Easy Muscle: Week 5 and 6

Week 5 was my first full week doing 2-arm swings with the 32kg kettlebell. I've been feeling more post-workout soreness in my lower back muscles, compared to 2-arm swing sessions with the 24kg kettlebell. Otherwise there seem to be no ill effects from the load increase, as of the completion of Week 6

I rewatched the videos of Geoff Neupert performing chinups and dips and noted that his eccentric movement was nowhere near as slow as the 4-6 second eccentrics I've been doing in those exercises. Neupert also clarified that slow eccentric is not recommended for Easy Muscle. The eccentric should be performed under control, but not too slowly. So, for my push-pull session, I aimed for not more than 2-sec. eccentric. My heartrate was faster with the faster eccentric. My exercise volume increased as expected.

My shoulder continues to heal, with pain-free ROM gradually increasing.

Easy Muscle: Week 4

I completed Week 4 of the 8-week Schedule C in Easy Muscle. I did Week 3 twice because I took some time off for Thanksgiving.

I switched to the 32kg kettlebell for my 2-arm swing sessions. My body felt ready to handle the increased load. There was a little more soreness in the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings on the day following the swing session, compared to what I'd been feeling after swing sessions with the 24kg KB. There was also some soreness in my left forearm. If I want to eventually train under Easy Muscle Schedule A, which is the Clean-And-Press only schedule, with double 16kg kettlebells, I need to make sure I can swing a 32kg load.

I have admittedly not been exercising the forearm extensors with the Ironmind Expand Your Hands bands that I've had for years. The Simple And Sinister book advises exercise with these or similar elastic bands, including the ones that typically come with vegetable produce, to balance out the work that the forearm flexors get from kettlebell swinging, and help prevent elbow pain. So this week, I started doing 3 sets of about 12 repetitions with the blue bands after my Easy Muscle sessions.

I like keeping my thumbs turned out for the dips on the NOSSK trainer. This seems to allow more ROM on the bottom of the movement, and keeps enough muscles of the upper back and shoulder external rotators engaged to keep my shoulder and elbows comfortable, even with the front delts and chest getting a stretch at the bottom. While the Easy Muscle instructions say to perform the eccentric/negative of movement under control, it does not specify how long the eccentric should be. I take about 3-4 seconds on my dip eccentric. This Bret Contreras article says fast eccentric may actually stimulate more hypertrophy than slow eccentric if the load is high enough, although it also cautions against speeds high enough to risk injury. This research article indicates no difference between 2- and 4-second eccentric for stimulating muscle growth. I'll see what info I can find.

I bought the Duonamic Rings set, which is designed to replace the stock handles on the Duonamic Eleviia doorway pull up system. It took a while to figure out how to set up the rings as high as possible for pull ups, but it was worth the time and effort. Pull ups on these rings feel much more comfortable for my elbows and shoulders, compared to the stock handles. Palms facing each other at the bottom position and supinated palms at top position seemed most comfortable for me. I still could not drop all the way to an active hang, but I felt I like I had just a little more pain-free ROM restored in thei movement compared to when I started.

Easy Muscle: Week 1

I chose Schedule C because of a shoulder issue limiting my range of motion when reaching overhead with a straight arm.

Following Schedule C, I did the pullup-dip session on Wednesday. Because of the shoulder issue, it hurts to get into the hang for a pullup, even with depressed scapula, because the hang pulls my arm... overhead. So for a workaround, I started each rep by positioning my body as if I were going to do a row, with feet on the floor in front of my hips, then pulled myself off the floor.

I hadn't done dips for almost 2 years, and my ring dip rep max, even with both shoulders feeling healthy, is well short of 10. So, I set my NOSSK suspension handles about hip height. Then I warmed up with 2 sets of 5 dip shrugs, then 2 sets of 10-second top position holds. Then I started the 20 min. timer, doing the dips with feet on floor to lighten the load. Turning the palms slightly out helps to engage the shoulder external rotators, which help stabilize the shoulders.

I should try some knee raises as part of the warmup next time.

Dip shrugs for warmup

I studied this video to review how to do assisted dips

I found doing the dips after the partial pullups - done carefully - stretches my shoulders nicely enough to wash away any irritation from doing the partial pullups. So going forward, I'll make sure my last set on Pullup-Dip sessions will be the Dip set.

The schedule for this week had Monday and Friday as my 2-hand swing days. I tore some skin off of my ring finger when I tried 2-hand swings on the 24kg kettlebell last week. This particular kettlebell has a handle that does not allow a comfortable fit for all my fingers, so in the past I had to squeeze my hands a bit. The tear happened because I was gripping the handle too hard. So to avoid reinjuring the finger, I tried leaving out the ring fingers when gripping the handle, and instead rest the ring fingers on top of the middle and pinky fingers, and not grip the handle too hard, just letting the fingers be hooks

I think it's a decent first week of Easy Muscle.

Akai MPC One

While I've enjoyed using the Roland MC-707 groovebox, I've always been curious about the Akai MPC (Music Production Center) platform. From the introduction of the MPC-60, the first MPC model, and onwards, the Akai MPC became known for its impact on hip-hop and electronic music. My only previous experience with the MPC platform was trying out an Akai MPC Keys 61 at the store, along with a friend who had previous MPC experience. Having a friend show me how an MPC could be used to build up a song - drum track, bass track, etc. - was helpful.

The MPC workflow for building up a multi-track song, under the hands of an experienced user, looked pretty fast to me. Another appealing thing to me was the drum pads. The MC-707 drum pads feel fine. The MPC pads feel nicer - I'm not sure exactly why, but maybe the very slightly lower height of the MPC pads as well as the materials have something to do with it. Also, no matter how much I tweaked the MC-707 settings, I could never get its drum pads to be as responsive to light finger strokes as the MPC pads.

Another attractive feature is the autosampling feature, for easy sampling of my Moog Matriarch or Moog Subharmonicon - both synths that do not have patch memory, but do have MIDI input.

So when I realized the Akai MPC Live 2 and MPC One models were on sale, I decided to buy an MPC One.

First impressions:

The drum pads feel just as nice, and are just as responsive to light finger strokes, as the MPC Keys 61 drum pads. The feel is so pleasant that I'm motivated to work more on my finger drumming. The default color-coding is red for kicks, yellow for snares, amber for hi-hats, etc.

Volume knob is in the back of the unit instead of the top panel, which is a strang location for those of us used to the volume knob being the top panel on synths, drum machines, competing grooveboxes, etc.

The level meter is very useful for gauging how loud drum parts might sound in a mix. I've often been fooled before, by recording something that sounded loud in my headphones, but then it sounded soft in the mix when played back through monitors.

It was easy to learn how to load a preset drum kit for a track on the Roland MC-707. The process is less intuitive on the MPC. For a while I started to believe that preset drum kits do not exist on the MPC, and that if I wanted a new kit, I had to manually assign samples to each and every drum pad, every time. Then I learned that in the MPC world, a drum kit is called a "drum program".

This 5-hour tutorial for beginners is really good. Besides the generous amount of content, there is a lot of useful details like which buttons do what, the default colors of the drum pads and what they represent, etc.

The MPC One reportedly has bugs related to using external MIDI controllers. Video with advice on avoiding the bugs:

Some advice from a more experienced MPC user:

Sequences are your best friends on the MPC! Use them! Get an idea moving in one seq and duplicate it 4 or 5 times, have fun going in different directions with each Seq, then move between them to experiment and get used to this way of performing. This stops you getting locked in one loop, which is the fastest route to feeling irritated and frustrated IMO.

Easy Muscle and Manly Mobility

I was pondering what exercise program to do after the 3 Days On cycle on Isochain. After 2 cycles in a row of Isochain training, I wanted to do a dynamic exercise program again. I enjoyed Accommodation Resistance calisthenics as taught by Mindful Mover, but my shoulder injury showed me that my body is not ready for that. I'm not sure if the injury was caused by not allowing enough time to deload and/or rest, because I did transition from high-load isometrics on the Isochain to Accommodating Resistance calisthenics without taking at least one week off.

Easy Muscle is a training program created by Geoff Neupert, who is a respected fitness coach, especially among kettlebell training enthusiasts. The title "Easy Muscle" implies that it is a training program for stimulating muscle growth, but it also promises fat burn and strength gains. I put off buying Easy Muscle at first because I thought it was mainly a program built around the kettlebell Clean-and-Press, and my shoulder felt painful whenever I tried to reach overhead.  I then realized it actually contains 3 different training schedules, including Schedule C which was designed for people like me, who currently have trouble pressing weight overhead. I figured any hypertrophy-friendly progra is not going to subject my body to as heavy a load as a strength-focused program. So I went ahead and bought it.

Schedule C has you practicing the 2-hand kettlebell swing on one day, and two other exercises on the other day. Those 2 other exercises are the chinup and dip.

When I bought it Easy Muscle, I was given the option of also buying Manly Mobility, also created by Neupert.  I went ahead and bought it. It's billed as a mobility program for guys who hate stretching. Inedeed, there does not seem to be any emphasis on holding a stretched position for longer than a second or two.

For the Tuesday session, I focused on Manly Mobility. I tried all the Phase 1 exercises taught for each of the 3 body positions. Since I'd already used up time taking measurements to get the results of my Isochain 3 Days On training, I limited myself to 10 reps of each exercise. The exercises are simple to learn, as promised, and I did notice some reduction in tightness, although I don't remember which muscle groups because I didn't write dowm my impressions right away.

For the Wednesday session, I tried the chinup and dip workout. I tested my chinup, which is pullup with supinated palms, but I felt some unwanted tightness in my previosly injured forearm - the "Golfers Elbow" arm, so I substituted pullups (pronated palms). Because of my problem reaching overhead, I could not start/stop a pull-up in the dead hang or the active hang (scapulae pulled down). I trained pullups by beginning and ending each rep with my arms straight and in front of me, at around a 100-120 degree angle to my torso, smy legs stretched in front of the torso and feet on the floor. This may not be the ideal range of motion for gains in strength/muscle from pullups, but it was the best ROM I had without irritating my shoulder.

I used my trusty NOSSK Twin Trainers for the dips. I set the handles fairly low so that my feet on the floor could reduce the load. I turned my palms forward in the bottom position to try to add a bit of stretch for my chest, but I was careful to not do anything to the shoulder.

I took Thursday off from training. Because I hadn't practiced pullups or dips in a while I had some DOMS in the pecs lats, and triceps.

For the Friday session, I tried the 2-arm kettlebell swing workout with a 24kg kettlebell. I took it easy since I hadn't practiced this exercise for almost 3 years. Afterwards, I practiced the Manly Mobility exercises. The following morning, I had minor DOMS in the hamstrings and calves.

Next week, I will begin Week 1 of Easy Muscle, Schedule C. I suppose the 2-hand KB swing day is for fat-burning, and the pullup-dip day is for hypertrophy. It will be interesting to see what the results will be after Week 8.

Isochain 3 Days On Results

The goal of the 3 Days On program is to stimulate hypertrophy - muscle growth. Before I started the program I took some measurements of various body parts, using a sewing tape measure, so I could measure any changes in size that may be due to muscle growth. I watched this video to see how bodybuilders have their measurements taken:

I tried not to squeeze the tape measure, and avoided flexing the muscles. The results:

Forearms - No change
Left Arm - About half an inch for 4.167% increase in diameter
Right Arm - About 3.2% increase in diameter
Shoulders - No change, despite training the Shoulder Press. This was a tricky measurement, seemingly impossible to take properly
Chest - No change. I did not train the Chest Press or any other exercise that could have stimulated chest hypertrophy
Calves - Actually shrunk a little.

There were other measurements mentioned in the above video, but I didn't take those because I just didn't care. Going forward, I'll probably just measure my forearms and arms for tracking hypertrophy progress, because they're easy. I'd like to see my shoulders grow but there's no easy way to measure them. Just about everyone measures only the shoulder-to-shoulder width, which does not take into account the size of the deltoids, which grow in multiple directions, not just outward.

So ends my 3 Days On training cycle.

Isochain 3 Days On: Weeks 5 and 6

I lowered the bar again for the Drag Curl, which lengthened the biceps more than before. The increased muscle length seemed to allow for stronger contraction. My grip muscles (forearms) still fatigue before the biceps do, but at least the biceps feel like they're working harder.

I've found body positioning for the Triceps Kickback that feels comfortable for the low back. With only a slight bend of the knees and hips, I would not doubt that mechanical advantage allows me to produce more force in this drill, but safety to the low back outweighs using mechanical disadvantage to increase load on the triceps. Being able to produce more force also imposes more load on the triceps anyway.

For my latest Zercher Lunge session, I increased the number of sets from 3 to 4. Perhaps bumping up the volume will lead to improvement in endurance at this position. Simply holding the position without hardly any force output is already a challenge for me.

My strength in the Rear Shrug jumped.

Rear Delt Row with torso perpendicular to legs is getting a little uncomfortable for my low back. I might try leaning back a little.

Isochain 3 Days On: Week 4

A couple of weeks ago, I started getting sick with what felt like the common cold. I took a COVID test and got a positive result. So, I didn't do any exercise as I rested up and waited for my already-vaccinated body to fight it off.

This week I felt good enough to start working out again. Despite about 2 weeks of no exercise, I was still able to perform each exercise for at least 20 seconds at the same target loads as before, or even higher. I lowered the bar for the Drag Curl to get the biceps a little more elongated, which allowed me to work at a higher load. I was able to raise the target load for Calf Raise as I got better at relaxing my wrists to let the lifting hooks take on more load - will try holding the bar behind the back next.

Wrist/forearm fatigue seems to be the limiting factor for my Seated Row. I don't think there's much I can do about that other than hope that repeated practice will stimulate some muscle growth in the wrist/forearm, so that it stops fatiguing before my biceps or lats do.

Isochain 3 Days On: Week 2

I did not feel like the high position deadlift or the middle position Zercher Squat worked my glutes as much as the Zercher Lunge. So I replaced both exercises with the Zercher Lunge. This exercise is a unilateral exercise, and thus takes up twice as much time as a bilateral exercise since it has to be done on each side. So my Day 3 routine just has the two exercises - Zercher Lunge and Calf Raise.

My Calf Raise sets on Tuesday were cut off by my grip wearing out. I understand why some people think that lifting straps/hooks should never be used. However, I think that if my grip is getting a decent enough workout from the Drag Curl, shrugs, and rows already, then it's ok to use my lifting hooks for the Calf Raise. The objective of the Calf Raise in the 3 Days On program is to stimulate calf growth, not target my grip. How can I stimulate calf growth if I let my grip prevent me from training my calves to failure? So for Friday I decided to use the lifting hooks

In this video, this trainer claims that most people do not need to do the Front Raise, because they target the front delts, which are active in most pressing exercises anyway. He also mentions that a front delt vs. rear delt imbalance could lead to more shoulder injury.

I was thus convinced to eliminate the Front Raise from my Day 1 routine. I moved the Tricep Kickback out of the Day 3 routine into the Day 1 routine. To work the rear delts, I added the Rear Delt Pull to the Day 3 routine.

Monday - Day 2

Zercher Lunge
Calf Raise

Tuesday - Day 3

Rear Shrug
Hinged Tricep Kickback
Seated Row

Wednesday - Off

Thursday - Day 1

Shoulder Press
Hinged Tricep Kickback
Drag Curl

Friday - Day 2

Zercher Lunge
Calf Raise

I tried a variety of chain settings for Hinged Tricep Kickback. I searched for a position that would minimize the load on my lower back. I settled on a setting that puts the bar fairly close to my butt and below the butt. This allows me to lean forward only a little, which does not seem to make my low back work as hard as a more pronounced lean.
For the Friday session, I used the lifting hooks with the Calf Raise. They do not totally removed the load from my grip but did decrease the load enough to let me perform the exercise for a longer amount of time, and at slightly heavier load.

Isochain 3 Days On: Week 1

I realized that "3 Days On" means 3 days of training, then at least one day off. That's why in the book The Ultimate Isometrics Manual, the schedule has workouts for Days 1-3, then Day 4 as an off day, before repeating the cycle of days. The book does say that if training 3 days in a row is too hard to recover from, then add one or more rest days to your schedule. With that in mind, I scheduled 4 workouts for this week.

Monday - Day 1

Shoulder Press
Front Raise
Drag Curl

Tuesday - Day 2

Regular Deadlift (high angle)
Zercher Squat
Calf Raise

Wednesday - Off

Thursday - Day 3

Rear Shrug
Hinged Tricep Kickback
Seated Row

Friday - Day 4

Shoulder Press
Front Raise
Drag Curl

This week was more about learning all the exercises that were new to me, than training hard to stimulate muscle growth. I spent more time and effort searching for good chain settings and body positioning than really burning the muscles. It's the first week, so it can't be helped.

Isochain: Transitioning to 3 Days On Program

In the book The Ultimate Isometrics Manual, the Burn Count program is purported to build strength by holding a load for a progressively longer amount of time. It is also purported to build muscle. I tried it last year for about 6 weeks and gained some strength, but as noted, I forgot to measure my biceps with sewing tape. Tape measurements at the start of Burn Count and at the end would have provided useful data for measuring gain in muscle size (hypertropy). I did not observe obvious hypertrophy in the mirror.

The book has a page entitled "Pro Tip: Isometric Bodybuilding". It mentions research indicating that stress to the muscle and depletion of ATP-PC energy system in the muscles are strong triggers for muscle growth. It also mentions research indicating that muscular fatigue/failure - not load or volume - is the key factor in triggering hypertrophy. The page concludes by referencing Burn Count as the program based on these findings. However when I compare the Burn Count guidance to the guidance for another Isochain program called 3 Days On, the latter program seems to match the research more closely, with 3 sets of 20-45 second holds per exercise, and a shorter rest period (20-30 seconds). Burn Count recommends 60 seconds of rest between holds, which seems like a rather long rest for a hypertrophy-focused routine. If the goal is to drive the muscles to failure - deplete APC-PC as much as possible - shorter rest between reps makes more sense. So, for the goal of stimulating muscle growth, I decided to try the 3 Days On program

The 3 Days On guidance in the book is to set Isochain to Feedback Mode, and try to apply enough force during the 20-45 second hold so that muscle failure is achieved within this time frame. One issue with Feedback Mode is that the Isochain timer is not available in this mode, so I would have to use an external timer. I feel like I would struggle to coordinate using the external timer, with executing a proper rep of the exercise. Also, I'm not really sold on relying on my own imagination/perception to regulate the force output during the exercise. Thus, one modification to the program is to use Load mode on the Isochain instead of Feedback mode. Load mode does have the timer function, which will start as soon as I reach the target load. Being able to set a target load would help me ensure that I am applying enough force to induce muscle failure within the 20-45 second timeframe. It should not take long to find suitable target load values. This week I tried some of the exercises and was able to identify target loads for them. For the rest of the exercises, I'll work with an arbritrary target load, and use the average force reading to help find suitable values.

Another modification to the book guidance is the exercise selection and order. This is the lineup I'm envisioning:

Monday

Shoulder Press - same as book
Front Raise - same as book
Drag Curl - A Red Delta Project favorite because the biceps work harder than on the regular curl, especially if the bar is at a lower position than what the video shows.

Wednesday

Hack Deadlift/Behind The Back Deadlift - Doing first instead of last because it wears out the forearms if mixed grip is not used.
Zercher Squat - does not demand extreme wrist flexibility like Front Squat and works the abs more
Calf Raise - Doing last instead of 2nd because the grip will need a break after Deadlift

Friday

Rear Shrug - Front Shrug stimulate upper trap growth while Rear Shrug stimulate increased thickness.
Hinged Tricep Kickback - Another Red Delta Project favorite because it involves shoulder extension which lights up more muscle mass of the triceps. Also, weak shoulder extension was found to be one of the strength deficits that may cause more stress on the elbow.
Seated Row - much safer for lower back than Bent-over Row

There's one more thing that needs to be done before starting 3 Days On or any hypertrophy program: Measurements! I got a sewing measurement tape and measured the widths of my arms, shoulders, chest, and calves, with the muscles in as relaxed state as I could get them. Accurate measurement is impossible because it's way too easy to squeeze the measured body part just a little too tight, because of the pliabilty of skin, muscles, etc. However, if there's any hypertrophy at all after 6-8 weeks of 3 Days On training, there should be a difference in measurement, even if there's an error of plus or minus half an inch. I don't believe looking at myself in the mirror is a reliable means of assessing progress in muscle growth. Tape measurements, even if not 100% accurate, should give me data that is more useful than simple visual judgement.

Isochain 6x6: Last Session

Another Monday brings another 1-Rep Max Test day. Results:

Zercher Lunge - 90.1 (based on weaker leg scores)
Shoulder Press - 75
Seated Row - 138.4667

Zercher Lunge performance gain so far has been minimal, when comparing to the 81.9 lb. result that was recorded end of 2021. Most of my progress in this exercise has been in mobility - being able to get the the thigh closer to parallel to the floor thanks to improvements in hip and ankle mobility.

Shoulder Press performance, compared to the end of 2021 score of 57 lbs, is almost a 32% strength gain for the current year.

Seated Row 1RM was not tested end of 2021. Strength gain compared to the start of the current 6x6 cycle was only about 8%. I'm ok with that though, as I rarely put in as much effort per rep as I did on the other exercises. I was wary of possibly hurting my low back, even though I was also aware that the body positioning should put the low back at much, much lower risk than the standing bent-over row.

Before the Monday session, I was thinking of training under 6x6 for 8 weeks, then switching to the Geoff Neupert Easy Muscle program. Easy Muscle is said to be adaptible to any equipment, and the clean-and-press is one of the featured exercises. I intend to use a kettlebell for clean-and-press. That all said, my shoulder still does not feel good when reaching overhead, or when I press the kettlebell overhead.

One option was to continue 6x6 for two more weeks, then see if there is any improvment in the shoulder's pain-free range of motion. The 6x6 program for Isochain has received positive reviews from fellow Isochain users for both strength gains and hypertrophy. However, 6x6 by design is meant to deliver mostly strength gains with some hypertrophy. Another option is to switch to a hypertrophy-focused program on the Isochain, and see if 6 weeks of training under that, combined with RMT Club swinging for shoulder rehab, will increase the pain-free ROM. One thing we know for sure is that isometrics, with or without Isochain, poses practically zero risk of further joint damage compared to any dynamic form of exercise.

I chose the hypertrophy program with Isochain. I'm not convinced that I will achieve the necessary pain-free ROM for overhead pressing within 2 weeks, even with RMT club swinging. I think there's a better chance that I'll achieve this goal in 6-8 weeks on another Isochain program plus RMT Club swinging. I think the longer period of favoring isometrics over dynamic training - for strength and muscle - will be more of a factor in shoulder healing than adding muscle mass in and of itself. That said, adding muscle mass is a priority for health benefits such as maintaining blood pressure at healthy levels.
Some finds:

Neck extension against wall for improving posture
Ring face pulls for improving posture
Trap-3 Raise (Y-fly) for improving shoulder mobility and posture
Mobility exercises for preventing/relieving pain from computer slouching

Isochain 6x6: Week 6

Monday session began with a Zercher Lunge set that felt a little tougher than usual. I gradually realized that I had left the Isochain set to the same length as for the Seated Row, which is only 2 links away from the carabiner assembly attached to the Isochain handle. This is the shortest chain length I've worked with yet for Zercher Lunge, which in turn demanded a little more mobility in the ankle, hip, etc. The 1RM scores were surprisingly high despite the slightly more demanding positioning, with a PR of 92 lbs. for the left leg. Shoulder Press performance took the usual Monday dip. Seated Row performance was average.

Wednesday session performance was surprisingly worse than the Monday session's. Seated Row force in particular dropped from 142.2 lbs to 127. Shoulder Press force dropped under 70 lbs. for the first time since the switch from high angle to medium angle.

Friday session performance was improved. Zercher Lunge right leg force was back in the low 80s. The left leg max force was 14 lbs., which makes no sense becuase the target load was set to 63 lbs. - the beeper would only start beeping if I hit the minimum 63 lbs. of force, and only continue beeping until the long beep signaling the end of the 6-second hold if I had maintained that force. I don't know if it is because I pressed the Max button too soon. Seated Row force was again lower than expected at 129 lbs. I don't know if it's because my body was still exhausted to a degree from the Zercher Lunge set. Before this week, the exercise order was Zercher Lunge (alternating legs), Shoulder Press, then Seated Row. This week, I changed the order so that Shoulder Press would be last, because the chain setting is the same for Zercher Lunge and Seated Row. Not having to change the chain setting saves some time. The primary purpose of the Zercher Lunge is to train the squat muscle chain, but it also works the upper back, because upright posture is required to support the load in the elbows. It could be that the upper back and perhaps even the lats had not recovered sufficiently from the Zercher Lunge set, by the time I started the Seated Row set. So, changing the exercise order to save a few seconds of time to change the chain setting does not seem to be working out. The Shoulder Press force was back in the low-mid 70s.

I have a lingering issue with my right shoulder, which I suspect was caused by training Pike Pushups with Accommodating Resistance on the parallettes. I remember some sessions in which I really strained to push myself up, even with the attempt to shift body weight to my feet to reduce the resistance (accommodating resistance) so that I could push. I did not feel shoulder pain during the exercise. However, my shoulder started to feel sore sometime after the workouts. Over time, the soreness started to accumulate, to the point where reaching outward or towards my opposite armpit started to hurt. That was when I decided to stop practicing Pike Pushups with AR, but it was too late.

Shoulder Press on the Isochain under the 6x6 protocol seems to be helping. However, since I already have an RMT Club, I thought I would try this exercise to see if it helps

Isochain 6x6: Week 5

Monday session was the latest 1RM test session. Results:

Zercher Lunge - 90.2 (based on weaker leg scores)
Seated Row - 135.8

I set the chain 2 links lower for Zercher Lunge, because my hip and ankle mobility improved enough to get into the lower position, with the thigh closer to parallel. The chain was also lowered for Seated Row, by one link, because I felt confident enough to position the elbows a little further forward without curving the lower back. I don't think these chain setting changes affected my 1RM scores that much. The scores show improvement over the last 1RM test session. I did not test my 1RM Shoulder Press becauase I already did that last week. Instead I just practiced a normal 6x6 session for that exercise.
Wednesday session performance was my strongest for the week, with a PR of 76.4 lbs. in the Shoulder Press.

Friday session performance was, of course, not as good as Wednesday's but it was a solid session.

Youtube find of the week - what Dan John thinks are the exercises nobody does but should:

I understand that not everybody agree with Dan John, but his reputation as a fitness trainer is well-earned.

Isochain 6x6: Week 4

Monday session - Zercher Lunge performance was decent, despite one failed rep on the right leg. Seated Row performance dipped from Friday. My right shoulder felt fine during the 1st 6-second hold of the Shoulder Press, but immediately felt sore as soon as I released pressure.

That afternoon, I decided to test my 1-rep Max in the Shoulder Press at the middle angle, following the 1-rep Max protocol from The Ultimate Isometrics Manual. My official score, after recording the 3 attempts and calculating the average, was 69.9333 lbs. Compared to my official 1RM of 57lbs. which was recorded on 12/31/2021, the strength improvement is about 22.7%.

The reason I was training the Shoulder Press at the high angle was to see if it would relieve the pain in my right shoulder that can appear when reaching overhead at certain angles, and sometimes when I try to lie on my right side in bed when I'm going to sleep. The verdict so far is that it doesn't seem to be working as a pain reliever. I felt some shoulder irritation after some reps at that angle. I did not feel any irritation in my shoulders, after any rep at the middle position. So, I'm going to train at the middle angle for the remainder of this 6x6 cycle. It's a more satisfying angle to train at as well, because I can feel my muscles working harder and applying more force than at the high angle.

I forgot to set my alarm clock for the Wednesday session. I woke up just in time to get ready to go to work. So I did the 6x6 session in the evening instead. As part of the warmup, I practiced ATG-style split squats to try to improve my Zercher Lunge technique, as the Zercher Lunge is basically the same movement but with a load supported in the crooks of the elbows. I scored 79.6lbs max on the last rep for my right leg on the Zercher Lunge. I was not able to record a max force score for my left leg because I forgot to press the Time button to activate Timed Mode. After a few seconds of effort, I pressed the Time button, then pressed the AVG button by mistake. When I pressed the MAX button, the display read about 14lbs. The target load was set to 60lbs, so I should not have been able to initiated Timed Mode with only 14lbs of force. Hopefully I won't screw up next time! The Shoulder Press and Seated Row sets went better for me. It just felt good to feel my push chain working at 6x6 intensity for a full set.
I felt like the Friday session was a strong finish for the week. Right leg Zercher Lunge performance was ok, but my max on the last rep for my left leg was 90.6, which is a PR. I also hit a PR on the Shoulder Press with 73.8lbs on the last rep. My Seated Row performance was relatively more modest, but the max force was still nearly 10lbs. over the 1RM.

I've been trying a variety of hand placements for the Shoulder Press. I've settled on setting the hands at roughly shoulder width. Part of the technique is protracting the scapula, which activates the serratus anterior muscles. This hand placement seems conducive for the serratus anterior contracting harder and contributing more to the Shoulder Press.

Isochain 6x6: Week 3

6x6 program guidelines in the The Ultimate Isometrics Manual say to re-test 1-rep max scores every 2 to 4 weeks. The test results would set the target loads to work with until the next 1-rep max test session.

So Monday session was the 1RM test session. Results:

Zercher Lunge - 84.9333333 (based on weaker leg scores)
Shoulder Press High - 42.4
Seated Row - 131.2667

The lower numbers for Zercher Lunge and Shoulder Press, compared to the 1RM test before the start of the program were not a surprise, because of the switch from the longer, lighter tension spring to the heavier spring that was shipped with the Isochain. Applying the 70% of 1RM guideline, the target loads for the Zercher Lunge and Seated Row will be a few pounds higher. The Shoulder Press target load will remain at 30lbs.

For the Wednesday session, Zercher Lunge was down for the right leg, with the target load being 3lbs higher. Left leg performance was more solid. Shoulder Press performance was about the same as last week. I beat my 1RM score in the Seated Row, but I've been careful about not straining too much, for fear of hurting my lower back, even though this exercise is known to be safer for the back than the standing Bent-over Row.

Finished the week with another decent session. No breakthroughs, but the results for the legs were closer to even in the Zercher Lunge. After the session, I did some drills from GMB Recovery, and some Elmements-inspired locomotion practice with emphasis on hamstring mobility and shoulder rotators.

Isochain 6x6: Week 2

Monday session - performance was weak, with multiple failed reps. I still worked through the 6 reps per exercise, being mindful of technical cues such as not leaning to the side or forward during Zercher Lunge, squeezing the butt and straightening the legs during the Shoulder Press, and pulling towards the belly button and locking the knees during the Seated Row.

Wednesday session went much better, with the best left leg performance yet in the Zercher Lunge, a max force score higher than tested 1-rep max in the Shoulder Press, and a Seated Row max force 20lbs higher than the tested 1RM score. One change I made for the Shoulder Press was to use a slightly narrower grip, having been influenced by Red Delta Project videos like this one:

Switching to a narrower grip for the Shoulder Press resulted in greater force output. The force output was confirmed by the Isochain, but I could also feel that I was applying more force too. The narrower grip makes it easier for me to engage more muscle along my push kinetic chain.

I finished the Friday session feeling stronger, even though the 1-rep max testing session this coming Monday may not reflect that, due to the first test session being done with the longer and slightly lighter tension spring for the Shoulder Press and Zercher Lunge

Isochain 6x6: Week 1

Sometime last year, I bought a porch swing spring with 700lb capacity. Isochain ships with a high load capacity spring to solve the zero loading reflex (aka "cortical inhibition") problem - your CNS (central nervous system) will allow you to exert more force on a moveable object, but will limit your force production if it sense that you are exerting force against a solid wall or other immovable object. I'm not sure what the exact load capacity of this spring is but I read it may be around 1000lbs. Some fellow users have observed that it stretches when you apply at least 110lbs of force. Thus, there has been speculation that if you're not strong enough to make the spring stretch - you cannot produce 110lbs of force - a spring with a lower load capacity should enable the load reflex at a lower threshold of force. I have noticed that I made the fastest strength gains in Isochain exercises in which I could generate more than 110lbs of force - such as Hack Lift and Bent-over Row.

So that's why I bought the 700lb load capacity spring. I thought I would use this spring for the shoulder press and Zercher lunge, because my max force is less than 110lbs for both exercises. Unfortunately, I don't appear to be strong enough to stretch this spring either, for either of those exercises, based on my Monday performance. Whatever the minimum force is to stretch this spring, it's higher than 90lbs. If I can't stretch the spring, I won't benefit from load reflex.

So for the Wednesday session, I decided to use the spring that was shipped with Isochain for all 3 exercises, to save the time I would have spent switching springs. I tried to compensate for the greater length of the porch swing spring compared to the factory spring, by setting the chain length accordingly. I think the Isochain bar was still a little lower for Zercher Lunge, despite the attempt to compensate, so the difficulty was greater than with the porch swing spring. The greater difficulty caused my muscles to fatigue more quickly. Thus, I failed to complete the full 6-second hold for 2 out of the first 4 reps of the set. Per 6x6 guidance, I lowered the target load by about 10% - from 63lbs to 57lbs - and was able to complete the set at the lower load. No shame in working at the lower load until the next 1-rep max test session. My shoulder press actually went up after the spring switch. My seated row went down a little, because I was a little spooked by the cracking sound I heard from my spine during the Monday session. I finished the seated row set without issue, paying attention to not letting my lower back round and pulling towards my belly button, which seems to activate the abs.

For the Friday session, I tried to apply a bit less force in the Zercher Squat, so that my muscles would not tire as quickly, and I could concentrate more on my body alignment. The lower 57lb load helped. my last-rep max force readings were actually higher than for the Wednesday session. I was similarly conservative with my force output for the Seated Row, although of course I was just being protective of my lower back. I focused on straightening my legs to stretch the hamstrings, pulling towards the stomach to engage the abs, and keeping the chest up to prevent rounding of the back.

Isochain 6x6: Planning and 1-Rep Max Testing

After several months of calisthenics, with the last several weeks focusing more on hypertrophy stimulus, then a couple of weeks of rest, it's time to go back to Isochain for strength focused training, with my favorite Isochain strength training program, 6x6. The book Ultimate Isometrics Manual, citing the work of Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky, states that 6 repetitions of 6-second isometric holds is most ideal for strength gains. 6x6 is built on that. I like it more than the Promethean programs. Under the Promethean protocol, the trainee is always trying to work towards ever higher target loads, and will eventually achieve a target load that is so high that they will not be able to do 6 reps of 6-second holds, or even have enough strength to hit the target load for a 4th or even 3rd rep. . In 6x6, the trainee tests for 1-rep max for each selected exercise, then trains at target loads that do not change until the next 1-rep max test session. The target load does not get as high as in Promethean, so that the trainee can concenntrate on good alignment, technique, etc. without the temptation to sacrifice those things in a desparate attempt to make at least 4 reps.

The 6x6 exercises in the book are Front Squat, Shoulder Press, Bent-over Row, and Shrug. However, the consensus among the Isochain user community seems to be that you can select any exercises you want, as long as you follow the general guidelines for 6x6. Going by Red Delta Project's chain training terminology, for this program I have elected to select one exercise for each of the 3 movement chains, and none for the 3 support chains - flexion, extension, lateral. Some members of the Isochain community have found creative solutions for working the support chains with Isochain. However, in the interest of saving time, I will focus only the movement chains. Time will tell what free gains I might make on the support chains by strengthening the movement chains under 6x6. The selected exercises are:

Zercher Lunge - The squat chain exercise, which may also carry over to all 3 support chains.. It's one of Red Delta Project's favorite exercises for Isochain, and the linked video explains why.

Shoulder Press High Angle - The push chain exercise. I've continued to have intermittent shoulder issues while reaching overhead. Working at this position should help shore up my weaknesses there, and improve shoulder stability.

Seated Row - The pull chain exercise, and yet another Red Delta Project favorite. I also prefer this over the Bent Row as it is much safer for the low back. I'm working out of a low angle on this one, so that my elbows are in front of my ribs. The biceps seem to get more activated here than at the high angle with my elbows behind my ribs and the bar very close to my stomach.

About 2 weeks ago I tested my strength using the 1-Rep Max protocol from the Ultimate Isometrics Manual, and got these results:

Zercher Lunge - 90.3 (based on weaker leg scores)
Shoulder Press High - 43.2
Seated Row - 127.7

There seems to be some carryover from practicing assisted pistol squats, and maybe the suspension hamstring curls and hip extensions which work the glutes and hamstrings; to my Zercher Lunge. When I last tested my Zercher Lunge 1-RM this past January, I scored 81.9, so this is almost a 10lb improvement.

I have not worked on Shoulder Press at the high position since winter 2021, so I don't have any recent data to compare. I last worked on overheard pressing this past April, when I decided to switch from Accommodating Resistance Pike Pushup to Accommodating Resistance Pseudo Planche Pushup. In retrospect, I think AR Pike Pushups strained my shoulders. I would have been better off training my overhead pressing kinetic chain more for hypertrophy, for at least 6 weeks, before subjecting the shoulders to the very high intensity of AR Pike Pushups. We will see if there is any carryover from the recent hypertrophy-focused training I did on my chest and triceps.

I have not done Seated Row under 6x6 or Promethean, as my pull chain exercise of choice before was Drag Curl. This exercise with pronated palms poses the least risk to my Golfer's Elbow. I can already do Front Lever Rows with the knees partially untucked, so I know this will be my strongest pulling exercise on the Isochain. It will be interesting to get even stronger here, and see how this carries over to my pullup performance.

Random find: GMB Movement Flow for hamstring flexibility

Today's Music Discoveries

Some background info on Love Info and Takako Mamiya found on Reddit.

Some cute "music for studying" videos featuring Anya Forger from Spy x Family