Pull up frame

Showing the height of the bar

This was my first big fitness related build when I moved into my house and it’s the one which gets the most use. The total cost was about $100 which I’m pretty happy with. Before I had this built I had to do my pull ups on the washing line, or go across town to a park to do my pull ups, which weren’t really the best options. This allows me to knock out my pull ups (or hangs) while I get dinner ready, or work on homework etc. The original plan was to build it out of scaffolding pipe like the Kavadlo brothers so I would be able to move the bar up and down as well as work on flags; however I priced up the pipe at over $200 which was just too much for me at the time.

The specs:

I used 100x100mm H4 treated wooden posts for the whole thing; they stand 3 meters out of the ground with 1.1 meters underground. This was the maximum depth I could dig with the post-hole borer I was using. The posts were concreted in with 2 bags of cement per post ($40 total cost). The cement I used was a simple, pour in and water type, no mixing required. The frame is 1.8m wide to the outside as 1.8m is a standardised size for the posts. This makes the whole frame 3.1m high. The total cost for the wood was $60.

The set up for the bar was sized at three heights, the top is set so that I have a small jump to reach the bar so that I can do pull ups with a full hang. The next rung down was sized to give my head just enough clearance when doing muscle ups. The bottom rung is set up so that I can do Australian pull ups.

The rungs were made with old wood I had in the garage, but ideally they could be made with steel (salmon ladder anyone?). These are just screwed on and have held up very well. The ring bolts at the top are for attaching my gymnastic rings and rope ladder.

Pull up, Muscle up and Australian pull up height.

Notes and suggestions:

To get the frame level and square, set the top beam up first and square up the posts before adding the concrete. I was lucky that I could tie off to the fence behind the frame to hold it square while the concrete set.

Ideally I would have made the frame wider (approximately 2m to the inside) to allow for an iron cross to be performed, but realistically I would require training at a proper facility to work towards this skill. And since 1.8m is a standard size for the post that is the width I went with.

I would also have liked to build the frame 3.3m high so that I had room to jump to the pull up bar, muscle up, and still clear my head from the top beam. However the frame is way too big as it is, given the proximity of the neighbours house so I had to reign myself in a bit. I’m lucky the neighbour is a good guy and didn’t complain. 

Given the height, the frame does swing a bit, not enough to make it fall over but it did help to brace one side against the fence. I still need to brace the other side too which I haven’t done. If you are making one and don’t have a fence to brace off, you could set two extra posts a meter or so behind the frame and brace off that. You could even set it up to be parallel bars behind it.

One issue I have had with the way the bar is set up is that it can twist since it is not locked in. I think this may be why I can’t get a clean muscle up as the twisting means I cannot maintain a false grip. This would be solved with drilling the frame and bar for a pin (large nail) which was removable but prevented the bar from rolling.

All finished I am very happy with the frame I built. It’s extremely versatile and sturdy.

I've since made some improvements - see here

Rope ladder and Gymnastic rings

 

Homemade weight belt (dip belt)

Here is an easy one that I made about two years ago but never got around to posting. I got the idea from Ross Training. It’s super simple, and very cheap. Just need a pool noodle ($5), 1-1.5 meters of chain ($15) and a latch of some kind, I used a basic u-shackle which only cost a few dollars. Run your chain through the noodle (or cut down the length of the noodle to get the chain in), duct tape the hell out of it, throw on some weight and you’re ready for weighted pull up and dips.

I’ve been using kettlebells since that’s what I’ve got, but plates work just as well, if not better. Ross has had 100kg on his and it works just fine, I’ve loaded 48kg onto mine and it worked well.

Just a few notes and suggestions:

• Get large gauge chain and make sure your shackle will fit, don’t muck around with one that doesn’t fit.
• Use lots of duct tape as the chain will start to pull through the foam. Use even more than I have. I’ve run out of duct tape and need to get some more.
• Once the weights get heavier, set them up on a seat or in such a way they you can squat the weight up in a good position.

Chin up with 32kg kettlebell

Back after over a year.

I’m back into posting after over a year without a post. I’ve got lots in store and hope to keep the posts coming over the next couple of weeks. The last time I was posting I mentioned that I had just finished my Masters and hoped to post more and that clearly didn’t happen, I had lots on at the time (still do) but I now have so much to share its time to get back into it.

In the last year or so I had a job demonstrating in under graduate labs at the University of Auckland which I enjoyed a lot, then I got a basic labour job so I had ongoing work. I got into a graduate diploma of secondary teaching this year and that’s moving along well. I hope to get a teaching job next year with that. I also moved into my own place last year so expect to see some bigger projects in the next few posts.

So in the past year I’ve still been training hard and building more homemade gear which I intend to share. When I look back at my workout logs from when I was lasting posting I was working on 3, 4 or 5 pull ups with 16kg once a week in my workout. In the last couple of weeks I hit 3x10 pull ups with 16kg and 10x1 pull ups with 40kg working towards my goal of a one arm chin up early 2014. Also when I was last posting I was working on close grip push ups and I’m currently on 5x5 one arm push ups (with my feet 1.5x shoulder width apart). So my progress has been steady and heading upwards.

That’s all I’ve got for now, once this is posted I’m going to start work on the next few articles so stay tuned.

Bruteforce Sandbag Review

Right off the bat I’ve got to say I’m extremely happy with my bruteforce sandbag and that I think everyone and every gym should get one. I bought the black strongman shell, I really wanted the digicamo but at the time they only offered the shells in black (I would have needed to buy a kit with inner bags to get the digicamo). Since buying mine they now sell shells in any colour.  At the time I didn’t have the cash to get the inner bags, so I decided just to use my own inner bags (seen here) but these eventually started to leak sand, no big deal but the bruteforce inner bags would have been better.

The product information that came with the bag only warned that hitting it with a sledgehammer wouldn’t be good for it and not to set it on fire, all else is fair game. Sounds pretty tough to me. I’ve been dropping it from overhead and shoulder height for months now and never seen any sand left on the concrete, and no damage to the bag, so I’m happy.

The weight limit on the bag is just under 55 kg which is plenty of weight for most movements, but quite light for dead lifts. However Mark De Grasse from My Mad Methods loaded his up with kettlebells to 300 pounds for dead lifts with no issues from the bag or handles. And on the bruteforce facebook page there’s a photo of a bruteforce bag with 900 pounds hanging from a handle, so it would seem the weight limit is really just a limit on how much sand the bag can hold. Meaning you could probably build up to quite a bit of weight for dead lifts if you have the plates or kettlebells for weighting the bag, no barbell necessary.

The bag is great in terms of usability, leagues ahead of any homemade bag. The 8 handles are all useful for simulating most movements you can think of and the material itself is easy to grab a handful of. The material isn’t abrasive, so it’s not going to take your skin off if you want to do some shirtless shoulder get ups etc. The bag packs down to smaller than a sleeping bag, so it travels well, and looks like it could be hosed out easily, though I haven’t tried.

 

All in all, I think a bruteforce sandbag is an excellent addition to any backyard, garage or commercial gym and is well worth the money. Next up I’d like to get one of the barebones kits to really test my grip strength.

For Matt Palfrey's guest post on the benefits of sandbag training click here, or you can go directly to the source for workouts and other articles - Sandbag fitness. Matt has also produced an ebook on sandbag training with 30 weeks worth of programs, stay tuned for a review of that too. And if this post convinces you to buy a bruteforce sandbag, please head over for sandbag fitness and follow the links for there.

Updates and revisions

It has been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, not that I haven’t been busy with training etc, but I was finishing my Masters of Science thesis. It’s done now so I can get back to writing articles for back-to-primal. I was still training and building over my absence from here, so I have quite a few articles in mind so stay tuned.

Now for some revisions:

Some of the gear I build broke down, gave out, or has been modified since I posted it here. So I’ll go over some of the change I’ve made.

First up my gymnastic rings set up. I used quite cheap and thin straps; they were rated to hold my weight, but should not have been left out in the weather. Added to this, the straps spent their whole life rubbing against the edge of the beam I hung them on. So one day when I went out to do some ring assisted pistols and the strap just gave way and I fell flat on my ass. Switch to the other strap and that too gave way. I’m really lucky not to have the straps give way while skinning the cat, or attempting a back lever.

So this is my 2.0 set up. I went out and bought a second set of straps and a pair of bolts which I set into the wooden beam. I can now hook my straps into the bolt, the way the straps were designed. I can also take my straps down easily, so they don’t perish in the sun again. Moral of the story – don’t leave your straps out in the weather.

The second change I made to my rings was to cut the rope out and replace it with heavier straps. The rope was looking a bit perished from the sun and I didn’t want to risk them giving out too. The new straps (plus the hook I added) give me more options when setting up my rings, and are much safer than the rope set up I had.

Me using the version 2.0 rings with my homemade weight belt.

As for the sand bags, the larger 30 kg bag I built got very little use. The ropes I used were to thin, and difficult to use. Maybe some larger webbing would have worked better. But in the end, the outer bag wasn’t UV treated and just fell apart after summer. Luckily the inner bags stayed together.

Anyway, I bought myself a brute force sandbag (see my review) and used the inner bags for that. The only issue I’ve had with my inner bags is that I used very fine sand for filler which has worked its way out of the bags slowly. I’ve since put two of the inner bags into thick plastic bags to contain the sand. I may yet do this for all of my inner bags.

Finally my medicine ball has been padded and wrapped in a cheap camping mat ($10 NZ) to use as a slam ball. Its working really well, the duct tape is a little slippery, but that adds to the fun. I could tape it up with paper tape or something similar to add grip, but I’m happy with it for now.

That’s all my revisions for now. Stay tuned for more articles to come.

Thoughts on barefoot running and my half marathon

I’ve got a lot of things I want to say here, hence the length. I know attention spans are only around 500 words, so feel free to skip ahead to the sections that interest you. I want to share my thoughts and experience with barefoot running, particularly over long distance. I will also explain my training programme for the half marathon I recently completed, and the method behind the madness. Finally I’ll let you judge how well my training worked by sharing my experience of the race.

I want to get this out of the way first – I don’t believe humans evolved for endurance running, and I didn’t do this for my health. I did it to test my body and will power. I’m unconvinced by the claims and suggestions that humans evolved for endurance running, in fact I gave a talk for the Auckland University's Reason and Science Society on the topic (I should write that talk into a blog post). I fully understand that endurance running is not primal, and that it’s not good for my body. Now that’s out of the way. . .

Barefoot running and increasing your distance

Vibram five fingers are my primary shoes of choice, I wear them every day to work, I hike, and do parkour in them. When I run Tabata sprints I do them barefoot on a rugby field. For the previous year I did no other running but I thought all this barefooting would easily prepare me for running in vibrams – I was wrong. When I decided to do the half marathon I had 7 weeks to train and Mark de Grasse from My Mad Methods warned that I should build my distance up slowly to prepare my legs and joints for running, I’m so glad I took this to heart.

The first week I decided to test the water with a 2km run. I tried to with good form, high cadence, fore or mid foot strikes and most importantly – running quietly with little impact. The first km was easy, and then my achilles began to hurt. My calves are very short (in fact my whole posterior chain is short) and this meant that running barefoot was going to not so gently stretch out my claves and achilles. I thought 'that’s fine; I’ll just build up slowly'. The first two weeks I did four, 2km runs and by the end of the two weeks I had no pain in my achilles. The third week I upped the distance to 4km, again the final km was hard on the achilles. I never pushed this too hard, to avoid the risk of damaging myself. The next 4km run that week was fine. So I upped the distance to 6km and again that last km was hard on the tendons. At this point I knew that I had time to bring my distance up to 10km running comfortably, but after that it would be hard on my achilles. I thought I might push to 15km in the race then snap a tendon and I wasn’t willing to risk that.

So I decided to swap to my conventional running shoes for the rest of my training and for the race. I ran an 8km and a 10km in these shoes for the two weeks leading up to the race and found that due to the heel lift my claves and achilles were fine but the muscle crossing the front of the hip was working too hard and that would hurt after a run. However, that I could deal with, and I would stop running in the conventional shoes and swap back to building my running volume up in vibrams after the race.

Some thoughts and suggestions:

Mark Sisson says that training in a primal way by lifting heavy things and sprinting once a week is all the preparation you need to be able to jump into a 5 or 10km fun run if you feel like it. While primal training prepared my aerobic metabolism for running, it did not prepare my legs for long distance running, despite over 6 months of near exclusively walking in vibrams.

My suggestion to gauge how prepared you are for a given distance is to be able to comfortably run half that. This is why I built up to a 10km run, I found I could easily run 10km and feel fine the next day. I don’t know if this is the best way to go, maybe it’s too far, maybe not far enough but I feel like it’s a good rule of thumb. Another rule of thumb I have is to never run more than the distance you are training for in a single week for example when I trained for the half marathon I could do two 10km runs in a week, but I wouldn’t do three. Again this could be too much or not enough, but it seemed to work for me.

In addition to my weekly runs I did three kettlebell workouts which focused on both strength and conditioning (I was doing the strong as an Ox, lean as a Lion plan from My Mad Methods). I would also try to do one set of Tabata sprints each week, as well as either Tabata skipping or burpees when I had time. I really enjoyed this but often found myself quite worn out. I wouldn’t call this over-training, I would say I am under-trained, I intend on keeping up a similar training volume from now on, with shorter (and more intense) 2 or 4km runs being my distance of choice.

Running the half marathon (and the aftermath)

For the first 7km my legs were screaming at me to quit and walk back but I knew if I just keep running I would get in a groove. Between about 8 and 12km I was really in the zone and running well, at this point I was on time for a 1:45 finish. Then at 15km I hit the wall and couldn’t keep up the pace, I slowed down and all I could do was keep my legs turning over but still doing ok. Then just before 19km (about 1.5 miles from the finish) both of my calves cramped badly. I pushed through and kept running and got it for a 1:50:03 finish, which I’m happy with.

Aftermath: My hips and calves were killing me all afternoon, and when I got home I sat on the couch exhausted for the rest of the day. The next day the fronts of my hips were very painful and climbing stairs was hell. Even three days after the race I could still feel my hamstrings and ankles took a beating.

For the next race I plan to run in vibrams or invisible shoes, so I think I won’t have the same pain in the front of my hip. I also plan on taking in more water and electrolytes during the race to hold off the cramps. I’ll also be in a better position to start the build up next time.

Homemade Gymnastic Rings.

Gymnasts are incredibly strong, and this is due in no small part to their use of gymnastic rings. The rings bring a new level of intensity to all exercises such as press ups, pull ups, dips etc. Since one has to stabilise the forward/backward and side to side movement of the rings, all exercises require and develop much more strength and stabilisation than if they were performed on a straight bar alone. It is for this reason I decided I would get a set of gymnastic rings. But when I looked into it they often cost the better part of $100, money I just don’t have right now.

Luckily for me I stumbled upon a blog where someone had made their own set of gymnastic rings and that reawakened the desire to have a set for myself.  The blog I saw these on first was The Crucible Gym, who got the idea from Ross Training.

These rings were made with PVC pipe softened in an oven then formed into an arc to stand as the bottom half of a gymnastic ring. I was able to get a metre of 25mm PVC pipe for free but it would have only cost $10 NZ to buy. I cut these down to 50cm so that I had two pieces which would give me rings of approximately 18cm in diameter (18cm X 3.14 = 56cm) which is the standard size of a gymnastic ring. The rings were formed around a pair of dumbbell plates I borrowed off a friend, these plates were just the right size for rings, but others have used pots to form their rings.

To prep the pipe for forming I put a length of rope through the pipe, with enough rope to tie up tightly to form the rings (see pictures down the page). This rope must be cotton or some other material which will not melt in the oven, I used plumber’s hemp. Next I taped one end of the pipe and filled it tightly with sand then taped up the other end. The sand prevents the pipe from collapsing when bent into a circle. It is important that the sand be packed in hard so that if the ring isn’t formed right, you can put it back in the oven and try again. If the sand is too loose it will shift on the first attempt and on the second attempt the pipe may collapse or fold in places, giving you a warped ring.

While I prepared the pipe I pre heated the oven to 150˚C. I didn’t have any baking paper to put down on the tray I was using which meant I had to scrub melted duct tape off the tray, which was a pain. The pipes take about 10 minutes each in the oven to soften up, in which time the duct tape melts so if you have a more heat resistant tape I suggest using it. While it softened I set up my dumbbell overhanging the kitchen bench, DO NOT copy my dodgy set up, the dumbbell fell off the bench, but luckily missed mine and my photographers toes. Find a more stable way to set up your dumbbell if you use one.

After 10 minutes I took the pipe out with leather work gloves and gently bent and stretched the pipe around the dumbbell then tied the rope tight around the top to let it cool down. While the first piped cooled I put the second pipe in the oven. After the pipe had hardened up sufficiently I removed it from the dumbbell and placed it in the sink to cool further. Once both rings were cool I took out the rope and sand. To complete the ring I put a piece of rope through the pipe twice and tied off.  

In the back yard I have a big old frame that I think used to be a kids swing frame, it’s now the frame for my gymnastic rings. To hang the rings I bought a pack of four tie downs for $25 NZ (the two pack was only $15 NZ). Hanging the rings was easy, and I can also use the second pair of tie downs to lower the rings for dips, or lower them down to just above the ground for press ups. Or I can swap the rings out for a straight bar if I like.

So for $25 NZ I made a set of gymnastic rings in under an hour, instead of giving up the better part of $100.

Enjoy, and work hard.

Edit: Since building these I made some changes to the set up. Here are the updates.