Born Again Gym Rat: The Importance of Sequence

Friday, September 4, 2015

The Importance of Sequence

Sequence is defined as the particular order in which related events, movements, or things follow each other. In weight lifting, it is common practice to do big compound movements first that work the entire body, followed by smaller movements that isolate particular sections. The only reason to do the opposite is if you want to pre-exhaust the smaller muscles because they seem to do doing the bulk of the work in the bigger movements. I find the sequence to my workouts to be a determining factor in whether I can do 4 sets of hammer grip pull ups successfully, and without elbow discomfort.

Today I warmed up with 15 minutes on the Step Mill only because I hadn't done it all week, and it happened to be available. If there's an opportunity, I'm going to take it! From there I can do a set of hammer grip pull ups fairly easily. The gym is mostly empty today so I have access to the Mats. Plus the gym owner has finally relocated the ab tower that sat in the middle of all three mats in the stretch area. I do 60 regular push ups. The trick to doing volume push ups is to do them quickly. I barely breathe in order to knock them out.

Planks are becoming easier now that I intersperse Straight with Elbow Planks. Diamond Push Ups are still hard, especially on the right elbow. I shift my weight a tad to the left to compensate. 25 is all I can manage. Another set of planks. It always takes me a few moments to get my balance when I lift my leg for these. Dand (or Hindu) push ups is a lot more taxing that it looks and I'm not sure why. I do them slowly in comparison to my other sets. I want to get the full stretch in my back and shoulders. I can only do 25. My last set of planks is the Bird Dog. It's not too bad once I find my balance. The right side balances more easily than the left. My last set of push ups are regular ones and figure I'll just go for broke: do as many as I can before I fall on my face. I get to 60!

I'm breathing hard and my arms are a bit shaky when I leave the Mat area. I want to do another set of Hammer Grip Pull Ups, but I feel weak and resort to a slight kipping motion to get my reps. It's discouraging. I don't like kipping because it feels like cheating even though CF people use it when training. I get on the Precor for 30 minutes of Intervals. That program kicked my butt on Wednesday, and since I'm not smart enough to avoid a challenge, I'm at it again, knowing full well that I'm going to be doing a lot worse today. That's not the point. The point is to condition the body.

Once I'm done with that, and logging a respectable 2.73 miles (Wednesday was 2.77), I'm back at the Stretch Cage. This time Hammer Grip Pull Ups are easy. I move back to the Mat to do some Pistol Squats and a full Mat Stretch (splits and all). Then before I hit the locker room, I do another set of Pull Ups. And they still feel pretty good. No elbow issues! But dang, my lats are tender.

What I hadn't realized was just how taxing push ups and planks are on the whole body, including lats. It's really difficult to pull yourself up with arm strength alone. Pull Ups utilize those huge back muscles, the lats (latissimus dorsi) to hoist the body against gravity. I'd always thought of Push Ups and Planks are being Core (abs) and Chest (pectorals, triceps, delts) exercises. Now I know better. And that doing Pull Ups right after Push Ups and Planks is going to be really really hard. Because of the exercise sequence.

Friday Whole Body Workout