WhiteGhost: Deep Thoughts

[WhiteGhost]

27 minutes ago, scalyfreak said:

 

If Mark Twain was alive today he'd probably write for either SNL or something like The Today Show....

If he did, I would totally watch the heck out it  

[@mu]

So shoulder is back to normal right? That's very good news!

[WhiteGhost]

8 minutes ago, @mu said:

So shoulder is back to normal right? That's very good news!

Definitely not back to normal, but I think it is good enough to use it again, as long as I make sure I am plenty warmed up first and stretch it well after.

 

 

Doodling - Nothing today, but I have a picture picked out to use for my next doodle

 

Exercising - Went to the park but did not have any specific workout plan.  I mostly played around on the high bar doing gymnastics stuff, but also worked on some other stuff.  While I was working on some pullups, I decided to see what would happen if I did an inverted row and the top of a pullup because why not.  It turns out that what happens is I ended up getting my chest to the bar well below the sternum right at the very bottom of the rib cage.  I wasn't coming at the right angle to work it into a muscle up, but it does give me hope that if I combine it with a bit of swing I should be pretty darn close.  Also, apparently the push workout yesterday did its thing, because my triceps have been screaming at me all day.

 

Eating - Food was good again.  I finished off the last of the egg salad for lunch and then had the exact same thing for dinner as last night.

 

Playing - Nothing scheduled

[KB Girl]

Those eye doodles are really good! 

 

[PaulG]

Following. This is good stuff, Whiteghost! Anytime I can see baby knee giants I'm happy. Also, I don't know how I didn't know who Jack Handey was until now.

[Scaly Freak]

9 minutes ago, PaulG said:

Also, I don't know how I didn't know who Jack Handey was until now.

 

Obviously the most recent incarnation of Mark Twain.

[WhiteGhost]

15 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Those eye doodles are really good! 

 

Thank you! I am actually surprised that I was able to draw them as well as I did.  

 

9 hours ago, PaulG said:

Following. This is good stuff, Whiteghost! Anytime I can see baby knee giants I'm happy. Also, I don't know how I didn't know who Jack Handey was until now.

Baby Giants are fun but scary.  I use a strap to keep me from losing my grip which almost was a problem yesterday as I was doing some more and actually fell off the bar into a German hang and couldn't let go.  Luckily I have been working on skin the cats quite a bit so I was strong enough to keep myself from pulling my arms out of my sockets.

 

9 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

 

Obviously the most recent incarnation of Mark Twain.

I guess every generation needs one  

 

 

Doodling - nothing again.  I was going to do it in the afternoon but I watched Infinity War instead and then Ghostlet gets out of school early on Fridays so I went downstairs to play with him instead.  

 

Exercising - LEG DAY!!  I went to the park and did my leg workout.  I enjoyed it as always.  I noticed that I have made pretty good improvement in my shrimp squats but I feel like I am not getting much progress with my pistols.  I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes.  

 

Eating - I had the last of my spaghetti for lunch today and then made myself some baked beans for dinner.  This was my first ever attempt at baked beans and I have to say, they were fantastic!  I had some leftover coleslaw and some potato chips with it to make a trifecta of BBQ sides.  The chips were pretty disappointing, though, so I only had a few.

 

Playing - Nothing scheduled

 

We will be heading out to the theater very soon to catch the 10pm showing of End Game  

[raptron]

Ooooh, yay, bbq sides.  

 

And oof, yes. That sounds like a good reason to keep up your skin the cat game.

[KB Girl]

Yea, that's just the way it goes sometimes.. but still frustrating. Where are you with the pistols right now?

[WhiteGhost]

15 hours ago, raptron said:

Ooooh, yay, bbq sides.  

 

And oof, yes. That sounds like a good reason to keep up your skin the cat game.

I am really in the mood for a full on BBQ now.  I think I am going to have to do something about that next week  

 

12 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Yea, that's just the way it goes sometimes.. but still frustrating. Where are you with the pistols right now?

I still need to use a bench/stool at the bottom, and struggle to keep my front leg in the air on my way up.  The only progress I have made on this is that I can use a much lower bench now (I am using a tall brick now just higher than my ankle.

[KB Girl]

Looks like ankle mobility is holding you back a bit? have you tried propping something under your heel? If your heel is supported then you might be able to do without the brick. 

[WhiteGhost]

4 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Looks like ankle mobility is holding you back a bit? have you tried propping something under your heel? If your heel is supported then you might be able to do without the brick. 

Yes, you nailed the issue exactly.  Ankle mobility makes it really hard to get all the way down, but I still lack strength in the very bottom of the squat so when I pause at the bottom I need that rocking motion to get the momentum needed to get over that dead zone in the very bottom position.  I haven't ever though of putting my heel up on something, but I may give that a try.  Thanks for the suggestion.

 

 

Not a whole lot happened today.  We didn't get home from watching Endgame until almost 2 so none of us woke up before 9:30 this morning.  I made some waffles for breakfast.  I was thinking about maybe making some pancakes, but I think we all know that waffles are the superior breakfast pastry.  By the time we finished it was almost noon so we skipped lunch.  In the evening I went to help out at a church youth activity and they had some chicken pasta salad and veggie trays with hummus so I did that for dinner.

 

No doodling, exercising, or playing took place.

[NicTheRugger]

You may still need a bench/support, but your single leg pistol squat is super impressive!

[PaulG]

12 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I still need to use a bench/stool at the bottom, and struggle to keep my front leg in the air on my way up.  The only progress I have made on this is that I can use a much lower bench now (I am using a tall brick now just higher than my ankle.



 

That looks pretty good! You’re right about the ankle mobility thing. You’d probably be able to do it with some heel elevation, but what you’re doing now is probably helping your ankle mobility better than the elevation would.

 

Are you spending any time practicing third world squats? That helped my ankle mobility considerably back when I was first getting pistols.

 

Don’t worry too much about the front leg btw, it’s not actually super important when you’re first working on getting the full movement.

[WhiteGhost]

15 hours ago, NicTheRugger said:

You may still need a bench/support, but your single leg pistol squat is super impressive!

Thanks  

 

14 hours ago, PaulG said:

 

That looks pretty good! You’re right about the ankle mobility thing. You’d probably be able to do it with some heel elevation, but what you’re doing now is probably helping your ankle mobility better than the elevation would.

 

Are you spending any time practicing third world squats? That helped my ankle mobility considerably back when I was first getting pistols.

 

Don’t worry too much about the front leg btw, it’s not actually super important when you’re first working on getting the full movement.

I believe it is helping, but ankle mobility is soooo slow.  I guess everything is slow too, though, so I can't complain too much.

 

I do spend some time after every workout doing some third world squat (I have always called the eki squats) but I could probably stand to do more.  I saw a recommendation recently from Steve to try and read a chapter of a book while holding the squat, so I may give that a go.

 

 

This coming Wednesday is March 1, otherwise known as Labor Day (for most of the world, anyway).  However, having a holiday in the middle of the week is completely ridiculous because what are you going to do?  Work 2 days, have a rest day, and then work 2 more days?  Everyone knows that is complete nonsense, so instead today (Sunday) is a work/school day, and next weekend Sunday will be a work/school day and then we can have Thursday and Friday off to make it a 4 day weekend (Wed-Sat).  Obviously this is a much more reasonable way to organize a holiday than just having some silly day off in the middle of the week, amirite?

 

So today I dropped Ghostlet off at school and then headed over to Church.  When I got home I watched the second episode of GoT while peeling (shelling? podding?) a bag of fresh peas that someone gave us.  For lunch I had a coupe of slices of leftover pizza and small bowl of baked beans.

 

Week 1 is over, time to take an inventory of how I did

 

D. Doodling 5x - I only got 4x for this week, and only because I did two today.  Mouths are hard to draw, yo!

Spoiler

 

E. Exercising 4x - Right on target again.  I have come up with a schedule that seems to be working.  Pull on Monday, Trampoline on Tuesday, Push on Wednesday, general messing around on Thursday, and Leg on Friday

 

E. Eating 5x - Far exceeded expectations again for this one.  12 home-cooked meals for the week, with at least one every day and most days with two

 

P.  Playing 1x - Right on target again with this one.  

[shaar]

2 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I do spend some time after every workout doing some third world squat (I have always called the eki squats) but I could probably stand to do more.  I saw a recommendation recently from Steve to try and read a chapter of a book while holding the squat, so I may give that a go.

 

Ooo, the book thing is a great idea!  Third world squats are something that I am somehow skilled at, but I've never really tried to hold it for terribly long... challenge ACCEPTED........

 

On 4/27/2019 at 10:24 AM, WhiteGhost said:

 

 

 

Why does this speak to me on a deeply personal level?.....................

[KB Girl]

Those bottom 2 have really good shadowing! I'm impressed with your lips

[Mad Hatter]

The mouths are not bad at all!

[@mu]

I like the mouth practice too, shading & highlighting in particular.

 

For pistol squats, how do you do on rolls with momentum + hand push if needed? or coming down and up holding the bench for support but not sitting on it?

[WhiteGhost]

23 hours ago, shaar said:

Why does this speak to me on a deeply personal level?.....................

haha, you and me both  

 

19 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Those bottom 2 have really good shadowing! I'm impressed with your lips

 

19 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Those bottom 2 have really good shadowing! I'm impressed with your lips

 

7 hours ago, @mu said:

I like the mouth practice too, shading & highlighting in particular.

 

Thanks guys!

 

7 hours ago, @mu said:

For pistol squats, how do you do on rolls with momentum + hand push if needed? or coming down and up holding the bench for support but not sitting on it?

I can get up when I do HS->forward roll->pistol squat, but I have not tried other combos that don't have as much momentum such as kip->pistol or pistol backroll burpees.  Maybe I will give those a try and see how I do.

 

 

I was not feeling really well this morning and the pollution was pretty bad, so I decided to stay home and have a rest day.  I moved all of my spices onto our new shelves and organized myself a spice rack.

I also inventoried the freezer and pantry because I want to try and come up with a plan for food for the next week or so.  I have done OK so far just making whatever I feel like but I feel like a plan would help.

 

For lunch today I made some fish tacos but Ghostess ordered takeout for dinner tonight so we had Sichuan food.  I haven't done any doodling, but I will be heading over to Youtube after this to check some tutorials for this week.

 

[Mad Hatter]

27 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

I can get up when I do HS->forward roll->pistol squat, but I have not tried other combos that don't have as much momentum such as kip->pistol or pistol backroll burpees.  Maybe I will give those a try and see how I do.

While cool they all seem overly complex movements for such a simple skill. What about sitting in a regular squat => roll on your back like a turtle => back up to pistol?

[NicTheRugger]

On 4/28/2019 at 8:58 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Mouths are hard to draw, yo!

They are!! I can only draw 2 kinds: ridiculously full, or "straight line." I like the variety that you got though!

[PaulG]

9 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I moved all of my spices onto our new shelves and organized myself a spice rack.



 

You guys are still living in China right? I am super jealous of the spices you guys can get hold of over there. A lot of stuff is available in the US, but some surprisingly basic stuff is just not imported very much. If I could just walk into a store and grab some erjingtiao chiles, I would be a very happy man.

 

8 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

While cool they all seem overly complex movements for such a simple skill. What about sitting in a regular squat => roll on your back like a turtle => back up to pistol?

 

Gotta say I agree. I know there are plenty of programs that progress through complex “play” sorts of movements that involve jumping or rolling to a pistol, including GMB’s programs, which I generally quite like. But — and it’s just my two cents — for me, none of the rolling or assistance-based progressions ever worked. It just made it too easy for me to not actually work my strength in the bottom ROM, which is where the strength work really counts. I progressed much faster with slow, progressively lower negatives.

 

The biggest component of ankle mobility is building strength in that extreme dorsiflexion ROM. Plenty of people have most or all of the ankle flexibility they need to pull off a pistol — but they run into trouble when they sink into the bottom and hit that very weak ROM. Their ankle isn’t strong enough to keep them upright, so they fall backward.

 

If we look at what you’re doing in your video: 

On 4/27/2019 at 12:35 PM, PaulG said:

 

I see a couple things.

 

1: I’m pretty sure I see your heel coming up as you approach the bench. That could be a flexibility compensation, or a strength compensation. I recommend only going as low as you can go with your heel on the ground.

 

2: Your knee actually comes out very far forward of your foot, which tells me your ankle flexibility may actually be pretty good. Most people don’t actually need more than about 40 degrees of dorsiflexion to do a full pistol. The guy from Start Bodyweight, for example, doesn’t come as far forward as you in the bottom:

 

 

3: Rather than just using the brick as a stop, you’re actually sitting on it. Then you’re using it to assist your concentric by rolling forward. That’s cheating you of the strength work in the bottom that you need to progress. The brick should be there only to keep you from falling into a ROM where you no longer have the strength to support yourself; it should be at a height where you can come down slowly, touch it very lightly with your butt, and then rise entirely under your own power.

 

For strength at end ROM, most people have best results from doing reps with very slow negatives, to maximize the amount of time and  work done at the end of their ROM.

 

If you want to go the less playful route, I suggest finding the height that you can get to before your heel comes off the ground, and working from that height for now (you may need to use a higher brick for a bit). Then do your reps with slow descent and the light touch, with no sitting. As your reps build with that harder strength work, you’ll start developing the strength to go lower again.

[PaulG]

Double post! Sorry.

[WhiteGhost]

23 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

While cool they all seem overly complex movements for such a simple skill. What about sitting in a regular squat => roll on your back like a turtle => back up to pistol?

I wouldn't do any of these movements as a progression, I was just going to try them for fun to see if I could  

 

21 hours ago, NicTheRugger said:

They are!! I can only draw 2 kinds: ridiculously full, or "straight line." I like the variety that you got though!

I can only draw whatever the reference picture shows.  I only have variety because I had a few reference pictures to work with  

 

19 hours ago, PaulG said:

You guys are still living in China right? I am super jealous of the spices you guys can get hold of over there. A lot of stuff is available in the US, but some surprisingly basic stuff is just not imported very much. If I could just walk into a store and grab some erjingtiao chiles, I would be a very happy man.

Yep still in China.  However, 90% of the stuff in my spice rack is not available in stores here.  I might be able to find some of them in the western supermarkets over on the East side, but for most of it I have to order it online.  Ghostess has her own spice drawer where she keeps all of the local stuff that she uses for her cooking.  That said, when we went to visit my folks in Texas, we had a really hard time finding most of the ingredients we needed to make them some Chinese food.  You are right, that the opposite is true and most of the stuff we take for granted is just not available there.  

 

19 hours ago, PaulG said:

Gotta say I agree. I know there are plenty of programs that progress through complex “play” sorts of movements that involve jumping or rolling to a pistol, including GMB’s programs, which I generally quite like. But — and it’s just my two cents — for me, none of the rolling or assistance-based progressions ever worked. It just made it too easy for me to not actually work my strength in the bottom ROM, which is where the strength work really counts. I progressed much faster with slow, progressively lower negatives.

Totally agree.  I just use the "play" movements for just that.  A way to play that just happens to incorporate the movement.  They probably don't hurt, but I wouldn't rely on them to really help me improve much.

 

19 hours ago, PaulG said:

I see a couple things.

Hmm, that is some very good feedback that I had not thought about before.  I think you may have found a way for me to work on these that doesn't leave me dreading them.  I will try them out and report back the next time I have a leg workout (although that may not be until next week)

 

 

Very busy day today.  Tomorrow starts the "4 day" Labor Day holiday but most of the schools had only a half day.

 

Doodling - I tried to draw some noses, but I couldn't get anything that even looks like a nose.  I am going to really struggle with these this week  

 

Exercising - I didn't get out for a workout yesterday so I made up for it this morning.  I went to the park and did a pull workout.  I struggled a bit because the calluses on my hands are really painful again, but other than that it wasn't bad. 

 

Eating - No homemade meals today.  Lunch was PBJ (I don't count them towards this goal) and then for dinner Ghostess ordered some Singaporean food.

 

Playing - After Ghostlet got out of school, we both went to the trampoline park for Trampoline Tuesday.  Unfortunately, with all of the kids out of school the place was packed so I couldn't really work on anything.  We both made some good progress on wall walks, though.

Spoiler

 

These things: