Mu develops her inner HS puppy

[Norgaard]

On 5/11/2019 at 6:56 PM, @mu said:

I mean the bail in bridge is ok, but it's still not the nicest thing in the world.

 

Lie!!!!!

Bail into bridge feel like a horse kicking your back

[@mu]

On 5/12/2019 at 10:30 PM, Norgaard said:

 

Lie!!!!!

Bail into bridge feel like a horse kicking your back

 

I'm ok with it but sometimes I'll have a foot landing off the mat and slide, and that is a pretty mean landing

 

Sunday

 

Caught up with all my Cirque Physio, ball drill x1, pull, HS and a bit of back-bend stretching but not in full.

In HS, I reached 36s fairly quickly and decided to stop endurance there and work on bananas and press negatives. I tried to go banana on purpose and recover from it. I could recover but not go back to a solid balance. It was interesting to go banana slowly as well, feel what changes there and how I need to compensate. Then I did some press and posterior tilt straddle HS which is kinda the opposite movement and it was good to work on both somehow.

 

And we have a friend from Iran in town she is attending an agronomy-related workshop here. And lots of impromptu meetups with neighbours these days, it's great! Lots of sharing of food, books, stories, tea, music, cats and dogs

 

~ Week review ~

 

/* Challenge Log */
     last P2 cycle |Deload| #1   | #2
P2:            3/3 | 1/1  | 1/1  | 1/1
Press2HS:       3/3 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2
HS:            3/3 | 1/1  | 3/3  | 3/3
 
Stretching:    2/2 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 1.5/2
Cirque-Physio:18/18| 12/12| 18/18| 18/18
Legs:          2/2 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2
Ball-flex:     4/4 | 4/4  | 4/4  | 4/4
Pull:          5   | 4    | 3    | 3
 
Job-prep:     10/10| 16/10| 15/10| 14/10
Drawing:       1   | 2    | 2    | 2

 

Went well. I have been working a lot. I made some progress on my Pacman's AI too.

Practice is good except I tend to skip some of my morning's habits - in particular stretching. I need to watch out for that.

Press to HS: now getting into the difficult bits. I'll have another week on negatives but free standing this time and then I will start working on elevated presses, which is where I will hang about a while.

Pull: sort of same minimal level.

 

Monday

 

Spoiler

An impromptu interview came about after a first contact in the morning (but a recruiter not a company directly). It went well. I'm apparently an “experienced atypical” - whatever that means   It made me feel better though because I was fearing a bit that the Iranian xp might be off-putting or something. But apparently not.

 

I went by bike. On my way back, my chain came off... I arrived home with very dirty black hands but chain is back on. Some work, references prep. And more neighbour socializing time. My cat and the right hand-side neighbour's cat are hissing at each other (it's a young male lacking a bit of self-confidence – and ours is a bit like that too but she doesn't like his smell ). Our cat on the other hand is in total love with the left hand side neighbour's cat (an older female). She follows her, lay in front of her in submissive adoration. I'm not exaggerating. She's in awe. Unfortunately that female cat, while appreciating that she's dealing with a kiddo doesn't really want to become best pals or anything like that. Tough.

 

Then we listened to a lot of Mohsen Namjoo while eating the neighbour's pistou's soup. There is a craziness about him that is just so good. I miss Iran in a weird way, I can't quite conceptualise it, moments, people, memory of feelings. It's a bit different from my Scottish nostalgia for instance. I also fear the current international situation.

 

And then in the middle of all this I had no time for practice at all. Well I did not manage to make time for it earlier in the MORNING, I could have though. I'll use today as my rest day and do hips on Wed. But I'm now out of joker for this week.

 

[@mu]

Today

 

Cirque Physio x3 + ball drill x1 + pull (hanging raises + straddle-ups + alignment + extra hanging raises from pressToHS) + press to HS + HS consistency

 

Free standing press neg, coming back to p-bar level => that went well, I manage all of them, except for 1 banana and a quick descent on the first rep.

Here is a vid with a wall version and 2 free standing. I'm pondering about sending it as my submission #2 for coaching, or maybe I could wait a bit until I get into elevated press HS. Not sure (we can submit up to 3 videos).

 

 

HS consistency was pretty poor: 13/25, I mostly could not jump high enough, my shoulders were too tired, nearing failure actually. It's weird because press to HS feels less intense than P2 but shoulders feel a lot more recruited these days. Possibly because I'm working on ribs/elevation. I feel it.

 

Deload week is next week though. Right on time

[WhiteGhost]

YOur handstand work is reminding me that I have been negligent in my own.  I need to rectify that soon

[@mu]

18 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

YOur handstand work is reminding me that I have been negligent in my own.  I need to rectify that soon

 

go go go

 

Side note, in her material Kirsty says: Many students will get the full press up before they nail the negative so don't worry if you struggle with this movement.

I was like Whaaaat? because I do relatively well on negatives, but I can't press at all why

 

[Mad Hatter]

Those negatives look SO good though. I wonder if people get the full press first because they initiate the movement with a little rock over the toes? It's not much but I imagine even a small amount of momentum will aid the movement.

[raptron]

Yeah, they're soooo nice! 

 

I definitely do a momentum rock on the floor... it seems legit to me. >_> 

[Mike Wazowski]

DUDE, those negatives look legit! Awesome stuff!

[@mu]

On 5/14/2019 at 8:24 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Those negatives look SO good though. I wonder if people get the full press first because they initiate the movement with a little rock over the toes? It's not much but I imagine even a small amount of momentum will aid the movement.

 

6 hours ago, raptron said:

Yeah, they're soooo nice! 

 

I definitely do a momentum rock on the floor... it seems legit to me. >_> 

 

I've tried to rock on parallettes with my feet on the bars but to no avail. I have to see how I get on with boxes/books on the side, starting a bit wider would help I suppose.

 

6 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

DUDE, those negatives look legit! Awesome stuff!

 

Thaaanks! So far I'm happy with the programme, things are coming along as I go, it's pretty pleasant To be fair I do have something like 6+ months of negative xp with P2 (pike and tuck) but the straddle bit is new and super useful (as well as the coaching bit on ribs)...

 

Job interview went well I think. I don't have to do any of their technical challenges because my demo covers that (yo!). I have to update my readme to point out a couple of minor differences but that's it, and we should have a tech debrief next week. I'm pretty happy about that outcome, I thought they might look at my code AND ask me to do something. Still crossing fingers that the demo pass their standards (project involves a EU certification at some point so mhm).

They gave me a visit of their office (a good sign?). And it's very new and fancy with Nespresso type of machines everywhere (no samovar though ). They have a relaxation space with swings 

 

I managed to do legs + cirque physio + ball drill + hips, not in the morning because I was still checking out last minute stuff for my interview.... But I did it in the evening still. Thanks to NF accountability on that one because I can see a skipping pattern wanting to develop...

Leg-wise I want to point out that I'm biking a fair amount as well. My chain came off today again, AFTER the interview fortunately.

 

[@mu]

Log

 

/* Challenge Log */
     last P2 cycle |Deload| #1   | #2   | #3
P2:            3/3 | 1/1  | 1/1  | 1/1  | 0/1
Press2HS:       3/3 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2 | 1/2
HS:            3/3 | 1/1  | 3/3  | 3/3  | 1/3
 
Stretching:    2/2 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 1.5/2| 1/2
Cirque-Physio:18/18| 12/12| 18/18| 18/18| 6/18
Legs:          2/2 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2
Ball-flex:     4/4 | 4/4  | 4/4  | 4/4  | 2/4
Pull:          5   | 4    | 3    | 3    | 1
 
Job-prep:     10/10| 16/10| 15/10| 14/10| 5/10
Drawing:       1   | 2    | 2    | 2    | 0

 

[WhiteGhost]

17 hours ago, @mu said:

And it's very new and fancy with Nespresso type of machines everywhere (no samovar though ). They have a relaxation space with swings 

Sounds nice, but still far below the bar set by @Mad Hatter's place.  I want to work in a place that has a kitchen and a squat rack.

[Mike Wazowski]

WOO that sounds really promising on the job front! Fingers crossed the good vibes are what you think they are!

[raptron]

I want swings at my office! 

[Mad Hatter]

SWINGS!

 

On 5/15/2019 at 11:29 PM, @mu said:

They gave me a visit of their office (a good sign?)

Isn't this standard practice? Unless they hate you straight away haha. I feel like interviews are as much for them to get to know you as well as for you to get a feel for the company and whether you'd like to work there. Which you didn't actually mention.  

 

But yay for promising interview! I wouldn't worry about the tech demo and if it fulfils the EU certificate requirement exactly, I mean it's not your area of expertise and something you'd learn on the job. I'd think they want to see a tech demo for, well, the tech side of it, and not so much the precise content.

 

17 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

 Sounds nice, but still far below the bar set by @Mad Hatter's place.  I want to work in a place that has a kitchen and a squat rack.

I think kitchen and squat rack sounds like the office is a much nicer place than it is.  Don't get me wrong, I like it, but it's pretty much the opposite of these newfangled shiny offices.  A little dilapidated, but homey. 

[KB Girl]

Wow your negatives are amazing! The previous video of your banana handstands also left me a bit awed. They weren't as pretty, but I was amazed by how you managed to fight back out of positions I was sure you'd have to bail from. 

 

It's also really cool that you get along well with your neighbours! It sounds really lovely. It's one thing I dislike about the culture in the Netherlands.. not quite so friendly. My mom's culture (Turkish) is so different and we always used to have visitors and I miss that sometimes. 

[@mu]

On 5/16/2019 at 4:30 PM, WhiteGhost said:

Sounds nice, but still far below the bar set by @Mad Hatter's place.  I want to work in a place that has a kitchen and a squat rack.

 

There is a big kitchen too We had a kitchen in Iran as well, but not that big.

No squat racks, no deadlift platform either. I would have loved that seriously!!!

 

11 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Isn't this standard practice? Unless they hate you straight away haha. I feel like interviews are as much for them to get to know you as well as for you to get a feel for the company and whether you'd like to work there. Which you didn't actually mention.  

 

Ahaha exactly, at least they don't hate me?  

 

I am definitely interested by the place. The first time I spotted them was back then when I did market review in Iran. They have to deal with specific problems that I find interesting (privacy, fraud detection) and they do machine learning on some aspects. There is a good mix of prod engineering and R&D. It's a medium-size company and apparently relatively fluid on roles. They also received several awards last year in different areas, including security and innovation. It's not the only interesting company in the area, but I find them quite attractive. The interview was nice and friendly, but still focused and we went into some interesting topics (eg current implementation of GDPR compliance, 2-step auth and SMS network security, AI bottlenecks they have to deal with if they want to grow outside of France - so actually language and localisation related stuff which is the most interesting to me). No big red flag so far.

 

11 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

But yay for promising interview! I wouldn't worry about the tech demo and if it fulfils the EU certificate requirement exactly, I mean it's not your area of expertise and something you'd learn on the job. I'd think they want to see a tech demo for, well, the tech side of it, and not so much the precise content.

 

That's it exactly, even their own tech challenges have nothing to do with it except for the basic architecture. But the passing threshold for the tech bit is a little bit higher on security / robustness / maintainability. I will try not to feel hurt if I don't pass The other thing is that I don't have prod xp on the framework they are using. I still used it for the demo. Which might work in my favour ... or not. They know about that and it didn't scare them away. But they might prefer someone who is more immediately fluent.

 

11 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I think kitchen and squat rack sounds like the office is a much nicer place than it is.  Don't get me wrong, I like it, but it's pretty much the opposite of these newfangled shiny offices.  A little dilapidated, but homey. 

 

Yeah but that's nicer. It has spirit. The new shiny fancy places can be a bit lacking.

 

4 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Wow your negatives are amazing! The previous video of your banana handstands also left me a bit awed. They weren't as pretty, but I was amazed by how you managed to fight back out of positions I was sure you'd have to bail from. 

 

It's also really cool that you get along well with your neighbours! It sounds really lovely. It's one thing I dislike about the culture in the Netherlands.. not quite so friendly. My mom's culture (Turkish) is so different and we always used to have visitors and I miss that sometimes. 

 

Thanks! I have definitely improved on banana recovery, it's still a pretty big and intense push I have to say, I don't always manage. Arching the back can also feel a bit scary, I'm now fairly confident I can take it because I have been practicing it once a week on my elbows for quite a while. But that's not something that my brain is naturally at ease with.

 

I was nicely surprised too! Except for one cool neighbour back in Paris, I didn't remember much socialisation! But southern France is a little bit different for sure. Here strangers say hello and they will come to help if you have a problem (like when my bike chain came off). Let's see how it goes because we are still a bit like tourists discovering the life here, but so far it's a very pleasant city.

 

Thursday

 

Cirque Physio + P2 custom + HS consistency => 16/25 lots of jump problems (power/height)

P2 felt good, much better than last week and I managed a few full lever spins this time. Pre-workout chocolate seem to help with the required energy level

 

Friday

 

Cirque Physio + pull & back-bends – but in the evening again... booo... still did it but I don't like the pattern. And I got toe cramps that were pretty disrupting. Not sure where that came from.

 

/* Challenge Log */
     last P2 cycle |Deload| #1   | #2   | #3
P2:            3/3 | 1/1  | 1/1  | 1/1  | 1/1
Press2HS:      3/3 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2  | 1/2
HS:            3/3 | 1/1  | 3/3  | 3/3  | 2/3
 
Stretching:    2/2 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 1.5/2| 2/2
Cirque-Physio:18/18| 12/12| 18/18| 18/18| 14/18
Legs:          2/2 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2
Ball-flex:     4/4 | 4/4  | 4/4  | 4/4  | 2/4
Pull:          5   | 4    | 3    | 3    | 2
 
Job-prep:     10/10| 16/10| 15/10| 14/10| 6/10
Drawing:       1   | 2    | 2    | 2    | 0

 

[Mad Hatter]

11 hours ago, @mu said:

There is a big kitchen too We had a kitchen in Iran as well, but not that big.

What's their baking on the job policy?  

 

11 hours ago, @mu said:

 No squat racks, no deadlift platform either. I would have loved that seriously!!!

Deadlift platform? You mean, ahem, the floor?  Let's just say I'm truly amazed we haven't gotten noise complaints yet. Between me blasting music and barbells clanking it gets preeeetty loud. My only guess is that the neighbours have already left for work.

 

11 hours ago, @mu said:

Yeah but that's nicer. It has spirit. The new shiny fancy places can be a bit lacking.

That is true. Sometimes it feels like it's more for show for clients and employee prospects rather than for the staff to actually use.

 

Sounds like a cool place though with interesting work. Fingers crossed! 

 

11 hours ago, @mu said:

Thanks! I have definitely improved on banana recovery, it's still a pretty big and intense push I have to say, I don't always manage.

It appears I have completely lost the strength to recover from a banana, it really is a very specific and not so easy skill.

 

11 hours ago, @mu said:

I was nicely surprised too! Except for one cool neighbour back in Paris, I didn't remember much socialisation! But southern France is a little bit different for sure. Here strangers say hello and they will come to help if you have a problem (like when my bike chain came off). Let's see how it goes because we are still a bit like tourists discovering the life here, but so far it's a very pleasant city.

It all sounds so quaint, love it.  

[@mu]

On 5/18/2019 at 9:58 AM, Mad Hatter said:

What's their baking on the job policy?  

 

I did not ask, it looked too clean to be really used imo

 

On 5/18/2019 at 9:58 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Deadlift platform? You mean, ahem, the floor?  Let's just say I'm truly amazed we haven't gotten noise complaints yet. Between me blasting music and barbells clanking it gets preeeetty loud. My only guess is that the neighbours have already left for work.

 

Oops, I hope the floor is solid!

 

On 5/18/2019 at 9:58 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Sounds like a cool place though with interesting work. Fingers crossed! 

 

Cheers!

 

On 5/18/2019 at 9:58 AM, Mad Hatter said:

It appears I have completely lost the strength to recover from a banana, it really is a very specific and not so easy skill.

 

I guess a deep banana qualifies as some kind of HS scorpion, it's pretty technical too

 

Saturday

 

Ball drill + pull + press to HS: still on free standing negatives, I tried to make them as beautiful as I could to get a video for my submission #2, however looking at the videos I could have gone a bit slower to show more control. I will try to get another take next week. Legs are also still bending a wee bit but I don't think I can fix it in a week.

 

Out of curiosity, I tried to press with books on the side and nope. I started re-reading the material on full press and you are supposed to push legs to the side. I was trying to get my legs up straight away (that definitely did not work).

 

In the afternoon, we went to a local support group for epilepsy and I have to say it was a bit depressing. It is supposed to be recognised as a handicap, and while care/medication is covered by social security, we were warned that care is under extreme pressure, general public knowledge about it is pretty low and it sounds like work-wise, it's going to be the same as Iran despite handicap laws.

 

Sunday

 

I finally managed to get hold of an e-mail address for my tax centre (when I left France everything was still paper-based, I don't have an account to do things online). I sent my new info, so that bit is done.

The last bit of admin will be social security (contrary to local popular belief, neither of us are entitled until we have 3 months of residency). I expect this to be a major paperwork pain in the ass. I'd happy to be proven wrong of course  

 

Then Cirque Physio x4 + ball drill + pull + HS endurance

HS was a bit of a zoo, like I had all my spirits animals in one session! I had a bit of a harder time with my ribs.

 

A best at ~48s, an epic one, I managed to recover from a pike followed by a big banana and again pike down to tuck and up again, but I didn't last long after that.

 

Then some free standing negative and HS down to L-sit via a straddle. When I go from straight to straddle, I tend to pike (I'm often already a bit piked), so I'm working on straightening that bit + delaying the butt roll, and then slowing down the descent as much as I can. It's tough on balance, and after the butt roll, it's a lot of abs while still pushing like mad. Pretty intense 1-rep thingy.

 

Here is a video of my wild endurance bit + a couple of negs:

 

 

 

[@mu]

~ Challenge review ~

 

OMG this challenge is already over. It's so weird, last challenge felt like a century and this one feels like it has barely started.

 

/* Challenge Log */
     last P2 cycle |Deload| #1   | #2   | #3
P2:            3/3 | 1/1  | 1/1  | 1/1  | 1/1   100%
Press2HS:      3/3 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2   100%
HS:            3/3 | 1/1  | 3/3  | 3/3  | 3/3   100%
 
Stretching:    2/2 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 1.5/2| 2/2   95%
Cirque-Physio:18/18| 12/12| 18/18| 18/18| 18/18 100%
Legs:          2/2 | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2  | 2/2   100%
Ball-flex:     4/4 | 4/4  | 4/4  | 4/4  | 4/4   100%
Pull:          5   | 4    | 3    | 3    | 4     =19
 
Job-prep:     10/10| 16/10| 15/10| 14/10| 6/10  122%
Drawing:       1   | 2    | 2    | 2    | 0     =7

 

Practice: going well so far.

 

I'm really enjoying Kirsty's programme. It feels just right at my level and I can focus on form rather than just surviving it. I'm comparing with P2 balancing flows There is quite a big gap between P1 and P2, had I known I think I would have done first Kirsty HS programme, then press to HS, and then P2. That said, I think learning to balance is always quite intense, tiring and frustrating no matter the programme. And I still feel that but improving consistency over the past year has helped tremendously. Say in 10mn, I get a lot more good working reps than I used to.

 

Her coaching has been spot on as well because as soon as I started following her advice, I could feel a difference in my holds. Of course, change does not happen over night, but it feels like things are going in the right direction.

 

P2 custom feels good too. I definitely want to keep bent arm / levers / crow work in there. It's a bit lower priority but I feel that at a very minimum I need to maintain my level. A few weeks time is a bit too short to evaluate whether 1x/week is enough (in particular for bent arm strength). I will see how it goes, I might add some 1-leg crow / pike PU at the end of press to HS if I feel that I'm losing it a little.

 

My pull activities are still minimal but that's ok by me for now.

I have improved a fair amount on some Cirque Physio stuff, for instance, when I started I was unable to do child pose middle split leg lifts without a cushion and I could not hold really, just lifting was pretty tough despite the height buffer. Now I'm on the floor, butt down on the heel of my foot and I can lift and hold 4-5s there. Prone passés have also improved.

 

The only thing bothering me a little is that I postpone stretching quite often instead of doing it in the morning. Nothing too bad, but maybe I could focus on that next challenge.

Otherwise I'm now back to my pre-move rhythm.

 

Job-prep: very good, I relaxed this week-end but I'm overall past the bout of procrastination I went through last challenge. I don't think I will need to challenge myself further on it, because I'm now definitely motivated and engaged in the process (whether my current application works out or not).

 

Drawing/cardboard: that was a bonus item and while I did do a little here and there, I still haven't finished the second layer on my cardboard project. My mental space is a bit too busy with job search and coding to do much more than that.

 

Edit: forgot to include today's pull

[KB Girl]

Seriously it's amazing how quickly you've gotten back into your pre-move rhythm. Very impressive! As is that video. You're on my list of people I want to be like when I grow up now. 

[@mu]

9 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Seriously it's amazing how quickly you've gotten back into your pre-move rhythm. Very impressive! As is that video. You're on my list of people I want to be like when I grow up now. 

 

Thanks! but ah I think I'm way too low on cardio to be a very relevant reference 

 

Preparing the new challenge.... and very bummed by today's news about Huawei (access to Android updates have been stopped by Google to comply with new US policy). I have a Huawei phone... I will see how it goes but I might end up having to install a Linux on it instead. It's pretty new and actually one of the best phones I have ever had. But no OS updates? That's pretty violent.

[WhiteGhost]

11 minutes ago, @mu said:

and very bummed by today's news about Huawei (access to Android updates have been stopped by Google to comply with new US policy). I have a Huawei phone... I will see how it goes but I might end up having to install a Linux on it instead. It's pretty new and actually one of the best phones I have ever had. But no OS updates? That's pretty violent.

Wait, what???  I am heavily invested into the Huawei ecosystem (similar to how everything in Apple devices tie together in a smart home) so the cost (In terms of time and convenience) is going to be pretty high to try and swap it out with something else...  

[@mu]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-alphabet-exclusive/exclusive-google-suspends-some-business-with-huawei-after-trump-blacklist-source-idUSKCN1SP0NB

 

It seems that Google Store and app updates will be maintained for existing owners. But OS updates are coming via the manufacturer and this is apparently cut out.

 

[@mu]

They can't restrict access to the open source version of Android but that will probably require some update delivery refactoring on Huawei's side and it will probably be slower.

[WhiteGhost]

8 minutes ago, @mu said:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-alphabet-exclusive/exclusive-google-suspends-some-business-with-huawei-after-trump-blacklist-source-idUSKCN1SP0NB

 

It seems that Google Store and app updates will be maintained for existing owners. But OS updates are coming via the manufacturer and this is apparently cut out.

 

OK, I guess this isn't going to really impact me that much.  All of the google apps that I use were not originally included with the phone and I had to get access to them through alternative channels anyway.