Isochain Burn Count: Week 4

I completed the fourth week of Burn Count. Results:

Day A drills:

Romanian Deadlift Low Angle: 40s, 105lbs
Shoulder Press Low Angle: 40s, 40lbs
Drag Curl: 45s, 20lbs

Day B drills:

Zercher Lunge: 24s, 25lbs
Chest Press: 34s, 20lbs
Seated Row: 45s, 55lbs

I resumed Romanian Deadlift with the spring carabiner attached to "link zero", which is the carbiner assembly attached to the bar. The load was set to 105lbs. The bar height is low enough to get a good stretch from the hamstrings when I pull the knees back a bit, yet the load on the lower back does not feel too dangerous.

Good progress in Shoulder Press and Drag Curl, increasing the hold times to 40 seconds or more at their respective loads.

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

I lowered the load for Zercher Lunge to 25lbs to make it even easier to focus on holding for time and not so much on applying enough force to set off the Isochain beeper. I may lower the load again next week, this time to 20lbs because my endurance in this position is so low that the load does not really matter.

Progress in Chest Press was pretty good. I held 45-seconds at 20lbs without much trouble. For the 2nd rep, I tried holding the bar with my hands closer to each other, which made the drill harder. In the evening I tried one more rep with my hands at the width I've settled on, and once again did at least 45s relatively easily. I'll count this as meeting the progression requirement, and move up to 25lbs next time.

Seated Row progress is great, hitting the 45-second threshold at 55lbs with little issue.

I continued adding the mini-band shoulder workout I started doing last Friday. I still feel uncomfortable when reaching overhead with the left arm sometimes, but it's early. Hopefully a few weeks of this mini-band workout will produce results. I lack the endurance to hit 15 reps a set on all the exercises, so there's room for improvement.

Isochain Burn Count: Week 3

I completed the third week of Burn Count. Results:

Day A drills:

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

Day B drills:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today's Music Discoveries

Interview with

Isochain Burn Count: Week 2

I completed the second week of Burn Count. Results:

Day A drills:

Romanian Deadlift Low Angle: 25s, 110lbs
Shoulder Press Low Angle: 23s, 40lbs
Drag Curl: 24s, 20lbs

Day B drills:

Zercher Lunge: 21s, 40lbs
Chest Press: 35s, 35lbs
Seated Row: 40s, 50lbs

Lowered the Romanian Deadlift load from 130lbs. to 110lbs because I decided to try training with the bar at the lowest possible setting, by attaching the rotating carabiner assembly on the bar directly to the tension spring, instead of attaching the chain between the spring and bar. This lower angle increases the stretch on the hamstrings and makes this drill feel less like a regular deadlifht, which can happen when the bar is high enough. The lower angle also increases the load on the lower back muscles. This is one reason I lowered the load, as well as wanting to lower the risk of another low back injury. So far, thankfully, the back has felt fine after training.

Progressed in Shoulder Press working load from 35lbs to 40lbs.

I raised the bar one link higher for the Drag Curl, which put more load on the biceps, and thus dropped my hold time for a bit, but I finished the week with pretty much the same hold time in this drill that I had when the bar was 2 links lower - which had placed more load on the forearms. Having experienced Golfer's Elbow, I'm not keen on the forearms "helping" the biceps again in this drill.

After my Day A session on Monday, I skipped the single-arm heavy club work. My shoulder felt a little too easy to get out of alignment. After my Day A session on Friday, I did the club work and my shoulder felt a lot better. So lesson learned: Do the club work after Shoulder Press for joint traction for the shoulder.

Performance in the Chest Press and Zercher Lunge was about the same this week. I'm still not used to applying single-leg force with the thigh being parallel to the ground, or close to that angle. I'm still experiencing some soreness in the area of the MCL of my left knee when I walk. The knee feels fine during the Zercher Lunge. I'll keep doing at least one set of an easy variation of Shrimp Squat after Isochain work to try to reset the alignment of the hips, knees, and ankles. I will also see if I need to do my hip stretches immediately after Zercher Lunge and Shrimp Squat to prevent the knee soreness.

The problem with the Chest Press is the higher skill requirement compared to all the other drills I'm currently practicing. It seems that all of the following conditions have to be met:

• Bar should be at a good height so that the pectorals do more work than the shoulders
• Bar should be at about chest height but does not need to be close to the chest
  
• Forearms should be parallel to torso
• Upper arms should be touching the chest
• Elbows do not have to touch torso but should be in line with upper arms and hands
• Think of pulling elbows towards each other, without breaking alignment, then think of elbows being pulled away from the torso and up
• Anterior pelvic tilt might help, which would make sense as this action turns on the abs for pushups.
• Angle of the chain will probably be diagonal rather than vertical, because of the bar being pushed both up and away from the body.

Guitar Strumming Lesson and Charlie Parker Licks

https://www.guitarplayer.com/technique/guthrie-govans-fabulous-funk-flare-ups?fbclid=IwAR1hFRCO_bNeo6P0j0ieFrmaeeb1rZ9MrvQENPJObSGXAZnaRuEIZqleA7I

https://www.jazzguitar.be/blog/charlie-parker/

https://bulletproofmusician.com/nicole-newman-on-using-yoga-to-develop-sustained-focused-attention-and-practice-getting-into-the-zone/?fbclid=IwAR221yVpnnZsOCSqtB1KUCjEKcR4jvB7Z1kibGYOXvXqUx02Cye0IHMCT0M
Julian Lage Shares His Advice For Improvisation

Isochain Burn Count: Week 1

I completed the first full week of Burn Count. This is how I did:

Day A drills:

Romanian Deadlift Medium Angle: 25s, 130lbs
Shoulder Press Low Angle: 35s, 35lbs
Drag Curl: 25s, 20lbs

Day B drills:

Zercher Lunge: 21s, 40lbs
Chest Press Low Angle: 35s, 35lbs
Seated Row: 25-27s, 50lbs

Shoulder Press is going well. 30s in for the first Burn Count session last week. 35s this week. Also, I have recovered enough pain-free range of motion to do the "swimming backstroke" joint mobility exercise with minimal discomfort.

After my Day A session, I did 5 sets of 5 of each of the following single-arm drills with my 15lb heavy club on each arm: Shield Cast, Inside Circle, Outside Circle. This was, again, for joint traction for the shoulder - since brachial hang from the pullup bar is stil uncomfortable, and some forearm work to try to balance out the Drag Curl.

After lowering the load to 40lbs, I still struggled to hold for the minimum 20s in the Zercher Lunge. But since I did reach 21s per leg for both reps, I will keep working this drill at 40lbs. After the first session with Zercher Lunge, there was discomfort in my left knee around the MCL whenever I walked, due to the external hip rotator seemingly "turning off" for the day. I had to consciously keep my left foot pointing straight ahead while walking. After my 2nd Day B session, I did a couple of sets of Shrimp Squat with arms forward, to retrain my hips, knees, and ankles to move together without losing alignment. Adding frog stretch to my cooldown also seems to help.

After my 2nd Day B session, I did a couple of sets of pushups on the floor. This was a pleasant surprise as I had not done pushups on the floor in almost 2 years. Last year, I didn't have the strength to do pushups on the floor at all. For my 2nd rep of Chest Press, I tried with the hand closer together and my performance dropped. I took a minute break, then did a 3rd rep wiht my hands back where I had them beofre. I misunderstood Red Delta Project's coaching for this drill in the below video. I thought for some reason that he said the elbows should be close to the rips. No. He said the arms should be close to the chest. Big difference!

So, there are the key points for Chest Press on Isochain or other bar-and-chain isometric device:

• Bar should be at a good height for pectoral activation, but not too high as the shoulders make take over
• Bar should be at about chest height but does not need to be close to the chest
  
• Forearms should be parallel to torso
• Upper arms should be touching the chest
• Elbows do not have to touch torso but should be in line with upper arms and hands
• Think of pulling elbows towards each other, without breaking alignment, then think of elbows being pulled away from the torso and up, in an arc. 
  

Linux command line tips and Wizardzines comics

 https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/linux-bsd-command-line-101-using-awk-sed-and-grep-in-the-terminal/

https://wizardzines.com/comics/

Isochain Burn Count First Session

These are the results for my first Burn Count session - hold times in seconds for the given loads:

Romanian Deadlift Medium Angle: 23s, 130lbs
Shoulder Press Low Angle: 30s, 35lbs
Drag Curl: 20s, 25lbs

2 reps per exercise, per Burn Count protocol. For today, I kept the higher hold time. But now that I think about it, when I reach the 45s threshold for advancing to a heavier load, I want to be sure that I hold for at least 45s on both reps. If do 41s for one rep, and 46s for the other rep, dos it mean I can advance? I don't think so.

After I finished the Isochain workout, I did some whole-body shaking to try to reduce the muscular tension, then did 3 sets of 5 Shield Casts with my 15lb heavy club on each arm. This was for joint traction for the shoulder, and some forearm work to try to balance out the Drag Curl.

Starting with 60% of 1RM seemed to be the right call. The loads were at the appropriate levels for my hold times to be within the 20s to 45s range. The exception was the Drag Curl. I felt a little too much load on my forearms despite my efforts to keep the elbows back and down. So for the 2nd rep, I decided to raise the bar by one more chain link, so that I'd be working at 2 links above the white tag that I used to indicate middle angle of the regular curl. Just this one adjustment was enough to shift a noticeable amount of load to my biceps. Because my biceps are weak, a 20s hold at 25 lbs, at the new chain position, was more difficult. I had to pause around 15s, reset, and hold again to get to 20s. So for next time, I'll do Drag Curl at 20lbs.

Isochain Burn Count 1 Rep Max Tests

Here are the results for the exercises selected for the Burn Count program, following the protocol in the manual, which is to warm up, take 3 attempts, then log the average of the 3 attempts. Numbers are in pounds, rounded to nearest whole number.

Romanian Deadlift Medium Angle: 203
Shoulder Press Low Angle: 66
Drag Curl: 45
Zercher Lunge Left Leg: 92
Zercher Lunge Right Leg: 95
Chest Press: 35
Seated Row: 87

Part of the reason my RDL (Romanian Deadlift) tested lower than when I tested to start the Iron Man program, is I decided to work one link lower on the Isochain than where I had it set for Iron Man, which is the link on which I put a green tag to indicate high angle regular dealift. I just thought it was time to increase the mechanical disadvantage just a little bit more, to work the muscles just a little bit more, without introducing too much more risk of reinjury to the lower back or spinal erectors. Mechanical disadvantage means lower force output. The purpose of the 1-rep max test was just to establish a starting target load anyway for Burn Count. In this program, we are not working on improving our max strength. Instead, we are working on sustaining force at a given target load for enough time to stimulate hypertrophy, as well as get practice at generating muscle tension.

Clearly the low angle (bar at about chin height) is still my strongest angle for Shoulder Press. I haven't trained at this angle since this past February, when I was working at a target load of 65 lbs. After February, I explored the medium (head height) and high (arms nearly straight) angles. For today's testing, there was a jump of 5 lbs or more with each successive 1-rep max attempt. This corroborates with research that suggests that isometric training at any angle has carryover in strength to all other angles, albeit to varying degrees.

To start Iron Man, my 1-rep max in the regular Bicep Curl at High Angle (forearms about 45 degrees from biceps) was 62 lbs. I expected to test quite a bit lower than that in Drag Curl because of the mechanical disadvantage induced by pulling the elbows back to load the biceps more intensely. 45 lbs however is little higher than I thought. For Drag Curl, I decided to set Isochain to 1 link above the link on which I have a white tag to indicate medium angle bicep curl. This takes my hands close to what I estimate to be the top of the drag curl movement, but not quite at the top. I just have to remember to pull the elbows back, then down, to help minimize the load on the forearms (don't want Golfer's Elbow again!) and distribute more of it around the back.

I figured out that the Isochain coil needs to be near my heel for Zercher Lunge. It will take some practice to exert force for this exercise without letting the foot plate move. I had guessed my right leg would be the weaker leg but it's intersting to verify it. I forgot to write down the chain setting for this exercise, so I had to find a setting again - not so low as to cause discomfort, nor so high that I won't feel like I'm making much effort. I decided to got with the same setting I used for Calf Raise in Iron Main.

My Chest Press 1RM is very close to what it was when I tested my 1RM for it to start Promethean Mk II earlier this year.

I expected my Seated Row numbers to be lower than my Bent-Over Row numbers, due to the standing position allowing more extension chain muscles to be used. But wow, what a drop! I was pulling in the 150s in the standing Bent-Over Row. I thought about going with supinated grip, but decided a pronated grip would be better to balance out the supinated grip used for Drag Curl, and thus try to avoid Golfer's Elbow.

I was tentatively planning to start Burn Count with target loads of 40% of 1RM, but then I found this video by Chrys, a professional fitness trainer on the Isochain discussion group. I think Chrys is actually talking about the 3 Days On program, which is a different hypertrophy program in the manual. Still, he's an experienced trainer so if he says 60% of 1RM is the way to start for hypertrophy, that's where I'll start. I'll round down to the nearest multiple of 5, because I'll be at the start of the program, and I'll be spending 6-8 weeks on it. If I do a hold for 45 seconds easily, per program guidelines, I'll just raise the load by 5 or 10 lbs for next time. If I can't make the minimum 20 seconds, I'll just lower the load for next time, no big deal.

Next Routine: Isochain Burn Count

I decided to do the Isochain Burn Count program for my next exercise routine, starting next week. The heavy club training was fun, but I think that in order to help my recovering shoulder progress towards less pain and more stability, it's time to switch back to isometric training with the Isochain again. Isochain training is the one form of training available to me that I know for sure will not bother my joints, and actually seems to make my joints feel better.

So far, I have tried the following Isochain programs:
Promethean and Promethan Mk. II - focused on strength with some hypertrophy Iron Man - Focused on endurance, which may build some slow-twitch muscle, tendons, and fascia, but not likely to build as much muscle as a hypertrophy program
Promethean helped my shoulder regain some strength and feel better, but did not help restore the shoulder to 100%. Iron Man did not seem to improve the feeling in my shoulder, but I only did it for 4 weeks. The next type of Isochain program I want to try is a hypertrophy-focused program. I selected Burn Count because it looked the simplest out of all the hypertrophy/bodybuilding programs described in the manual. I have not been able to find any information on the effects of hypertrophy-focused isometric exercise on joints recovering from injury. So this will be an experiment to find out. From what I could find by Google search so far, hypertrophy-focused training tends to favor fast-twitch muscle fibers over the slow-twich fibers that protect the joints. However, those findings seem to be based on dynamic exercise rather than isometric exercise for hypertrophy.

I've been looking for ideas on what target load values to use for starting Burn Count. I found Pavel Tsatsouline's article on Slow Fiber training. The article says "30-70% 1RM for the lower body and 10-40% 1RM for the upper body". So I will keep it simple - take my 1-rep max measurements per the protocol in the manual, then start with a target load of 40% of 1-rep max.

The selected exercises for Burn Count Day 1 are:

Shoulder Press Low Angle
Drag Curl
Romanian Deadlift Med Angle

For Day 2:

Chest Press
Seated Row High Angle
Zercher Lunge Medium Angle

The shoulder press and chest press are part of the Burn Count program in the manual. The choice of the 4 other exercises as substitutes for the manual version was influenced by Red Delta Project's video, in which Matt explains his exercise choices.

The particular criteria:

• Low skill - do not need great skill to perform
• High muscle activation - works muscle hard for given load
• Light load, heavy technique - body is in technically challenging position to put lot of stress in muscle,  less on body itself.
  

I kept the shoulder press because shoulder press has been good for my shoulder, as far as reducing pain and restoring some strength.

WRP: Week 5

I started the week with 12 sets of 5 reps of Shield Cast, Outside Circle and Inside Circle with the 15 lb. heavy club. Rest was about 2.5 min. between each of the 3 exercises. My form got really bad for the last couple of sets. So, I'm going to take an idea from the Mark Wildman Introduction to Heavy Clubs program that I bought - drop the exercise volume and go up to the next level fo complexity. The paid program organizes the exercises into 3 levels. Level 1 is all simple movements. Level 2 are a mix of simple and combination movements, and Level 3 is all combination movements. The program rotates between the 3 levels. The idea is that you will progress to more complicated movements, so that when you drop back to Level 1, the simpler movements are easier to do. When the movements feel easier to do, you can do more of those movements. When you have worked up to 10 or 20 sets (depending on whether you're training with a fixed-weight club or the Adex adjustable club) of 5 reps of the movement, you will have gotten much better at that movement, and are probably very close to maxing your possible gains in strength, hypertrophy, and endurance from that movement, at that club weight.

Shield Cast, Outside Circle and Inside Circle are Level 1 of what I call the Wildman Reconditioning Program (WRP) for single-arm heavy club. The exercises at Level 2 of WRP are Single-Arm Pullover, Inside Pendulum, Outside Pendulum. It's not hard to see why Wildman wants trainees to practice at Level 1 before progressing to Level 2.

Single-Arm Pullover - The Shield Cast is more forgiving in that the club pulls your torso upright and teaches you to keep the elbow in line with your shoulder. In the Single-Arm Pullover, you have to pay more attention to squeezing the glutes and tightening the abs. I really like what he says about saying things aloud, by the way.

Outside Pendulum - Outside Circle practice should get you used to rotating your torso and shifing your weight from foot to foot, while keeping your spine straight and upright, not turning your hips that much, and not moving your feet at all - this is all to prevent injury to your knees or back. Outside Pendulum has the same requirements, but adds an additional challenge. The bottom part of the movement will require you to hinge at the hip, but you still have to keep the spine straight

Inside Pendulum - I don't think he has a "for overweight or deconditioned people" version yet but this video is still applicable. The requirements and challenge are similar to Outside Pendulum.

For this week, I did 5 reps per set for each exercise, as before. On Wed. I did 5 sets. On Fri. I did 6 sets. I'll sleep on what I decide to what direction to take my training for next week. I switched from Isochain to heavy club training in the first place to improve the strength and conditioning of my forearms. I feel like I got the gains I could have possibly gotten for my forearms for this training cycle. Another reason was, I wanted to see if the heavy club work would result in my still-recovering shoulder feeling better - since this club work was supposed to traction my joints as well as condition the external rotators.. I felt there was someimprovement but it didn't come as fast as when I was training on Isochain.

WRP and GMB Elements : Week 4

For this week, I did 9 sets on Monday, 10 on Wednesday, and 11 on Friday for each of the 3 exercises in Wildman Reconditioning Program - Shield Cast, Outside Circle, Inside Circle. I did 5 reps per set. I gave up on practicing sessions of GMB Elements on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays, due to DOMS in my shoulders and upper back. If my body adapts to the steadily increasing volume of heavy club work so that the DOMS subside, I may practice Elements again. My left hand starts to fatigue in the last couple of sets of the workout. I can complete the workout but it's a struggle to keep the club stable. Despite my effort to practice CST style intelligent grip - shifting the load more to the middle, ring, and pinky fingers when the club is in line with the forearm, and shifting the load to my thumb when the club is perpendicular - I wore off some skin on my left thumb. Hopefully I'll remember to apply a couple of coats of liquid bandage on Sunday to try to protect the skin for the Monday workout.

WRP and GMB Elements : Week 3

I worked up to 8 sets of 5 reps per side in each of the 3 drills in the Wildman Reconditioning Program - aka the heavy club version of Mark Wildman's program for overweight and deconditioned individuals.

On Tuesday, I did GMB Elements Session 11 for 30 min.

On Thursday, I felt soreness in the shoulders and upper back, so I decided to do leg training instead. I opted to do this leg micro workout, because it emphasizes endurance and power to some extent:

WRP and GMB Elements : Week 2

I began the week thinking that I would work up to 10 sets of 3 reps in each of the drills in WRP. I thus did 4 sets of 3 reps per drill for my Monday session. By Wednesday, I decided to increase the reps per set instead of number of sets with each session. My hypothesis is that this will be a shorter path to 10 sets of 5 reps, than working up to 10 sets of 3 reps, then increasing the reps per set per session. So for Wednesday, I did 5 sets of 4 reps, and for Friday, I did 5 sets of 5 reps. I had just enough stamina do be able to do the sets of 5 reps without getting so exhausted that I could not control the club anynmore. This is not to say my club technique was perfect - I did have a rep here and there where I tried to bring the club back to Order position but then lost control of the club. Overall, however, I did not have any accidents resulting in injury.

On Tuesday, I did GMB Elements Session 9: Crab and Frogger. 30 min. sessions are just right for me to get some endurance training

On Thursday, I did GMB Elements Session 10: Backwards Bear, Monkey, Transitions between Bear and Monkey. This was also a 30 min. session. I found it more exhausting than the Tuesday session because Crab is not as demanding as the other animal movements in Elements.

One change I'm noticing in GMB Elements compared to my previous work through the program, is the Prepare and Push portions of the workout now vary more from session to session. Last time, both portions were the same in every session. This makes sense as we may have to vary how we prepare the body for training, depending on the movements we expect to train. Similarly in the Push section, which in Elements can be conditioning intervals followed by mobility drills for cooldown.

I noticed that the Effective Strength and Conditioning website has a summer discount code. I used it to buy the new Mark Wildman Introduction to Heavy Clubs program. This program is designed for two-handed heavy club, which Wildman defines as a club being 10 lbs or heavier. I don't plan to switch from WRP to this program at this time, because I'm focused on improving my endurance by working up to 20 sets of 5 per drill. Nevertheless, it's interesting to watch videos from this program to see what the training for 2-handed club would be like. One significant difference compared to WRP, besides 2-hand vs. 1-hand, is the cycling through 3 levels of movement sophistication instead of just building up volume at one weight.

I would like to eventually traing this two-handed club program with my 45 lb. club, which I bought from RMax back in the day. I've done two-handed swings and pendulums with the 45 lb. club. However, I have yet to do a shield cast or what Wildman calls a pullover. I've never felt strong enough to push the club over my shoulder to the back position. There appear to be a couple of paths to develop the strength to practice the pullover and all the other Level 1 exercises in Wildman's program with the 45 lb. club. One path is to build up my strength via other modalities - most likely the Isochain, and skill-based calisthenics - eg. front lever row progression, handstand pushup progression, etc. I would need the strength to push the club up over the shoulder, as well as the strength to pull against it as the club's center of gravity shifts from the front of my body to the back.
Another is to get an Adex adjustable Club or Arc - such a device would allow progression towards the 45 lb. club by incremental loading. I started watching Wildman's Adex Arc videos and am intrigued.

Today's Music Discoveries

OP-1 Tape: Erasing only one track

The OP-1 has an easy method to erase all the Tracks in Tape at once, as documented in the official OP-1 guide. 

However, if you only want to erase just one of the 4 Tracks, more work is required if the Track is longer than 90 seconds. The button to press to erase content from one Track is the Lift/Erase button. If there is more than 90 seconds of audio, you will an error message. 

The workaround is to use the Split button to split the audio on the Tape into smaller regions. You have to keep splitting the audio until you get regions that are 90 seconds or shorter. Then you can use Lift/Erase to erase the regions

.... one

... at

... a

... time.

Wildman Reconditioning Program (WRP) Week 1

After the Monday session of Isochain Iron Man program, I decided to switch to the heavy club program as previously described. Mark Wildman does not seem to name the programs that he designs so I'll just call this one "Wildman Reconditiong Program" because the program is intended for deconditioned individuals, as well as those who are overweight, and/or coming off of injury. I don't think there's anything wrong with the Iron Man program. I tried it because I was curious about how it would feel to train like that, and coming off of injury, I knew my body would benefit from endurance-focused training. I observed modest improvement in the hold times in the Shoulder Press and Zercher Squat, as well as the average force numbers. The reason I decided to switch programs is I missed dynamic exercise and wanted to do more of that.

For the Wednesday session, I did 5 reps of each of the 3 exercises, per side with a 15 lb. Clubbell. Wildman calls all Clubbbells "heavy clubs" - even those that are 15 lbs. or lighter. Using the GMB performance scale, I scored Ease=Challenging, Quality=Rough. The following day, I didn't feel any DOMS in my upper back. The back of my neck though was sore.

So for Friday, I did 3 reps per set. I still scored Rough Quality, but the Ease was down to Solid. I'll stick to 3 reps per set until I get to 10 sets.

For my Tuesday and Thursday exercise sessions, I did GMB Elements sessions 7 and 8, 30 min. each. When I work up to 10 or more sets of 5 reps in WRP, I'll need to make sure I don't overtrain via my Elements sessions. I may cut down to 15-min. Elements sessions.

If I finish GMB Elements before I reach the goal of 20 sets of 5 in WRP, I may try Red Delta Project Micro Workouts on the in-between exercise days. Whatever routine I choose for those in-between days should not interfere with recovery from my WRP days. I'll probably try one of the leg-focused ones, because while I can feel WRP working my feet, it's not particularly taxing on the legs. Another type of Micro Workout I may try is a chest-focused one, since WRP doesn't seem to hit the chest hard either, and any improvement in chest strength and conditioning should beneficial when I get around to focusing on horizontal pressing again.

This is the chest Micro Workout that I'll probably try

Planning for Deconditioned Person Heavy Club Routine

I've mostly recovered from my latest shoulder and elbow issues, thanks to adopting the technique taught by Red Delta Project for pulling exercises, and the evidence-based rehab exercises for Golfers Elbow taught by E3 Rehab.

As previously mentioned, I found Mark Wildman's videos recommending a choice of two exercise programs for people who are overweight, deconditioned, and/or coming off of injury. One program is built on 3 kettlebell exercises. Another is built on heavy club exercises. I chose the heavy club program. If I make it to the end of the program without hurting myself, there should be significant improvement in the endurance of the shoulder external rotators and both the strength and endurance of the forearms.

I searched for any videos Wildman may have made on a warmup routine for the heavy club program. I found this video:

I extracted this routine from the video:

Warmup:
1. Shield Cast variation with light club - 30 sec/side
2. Neck Mobiltiy 1 min.
3. Spine/Roll 1 min.
4. Shin Box 1 min.
Repeat above four exercises, for a total warmup time of 8 min.

Wildman mentions a separate video covering Shin Box. I found this videow which shows 4 ShinBox variations and what GMB calls the Around the World Squat

The work part of the routine for the first session is this - Wildman presented the exercises in a different order but I arranged them by difficulty, with the hardest being first:

Shield Cast - 3 to 5 reps per set, per side. Alternate sides, without rest, until 3 total sets per side is done.
Rest - I think about a minute but I'm not sure
Outside Circle - Same guidance for reps and sets
Rest
Inside Circle - Same guidance for reps and set

Wildman says to add a set with each new session, until you have done a session with 10 sets per side, per exercise. In one of his videos, he says if you cannot do 5 reps in one set, go for 3, and stick with 3 reps a set until you get to 10 sets. Then, I think, you work up to 10 sets of 5 reps. After you have achieved 10 sets of 5 reps, then you work up to 20 sets of 5 reps.

I could not find mention of a cooldown routine. I'll just try various mobility/stretching exercises

Isochain Iron Man: Week 3

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 64-65 lbs.

Bicep Curl at High Angle - Was able to hold for the full 120 seconds. As with last week, I felt the golfer's elbow start to act up, so I had to increase external rotation by extra effort from the back to reduce the load on the elbows. My upper back again got as much of a workout as the biceps. Average was 13-19 lbs.

Shoulder Press at Medium Angle - Was able to hold for about 40-50 seconds, then took a break before resuming. I did about 100 seconds total. Average was about 13-15lbs.

Bent-over Row at High Angle and Supinated Grip - Was able to hold for the full 60 seconds. Average was 65 lbs.

Zercher Squat at Medium Angle - Was able to hold for 50 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 96 lbs.

I tried GMB Elements Session 5: Crab Walk after the Wednesday Iron Man session, and GMB Elements Session 6: Bear and Bear Play after the Friday Iron Man session. After my Friday training, I noticed less irritation in my shoulder while practicing brachial hang from the pullup bar.
I continued doing GMB Recovery sessions on the recovery days.
I also continued playing 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.

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.