Tag: Lat Pulldown

Up to Twelve

It was nice to get out of town and see my Dad yesterday, walking 18 holes together. Today I was out in the garage early for some cardio (love the new BikeErg!) before a 10am start.

Warm-up

  • 15:00 BikeErg (7,832m)
  • PVC Passes

Wheeled the bike out back in the sun again. Increased pace every five minutes.

Back

4 Sets

  • 12 Straight Arm Pull Down (45#)

Use open palms, which forces you to engage your lats more because you can’t “pull down” with your arms.

4 Sets

  • 12 Wide Grip Lat Pull Downs (80#)
  • 12 Behind Neck Lat Pull Downs (80#)
  • 12 Close Grip Lat Pull Downs (80#)

My bright idea to go from sets of 10 to 12. Idiot!

4 Sets

  • 12 DB Pullover (50#)
  • 12/12 Kroc Rows (53#)

5 Set Drop Set

  • 8 DB Back Fly (40# DBs)
  • 4 Max rep Drop Sets (35-30-25-20#)

I did twelve reps for the first three drop sets and then hold on for a whopping 20 reps.

Skills

I helped Brandi with some bar muscle-up drills and worked on ring false grip and a strict muscle-up a bit with the rings at ring dip height. The false grip is so uncomfortable!

Midline

4 Sets

  • 12 Low-Pulley Knee-In w/ pause (20#)
  • 12 Plate Crunches w/ pause (55#)
  • 5/5 Hip Abducted Evil Wheels
  • 50m Front Rack Carry (155/105#)

Improved the knee-in movement by getting some straps  to use around my feet instead of the band I used last week. I’d like to go even heavier for the crunches so may have to try with a barbell. Forgot how nasty a front rack carry can be.

Add Hip Abduction

Each night my back seems to be a bit worse, though hasn’t bothered me rolling over yet. Has been fine after I’m up and moving around, which is good. My ass is sore from yesterday! Out in the garage at 10am.

Warm-up

  • 10:00 BikeErg (4,426m)
  • Monster Walks
  • 20 PVC Passes

Back

5 Sets

  • 10 Straight Arm Pull Down (35, 4×50#)

4 Sets

  • 10 Wide Grip Lat Pull Downs (80#)
  • 10 Behind Neck Lat Pull Downs (80#)
  • 10 Close Grip Lat Pull Downs (80#)

This gets so bad. I think the 40 muscle-ups from yesterday really affected those close grip pull downs.

4 Sets

  • 10 Seated Cable Row (75#)
  • MAX Strict Chin-ups (10-8-6-5)

Why are strict chin-ups so hard after all this stuff?

4 Sets

  • 10 Inverted Bar Row
  • 10 Seated Bent Over Back Flies (30# DBs)

Haven’t done the bar rows in a long time. I like those.

Midline

4 Sets

  • 12 Low-Pulley Knee-In w/ pause (20#)
  • 12 Plate Crunches w/ pause (45#)
  • 5/5 Hip Abducted Evil Wheels
  • 50m Sandbag Carry (100#)

I’m going to be feeling this for a few days. I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good with evil wheels, but the hip abduction is a game changer. I used a PVC pipe through a 45# plate, which also adds a lot more instability compared to a barbell with plates.

In the evening I modified an old ab wheel.

Another Pull-up Bar

Feeling my ass a bit from yesterday’s lunges. I was out in the garage working on a new pull-up bar before Monday. I might redo the board because the right side has some flex to it.

new-pull-up-bar

Finally started our workout around 10:30. Doing back day on Saturday this week since tomorrow will be a rest day.

5 Sets

  • 10 Straight Arm Pull Down (45#)

5 Sets

  • 10 Wide Grip Lat Pull Downs
  • 10 Behind Neck Lat Pull Downs
  • 10 Close Grip Lat Pull Downs

Nasty super set! I used 60-60-70-80-80#.

5 Sets

  • 10 Seated Cable Row (60#)
  • 10 Leaning Seated Cable Row (60#)

5 Set Drop Set

  • 8 Incline Prone DB Rows (50#)
  • 4 Max rep Drop Sets (45-40-35-30#)

The idea here is to hit a heavy set of eight, then decrease the weight and hit a max set until you get in five total sets. I got 12-10-10-16 on my max rep sets.

We skipped ab work since we just did some yesterday and those were some brutal sets today!

In the afternoon I remounted the pull-up bar because one side of the board was flexing too much. It’s solid now!

pull-up-bar-v2

Marathon Back Session

Getting pretty sore from yesterday in my ass, chest, shoulders, etc. My left leg is still bothering me too. Workout at 10 for 2.5 hours!

Warm-up

  • 10:00 Airdyne (202 cals, 5.05 km)
  • 5:00+ Bottom Squat Hold

I haven’t sat in the bottom like that is a very long time. Need to do that more often.

Back Day

4 Sets

  • 12 Lat pulldowns (110#)
  • 12/12 Single arm supinated bent over DB row (45#)

4 Sets

  • 12 Seated Cable row (75#, 2 sets wide, 2 sets close)
  • 12 Incline elbows out db row (30 deg, 25-20-20-25# DBs)

4 Sets

  • 12 Cable row to neck (rope, 25#)
  • 12/12 Lying side straight arm db raise (10# DB)

4 Sets

  • 12 Incline Lat pulldowns (30 deg, 100#)
  • Max Strict Chin-ups (7-6-6-5)

Midline

3 Rounds

  • 30s Banded Sprinter Sit-up
  • 30/30s Banded Side Plank + Elbow to Knee
  • 30s Banded Elevated Mountain Climbers
  • 1:20 Rest

We built in a 10 second transition on the clock too for setting up each movement. This would work much better with rep counts instead of using the clock. Something like 30-20/20-30 reps would have been good.

Earned the rest day tomorrow!

Sunday is For Back

I feel surprisingly good after that leg killer yesterday. Last night I poured myself a drink after a tough week and got some solid recovery sleep. WHOOP has me at 46% recovery today, which is understandable after some drinking and two days of tough workouts. Out in the garage at 10am.

Warm-up

  • 15:00 Airdyne (319 cals, 7.79 km)
  • Monster Walks
  • 20 PVC Passes

Sunday is going to be focused on back for awhile.

4 Sets

  • 12 Lat Pull Downs (90#)
  • 12 DB Pullovers (40-50-50-50#)

The damn pulleys on my cable system were causing too much friction even after I added a bunch of 3-in-1 oil before we started. So then the coating on the cable split open. Guess I’ll have to find some better pulleys.

4 Sets

  • 12 Seated Horizontal Banded Rows (2x red)
  • 12 Seated Back Fly (30#)

This combo was probably the toughest of the day.

4 Sets

  • 12 Straight-ish Arm Banded Pull Down and Backs (2x red)
  • 12/12 Single Arm Seated Banded Pull Downs (red)

4 Sets

  • 12/12 Cross Body Single Arm 90 (15#)
  • 12/12 Kroc Row (elbow out, 30#)

I wasn’t confident in the shoulder positions for those 90s. Flaring out the elbow for the rows is much harder!

Gymnastics

4 Sets

  • MAX Strict Pull-ups
  • 2:00 Rest

Wasn’t expecting much, but I set a PR by two reps on the first set with 17!! Fell off a cliff from there though with 9-7-7.

Midline

4 Rounds

  • 10 Push-up w/ reach across and move dumbbell (50#)
  • 40 Hollow Flutter Kicks
  • 20 Floor Wipers (45# plate)

I was able to keep everything unbroken. Took me 7:30.

It was a monster session over 2.5 hours with my time on the bike.

Lunging Wall Balls

I took a 90 minute nap yesterday and slept over 8 hours last night. Woke up with 98% recovery on WHOOP! I did a session of my PT exercises in the morning. Decided not to eat before going to open gym at 10.

Warm-up

10:00 Echo Bike

Did 120 calories and 3.73 miles.

3 Sets

  • 100/100’ Bottoms Up KB Carry (26#)

I didn’t rest since I was switching arms every down and back.

Accessory

2 Rounds

  • 3:00 Bear Hug Banded March (20#)
  • 3:00 Rest

Today I concentrated on raising my knee high as well as lifting my heel towards me ass at the same time. Got 166 and 174 reps and felt like I was able to keep a consistent pace.

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 30s Rower Curls
  • 12 DB Curls (20#)

Damper was set at 10 but maybe should be a lot lower. Glad I decided to go lower than normal with the dumbbbells.

4 Sets

  • 10 Prone DB Fly (25#)
  • 10 Banded Lat Pull Downs (2x double green)

Set mine up on the triangle bar so it was out away from the rig and used a 35# barbell instead of a PVC, which seemed safer and helped stretch the band some. I sat on a blue plate on the white bench.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

  • 20 Barbell Push-ups
  • 30 Reverse Lunge Wall Balls (14#, 10’)

I originally had programmed 15 air squats, 20 dumbbell walking lunges, and 25 push-ups. Last night I made the call that I’m not ready for a lot of air squats yet. Then today at the gym I got the idea to try out the reverse lunge wall balls. Took a round or so to get the hang of the movement, but I really liked it. Using a light medicine ball probable helped. 😉 I did 4×5 on every round of push-ups and 20-10 on the lunge wall balls. Got through 4+20. Felt good to do a metcon where I didn’t have a “cake walk” (essentially rest) movement and was able to get my heart rate up.

Gymnastics

3 Sets

  • 10 Kip Swings

Just small kips, but I wanted to see how it felt. No issue.

Midline

McGill Big 3

  • 6-4-2 Curl-up (10s hold)
  • 6-4-2 Side Planks (10s hold)
  • 6-4-2 Bird Dogs (10s hold)

I’m becoming a master at these! Was a solid two hours at the gym.

I’ll do another round of the PT exercises at some point.

Something I Can Do!

Sitting hasn’t been the most comfortable the last couple of days and there really hasn’t been any change in how my back is feeling. Went to the 3pm class.

Warm-up

  • 30 cal Assault Bike
  • 10 Bench Press (45#)
  • 10 Bench Press (135#)

Conditioning

E4M – 5 Rounds

  • 20 cal Echo Bike
  • 10 Bench Press (170#)

Oh boy those bench presses turned in to a struggle in round 3. Kept each round unbroken though!

Strength / Accessory

  • 10×2 Strict Pull-ups (2:00)
  • 13×5 Banded PVC Lat Pulldowns (green band doubled over a set of rings)

The workout was 10:00 to do 100 pull-ups, but with five dumbbell thrusters EMOM. My ass is not having anything to do with any type of squatting so I thought I’d see how many strict pull-ups I could do in 10 minutes. As I fatigued I was starting to arch and wanting to kip. That was no bueno, so I called an audible and had about five minutes of the pulldowns. Those created a nice burn.

Smoked in Dubai

My legs felt tired last night and even though I was up past midnight, I slept better. Ass and quads are feeling a little sore today. Was in the hotel fitness center just after noon. I did the back rehab work, which is getting a little easier.

Accessory

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 10 Lat Pulldowns (77 kg)
  • 10 DB Bent Over Reverse Fly (12 kg)

Third set got real nasty and then I just survived.

Conditioning

20:00 Stationary Bike

Went 8.96 km and did 244 calories. My legs are smoked from yesterday! Early flight and a long travel day tomorrow, but I’ll be home by 10pm Eastern. Can’t wait!

All I Want is a Night of Sleep!

I went to bed just after 9 last night but woke up around 2 or 3 again. Finally quit trying to sleep around 5:40 I think. Went down for breakfast after 7 and then took an hour nap. Was in the fitness center by 10.

tryp-wyndam-dubai-fitness-center.jpeg

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 8 Lat Pulldowns (70-70-77-84 kg)
  • 12/12 Kroc Rows (20kg)

Used a machine for the pulldowns and I remembered to keep my shoulder blades pulled down for the rows.

Midline

Side Plank

  • 3 x 20 seconds w/ 10 second rests (all 3 on one side, then switch)
  • 1:00 Rest
  • 2 x 20 seconds
  • 1:00 Rest
  • 1 x 20 seconds

Someone was hogging the adjustable bench, so I moved the planks up in the order.

Strength

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 10 Incline DB Fly (16kg)
  • 14 HR Push-ups

Conditioning

10:00 Stationary Bike

I set a higher level so I had to use a lot of leg drive and a lower RPM. Did 4.98 km and 148 calories.

Gymnastics

5 Rounds

  • 40s Handstand Hold
  • 50s Rest

Came back to my room for these since there is no spot in the fitness center. Decided to switch it up and give facing the wall a break, which I think has been making my neck tight. When I kick up I can feel how extremely tight my neck and shoulders are. These got really tough.

Running on Fumes

I was exhausted when I hit the pillow at 10:30 last night, but was wide awake at 3:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Decided I wouldn’t nap today, hoping it will lead to a proper night of sleep. It’s a really windy day so not great for exploring the city when sand keeps getting in your eyes. Went to the fitness center at 11am.

dubai-airbnb-fitness-center.jpg

5 Sets

  • 8 Lat Pull Downs (60-60-65-70-75 kg)
  • 8/8 Kroc Rows (65# DB)

I used a pull-up grip width for the lat pull downs, hoping to work the same pulling muscles in a different way.

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 8 Incline DB Fly (25-25-30-35-45#)
  • 8 DB Bench Press (65#)

Really had no clue what to use for the fly and obviously started too conservative. The bench presses were challenging though.

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 16 Weighted Lunges (30# DBs)
  • 20 Plank Jumps

This got me breathing a lot harder than I expected.

10 Sets

  • 12s RKC Plank
  • 20s Rest

If you do these right you really start cramping and almost feel like you’re going to puke.

10:00 Stationary Bike

Got 225 calories and 6.7 km.

Was in there just over an hour. Was feeling pretty exhausted as I went through this work, especially when I got to the lunges and plank jumps.