Hazard

7 - 9 March 2021

Quest Progress:   My best time on the rings flexhang so far was 28 sec, and I got that exactly a month ago.  So while this week's flexhang workout was a 7 second increase over the horrible flexhang workout from the previous week, my flexhang has made effectively no positive progress over the last month.   I think the culprit is fatigue from the pulling exercises before the flexhang.    I'm going to move my flexhang training over to "Chest" day and see if it does better there.

3 - 5 March 2021

This was a much better series of workouts.

Quest Progress:   Instead of two warmups then an AMSAP, I did three straight AMSAPs for the support holds.   All three sets lasted longer than my top set from the week before, but moreover the first set netted me a +9 sec improvement over my previous best Supper Hold AMSAP.   After three weeks of declining times, it was a relief to see the grind finally break through to a new best.

No fanfilms to share this time.   I've gotten hooked watching a blacksmithing series on Netflix called "Forged in Fire."

26 - 28 February 2021

Replies first, then updates.

On 2/24/2021 at 6:39 PM, juliebarkley said:

It's a series with quite a few titles in it. Don't stop at just one.

👍.  We check out like 20 children's books from the library every week or two.  There's been a few elephant and piggy stories in the mix.  She likes them.

On 2/26/2021 at 1:28 AM, WhiteGhost said:

I too am really impressed with the quality of these fan films.  I have seen a pretty good number of fan films and usually they are "Star Wars Christmas Special" levels of terrible

Sound quality is usually the indicator for me.  If a fanfilm maker won't budget a couple hundred dollars for a basic sound setup so that viewers can actually hear the dialogue, then they don't really care if people watch their film.

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Quest Progress:   An all around junk day on the quest.  -10 sec lost on the rings flexhang compared to previous best set, and all three of these sets were bad.  I was struggling with all of my upperbody stuff over this series of workouts, and even my regular weighted chinups the week before were unusually tough.  Leg day went fine though.   I figure something in my upper body needed extra recovery, so after this series of workouts I took a couple extra days off.

This fanfilm was made non-profit by a small professional studio with a decent sized budget, and filmed on location in the Sahara.   Forget Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.  If you're going to stick spacey-alieny things in an Indiana Jones setting, this is how you do it. . 

On 2/27/2021 at 10:15 PM, RamblinRob said:

I've had to replace  barbell squats with leg presses for now.

Why? 

I ask because your routine includes the Bench Press and RDLs, so presumably you have access to a barbell for Squats.

20 - 23 February 2021

Replies first, then updates.

On 2/18/2021 at 10:03 PM, juliebarkley said:

You had me at rings, but then you had to take it up a notch with the Elephant and Piggy. ❤️

It's a cute book, but after my daughter had me read it with her three times in a row every night for a week, I felt relieved when we returned it to the library.

On 2/19/2021 at 3:33 AM, Harriet said:

had no idea that fans go to such efforts and make totally new material.

There's a ton of fan-made and small studio films out there to watch.  Of varying budgets and acting quality.   I'll post another one today that I think people may like.

On 2/19/2021 at 7:47 AM, KB Girl said:

Haha in that case I’m following. Very curious how this epic quest will play out, it’s really not every day that you see a 100kg (-1) guy do a muscle up.

Yeah I could certainly make the quest easier on myself if I dropped 20 kg.

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Quest Progress:   This was an interesting day.   When I did my 3rd set on the rings, I'd lost 2 seconds off my AMSAP from the previous workout.   I was disappointed, but also felt like I had more volume in me to work with.  So I decided to do a couple more sets of whatever I could do, in the hopes that extra volume would translate to AMSAP progress next week.  But I got a nice surprise, hitting a +5 sec AMSAP increase during the added 4th set.   . 

My fans-made film offering for today is from the Tomb Raider universe.  The main actress in this fanfilm went on to have a career as a stunt double and supporting actress roles for numerous TV shows on the CW network like Arrow, Supernatural, Supergirl, Batwoman, etc.

4 hours ago, Harriet said:

Weightlifting debt. If it piles up, you have to pay it off by doing 30 workouts in one day.

16 - 18 February 2021

Quest Progress:   I lost 1 second off my flexhang AMSAP set.  But nabbed three seconds more of total volume.  I've done stuff on rings in the past, and know from my previous (and current) experience that Rings raise the challenge rating of an exercise significantly --  but every time I grab the rings to do a set I still find myself surprised by just how much harder a thing on the Rings is compared to doing that thing on a bar.

Today's video offering.  Best watched with the English subtitles turned on:

11 - 14 February 2021

Replies first, then updates.

On 2/10/2021 at 2:15 PM, raptron said:

Rings rings rings! ☎️

Parent Brain Activated™

Rings! Rings! Ringy-ring-rings!

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Quest Progress:   This was a +2 sec improvement on support hold from last time, and a six second increase in total volume. 

First time I've ever curled over 100 lbs.   Always fun to reach a landmark along a journey.  😊.  I was on the discord when I did it, and I'll repeat here what I typed there:  I still don't feel like I'm strong, but I'm starting to feel like I'm at least "Not Weak."

I saw this yesterday.   It's really well done:

6-9 February 2021

Replies first, then updates.

On 2/8/2021 at 3:58 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Here's hoping for more improvement.

It's a given.

21 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Great progress!  Are you doing regular hangs or false grip?  (or something in between?)

I'm using a regular (neutral-ish) grip for my challenge flexhang quest.   I'm still treating falsegrip training as a side quest -- doing a couple sets of rings ballgrip deadhangs at the end of my Arms Day workout.

13 hours ago, Harriet said:

That circus dude reminds me of a spider or something. Anyway, glory to the rings!

Spider Bridge is apparently a thing

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I've decided to post my updates in 3-day workout groupings this time around.   Which means I'll only be posting updates every 4 days or so.  (Which also means my challenge thread should be verrrry easy to keep up with, for those who want to follow me. ). 

Quest Progress:   This was a +4 sec improvement on flexhang over last time, and a six second increase in total volume across the three sets. 

For training methodology, I'll be using my ever-increasing minimum volume approach.  I'll be taking the total volume done, divided by number of sets, and then use that number (truncated) as my target times for the next training day.  Taking today's results as an example:  My total volume for flexhangs was 21+21+28 = 70 seconds.   70 seconds divided across three sets (decimal truncated) is 23 sec.    Therefore my next flexhang training day I'll be targeting my sets at 23s/23s/23s+.  The little + symbol on the third set means it's an AMSAP set (AMSAP = As Many Seconds As Possible), where I'll continue holding the set past the target time for as long as I'm willing to tolerate it.

8 hours ago, tei_ said:

Got 2 minute-long handstands with legs in both splits

Admiring your delts.   

Here's a link to my next NF Challenge thread.

Intro:   Hazard is presently a 43 years-old,  5'9" and 219 lbs male.  (That's 174 cm and 99 kg for you metric folk).

Epic Quest:  Conquer the muscleup on Gymnastics Rings

This is how it's done, yeah?

In my last NF Challenge I...

Current Quests to progress me along my Epic Quest:  My goals for this NF Challenge are improvement on...

• Basic Support Hold on Rings
• Full Flexhang on Rings

Testing:  My starting numbers are...

• Rings Support Hold:  25 seconds
• Rings Full Flexhang:  24 seconds

The Goals:  Any amount of improvement is acceptable.  Being better next month than I am this month is success.

The Strategy:  I have an already well-established personalized fitness routine using an 8-day split rotation.  I'm going to try training the Support Hold and the Flexhang each 1 time per my 8-day training "week".   Or roughly 5 times each during this NF Challenge period.

Review of Challenge

Take a look back at what my NF Challenge was about:

On 12/21/2020 at 4:22 PM, Hazard said:

Epic Quest:  Conquer the muscleup on Gymnastics Rings

 

Current Quests to Get Me There:  My goals for this NF Challenge are improvement on...

• Basic Support Hold on Rings
• Deadhang on Rings

Testing:  My starting numbers are...

• Rings Support Hold:  3 seconds
• Rings Deadhang:  26 seconds

The Goals:  Any amount of improvement is acceptable.  Being better next month than I am this month is success.  That being said, I'm expecting to break 1 minute on the ring deadhangs fairly quickly and move up the skilltree to training full flexed hangs during this challenge.    My basic support holds, on the other hand, are starting at a very low time and need a lot of improvement to reach 1 minute, so I'm expecting to be training basic support holds throughout this entire challenge, while hoping they reach a minute by this challenge's end.

 

The Strategy:  I have an already well-established personalized fitness routine using an 8-day split rotation.   I'm going to try training the Rings Basic Support Hold and the Rings Deadhang  each 2 times per my 8-day training "week".   Or roughly 10 times each during this NF Challenge period.

Results:

• Basic Support Hold on Rings:  increased from 3 seconds at testing to 25 seconds in the most recent support hold workout.  As expected, growing that initial 3 seconds to 1 minute will take more time.
• Deadhang on Rings:  increased from 26 seconds at testing to 1:06 minutes in the final deadhang workout.  And then - having met my goal - I advanced to training full flexhangs.

Review of The Goals: As I wrote at the start, any amount of improvement is acceptable.  Being better at these exercises now than I was a month ago is success.  I'm better at them now than I was a month ago.  This was a successful challenge.  I'm happy with the results.  And it's been a joy to do this training.

Considerations moving forward:  My strategy for this challenge was to train the support holds and the hangs twice each during my 8-day exercise rotations.  And I did so.  Looking back through all of my workouts during this challenge, however, I noticed the pattern that my lesser-performing days (including all backsliding on my AMSAPs) occurred on Chest Day for support holds and on Arms Day for my flex hangs.   Whereas on Back Day my flexhangs consistently showed improvement, and on Shoulder Day my support holds consistently showed improvement.  This being the case, I'm thinking I'll cut the rings training from my chest and arm days, and try doing them just one day each per rotation - on the days where I've had the best training results.

3 & 4 Feb  2021

Quest Progress:   A +1 second improvement on flexhang over last time.   And that's the last workout for this NF Challenge.   A challenge review post will be coming.

28, 31 Jan and 2 Feb  2021

The Vampiric Order of the Red Cross were in town, and I let them suck my blood a few hours after my leg workout.  Then I took a couple of days off from exercise.   One side benefit of donating this time is that the Red Cross is doing Covid-antibody testing on the donations.

Quest Progress:   This was a -2 second decrease on my flexhang AMSAP.   But, a 4 second increase in my best total volume across three sets. 

Quest Progress:   A +2 second increase on my support hold AMSAP.

If someone told me that eating 10-15 flax seeds would lower my testosterone levels enough to worry over, I would never take that person seriously again.

Not being able to poop without eating 10-15 seeds would be far more concerning to me.

27 January 2021

Quest Progress:   My chest felt worn out by the second set on rings.  I couldn't muster endurance today to maintain position long.  Ah well.

24 & 25 January 2021

Quest Progress:   +3 more seconds on my best rings Flexhang, 

21 & 23 January 2021

Quest Progress:   This was a +5 sec improvement on the full Flexhang. 

Quest Progress:   And for today's workout, I managed to nab a small-but-happy +2 sec improvement on the Support Hold AMSAP set.

19 & 20 January 2021

Replies first, then updates.

On 1/17/2021 at 4:18 PM, Elastigirl said:

Sounds like a good plan. Have you tried the false grip with your feet on the ground? That way you can adjust how much pressure you  put on your hands. 

On 1/17/2021 at 5:22 PM, KB Girl said:

Seconding EG. We always have people start trying out false grip when doing things like feet assisted pullups, feet assisted MU progressions etc. Never had anyone not have decent false grip by the time they were ready for real MUs. 

Feet assistance could be a good way to bridge a gap if I get stuck somewhere in my progression plan.   Thank you both for the reminder.  I'll keep that tool in my pocket in case I need it. 

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Quest Progress:   No progress on the Support Hold times in this workout.  I would've at least had more total volume, but I misread my numbers from the previous week and capped my warmups at 16sec when they should have gone to 20s.   Mistakes happen.  No biggy.

17 January 2021

Change of plans on the falsegrip training. There's a lot of pressure bearing down on the spot where the rings and body meet.   I was able to tolerate the discomfort/pain on the first day that I trained flexhang with falsegrip.  But I couldn't tolerate it at all today.  It was muuuuch sharper pain.  When I went up for the first set, almost instantly I yelped in pain and let go of the rings.   I gave it a few minutes, took a little more time setting my grip, tried again, with the same result.   Wasn't happening today.

My suspicion is that the last flexhang workout with attempted falsegrip probably caused something like an internal bruising that hasn't finished healing.  Whatever the case,  I'm treating it as a "you're not conditioned for this yet" situation.   I quickly came up with a new gameplan.  I'm going to be continuing my actual Challenge quest training with regular grip, since that's what I was originally intending to be using anyway.   Then as a Side Quest, I'll be following that with 2-3 sets of tennis ball work, only taking a step back in the progressions to train the ballgrip on deadhangs first.  I tested it out today for two sets and managed 7-sec and 9-sec deadhangs (no sharp pains) while gripping tennis balls.  That gives me base times for starting the rings ballgrip training.   It's also a far cry from the 1+ minute I can deadhang on rings now with a regular grip.  That difference in time alone nicely illustrates how badly my "false" grip on rings needs to be trained/conditioned from bottom level up.       

Quest Progress:   For the flexhang, this was a +6 seconds improvement over the last workout on the AMSAP set.  Though as I said above, this also includes switching back to using a regular grip.

16 January 2021

I'm excited to have moved up to the 25# dumbbells for head holds today.   On smaller DBs my fingertips curl under the head to provide some extra "lift" against gravity, and that extra support helps keep from dropping the DB.  The 25# DB's head is big enough that I can't get my fingertips underneath anymore, forcing me to use pure "grasping" strength to keep the DB from falling.   Which means the training wheels are off.  I'm a big boy now.  🙃

Quest Progress:   No direct rings training on my deadlift day.

15 January 2021

Quest Progress:   +4 seconds improvement on Support Hold over last time.   Moving right along.

13 January 2021

Replies first, then update.

10 hours ago, Machete said:

Have you been doing any specific wrist mobility work? Some folks can't hold the false grip because they just can't get their hands to that position.

I'm probably good there.   I've got decently bendy wrists.

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Quest Progress:   11s on the flexhang AMSAP today with a falsegrip, for a +4 seconds improvement from last time.

8 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

Sciread77

male 198# / 90 kg 

33

1/12/2021

updated