10-26-11 Update

          I had set a goal of doing 45lb weighted pull-ups, chin-ups, and dips before Halloween, and I did it. I wasn't satisfied much with my performance. I'm going for 50lb at 8 reps each tomorrow morning. I've just rested 5 days from my last workout. The Deadlifts and parallel bar - reverse leg lifts did my lower back in. I still felt growth off the rest, so I don't even consider it injury. I'm going to try to barbell squat my body-weight for 8 reps, going below parallel each rep (170lb). It'll have been ten days since I did this routine. My recent traveling left me little time at the gym. I had the choice of wasting my energy and muscles on inferior lighter weights, or to just use the time to rest and focus on wrist strengthening, grip strength, and Muscle Control.

          With Muscle Control, I feel like I'm doing the same routine laboriously for a long duration (weeks), yet before Iknow it, my routine has changed and evolved. I hit upon different angles and have crafted new shapes in which to focus on. I've noticed that muscles are only consistent for a certain duration of time.  Your strength this week is not your strength next week. Things slowly change over time, and then they change very fast, and certain things become impossible that were once daily and nearly effortless. I believe there's an intelligence that goes along with recovering from those times. The ability to roll into other types of exercises or training methods. Your body knows things far before your mind knows them.

          Two muscle regions I had difficulty learning were the thoracic and abdominal. The same maneuver to contract these muscles applies to both. If you stand with your heels together and toes pointed out, and you place your arms horizontal and in front of you with your hands turned inward as if you were going to try and pry your own rib cage open. Lean forward slightly, and for the chest, pretend you're ripping your sternum apart horizontally, and pull apart slowly keeping tension until your arms are fully out in crucifix position, and in that pose, I close my hands and arms and end in the starting position. I find if you don't do this, your energy can abruptly leave and your tension can get cut too short. For the abs, do the same, but lower your hand to hovering over the abdominal region, and spread into a lower arm crucifix.

Weighted Pull-Ups Progression

Often in life, there are these magical moments: deja vu, out-of-body experience, omens, and curses. These things aren't scientifically true, but we experience them nonetheless. I've noticed that the future can bleed into the past, and you can prepare yourself before these type of stellar moments.

I've intended to train the weighted pull-ups for the last ten months. I thoroughly enjoy pull-ups, and having trained them for 14 months consecutively, I had varied the rep range and gotten very comfortable in them. I did go through injuries in my elbows and shoulders (rotator cuff), but I've evolved my technique and adjusted my routine so that I'm recovering very quickly. At first my goal with pull-ups was to do as many reps in one session as I could possibly do, and this was the method I employed on push-ups when I began training.

The high rep pull-ups gave a great lat pump, and they gave me a lot of mental confidence. Once I passed the 100 mark of reps in a session, each workout was so mentally draining and demanding that my body wasn't going to let me to continue that style. I capped out at 127, and was injured from it. I knew when I had recovered that high reps was too injury-prone and hard on the joints. In many exercises, you progress in weight every session, and this is great for muscle building. So I knew, after dodging buying a dipping belt for so long, I had to invest, and I did. I got the Ironmind De Riguer Dipping Belt. It's said to be able to hold 1000lb. The nylon ones I looked at couldn't hold more than 50 pounds and the leather ones not more than 100lb. It's a vouched for product, so I went for it, and it's working out great.

I've only been doing the weighted pull-ups for half a month (15 days). I started at the 10lb plate, because I figured that anything lower would be an insult to myself. I did 2-3 pull-up sessions a week, adding 5lb per session. This past Friday I did 8*35lb for 2 sets. Tomorrow I do 8*40lb for 2 sets. I'm going to go on a trip and returning Thursday to hit 8*45lb plate for 2 sets. I'm not sure where I'll cap out, but I can tell by my quick advancement in them that my strength easily carried over to these. I think it was to my advantage to do them body-weight only for so long because I've really ironed out my technique to get my chest to the bar. I haven't sacrificed any bit of my form yet, and I think that's valuable and highly efficient.

Deadlift, Bench Press, Pull-Ups, Chin-Ups, and Dips

This Week's Workout Routine

Muscle Control And Weighted Pull-Ups

After a year of doing pull-ups, I've finally purchased a dip belt. I should have transitioned long ago, but I avoided the task. At one point I had tried holding a dumbbell between my legs, but it didn't feel right, and I was discouraged to try weighted again. During the year I did pull-ups, I varied the rep and set ranges. My highest pull-up session was 127. I blew out my rotator cuffs a few times, but I've been healed for some time. I learned high-rep pull-ups and dips are too tough on the joints, regardless of your available strength and endurance. When I realized this, I lowered my total reps, and focused on slowing my technique and perfecting it. I evolved my pull-up to end in a very high position with my chest to the bar. I feel this works my mid-back well.  Dips, when I first started, wrecked my shoulders. I had to drop them for some time, and when I resumed them, I no longer sank below parallel in the down position.

I'm very excited for the weighted pull-ups, chin-ups, and dips. In the past, I've neglected very formidable exercises like the five main compound lifts: deadlift, squats, overhead press, rows, and bench press. I chose not to do them at the time because I didn't know the correct technique or the effectiveness of the muscles used in them. Although intrinsic, sometimes you know you're hitting upon the right path, and I'm at a full sprint down this one. Gains are inbound, and are starting already. I don't perform any flys for my chest, and instead rely on decline, incline, and flat bench press. Just from having the past two sessions of dips, I can see my inner chest more cut than it's been since I was last doing dips several months ago. I'll also be relying on the dips for my triceps. I see the weighted pull-ups and chin-ups enlarge my lats and especially my lower lats, which have only really popped recently. Two things I hadn't thought about on weighted pull-ups are my biceps and forearms getting extra strain. I've been bracing my forearms , keeping them from getting knotted up. I read that chinning biceps can be a bad thing because you spend so much time in the full contraction and not the other angles. Though, I'm not putting too much stock into that problem if it is even one.

I must mention my progress on Muscle Control. I've just completed my second month of it, but it feels like a much closer friend than that. I have been doing muscle control daily and sometimes twice daily consistently without fail. I have attained more control over my traps, especially the upper traps, which I couldn't flex beforehand. My intercostals are under my control as well as my serratus anterior. I don't have a full abdominal vacuum, but I'm advancing my control of the transverse abdominal. I'm feeling it easier to contract my abs. I have fine-tuned my lats a bit more. I can more easily put them at odd angles without soreness. My left forearm flexors have really started to take shape and fill out. I can tell my calves are filling out and getting cut. With the last leg exercise in the Muscle Control directory, I've begun noticing my quads take shape. Earlier today, I performed divebomber push-ups, and it being an agilty-demanding exercise, my form has always improved, but today I noticed myself able to keep tight hamstrings and calves throughout them in the up position. My biceps are visibly showing the two separate heads at certain angles. Rows are feeling more compact with my lats very tight and assuring.