lyranedara

Thanks, rybo! I still have a lot to work on, but I'm quite pleased with my progress.

I thought I'd do a quick write up of my training this week. Tuesday: Rest, recovery work Wed: Kick up to handstand hold practice (Had best hold ever. Maybe 5-6 seconds. I really lingered in the hold.) Thursday: Played around with variations in this video: Finished with divebombers (FUN), and hollow body push ups. Triceps are a bit sore today.

You could have your whole challenge revolve around recovery, since you know you'll keep up with your training. What kind of events are coming up?

It looks like we'll be doing a lot of the same things. I'm interested to see what you settle on for your goals.

Yeah, I was referring to a comment she made in her thread about noticing better ab definition, even while sticking to her hydration goal.

I think Waldo mentioned something about when your weight goes up, but your waist stays the same/decreases, you are gaining lean mass. Personally, I like to use my clothes as a guideline. As for you, I think seeing more ab definition is a good sign.

Haha, thanks, Animal Man. Considering how strong you are already, I'm not sure how much hollow holds will challenge you, but they are definitely worth the practice! I'm looking forward to your challenge as well! You are always so much to fun to follow along with.

You are the king of suspense! I never know what you are going to do next. Can't wait to find out.

Wow, that is an incredible change in just 3 cycles! I'm so glad I've gotten to follow along with your progress. Very inspiring.

When I tried it the first time, it felt impossible. My head seemed to weigh 100 lbs. I remember thinking that anyone who said it was easy was a liar, lol. When I did it this time, it wasn't really that bad. It was definitely another one of those skill over strength feelings, and I wasn't sure what I thought of myself. I don't know that I'll ever have it down, but I'm definitely much improved. I still feel very restricted through several areas, but I'm happy to continue working. That would be so much fun to trade knowledge in person! I say trade because there's no way I'm meeting you without requesting some proper KB instruction. I'm still not sure what I want to do. I usually have the next challenge planned halfway through the one I'm working on, lol. I just realized I haven't even gone back to look through my bookmarked links for the last 6 weeks. I'm really happy with the way my training is going right now. I'm getting plenty of variety, while progressing on a few key movements. I'm not sure I want to switch my focus yet. What I may do is work on adding my morning mobility routine back in. I got lazy over the summer, but now that school is back in session, I think it would help get me going in the morning. My husband is going to be insanely busy this semester, which I'll try to summarize in a later post, and I'll be back to single-parenting most of the time. I may try to add meditation somewhere in my day, just to center myself. I always feel better when it's a habit. Another idea I had was to reincorporate specific flow sequences, undulating them with the intensity of the training day. I've fallen back into the no, low, moderate, high cycle, and it's really going well. I've been doing mostly freestyle flows, and I think I'd like the challenge of learning and dedicating a sequence to memory again. None of that is particularly exciting. Maybe I'll see something worth trying when I go through my articles. I feel like I'm firmly in maintenance mode at the moment. Any suggestions?

I always love your wrap ups. You make such great strides with every challenge! And woot for extra abs.

It always amazes me how active you are while resting. Maybe I'm getting lazy. Do you have a floor preference for other balance postures as well? It's interesting that you found the solid surface harder to work with. A lot of people seem to like the extra control it provides.

I'm glad it worked out so well for you too. I would have felt rather silly. As much progress as you've made in 6 weeks, I'm sure you'll get it even sooner than you think!

I don't think I've ever noticed such dramatic skill transfer with any other exercise I've tried to focus on. The hollow hold has helped me in so many ways now, it's hard to count, lol. Have you had a chance to give the lever another try? My abs are quite sore today, inside and out. Thanks! It was certainly difficult, and I had to be mindful to not resort to talking through gritted teeth. We've made great progress though!

Nice work, and congrats!

Very nice! And I love the way you analyzed each goal. It's looks like you've learned a lot about how to structure your training and nutrition for future happiness and success.

Ryan shared this video earlier today, so I decided to give it another try. Honestly, I think spending so much time on the hollow body position is what really made the difference for me. I love the challenge transitions provide, and it's so much fun to string moves seamlessly from one to the next. It does take a while to commit it to memory though, lol.

No problem! So I decided to give the double arm lever another try today. It's been 4 or 5 months since I've attempted it, and I couldn't even get my head off the floor then. http://youtu.be/AYa4GnXGrgQ Not exactly static, but definitely progress!

1. Improve movement quality. Keep working my way through BASL, and maintain the minimum dose of 10 minutes per day. A Make time for daily movement exploration, can be spread throughout the day. A Scott Sonnon's posture flow (6 min) any day I sit for an extended period of time. A 2. Continue strength training. L sits, pistols, handstands frequently A Play with my toys occasionally. ("sandbag," parallettes, dumbbells, pull up tower, bands) A Make a calendar that I can jot down the focus of each day. This will allow me to see what I've been up to at a glance. A 3. Eat to be lean. Try a new vegetable, or a new veggie recipe at least once a week B Start tracking again to make sure I'm not eating too much/little. C 4. Life Stop yelling. B 1. I probably spend about an hour a day just working on mobility and playing around with movements. It's likely even more than that, but because of how much I spread it out, I don't know for sure. I do know that I'm continuing to move better, and I love the way I feel. For the next challenge, I think I'm going to work on maintaining this, while getting back into my morning mobility routine. 2. I'm continuing to make progress here. My L-sits and handstands have improved the most, but the pistol is coming along. It was nice to have a few movements to keep my training grounded, while still allowing me to try lots of new things. This is the most fun I've had with my training in a while! While I didn't add weight as often as I thought I would, I used a lot of my other toys quite frequently, and in new ways. The calendar worked out extremely well, and it really helped me stay on track. I think I'd like to make a calendar that includes my challenge goals so that I can see my other goals frequently as well. 3. I kind of got lazy here and only tracked a few days a week. I just wasn't all that interested in it, so I decided not to push myself. Maybe I'll go back to tracking strictly eventually, but I don't really feel the need to right now. I made or tried something new every week but one. I'm still not in love with veggies, but I realized that I do eat more than I thought, even if the variety is not great. I think it may be time to play with other herb and spice combinations, to see if there are different flavors I enjoy. This could keep me from getting so bored with my food. 4. We've made great strides here, but this is still a work-in-progress. I have learned to be more mindful of the way I try to solve our problems.

I can't see myself giving it up any time soon. Through this challenge, I've been doing mostly freestyle flows. I think I may go back to more structured flows for the next one.

There are a lot of flows on Matt's channel under the Prasara playlist. Don't be afraid to make substitutions with skills you are more comfortable with. Let me know if there's anything else you need.

For Elastigirl: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_30_second_mobility_cure

Nice! You've made such great progress everywhere. Even with your crazy schedule, you managed to crush this challenge. Congrats!

Awesome!!! For some reason, I heard this after reading that first part. I blame it on not being fully awake yet. That's the goal though, that you have such amazing ninja skills that your body takes over before your brain even knows what's happening.

I'm not sure which ones you are referring to. Do you remember a few of the movements that were in them? Here's a few I really enjoy, and I think you may have commented about the kong flow before. Here you go. I'll link a few more after I get my son off to school. Haha, yes. They didn't feel that bad until the last reps of each set, but when I woke up the next morning, my abs were angry.