Week 66
It's time for some new conditioning goals! It is such a satisfying feeling when you can cross something off your list. Especially a goal that has been sitting on said list for almost six months. I started working on this one at the end of October but looking back at my training journal, I realized that I've only focused specifically on this goal in about sixteen of my training sessions since then. The most consistent training (every week) was in April and May. Surprise! Consistent training = progress.
What was I working so hard to accomplish? The muscle-up. The elusive "king of bodyweight exercises" that everyone wants to do and apparently not many people can. It is a mix of strength and technique and it can be frustrating because it does not necessarily have any prerequisites (There are people who can do a million pull ups but can't do a muscle-up, and then there's me who can do maybe 7 pull ups if I'm feeling good that day but I can do a muscle-up...) I didn't know all of these things while I was training it. I just knew it was hard and it was something I wanted to do.
My training program was pretty simple: do five muscle-ups (band-assisted) every time I go to conditioning class, with about a minute and a half of rest in between. What does this look like? Glad you asked! Here's some product placement for you (and me being an awkward turtle):
I didn't train muscle-ups every time I stepped foot in the gym (which was stupid, I know) but when I wasn't training muscle-ups specifically, I was doing climb ups, dips, rows, pull ups, and negative pull ups somewhere in my training/conditioning.
After a few months, I was feeling pretty good about my muscle-ups and I wanted to try it without the band just to see how much work I had to do. I made it to the turning point on the bar—the top of the pull up where you need to rotate and push up—and I got stuck. I was high enough that I could keep pushing, but it was a serious struggle. I actually spent several torturous seconds squirming around on top of that bar, determined to get up. I finally did it and was amazed with myself. A few of the guys got excited for me and told me I did a muscle-up and I was like what? that doesn't count. I'm still a gymnast at heart. Unless it's done with good form, it doesn't count.
But this was good for me because it meant I should move down in band resistance. I moved to a smaller band that I nicknamed "Little Red" in my training journal. I was much more reliable this time in terms of sticking to a schedule. I did muscle-up training with Little Red every week in April and May. Five each time (sometimes six), with a minute of rest in between.
About two weeks ago, I did a real, good-form muscle-up with no band which was awesome. I did one. This is good. But I wasn't done. The next time I came in I wanted to do my normal set of five without the band.
I came in the next week and got set up to do it. But all of a sudden I was pulling that chicken wing crap with my right arm going first. Umm hello, Body... what are you doing!? I was so frustrated. I didn't know why it was happening. I went back to the band so I could fix my form before progressing any further and adopting the bad habit.
I'm not sure what happened between that session and the next one but I finally accomplished my goal. No chicken wings. No band. Oh, and no kipping. That feels like cheating to me.
I went over to the bar without stressing too much about it and thought let's see what happens! I did the first one and I was sitting on top of the bar when my trainer walked in. His eyes got all wide like what are you doing up there? and I yelled to him Look, I'm strong now! He laughed but was excited for me and gave me a high-five me when I got down. I did my set of five with no band and even did a few more later on because I had to prove to some of the other guys who missed it that I could do it.
I kept forgetting to get the final result on camera until the other night after my workout. It's not exactly perfect because I was tired but here you go:
I know I've said this before, but it is just so cool to see the results of my training. It always feels like a bottomless pit when you're working towards something that really does take weeks or months to achieve. But nothing beats the feeling when you finally reach your goal. Now, on to the next challenge...
It's time for some new conditioning goals! It is such a satisfying feeling when you can cross something off your list. Especially a goal that has been sitting on said list for almost six months. I started working on this one at the end of October but looking back at my training journal, I realized that I've only focused specifically on this goal in about sixteen of my training sessions since then. The most consistent training (every week) was in April and May. Surprise! Consistent training = progress.
What was I working so hard to accomplish? The muscle-up. The elusive "king of bodyweight exercises" that everyone wants to do and apparently not many people can. It is a mix of strength and technique and it can be frustrating because it does not necessarily have any prerequisites (There are people who can do a million pull ups but can't do a muscle-up, and then there's me who can do maybe 7 pull ups if I'm feeling good that day but I can do a muscle-up...) I didn't know all of these things while I was training it. I just knew it was hard and it was something I wanted to do.
My training program was pretty simple: do five muscle-ups (band-assisted) every time I go to conditioning class, with about a minute and a half of rest in between. What does this look like? Glad you asked! Here's some product placement for you (and me being an awkward turtle):
I didn't train muscle-ups every time I stepped foot in the gym (which was stupid, I know) but when I wasn't training muscle-ups specifically, I was doing climb ups, dips, rows, pull ups, and negative pull ups somewhere in my training/conditioning.
After a few months, I was feeling pretty good about my muscle-ups and I wanted to try it without the band just to see how much work I had to do. I made it to the turning point on the bar—the top of the pull up where you need to rotate and push up—and I got stuck. I was high enough that I could keep pushing, but it was a serious struggle. I actually spent several torturous seconds squirming around on top of that bar, determined to get up. I finally did it and was amazed with myself. A few of the guys got excited for me and told me I did a muscle-up and I was like what? that doesn't count. I'm still a gymnast at heart. Unless it's done with good form, it doesn't count.
But this was good for me because it meant I should move down in band resistance. I moved to a smaller band that I nicknamed "Little Red" in my training journal. I was much more reliable this time in terms of sticking to a schedule. I did muscle-up training with Little Red every week in April and May. Five each time (sometimes six), with a minute of rest in between.
About two weeks ago, I did a real, good-form muscle-up with no band which was awesome. I did one. This is good. But I wasn't done. The next time I came in I wanted to do my normal set of five without the band.
I came in the next week and got set up to do it. But all of a sudden I was pulling that chicken wing crap with my right arm going first. Umm hello, Body... what are you doing!? I was so frustrated. I didn't know why it was happening. I went back to the band so I could fix my form before progressing any further and adopting the bad habit.
I'm not sure what happened between that session and the next one but I finally accomplished my goal. No chicken wings. No band. Oh, and no kipping. That feels like cheating to me.
I went over to the bar without stressing too much about it and thought let's see what happens! I did the first one and I was sitting on top of the bar when my trainer walked in. His eyes got all wide like what are you doing up there? and I yelled to him Look, I'm strong now! He laughed but was excited for me and gave me a high-five me when I got down. I did my set of five with no band and even did a few more later on because I had to prove to some of the other guys who missed it that I could do it.
I kept forgetting to get the final result on camera until the other night after my workout. It's not exactly perfect because I was tired but here you go:
I know I've said this before, but it is just so cool to see the results of my training. It always feels like a bottomless pit when you're working towards something that really does take weeks or months to achieve. But nothing beats the feeling when you finally reach your goal. Now, on to the next challenge...
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