Thug Life: China Style [WhiteGhost]

[WhiteGhost]

20 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

Now I really want dumplings

 

20 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Mmmm dumplings. 

I have to say I'm super grateful that I live in an urban area where the air quality is so good!

 

15 hours ago, Wolfen said:

 

 

Wow, I'm surprised there is so much love for dumplings.  They're good and all, but I did not realize the broadness of the appeal

 

20 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

It is a shame about the air and water pollution.

 

15 hours ago, Wolfen said:

The area not far from where I live was once called "The Chemical Valley." There are still several major chemical companies working out of this area, but EPA regulations have really cut down on much of the air pollution in that area (I say "cut down," but it's far from perfect).

 

The pollution problem is still serious but quickly improving.  Honestly, I think a lot of developing countries go through this stage.  I remember as a kid learning the old ditty:

 - Red sky at morning - sailor takes warning

 - Red sky at night - sailor's delight

 - Brown sky all day - you're in LA

 

That said, I was a little worried that I would not be able to go outside to workout today, because when I went to bad last night the AQI reading was 225.  Luckily by this morning it had dropped back down to 150-ish

 

14 hours ago, karinajean said:

ooooh, CHINA. I had family living there in the 1990s and was fortunate to travel there for several weeks. it was an incredible experience for a 19 year old.

I am so jealous of the food, pls more food porn thx. 

Cool, what part of China did you visit?  Things have change A LOT since the 1990s, though.  More food porn incoming  

 

7 hours ago, raptron said:

Happy to arrange for a safe return to our territory required if you get up to too much trouble.  

Thanks, boss!  I might need that  

 

14 hours ago, karinajean said:

oh and hi! thank you for telling me about the diplomatic immunity, for some reason I missed that in my intro packet and now WHO DARES DREAM THE LEVEL OF HAVOC THAT SHALL BE EMBARKED UPON.

Haha, you are very welcome   We just need to make sure that @Mr_Willes never, ever, under any circumstances finds out about this.  It could mean the end of the forums as we know it  

 

I did quite a bit since my last update.  I finished a PPT presentation that I have been working on for a potential client and sent it over to him.  Hopefully will be able to schedule a face to face meeting with him soon to discuss it.  I also started learning some JavaScript for the TODO PVP.  So far I have learned how to make a line of code to spell out the current date  

 

I made myself some Orange Chicken last night and paired it with a Caesar salad (those croutons are homemade, yo!)

 

While I was having that, Ghostess's dinner showed up and we both thought it was kind of hilarious how stereotypical our meals were.  The American guy having roasted meat & a salad and the Chinese lady having Chinese takeout

From bottom left going anti-clockwise that is pork leg with chili sauce, marinated tofu croutons, kelp salad, spicy bamboo shoots, meat rolls (not sure what to call these, they are kind of like the Chinese version of chimichangas), and spicy-sour egg drop soup. 

 

It is getting close to finals so for the next two weeks it is going to be cram season for Ghostlet.  From the time he got home from school until he went to bed (except while he was eating dinner), he was doing homework.  Poor kid is not going to have a moments rest until his finals are finished.  Most of his homework last night was going through all of the tests & quizzes he has taken so far this year and analyzing every question he got wrong.  He had to write out the question, give an explanation for why he got it wrong, show the correct way to do it, and give suggestions on how he can avoid making the same mistake again.  The teachers are pretty strict about this stuff, so saying things like "I wasn't paying attention" or "I had a brain fart" doesn't cut it.  The rest of the time was spent memorizing a paper he had written earlier in the semester, so that if the essay part of the test has a similar topic, he can just use what he has already memorized and make minor adjustments to fit the exact question.

 

After Ghostlet went to bed last night, Ghostess decided to work out.   While she was doing that, I got my stretching in and had myself a nice flexy session.  I forgot to mention it, but I did stretching the last two nights as well, so this made 3 in a row for me.  

 

This morning I was looking forward to some warmer weather (it was supposed to get up to 2C today) but even though I went out late morning, it was still -6C.  I wore 4 layers, but I should have layered up even more because I was freezing.  At the park I did the pull workout from my last challenge, but only did 5 reps of each exercise because it was so cold I never felt like I was warmed up enough to really get into it.  I did take a video at the end for my gymnastics stuff, which is below.  Kips and front mill circles were generally good, but everything else was struggle bus.  Watching the video I can see that I was flopping around like a wet noodle  

 

 

Stretched again after my workout, because that is a habit I want to try and keep.

[@mu]

15 hours ago, Wolfen said:

The area not far from where I live was once called "The Chemical Valley." There are still several major chemical companies working out of this area, but EPA regulations have really cut down on much of the air pollution in that area (I say "cut down," but it's far from perfect).

That's good news. Goes to show that regulations ARE needed. But I read there were attempts at cutting the EPA budget by like a third? Some time we take progress for granted but it can turn around quicker than we think, you know, developed country or not.

 

52 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

The teachers are pretty strict about this stuff, so saying things like "I wasn't paying attention" or "I had a brain fart" doesn't cut it.

The review bit is good practice imo.

 

I love that video! Keep sharing! And yo on stretching done!

 

[Mr_Willes]

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

Haha, you are very welcome   We just need to make sure that @Mr_Willes never, ever, under any circumstances finds out about this.  It could mean the end of the forums as we know it  

 

[@mu]

Wow successful landing on the far side of the moon!

[annyshay]

20 hours ago, karinajean said:

WHO DARES DREAM THE LEVEL OF HAVOC THAT SHALL BE EMBARKED UPON. 

I dare do all that become a man

[Mad Hatter]

Inverting that high up looks so scary!

[WhiteGhost]

5 hours ago, Mr_Willes said:

 

 

6 hours ago, @mu said:

The review bit is good practice imo.

It is, but maybe a little early and intensive for 5th graders?

 

39 minutes ago, annyshay said:

I dare do all that become a man

 

36 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Inverting that high up looks so scary!

Not gonna lie, it totally is!

 

2 hours ago, @mu said:

Wow successful landing on the far side of the moon!

Thanks!  I don't want to take ALL the credit for it, though 

[Mad Hatter]

2 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

It is, but maybe a little early and intensive for 5th graders?

I don't know, it feels like a skill that's a lot more useful than strict memorisation for example. But it really depends on how the teacher does it, if it's encouraging for the kids to learn from their mistakes or if it feels like a punishment.

[WhiteGhost]

13 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

it feels like a skill that's a lot more useful than strict memorisation for example.

Hmmm. Fair point.  It is certainly a much better exercise than 90% of the stuff he gets assigned as homework.  I was just thinking that it was excessive to have so much of it.  Normally they have to do this drill every weekend for 2-4 mistakes made during the week.  This time they had to go through every single mistake they made the entire semester and finish it all in one night.

[Mad Hatter]

Ok that's rough. Honestly at that age I don't even think you should need to do homework. Kids in many countries spend way too much time at school in general, I think it'd be enough to set free study time and let the kids have a life! I mean adults can barely hack 40 hours at work, imagine if we had homework on top of that.

[WhiteGhost]

33 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

imagine if we had homework on top of that.

I see you don't have kids in school...  

 

A large part of the homework assigned these days falls to the parents to "help" the kids complete it  

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Diplomatic Immunity does not apply to @Mr_Willes, so no worries there. We saw that one coming and took care of it ahead of time.

[Mr_Willes]

46 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Diplomatic Immunity does not apply to @Mr_Willes, so no worries there. We saw that one coming and took care of it ahead of time.

 

[Mad Hatter]

2 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I see you don't have kids in school...  

  

A large part of the homework assigned these days falls to the parents to "help" the kids complete it  

Haha nope.  

Didn't even cross my mind, I was too brainy and stubborn to ask for help most of the time.  Plus we didn't get that much homework, or at least I managed to do it all at school. (I actually got told off for this once, apparently it made the other kids feel bad that I didn't do homework. ) 

 

That's rubbish though, the kids should be able to do everything themselves, at least the majority of the time. 

[The Battle Chef]

I like the sound of the cultural part.

[KB Girl]

This is great, so many topics I never think about! So many strange food pictures!

 

The school / homework thing however... i don't like it. Seriously considering homeschooling because of that- let them chase interests and 'have a life'. 

[deftona]

7 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Thanks!  I don't want to take ALL the credit for it, though 

 

Don't be so modest. 

[karinajean]

14 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Cool, what part of China did you visit?  Things have change A LOT since the 1990s, though.  More food porn incoming  

 

They lived in Tianjin, so we spent most of our time there. We had a few days in Beijing for me to sightsee, and also took a quick "girls trip" (my aunt, grandmother, and myself) to Xian. I was there for just over 2 weeks I think. I was thinking about how different everything must be! it's a long-term goal to get back there.

 

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Hmmm. Fair point.  It is certainly a much better exercise than 90% of the stuff he gets assigned as homework.  I was just thinking that it was excessive to have so much of it.  Normally they have to do this drill every weekend for 2-4 mistakes made during the week.  This time they had to go through every single mistake they made the entire semester and finish it all in one night.

 

5th grade does seem a little intense for this amount of review in such a short time but the skills are really excellent. having a 15 year old in (american) high school, I wish that they had taught him this kind of critical evaluation and review skill deliberately when he was a little younger. now we are stuck trying to get him to do this his-own-self on tests / homeworks that he does poorly on, and he is NOT interested in doing it - but when he does, we see an immediate improvement. 

 

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

A large part of the homework assigned these days falls to the parents to "help" the kids complete it  

 

ah this is apparently an international problem. another challenge I run into is not knowing how much effort other kids' parents are putting into the homework. We are strictly free range and "monitor and coach" types, and I worry that he is at a disadvantage because we aren't doing more for him. On the other hand when he is on his own he'll know how to do things on his own and ask for what he needs from authority figures, because we make him do all of that currently with his own teachers.

[Sylvaa]

5 minutes ago, karinajean said:

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

A large part of the homework assigned these days falls to the parents to "help" the kids complete it  

 

ah this is apparently an international problem. another challenge I run into is not knowing how much effort other kids' parents are putting into the homework. We are strictly free range and "monitor and coach" types, and I worry that he is at a disadvantage because we aren't doing more for him. On the other hand when he is on his own he'll know how to do things on his own and ask for what he needs from authority figures, because we make him do all of that currently with his own teachers.

 

We talked about this in @Sloth the Enduring's Battle Log recently also (not the International aspect though!). 

 

I always was under the impression that Asian countries were much more rigid in their expectations for students. I think it's one of those things they told us in school and I never really thought to question it. What are your thoughts on Ghostlet's schooling vs your own (because you went to US schools, right?)?

 

I'm also a "monitor and coach" type. I think the general consensus from teachers is that any kind of effort you are making is more than a lot of kids get (my MIL is a teacher and struggles with students without any type of adult involvement in school).  

[Mad Hatter]

1 minute ago, Sylvaa said:

What are your thoughts on Ghostlet's schooling vs your own (because you went to US schools, right?)?

I wonder if it this is even relevant though? Not uninteresting mind, just that I think a lot has changed. I mean I'm not at all involved but I still get the impression that both school hours and homework amounts have increased significantly over time. Like my boss's 12-13 year old goes to school 8-4 (plus homework) or something like that, which is both nuts, especially for a teenager, and unheard of "back in my day".  

[Sylvaa]

1 minute ago, Mad Hatter said:

I wonder if it this is even relevant though? Not uninteresting mind, just that I think a lot has changed. I mean I'm not at all involved but I still get the impression that both school hours and homework amounts have increased significantly over time. Like my boss's 12-13 year old goes to school 8-4 (plus homework) or something like that, which is both nuts, especially for a teenager, and unheard of "back in my day".  

 

It's definitely going to depend. I know for my children, there isn't a significant different between the hours of schooling or the amount of homework they have. I do know they have access to different types of classes than I did, but there haven't been great changes in the way schools operate. Also, it's possible to compare his answer to the question to what I (or other people who have children) see currently. 

[WhiteGhost]

11 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Diplomatic Immunity does not apply to @Mr_Willes, so no worries there. We saw that one coming and took care of it ahead of time.

 

10 hours ago, Mr_Willes said:

 

(That gif was great.  I literally laughed for almost 5 minutes  ) 

 

9 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Haha nope.  

Didn't even cross my mind, I was too brainy and stubborn to ask for help most of the time.  Plus we didn't get that much homework, or at least I managed to do it all at school. (I actually got told off for this once, apparently it made the other kids feel bad that I didn't do homework. ) 

 

That's rubbish though, the kids should be able to do everything themselves, at least the majority of the time. 

I used to think everyone would agree that if teachers assign it to the kids, the kids should be able to do it.  I was quite surprised to discover that it is not a universal way of thinking.  I will elaborate more below

 

9 hours ago, Rusk said:

I like the sound of the cultural part.

I hope to not disappoint  

 

9 hours ago, KB Girl said:

This is great, so many topics I never think about! So many strange food pictures!

 

The school / homework thing however... i don't like it. Seriously considering homeschooling because of that- let them chase interests and 'have a life'. 

 most of the food is stuff that I see everyday so I forget that not everyone else does.  I expect there will be more "strange" food pictures still to come    

 

We are considering a very expensive change in schooling in part because life should be more than just homework

 

6 hours ago, deftona said:

 

Don't be so modest. 

 

5 hours ago, karinajean said:

 

They lived in Tianjin, so we spent most of our time there. We had a few days in Beijing for me to sightsee, and also took a quick "girls trip" (my aunt, grandmother, and myself) to Xian. I was there for just over 2 weeks I think. I was thinking about how different everything must be! it's a long-term goal to get back there.

 

 

5th grade does seem a little intense for this amount of review in such a short time but the skills are really excellent. having a 15 year old in (american) high school, I wish that they had taught him this kind of critical evaluation and review skill deliberately when he was a little younger. now we are stuck trying to get him to do this his-own-self on tests / homeworks that he does poorly on, and he is NOT interested in doing it - but when he does, we see an immediate improvement. 

 

 

ah this is apparently an international problem. another challenge I run into is not knowing how much effort other kids' parents are putting into the homework. We are strictly free range and "monitor and coach" types, and I worry that he is at a disadvantage because we aren't doing more for him. On the other hand when he is on his own he'll know how to do things on his own and ask for what he needs from authority figures, because we make him do all of that currently with his own teachers.

Sounds like a great trip!  Things would be so different now that you could literally visit almost all of the same places as last time, and it would almost be like a completely different trip.  The forbidden city is still pretty much the same, but pretty much everything else will be very different.  Most of the Great Wall has been rebuilt or refurbished, as has the Xi'an city wall.  I suspect most of the buildings that you saw have now been torn down and replaced by new shiny skyscrapers.  The entire riverfront in Tianjin has been rebuilt (and I have to say looks amazing)

This kind of review and analysis was not something I was ever exposed to as a kid, and I think I would have been much better prepared for life if I had.  Although I am quite strongly in the "homework should be minimal" camp, I admit that this kind of exercise is quite useful.  Your point about relative parental input is going to be a key item below when I talk about the school system here.
 

5 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

 

We talked about this in @Sloth the Enduring's Battle Log recently also (not the International aspect though!). 

 

I always was under the impression that Asian countries were much more rigid in their expectations for students. I think it's one of those things they told us in school and I never really thought to question it. What are your thoughts on Ghostlet's schooling vs your own (because you went to US schools, right?)?

 

I'm also a "monitor and coach" type. I think the general consensus from teachers is that any kind of effort you are making is more than a lot of kids get (my MIL is a teacher and struggles with students without any type of adult involvement in school).  

I was involved in that discussion, but I don't remember how much I talked about from the Chinese perspective.  I'm not really sure what you mean by "rigid in their expectations", though, so I'm not sure how to respond

 

5 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I wonder if it this is even relevant though? Not uninteresting mind, just that I think a lot has changed. I mean I'm not at all involved but I still get the impression that both school hours and homework amounts have increased significantly over time. Like my boss's 12-13 year old goes to school 8-4 (plus homework) or something like that, which is both nuts, especially for a teenager, and unheard of "back in my day".  

5 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

 

It's definitely going to depend. I know for my children, there isn't a significant different between the hours of schooling or the amount of homework they have. I do know they have access to different types of classes than I did, but there haven't been great changes in the way schools operate. Also, it's possible to compare his answer to the question to what I (or other people who have children) see currently. 

 

OK, so about the differences between my schooling in the US and Ghostlet's schooling in China:

I am #5 of 10 kids so my parents were less "monitor and coach" and more "deal with whichever fire is burning the hottest right now".  My older siblings seemed to have a knack for creating various fires so I had very little parental involvement in my own schoolwork.  My grades were poor but passing, mostly because of homework.  I don't think I turned in more than a handful of homework assignments in all four years of high school.  I did not really care about homework because I learned that pretty much everything on the tests was covered in class.  As long as I attended class regularly, I always did very well on my tests.  You could pretty much tell what percent of a grade homework was just by looking at my report card.  The only class I ever failed was geography, because homework was 50% of the grade.  I seem to recall that the vast majority of the assigned homework was doable by the students themselves, but I have no way of knowing if that is accurate because obviously I would have no way of knowing    I could get away with this (from a macro point of view) because 1) I learned how to learn and 2) I had no intention of getting into a top ranked university.  You didn't need a 4.0 and a litany of extracurricular achievements to get into most universities, and you didn't need to go to an ivy league school to get meaningful employment.  Most companies will take the candidates' university into consideration, but it generally isn't a deciding factor.  At least that was the case when I was in school.  I actually ended up getting accepted into a good university (and doing very well there) because of what I achieved in the military as well as a very good ACT score.  Both of those I attribute to knowing how to learn.

 

The Chinese system is very different.  Chinese companies looking for white collar workers limit their recruiting to the top 5-10 universities nationally and then the top 5 local universities.  They pretty much have to do this or the candidate pool become way too big to manage.  Also, pretty much everyone who went through the Chinese system is going to have very similar education and capabilities corresponding to the schools attended.  As such, university is the #1 screening item for most employers.  Therefore, in order to compete for not just the best but virtually any white collar job, you need to get into a top ranked university.  I say get into rather than graduate from, because the university system in China is extremely easy, and virtually everyone who gets in graduates.  A lot of people see the university experience as a time to finally relax and live a little - kind of a reward after 15+ years of grueling education.  All university applicants are accepted based on a single national entrance exam (called gaokao) held once a year in the spring.  It is a very egalitarian system, because students from the poorest village can get into the #1 school as long as they get a high enough score.  At least in theory, anyway.  The way it works in practice is that there are a number of extra credit items that count towards or against the final score, such as ethnicity, home province or other "special factors".  For example, two students could the exact same answers on the test, but one get accepted to a top university and other not.  Hubei province has had higher average gaokao scores than any other province for many years, so they get a "discount" modifier, meaning a student from Hubei would need to score higher than a student from another province to come out with an equivalent score.  The universities themselves set quotas for the number of out-of-province students they accept.  

 

The key factor driving gaokao scores, however, is the specific high school from which they students attended.  Some high schools have much higher scores on average than other schools and so in order to increase the likelihood of getting accepted to a good university is first getting accepted to a good high school.  The high schools have similar admittance programs to the universities, so in order to get into the best ones, you have to score high on the high school entrance exam (zhongkao).  As expected, certain middle schools do much better than others at producing high zhongkao scores.  Middle and high schools are not dependent on residence, so you have students from all over the city spending hours commuting to and from school.  Many families will actually move to be closer to their child's school.  Getting into middle school is not based on a test, but based on elementary school performance.  Ghostlet's school feeds into 3 middle schools, which are obviously ranked based on the high schools they place their students into.  Students getting into the top 2 of them have relatively good chances of getting into good high schools, but if you get placed into the #3 school, you can pretty much write off any chance of that kid ever getting a good job.  Because of how the system works, the pressure on elementary school kids is extremely high.  In order to keep the kids competitive the parents cannot afford to employ a "monitor and coach" strategy.  Not only are parents spending hours and hours coaching and guiding the kids on their homework, most kids also spend almost the entirety of their weekend in cram schools and extra-curricular classes to get an edge.  Therefore, if the parent isn't also spending that kind of time on the kids, they will likely fall behind.  Parents here are keenly aware of how much time other parents are spending with their kids.  I am very much an outsider in this whole process and don't actively seek out that kind of information, but I can still tell you with a high degree of confidence, how much time most of Ghostlet's classmates parents spend with them on homework and other classes.

Also, because the elementary schools feed into specific middle schools, getting into an elementary school that feeds into good middle schools is very important.  Because elementary school entrance is based on where you live, most parents will pick their residence so that they are inside the school district of the best elementary schools.  This is a such a big problem, that most schools have implemented policies that you have to have lived in that neighborhood for at least 2 years in order to be eligible for attendance.  Also, each area will have a number of elementary schools (which all feed into different middle school systems) so even living in the right neighborhood is not a guarantee.  When Ghostlet was applying to his school, he had to have an interview where he was tested on basic knowledge of 1st grade math and English, as well a discussion of what extra-curricular things he had done in pre-school.  So the pressure to perform for most kids starts well before elementary school even starts.  Ghostlet was able to get into a pre-school that is a key feeder pre-school for his current elementary school only because Ghostess's father was classmates with the pre-school principal.

So while I agree with everyone that elementary kids shouldn't have too much homework, and insane amounts of work are not proven to increase test scores, the reality is that school is so competitive here that parents cannot afford not to.  

For parents in China who's kids fall out of the system, the only hope they have is the international track.  By sending kids to international schools, they have the option of competing in the world job market, and once they have had international experience, they then have the possibility of coming back and trying to get into the Chinese job market.  The result of this is that the international schools here are insanely expensive.  Middle school is about $80K/year and high school is about $100K.  If you can't afford that and your kid isn't performing in school... well, better start getting used to the idea of them doing construction or janitorial work, because that is now their career path.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Good Lord...

[WhiteGhost]

3 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Good Lord...

ikr?

 

So let's chat about how things went since my last update

 

Yesterday afternoon I picked up Ghostlet from school and we went to the local neighborhood Kodak to get our pictures taken for our visa applications.

The shop was literally 2x8 m2, and had a space against a white wall for taking pictures, a couple of computers for processing/altering the pictures and a couple of printers.  Also a few boxes of stuff.  About as bare bones as it comes.  

 

After the pictures, we cam home and Ghostlet got started on his homework.  He continued to do that until almost 11pm.  So those of you who have been following me for a while may remember that Ghostlet used to be in the Drumline for his school but the program got cancelled.  Apparently, his school got invited to participate in a drumline event later this month, so the program has been temporarily resurrected.  If they do well (no idea how "well" is defined here) the story is that the school will resurrect the program permanently.  If that happens, Ghostlet will have to make a choice between going back to Drumline or keeping with Spanish.  He is still torn about which he prefers.

 

Ghostlet had some leftover Peking Duck for dinner (I didn't get a picture) and I had leftover lasagna.  

I didn't even bother to pull it out of the Tupperware, because I'm classy like that.  I'm not sure what Ghostess had for dinner because she didn't eat until I was already in bed asleep.  Some kind of Chinese take-out again.

 

Before I went to bed last night pollution levels were getting high, so I checked the AQI forcast to see what this morning was supposed to look like

Supposedly it was supposed to get better in the morning and be quite good by this afternoon.  However, when I woke up this morning, the AQI was already down to 53, but the temperature was also down to about -16, so I decided to workout inside today.

 

For my workout this morning, I decided to do a push workout.  For those who don't know my workout programs, I do low reps (5-10) of a whole bunch or different exercises.  Today's exercises were

Spoiler

 

Clap pushups

Wall assisted handstand pushups (using parallettes this time)

Russian dips

One arm Pushups

Tiger Pushups*

Hindu Pushups

Handstand Kickups

Tuck planche dips

Archer pushups

Shoulder stand rotations

Single bar dips

Pseudo planche pushups

back bridge pushups

Twist dips

Tuck planche rotations

Regular pushups

 

*Tiger pushups were new for me this time.  I thought they would be similar to hindu pushups, but apparently they are more like plank tricep extensions in terms of the muscles used.  My elbows hate them.  I also tried some floor plank tricep extensions (I usually do them on a low bar) but I found they were too easy in terms of muscle use but too hard in terms of joint use (I didn't feel like I was getting much of a workout from them, but they hurt my elbows)

 

 

I also have been feeling like my hip adductors are getting left out, because I really only have one exercise that uses them in any meaningful way (Inverted pushups).  So today I augmented my push workout with some hip adduction exercises that I made up.  For the first, I tied a resistance band to the bed leg and pulled against the band to bring foot to my other foot.  It thought it was OK as an exercise, but not great because for some reason my quad got tired out before my adductor.  For the next one I got into a gravity groin stretch position (side plank position with the top leg resting on an elevated surface).  I then used my adductor to pull myself up to parallel.  This was better, but I still got a lot of recruitment from my abdominal obliques.  The last one I tried was great though.  I stood with one foot on the ground and the other on a skateboard.  I lowered down into a side split position as low as I could go and still keep control, and then use my adductor to pull my feet back together.  This one really targeted the muscles I wanted, so I will add this to my leg workouts going forward.

 

I also tried some new stuff doing my shoulder stand rotations.  Usually I do them from a tuck position, but today I decided to try from a straddle position.  I found that they were easier in terms of the strength required, but I am completely unused to the balance points, so I could not stay inverted once (if!) I got there.

 

 

[Mr_Willes]

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

(That gif was great.  I literally laughed for almost 5 minutes  ) 

 

And this reply made my day! (Yes i'm easy like that!)

 

Seriously, i really like this vibe! Going into my notifications and seeing "... mentioned you in a topic" = instant dopamine shot!

 

I mean who doesn't love Loki?

 

(even when that green brute @Tanktimus the Encourager steps in and mops the floor with me right afterwards, i seriously just need to hide a bit better )

 

But we are a yin and yang, spreading fun and laughter across the boards (and sometimes i really need to be corrected, with that "dutch"-blood running through my vains). It's one of the most important things i feel this at home here on the boards.