Phayze

"Grind" is such an ugly word... >< Do you mean that you're grating yourself on the wall, or that you're feeling something crunchy inside? If it's the wall, then I would try to pull your shoulders back farther to keep your scapula flat - mine have a tendency to "wing", and I think you and I have similar body types, so that's something you might want to be mindful of. Somewhere I read that there should be enough room to slip a hand between the wall and the small of your back, but no more than that. If it's crunchy internals, then I'm not so sure... could be an alignment thing that would come with practice, or it could be a mobility limitation that may require some supplemental exercise. Have you ever tried the tennis ball torture thing I linked in my thread the other day? If you have muscle knots in there, they could be interfering with the movement. The way I do them, I try to press my head, butt, shoulder blades and the backs of my arms as flat against the wall as possible and keep them there throughout the movement. I don't think I've ever felt grinding, but then most of my progress with this move came from loosening up my chest and shoulder muscles enough to get everything flat - until that happened, I just started with keeping my knuckles to the wall and worked my way down from there.

Well, I stand corrected! When I looked earlier, Lannister was leading, but now that the Starks have rallied I guess I'll have to adjust my sights. ^^ Melting Heart Cobbler Crab One Leg Bridge Triangle Umm... there's no rule about doing these well is there? I'm not nearly as bendy as some of ya'll. ^^; Anyway, now it's time for my 120 jumping jacks. Yay! ^^

Sure hope so... Targaryen has lost the crushing lead we had when I went to bed yesterday. We've got Lannisters to snipe!

I'm going to be doing A LOT of jacks at work tonight... 0o

Awesome! I love that rush when something just falls into place and suddenly makes sense like that. ^^ I did something similar for several months over the winter - mine were squats, pushups and pull ups, but I noticed pretty significant strength gains in all of the above. I think it's extremely helpful to simplify and laser in on just a few exercises.

Nice! Indomitable, indeed. ^^ How are you feeling about the posture stuff? Any particular move really melting your butter?

I've heard that about ninjas! I seriously considered one, but knowing how accident prone I am... well, it just didn't seem wise. Enjoy the rest day!

Crap days are crappy, but heroes like you know better than to let that get in the way of saving Gotham/the world/omelets/whatever. You got this, kid! ^^

HabitRPG is friggin awesome. There's no way I could keep up with my current output without it. Did you find a party? I tried inviting you to the assassins party a couple times a while back, but it told me you were already in one. Great job SISUing! ^^

Rowan: That's Banjoman. I would never presume to claim the title. I'm more like Gristle Boy. ^^ The accident happened while putting the final touches on a new anti gravity device. --- Daryl: Awesome! Spreading the joy of Dart Life is about to become my new mission in life. If you have any questions, let me know. I'm still a rookie, but I'd be happy to help however I can. ^^

Agreed! 0o --- Half Lord of Fishes. That's 5 for me today.

Belladonna: it looks like you and I both went for camel at the same time, so I did the jacks and reclaimed it for Targaryen. ^^

Yoga TO THE DEATH sounds just about right for GoT and this wiley bunch! camel lizard Bow upward dog FIRE AND BLOOD... and YOGA!! Edit: muuuuch better. ^^

Thanks, Alexa! I’m pretty proud of The Boy for getting into the spin. ^^ --- "How long are planning on hiding behind me like that?" "Depends... when do you think he'll stop to reload?" Sit-Rep #2: “Tactical Maneuvering†Front-liner: 8/8 Feeling better about butt-kicks, so I’m leveling up to slap tuck jumps AND starting with week 3, I’ll be including power pushes as well. So happy that my shoulder is back to normal! ^^ Fire Support: 4/4 When I’m using the tennis ball on my back, I keep hitting these bands of gristle that snap and twang like banjo strings. Is that okay? Meanwhile in the lower body, my calves are no longer speaking to me. o0 Assault: 5/5 Definitely showing improvements in my aim. I’ve been hanging up an old coat to shoot at, focusing on the carhartt logo on the breast pocket. I ought to come up with a way to keep score... Scout: 3/3 The coin tricks are kind of cute and fun, but honestly, I’m not enjoying it as much as I expected to. I’ll give it a little more time, but I may swap this out for something else if I don’t start getting more into it. Mrs. Phayze expressed an interest in performing a fight scene together, just for the heck of it, so I may start working on choreography for that instead. Rifleman: 13.5/14 I did miss one lousy chore last week, so I can’t claim perfect scores again, but I think it’s still safe to say that all is well in HabitRPG land. In my defense, the time that I should have spent on chores was instead spent at the doctor’s office, so it’s not like I was just being lazy. Still, with a little more planning I really could have worked it in. Generalist: I have given entirely too much attention to this mini... o0 245 situps (which I haven’t done in years!!), 350 squats and 45 burpees (which I generally avoid). I wanted to do a little more, but I was pretty well shattered by the weekend and just didn’t manage to squeeze anything else out. +1 STR! Battle Report: It was a short week, so full points weren’t available, but I managed to get everything I could out of it. Week 3 brings me back to my regular grind, and should be a fairly light-duty one at work, so I’m expecting to maintain my momentum, barring any especially insane complications. *cue nuclear explosion* In other news, I almost drilled a hole through my finger the other day. I was anchoring a bookshelf to the wall, the drill slipped and, well... it hurt. A bunch. I saw the blood, ran for the sink and got it cleaned out pretty quick, so it’s healing nicely. There’s a puncture on one side of the fingertip, and a loose skin flap on the other that made me think I’d gone straight through, but on closer inspection, I’m pretty sure that the screw flipped over and tore off the flap while the drill was perforating me, making this more of a “pinch†than a “punchâ€. The moral of the story? Use your screw guide bits, people!! This could save your life. The funny part is that my first thought was “Damnit! How am I going to do my grip training now!?†It’s no biggie, though. It sounds worse than it really is, and I did my fingertip planks with no problems. ^^

4/21 -Shotgun Training: Calves Day 100 Bent Leg Calf Raises 60 Toes Raises -Explosives! 6x3 blocking butt kicks -mobility warm-up -Handbalance: Max Hold Crow Pose, 30s rest, Repeat -Confusion Fu: 1 ball CJ playtime. -Good Behavior 30/30 Full Squats 12/8 Horizontal Pulls (bw rows) Rest as needed -10:00 meditation -Garlic Eaten: 0/3 Feeling the butt kick more evenly today - probably going to drill this one for what's left of the week. Weak on the squats because this doesn't include all the extra squats I'm doing for the mini. 4/22 -Shotgun Training: Grip Day Max Hold: Vertical Hang 20s Rest Max Hold: Fingertip Plank 20s Rest Repeat 2x -Explosives! 6x3 Blocking Butt-kick Jump -mobility warm-up -Handbalance: Max Hold Crow Pose, 30s rest, Repeat -mobility warm-up -Confusion Fu: Adv. Neck Wrap from DVD -10:00 meditation -Garlic Eaten: 1/3 4/23 -Shotgun Training: Neck Day 7/5 Wrestler's Bridge 7/5 Front Bridge (front, left, right) -Explosives! 6x3 Blocking Butt-Kick Jump -mobility warm-up -Confusion Fu: Scorpion Spits Venom -Good Behavior 60s Crow Pose 40/25 Bent Bridges -Garlic Eaten: 2/3 Leveling up crow pose! I'll level up the jumps next week, too. 4/24-4/25: Rest Days. I'm giving waaaay to much attention to this current mini challenge... I had no idea I was so competetive! o0

Here here! ^^

Tom Fazzio. Dude spins like a BOSS. And, of course, the above-mentioned Frank Hatsis. ^^ I consider myself a technical pacifist, but for some reason, I've always felt the most like myself when I'm studying a combat style. Rope dart scratches that itch without requiring formal lessons or partner training, so it's waaay easier to integrate into my life than something like kendo.

Not a bad start! How's week 2 been? Slay any dragons recently? I have struggled with the "all or nothing" workout mentality too. I bypassed it by designing minimalist workouts that require as little setup as humanly possible, that way I could just jump in, get it done, and move on. HabitRPG helps too, because I hate seeing my HP drop. ^^

Ha! I've had that same experience with foods that I've given up. There are lots of things that I used to enjoy, but now I feel ill even thinking about putting in my mouth. Dr Pepper was always on that list, though - I used to be sprite drinker. I'm glad you enjoyed your day off. You totally earned it! ^^

Seconded!

I love all of the introspection that comes with your updates. You're like a nerdy combat-philosopher! Kicking ass and reflecting on the significance of asses and kicking in the greater context of the mind-ass connection. Might I recommend pigeon pose for your knees? I have patella-femoral tracking issues (basically, my left knee cap doesn't stay where it belongs), and I've found daily pigeons to be miraculous. is also aces.Also, calf raises might help to strengthen your ankles/feet against the abuse of running, though I'll admit that I'm no expert there - I hate endurance running.

I'm with Mike, you should probably wait to make the switch over until you see if what you're doing more is getting you anywhere. A pound up in a week sounds like you're doing something right. See!? I told you it was great. ^^

Gee, thanks, but I think you're overestimating my ability a bit. ^^; Here's how I got where I am now: 1) Make a sock dart. I used crap I had lying around the house; cost me $0.00. Use smooth rope to avoid blisters (I learned that the hard way... ><), and experiment with different amounts of weight in the dart head until you find what works for you. You want it heavy enough to move fluidly, but not so heavy that it's hard to spin, or hurts much when you get to Step 2. 2) Hit yourself. A lot. I'm serious, getting over the fear of impact is probably the single most important part of learning this prop. This part was fairly easy for me, because I have history with martial arts and I'm just kind of accident prone, so I don't have much flinch left. 3) Learn the basic . It sounds weird, but starting here made proper rope dart moves much easier for me, somehow.4) Worship Frank Hatsis, Lord of the Dart! His beginner tutorials are great and his DVD that he sells is totally worth $25, but don't buy it until you've mastered the free stuff. Check out the other RDA guys, too; they've all got quality tutorials. 5) Scour YouTube for tutorials and demo vids. Wildfire Retreat has a playlist with lots of "class recaps" that go over moves and concepts in a super-condensed form that I've found useful, but challenging. is slowly grinding through creating a super-basic intro series that's kind of slow, but pretty helpful, especially for nervous rookies. is not for the feint of heart - it's long, in Chinese with crappy English subs, and very low res, HOWEVER if you're patient with it, you can extract some good stuff. If nothing else, skip to the end and watch him show off his target practice skills - Epic! o06) the great folk guitarist Doc Watson was once asked "how'd you get so good at the guitar?" Doc, a 70-something blind man, replied casually "uh, you practice like the devil" in that slow, Carolina drawl of his. Words to live by. And yes, my apprentice will surely surpass me one day. I'm not about to make it easy on him, though. *evil laugh*

Thanks,T! Glad you enjoyed my pain... I think. 0o

Here's a little something you might like: Rope Dart Practice! ^^