HB #10 S:10 Power HB

Would’a’ been last Sunday—so 2/10/19–i put together (and subsequently threw down a beta run on) a new HB program designed for power. It felt experimental as i’m honestly not good enough on it yet to say whether or not the set/rep scheme is appropriate. That is to say, there’s without a doubt going to be a learning curve to this before the jury can properly convene. The problem, naturally, is this: how do you force and then test true power (i.e. a one-rep max) on an essentially static exercise—the problem compounded with the testing of relatively small muscle groups? Of course the campus board is the gold standard, but the problem there is that you either stick or catastrophically fail. Ergo, my attempt at a one-rep max(ish) HB system.

I had trouble deciding on what would be a “one-rep max” for this purpose. The “reps” heretofore have been seven second hangs, but that seems excessively endurance-y for a max. By contrast, a one or two second hang amounts to slowing down the fall whilst failing. As such, I settled for a split set of a five second single, and then a heavier-still three second double.

Did stick (as with the “Heavy” program) with seven grips, including WUJ. Did rearrange them with Slope last, as that i’d deem the least important.

Settled, then, on four sets per grip. Rest between reps is always 3 seconds where that matters. Set 1 is 5 reps of 7 seconds. Three minute rest. Set 2 is 3 reps of 5 seconds. Two minute rest. Set 3 is 1 rep of 5 seconds. Two minute rest. Set 4 is 2 reps of 3 seconds. Three minutes between grips. I fancied increasing by about 30# between sets, but that didn’t work in many instances. Gunna take some tinkering to nail the weights, but I wasn’t completely outta the ballpark for most of ‘em.

Weighed in at 207 clothed.

WUJ: -15. As usual.

Large Open: (Kept this first as it makes a pretty fine warmup)
1: +30: No fail.
2: +60: No fail.
3: +90: No fail. Hard.
4: +100: Real hard...workin’ the thumb catch.

Small Crimp: (Kept this here ‘cuz it’s the hardest grip)
1: -45: No fail. I took this down a notch from prior workout, but honestly not enough.
2: -20: End of last rep.
3: -10: Last 1/2 second.
4: BW: woo. Barely got my toes to break free from earth. Need less weight at the beginning.

F 2/3/4: [untape here]
1: +25. No fail.
2: +55: No fail.
3: +85: Ha! No fail. Hard.
4: +95: No fail. Mighty hard.

SemiClosed: (Moved this up in the queue from the Heavy as i felt it was more important)
1: -25: K. No fail.
2: +5: Toe down last 1/2 second.
3: +35: Yeah, nope. Got a couple o’ seconds.
4: +35: Got some of that. Maybe ‘bout right.

F 3/4/5: (This also moved up in the queue)
1: -20: No fail, but hard.
2: +10: Last sec last rep.
3: +30: last 1/2 second.
4: +40: No fail (barely).

Slopa’:
1: +50: No fail.
2: +100. Bleh. Decrease. Got 1ish.
3: +110: Last second.
4: +115: Probably not.

So: i’d say the right progression is going to be about 30# between first 3 sets, and about 10# between last two sets. This really worked out to be a nice workout. Overarching idea is to alternate this (kinda in lieu of “limit bouldering”) with campusing sessions. Did go on Tuesday to the gym with J and pulled down a few projects. Didn’t ,as such, campus.

HB #9 S:10

So today was the last of the typical 9 sessions on the Hangboard. Weighed in at 206, and despite being still about 5lbs heavier than for the correlating session last season (last October), i still made gains respecting weights used; so that's mighty encouraging. Was a pretty perfect day for it out there, as it was cold enough to stick well, but i could still feel my hands.

To recap, i did five sessions with the "Intermediate" plan, which works out to be more of an endurance-weighted strength matrix. Then did the last four session on the "Heavy" plan, which i designed and which (i find) is more of a power-weighted strength matrix. Fewer grips, but more sets, and the weight typically jumps 20 lbs between sets. This one is built on a 7/5/3 reps pyramid. Reps are seven seconds with three seconds' rest between.

I still don't feel like it's a true power program as the heaviest set is still three reps of it. But it's closer. Obviously, if i want to push power it'll come down to a single rep; but it's not clear how feasible that is seeing as it's an essentially isometric exercise. In other words, it's hard to force the generation of 100% effort in a single rep with an isometric exercise: you basically just fail miserably or you don't fail, in a binary sort of fashion.

But the more i do it, the less i'm sure that's necessarily the case. I'm wondering if i couldn't use shorter reps--say 4-5 seconds--and a truncated pyramid to ratchet into the 100% range for the one shorter rep for each grip. Could even base a matrix on the 5/3/1 style workout.

At any rate, i'm'a play with an experimental timer. And at any rate, today's was a pretty fine session.

WUJ: -15

Large Open:
1: +10↔: No fail, but hard today.
2: +30↔: Yeah hard. No fail. Warmer out?
3: +50↔: No fail.

Small Crimp:
1: -60↔: Not bad.
2: -40↔: Ok. no fail. Was ready for another rep.
3: -20↔: Better! Got 2 clean with meltdown on the 3rd. That puts me at least where i was last season, and better than last sesh by a solid rep.

F 2,3,4: [Untape here]
1: +5↑: No fail, but def harder at the end.
2: +25↑: Weird. That's a 15# increase from last session, and a 20# incr from last season. No fail.
3: +50↑: 5# incr. Ha! No fail! That's better than last season, obesity notwithstanding.

Slopa':
1: +20↔: Last 2 secs last rep. Better!
2: +40↔: Last 1.5 secs last rep. better again!
3: +90↑: Ha. Got 2 solid. Last 4 secs last rep.

F 3,4,5:
1: -40↔: No fail. Not bad.
2: -20↔: Woo. End of last 2. Tired for this.
3: +5↔: Ugh. That was a meltdown. Got 'bout 5 secs of 1st rep, then fail. Feeling the work from the increases on prior sets.

SemiClosed:
1: -45↔: No fail, but barely. Hard. Tired.
2: -25↔: Last 1-2 secs last 2 reps. Better, actually.
3: -5↔: Ha. Got 2 solid. Fingers shifted on the last rep and i lost it. Not bad there. Good workout.

So now i go to campusing, and i think i'm going to experiment with a heavier timer still.

I'm still traveling, so i'm only home to get a session in about once/week. That could work out just fine.