200, 300, 400, 500 - A quest for greatness

Mike, I have been flirting with the idea of adding muscle ups to my workouts and tried some without much success. Considering your chinup and dips ability, have you tried bar muscleups? What do you think about them?
 
electric said:
Mike, I have been flirting with the idea of adding muscle ups to my workouts and tried some without much success. Considering your chinup and dips ability, have you tried bar muscleups? What do you think about them?
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I haven't tried these in a couple of years, but when I did, I was able to manage a couple on separate attempts. My problem is that I don't know how to kip, so I almost "strictly" muscled myself up, which is...hard :p

As an overall exercise? Decent on gymnastic rings, but honestly, the combination of pullup into dip is more about showing up than productively building strength, imho.
 
mikeynov said:
My problem is that I don't know how to kip, so I almost "strictly" muscled myself up, which is...hard :p

As an overall exercise? Decent on gymnastic rings, but honestly, the combination of pullup into dip is more about showing up than productively building strength, imho.
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I think I have the same problem you described, due to bad form/not knowing how to kip I try to muscle up on the muscle up. And thanks for your opinion on it, if it really were a great muscle or strength building exercise it would be more commonly used for that.
 
IMHO MUs are more a demonstration of strength plus skill/technique and therefore qualify as more of a gymnastic movement. As such they are pretty darn impressive. However, you can't really use them to build strength because until you develop the technique you won't be able to do them and conversely you won't be able to develop the technique until you already have enough strength to do them; In which case you might as well continue to develop dipping and chinning/pull-up strength independently and then learn the technique necessary to get through the transition.

Kipping is definitely useful when learning the movement and to allow for more consecutive repetitions. That's another skill that has to be learned if it is to be effective.
 
Today's workout:

Pause Squats

Worked up to 250 x 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFQg1Uje3vg

Pause Bench

Worked up to 225 x 5

Chins

Worked up to me + 100 x 5

Hook Grip Deadlifts

Worked up to 370 x 5. 4th rep was a little ugly, I normally would have stopped there. But I decided to go for another since I wanted a PR. 5th rep was real ugly, but it went.

I got the PR. Unfortunately, the video is utter ****, I'm half not in frame.
 
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The 250's were clean clean clean.... Very nice, Mike.

The 230's looked super easy for reps 1-3 and 4-5 looked more "normal".

The bench work was interesting to watch - I'm always intrigued by folks' bench form, from back arch to grip width to pausing. The reps were smooth, but I'd love to see you move your hands out by about a finger (on the knurling) or so. The grip seemed a tiny bit too narrow; I think you'd have less stress on your anterior delts and more pectoral focus with that small change.

The chins were very typical mikeynov chins.

Looks like a fun wo!
 
Pause Squats

Bar x warmup
135 x warmup
185 x warmup
205 x warmup
225 x warmup
235 x 5,5,5

Pause Bench

135 x warmup
185 x warmup
212.5 x 5,5,5

Chins

Me + 82.5 x 5,5,5

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC5_O0j3rZs

I tried Tim's suggestion of moving out my grip maybe a ~finger width or so. It actually felt pretty solid, possibly better on my right wrist, which has been touchy ever since I fell down the stairs (did I relay this comical story yet?).
 
In regards to the bench form - this vid looks like a much more natural movement. The prior vid showed what looked like an increasingly stressful eccentric movement, particularly on your delts. I never really thought about your wrists, but that absolutely makes sense - there would have been less compression occurring at an angle with vid 2.

Regardless, I'm glad to hear it helped. Keep it going, man - I cannot wait to see what you do next.
 
mikeynov said:
I tried Tim's suggestion of moving out my grip maybe a ~finger width or so. It actually felt pretty solid, possibly better on my right wrist, which has been touchy ever since I fell down the stairs (did I relay this comical story yet?).
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No, AFAIK you didn't mention your fall until now. Sounds like you got off quite lightly. Glad it was nothing worse. I guess all the high frequency squatting can make one a little unstable on one's feet? ;)
 
Accidentally broke my camera, so no vids today :-x

Pause Squats

Bar x warmup
135 x warmup
185 x warmup
205 x warmup
225 x 1
240 x 5,5,5,5

Pause Bench

135 x warmup
185 x warmup
205 x 1
215 x 5,5,5,5

Chins

Me + 85 x 5,5,5,5

Absolutely brutal day. I still didn't feel recovered from the previous session, and the weights actually felt HARDER this time, despite going higher in volume. I may actually use Tuesday as a mini-deload day of sorts and then use Thursday to get the full 5 x 5 before intensifying next week.
 
For your squat and bench worksets, how does your RPE for first set compare to last set?
 
Whole milk belly ftl :-x

29182_392616170910_631765910_4602010_5476520_n.jpg
 
I actually took some videos today on an old camera, but they're such ****ty quality that I don't think I'll upload them.

Also deviated from the plan and decided to push 3 sets of 5 a little higher. Because I'm a little nuts.

Pause Squats

Bar x warmup
135 x warmup
185 x warmup
205 x warmup
225 x 1
245 x 1
265 x 1 (belt)
275 x 1 (belt)
242.5 x 5,5,5 (belt)

Pause Bench

135 x warmup
185 x warmup
205 x warmup
217.5 x 5,5,5

Chins

Me + 90 x 5,5,5

I went for a 2 mile jog afterwards in my Vibram Fivefingers. Due to being sort of forced to midfoot strike, my calves are absolutely wrecked (since the plantarflexors turn into shock absorbers). I can't even walk properly.
 
Apparently, running in Vibrams is much more like barefoot running. How do you find running downhill on a hard surface in Vibrams compares to regular trainers (where there's much more of a tendency to heel strike)?

Pretty lady in your pic by the way. How does she like your spare tyre? ;)
 
Lol said:
Apparently, running in Vibrams is much more like barefoot running. How do you find running downhill on a hard surface in Vibrams compares to regular trainers (where there's much more of a tendency to heel strike)?

Pretty lady in your pic by the way. How does she like your spare tyre? ;)
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Yah, the idea was to emulate the barefoot running. My calves are still cripplingly sore, it's unbelievable.

And she is a pretty lady, though just a friend. She did not comment on my belly, though was no doubt impressed at its girth.
 
Last day of this current lifting cycle...

Pause Squats

Bar x warmup
135 x warmup
185 x warmup
205 x warmup
225 x 1
245 x 1
275 x 1 (belt)
245 x 5,5 (belt)

Pause Bench

135 x warmup
185 x warmup
205 x 1
225 x 5,5

Chins

Me + 100 x 5,5

Hook Grip Deadlifts

135 x warmup
225 x warmup
275 x 1
315 x 1
345 x 1
370 x 3 (belt)

A reasonable day overall. Rather than going for top end numbers, I did a second set of weights I had never done for more than a single set before, so this is a PR of sets across, of sorts.

Pulls might have tied a PR of 370 x 5, but I wasn't sure I could get all 5 reps with good form (i.e. the 4th would have been a grind based on how the 3rd felt), so I just stopped without pushing my limits here. Wisdom and such, particularly given the fact that I'm getting over a nasty case of bronchitis & pinkeye.

Video of the above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIPlhynyw3I
 
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