Total Physique Online

OK, this workout took place on a Sunday, and I am just now (Monday) posting it. I had a busy day and the training took place outside, away from my Apple LT. So, I made the promise to enter the workout today, Monday morning.

Combat Cables

• One-Leg Donkey Calf Raises: 9cd x 10, 10, 15sec Static Hold - SH (Calves sore today, so this movement, wherever I can duplicate it, is a winner.)
• One-Leg Step-Ups: 6c x 10, 10 (I really felt this when I did them, but my legs are far from sore. Perhaps DOMS will set in as the day progresses. Otherwise, it seems like a good exercise. More difficult than mere one-leg squats I might add.)
• Archer Pulls: 3cd x 15, 15, 15 (This shocked me. Four days ago I could not manage one pull. I had to settle for a static hold for 3 sets. Did I actually make a strength gain of this magnitude? Maybe I will attack 4 cables, doubled over for the next session and do a static pull with that.)
• Chest Expander: 3c x 20, 12 (OK, getting stronger. Felt this a bit in right shoulder, but this is to be expected. More on this later.)
• Upright Row: 5c x 8, 8 (sloppy as shit, if I don’t mind saying so myself. Grrr. I can do better. Need to devise a better way of holding the handle. Three fingers is just too cumbersome and uncomfortable)
• Wrist Curls: 3cd x 15, 15 (Superb. For those of you using Ironmind cables, let’s talk a second. There are several ways to do wrist curls with these cables. One way is to do these from a seated position, using doubled over cables to shorten them, with your lower arm resting on your thigh and knee. One handle is in your hand, and the other handle is secured to the floor by your foot. This method is good, but if you are shorter than, say, 5′8″ tall, your lower leg will be too short to give you an adequate pre-stretch and you will find yourself feeling the brunt of the load at the top of the rep, and almost none towards the bottom of the rep because the cables will go slack. What you need to do if you are on the shorter side like me is this:

  Sit on your haunches. In other words, rather than sit on a workout bench, simply secure the handle under your foot, grab the other handle, squat down so that your thigh bone is beyond parallel to the floor. This will give your upper thigh a downward sloping arc. With your forearm resting on your downward sloping thigh and knee, your wrist will be in a pre-stretch from the word go. Your forearm flexor muscles will be tensed up for 100% of the range of motion. Trust me, you will feel like a blow torch is being held on your forearms as you progress throughout the set. DAMN what a contraction!)

• Reverse Wrist Curl: 2c x 15-20 x 2 (I do these in an odd fashion. Not only do I want to hit the extender muscles of the top side of the forearm, but I also want to hit the teeny muscles in the wrist which are most vulnerable in a painful wrist lock such as the one found in Aikido. Have a look at Kote Gaeshi To work these muscles, I only use 2 cables. I grab the handles, expand them as you would in a chest expander, and from the arms extended position, I simply allow my wrists to rotate inward slowly as possible. When I feel a good stretch, I extend my writs back out. I feel this in the wrists a lot.
• Side Chest Pressout: 2c x 20 x 2 (Once again, this is where my right shoulder is at its weakest and most vulnerable. Something tells me this is how I quite possibly injured it many months ago. It stands to reason this is how I am going to get it strong as hell again, with heavens help of course)
• Push-ups: 2c x 10, 8 (Solid reps, major contraction)
• Tricep Pressout: 2c x 20, 15, 15 (nothing remarkable here, accept for the fact that my right shoulder joint was getting tired.
• Pushdown: 2c x 20 x 2
• Regular Curls and Reverse Curls combine: 2c x 10(6), 15(4) (biceps are very sore today.)

Observations:

On a scale of 1-10 this session was an 8. I want to get closer to a ten, where I feel I have challenged my fears of failure more thoroughly.

I may hit shoulders today. We shall see how I feel. I am very congested.

I miss my dumbbells something fierce, but I will enjoy band training for a brief respite.

PS: I am considering going with EliteFts Bands if they will loan me a set. The Ironmind cables have some advantages, but they have a HUGE disadvantage in that the constant changing of cables is a huge pain in the ass. It is time consuming and eventually the ends of the nylon straps start to fray, so that fastening the handles becomes difficult. If I could test the EliteFTS cables, and if I liked the setup, I would post a review and recommend them over the Ironmind. For now, I can only recommend Fabled Cables as the way to go.

I think band training is a wonderful adjunct to traditional strength training, either in combination with it or as a strength medium unto itself.

Something told me that the title of this post was about as original as the notion of inventing a long pointy thing you can write with. It’s not as if The Zen of Strength Training has not been discussed before, right? Surely the Internet must be loaded with articles on this subject. So, to test my theory I did a google on “The Zen of Strength Training”. Guess what? Very little is discussed on the topic. At least, not as Zen relates to strength training.

Oh sure, there is tons of information on the Zen of Martial Arts, The Zen of Poetry, the Zen of Motorcycle Riding etc. Yet, nothing on The Zen of Strength Training.
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Dave, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery!! God Bless You and Laree

Dave Draper - Musclebuilding and Spring Gliding

Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)

From Dave Draper’s Post Column

Right about now, Thursday the 26th, a small contingent of IOL Winged Warriors is off to that idyllic patch of earth due west of Austin known worldwide as Dripping Springs. Forty-some bombers, Laree and me included, will converge on the restful town of 2,000 neighbors and kick up some dust: camping, campfires, barbeques, musclemaking at Mike Graham’s Old Texas Barbell Club, dinner at Threadgill’s (Joplin’s ole’ hangout), a private tour of The Todd-McLean Physical Culture Collection (University of Texas at Austin) and six-shooter practice on the wide-open range.
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Workout A

Cardio, Rope Work, 30 Minutes

• Skipping Rope with the help of my worthless iPod Shuffle. Sheesh, what a piece of crap. On the other hand it is small enough that I can use it without the thing flying off out of nowhere in the middle of a power clean. In fact, even though it is a piece of crap I think I will recommend it as an indispensable workout tool. As a listening medium though, it sucks. You have no control over the order of songs and it is only a gig in size. Still, the ‘lil sucker does work well as a jogger, skipping or workout tool. Hmm. Go figure. I am a mass of contradictions today. Hey, wait a minute, no I’m NOT!

Workout B

Staircase Work with 55lb Dumbbells

• 4-15 step flights of stairs up, and 4-15 step flights down, with 55lb dumbbells in each hand.

Observations:
I miss my dumbbells. I miss my bench. But for now, this will have to do. I am living out of my car, bumming couches wherever I can find them, and sleeping in hotels when I can afford it. I need to find a way to make some money, and fast. A job won’t do until I settle down somewhere. Even then, I prefer to work for myself if I can. I just need to find a gig that pays well and consistently. I am consulting with a friend to see how we can turn TPO into a money maker. So, don’t be surprised if I start selling a worthless piece of crap like an iPod Shuffle on my web site. LOL

I am almost out of me MD+ supplements. Man can I feel it. This is a HUGE downside to finding a supplement product line that works as well as Metabolic Diet. Damn. You get so dependant on it! And when you run out, you feel so run down. Holy Crap!

Pre-Workout Nutrition/Diet

• Cup of OJ, Cup of Sippuh (bean juice, java, coffee baby!), two Cliff Bars and a prayer or two.

Rest of the Days Diet

• 3 plates of spaghetti throughout the day, Power Bar

5:30PM First Intro Workout - light

Cable Wrist Curls 3dcx15×2
Reverse Cable Wrist Curls 1cx30, 40, 50, 30
Hindu Pushups 15, 15 (challenging, but familiar still, even though it’s been a few years since I have done them.)
Static Archer Pulls 3dcx5-8second holds….(very challenging…never used this much tension before. Felt awesome. Almost full pulls)
Chest Expander 3cx15, 15 (grip failed me a bit….and that is a good thing…man I love training with bands/cables)
Upright 3cx15, 15 (easy)
Side Push Press 1cx20, 20 (again, very easy, just going for flexibility here. Tomorrow will be more intense.)

Diet
Nothinmg much to report here. I have been living out of my car, bouncing in and out of homes for two solid weeks now. I am looking for a situation that will give me some place to stay for a while. Until I find it, I am looking at one, maybe two meals a day from now on. Still, God is good and He is worthy of praise. Talk is cheap, and praise offered when you have a roof over your head is easy. Let’s see where I am two weeks from now. Let’s see just how faithful I am.

The last week has been a blur.

My clearest memory during the past seven days was that of Saturday night, April 14. I was in bed. It was the most comfortable bed I have ever been in. There were three sounds I clearly recall hearing: The music piping over the small speakers of my Apple Laptop; Hershey, our cat, using the litter box, and the piff-piff sound emanating from the sheets as I moved my legs back and forth across the mattress as if I were making angels in the snow. I had not been this comfortable in a while. It was hard to reconcile the peace I felt with the reality of the situation.

This was not my room. This was not my bed. This was not my home. But I wished it were all of those things. The truth is my home was gone. Literally gone. Yanked out from underneath my brother and myself by one of natures most enduring and destructive elements: fire.
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Dave, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery!! God Bless You and Laree

Dave Draper - Musclebuilding and Spring Gliding

Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)

From Dave Draper’s Post Column

If you missed part one from February 22, 2007 — read this first.

April has a nice ring to it, a sweet sound, chimes in a faint breeze. Girls named April are automatically cute — cover girls, centerfolds and starlets. Warm showers from blue skies come to mind, songbirds and spring flowers, shorts and T-shirts, long days and a convertible with the top down.
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Workout A

Legs, Calves

• 2 Leg Dumbbell Calf Raise: 122 lbs x 50, 40, 40 (nice pump, great burn)
• Hip Belt Squats: 122 lbs x 30, 21 (the dumbbell grazed the floor almost, on each rep)

Observations:

Hip Belt Squats, once you do them, are a joy. While you do them, they are hell on earth. These babies really burn. I am getting stronger by the truckload though. Last workout with hip belt squats, I banged out 20 reps with the same weight I used today, only today I banged out 30 on the first set.

I would like a way to handle more weight, but until I can think of a way to hoist more weight, I wil have to settle for more reps. Maybe I can do 120 lbs for 40-50 reps next workout! These are all the way to the floor by the way. So, not shortcuts here.

Calves getting stronger as well, but I am running into the same issue. I need a way to get more plates on.

Perhaps a perfectly straight metal bar, a full 22 inches long, running straight through the QL dumbbell handles, could be used to accomodate all the plates. Hmmm.

Pre-Workout Nutrition/Diet

• Super Green Smoothy, Coffee, Powerbar; Breakfast
• Metabolic Testoboost 5 tabs
• Metabolic GHBoost 5 tabs
• MidMorning: Metabolic Creatine Advantage 1 scoop, combined with 2000 MG Vit EmergenC 30 Min Prior to workout combined with

Post Workout Nutrition/Diet

• Whey/MLO Protein

Rest of the Days Diet

• Egg Rolls/Green Smoothy for lunch.
• Pro Lab - Mid-day
• Dinner will consist of chicken and rice and veggies. Yum! Then just before bed -
• Metabolic Testoboost 4 tabs
• Metabolic GHBoost 4 tabs

Workout A

Forearms, Neck, Abs

• Standard Wrist Curls: 40 lbs x 15, 20, 18, 12
• One Arm Reverse Wrist Curls: 20 lbs x 8, 8, 8
• Lying Crunches: 45 lbs x 40, 40, 40, 40, 40 (incredible strength gain. double the reps from last ab workout 20 reps then, 40 today! 200 reps total, 1-2 min between sets)
• Front Neck: 45 lbs x static hold 5 sec, 5 sec (max set - different and challenging, pretty heavy too!)
• Rear Neck: 45 lbs x 12, 14, 14 (max set)

Workout B

Calves

• 1(2) Leg Dumbbell Calf Raise: 120 lbs x 16 (30), 16(30), 12(20)

Observations:

Today was a nice couple of sessions. I wanted to also do legs, but I decided to hold off until tomorrow. Abs were so heavy that by the time I had done them I wished I hadn’t. These weren’t your standard run of the mill crunches. My abs are getting very strong in this movement, but that doesn’t meant that doing crunches with 45 lbs is any less taxing. I guess I need to do legs first, before I do anything else. To that end I have the weights set up for tomorrow.

Pre-Workout Nutrition/Diet

• Super Green Smoothy, Coffee, Powerbar; Breakfast
• Metabolic Testoboost 5 tabs
• Metabolic GHBoost 5 tabs
• MidMorning: Metabolic Creatine Advantage 1 scoop, combined with 2000 MG Vit EmergenC 30 Min Prior to workout combined with

Post Workout Nutrition/Diet

• Whey/MLO Protein

Rest of the Days Diet

• Egg Rolls/Green Smoothy for lunch.
• Pro Lab - Mid-day
• Dinner will consist of chicken and rice and veggies. Yum! Then just before bed -
• Metabolic Testoboost 4 tabs
• Metabolic GHBoost 4 tabs