hannibal's 200kg bench journal

[hannibal]

intro and current routine...

i first got into strength training when a guy i knew who was a bodybuilder was mocking vegans and saying you couldn't get tuff without eating meat. this guy was on a high protein 'caveman' diet and on the juice as well, he was built like a dumptruck and had arms the size of tree trunks. i had to stand up for vegans so i challenged him to an arm wrestle to prove him wrong, with the provision that i get three months to train.

my training routine consisted solely of bicep curls, i worked myself up to 5x5 with a 27.5kg dumbell (explosive lift, super slow let down). on the day of the arm wrestle it was dubbed the "gorilla versus the caveman". everyone laughed and said i didn't have a hope in hell and all my enemies showed up to see me humiliated. well to the surprise of everyone (myself included) i beat him easily and he had to eat his words that vegans aren't tuff.

since then i have trained on and off and expanded my routine a fair bit. i prefer bodyweight exercises but do bicep curls as a vestigial of my original routine and have recently added deadlifts and russian side presses.... this is pretty much my current routine... (goals are in brackets)

upper body
-chinups 5x5 (5x5 carrying 10kg)
-incline pushups 20x5 (20x5 incline depth pushups - long term goals are one armed pushups and handstand pushups)
-russian side press 5x5 @ 27.5kg (5x5 @ 37.5kg)
-bicep curl 3x3 @ 22.5kg (5x5 @ 27.5kg)
-grip - 15 sec coc#1 overcrushes, coc#2 negatives, pinching with 10kg plate and finger walks (goal coc#2)
-i sometimes do dips 5x5 as well

core
-kneeling evil wheel 5x5 (progress to standing)
-super hard situps (hard to explain but i basically try to do a janda situp without equipment) 5x5
-hanging leg raises
-supermans
-plank 3 minutes
-stiff legged deadlift 5x5 @ 50kg (will increase this a LOT when i get more weight)

lower body
-hindu squats 100 (150)
-pistols 1x3 (5x5)

any feedback or comments appreciated... thanks y'all. hannibal

[danyka]

LOL What a great feeling! I had a similar experience (although not quite as heroic...) To prove my [ex]boyfriend that vegans (especially chick vegans) were harder than vegetarians.
I too beat him with ease.... But then he doesn' take very good care of himself, and I work out several hundred times a month...

Nonetheless, it felt damned good.



Welcome! Love the nick BTW!

[Pete]

Oh Oh what's a Russian side press, any pics on the net (sad to say, I do get excited by the thought of new exercises )

[hannibal]

haha goodonya danyka

pete - the russian side press is one of the exercises pavel tsatsouline recommends in his book power to the people - there's a description here...

http://www.mensfitness.com/mens/superfe ... press.html

i've tended to avoid military presses because they wreck my shoulders, but i've had no probs with these and been able to heft a fair amount of weight.

[hannibal]

today's routine was nearly aborted after an embarrassing start when i couldn't get the spinlock off my dumbell i don't know how it got stuck so tight but i needed a hammer to get it undone... just worked my upper body today, here's the routine:

5x5 clean and side press @ 27.5kg (got the idea to clean from reading ryan's log)... this wrecked me but i love this exercise

4x3 bicep curl @ 22.5kg

5 x 20 pushups (alternating depth and narrow grip)

grip - overcrushes on the no.1 negs on the no.2

5 x 5 chinups followed by one handed hangs for as long as possible to train grip.

have been too lazy to work my lower body and core lately but will get back into it soon...

hannibal

[hannibal]

decided to leave off upper body training for a while and concentrate on my neglected core and lower body.

for my legs i've been doing 100 hindu squats each morning, this doubles as my cardio because it's a pretty intense three minutes.

also doing three sets of two pistols every few days which is slow progress. i could probably do double on my right leg but i don't want to create an imbalance so i'm waiting for my weaker leg to catch up.

does anyone know if doing hindu squats and pistols will trigger the same release of testosterone and growth hormone that doing barbell squats will?

i found 15kg of weight plates in my mate's garage so i've upped my deadlift to 65kg. been doing 5x5 but it's still not much of a challenge. next step is to buy two more 10kg plates and work on that for a while. then keep going up in 20kg increments till i reach my limit. i'm doing deads mainly for my lower back so am locking out my knees as early as possible.

been doing plank 3 minutes. i'm about to start experimenting with side planks but haven't tried them yet. evil wheel roll-outs 5x5. also, situps 5x5 (mix of standard situps, super hard situps, and cross legged situps)

starting to show results... i've put on just under 5kg (of hopefully mostly muscle!) since i started training semi-seriously about two months ago.

[JP]

does anyone know if doing hindu squats and pistols will trigger the same release of testosterone and growth hormone that doing barbell squats will?

i hope someone more knowledgeable will pick up on this one, but my gut feeling is no. The release of testosterone is relative to the level of muscle fiber recruitment and all that kind of complicated stuff which i will never understand. In my understanding and what i have been reading, the release is bigger more compound movement it is, like squats, and bigger the load is. So while you would be doing squats, the load of your bodyweight only would probably not be enough - but then again, these are such small details that they make very little difference in the end of the day?

i found 15kg of weight plates in my mate's garage so i've upped my deadlift to 65kg. been doing 5x5 but it's still not much of a challenge. next step is to buy two more 10kg plates and work on that for a while. then keep going up in 20kg increments till i reach my limit. i'm doing deads mainly for my lower back so am locking out my knees as early as possible.

cool, that probably would be an ok weight to start doing things like power cleans with as well? Or perhaps one arm deadlifts?

starting to show results... i've put on just under 5kg (of hopefully mostly muscle!) since i started training semi-seriously about two months ago.

thats MASSIVE gains! Even steroid users are happy when they gain 5kg/11lbs on one 2 month cycle well done mate!

[hannibal]

haven't had a chance to train much lately which is the reason for journal quietness, here's just a quick update on training:

upper body:

- chin ups as usual, and a new variation, fingertip pullups which i do out of necessity because a small ledge over a door is the only place in my office where i can do any sort of chinning work. these are a great workout and i can only do a couple reps

- pushups... i put my feet on a bench and get on my dipping handles (as usual), then to increase the intensity i move one hand out to the side so almost all the weight goes on one arm (sets of 5 to almost failure)... the eventual point of all this is to work up to a one armed pushup. i've also been experimenting with some planche progressions (which i'll report on once i've made some progress )

- russian side presses... same as usual

- bicep curls... same as usual

- grip... still no close on the no. 2. i can hold it shut for a few seconds now after a cheat close though and am just whisper away....

my core and lower body i've been slack with unfortunately..

joni - thanks for your thoughts. i was actually hoping they would spur on the release of growth hormone... but now i don't anymore since i was getting too big anyway, so it's all good

[JP]

Good to see you back Hannibal!

- grip... still no close on the no. 2. i can hold it shut for a few seconds now after a cheat close though and am just whisper away....

Exellent! Do you use chalk? That was the detail that got me to close it in the end. Also positioning made the world of difference, but i'm still erratic with it sometimes.

i was getting too big anyway, so it's all good

I didn't know you could get too big!

[hannibal]

- Good to see you back Hannibal!

thanks jp!

- Exellent! Do you use chalk? That was the detail that got me to close it in the end. Also positioning made the world of difference, but i'm still erratic with it sometimes.

nope i haven't used chalk, i tend to like to making things difficult for myself

but i've just closed that sucker cold i closed it with my left hand and held it for about 5 seconds... i was surprised i could hold it that long... so now i'm going to try and master it over the next couple months (and get a right hand close) then order the no. 3

[JP]

but i've just closed that sucker cold i closed it with my left hand and held it for about 5 seconds... i was surprised i could hold it that long... so now i'm going to try and master it over the next couple months (and get a right hand close) then order the no. 3

BRILLIANT!!!!! Good job man!!!!

I had the same, when i first shut it i held it for ages, i think it was the adrenaline from the "fuck i finally fucking did it!"

Exellent job mate, vegan power!

[hannibal]

vegan power!

yeah it did feel pretty good. i haven't been able to close it since though, probably because i've been trying every five minutes, but i'll have a rest now and see how i go in a couple days.

in other news...

been focussing on my core a lot more than usual. in the morning i do three minutes planks plus one minute side planks with the goal of working up to three minutes each side, then super hard situps and finally all out on the ab 'wheel of hell', with the goal of working up to a standing rollout (yes, after closing the no. 2 my new very shallow goal is to get a six-pack). i figure this core routine is going to do enough for my lower back that i can drop the deadlifts/sldls, but if there's any contrary opinions i'd love to hear them.

i also came across an article on 'planche progressions' recently (info here: http://tinyurl.com/ysshn ) and have added them to my routine. i can do the 'frog stand' for a solid minute now and am slowly clocking up the necessary minutes on the 'tuck planche'.

hannibal

[JO]

Hello Hannibal.

What do you mean by super hard situps?

JO

[Daniel]

i first got into strength training when a guy i knew who was a bodybuilder was mocking vegans and saying you couldn't get tuff without eating meat.

Can't be tuff without meat, eh? I think this guy needs to meet your avatar. The first serious vegan bodybuilder I ever meet would always point out to those who mock vegans that many of the largest and strongest animals are 100% vegetarian. Try arm wrestling a gorilla and you'll be luck if your arms are still attached to your body.

[Oak]

First, Well done on reaching a minute on your frog tuck. I am up to 35secs but am not pushing it with my sore wrist. Also congrats on closing the no2. I haven't been able to play with any of them yet.

I don't think that you need to do deadlifts to have a strong back, but if you are going for super back strength then huge deadlifts would be one of the easiest ways to do it. In the article with the planches, did you see the lever exercises - these are used in ballet and gymnastics and they have supra stong backs because of them. Of course the planks will work your lower back a lot.

You are stronger that me, so if you want to build up a strong core quickly (and a six pack!) then it might be a good idea to try your planks on a swiss ball. You can even start off with a plank then roll out the ball with your arms and back in again - it kills me to do 10 of these. Much more of a workout than a normal plank. Oh, as well, if you want to progress quickly then what about doing 3 sets of your planks.
The side planks do hurt my shoulder if i do them for too long - what about you?

If i have described stuff a bit muckily, just ask and i will try and clarify. Also feel free to ignore anything.

Oak