Cam's Log

[Cam Ogle]

22/11/16

Did a fairly quick circuit today along with some stretching.

Push up support position on rings- 30s x 2

SL DL- 16 x 8, 8, 8,

Incline Bench (close grip, elbows in, fat gripz)- bar x 6, 30 x 6, 40 x 6

KB Row- 16 x 10, 10, 10

Had planned on doing more but didn't. Knee is feeling weird. Getting some stodginess in there, some looseness on the inside and pain at different times of the day. Most of the feeling is just on the inside of the patellar tendon. May be tendinopathy, who knows. Will keep up with the stretching and rolling for the rest of the week. I'm not entirely confident that I'll be able to get back to squatting next week without seeing a professional first. Shit.

Also have had some left ankle and achillies problems too the last week. Ankle still hasn't recovered from a sprain from 3-4 months ago and just doing some stretches have noticed the achillies is super tight on the left side with pain throughout the ankle.

Couch stretch added today. Aiming for 5 mins total per leg per day. 

[DavidGrey]

31 minutes ago, Cam Ogle said:

Knee is feeling weird. Getting some stodginess in there, some looseness on the inside and pain at different times of the day. Most of the feeling is just on the inside of the patellar tendon. May be tendinopathy,

If it is this, then may I suggest some sissy squats. Just do the eccentric portion. Very slow and controlled. Hold a set of rings for assistance and offload the knee as much as you need by pulling with the arms. Do 5-10 singles and see how it feels afterwards and the next day. My guess is it will feel a hell of a lot better!

[Cam Ogle]

1 hour ago, DavidGrey said:

If it is this, then may I suggest some sissy squats. Just do the eccentric portion. Very slow and controlled. Hold a set of rings for assistance and offload the knee as much as you need by pulling with the arms. Do 5-10 singles and see how it feels afterwards and the next day. My guess is it will feel a hell of a lot better!

Thanks for the suggestion @DavidGrey I will give this a go and let you know the result. 

[Cam Ogle]

So I did the sissy squats as suggested yesterday (thanks @DavidGrey). Ended up doing 3 sets of 5 across the day yesterday. Whilst the pain isn't completely gone (shock horror) it's definitely better and different. Massive difference in just one day though. Along with this I got 3.5m of couch stretching time in. I'll keep hitting these along with the other stretching and SMR work I do and fingers crossed will be squatting again Monday. 

[DavidGrey]

That’s great man! They are an incredible movement for patellar tendontits (and general knee rehab/rehab). Take it slow & allow the super compensation to kick in!

[Cam Ogle]

More of the same on the weekend. No lifting but heaps of stretching. Spend a considerable amount of time in the garden on Saturday and as a result my knee was super sore and swollen. Squatted down to talk to my daughter on Saturday night and the pain blindsided me. Just rested up for the rest of the weekend. Not going to jump back into any squatting just yet. Although I’m pissed and was getting to levels I’ve never been before it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the health of my body. Even if I need to restart again it’ll only take me a few months to get back up to that level. That’s mildly comforting. Took to the quads with a rolling pin last night and they feel pretty good. Knee is a lot better this morning, can sit in full squat, so will just be taking it easy.

There’s definitely a tracking problem there (hoping nothing more like a meniscus tear) and have looked back through the training and thinking what could have brought the extra stress. From the feeling I have been getting I think it was the sprints I was doing, or rather, how I was doing them. I found the last few sessions I was over striding and feeling a heap of force in the front of the shin and base of the knee. Either way, I’m seeing my physio on Friday to rule out any other damage and will proceed from there.

Goals for now:

Core and upper body work- make the most of the extra time

BW single leg stuff

Deadlifts – the movement feels ok so this may be my lower body saviour

Re-patterning the legs for proper alignment and movement

 

I've delayed purchasing any of the mastery programs for the next week or so till I'm a bit clearer as to what I need to do. 

Edit- forgot to mention I can run, jump and change direction all without bother to my knee. It's kind of a weird situation but I'm likely to park playing basketball for the rest of the year jic. 

[Cam Ogle]

28/11/16 – 5pm

Scap push ups x 20

Banded btn pull apart x 20

Banded fly x 20

Banded discloations x 5, 5

 

Rotations into bridge (on wall) x 10, 10

Bridge push ups (2 hands) x 10, 10

Jeff Curls – 16kg x 10, 10 (10s hold at end of each set)

 

Shrimp Squat- bw x 5, 5

SL DL- 16kg x 5, 5

 

Incline Bench- bar (fat gripz) x 10, 30 x 5, 40 x 5, 5, 5

Unilateral DB Floor Press- 15kg x 8, 8

 

Circuit x 4

Push Up Support on rings x 15s

Planche lean x 5s

Tuck Front lever x 5s

Handstand entries x 5

 

Front split work x 2 mins each side

 

Don’t really know why I included planche leans as I have no intention of training for that at the moment. This workout was just pieced together from stuff I’ve done over the last 2-3 years trying to figure out what my body can and can’t do at the moment.

[Cam Ogle]

29/11/2016

Scap push ups x 10

Banded btn pull apart x 10

Banded fly x 10

Banded discloations x 5, 5

 

Assisted eccentric sissy squats x 5

 

HF stretching x 10 mins total

[Cam Ogle]

30/11/2016- 6pm

Banded scap prep, HF stretch, pigeon stretch

 

Push up support position on rings x 30s, 30s

Snatch Grip RDL- 60 x 10, 10

 

OHP- bar x 6, 30 x 6, 40 x 5, 5

Bent Ros- bar x 10, 30 x 10, 40 x 10, 10

 

Front plate raise- 10kg x 15, 15

Rear delt flye- 5kg x 15, 15

 

Attempted some 5 step horse stance- too much pressure on left knee. No pain as such but it just felt unsavoury.

Getting knee looked at tomorrow. Cannot wait. If it's all good I'm going to start running again but take it more slowly. A mix between hills and track. I still want to do a mini tri in Feb/March so I need to be able to run 3k comfortably. Will start swimming next week too. If the knee is stuffed, well I'll see what I can do with it. Haven't made a call on basketball yet. Part of me wants to give it away. The other part that's played for the last 30 years thinks differently.  

[Cam Ogle]

Saw my physio today. Good news as far as I’m concerned. Prepatellar bursitis. Need to get the IT bands under control (incredibly tight), get the glutes firing again and I should be good to go. Glute med pretty average and worse on right side. Piriformis super tight too.

 

No basketball for the remainder of the year (precautionary) but I should be good to squat and run again in a week. Pretty happy with that result.

 

Training to come later on tonight.

[Cam Ogle]

On 12/2/2016 at 3:50 PM, Cam Ogle said:

Training to come later on tonight.

Ha. So this went well...

Had a great weekend with the family and whatnot. Training...not so much. My couch stretch experiment is over given I can't kneel on my left knee. Spent about 90 mins stretching and rolling last night and the body is feeling pretty good. Am using one of Kit's HF stretches (half lunge/pelvis pos tilt/try to straighten back leg) which I find is working really well. Spent a considerable amount of time on my quads and IT band. Glutes feel tight today so will give them some attention tonight. 

Need to get my training re-organised. Have been in a kind of limbo the last few months given the ankle, shoulder and now knee injuries. Looking to come up with a new plan of action incorporating some of what I was doing but adding a lot of different stuff too. Looking at a daily AM practice plus 3-4 gym days a week (bas, sas, lower, etc), 1-2 runs, 1 swim, 1-2 extra (basketball/martial arts), 2 dedicated stretching. Kind of looks like a lot on paper but it's warm now so getting into the habit of an early start should be no problem. Main goals are to build my squat back up, upper body strength and size, front/side splits, be fit for whatever activity I'm doing (basketball or martial arts - hapkido/BJJ). On the bodyweight side I look at the flow/locomotion/handbalancing stuff and it all seem so cool but out of reach. It's something I want to dabble and get more involved in though.  

Still trying to get my head around this so if there's any suggestions please feel free. 

 

*Edit- front splits have been shelved till knee settles down and I will pick up the pancake mastery video series this week.  

[Cam Ogle]

05/12/2016- 5pm

Scap Prep

 

Push up support position on rings

2x30s – got my arms a little more under me and as a result got an incredible chest pump

 

Close Grip Incline Bench (fat gripz)- Bar x 10, 40 x 6, 50 x 5, 5, 5

Batwings- 5kg x 15s x 5

 

Unilateral DB Floor Press- 15 x 8, 8

Ring Chins- bw x 5, 5

 

Left shoulder was getting fatigued towards so called an end to the session. Got some good quad and IT band rolling in later on with some floor stretches for the shoulders.

Purchased mastering the pancake yesterday. Had a quick look and will work through these by the end of the week to get an idea of which are going to be included initially. 

[Cam Ogle]

I've been listening to a few podcasts featuring Kit recently. I thought I knew a decent amount about flexibility. I was wrong. Not just the theory but predominately the application behind it. This is great news though. I've had some pretty good results in the past using "my methods" so this new information is fantastic and I'm really looking forward to the next few months. 

I worked through the first three of the pancake series last night. I have done Skandasana plenty of times in martial arts classes. Never with the same focus though and the forward lean, flat back and lowering of the hips was eye opening. The hip flexor on the bent leg did cramp after a while but once shaken out felt surprisingly loose. The tailor pose progression was cool. This got my knees about 4" lower in the space of 2 minutes. Did some work on the wide elephant but I didn't have a mat with me and my feet kept slipping out. Spent about 30 mins all up trying these three out and felt pretty damn good afterwards. These will definitely be part of my pancake sessions. Will try and get through the remainder of these by the end of the week to start to put together a program. 

Speaking of my program. Going back and forth on what I want to include. I've narrowed it down to skills, lifts, flexibility and misc for the moment (even though all are skills in reality):

Skills- bridge, handstand, muscle up, front lever, OAC, planche (in order of importance)

Lifts- Squat, deadlift, chins, dips, incline bench (in no particular order)

Flexibility- pancake, full pike, side split, front split (semi in order)

Misc- locomotion, floreio, running/hills/track work, swimming, basketball, martial arts (in no particular order) 

Over and above that the other goal is to get my bodyfat down. Around the 15% at the moment and want to be around the 10%. Vanity is one aspect but it's obviously pretty important for most of the goals above to have the best power to weight ratio possible. 

I have a fair idea of programming for these and will likely use timed blocks and circuits having a strength movement paired with a skill movement or lower intensity movement and then a circuit for some pump/prehab/stretching work at the end. Still deciding on this.  I think I'm at the stage where I can train the skills more frequently and don't need to break them up too much just yet too. 

One final note, this is obviously a long term approach and I want a plan I can stick to and build on over the next few years at least. 

[Nathan]

Sounds like some nice realizations on the stretching front!

I kind of understand why you would want to put FL, OAC, and planche in your skills section, but those three are definitely strength work and don't belong with bridge, handstand, and MU. Bridge really belongs in flexibility as it is mostly an expression of good flexibility and there's no real skill component, other than the skill of stretching regularly  Handstand is definitely a skill, and MU is mostly skill (the transition) assuming you have a good base level of pushing and pulling strength. OAC has a small skill component (different pulling pattern, controlling rotation) but is mostly brute pulling strength. FL as well (horizontal pulling), unless you want to call producing full-body tension a skill. Planche does have a balance component that could be considered skill, but you're going to have a hard time finding people strong enough to planche but they can't pull it off because they're having trouble with the balance

I'm sure you know all of this, but... I'd consider chins a regression for OAC, so with OAC and FL progressions you have vertical and horizontal pulling. Dips and planche take care of vertical and horizontal pushing. I'm not sure what incline bench is going to do for you that those won't, but you might consider cycling it with one or the other (dips probably) since for most people pulling already lags behind pushing.

You'll probably be working on opening the shoulders for handstand, and you'll likely be hitting HF in your lower body stretching, so bridge could be some thoracic work and passive backbending while you wait for those areas to open up. For the flexibility order, it's really up to you but I think most people will get a good pike before they get a good pancake. (Especially if you do Emmet's H2T protocol ) The splits are kind of a toss, I think.

Anyway, just a few things to consider.

[Cam Ogle]

1 hour ago, Nathan said:

Sounds like some nice realizations on the stretching front!

I kind of understand why you would want to put FL, OAC, and planche in your skills section, but those three are definitely strength work and don't belong with bridge, handstand, and MU. Bridge really belongs in flexibility as it is mostly an expression of good flexibility and there's no real skill component, other than the skill of stretching regularly  Handstand is definitely a skill, and MU is mostly skill (the transition) assuming you have a good base level of pushing and pulling strength. OAC has a small skill component (different pulling pattern, controlling rotation) but is mostly brute pulling strength. FL as well (horizontal pulling), unless you want to call producing full-body tension a skill. Planche does have a balance component that could be considered skill, but you're going to have a hard time finding people strong enough to planche but they can't pull it off because they're having trouble with the balance

I'm sure you know all of this, but... I'd consider chins a regression for OAC, so with OAC and FL progressions you have vertical and horizontal pulling. Dips and planche take care of vertical and horizontal pushing. I'm not sure what incline bench is going to do for you that those won't, but you might consider cycling it with one or the other (dips probably) since for most people pulling already lags behind pushing.

You'll probably be working on opening the shoulders for handstand, and you'll likely be hitting HF in your lower body stretching, so bridge could be some thoracic work and passive backbending while you wait for those areas to open up. For the flexibility order, it's really up to you but I think most people will get a good pike before they get a good pancake. (Especially if you do Emmet's H2T protocol ) The splits are kind of a toss, I think.

Anyway, just a few things to consider.

Thanks for the consideration @Nathan. This is an awesome post.

I was trying, and pretty much failing, to do my own programming. Something I've never been good at . I've wasted that much time thinking about it that it's borderline ridiculous. Your explanations on pretty much everything make perfect sense. I think the smart move is to use someone else's programming and just tinker as I go depending on how I'm progressing.

I had the incline bench in there as an upper body push as I don't have the requisite shoulder strength or stability to dip at the moment. I'm working support positions to hopefully build enough strength to get there shortly. I'm going to take the idea on board of picking the movement and regressing it. I kind of knew that but I'm kind of ignorant at the same time. 

As far as the pancake and pike goes the pancake is my primary goal and pike is more of a secondary goal. Just listed that way even though I know pancake will be much harder. Once I'm fully healthy (knee and shoulder) there will be much more that I will be planning like the H2T. 

Thanks again mate. I really appreciated it. 

[Cam Ogle]

Training has been lax. Have been wondering why I've been so tired and lethargic and then BOOM! Sore throat, headache, aching joints. Here it comes. Hoping this is a short term one I can knock on the head over the next couple of days.

My wife has it worse and unfortunately has a half ironman on Sunday so here's hoping she recovers quickly. She's put in so much time  (10-15 hours per week) for the last 6 months that it would be devastating. Anyway, she's got 2 days to rest so fingers crossed. 

[Kit_L]

Quote

Trying to get at least 5 minutes of pancake work each night.

Try a significantly longer workout once a week—long-term this will work much better. Also, look at what I posted on Alexander's thread; mastering the standing version is the key, I feel. See here (copy and paste):

http://kitlaughlin.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1197-all-kinds-of-strength-gains-stretching-prehab-and-rehab/&do=findComment&comment=14937

[Cam Ogle]

On 12/9/2016 at 11:47 AM, Kit_L said:

Try a significantly longer workout once a week—long-term this will work much better. Also, look at what I posted on Alexander's thread; mastering the standing version is the key, I feel. See here (copy and paste):

http://kitlaughlin.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1197-all-kinds-of-strength-gains-stretching-prehab-and-rehab/&do=findComment&comment=14937

Hi @Kit_L thanks for the reply and for the link. I have listened to two of your recent podcasts over the last week or so and it has dawned on me that time in stretch has never been my strength. I looked through Alexander's thread and that definitely makes sense. I was planning on daily limbering then 2 dedicated stretching sessions a week where I explore elements of the pancake. I will start with 1 and see how I go from there. Thx again. 

[Cam Ogle]

Have been away with my wife who completed the Ballarat 70.3 Ironman over the weekend. Did next to nothing aside from a lot of standing in the sun taking photos. Not much further along with a program but have decided to do a repeating 4 day split. Bent arm strength, straight arm strength, legs, rest/recovery, repeat. I'm pretty new to bodyweight style training so have been collecting info from a heap of places and there's lots of similarities so that's always nice. There's also heaps out there that I've gathered from Ido's old blog, FB account and youtube and that looks as good as any place to start. So I might as well start there. Training to come tonight (fingers crossed lol)

[Nathan]

1 hour ago, Cam Ogle said:

I'm pretty new to bodyweight style training so have been collecting info from a heap of places

Steven Low just released the second edition of Overcoming Gravity, which is pretty much the GST/BWF training bible. I don't see it on the Amazon AU store so I linked the US store, but I know it's on a few European stores as well so one of those might work better for you. My copy is on its way 

Oh, and congrats to the wife!

[Cam Ogle]

18 minutes ago, Nathan said:

Steven Low just released the second edition of Overcoming Gravity, which is pretty much the GST/BWF training bible. I don't see it on the Amazon AU store so I linked the US store, but I know it's on a few European stores as well so one of those might work better for you. My copy is on its way 

Oh, and congrats to the wife!

Very nice. I will have to look into that one. Tbh I have not heard of Steven Low before. (that's not really saying anything though- I haven't heard of a lot of people).

I'm going to go with some of Ido's stuff over the next week or two and see how I go. I do really want to do the floreio stuff in addition to everything else and I think I definitely have enough info to get started and pretty sure there's enough (if I'm capable) to keep me going for a while. The martial artist in me loves the idea of that type of ground based movement. 

Thx again for your help and thanks for the congrats for my wife.

[Nathan]

Definitely worth looking into!

For Ido's stuff, Antranik has a page where he rounded up all of his floreio material and organized it: The Floreio Project. Might come in useful for you 

[Cam Ogle]

7 minutes ago, Nathan said:

Definitely worth looking into!

For Ido's stuff, Antranik has a page where he rounded up all of his floreio material and organized it: The Floreio Project. Might come in useful for you 

Yes I have seen that which is a great resource. There's also a couple of guys who have put together a heap of floreio, equilibre and locomotion stuff from his old blog into a pdf which is cool too. There's so much on his old blog and FB page it's quite amazing. 

[Kit_L]

I remember a coach whose name will not be mentioned being incredibly critical of Steven Low's work, on the grounds that SL could not do any of this stuff himself; that his work was more theoretical than practical. I personally have no idea, but I will be interested in your collective impressions. I just had a quick look at the book (via that link) and personally, I question any work that contains images of 3D models, and not people. Models can be programmed to do anything and get into any position.

[Nathan]

1 hour ago, Kit_L said:

on the grounds that SL could not do any of this stuff himself

Interesting! I wonder if the coach perhaps had Steven mixed up with someone else? I have seen some pretty impressive videos of Steven on YouTube - he is definitely very strong and can do some impressive skills. As far as I know, he also coaches a gymnastics club and is a physical therapist. I don't know all of the details, but he seems to be highly regarded by other trustworthy people. @161803398874989 Have you ever heard these kind of claims, Phi?

I do agree that I would rather see real models in the book. (Then again, there is also the problem of simply using models that can do everything perfectly despite having gotten there by different methods, e.g. some GB material.) I believe I have seen Steven mention the reason that this hasn't happened, although I can't recall the specifics.