powerDOJO

Tag: muscleups

  • Muscleups in Barcelona

    About 6 days into our 9 day vacation, I told my wife,

    “Honey, I need some time for myself.”

    Being the understanding sweetheart that she is, she was totally cool.

    So I decided to go to the beach and do whatever I felt like.

    One goal was to play some beach volleyball. My wife doesn’t like vball so much, so if we’re hanging out, I don’t want to play.

    When I got to the beach, I cruised along until I found a vball court.

    There were a few guys there and luckily for me, they were looking for another player, so I joined in.

    The guys were all from Brazil, which explains the Speedos…

    They were living in Barcelona working as Capoeira performers. Pretty cool stuff – being able to travel and work doing something you love.

    The court was right near the shower where you rinse off after swimming (or just to cool down), and if you’ve ever been to Barcelona, you’ve probably seen that many of the women like to get a “full upper body tan”. This was slightly distracting, but I managed to maintain my composure. Somehwat…

    After playing for about an hour, I’d had enough and went for a dip to cool down then planned on walking the beach for a bit then going home.

    After about 10 minutes of cruising, I stumbled upon this:

    YEAAAH BOYYYYY!

    If you’ve been following my blog for the last couple months, you know I’m all about doing Muscleups, and this park was perfect-o.

    So I warmed my shoulders up a bit, did some Pullups and Pushups, then got into it.

    I didn’t have a plan and must’ve done at least 50 total. It’s not like I had to be anywhere and the setting was spectacular.

    Here’s a vid of one of my warmup sets so you can see the beauty of the scene:

    [jwplayer config=”600×338 (Blog Posts)” mediaid=”6262″]

    I also hit some Windshield Wipers and called it a day.

    After finishing my workout, I noticed that girls were giving me more stares than usual.

    This got me thinking about my mission, and the fact that I don’t generally promote exercise for physique goals. My thinking was that it is a vain and superficial thing to think about.

    But this is coming from someone who’s never been fat, or above 10% body fat for that matter…

    Chinese guys don’t generally have a lot of body fat, and because I played sports all my life and started lifting weights at 16 (without any extended breaks to this day), I’ve always been lean. So I don’t necessarily know what it’s like not to be lean.

    But after walking the beach in Barcelona, feeling like a piece of meat with all the seniorettas oggling me, I kind of got into the mindset of what NOT being lean would be like…

    Perhaps, it would involve being self-conscious to take off your shirt at the beach… Or seeing other guys on the beach who were in shape and feeling inferior. Basically, it might be a hit to the self-conscious and the self-esteem.

    Know what I’m saying???

    So this experience (of being visually molested) has kind of changed my mindset of training for physique goals…

    This ties into all of the thinking that I’ve been doing about my mission and my next “big thing”…

    I’m going to be thinking more about this, but I just wanted to keep you up-to-date with my thoughts.

    I should be heading home soon and getting back on track, so I’ll check ya from Toronto and Eastern Standard Time in a couple of days. Hope you’re well and kicking ass!

    – E

  • My Muscleup Progress

    Just thought I’d post a quick video of my progress so far doing Muscelups…

    Remember, I started out only being able to do 2 real ones.

    I’ve been working them once or twice a week, or maybe more if I happen to stumble upon a bar that invites me to do them. My goal was to be able to do 10 clean ones by the end of August, so I’m pretty sure I’ll hit it.

    I’ve also been working explosive pullups to the chest when in the gym. Which I haven’t been in all too often. Especially after the leg press incident… 😉

    One of the strategies I’ve been using to improve my Muscleups is to rarely go to failure.

    I didn’t do that in this video because I wanted to see where I was at, but all of my other workouts I only hit reps, I don’t miss.

    Another strategy I’ve been using is just shooting for a total # of reps per Muscleup session, which has ranged from 25-40, depending on the day.

    To be honest, I haven’t been following a tight program, mainly because in the summertime I never do. I just make sure I train at least 3 days per week, whether it be outdoors, in the gym, wherever.

    But I play a lot: roller hockey, swimming, wakeboarding, tennis and volleyball; so I get a lot of physical activity.

    I also sit on a lot of patios and drink a few beers. 🙂

    OK, what you’ve been waiting for – the video update of my progress:

    [jwplayer config=”Post” mediaid=”6179″]

    One thing I’ve switched up is my grip – I now wrap my thumb over the bar.

    I experimented with this and found that it was easier on my wrist and didn’t negatively affect the # of Muscleups I could do. In fact, it helped because I wasn’t beating up my wrist. I suggest giving it a try if you’re Muscleupping!

  • Natural Pre-Workout Energy Boosting Supplement *CAFFEINE-FREE*

    Are you ever hungry before you workout but don’t know what to eat?

    If so, you’ll love what I’ve got in store for you today…

    Trust me, I know the feeling. The gurgling and growling. The hunger pangs. I know it all too well.

    Because if you’re hungry before a workout, you probably don’t want to eat something that’s going to slosh around in your stomach and weigh you down or give you cramps.

    At the same time, you don’t want to go in hungry where your mind is more on what you’re going to eat rather than your training.

    And, if you’re into natural foods and nutrition as opposed to  synthetic supplements like me, you’re going to love what I’ve got for you in this video:

     

    Now I sent all YouTube peeps over to my wife’s site at TheDessertAngel.com, but as one of my “INSIDERS” I’m gonna hook you up with the recipe I was eating right here:

    TROPICAL ZEST FROSTING
    Recipe courtesy of my wife’s Dessert Angel Healthy Desserts Recipe Collection

    ]Ingredients
    – 1/4 cup almond flour (ground almonds)
    – 2 tsp honey
    – 2 tsp coconut oil, liquified
    – 1/4 tsp lemon zest
    – 1 tbsp coconut milk
    – 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

    Directions
    1. Puree all ingredients
    2. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours until it hardens

    This is the pure frosting recipe that is healthy and delicious on muffins, cakes, or even licked off of your finger.

    To turn this into a super pre-workout energy supplement, take 1 tbsp of the frosting and mix it with 1 tbsp of pure extra virgin coconut oil and BOOM – instant energy and the benefits of all these healthy ingredients. Plus it’s damn tasty.

    *** MUSCLEUP UPDATE ***

    Today, I did 5 in a row. If you include the first one where I jump a little bit, then I did 6. Not bad – I’m improving, but I’ve got to get some gloves, because this happened:

    Dammit – that was my favourite callus! 

    Hope I didn’t spoil your appetite.

    What do you think I should do – leave it be or rip that sucker off?

    Let me know below. Oh and please hit that good ole ‘Like’ button on the way down, would ya?

  • Beginner Muscle Up Tips

    Toronto Waterfront

    I was out for a run down the Toronto waterfront on a couple weekends ago and I stumbled upon a group of about 20 dudes working out in the park. To give you a mental picture, they were mostly black guys, a couple of white guys, and I was the only Asian.

    It was like I was walking into those videos of a bunch of brothers doing crazy things on the bars:

    So I hung around, started talking witih some of the guys and jumped in.

    One of the guys, Dwayne, runs a personal training business called Body by Chosen that operates in Toronto. A bunch of the other guys are trainers too.

    I’d actually never tried a Muscleup before. A few of the guys made it look easy, so I watched their mechanics to see what they were doing and jumped in… I gave it a shot, but didn’t get it. Wuss. But I knew I’d get it sooner or later.

    Since then, I’d been meaning to get out to the park to practice them, but just didn’t get around to it until this past Friday. I gave it a shot and lo and behold, I’ve just done my first Muscleup. It feels pretty cool and I think it’s as much a display of skill as it is of strength.

    I wasn’t able to do it right off the bat. In fact, I spent about 45 minutes at the park by myself “practicing”. I got my first one by jumping up on the bar and going into the Muscleup from there. It was an awesome feeling.

    Now, I want YOU to get the same feeling I got.

    That’s why I put this video together for you. Check it:

    Some more basic exercises that will help you do your first muscle up:

    • Dips
    • Straight-arm Pulldowns
    • Standing Tricep Extensions with a Cable Machine
    • Hanging Leg Raises

    But if you can bang out 10 Pullups to your sternum already, you’ve probably got the strength to do a muscle up, now it’s all about PRACTICE.

    So get out there. Get some sun. Do your first muscle up. And feel like a beast.

    Hope you enjoyed. Help me out by hitting ‘Like’ below. And if you have any questions or Comments hit me up. Come on, you know the drill by now. 🙂