Finisterre

Ugh I hate holding dish. Arch is fine, dish is the devil. Although spot the aerialist - toes pointed the whole time

You're probably using your lower back to lift yourself with - it's very common for people to be more flexible in their lower back than anywhere else. It can also result from not using your abs to control the lift (i.e. you're only lifting with your back muscles). There's three things you can do to help here Work on upper back mobility. This pose is a really good one to help with that Start lying face down and slowly lift your back, mobilising each vertebrae whilst keeping your head relaxed. Thinking about lengthening your spine while you do - you don't want to crunch your spine at all. Focus on keeping your abs engaged while you lift your back. Try this standing - lean back without engaging your abs. You'll find that you tend to mostly bend at the waist (and will probably find it hard to stay upright!). Now do the same thing keeping your abs engaged. You should find that your bend is more even throughout your spine (and it's easier to keep standing ). In fact, keep everything engaged. This will help keep you elongated. Try to find a point between "chest on the floor and this isn't a challenge" and "chest off the floor and back hurting". As Hazard said, the height is not important. Also, depending on how, um, endowed you are in the chest region, it can be difficult to have your chest fully off the floor. As a fairly busty lass myself, it takes a pretty immense back arch for me to fully have my chest off the floor whereas somebody flat chested can manage it quite easily!

Mhmmm, it'll depend on your personal strength levels. Many of my male circus friends struggle more with the arch hold because they have really good ab strength and less back strength. I find the arch much easier because I'm a natural backbender and have much greater back than ab strength. Although in the interests of being a responsible adult, if you are finding you get significantly higher numbers on the arch than the hollow hold, please don't overdo that in the interests of putting numbers up on this. Over-strengthening your back in comparison to your abs can lead to some pretty major back problems so tempting as it might be, if you're only getting say 20 dish seconds, to go for minutes of arch please don't! Love, your friendly local back bend obsessive

We have one hot straight aerialist dude who I have had a thing for forever but lack the balls to act on :'( Tbh I think the best parkour gyms are the more permanent ones. You can get waaayyy cooler stuff in if you don't have to be able to move it around or put it away.

Hahahaha this is my exact problem too! Circus guys all seem to be either gay or arseholes (with the occasional unicorn of a nice straight guy being snapped up at light speed). Parkour does tend to have more straight guys though so you may be in luck

How is it Wednesday already?? Honestly I have been a disaster this week. Monday Woke up to find that one of my rat's had died in the night. She'd been poorly at the end of last week and plummeted over the weekend so it wasn't a huge surprise but still sad. I did spend the whole day moping and basically eating my own body weight in food so that was a thing. Tuesday Tuesday was actually going really well until I made the mistake of stopping at a service station on the way home from class and ended up with a whole load of hot cross buns. I'd been tracking calories really well up till that point... Class itself was really good though. I'd been a bit concerned as the hoop class was moved into the same venue and we were sharing the rig, but each class was pretty quiet so it worked out ok in the end. Worked on a couple of new moves (crucifix and amazon in the ropes), played with some old moves, accidentally made a move up (then promptly almost killed myself trying to replicate it) and did some more single toe hang work. I'm still nowhere near being able to hold it but got my foot a little further before I fell off than I did last week. Baby steps, baby steps. When I first started working on single hock hangs I didn't think I'd ever be able to hang from just one leg, but now I'm totally comfortable doing it so if I keep drilling it the same thing will happen with toe hangs Also did some splits stretching afterwards to keep that up, and invited my trapeze teacher to come riding with me and my sister at some point (as you do) Wednesday I was a lazy bum again today. Had a nurse appointment for blood pressure, which was fine, and made a smear test appointment (apparently I'm a year overdue...ooooooooppps). Decided to go "fuck it" and ordered a sausage supper for dinner. And as soon as I finished eating my digestive tract went "lolnope" and I sprinted off to the toilet. Guess that's my body telling me that it likes the good food I've been eating recently so need to remember that the next time I think a take away is a good idea! I did force myself to calorie track. It doesn't matter if I'm over what I'm aiming for, I just need to bloody well track it.

Hahaha my best tip is someone you really trust spotting! Also take off and land on different legs - I try to push off the floor with my left leg but then also try to land on it which causes much undignified flailing >.<

It's very likely this is how mine will be. All the back strength, none of the abs

This weekend was actually pretty good all told Friday Didn't go for another run because my ankle was still having a hissy fit. Rehearsal was fine, discovered I can get into a y-stand on a hoop. Fun times all round! Saturday Got very grumpy about various class changes, and general bullshittery within the aerial company I train with so took Willow out. Ended up going on a gorgeous 8km hack in the hills, including a bit of swimming on horseback and general middle of nowhere happiness Sunday Planned on riding again but didn't because it was pouring with rain so instead cleaned her bridle after yesterday's submersion then went to rehearsal. We actually had a pretty good session - the moany sod wasn't there (and might be quitting, who knows). We spent the first hour doing floorwork, including exercises on a beam, butterfly leaps and working on walkovers. Walkovers have always terrified me, despite being bendy backed, but they went well with Scott spotting. Just need to sort my legs out because I'm trying to take off and land on the same leg and it's just madness. Then worked on our hoop act, including a lot of fast spinning until I thought I was going to throw up and lay on the floor till it stopped moving. Fun times XD

Week 1 Summary Diet Target: 90 Result: 45 The biggest issue here came from being at my parent's over weekends. I totalled 35 points over the four days where I was not at my parents at all, and the biggest drop was on Saturday when I was there all day. If we discount all the coke I drank whilst there my total goes up from 45 to 61 - still not as high as I was aiming but would have been a distinct improvement. I calorie tracked on 4 out of the 7 days, and was under my goal on 2 of those. Ways to improve in week 2 Calorie track every day (already buggered today, but from Monday) Stop. Drinking. Coke. Mental Health Target: 85 Result: 17 Meds were the strongest section here. I missed taking everything on one day as I'd left my refill in the car and didn't remember until I was already in bed, but took my full dose of everything on six days. The thought record and tidying were the biggest losers here - neither gained a single point. I also managed to avoid any unnecessary spending which is a huge improvement over recent times! I did buy my ticket for the Edinburgh Aerial and Acro Convention which was quite a wad of cash, but was totally planned for and not an impulse buy. Week 2 improvements Thought record Tidying Carry on not spending Running Target: 20 Result: 16 Honestly I'm pretty happy with this. I went for two 3km runs this week. My ankle is still suuupppeer pissed off at me which is why I didn't go further or go for a third. This week I'll be pushing through because the Half Mudder is next Sunday, but from week 3 onwards I might have to rethink this goal to give my ankle a break. Sad times Circus Target: 85 Result: 47 Not the worst of the week, but certainly not the best. Did get my four stretch sessions in (just) but spent three of them only doing splits work. No juggling, only three handstand sessions, and only one hula hoop. Didn't get any of my targets moves but worked on double skinners and started towards single toe hang Week 2 improvements Any juggling Hula hooping More handstand work More back work Overall Target: 280 Total: 125

Had my second portion of cod and risotto for lunch today then went for another wee run. Still felt like my legs didn't want to work but got another 3k in. Dinner was steak with rosemary potatoes and roasted broccoli. Very yummy, and lots of protein. Had a pretty lazy day other than that really so not much to report. I did get my dad's birthday present sorted out - I finally went "fuck it" and got him something he asked for plus some chocolates. Nowhere near my usual standard but honestly I'm past caring with him. I've upped my calorie goal slightly as I think I was aiming a little low, and suspect this might be contributing to my jelly legs running. I'm still on a reasonable cut so hopefully will start getting back into the shape I was before I started my interruption. Also rejigged my macro goals slightly to increase the protein aim. Woo protein! Tomorrow's plan: Make a vet appointment Possibly a run Washing Rehearsal The rehearsal should be...interesting...after we had a couple of bombshells dropped on us at last Sunday's. It's all gone a little bit "lalalalala everything is fiiiiiiiiiine" >.<

OMG I just made roasted broccoli for the first time too! How good is it???? I usually eat my broccoli raw because I hate the way it goes all soggy cooked but roasted is quite possibly my new favourite way

So far today I've done the run - just over 3km in around half an hour so not the fastest but it got done. I ran before I'd eaten anything which I think was part of the problem, my legs felt like they were going to jelly after the first kilometre and a bit which isn't so great. Eat first, run later! Got back to the flat and had a nice stretch session with a punnet of raspberries and a bottle of water. Dinner was pan fried cod with lemony risotto. Genuinely never thought I'd be able to make something like that but it was really really good! Between all of that I was still over 800 calories under sooooo POPCORN TIME! And now rat cuddle time, brought to you in conjunction with Crap TV Watching.

Neither We don't have one around here, but it's part of my horse's full name (which I didn't pick) and I like it

As tempting as that sounds, I'll go put my numbers up

Yay for pullup motiviation! Can we still add miles to our ship exploration?

Imma just leave this here... https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/27m4wn/where_the_proclaimers_are_prepared_to_walk_to/

Went for the pasta option today, turned out really well actually! Did some tidying in the kitchen. Tracked calories and was under my goal OK so I was actually 92 over, but since that didn't include any exercise (seriously, does anyone have an accurate way of calculating aerial calories??) I'm going with under thanks to trapeze. Class was really good, worked on loads of things Skin the cats (getting better, slowly but surely) Crucifix to sit (I'm getting up now, but muscling instead of using momentum) Double skinners (stiiillll can't get them back. I know exactly what I'm doing wrong but can't stop myself :'( Scott did say that my boobs aren't helping - they're big enough that they interfere with my ability to tuck >.<) Millwheels (slooooowwwllly getting closer to getting round) Star to ankles Shoulder stand to catchers Mermaid to toe hang Started the very very baby steps towards single toe hang - I got my foot to about 45 degrees and promptly fell off the bar ^-^ Which is of course why we learn to do these things very close to the ground and in a slight pike... Then did some splits stretching at the end, focusing on hip squareness and building back up my quad stretchiness while I'm there - the plan is to be able to do a full split with the back knee completely bent so the back foot is up at my hip Tomorrow's plan Go for a run, which should be a delight if the weather is as miserable as it was today Finish (??) the kitchen Organise food into portions and freeze Make another yummy dinner Possibly go to an LGBT vigil in the evening

Sounds good to me. I'd quite like a lifting intro thing, since the only thing I usually lift is myself/other people. Keeping it more fluid also allows for the changeability of the Scottish weather - if it's nice we can do outdoorsy things, if it's miserable more indoorsy things

Today was a rest day so it has existed pretty much entirely of watching TV, snoozing, and eating biscuits. Had a psychiatrist appointment which was fine, we're basically sticking with what I've got going just now so not particularly exiting. Ordered some bits and bobs for the rats, but only stuff that I actually need rather than things I want. Which is hard y'all! I love buying fun things for the rats! But no unnecessary spending I'm having a look for a birthday present for my dad just now which is a bloody nightmare quite frankly. I have a reputation for getting people awesome presents but I am seriously tempted to just cave this year and get him one of the (boring) things he asked for. He never appreciates the thought/effort behind presents anyway, I don't know why I bother *eyeroll* Tomorrow's plan includes sleeping, making some sort of healthy meal (this week's options: pan fried cod, steak tagliata, and creamy pea and bacon pasta), potentially some tidying of the kitchen, and then trapeeeeeezzzze. I love Tuesday nights ^-^

Here for the decluttering! I feel you on the disaster room, mine is horrendous My current favourite technique is to put Disney films on and tidy/watch...

So day one has been pretty decent! Did have a glass of coke with lunch (but only one!), then went for a ride (not challenge related but always fun) and had rehearsal. Managed to not do anything worse than roll my eyes at someone being particularly annoying and whiny, got the bones of a routine together for one section and we finished early Refrained from stopping on the way home for food so have instead just finished my dinner of spicy sausages with roasted veg and mash, left over from last week ^-^ Tomorrow I've got a psychiatrist appointment first thing, then need to do my weekly shop but have the rest of the day free. Mondays are total rest days since my weekends are packed with rehearsals, so will probably just spend the day napping and cleaning.

Yeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssss

So Week 0 has been a total non-event around here, but I am super excited about getting into this challenge tomorrow. I've got my spreadsheet ready, I did a whole load of cooking on Friday so I have food for the next couple of days without too much hassle (because rehearsals mean getting home laaaate on Sundays), and I am ready to do this Also waiting with bated breath for this challenge's mini challenge. I had so much fun with the last one that I'm itching for the next!

I'm working my way through the complete works of Lewis Carroll. Just finished Through the Looking Glass so on to his lesser known works now