Press to HS summer battle part #1

[@mu]

Hiya again fellow rebels

 

Goals for this challenge

 

Maintain your assets: Daily Persian

 

 

Read a few pages from proper literature every day (e.g. newspapers / books – chat/messaging/social media do not count)

 

 

Stay away from magic potions for a while

 

 

Limit coffee, ideally 1 a day, no more than 2!

 

Stoicism practice: better change your habits than struggle changing the feline's

 

 

The cat is still waking me up at 5:30am. So I shall go to bed ideally at 10pm on work days.

 

And of course training and specifically press to handstand.

 

I'm still on Kirsty's course, I'm nearing 3 months, believe it or not (time flies!).

I'm very consistent with training so I don't feel the need to track super accurately here, but I'll keep venting about my mêlees and skirmishes with gravity. This is more of a mini battle log for the challenge.

 

I need to run to work, see yer all soon!

 

[WhiteGhost]

First! 

 

Here for all the handstands and cat battles

[Mad Hatter]

Here of course! 

[h3r0]

Yeah you are never going to win a battle of wills against a cat. Good luck on the challenge! 

[raptron]

Cat victory, hahah, aw. 

[@mu]

The worse is that she (the cat) eats her breakfast, goes out to sniff the air, comes back and falls asleep... It's pretty maddening to be honest. But hey...

 

I will take week 0 easy and start logging seriously next week. This morning I had a good press to HS session though, nothing really shiny to report, but I definitely sweat it.

[@mu]

Did you guys see Kirsty's IG doing HS + ball stuff?

 

 

 

I so want to work on this at some point, with parallettes of course and silks too

 

[Mike Wazowski]

HERE!!!! Excited to hear / see all about the skirmishes with gravity (love that phrasing).

[Mad Hatter]

22 hours ago, @mu said:

I so want to work on this at some point, with parallettes of course and silks too

I thought about you straight away when I saw this pop up! Still the best hashtag.

[h3r0]

On 6/25/2019 at 1:47 PM, @mu said:

Did you guys see Kirsty's IG doing HS + ball stuff?

 

 

 

I so want to work on this at some point, with parallettes of course and silks too

 

 

That is so damn impressive! 

 

[@mu]

I missed backbends yesterday, I'm not sure what's up with backends. I might need to revamp that session a little bit to make it more attractive. Let's see if I can have it on Friday. I'm going to a tech conf today and tomorrow. I find this more tiring than a day of work usually but let's see.

 

Oh I'm back on my own bike, and indeed it is a bit heavier but I've progressed it seems, commute is getting easier! I'm also starting to feel some change in leg activation during training!

 

Today was custom P2 and I changed a few things. I swapped pike PU for HS to crow. And I used my BALL on some elements (just using a flexed foot hold for now)! It was tough but a LOT OF FUN. On crow (1-leg and knee swaps), it made me realize that I don't lift the butt that much, I tend to open the hips and get the leg out to the side like a dog about to take a pee... I need to work on that...

 

And then I did HS consistency with a straddle kick. It looks like the best entry to "debug" my ribs / piking because it forces me to have very active legs (floppy being another issue I need to work on) + if my ribs start sticking out I will go banana. It's much more obvious than from a tuck jump. I find it also much more tiring, by rep 3, it's getting quite challenging.

 

5+s consistency score: 19/25 (5x5 sets)

Then I did HS lowers and HS to crow, but I was pooped. Not a good idea, I will have them before consistency again next time.

 

Here is a video log of ball stuff and HS rib-related struggles:

 

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

That straddle to elbow lever is so nice! And I have to say the rib/piking thing is really not bad at all. 

[@mu]

On 6/27/2019 at 2:24 PM, Mad Hatter said:

That straddle to elbow lever is so nice! And I have to say the rib/piking thing is really not bad at all. 

 

It has improved a wee bit and I don't think it was too bad to start with. But oddly enough, these days I do feel much more difference  between good elevation and this slight sink I can fall into sometimes.

 

Lords of Kobol, it's super hot. We are dealing with a massive heatwave across the country. Temperatures are up in the 40-45C range + humidity if feels like 50...

At the conference I went to, we were supposed to have coffee breaks outside but it got so hot, emergency services asked the organisers to find some indoor place with air con.

Yesterday I managed back-bends and today press to HS, but it was not very intense sessions because of the heat (we don't have aircon either... ). Best endurance HS was at ~26s.

 

Here is this week's log. Underscore means either rest day so no practice to account for, or an evening without work the next day, so I don't need to mind the bed deadline.

I'll try to manage Persian and early bed time tonight, although bed time looks already a bit late...

 

/* Challenge log */

Persian  0 1 1 0 0 1 ?
Coffee   1 1 1 2 3 0 1
Bed      1 0 1 1 _ _ ?
Practice 1 1 _ 1 _ 1 1

Practice was ok, despite having to swap days around. Bedtime: not bad. Coffee and Persian: can do much better.

Coffee is hard at work. There is no decaf option, it's a machine that brews from beans. It's delicious and free, hard to resist....

 

[Mad Hatter]

11 hours ago, @mu said:

But oddly enough, these days I do feel much more difference  between good elevation and this slight sink I can fall into sometimes.

It's not that odd. You've been working quite hard on handstands and particularly on all the press drills that require you to push really hard, it's not surprising that you've increased your body awareness.  

 

I'm so glad I live in Finland right now, the heatwaves across Europe are horrendous. I'd turn into a sweat puddle just breathing!

[WhiteGhost]

12 hours ago, @mu said:

Temperatures are up in the 40-45C range + humidity

Holy Hannah, that is insane.  If the universe was fair you would be getting massive gains for working out in that, especially without A/C....

[KB Girl]

I heard about the record breaking temperatures in France on the news and thought of you.. pfff.. 

We have no airco in the gym so I actually cancelled a couple of classes and it was only 33 here! 

 

We should just go visit MadHatter

[Mike Wazowski]

On 6/26/2019 at 12:41 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Still the best hashtag.

Totally missed that hashtag until you called it out. And definitely just spit out some iced coffee reading it.

 

Stay safe with the heat wave - especially with the bike ride into the office!

[Mad Hatter]

3 hours ago, KB Girl said:

We should just go visit MadHatter

Haha I’m so happy I live in Finland right now.

 

Also I had this conversation with M today

 

M: Hatter! Let’s go to France for the upcoming vacation

Me: No. It’s 45 degrees

M: But beach!

Me: 45 degrees

M:  

Me: 45 degrees

M: Let’s see in a week when it’s been raining all the time

Me: No. 45 degrees

 

Let’s just say that me and my puny Scandi heat tolerance don’t envy you  

 

 

 

 

 

[raptron]

Yeah, phew! That heat wave sounds completely terrible. 

[@mu]

On 7/1/2019 at 10:39 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Holy Hannah, that is insane.  If the universe was fair you would be getting massive gains for working out in that, especially without A/C....

 

ha ha I wish, but it's quite the opposite - except maybe for flexibility related stuff. Seems I compress better at about 42C

 

On 7/1/2019 at 8:07 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Me: No. 45 degrees

 

The beach at 45 in full sun is NOT nice, I agree!

 

Busy week!

 

I got sucked into coding a fair amount. And it's still very hot.

On Tuesday after work we went to the beach + funfair with our neighbours, which was brilliant  

The middle of the week was hard (not enough sleep) and I took 2 rest days in a row... I'm still drinking too much coffee and I need to read more Persian, erm!

 

Otherwise I submitted my last video to Kirsty (bits you have already seen including fails) and I got super good feedback including new exercises to get on with. My fear was that I was doing it wrong somewhere, because I struggle a lot with the parallettes setup for elevated press. But apparently no, and I should keep at it with some extras to work on that bottom strength. It was a long response, I need to read it again  

 

So here is the official end of Press To HS, but of course I will keep at it across the summer, until circus classes start basically. Then I will have to shuffle my programme around a fair amount.

Today was P2 which went ok, HS consistency earlier this week was just barely 10/25 (heat + lack of sleep) and today I managed 20/25. Still working that straddle jump and it looks like it's working. Got some good shapes in there.

 

I'll try to catch up with threads over the week-end!

[@mu]

Just now, @mu said:

Seems I compress better at about 42C

 

aka Mu's melting point

[raptron]

That hot weather flexibility is very real!  

 

Yay for getting more exercises from Kristy. I'm glad she was so helpful! 

 

 

[Mike Wazowski]

Yay for good coaching feedback!!! And I hear you on the warm weather flexibility - that was one of the things I truly enjoyed about hot yoga, everything just felt so limber.

[Mad Hatter]

On 7/5/2019 at 8:59 AM, @mu said:

...and I should keep at it...

I feel like just about sums up handstand training. Keep on plodding.  Nice feedback. So what’s the final verdict on the program?

[@mu]

14 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I feel like just about sums up handstand training. Keep on plodding.  Nice feedback. So what’s the final verdict on the program?

 

 

I wanted to add that, technically, 3 months is the deadline by which you must have sent all your videos. You re not supposed to get the press within 3 months,  to clarify It's just the feedback feature ends there and for me it's a pretty important feature.

So I still have to get on with the last module (floor to stool). I'm waiting to have a little bit more consistency from stool. Let's see how far I can get by the end of summer.

 

I really enjoyed / am still enjoying the programme overall.

For me the big + were

• variety: each module introduces new exercises / variations, it's really not boring at all

• flexibility: you can adjust the number of conditioning circuits at the end, useful if you are deloading etc.

• feedback: the feedback bit is great, she is very responsive and the opposite of stingy when it comes to clarifying stuff. She is very encouraging also

 

Now with the specifics, I think she helped me a lot with the skills part. With elevation and external rotation in particular, which were rather fuzzy concepts at first and while I wouldn't say I have understood all of it, it's much clearer both conceptually and physically (like I know what I should be feeling now).

 

My compression level has definitely increased. This might also partly due to cycling to be honest.

 

And press is coming I can feel it, it is a strength move so it will take time. I didn't have crazy expectations on that one, so I'm fine with the level of progress.

 

I'm trying to find bad points but I don't have any really.

It's focused on straddle technique. There might be other programmes including work with tuck and pike HS. P2 was exclusively pike so it was actually interesting for me to explore my straddle.

 

I think the requirement for her programme is a 5s HS. My current 5s consistency is usually above 70% and I didn't feel restricted by too many balancing issues. Maybe a lower bound would be fine too. The programme is well made in that, somebody with balancing issues would probably iterate a while on free standing negatives for instance. The only problem is that the feedback is limited to a 3-month period, so IMO it's better to be quite ready for it otherwise you would only get feedback on the earlier stages (HS line / negatives).

 

But the programme itself is good and full of little interesting exercises that I will probably keep doing for a while, whether for press or not. You end up with a nice toolbox.

 

Do you guys have specific questions coming to mind about the programme?