Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

one-legged squats look like a bitch, but still not as bad as the back-handed push-up. I keep having nightmares about that, in my back-handed underpants

One arm pushup - from Rocky II

Sat Oct 29

100 one leg squats on 8" box (100 on each leg, 200 total)

My form and balance is getting much better on these. In a few days, I'll try them again but on a 6" box. My goal now is to able to do one leg squats with no box and no balance aids by Nov. 10.

I haven't updated my journal in a few days although I've been working out every day. I'm able to do one arm pushups now from my feet, although my form isn't that good yet. So far my biggest set is 6 on each arm, so I way to go before reaching 30. Also, I've been doing bowling ball pushups. Basically I take a bowling ball, put it on the ground, then put my thumbs on top of it and grip it on the sides with my palms and fingers and do pushups like this. These aren't easy, and it requires a lot of grip/forearm strength. I've also been doing one leg calf raises on a skateboard. I leave my heel off the side of the board, slowly lower it til my heel taps the ground, then push up onto the ball of my foot and forward as the board rolls across and I hold it at the top with my weight on my toes for a couple of seconds, then come back down. This exercise requires a lot of balance to keep the board from sliding out from under you!

I went light on exercise over the weekend because I was out of town for my sister's wedding. I just did a few sets of one arm pushups each day for the past couple of days. Tomorrow I'm planning to do chins, situps, one leg squats (aka pistols). Friday I was doing sets of pistols in good form over a couch cusion (about 6" high on its own, and pressed down to around 3" when I hit it at the bottom of each rep). So now I'm really really close to having bodyweight pistols mastered. I'm going to train on them everyother day this week and expect to have them down with good form by the end of the week.

I've been doing chinups and one leg squats like crazy lately. Also, I've been doing lots of bowling ball pushups and situps with the bowling ball. I get soreness in the long head of my triceps (see http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/TricepsBrachii.html ) from doing chinups and pullups. In fact, failure in this muscle is what is keeping me from increasing my max reps on chinups. I get the feeling it might be due to undertraining of my tris, they are simply weak compared to the major muscles used in chinups and pullups, which I have been training really hardcore on, but neglecting my chest/tris. So I ordered a device called the Power Pushup 2 - and I can't wait to try it out (see http://www.lifelineusa.com/site_uploads ... t/12_1.pdf ). Basically it allows you to add anywhere from 20 to 300 pounds of resistance to your pushups using cables. I've read that a pushup is similar to doing a bench press at 65% of your bodyweight. So at my bodyweight of 190 lbs, a pushup is similar to doing a 123.5 lb bench. I've been working on one arm pushups, but really struggle with having bad form on these because I simply lack the strength to do them really well yet. On the other hand, doing regular pushups is just too easy and not challenging at all. So if doing a regular pushup is equivalent to a 123.5 lb press, a one arm pushup should be similar to doing a 247 lb press. With the Power Pushup (it comes with cables to set it at 40 lb, 80 lb, and 120 lb increments - you can buy additional heavier cables if you need to) I'll be able to start out doing pushups similar to 163.5 lbs, then after I master that increase to 203.5, and 243.5 lbs. Once I reach that level I should be able to train using one arm pushups with good form.

Last night I tried some experiments measuring pushups using a scale. I read on a website that doing a pushup is similar to a bench press at 65% of your bodyweight.

I first measured my bodyweight on a scale: 190 lbs

Then I put both of my hands on the scale while at the top of the pushup position: 130 lbs (or 68.4% of my bodyweight). I lowered myself slowly over the scale and the weight on my hands stayed around 130 lbs the entire time.

Then I pushed up slowly. When I did this the force exerted was about 135 lbs all the way up.

Then I tried pushing up again, this time faster. The force exerted spiked up to 160 lbs, then immediately dropped to zero as I flew up, then went back to 130 lbs as soon as I caught my weight at the top of the pushup. This is the way I have been doing most of my standard pushups lately.

Then I tried it one more time, except pushed extra hard on the way up to the point where my upper body flies up and my hands come a few inches off a ground from the initial explosive pushup. When I did this the force exerted spiked abover 190 lbs very quickly (it's hard to tell the exact amount of force, because it spiked so quickly, then dropped to zero, and back to 130 when I caught myself.)

The Power Pushup 2 came in the mail yesterday. I like it. Since it uses cables, the resistance increases as you go up during the positive motion of each rep. Last night I was doing sets of 10 rep pushups while using 40lbs of resistance. I'm not sure how they calculate this resistance level though since resistance force would be dependent on the user's height and place you are at the in the pushup. I'm going to contact the manufacturer to see if I can find out more about how they performed their calculations.

Today I have been using the Power Pushup 2 again. This time doing sets of 10 reps with 80 pounds of resistance (combined with bodyweight, this should be the equivalent of 210 pounds). I tried doing set with 120 pounds of resistance, but after 3 reps the handle slipped out of my left hand and smacked me in the ribcage, giving me a big welt.

It sound like a pretty good device.

Yeah now that I have the hang of it, it hasn't slipped anymore, and it works well for me now.

Yesterday I did a punch of slow towel pullups. Basically I take a big towel, and wrap it around the bar a bunch of times so the bar is nice and thick. Then I pulled up really slow, held it at the top for 3 seconds and did the negative extra slow. I did sets of 3 reps of these, then did sets of 20 situps with a bowling ball, then rested a minute and repeated this cycle for about an hour or so. In total I estimate I did around 100 pullups and several hundred situps

Firday I did the following routine:

7 pushups w/ 80 pounds of resistnace (from PP2)
8 one leg squats (4 on each leg)
3 close grip pullups (with first fingers touching)
rest a minute
repeat the cycle

I did this for about a half hour or so and repeated the cycle at least a dozen times. After alternating pushups and pullups like that my arms were throbbing. I think the new pushup device I've been using, along with the bowling ball pushups I've been doing lately are helping my tris, because it looks like they've done some growing recently

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Saturday - alternated between sets of using the wrist roller and doing one leg calf raises

Sunday Nov 20

bowling ball pushups
fingertip pushups
calf raises
situps with bowling ball

Mon Nov 21

lots of pullups