Sn0boarder's Search for Strength

[gcs118]

lol it wasn't anything too exciting. My friend told me he was going to leave the party (drink and drive obviously) so I told him no. He hits me so I hit him back, not hard just a good punch. His brother, no idea what's going on, comes out of nowhere and pushes me back into the wall. I didn't even realize anything was wrong til I got up...there was about a 2 foot hole in the dry wall where my back hit and a hole completely kicked out where my foot went thru. My friend who wanted to leave later told me he didn't even really remember the incident lol he was that drunk.

[Eric_B]

Haha I've been in a similar situation.

Today was pretty solid. I've been trying to workout quick bercause this gym is too crowded, so I just do the important stuff and jet. One more week until I'm back at the fantastic college gym. Yay.

Heavy Bench Day
185 x 3
185 x 3
190 x 3

Slight Incline DB Press
75's x 6
80's x 3
I think I could have gotten more with the 80's but my wrists were having trouble stabilizing the weight. I have the wrists of a 5 year old girl.

Cable Pushdowns
72.5 x 6
77.5 x 6
Up 5 here

and that's it. Another quickie but it was successful.

[gcs118]

You're improving pretty damn well on your bench

Hey sn0wboarder, thanks for stopping by and the compliment.

Why don't you start doing, or training to do HSPUs. They are pretty cool.

[Eric_B]

Do you do them against a wall? I can hold a handstand pretty well because I've been practicing some breakdance moves. I really need to work on my wrist strength though.

I'll give the hspu's a try when the next shoulder day rolls around. I don't know how succesful it will be though, because I'm not yet able to overhead press my bodyweight.

Just a side note, I did a pierini style workout the other day...Circuit of Atlas pushups, V-ups, and sprinting flights of stairs...didn't time it or anything so I didn't put it in here. It was fun though.

[gcs118]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think it is necessary to be able to overhead press your bodyweight to do hand stand push ups.

PS - break dance moves huh? I'm intrigued

I do them against the wall, back to the wall and heels of feet against the wall for a balance assist. Unassisted, now that's a totally-different league and I'm not ready for that yet.

Greg is correct that you do not need to be able to overhead press your bodyweight to do a HSPU against the wall because you are only going down until your head touches the floor. Contrast that with an overhead press in which the bar descends to your shoulders. A HSPU equivalent of an overhead press would be to perform one using paralletes or between two chairs that are at least 12 inches from the floor so you can drop your head until your shoulders touch the parallete or chair. I'm not ready for that yet.

I don't lift weights at all but I'm certain that I cannot overhead press my bodyweight of 180 lbs.

[Eric_B]

I'll give it a try tonight after I get home from work.

Yea greg, I get funky.

[Eric_B]

hspu's were not so succesful. I barely got 1. I'll keep working on them though. This weekend was all snowboarding and some light cardio.

Squats
225 x 3
235 x 3
240 x 3
Trying to work back into heavy squats. It seems like snowboarding has switched my legs into endurance mode, I used to be at 275 x 6.

SLDL
245 x 6
245 x 6
Solid, up 10 again this week

Leg Press
410 x 6

Calf Raises
410 x 15
410 x 12

Hey sn0wboarder that's a good first attempt.

If you have an interest in improving your HSPU performance let me know and I'll tell you how I trained to be able to do them in sets. I'm still a beginner but I've seen alot of progress in 3 months and I see alot more ahead.

If you're not interested then that's OK too. Best with your training.

[Eric_B]

I'm definitley interested Pierini. It would be cool to be able to rep out hspu's.

[gcs118]

Umm yeah I just wish I could get into position for the HSPU's....

OK here is what I did:

Start off doing handstand holds. Initially I tried to see how long I could hold, i.e. I would go to failure. This is not how you want to do it. Let's say that your max hold is currently 30 seconds. Your handstand hold workout should consist of 10 sets of 20 second holds. Do this at least twice a week, gradually increasing your hold time. At some point, you'll be able to do 5 sets of 60 seconds.

After you have a couple of weeks of handstand hold training under your belt, start doing what I call "75 degree pike pushups". I did mine by using the Reebok steps used for step aerobics, 14 steps high, but you can use anything that will give you a similar height. Basically you place you feet on top of the steps and your hands on the floor in front of the steps. You'll need to play around with how far your hands should be from the steps. Your goal is to have the upper part of your body at vertical (the handstand position) while the lower part of your body is at a 75 degree angle. Start doing pushups this way, again multiple sets with no set to failure. It may initially be 5 sets of 4 reps but after time you'll build both the number of sets and number of reps. Work on good form and concentrating on maintaining a center line and on engaging all of your muscles and breathing.

After a couple of weeks of that, then start doing partial HSPUs. Initially you may only go down a few inches. Just experiment and see where you are at. And, you may also want to go down slowly until your head touches the floor, then pause and perform an isometric contraction trying to raise yourself off the floor which you probably will not be able to do. Maintain the contraction for 5-10 seconds engaging all of the muscles that are needed to perform a HSPU.

Periodically, try to perform a single rep HSPU, concentrating on good form. From there, start doing workouts with a goal of performing 10 sets of 1 rep. Take a 1-2 minute rest between sets and maybe perform some ab/core exercise during this rest period. After you can comfortably perform 10 sets of 1 rep, then set your goals higher for a workout of 10 sets of 2 reps. Again, perform some ab/core exercise in between the sets. After you can comfortably perform 10 sets of 2 reps, then you're ready for 10 sets of 3 reps. You just keep on progressing. I think it's important to have at least 2 quality sessions at a given rep count before you progress to the next rep count.

If you stick with it this long, you'll know when you are ready to try a single set PR.

Be prepared for some wrist discomfort when performing the handstand holds at the beginning. You'll outgrow it with continued training. And, I suggest that you warm up your neck with some forward/backward bends, side-to-side bends and some turn to the left and turn to the right rotations. You might also want to do a set of imaginary overhead presses at moderate tension to wake up the muscles you'll need to perform the workout.

Good luck with your training. You'll be amazed at how handstand holds work your triceps, shoulders and upper pectoral muscles.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[Eric_B]

Are the handstand holds still done against a wall or without support?

I've done something similar to the pike pushups.

I'll keep posted on the progress of this.

[gcs118]

Any tips on getting upside down without falling lol. I think I can do them once I get into position, but I can't