Nathan's Nook

[Nathan]

Big job kept me up until around 2am on Thursday, so I did the generic 18m relaxation instead of the longer Govinda I had planned on doing.

 

Friday I had another job that was a bit of a rush, so I skipped my moderate jog (plan to do tomorrow instead). Friday evening I did my Yuri sequences, dislocates, HS, and a stretching session: shoulder opener, foot-elevated bridges, HF, adv. piri, pike w/calf focus, hover pancakes, tailor, banded dorsi, and horse stance. Also played with an iso side split/pancake thing. Did tailor on the yoga mat this time and got the calves firmly on the floor without ballistics. Felt nice. Did the next Govinda lying relaxation before bed.

 

Just finished my heavy session for today. Split it up again - I'm liking this format. Started with bounces, Yuri sequences, dislocates, and HS.

 

Movements:

• V-sit on Parallettes: Liking this. Gives my wrist a break and lets me really hit the lower traps.
  
• Weighted Chin Ups: Think I'm ready to bump up the weight on these next time.
  
• RTO Dips: Don't know what happened today, but my left shoulder was feeling really lax. Felt like I just couldn't keep the scap depressed, so I swapped Bulgarians for these today.
  
• Front Lever ISO Progression
  
• Tucked Planche Holds on Rings: More difficulty here because of the left shoulder, but managed to get a few sets done.
  
• Front Squats: Think I'm going to drop these. Can't use a challenging weight without a rack, and getting the weight in position from the ground is just putting extra stress on my wrists. Not sure what I'll replace this with. Back to weighted pistols maybe.
  
• Sumo Deadlifts: Going to go ahead and up the weight on these again next time. Not very challenging at the moment.
  

Not really sure what was with the left shoulder/scap. No pain or anything... just felt really unbalanced. Seemed really tight when doing butcher's block, too, so I hung out there for a lot longer than usual and I got some nice release. May hang out in these a bit more often.

 

Followed by:

 

Prehab: weighted dislocates, Cuban rotations, and Jefferson curls. (Butcher before FS.) Upped the weight on the CR. Got my nice pop on the first JC set.

 

Flexibility: Piked STC followed by ballistics for HF, piri, standing pike w/dorsiflexion, seated pancake, and tailor's pose (+7.5kg per leg). Was watching Master the Squat E5 (piri stretches) earlier thanks to a reminder in George's log. The adv. floor stretch hasn't been feeling right, so I played with using the seated against the wall stretch at the end of E5 for ballistics. Good stretch, but I feel like it's maybe not the best for ballistics. Will play with some others next time. Legs getting close to fully sitting on the floor at the end of my tailor ballistics 

 

Another Govinda lying relaxation to come before bed.

[Nathan]

Did a quick HIIT sprint session in the morning on Sunday before heading off for some Valentine's Day gluttony.

 

I've been having some pain on the side of my right knee lately, and after finally consulting the Google oracle it seems like I might have a case of IT band syndrome. I live basically at the foot of a small mountain, and I've been using my jogs to run to the grocery store, which is almost all downhill and fairly steep. All my sprinting has been uphill and I've never had a problem, but apparently running downhill can cause this? Probably because I've never really done any moderate jogging and I just jumped straight in to steep downhill runs. Looks like I'll be taking some time off from the jogs, and once it's feeling better I'll probably just go back to doing uphill sprint work. I don't think I can bring myself to run circles around the park for 20 minutes if it's not going to get me anywhere  I might consider jumping rope or something instead.

 

Finished the day with another Govinda session. I like the newer Govinda recordings - they are nice and clear with plenty of white noise, and some relaxing wind chimes and animal sounds in there too.

 

Just finished a light session. Started with Yuri sequences, dislocates, and handstands, followed by:

• RTO L-sits
• Bar Pull Ups
• Single Bar Dips: Really getting into some metabolic fatigue territory on these at 3x14. Triceps felt like they might explode.
• Ring Rows
• Pseudo Planche Push Ups
• Pistol Squats: Finally worked up to 3x15 on these. The burn! Was thinking about moving the hands behind the body to increase difficulty and drop reps, but I think I might work up through a shrimp squat progression first since they offer a different stimulus.

Got a really nice release in the upper traps area just above the left scap while stretching my pec during the Yuri band sequence, interestingly. Been really tight in that area for a while now. Not sure if it has anything to do with the left scap laxness I felt during my last session. That shoulder was feeling better today, but still felt just slightly off.

 

Followed up with: butcher's block, weighted dislocates, Cuban rotations, and Jefferson curls, then piked STC and ballistics for HF, piri, standing pike w/dorsi, seated pancake, and tailor's pose.

 

Hung out in the butcher's block stretch for a while today. Got the pop/spine-lengthening sensation during the JC hold again in the usual area, but today it was followed by 2 or 3 more smaller pops further up the spine. Second set hold got the little pops all at once. Played with some more piri variations today, but nothing really clicked. I'll probably go back to the adv. piri stretch and try to make some adjustments there. Was bouncing calves on the floor halfway through tailor ballistics, and got pretty flat by the end. Feels good 

 

Lying relaxation to come before bed.

[SwissDanny]

Got the pop/spine-lengthening sensation during the JC hold again in the usual area, but today it was followed by 2 or 3 more smaller pops further up the spine. Second set hold got the little pops all at once.

 

I get what sounds like the same, but generally when I do elephant walk, which I would almost always do before JC's at some point.  For me the pops work down the spine, after taking a deep breath while bent over then relaxing.  Feels good. Over time more and more of the spine is doing this.

[Nathan]

@SwissDanny - That's interesting. It's only with the considerable weight of the JC and a focused effort on relaxing the spine that I can get the effect. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be possible for me now without the added weight. I do hope that it becomes much more effortless over time.

 

Did the next Govinda relaxation on Monday evening. No jog Tuesday, but did my usual Yuri sequences, dislocates, HS, and a stretching session: shoulder opener, foot-elevated bridges, HF, piri, pike w/calf focus, hover pancakes and SS ISO, and tailor pose. Decided to drop the banded dorsi stretch - just didn't feel like it was doing much for me. Think I could get more out of spending some quality time in a deep squat. Did the next Govinda lying relaxation before bed.

 

This morning limbering and Taiji prep, and just finished a skill/accessory session. Bouncing, Yuri sequences, and handstands, followed by:

• Ab Wheel
• RTO Support Holds: Feeling solid. Going to add another set next time.
• Rings Muscle Ups: Figured out how/where to create tension in the wrists during the transition to avoid pain.
• Headstand Presses
• Tuck V to Partial Press (on parallettes, for compression)
• Pike/Straddle Compression
• Natural Leg Extensions
• Skin the Cats (tuck)
• Shawarma: Did a couple of these near the beginning again today.

I feel like this session may be a bit too easy pull/push-wise. But then again, that may be the balance I need to make the DUP programming effective. Will stick with it for a while longer before reevaluating.

 

Next new Govinda before sleep tonight. Almost made it through all of the newer Govinda sessions. Will probably alternate between the SBS skeleton and a few of these sessions once completed.

[Nathan]

Finished up the new Govinda recordings Wednesday night. Thursday evening: Yuri sequences, dislocates, HS, and a stretching session: shoulder opener, foot-elevated bridges, HF, piri, pike w/calf focus, hover pancakes, SS ISO, tailor, and horse stance. The bridges are starting to feel pretty good at 4x20s. Starting to actually feel it in the thoracic, rather than lumbar (even elevated). Will up the hold times next week. Repeated the elements Govinda recording before bed.

 

Friday was my heavy session. Started with bounces, Yuri sequences, dislocates, and HS.

 

Movements:

• V-sit on Parallettes
  
• Weighted Chin Ups: Bumped the weight up on these and still got an easy 3x3. Will move up to 3x5 just to be sure and then bump the weight again.
  
• RTO Dips: Not sure what happened to the left shoulder last time, but these were feeling fine today.
  
• Front Lever ISO Progression
  
• Tucked Planche Holds on Rings
  
• Front Squats: Decided to keep the FS rack aspect but do these as pistols to keep intensity up with less weight. Tried 3x3 with 20kg - tougher than I expected!
  
• Sumo Deadlifts: Bumped these to 85kg, so I'm almost out of plates, but it's nice have enough weight to really feel something.
  

Hung out in butcher's block for a while again before the FS pistols. Still get a pretty intense stretch mostly in the left shoulder. I noticed that it was slowly pulling my left hand closer toward the center of the bar, so I tried the stretch with a close grip and my arm actually closed at the elbow for once. So I'm guessing that whatever keeps the arms from bending at the elbow with a shoulder-width grip is what I'm feeling in the shoulder. Would that be external rotation?

 

Followed by:

Prehab: weighted dislocates, Cuban rotations, and Jefferson curls.

Flexibility: Piked STC followed by ballistics for HF, piri, standing pike w/dorsiflexion, seated pancake, and tailor's pose (+7.5kg per leg). Went back to the adv. piri for ballistics. I had been using my hands to support the bounces, but I found out that I can perform all of the movement using the piri alone. This of course upped the intensity and I think it will work a lot better. Going to continue like this for a while.

 

Did the SBS skeleton lying relaxation before bed.

[Nathan]

Saturday and Sunday just did my morning limbering/Taiji prep and Yuri sequences, dislocates, and HS at night. Lying relaxation before sleep on Saturday, but Sunday was an all-nighter. Just chilled Monday - not a fan of working out on no sleep. Still did the SBS skeleton session before bed on Monday night.

 

This morning the usual. Just finished a light session. Started with Yuri sequences, dislocates, and handstands, followed by:

• RTO L-sits
  
• Bar Pull Ups
  
• Single Bar Dips: 3x15 was pretty killer today. Not sure what movement I'm going to move on to yet - will probably do 3x15 one more session before that though.
  
• Ring Rows
  
• Pseudo Planche Push Ups
  
• Shrimp Squats: Decided to go shrimp here. Started with 3x10 advanced shrimp. Will continue with these for now.
  

Followed up with: butcher's block, weighted dislocates, Cuban rotations, and Jefferson curls, then piked STC and ballistics for HF, adv. piri, standing pike w/dorsi, seated pancake, and tailor's pose. Tried a different setup for pancake and really felt it in the right gracilis. Interesting, but felt warning signals so will reserve that setup for something other than ballistics.

 

Looks like another all-nighter tonight!

[Nathan]

Unfortunately it was indeed another all-nighter. But that project is finished now! Did the skeleton lying relaxation before bed, and then slept for 14 hours

 

Yesterday was my skill/accessory session. Bouncing, Yuri sequences, and handstands, followed by:

• Ab Wheel
• RTO Support Holds
• Rings Muscle Ups: Continuing to work with keeping the wrist tension through transition to avoid pain.
• Headstand Presses: Still trying to work out what's needed here. I'm starting to think that my traps are just weak (and my shoulders too closed).
• Tuck V to Partial Press (on parallettes, for compression)
• Pike/Straddle Compression: Initiating compression with bent legs and then straightening on both straddle and pike now. Feels nice - more intense.
• Natural Leg Extensions
• Skin the Cats (tuck)

Did the Govinda 2 elements lying relaxation before bed. Stretching session to come later today.

[Rik]

Headstand Presses: Still trying to work out what's needed here. I'm starting to think that my traps are just weak (and my shoulders too closed).

Are these presses to headstand or presses from headstand?

[Nathan]

Hey, Phi... the goal is to work on press to handstand, but my feet still won't budge in the handstand position - even raised - so I have mostly been working from the headstand position.

 

What I was referring to in that quote, though, was that trying in the handstand position with feet raised and shoulders over the wrists that day, I felt that my traps just couldn't produce the tension/force needed to produce any movement at the hips. Pressing from headstand at the wall in either pike or straddle is fairly easy, so I don't think it's a weakness in the lower back or hips. I can manage a rep or two from straddle in the handstand position against the wall, but I notice I push through the back of my head quite a bit when doing this and I need to be far enough away from the wall that it puts too much strain on my wrists to actually do any meaningful work.

[Craig]

Nathan,

 

I had the same issue. My press handstand appeared out of nowhere after i did lots of overhead pressing - although it might be something to do with the Da Xuan exercises also, not sure.

 

At any rate, you can give this exercise a try, its easily scalable.  Find a picnic table with a bench seat and do this (down and back up like a pushup):

 

You can do tucked legs as shown, then straddle, then pike. For anyone else reading who wants a further regression, you can go off the knees if you cant do tucked off the feet.

 

Each variation should force the hips to be further over the shoulders, eventually they want to stay over the shoulders the whole time. This should help strengthen the traps and various other lines of the back, let me know if it helps your current predicament.

[Craig]

oh also do 5 sets of 3 - 5r, if you can do more than this then make the variation more difficult. once you have the pike variant, you could use a box or block to raise the feet.

[Nathan]

Thanks for the tip, Craig! I'm working dip progressions at the moment, but previously I was working handstand pushup progressions and was doing full ROM chest to wall on the parallettes. That said, open shoulders is still a big weakness of mine, so there's a good chance there was compensation going on somewhere for that. I'm working more actively on shoulder flexibility now, so perhaps once they open up a bit and I can maintain that line I'll return to the HSPU progression.

[Craig]

Cool! Different issue then.

Have you tried working high volume negative presses?

[Rik]

Hey, Phi... the goal is to work on press to handstand, but my feet still won't budge in the handstand position - even raised - so I have mostly been working from the headstand position.

 

What I was referring to in that quote, though, was that trying in the handstand position with feet raised and shoulders over the wrists that day, I felt that my traps just couldn't produce the tension/force needed to produce any movement at the hips. Pressing from headstand at the wall in either pike or straddle is fairly easy, so I don't think it's a weakness in the lower back or hips. I can manage a rep or two from straddle in the handstand position against the wall, but I notice I push through the back of my head quite a bit when doing this and I need to be far enough away from the wall that it puts too much strain on my wrists to actually do any meaningful work.

I'm currently in the beginning phases of developing a (straight arm!) press, and ran into these same issues.

 

For the head thing, just try not to press it into the wall a lot. Not really much to it.

For the wrist thing, Emmet told me to turn the wrists out to take the strain off. Makes sense because you're not really trying to condition the wrists.

 

Also note that in starting a press, basic mechanics dictate that the center of mass is over the hands before you can lift the feet. You cannot press when your shoulders are stacked completely over the hands. As soon as your feet are behind your hands, there has to be lean. Not being able to press with the shoulders stacked over the hands and the feet still on the floor has absolutely nothing to do with strength. You need to lean forward in order to get the center of gravity over the hands.

[Nathan]

@Craig: That was the initial plan, but when I gave it a go I felt like the strain on my wrists and the amount of force I was putting into the wall through my head was just too much to really be very beneficial. I may need to play with the setup and different hand placement, like Phi mentions.

 

@Phi: Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I played with turning the hands out but it felt like the amount of lean needed to do anything was just ridiculous. But maybe I just need to play with my setup. I'll experiment next time and hopefully work something out!

[Nathan]

Finished a heavy session a bit ago. Started with bounces, Yuri sequences, dislocates, and HS.

 

Movements:

• V-sit on Parallettes: (tucked) Repositioned parallettes so that the hands faced more backward, which made it easier to keep the elbows locked and really focus on the back.
• Weighted Chin Ups: 3x4 felt really strong. Tempted to go straight to a heavier weight, but will do a session of 3x5 first.
• RTO Dips
• Front Lever ISO Progression: The pike idea was nice but just too hard to measure, so doing holds in an adv. tuck with 90 degree bend at knees.
• Tucked Planche Holds on Rings
• Front Squat Pistols: (Butcher's block before) 3x4 at 20kg. The effort needed to keep tension throughout these sets is pretty killer.
• Sumo Deadlifts: Did first two sets sumo, but switched to conventional on the third set because I didn't like something I was feeling in my right knee in the setup for sumo.

Followed by:

Prehab: weighted dislocates, Cuban rotations, and Jefferson curls. Bumped to JC up and am at just over 50% BW now. Gonna work the reps up slowly and then consider putting this on maintenance, or possible try a version with the toes raised that I saw someone post on IG. I'm working on the calves now, so that caught my attention.

Flexibility: Ballistics for HF, piri, standing pike w/dorsiflexion, seated pancake, and tailor's pose (+7.5kg per leg). Bit of relaxing into the stretch got my calves brushing the ground before even starting tailor bounces. I feel like the next step is bending forward, but can't budge at the moment. Guess I'm going to keep working with back against wall until that position is loose enough to use leverage to pull myself forward somehow. Still, love it because I was always terrible at the butterfly stretch

 

Lying relaxation to come before sleep, and then going on a little R&R trip Sun-Tue 

[MattPark]

Hey Nathan!

I hear you with the butterfly stretch, I can barely bend forward at all too.

What I've been doing is pushing against the wall or lounge behind me in butterfly rather than pulling on my feet and it works really well. I feel when I pull forward it's mostly just upper back rounding and not enough leverage to get very far.

[Nathan]

Hey Matt, thanks! Yeah, I saw that in your log and tried it recently, but any attempt to lean forward brings my knees right back up off the ground That's why I figure I'll keep working the start position until I have more leeway, so to speak. Or have you found it helpful to work regardless of knees?

[MattPark]

I have done a little test in my morning ballistics where rather than pulsing the knees down I just pulsed forward by pushing behind me not worrying about my knees and after the pulses when you sit back up straight my knees were just as low as if I had been pulsing my legs.

Just my experience!

[Nathan]

Interesting. I'll play with it! Thanks!

[Nathan]

Sun-Tue took a little trip to explore a place we might move to and enjoy some R&R. Also went to the chiro while I was in the "big" city. Apparently my rib cage movement was odd, and my lower back was out of place. It's usually all my neck and upper back that gets out of whack. Did lots of walking, but otherwise just lying relaxation at night.

 

Yesterday I got back into training with a light session. Started with Yuri sequences, dislocates, and handstands, followed by:

• RTO L-sits: Feeling pretty solid. Usually don't push past 30s holds, but I think on my light day I'll start pushing these toward 60s.
• Bar Pull Ups
• Single Bar Dips: Did one more of 3x15 with these. Not sure what I'm going to move on to next session.
• Ring Rows
• Pseudo Planche Push Ups
• Shrimp Squats

Followed up with: butcher's block, weighted dislocates, Cuban rotations, and Jefferson curls, then tuck STC and ballistics for HF, adv. piri, standing pike w/dorsi, seated pancake, and tailor's pose. Cuban rotations were feeling tough today. Think I might be pushing the weight up too fast, so going to regress a bit and work back up.

 

Did the Govinda 2 elements session last night before bed. Going to do an easy skill session later today.

[Nathan]

Since I'm experimenting with DUP programming, I'm trying out three training days in a row - something that was never possible before since I was repeating the same session each training day. I'm making up for missed sessions earlier this week, but more than that I'm just curious if it will work.

 

Finished my skill/accessory session a few hours ago. Bouncing, Yuri sequences, and handstands, followed by:

• Ab Wheel
• RTO Support Holds
• Rings Muscle Ups: Mostly transitions and some FG hangs.
• Headstand Presses: Thanks to Phi for encouraging me to just do it. Adjusted hand placement to reduce wrist strain and focused on not pushing through my head. Got some messy but productive negative work done on the wall.
• Tuck V to Partial Press (on parallettes, for compression)
• Pike/Straddle Compression: Initiating compression with bent legs and then straightening on both straddle and pike now. Feels nice - more intense.
• Natural Leg Extensions Cut these today since I hit legs yesterday and will hit them harder tomorrow.
• Skin the Cats (tuck)

Not a lot of crossover between this session and my light and heavy sessions, so I feel like sandwiching this in between them shouldn't be a problem. Will see how I feel during tomorrow's session

 

Press work was messy, but it felt nice to actually get some negative work in on the wall in the full handstand position. Actually nearly managed a full controlled straddle negative on my first try, which was great. Didn't replicate it, but got in some partial negatives. Interesting figuring out how bending in certain places (lumbar) moves the pressure to different areas. Look forward to working with this more in the future.

 

Lying relaxation to come before sleep.

[Nathan]

Heavy session today. Started with bounces, Yuri sequences, dislocates, and HS.

 

Movements:

• V-sit on Parallettes: Worked both tucked and an extended straddle today. Love feeling it where it's supposed to be felt
• Weighted Chin Ups: Did my 3x5 today without a problem, so bumping the weight up next time. Will be a bit over 50% BW, which is kind of nice. Would like to hit around 70-75% before long.
• RTO Dips: Progress is slow with these. First set or two feels solid, but third set is tough. May reduce reps and add a set or two.
• Front Lever ISO Progression: Felt pretty solid today. Made the last hold a straddle.
• Tucked Planche Holds on Rings
• Front Squat Pistols: (Butcher's block before) 3x5 at 20kg. Really tough keeping the elbows up when doing these unilaterally.
• Sumo Deadlifts: First two sets conventional and then last set sumo. I really don't feel a lot of difference between the two. Conventional stresses the back more than sumo, I feel.

Followed by:

Prehab: weighted dislocates, Cuban rotations, and Jefferson curls. Bringing the Cubans down and focusing on quality was the right choice. Felt really good today. Going to push reps higher than previously before upping the weight again.

Flexibility: Ballistics for HF, piri, standing pike w/dorsiflexion, seated pancake, and tailor's pose (+7.5kg per leg). Been using the slider to lower into my HF ballistics (thanks Emmet). I really like this entry because I feel like it's much easier to keep square hips and feel locked into position.

 

Looks like the three sessions in a row worked fine. Not something I will be doing often, but nice to know I can with this current setup!

 

And now it is late, so I'm off to do lying relaxation and then sleep.

[Kit_L]

Nathan, most of the time when people try to improve the Tailor pose, they bend forwards by flattening, then flexing, the lumbar spine, more than moving straight spine and pelvis in between the femurs. I am going to video my next suggestion some time (and this has been very helpful to me), because it will save me typing, but if you have some support in front of you the next time you practise, try lifting your body's weight up and over the feet, until you can balance there (feet will be more under you than is usual, and your glutes will be a few inches off the floor. Then work that position, with both contractions (lifting knees; pressing feet together). You will fall off balance a few times, but the significantly increased forces in play will help the hips to open more. Do this in a soft surface (otherwise too painful on the outsides of the feet).

 

Even just lifting yourself up and over your feet, and then using the glutes to pull the knees to the floor will help this (while holding on to the support for balance).

[MattPark]

@Kit interesting you mention that technique as that is what happens when when I push myself from behind, glutes leave the floor and I come up more onto my feet. Though I haven't played with any contractions or anything in the position just holding it statically, the stretch sensation is quite intense. I will have to try it the way you described!!