Lisses 2007 Video

I finally finished editing the video from the trip to Lisses.

We should have planned things a little better but ended up training hard all week then realised we hadn't filmed anything! So on the last two days we tried to capture what our bodies would allow us to do after a week of punishment.

It will mean more to the people who were there than it will to the general public but I thought I would share it with those who are interested...



-Blane

The one-armed bandit

Having become obsessed with one-armed chinups and one-armed pullups three weeks ago I wanted to post a quick update on the situation...

I'm currently focusing all of my upper body workout days on my one-armed pulling power. At present I'm able to complete 6-8 'one arm and one pinkie*' chinups on both arms. That is one arm and the pinkie* of the other hand on the branch/bar/whatever. I'm also able to do 12-15 second controlled negatives now that have improved from my 4-5 second ones 4 weeks ago when I experimented to see what level I was starting at.

I've also explored working with a belt wrapped around the bar for my other arm and also tried locking off at various points.

I think the gains in grip strength and pulling power in just 3 weeks of training this technique is pretty amazing. I've noticed definite improvement in my chest, lats, forearms, biceps, triceps and abs just from working towards the goal of one-armed chinups and that's all good.

Other ways I'm testing my one-armed strength is by drilling one-armed arm jumps at the weekends which simply involves doing as many different arm jumps as possible and using only one arm to control the landing. I currently can't to a one-armed climbup but that's something else I'll be working on in the next little while.

Once I can do 10 'one arm, one pinkie' chinups per arm and 20 second negatives then I'm going to add my weighted vest for resistance and begin the process again starting with 8 second negatives and 4-5 'one arm, one pinkie' chinups with weight.

My goal is to be able to do 1 unaided chin up with either arm by 1st May 2007, giving me about 8 weeks to achieve this. I'll keep updating my blog with my progress.

I think this will be the third milestone in my upper body development, the first one being the planche (muscle up) and the second being the planche-en-force (muscle up from strength).

*I'm unable to find a definitive answer as to whether it's a pinky or a pinkie! I think I prefer pinkie because it's longer than pinky and my pinkies or pinkys are quite long.