2/25/2012 Update

2/25/2012 Update

It has been some time since I updated this blog.  For anyone interested I have continued my static hold workouts with some refinements.  I am now paying particular attention to starting each movement as slowly as possible taking a few seconds to move the weight at all; then moving the weight slowly into position for the static hold; maintaining the hold  as long as possible until the weight slowly drops back onto the stack.  This refinement is based on comments from the Body by Science blog.  The thought is that the slow start allows for maximum formation of cross bridges between muscle fibers.  The additional thought is to recruit and then exhaust as many fibers as possible as quickly as possible.

These days I am targeting TUL of 60 - 90 seconds for  upper body movements and ~ 3 minutes for the leg press.  Since the first of the year I have been sticking to a once a week workout schedule.

I am particularly pleased with my recent progress in reducing my weight.  I am still following the Perfect Health Diet and maintaining carbs at ~ 100 grams per day and limiting total calories to ~ 2,100 per day.  I have been doing this since the first of the year, weighing and measuring food, and have lost an average of 2.5 lbs per week without feeling particularly hungry.  I have lost at least 6" in my waste and my overall energy is great.

WOW 48 09/25/2011

Chest press
Row
Leg Press

I do static holds.  This week I raised my target TUL for upper body to 2 minutes.  For the leg press I went back to a conventional machine and aimed for 4 minutes with my legs well bent (in weak position).

After reading a recent post by John Little at the Body by Science site I came away with the idea of judging the intensity of my effort in terms of lactic acid burn.  On the conventional leg press I had previously reached a point where I could hold all of the weight for 3 minutes in weak position.  This week I decided to back off on the weight and try for 4 minutes.  I only made it to 3.5 minutes and the acid burn was more intense than anything I have felt before.  It seemed that the pain continued to intensify for 30 seconds to a minute after I put the weight down.  For my next workout I will use lighter weight in weak position for my upper body exercises as well (but with 2 min TUL target) and see if I can further intensify the burn for upper body exercises.

This workout was performed with 11 days rest.  I will continue to target between 7 and 10 days recovery between workouts.

WOW 47 09/14/2011

Shoulder Press
Lat pull down
EF leg press

Upper body exercises are static holds, now with a 90 second target. Leg press is on the Explosive Fitness machine which measures the instantaneous force I am generating and keeps a record of the maximum. On this machine I make one all out effort which takes ~ 5 seconds.

I performed this workout with 1 week of recovery and felt pretty good.  I had taken a couple of days off from Aikido to rest a sore lower back which probably helped the recovery somewhat.  Fortunately my back did not bother me during the workout.  Weights were up on the shoulder press and lat pull.  I managed to improve my EF leg press to  2,246.  This was the 5th EF leg press since I started doing them in early August and I have increased my number each time.  However, the amount of improvement is also falling each time so perhaps about to hit a plateau.

Overall I am happy with the 90 second target.  I wish I had access to a heavy enough leg press machine so that I could use a 90 second target for that as well.

WOW 46 09/07/2011

Chest Press
Row
EF leg press

Upper body exercises are static holds, now with a 90 second target.  Leg press is on the Explosive Fitness machine which measures the instantaneous force I am generating and keeps a record of the maximum.  On this machine I make one all out effort which takes ~ 5 seconds.

I made a quick trip to Texas over the holiday weekend.  As a result diet and sleep were not great this week.  Still, today's workout after 7 days of recovery was OK.  TUL was up on the chest press, down a bit on the row, and I hit 2,209 on the leg press which was up from last week.

WOW 45 08/31/2011

Shoulder Press
Lat Pull Down
EF leg press

Had to take some extra time to recover from our trip to Mexico.  Hit 90 seconds on both the shoulder and lat movements so will increase the weight next cycle.  Hit a peak of 2142 on the EF leg press so progress continues.  Plan to work out again in a week and continue with 10 Aikido sessions per week.

WOW 44 08/13/2011

Chest Press
Upright row
Leg Press

I did this workout after 6 days of recovery since we will be leaving on vacation early tomorrow.  I felt reasonably well recovered so hopefully lowering TUL from 3 minutes to between 60 and 90 seconds will in fact allow me to work out more frequently.  I used my EF machine for the leg press for the second time in a row and this time was able to get the number over 2,000 (last week was around 1600).

WOW 42 and 43 7/1 and 8/7

WOW 42

Chest 90 sec
Row 60 sec
Leg 90 sec

Static holds for 90 seconds or until failure.. We got a membership at a 24 hr Fitness so I will be setting a new baseline using different machines.  I am also taking the opportunity to cut my TUL target in half (from three minutes to 90 seconds).  Way back when I was hoping to arrange my workouts so I could workout once a week.  Three minute TUL does not seem to be consistent with a one week recovery so I am going to experiment with shorter TULs and see how that goes.

WOW 43

Shoulder 90 sec
Lat 60 sec
Leg 1642

None of the 24 Hour Fitness leg press machines have enough weight to get my anywhere close to failure in 90 seconds so I have dusted off my old Explosive Fitness machine and will use that for leg presses.  Today I did a 3 minute hold at 500 lbs at 24 HF before doing the EF leg press.  We will see if I can do better next week.

I have been hitting the Aikido pretty hard, going twice per day many days.  Feeling pretty good....