14 DEC: Abs/core + arms-strength

Man! I can't believe it has happened. It's both positive and has the potential for negative. I have reached a point where my muscular strength has increased beyond my connective tissue strength. My elbows were aching today even after a thorough warm-up, so I opted to drop the load down and just hammer away with more reps, and some cool techniques to keep time under tension high to offset the reduced load.

I'm glad this strenth phase of my hybrid bodybuilding approach has worked out so well. I'm lifting heavier than I ever have before, and I'm slowly beginning to look like a bodybuilder, not just an athlete.

Next week is the last week of heavy loading, which is great timing. It'll be just one week of truly gutting it out, and when I think I'm about to break, I'll shift to high volume methods, which necessitate lower loads. I'm not a fan of doing what you want when you body is telling you otherwise, but one week of "mind of matter"is enough to test your will but not damage your body. 4 weeks is the right limit for this phase. To quote Hannibal from the A-Team, I love when a plan comes together!"

Today's training:
  1. Awesome warm-up. Lots of flowing from down dog, to cobra, to hindu pushups and squats, to deep lunges, to front splits. I added in plenty of backward rolls (legs straight toes to ground) and transitions to back briudges. I feel freaking awesome!!!!
  2. Russian twist: 20 x 10, 10 (going for 12-15 next week)
  3. Dragonfly (aka Dragon flag): 6, 4, 1. Going for 15 total reps next week. Abs are rock hard!!!!!
  4. Upper arm superset:
    a. skull crusher: 105 x 4; 85 x 12, 7, 8
    b. barbell curl: 105 x 2; 85 x 8, 7, 8
  5. Constant tension hammer curl*: 20s x 10, 7, 8
  6. Alternating hammer curl: 20s x 13, 15, 15
  7. Nautilus curl: 80 x 8; 70 x 10

Constant tension hammer curl: Christian Thibaudeau is the source I picked this up from. Essentially, it''s an alternating hammer curl, but you hold the weight in the contracted position the entire set, instead of the extended (resting) position. The makes a lighter weight feels MUCH more difficult. This is a great way to increase the intensity without increasing load.

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