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I've been stuck at a plateu on my deadlifts for a few weeks and the weak point is not my body: it's my grip. So, I went and I got myself some basic lifting straps and googled how to use them. I tried them out this morning and my question is: how do I use them? I couldn't get the straps to either get tight or grip the bar so I was pretty much just lifting with a nylon bundle in my fist. I did get it to finally get a grip but only on the hand where I was wrapping the straps around the bar with one free hand so... one handed lifts only?

Hi there! So, my last challenge kind of died off. Right after the beginning of the challenge I found out my mom had cancer and things really kinda went downhill from there. I had two major infections then I had to help my mom through surgery and life was just... it wasn't happening. Once I got to feeling better I was able to get back to training, but the whole situation with challenge goals totally fell by the wayside. That's life. The good news is, things are looking up! First of all, my mom is in pretty good shape! (YAY!!!) She's got some follow up stuff to deal with that she'll need my help with but the big scary part of it is done, and prognosis still looks positive. The other good thing is that my circus school is having a recital! So I have something fun and exciting to plan for. Recitals are great because they're lower pressure than our showcases (which are pretty much a full 1-ring circus show performed by amateurs), but still a chance to practice putting together an act to show our friends, family & classmates. This is really nice for me because it gives me a great incentive to dive back in, while not having to be so stressed about my mom or my own health. PLUS, today actually marks 5 years since I started training in aerial, so I've got that to celebrate too. So... onto goals! Goal 1: Develop a 1.5-2 minute straps piece focusing on things I can do with my feet in the straps. Work on really polishing up what I can do, within my current skill level. I've been really holding back on working on performance stuff until I have more straps tricks... but I realized it would be good to refine what I have, so I have some grace and polish to bring to the table when I start to add more advanced work. Subgoal: Follow training schedule with extra act development workshops.Subgoal: Spend some time on reviewing music and getting ideas from friends & youtube.Subgoal: Use mental rehearsal techniques. Goal 2: Stretch my splits 4-5 times a week. The performance piece is going to need to use my left split. So I need to work on my left side oversplit and on regaining my right side flat split. (For whatever reason I woke up one morning in February with a cramp in my right glute and haven't been able to get my split back on that side ever since.) Goal 3: Work on my foot extension & expression 3 times a week. Goal 4: Get busy on my gardening goals. Planting time is coming up in late September and all the chaos so far this summer has really hamstrung me from getting stuff done. (I will post some pictures from last challenge soon.) I need to finish turning the wire mesh in my garage into deer protection cages for my plants.I need to work with our landscape guy to put in our retaining wall and finish clearing last year's storm debris.Once a week I need to prune the seed heads off the feathergrass.I need to start some preliminaries on the parts of the hillside that are going to be planted with wildflower seed. (I.E. water it to sprout the weed seeds and then remove weeds).Only one thing... I'm going to be away from my computer all next week, so hopefully I'll have a chance to keep up with the forum from my phone... otherwise, I'll check in again on Sunday August 3rd.

Should I be embarassed that I use straps? My grip isn't up to where it should be yet, and I was born with hairy little baby hands. My grip strength just can't keep up with the rest of me. I'm working on my grip, using towels and hanging from the chin up bar and stuff. I don't like that I have to use them like a crutch, but if I know I can go heavier on a move I don't want to miss out on it just because of my lagging grip.

So here's my dilemma. I have a terrible grip. I'

The assassin looked out over her audience. The slave revolt against the corpulent Prince and his scheming consort hinged on one thing... an absolutely stellar command performance would provide the distraction her compatriot needed to execute the assassination. And if the plan didn't work? Well, there was always the knife hidden backstage... but that was a far riskier route than the poisoned wine. She could see that her troupe had already lulled the Prince, but could she turn the heads of the guards long enough for the serving girl? So many hours of training... it was time to take the stage. This change in challenge format was easy for me, I had already formulated an epic quest for myself earlier this year: to develop a aerial performance piece and execute it in a way that makes me really proud of myself. Say what? OK, let me backtrack a bit. I'm an amateur aerialist mostly silks & hammock, I've been addicted to circus fitness for nearly 4 years now, and I've done a few amateur showcase performances. However, over the last year or so, my direction has been wavering a bit, I've been exploring other apparatuses and disciplines... my doubles partner and I decided to stop working together. Earlier this year I was working through some questions with a circus-y friend and decided that I really want to go all out... pull out all the stops, and put together something extraordinary. I've seen my friends do this, guys & girls with a moderate amount of amateur performance experience suddenly have the performance of their lives. I want to make that happen. But going the direction I want to go means some serious training. The vision I have involves combining straps skills (very gymnastic, mostly done by men) with either fabric or hammock. I've seen acts that use some combo of the two, and I love them. Plus it fits my potential abilities... I'm more strength oriented than a lot of the other women. And I'm lucky that my school already has several dedicated women in their straps program, so it's not out of reach. OTOH, this is also going to involve really refining my performance. Fitting in adult beginner ballet whenever I can (I think once a week when my son starts kindergarden), working on expression, training my legs to stay straight, my feet pretty and my shoulders down. So there's a LOT of meaty stuff to do here, and this is probably a quest that will extend over several NF challenges (and possibly several years of my life.) That's the big picture. It sounds overwhelming, but I'm already solidly on the path, so it's easy for me to see what the next few steps are, even if I'm not sure how to make it all the way to the top of the mountain. Goal 1: Aerial training. Straps on Mondays, hammock performance on Wednesdays & adv. conditioning on Saturdays. Optional: adv. beg. ballet & open workouts when I have time. Originally this was going to be a hybrid aerial + GMB R1 training goal, but a friend of mine opened up a 7 week hammock performance workshop (started last week), and I knew it would be a good opportunity. So I'm pushing off R1 for the following challenge. Goal 2: Prehab & cross training for forearms wrists and hands. 1-2 times a day. I'll do a separate post listing out the various options here. Basically, I don't want to commit to one boring cross training modality, I want to stay agile and have fun with it, all while giving my hands & forearms a bit of love. Goal 3: Weigh <118 at the end of the challenge. The range of 115-120 is where I feel like my sweet spot is. I was there earlier this year, but the combination of a car accident and a wonderful vacation had me back up several pounds. I'm at 122 right now, I'll give myself an A for <118, and a B for <120. Losing at least 2 pounds in 6 weeks is pretty reasonable. The plan here is just to keep on keeping on with my low carb primal eating (semi-keto), and my training. I'd like to put some effort into getting a consistent 10,000+ steps on my fitbit. Nothing crazy... just a nice slide back into a good weight. (This also saves my wrists & forearms a few pounds of strain.) Goal 3: Eat in a healthy maintenance range for the completion of my challenge. Focus on nutrient rich, whole foods and relax about specific macronutrients. Life Quest: OK... my life is going through a TON of changes right now. That's why I love having an epic quest to focus on because that is not messy. The rest of my life is messy. We just moved to a new house, I'm scaling back to contracting 10-20 hours a month for my job, my son is starting kindergarden and we're rehabbing our old house to rent out. CHAOS!!!! CHAOS & STRESS! So my life quest goal is do two very simple practices that have helped me a lot in the past: meditation and my "credit log". Meditate for 5 minutes upon awakening (or if I missed it in the morning 5 minutes before bed). And use my teeny log book to write down 1-3 things a day that I accomplished or can otherwise give myself credit for doing a good job. I may also post a little bit about my ongoing quest from last challenge to learn to ride a bike better. Right now, I need to step up to a geared bike because our new house is on a hill, so that's kind of on hold until I can afford to buy a new bike. -jj Bonus training photo from yesterday... the bottom depth of my skin-the-cat.