Thursday, August 9, 2012

Bodyweight Exercise Workshop, First Day Back

This is my first post in a week (actually 8 days).  After lifting last Wednesday, on Thursday I traveled to Minneapolis, MN, to participate in the Bodyweight Exercise Workshop put on by Dragon Door and led by Pavel, Master RKC Mark "Rif" Reifkind and Senior RKC Max Shank.

Thursday, August 2 - Travel Day, uneventful.

Friday, August 3 through Sunday, August 5 - Bodyweight Exercise Workshop.

I am _still_ sore and didn't exercise at all on Monday, which was my travel day to home, and for two more days after that.

It was a _tremendous_ workshop.  The RKC is a principles-based system, and while I felt pretty well-acquainted with the principles before this workshop, learning the specific skills and progressions to put those principles into practice with only one's bodyweight was fantastic.  I feel I have many more tools in my arsenal, and I intend to be doing a freestanding handstand one of these days.  The ring work was enlightening - you can really find your own groove on the rings, much as you can with a kettlebell.  The floor work, specifically the one-armed pushup, was harder on my old shoulders but I intended to find my groove there as well - the details of how to do a one-armed pushup will be, I'm quite sure, the "missing link" for me and enable me to reachieve this movement after not having done it for a number of years.  And last but not least, all the Primal Move stuff we were exposed to as warmups was fantastic - I'm looking forward to learning more about that.

Today, I decided to start with one hanging leg raise to each side, that is, bringing my feet to the outside of first my left hand and then my right for the second rep.  Tough move but one I want to get good at - at the workshop, I volunteered to demonstrate this, did it right side first but then had trouble completing the left side - just too tired.  I will try to gently GTG on these and likely do them at the end of a workout but for today, since I felt so out of the exercise groove, I decided I needed a good, swift kick in the pants to start, so a pair of HLR's it was.

FSQ:  started with the bar only, did the Franken variation and moved up and down through the short ROM around the sticking point - simple, brutal, effective.

95 lbs. x 3

Then took a break from FSQ to do:

24: mil press, 2 supersetted w/ pullup w/ bell on left foot, did one rep pulling more to left side, second rep pulling more to right side - using a tip from the BE workshop about making pullups harder.

Back to FSQ:

135 x 2, 4, 4, 2 - left middle finger was tight, decided to stop here.  My wife watched and gave me feedback about my knees buckling in - I am essentially clueless on this.  I can try to keep them pushed out but I can't tell if I'm doing it successfully or not.  For a first day doing this again in 8 days, I'm content - would have liked more but this will do.

DB BP: 2, 2, 2 - all rather weak, shaky, and the first few hurt - not good, no bar BP today, will try these again tomorrow.  Good that they felt better as they went along.

Now a little bodyweight stuff:

Uneven chinup - using Olympic bar attached to the top of my power rack (thicker than usual p/u bar), main hand underhand grip and just inside the ring, supporting hand overhand grip and only first two fingers using overhand grip.  One right, one left, rest, two left, two right w/ my wife watching

Hand stand kickups - one, two, three into a wall-spotted handstand, rest, repeat - not good but I know what I need to work on.

[Edit] - did a few standing wheel rollouts on my 4th step incline board.

Onward and upward.

4 comments:

  1. Steve

    you did great this last weekend, very very impressive and you had the best questions of all too.well thought out and instructive on both sides.

    and yes the rings do allow one to find their own groove just as the kb( the kb handle reminds me much of the pommel horse handle BTW).
    and just as the rings they can get squirrel ly fast.

    take care

    Rif

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  2. Where can i find out more about the primal move stuff?

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  3. http://primalmove.com is the web site. I'm looking forward to becoming a certified PM instructor at some point in the future.

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