planned modified Promethean Mark II program.

The Hack Lift is very friendly to my back.  With yet another unofficial PR achieved today with a max reading of 266 lbs. I could probably still make gains on this drill at the same angle.  However, I'm curious about possible carryover from Deadlift to Front Lever, so I'm switching to Deadlift, at a high angle for least risk to the low back.  I switched from about medium angle to high angle on Reverse Curl in the middle of modified Promethean so I'll try a full 8-week cycle with high-angle Reverse Curl.  My shoulder health has improved enough that I can position my arms at medium angle for Shoulder Press - empty-handed anyway.  There's still some irritation with the weight of the Isochain bar in my hands at the medium angle, so I'll go with high-angle Shoulder Press. 

The soreness in the pinky side of my elbow has subsided a bit.  From GMB's elbow pain article, I tried the grip hold on a towel, but quickly decided it wasn't for me, because it's the same side as my still-recovering shoulder.  I bailed on the exercise as soon as I started to feel irritation in the shoulder.  I then tried Band Elbow Flexion, which is basically a negative hammer curl.  I did a couple of sets and that felt fine.  I didn't try the exercise anymore after that day because I wasn't sure how it would impact Reverse Curl performance, and the elbow has continued to improve without further practice of the Band Elbow Flexion.  I found another article that proposes a Blitzkrieg program for elbow pain.  I haven't tried this yet but I'm logging it here just in case.  The author mentions training grip extensors but the article doesn't mention any specific exercises.  I have a set of Expand Your Hand bands from Ironmind and have been using those for occasional extensor training.