Ground Up Strength

Each workout starts with:

Tissue work:

-golf ball - roll on bottom of feet
-tennis ball - glute med, glute max, piriformis, infranspinatus/teres minor
-foam roller - tfl, quads, adductors, it band, lats, pecs, thoracic spine
-the stick - calves

static stretches: lying knee to knee, piriformis, lats, pecs, hip flexors, calves, quads, it band

activation: quadruped hip extension (5 sec holds), psoas with a band on the feet (10 sec holds), x band walks, front wall slides with a band around wrists, scap pushups, tke's with a mini band around the rack

ankle mobility: 3 drills: dorsiflexing into a wall moving farther and farther back, toes against power rack and moving knee laterally around it, bending knees while dorsiflexed

thoracic mobility: extension on the foam roller, plus side lying extension/rotation drills from inside out and cressey/reinhold

hip mobility: high knee pulls, butt kicks, running butt kicks, front to back/side to side leg swings, single leg rdl's, split squats, lateral squats, rotational squats, sometimes spiderman walks with thoracic rotation

upper body stuff: arm circles forward and reverse, pnf diagonals, wide pushup grip moving one hand on top of the other and back

seems like alot but doesn't take very long…i spend alot of time on tissue work.

the static stretches are not held for super long periods of time, and are done well before the workout starts.

5/17

db push press - 45 x 5, 47.5 x 5, 50 x 5
pistols - 28 x 3, 33 x 3, 35 x 3(pr), 33 x 3

pushups - 60 pounds chain - 8, 6
single leg slideboard curls - 2 x 6

chins - 45 x 5, 30 pounds plus a chain x 4, 1, 1, 1….one chain x 8

chain added 10 pounds on the bottom and 20 pounds at the top…and i think i did some tricep extensions with chain too…things are addicting :)

5/19

quad set

13" deads - 200 x 1 x 5
neutral grip inverted rows - 12, 10, 9, 9, 8
dorsiflexion with 22.5 pound db - 5 x 10-15
pec stretch - 30 sec x 5

uni rdl's - 52.5, 2 x 8
rev crunches and double leg lowering
bodyblade work for the cuff

@ the deads…been having problems getting low enough with a slightly arched back…flat doesn't seem to be good enough…so dropping weight…and raising the bar up a bit…really have to keep my scaps pulled together, because any thoracic rounding aggravates my previous disc issue. and it seems like somewhere along the line i just forgot how to deadlift :) so 1 rep at a time maintaining perfect form….slowly moving up in weight and/or moving the bar down.

5/21

mp: 115 x 3, 110 x 3, 107.5 x 3

towel pullups: 2 x 8
1 leg db rows: 52.5 x 5 x 2

mp felt good…nice little increase in weight…i've definitely had easier 115 x 3's though :) a little too heavy on the rows…but i didn't feel like taking weight off. anybody seen iron man 2 yet?

5/24

db push press: 47.5 x 5, 50 x 5, 52.5 x 5
pistols: 31 x 3, 36 x 3, 38 x 3

towel pullups: 10, 8
plank: +10, 70 seconds

pistols are hard. i had a take a break between each rep on the last set to catch my breath. looked up some heavier weight vests…suckers get very expensive…thinking i might be able to use the chains though. 90 degrees today…humid too…super.

5/26

mp: 117.5 x 2 + 1, 110 x 3 x 2
single leg slideboard curls: 7, 6

chins: 47.5 x 5, 45 x 5, 35 plus a chain, 5 singles (45 - 55)
tri extension: chain, 2 x fail

fuggin singles were hard.

5/28

rdl's: 160, 2 x 5….130 x 10

neutral grip inverted rows: 3 x 12

bw slideboard lunges: 3 x 12

side planks: 2 x 45 sec.

my grip endurance sucks…and i need to work on low back endurance…so rdl's are in. big limiting factor was the grip though…i had to regrip during the 130 set. so those are in for awhile…may throw in some hex bar deads of higher intensity too.

Long sets of RDL's can be a bear on your grip. Especially if your grip training involves the emphasis of supporting the heaviest loads for conventional deadlifts. In that case you're not training for endurance but then you need it for those RDL's.

Due to my layoffs I get to see firsthand how endurance versus max strength works and the wacky thing is that if you take a layoff from max work then you're endurance will actually tend to increase for similar movements at lower loads. I'm not basing this on just me..that is I know that is how it should work but intuitively your wouldn't expect it.

I'll tell you what I've done for RDL's to get past that grip issue but first I want to say that when you feel your grip giving on high rep sets do not try to force it and hold on for dear life for those last few reps. You can end up with a shoulder tweak.

Anyway what I'd suggest is to do them sort of cluster style. Taking a ten rep set do two or three reps at a time with some rest in between. Say 20 seconds between those mini sets until you get to the target number of reps. Then next time shorten the rest periods between mini-sets. By the time you've gotten down to 5 second rest periods you go back to a straight set and you should find that your grip holds.

At the same time this is good because you can end up doing more work overall and train the heck out of that low back endurance since the same effect is occuring with the low back. It's a kind of density training really and any time you have a couple of endurance issues that you want to tackle with one movement, think density training.

excellent advice sir…i shall put that into practice this week…thanks.

How's your pinching grip? If it is comparatively weak, you can build that up and reap some endurance grip strength for hardly any work at all. :)