The unbearable lightness of spring

[@mu]

Winter in Alamut was, well, quite heavy! Time to focus on rounding things up and trying to make the heavy stuff feel a bit lighter – if such a thing is possible. Right now, I feel like gravity's little servant.

 

The usual suspects are still around: silks, parallettes, red ball...(and the cat of course)

And nothing very new with my goals, this is turning into a sort of battle log.  I have reduced the list slightly because my schedule is quite hectic these days and my attention span has gone a bit out of the window. I'm hoping to regain some focus with fewer items

Goal 1
Get a massage
Stolen from Raptron. Come on, pick up the phone, get an appointment, can't be that hard

 

Goal 2
Stretch – 2x/week + post-workout

- General stretching with a shoulder focus
- Customised GMB spinal flexibility routines (front and back bends)

- Stretch after every practice, I have become fairly consistent with this but every so often, I bum it a little (mindless quick and dirty sort of stretching). If I don't stretch properly, I shall record it here on the wall of shame because this is really important.

 

Goal 3
Parallettes and silks practice – 3 to 4x/week

I made a new plan. I should be back to 1h max training in the mornings, and during the week-end, I can choose between a split push/pull, or a big push/pull and rest. I will see how this works out. Dimensions:

Strength: rep work and conditioning, similar to last challenge with a new focus on straddle hold progression (aka hump your elbows).

Skills: on parallettes, start working on elbow lever to straddle hold (stolen from the parallettes' PvP), and bent arm press to L-sit. On silks: polish the little sequence I worked out for my apparatus in the last challenge, working it on both left and right sides, and move reviews every so often to have some variety.

Play/explore: look into this new combo parallettes + silks, play with press while holding the ball with my feet and free/open practice with silks too.

 

I will officially start on Saturday. I'm currently still testing things.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Following! Hope the condensed program works out well.  

 

18 hours ago, @mu said:

- Stretch after every practice, I have become fairly consistent with this but every so often, I bum it a little (mindless quick and dirty sort of stretching). If I don't stretch properly, I shall record it here on the wall of shame because this is really important.

This didn't hit home at all. Nope, not at all.

 

[Norgaard]

I challenge you to a joust!

 

and good luck, looking forward to following along

[tei_]

19 hours ago, @mu said:

Right now, I feel like gravity's little servant.

 

#relateable

[lucky fire dragon]

here for your magical sparkle and ALL the lightness for you

 

[raptron]

Yesss, massage time!  I love these goals.

[@mu]

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

This didn't hit home at all. Nope, not at all.

 

 

Same I tried to find something that looks like a carrot, an award, something nice, but only the stick seems to work for this, I don't know why

 

2 hours ago, Norgaard said:

I challenge you to a joust!

 

and good luck, looking forward to following along

 

Cheers! So how about a shoulder flexibility and mobility PvP? Looks like we are a few in that boat.

 

47 minutes ago, lucky fire dragon said:

here for your magical sparkle and ALL the lightness for you

 

Lovely thank you!
And yes lightness is not just the opposite of heavy, let's get some sparkles!
 

[@mu]

Right now I'm feeling everything but sparkly however

The bloody throat virus is having a come back it seems. I'm feeling feverish with a swollen throat and each time I blow my nose, it feels like my entire brain is going to come out (sorry for the visual). Why why why, really.

And...yesterday I did some parallettes + silks. My upper body is collapsing quite a bit when I do leg crochets in bent arm press. I'm over-hanging onto silks and crashing into a big back arch while still having to bear a fair amount of weight in my arms. Result: my left upper biceps tendon is hurting a fair bit today... I hope it isn't anything too bad. I took a rest and iced several times.

I feel old, like I can't try new things without having to be extra-careful.
I should take the hint seriously because in a few months I have had a funny left side (upper back mostly), hamstring issues and now this. Caused either by trying something new/unusual or simply by pushing it too much. Regular injuries are the hallway of bad training right? So mhm, let's reflect on that a little bit....

Not a great start hey

 

Some progress though on the theatre + silks combo: yesterday we had a meeting with the theatre management and they agreed to it. For all things involving suspension in the air, they work with a company that deals both with rigging checks and insurance aspects. We should have a meeting with those guys soon. We will see what's possible or not then.

[lucky fire dragon]

oh no! Do take it seriously and take good care first, please!

Over here many people have been ill on and off for way longer than they usually are, it seems like stubborn stuff going around. It's enough to make you feel old.

 

You're not, I can tell you that  just look at those amazing things you did both on silks and parallettes!!

[Elastigirl]

Hope you feel better soon. Maybe with your injuries, your body is telling you it needs some more recovery time. By the time we finished that paralette PVP flow of awesome, it was super long. I'm still doing my workouts, but nothing extra this week, trying to let my body chill a bit. Course I am old, so there's that.

[Norgaard]

Awww remember to rest a bit and get well soon. I’m in on a shoulder PvP! <3 let’s figure out how it should work

[Happienumber]

Awww remember to rest a bit and get well soon. I’m in on a shoulder PvP!

Seconded!!

And take good care, there have been so many nasty bugsssss

(phone kept trying to autocowreck that to bug sassafras)

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

[Mad Hatter]

Oh no not the snot fest, it’s the worst!

 

Do you do any prefab work for injury prevention? Maybe some more dedicated focus could help the small niggles. (Or so I’ve heard )

[@mu]

Thanks you guys!

 

10 hours ago, lucky fire dragon said:

You're not, I can tell you that  just look at those amazing things you did both on silks and parallettes!!

Sometimes people make progress despite a bad training plan Then when hitting higher skills, it goes all wrong. I'm pondering about getting 1 to 1 advice from a coach.  Possibly on-line because I don't know anybody here specialised into parallettes + aerial. I quite like Kirsty Grosart, she has a GMB certification and I follow her in many places, she's brilliant. I know she does on-line coaching. There is also Cirque Physio. But I doubt she bothers with people at my level really... And I have to check what's feasible budget-wise...
 

But I think you are all pointing to one direction that I could improve by myself for now. I'm not planning enough recovery/deload. With weights, I had no problem having a deload week, but with body weight, I find it harder to adjust intensity somehow. I need to think about it a little more and test things.

 

10 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Hope you feel better soon. Maybe with your injuries, your body is telling you it needs some more recovery time. By the time we finished that paralette PVP flow of awesome, it was super long. I'm still doing my workouts, but nothing extra this week, trying to let my body chill a bit. Course I am old, so there's that.

 

That parallettes flow was a killer. I definitely felt it. And yes it took so much time. Last challenge, I ended up having rather long workout sessions and it was a bit too much, not really sustainable. I'm hoping that getting back to 1h max during the week will lighten things up a little bit.

 

8 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Do you do any prefab work for injury prevention? Maybe some more dedicated focus could help the small niggles. (Or so I’ve heard )

 

Right now I do this hamstring PT 5x/week and 1x or 2x/week, a scapula PT thing: I lie down and move my arms overhead slowly with a small ball between my spine and my scapula, checking my alignment/pathway and rolling over the muscles there.

Then, I have a ~20mn full-body warmup before practice and I really need that. Back, hips, legs. I do some pushups and squats with weighted clubs (light weight) to get my heart rate up. A few mobility drills and stretches like lunges (but no long passive static holds). I do articulations quite a bit: neck, wrists, elbows. And a fair amount of shoulders including rotator cuff warmup.

 

When I was going to the gym, I used to do cuban presses and internal/external rotations with small weights to strengthen the rotator cuff. I don't have resistance bands at home to do something equivalent, maybe I should invest. Instead every so often I do some kind of swings with my clubs that are based on Iranian traditional zur-khaneh training (there is a wide variety of moves including juggling, but what I do looks like the beginning of this video - I use light-weight clubs, it might not look like it but it's quite technical and hard enough with small weights).

And then I also have quite a few ball drills, foot holds and body rolls (arms / chest), and now I added shoulders drills with the ball (seal extensions and shoulders lock), which feel quite good actually.

I'm quite keen on focusing a bit more on the smaller areas, if you have any recommendations, I'd be happy to check them out!

 

[@mu]

Talking about shoulders mobility and Iranian training, I wanted to share this video as well to offer a balanced view of what men are up to here. It's a bit old, from the 80s/90s, it's funny to watch, your eyes might even pop out a little   But it shows typical Persian dancing.  Please admire shoulder and hips mobility It's still the prevalent way of dancing at parties here, even if some western patterns are coming in. The guy on the video is good (and famous) but your average man can usually pull it off (and women of course).

[Mad Hatter]

29 minutes ago, @mu said:

I'm quite keen on focusing a bit more on the smaller areas, if you have any recommendations, I'd be happy to check them out!

I don't know, that is really best discussed with a physio that can taylor any exercises to your needs. You're already doing a fair amount though. I asked the question to check in whether there was an obvious hole in your training, but I'm more inclined to think that it's more about lack of recovery and less about neglect.

 

Btw I think you could try reaching out to cirque physio, I'm sure she's very busy but I'm pretty sure she'd work with people at all levels.

[Norgaard]

14 minutes ago, @mu said:

Talking about shoulders mobility and Iranian training, I wanted to share this video as well to offer a balanced view of what men are up to here. It's a bit old, from the 80s/90s, it's funny to watch, your eyes might even pop out a little   But it shows typical Persian dancing.  Please admire shoulder and hips mobility It's still the prevalent way of dancing at parties here, even if some western patterns are coming in. The guy on the video is good (and famous) but your average man can usually pull it off (and women of course).

 

That is amazing! I like it

[@mu]

3 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

I don't know, that is really best discussed with a physio that can taylor any exercises to your needs.

This might well be what I need. I could actually get a physio appointment here first to see how it goes.

Cirque physio would be great, but my budget might not be up to it just right now.

[@mu]

Just now, Norgaard said:

 

That is amazing! I like it

 

It is, isn't it  

[Norgaard]

Just now, @mu said:

 

It is, isn't it  

 

Here people just getting drunk and pass out on the street corners instead

[Mad Hatter]

3 minutes ago, @mu said:

This might well be what I need. I could actually get a physio appointment here first to see how it goes.

Cirque physio would be great, but my budget might not be up to it just right now.

Maybe someone that does movement assessments of some sorts? And/or is interested in preventative care. It's worth shopping around if you can.

 

[LouCarJo]

Argh, hope you feel better soon - being sick is horrible.

 

I’m still surprised how much inverting takes it out of me.  And underestimate how much recovery I need.  Maybe even just paying someone for a general programmin consultation might be worth it.

[AceVixen]

Subbed again! Hope you feel better soon, I'm down with the dreaded lurgy too. It doubly sucks when most your hobbies involve hanging upside.

[raptron]

This dance video is so great.

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

Hahaha love the dance video