pandapanda

Oh wait Hurricane. I guess I'll do upper body stuff with my bar and rings at home. Got a good setup for working all the parts of the upper body.

It hewrts. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I did parkour for 2+ hours. On Saturday I killed it: three different parks with big stuff. Today I gotta go lift. Ewps!

I kill nothing D': Cept da cows n chickens for my noms nodnod* This morning was jolly: FS 3x5 170lbs DBBP 3x7 65lbs DBBC 2x5 25lbs, 1x8 25lbs BBRW 3x7 90lbs PU 3x7 (hell) Parkour on the morrow!

I took the week to rest because the back twinge wasn't going away. But I reset my sleep schedule and I'm starting to get up around 5-6am. I hope it'll make it easier to fit a workout into my days without interference from homework. The break came about because school got very intense last week. Excited to start fresh on Monday!

Thanks, JS! So this weekend was academic murder because I got assigned to represent a young man who was suspended from school. It took a lot of time to prep for meeting and interviewing him. The hearing is on Friday. NYC has an incredibly odd process of conducting suspensions: essentially to put the kid on trial!! o.o I lifted on Friday and Sat - the best I could do with all this work. I figure that at the least I need to make sure I keep up with my lifting schedule. Fri BS 175lbs 3x5 DBBP 60lbs 3x7 DBBC 30lbs 3x7 DL 185lbs 3x5 Sat BS 235lbs 3x1 DBBP 60 3x7 DL 255 3x1 DBBC 35 3x7 Go fight win!

Oug, tweaked my back a little on the front squats. Maybe I should've gone lighter to re-start. My first set was a little messy on form because I let the weight go just a tad too far forward. I fixed it for most of set 2 and all of set 3 by lifting my elbows more to put the bar against my throat more. It looks like my flexibility has diminished a little. Welps, better that I figured it out in that one workout. Thoughts on meditation coming soon! I'm not going to do parkour during the week because I'm a little pressured by schoolwork. I'll make it up with the runs I've been missing out on! And a swim?!

Thanks, Titanium!! Today was another lifting day: FS 3x5 @ 135lbs DB BP 3x7 @ 60lbs (per hand) OHP 3x7 @ 75lbs (I'm weak, what of it? Esp after the DB BP ) Seated Cable Rows 3x7 @ 100lbs, 1x7 @ 118lbs DB BC 3x7 @ 25lbs (killer after all the bicep aux work in the DB BP and OHP) TOTALLY conscious that I haven't gone for any good runs, bike rides, or swims. I'm trying to think how I'd like to factor them in. Maybe i should just be satisfied with parkour twice a week for endurance training. I'm trying to be cautious about continuing to increase my workout load: I went from 0-60 pretty quick, and it's looking to be sustainable in tandem with my school work (law school is evil - as is nursing school, so I've heard on these forums ). I just don't know how much more I can or am willing to increase. For example, I had plans to stretch ever morning and night for 15 minutes to improve my middle splits, but it was too much on top of what I'm doing already. I'll just keep this challenge simple. For the next 6 I'll reassess and see where I can work-work-work it. Maybe if I continue at this rate through the 6 weeks I'll begin to see my old 1RMs on the horizon. (Except the 150kg back squat. That seems a ways away). Thanks again for all the support!

Today: Squats 3x1 225lbs DB bench 3x7 55lbs (per hand) Deadlift 3x1 245lbs Bicep curls (no shame) 3x7 35lbs (switch orig plan: biking tomorrow) And I bought tons of chicken, tuna, whey, applesauce, fruits n veggies, and more to fuel me through the next week! Thanks for the inspiration, Staci (where ever you are)~!

Ahh, steel speaks a truth most humbling: Back squats 3x5 170lbs DB bench press 3x7 110lbs Pull-ups 3x7 Dips 3x7 Bicep curls (shameful, I know) 2x7 25lbs (hellish after all the upper body work)

Tuesday parkour was strength-training murder. So yesterday was a rest! And...today is a rest because I had insomnia last night...and I'm going out tonight. I'll lift tomorrow, run Sat, lift Sun. I gotta plan meals. Humpf! So far we are go-go green on all goals! I've been using the meditate goal as part of two 15 minute stretching sessions everyday. Good stuff~!

There's also a trick for "kipping" up to the top so you can put your feet on the wall and not your knees. When you're "topped out" (you're on the wall with your hannds, your arms are extended, and your lower body is against the wall) you push/kick with one leg to boost your body up. Then you just tuck and tah-dah! No knees needed! You can see it at 3'12" in the vid posted by azsf!

I agree, trigga, RW deserves like. A huge amount of moto points!

Ewps, panda fail! I thought that's what we were talking about. Well, that and the top out. So um, my essay up there is about wall passes That's what we call 'em too!

Yay for quadrupedal! I didn't know the acronym QM is a pretty good one...definitely a staple of training. In the last two years people have been doing incredible contact work (butt or whatevs) which blends nicely with QM. E.g.: Woah O:

Yay! Good luck getting into it! I recommend finding like-minded people, finding tutorials online, and going at your own pace and respecting your fear. There is def tons of low, safe stuff upon which you can build exceptional parkour abilities

I like azsf's idea! Raincloak's too. Also get on YouTube and find all the safety tutorials you can. Go slow and be careful even in your backyard. Maybe that will show your parents you can be trusted to go elsewhere? Good luck!

From my angle: landings are the #1 thing to learn as a beginner. You're going to jump off stuff for a near certainty! So I super recommend learning to do it right - whether with a roll or using both legs and hands! This + leg conditioning (squats and weighed squats) will serve you throughout your pk career

Hey RW, I have a few suggestions that I didn't read above. One of them is to make sure you have a compact body. Some people said to tighten, but I think a good focus is to tighten inward (which the chin-to-chest thing would help). See this tutorial in the section "Torso" for a visual on what I mean: http://www.beastskills.com/the-handstand/ Second! As to the wall use - I'd say the wall & open spaces are a good supplement to the training. Wall training can just *keep you up* so that you train the strength. Kicking up will get you used to the balance and such. But practice the wall both facing towards and away from the wall. When I see student practice facing away from the wall, they always try to kick off the wall to practice. This is good, but their whole body is OPEN - not the CLOSED position that I and BeastSkills (and Rafe) say is good-to-go. I say it's better to balance off the wall: have your body in the correct position and use one leg to gently push yourself off the wall until you have your balance. Then pull that leg in. Ta-dah! And facing in towards the wall is helpful, too! Mostly cause it keeps that closed position. It's also a good position from which to do handstand push-up negatives (the first stepping stone to full-blown HSPU). Jeez. I gotta get my handstand back! Thank you, inara and NoiSe! I didn't know about the fingers focus! That makes so much sense and sure would save a lot of wrist pain. Much better than palm-centric. But, as to your question, RW, I'll have to think: I don't think the palm should be elevated but now I'm not sure if it doesn't elevate just a tad - especially when you push through your fingers to prevent yourself falling over. PS there are some good drills for shoulder position and the closed position. If you msg me I'll try and explain. Best!

I getcha. Practicing topping out, muscling up is great for strength, but you're trying to do it all in one smooth go. I getcha! There is def a coordination to it. Smaller walls (like those two) are great for finding that fluidity. You said that the second wall gave you enough room to get all the parts in and its a challenge. Sounds like a well-balanced challenge!

Thanks for the link. Looks like consistency is key. Oh boy. I'll get on it - I just created a great carpet space in my room. It's perfect!! D:< An extra goal for the challenge, I think

Yeah! Butt wink! I know what that is! That's what I was talking about - but is it a problem when it's that low? I'll consult the Prophet (Googly). Hope it helped, happienumber!

Thanks, Ferone and ManofKent. I actually had a freakout last night because I realized that, in switching my insurance to NY, I took off comprehensive insurance which covers the bike if its stolen. I didn't mean to - I took it off because I thought it only covered extra stuff on the bike (like improvements, or if I was carrying my laptop and it fell out of my bag or something). So no recovery?! Super stressed me out. BUT I found out this morning (when I called quite panic'd) that, I was still covered by my comprehensive from Washington! Alhamdulilah! So it was like I had a little grace period xD Epic save get! Of course...made me realize that christ, how horrible would it have been if it was HEALTH insurance which suddenly left me out in the cold. Christ, there's a good reason to get the big O back in the whitehauz... Thanks for all the support! I took a great, quick bike ride to class today. Tomorrow is more parkour epicness. Lifting Wednesday, PK Thurs, lifting Sat. Oh, it's gunna be a good week.

Those are looking good. I noticed that your first two or three had the wrong angle, but the passes (on the short wall) at 0'32" and 0'40" had the swoop I'm talking about (was that post useful, or too much to absorb? Maybe something to return to later). What are you training? I think, since you're not trying to top out ("topping out" is the term, "muscle up" is also used; I wasn't able to remember the term "top out" before ), that your goal is to work the traction under your foot. If that's the case, I recommend practicing running up the wall without using your hands. To do this, you'll use that slight lean back and when you put your foot on the wall you'll try to hover there for a few milliseconds. The feeling is distinct: you stall out. Then, when you begin to fall again, look down and make a soft landing. When I practice these and get up to the higher stuff, I need to turn off the wall and land with my legs and with my arms. Here you'll probs just need your legs. Just be sure that you've got a good landing: full body extension just before landing! Looking good! If you want to come into Manhattan sometime I'd love to do a meetup and a one-on-one hard-to-the-core wall training sesh!

kekeke :> Thanks! The basic idea developed over the past 6 years (tho I didn't practice in the last year) - and with input of the true Seattle masters - so I hope other experts will find it valid, too!

So re: getting up. I think azsf totally has it right. In that video, the guy has his fingers over the opposite lip. It makes it so much easier that way. It's almost a different technique. I would phrase it as "push with your legs and pull with your palms to put your upper chest on top of the wall". With your upper chest on the wall, just push up like it's a dip. As to the wall pass - the slipping. Wall passes depend on the friction between the sole of our shoe and the wall. Forgetting the shoe-sole-rubber and wall-material interaction this leaves us with 3 variables: (i) the angle of our leg-and-foot into the wall, (ii) the energy or momentum we create to either (a) pushes the foot into the wall (from our speed approaching the wall) or ( jump up the wall (from our jumping leg in the last step), and (iii) the downward force that we exert as we push to go up the wall. In short, getting a "high foot" seeks to optimize the angle of our foot on the wall. (Really we're creating a lever with our foot in the same way that gymnasts "block" to turn their forward momentum into vertical momentum), but two other components remain! To prevent foot slippage (assuming perfect foot angle) we'll need to learn the proper ratio of energy into and up the wall BEFORE we touch the wall, and the amount of energy we PUSH into the wall. To make this clearer: (1) if we run at a wall very quickly, when we put our foot on the wall we have a lot of friction because our foot is pressing into the wall with all the force of our horizontal movement towards the wall. The more speed, the more friction, and the more friction, the more that we can push up the wall without slipping. (2) if we jump really hard as we get to the wall, we create upward momentum which means that we have to push LESS down into the wall. If we have to push less to achieve the same upward result, that means that we have less of a chance to slip - more friction to work with! When I teach wall passes, I notice that people need the most help with their APPROACH: that's (ii)(a)&(. (a) how fast you run INTO the wall, and ( how hard you JUMP up the wall. This will prevent slipping by giving more friction with speed and by jumping upwards, you'll need to push into the wall less, so you'll use less of your available friction. As you approach the wall, you want to do a few things: (1) Swoop your body low IN THE LAST STEP to load the jumping leg (so pretty close to the wall). (2) Launch off your jumping leg as you (a) reach high with your wall leg and ( lean slightly back and look up towards your goal. (I know that the slight lean-back instruction is unexpected, but it's a good habit to build because it will teach a tracer (sic) to create space for working on two-step wall passes). You've seen a graph of -1/x, amirite? (If not, go here and enter -1/x into "y1=" and press "graph". I promise this will make sense in a second). As the line approaches zero from the negative x-axis, it swoops up towards infinity on the y-axis. That's what we want our wall pass to resemble. This will make sure we have maximum upward momentum and maximum momentum towards the wall. And that's how you create friction by pushing into the wall and by needing less friction by jumping really hard! (Also, another point to this whole thing is to have enough left-over upward energy at the end of a wall pass so that your muscle-up doesn't take any extra effort). I hope this helps! I'm happy to answer any questions!