Gymnastics Rings, Level 2

[Hazard]

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...

Spoiler

 

• took my Basic Support Hold on Rings from 3 sec ---> 25 sec
• took my Deadhang on Rings from 26 sec ---> 1:06 min
  • (bonus quest) took my Full Flexhang on Rings from 7 sec ---> 24 sec

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Here's hoping for more improvement.

[WhiteGhost]

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

[Harriet]

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

[Hazard]

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.

Spoiler

 

 

 

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

Spoiler

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

4 hours ago, Hazard said:

Which also means my challenge thread should be verrrry easy to keep up with, for those who want to follow me.

I appreciate your thoughtfulness  

[Harriet]

4 hours ago, Hazard said:

Spider Bridge is apparently a thing

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Arghhh 😦 Spines shouldn't do that. Spider is not a good thing for humans to be.

[raptron]

Rings rings rings! ☎️

[Hazard]

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:

 

 

 

 

 

[Hazard]

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:

 

 

 

 

 

[juliebarkley]

On 2/15/2021 at 9:55 AM, Hazard said:

Rings! Rings! Ringy-ring-rings!

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

[Harriet]

On 2/15/2021 at 3:55 PM, Hazard said:

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."

 

Not bad at all!

 

On 2/15/2021 at 3:55 PM, Hazard said:

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

 

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

[KB Girl]

On 2/10/2021 at 3:57 AM, Hazard said:

 

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. ). 

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. 

[Hazard]

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.

 

 

 

 

[juliebarkley]

5 hours ago, Hazard said:

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.

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

 

AMSAP giveth, and AMSAP taketh away. +5 is better than -2, so congratulations are in order!

[WhiteGhost]

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

[Hazard]

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. . 

 

 

 

[Hazard]

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."

 

 

 

 

[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.

 

 

 

 

[Harriet]

4 hours ago, Hazard said:

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.

Plateaus are a terrible gift from the universe. We want gainz! *shakes fist at firmament*