troubleBound's log

[wesrman]

You should balance your push ups with chin ups so you dont get a muscle imbalance.

[troubleBound]

You're absolutely right. I haven't even been doing many regular pushups, just the assisted 1-handed ones. The thing is, I can't do pullups and chinups. I thought I came close to getting them at one point, but then pretty much stopped trying and started trying those other exercises. Last night I tried again and didn't even come close (well was kinda close with the chinup)... But I dunno, for some reason last night, and today I've felt so lazy and weak. I think I need to sleep a little bit longer (I did go to bed after 3 am last night. Woke up at 10, so I didn't sleep THAT long). I'm not strong enough. It's why I've been working on getting stronger so I can get started on those other exercises finally.

I'm also thinking about changing some things already... Working endurance on separate days as strength/high intensity... cause when I go to the boxing gym and when I run the 3 miles I'm just too beat to do much else that day. I'm considering dropping the 3 miles and doing tabata on those days instead of on the same day as boxing, cause when I do tabata I do have energy the rest of the day to do strength exercises, but not so much when I run the 3 miles... and I don't think I'm over exerting myself when I do 3 miles in the 25 minute mark (because I've never gotten headaches or anything that might indicate so... I could be wrong, but I thought all sorts of things indicated fatigue: from bad mood to head aches or cold-like symptoms, but I haven't felt any of those really).

I take suggestions.

Monday (today) - I pretty much got out of the boxing gym today and did the usual 3 rounds skipping and 3 rounds shadow boxing. Then did 3 rounds heavy bag, but the first 2, especially the 1st one was so bad, I was so mad. I felt like I was just tapping the bag... Like I said, I've felt so lazy since last night... Anyway, I did an extra 2 mins 30 sec round on which I gave it my all in each punch and that one went pretty well. Then did 2 rounds up and under, and 2 rounds speed bag. Gonna try to do some strength exercises... 100% certainly some core exercises, but I dunno about anything else cause at least at the moment my arms, shoulders and back feel very tired.

[wesrman]

This will help you get better at chins and pull ups.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba7q14s5-2w

[troubleBound]

thanks! I've read some of the Ross links. Very helpful, thanks again.

[troubleBound]

This will help you get better at chins and pull ups.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba7q14s5-2w

Is there any substitute to the exercises that require squat racks and barbells? I don't have access to those. What can I get?

EDIT: I also have a question about strength training. From reading the naked warrior I had read that you shouldn't go until failure. Many other sources agree with that. However there programs like this: BodyWeightCulture.com - Free Body Weight Exercises for muscle gain, weight loss and more that want you to do "maximum" sets. However in "The Naked Warrior" it is indicated that it is more efficient to do just enough that you could do some more reps, but do vast numbers of sets and used and example of an ex-marine, I think, who would do 5 sets of chin ups whenever he got the chance throughout the day usually totaling 100 chinups (I don't have the book in hand so I'm not using the exact numbers) a day, and this is how he got to up his number of chinups incredibly quickly and without ever fatiguing when training for it. So wouldn't the best way to get to 100 pushups would be, say you can do 20 pushups max, then do 16, but lots of times per day, and test you max (which should've gone up drastically) and repeat until you get 100 max?

[wesrman]

Doing the negatives on a pull up bar once per week and hanging from the bar should help a bit.

Stopping before failure will help you get stronger faster i think, but sometimes its good to push it so id say do a mix of both.

[troubleBound]

Cool. They do have a pull up bar at the gym. Alright, tomorrow I'm planning on doing tabata burpees, some shadow boxing and some strength exercises (today, for some reason, my shoulders felt so sore I couldn't even do pushups).

[troubleBound]

Tuesday - ran 3 miles in 24:56, probably my best time ever. And for the last mile or so I could've gone a bit faster, probably, I just didn't wanna push it too far. Didn't do much else... Did a couple of sets of clap pushups but that was it. For some reason my shoulders were incredibly sore. Still managed to fool around with a friend's trapeze (he's got one at home. It's lots of fun, lol).

Wednesday (today) - just got out of the boxing gym. I felt much MUCH better than monday. I did 3 rounds of skipping, and they were good rounds too, and then did 3 rounds of shadow boxing, 3 rounds of heavy bag and an extra 2:30 round. This time I felt like I was throwing effective punches not lazy pattering like I did on the first 2 rounds on monday. Then 2 rounds up and under, two rounds speed bag and I'm gonna do some assisted pistols, assisted 1-arm pushups, clap pushups, t pushups, negative chinups and core-work. I feel so much stronger today than I did on monday. Lots of energy today.