Yuen

Keep up the great workouts I'm loving the pictures. You and Son5 look so happy in your inaugural NF selfie

Goal 1 (My real main goal, but kinda boring and slow) Keep progressing with weighted chin ups. Long term goal chest to bar one arm chin up. Increasing working set weight from 35kg -> 36.25kg. Aim to increase 1.25kg every month/4WC. (Not allowed to progress if form starts to fail and not getting chest to bar ROM though). Goal 2 I get lower back problems when I squat around my 5x5 weight (~100kg). I think it is because my bar path isn't a vertical line, and I lean forward during the squat. I don't get problems when I do a lower weight (eg 50reps 50% BW=37.5kg). However I think just doing 50x40kg is not a good long term solution. I think correcting my shitty squat form is a good long term solution. In order to achieve this I propose to post a form check every time I do a leg session. Then prior to the next leg session, attempt to implement all feedback and video the results of the next leg session. Then repeat this until the end of the 4WC at which point I hopefully suck slightly less. (And my back thanks me for it)

Wow! Those are some pretty ambitious goals... but if you stick to your plan you might just be able to pull it off! The part I think will be the clincher is getting the monthly DEXA scan. The nutritionist's plan is going to test your determination. When you end a tough month successfully but see awesome progress on the DEXA, those numbers are going to encourage you to keep going for the next month. And if you stray from the path, and the DEXA numbers show you have stagnated... its going to kick your ass into gear. Thinking ahead for the future - do you have a plan to maintain your gains after the 100 days is over?

Out of all the benefits physical exercise has, i enjoy that 'glowing' feeling the most Keep up the great work Dawsy!

Are you following Convict Conditioning's progression for one arm push ups? If so this step would be called Uneven Push ups. I've always thought this step was a pretty useless one. Your weight is meant to be centered over the training arm, not the assisting one (the assisting one is elevated on the kettlebell). Anecdotally I don't find that elevating the assisting hand, while keeping it the same distance from your chest actually decreases its assistance/mechanical advantage. I much prefer progressing straight to archer push ups: If you don't have the strength to do this yet, you can start by 'cheating' and having your assisting arm slightly bent, then as you get better make it more and more straight. To really know how much assist you are using, just put a set of bathroom scales underneath your training arm. The more weight the scale shows, the less assistance you are getting from your assisting arm.

Oops, I kind of fell off the radar for a bit! I was thinking for the next challenge I would choose a nice and simple one that doesn't test grit :). Instead pure explosive strength Maximum push-ups in 30 seconds. Full elbow extension at the top (be strict on this). Chest at a point where your t shirt just grazes the ground at the bottom (please don't slam your chest really hard into the ground trying to emulate perfect lower ROM at speed). This challenge is nostalgic for me, since this was my P.E/gym class challenge that got me interested in calisthenics back when I was 8 years old.

Hey Dan! I've been stalking silently in the background of your thread... but as is usual for me I hardly ever post It sounds like your chest to bar pull ups are getting really high. Hopefully the elusive bar muscle up is right around the proverbial corner --- Core day was inverted sit ups and russian twists. The russian twists have the added benefit of being very fun for my little girl. I put her in a basket, then use her as my weight. She thinks it is the best thing ever Leg day. By chance a 'How to Front Squat' video came up on my YouTube subscription feed. So with the tips in mind, I tried the 50/50 challenge with 40kg front squats again. I stopped at rep 35 again, this time because my wrists were aching from being bent backwards for so long. Having said that, the rack position felt much more solid... I'm actually looking forward to trying some heavier front squat weight on my next leg day. However just to quickly get some burn in my legs I did my usual 50 reps with 40kg back squats. OHP day became a rest day due to a long day at work, and a teary wife when I got home. Making sure the wife is ok >>> essentially show-offy fitness goals. Chin up day. While I could have made this OHP day, I instead opted to simply delay OHP till the next day. I can't have OHP mucking up my 4 day chin cycle! Anyway I tested out some heavier weight: Warm up: BW L sit C2B chins. +25kg x9 +35kg x6 +45kg x3 +50kg x1 The form on my 3 reps of +45kg was much better than last time, although I also did less volume beforehand, and probably rested a lot more, because I wanted to make sure I hit the +50kg. +50kg felt different to +45kg, in that it felt like I actually recruited my muscle fibres maximally. Speed felt good. The ROM was good (banged my chest into the bar nice and firmly). I also felt a huge tension on my left elbow medial epicondyle/tendon attachment. That was as good a reason as any to stop. I wasn't sure if what I felt was a good thing which I should try to repeat, or whether I had crossed the line. Waiting 24-48h should give me the answer though. OHP day: GTG elevated wall HSPUs. Elbow feels good.

Wow... nice pictures and video! I am more than a little bit jealous right now

No shoutout? I'm offended. My apologies! The offending post has been corrected

Core day became a rest day. Leg day became a combined Legs/Core day. I tried the 50/50 challenge with 40kg front squats. Then I realised that I don't know how to front squat. The bar felt like it was denting my anterior deltoids by about rep 30. I said screw this by rep 35 - my legs were fine, but it felt like the bar was stopping venous return from my arms. I then did 50/50 challenge with 40kg back squats. I felt better, but also made a resolution to learn how to front squat at some point. Core was inverted situps and russian twists. OHP day was full depth elevated wall HSPUs, and working on free standing handstands. Then I decided to do the 40/40 bench challenge with OHP after seeing someone else that awesome Super Saiyan Rookiebeotch do OHP (I don't own a bench thus can't bench). Got 32 reps first try, then decided I could do better and got 38 reps the 2nd attempt. Chin up day (today) was try different grips day. Warmed with BW L sit C2B chins. +25kg x5 pull ups Working sets were with +35kg. x5 chin ups x5 commando (essentially trying to train neutral grip) x5 pull ups x5 chin ups x5 commando x5 chin ups x5 chin ups and immediate drop set to BW x6 commando, x5 chin ups (failed at 6), x0 pull ups (failed to hit chest to bar on the 1st rep... which means my arms are toasted )

I don't have a bench at home, so I did OHP like Rookie. 40% of 75kg = 30kg Best attempt was 38 reps. I was absolutely filthy that I only needed 2 more reps, but I was completely unable to lift the bar off my clavicle at that stage. It felt like my arms had been pinned down by a feather Very disappointed

Yeah he had it pretty bad. All variations of chins/pulls/neutral grips at unweighted levels started to have increasingly dense sensory changes. :( --- Core/Misc/Metcon day was inverted situps. Leg day was a bodyweight PVP I'm doing. A whole lot of somewhat strange calisthenic lower body drills, then 5 mins of bodyweight squats. I did 125 reps, but I much preferred the feeling I had following the warrior mini. I personally enjoy Barbell > Cali for legs. (Or maybe I just don't like leg day, and Barbells does it so much more efficiently?) OHP day was full depth elevated wall HSPUs, and working on free standing handstands again. Small little improvements happening Chin up day (today) was volume (kinda) day. Warmed up on BW and +25kg. Working sets were with +35kg. Went for 6x6. Only got 5 reps on sets 5 and 6. Set 5 last (6th) rep was chin over bar, but failed final chest to bar ROM. Set 6 I didn't even try for rep 6. All other reps had great ROM. Ended with an immediate BW drop set. (8 reps)

Aww man... I purposely skipped BW legs I did the workout but I wasn't sure if it entire thing was meant to be done with no breaks. I presumed it wasn't since there was stuff like Kneeling jumps 4x6reps, which would just be 24 reps if there was meant to be no breaks. I guess I treated the first part as mostly like skill work, then did 5 minutes of bodyweight squats. If I was meant to do everything non-stop then I definitely stuffed this challenge up. The current warrior mini challenge is 50 reps of 50% BW barbell squats - with a nightmare mode of AMRAP 100% BW squats in 5 mins. So BW squats in 5 mins was kind of interesting to compare. Anyways, I did 25 reps every minute for 5 minutes - so 125 reps. I might wait till next weekend to post the next challenge... I think everyone is running behind a bit. I also might post a much shorter challenge testing explosive strength to mix it up a bit

We should try some other burger places! The Sydney burger scene has really exploded in the last couple of years... I'm seriously in heaven right now CBD-wise: Marys in Newtown is probably the defending champion. Jacks in Newtown is new blood very similar to Shake Shack in the US. The Blame Canada Burger (Poutine Burger) at Bar Luca is also very very good. Damn it... now I'm hungry... Wait a sec... did I miss the point of your post?

Bad luck on the bar muscle up man My colleague at work who has been keeping me up to date on the Open workouts, also failed at the muscle up in 16.3. It's a bit of a tricky beast. It's great your body is holding up. Esp good to hear the wrist is going well

I tried nightmare mode a week ago. I got 25 reps (5 sets of 5 reps every 55 seconds). My original plan was to try to increase to 5 sets of 6 reps every 55 seconds, then 7 reps, etc. But even doing 25 reps made my lower back really spasm for like 3 days after, so I decided to go back to normal mode. I suspect the back problems are because my squat form probably sucks a lot. I should probably make that my next challenge - Form check everytime I have a leg day, and try to improve with every critique. --- Today was my favourite day - chin up day Warm up BWx5 25kg x8 35kg x6 40kg x4 45kg x3 1st rep good, 2nd and 3rd had mini kips to get chest to bar (not a good weight for volume... yet) 35kg x5 35kg x5 then immediate drop set to: BW x10 maintained perfect C2B form despite being a drop set

I reckon the people who decide on the Crossfit Open workouts are spying on you. In 16.1, you only just got your first C2B pull up... so they put that in 16.1! Now you only just got your first Toes to Bar, so they put that in 16.2! Grats on managing 9 of them! I bet if you get a muscle up tomorrow that will be in 16.3 :)

Yay! I love it when you don't feel like doing exercise, but then you do it anyway, and you hit a PR! Grats

I definitely struggle with tendonitis now. I used to not have any issue in my early 20s, I could train like crazy and just recover. Now I'm turning 37 in 2 months, and I find I can no longer abuse my medial epicondyle I have never experienced numbness while chinning, but my uni friend who I used to do a majority of my fitness with has experienced this with his chinning somewhere around his mid 30s. Unfortunately his turned out to be nerve impingement (radiculopathy) - which pretty much screwed him for chin ups (unless he wanted cervical spine surgery ). Hopefully your issue is nowhere near as serious! --- Core day was an absolute minimum from an exercise point of view due to a long busy day at work. It was one of those eat your breakfast at the end of the work day, drive home, help put the baby to sleep, get a phone call calling you back to work, drive to work, come home past midnight. I did one set of inverted sit ups, then collapsed into bed. Leg day - I really enjoyed 50reps @50%BW, but this time I just rounded up to 40kg instead of doing 37.5kg... mainly because 37.5kg is really annoying to load up. It felt a lot easier and I had much less soreness than my first attempt a week ago. OHP day - GTG style parallette wall HSPUs. Also I did some free standing handstand work. I managed to find a way to display my phone camera on my laptop screen - this allowed me to video myself from the side, yet have my laptop directly in my line of view so I could make adjustments to my position without having to turn my neck and stuff up alignment. Made a small breakthrough, but still a lot of work to go.

Beast

You look like Krillin Have you considered tattooing 6 dots on your forehead? Love your intro post. I sense that you like graphs

LOL! That is a hilarious story... I mean probably less hilarious for you at the time... but seriously, thank you for sharing that I can't believe he wanted to just continue squatting with total rippage... I reckon your hubby is a nudist at heart It is awesome that you and the husband go to the gym together and train together though. My wife isn't interested in the weights area at all, she likes doing the Les Mills classes with a good trainer to motivate her. Also great work with the mini challenge! I lay on the couch and felt sorry for myself after doing it, but you just continued on your merry way and finished your workout (including DLs) like the mini challenge was nothing! Kudos!

Work has been busy, but I still found time to fit some exercise in. Core/Misc/Metcon day was inverted situps and an AMRAP circuit of push, pull, legs, core that was posted in a PvP I'm doing. Leg day was diet Nightmare mode of the mini challenge: 25 reps of BW (75kg) squats in 5 mins. OHP day was full depth elevated wall HSPUs, and working on free standing handstands. Chin up day (today) was trialling some heavier weights. Warmed up on BW and +25kg. Went to +35kg 5 reps. Then tried +40kg. I was aiming for 5 reps, but I only got 4. However I was happy with chest to bar ROM with every rep. Every rep had slowed pulling speed and the last rep was super grindy, but I enjoyed it +35kg is definitely my 5rep working weight at the moment. My back has been sore since the BW squats. I probably overdid it a bit. Though I really enjoyed the feeling I had post 50rep 50%BW... I might do it again with 40kg sometime soon.

I did diet Nightmare mode just then. 25 reps of 75kg in 5 sets of 5 reps done every 55 seconds. Legs feeling quite pumped at the moment

Thanks for taking the time to post those video links to explain form Anim. They were really helpful since there are a lot of variations out there. I was particularly worried about what type of Archer chin/pull you were going to link to since there are some really nasty ones I stopped at 100 reps, and also timed myself (7m20s). One thing I'm a bit curious about is the AMRAP to failure in a circuit where you have to stop and change between exercises. ie Walking from push up station to pull up bar is basically a form of resting. If you wanted to boost your numbers you could just walk a bit slower between each station. I'm not sure if: (1) You did this on purpose as it potentially promotes competition as it is easier for each of us to 1-up each other, or (2) I'm overthinking things and who really cares in an internet competition where it is all an honour system anyway, or (3) It was an oversight and we should add a time limit and see who can do the most reps in that time period.