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.