Press to HS summer battle part #2

[@mu]

On 8/21/2019 at 10:57 AM, Mad Hatter said:

But in general it's a lot about feel and focusing on where I'm compensating and why and try to target that one by one. I do feel like without a coach it's a bit of a dark art though

 

Yes, truly. I guess that sort of training has to be flexible too, and very sensitive. My shoulders seem way less moody and touchy than my back Whatever I throw at them they more or less take it. But deeper back-bending nope.

 

On 8/21/2019 at 6:10 PM, KB Girl said:

Wauw, that last press video from books is getting so close to the height of your parrallets! Awesome!

 

 

7 hours ago, GoodDoug said:

I come to your thread to get inspired.

Not disappointed

 

ha ha cheers. It's coming closer but it's unbelievable how hard those last 2-3 cm are

 

 

Thursday morning: legs & hips.

Persian, coffee and bed are going well.

 

This morning: P2 custom and some press + HS consistency.

Very nice session, nothing amazing but it felt good. Note to self: stop opening the hip in one-leg crow...

 

I also tried HS to crane and I'm not far from it. If I can manage that step, HS to crow will then be fairly straight forward.

 

I tried pressing from pbarz directly, but nope, only short floats, even with a puppy leg out.

 

And HS consistency: 19/25. That one was funny because the first 2 sets were feeling really good. I though I might beat my PR. So third set I went all rabbit on it and only managed 3. Typical HS rabbit.... I recovered a bit on the fourth. And on the 5^th I just got really tired.

/* Challenge log */

Persian  1 1 1 1 0 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 2 2 2 2 0 0 | 10/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 1 1 _ _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 1 1 0 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 1 1 1 2 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 1 0 1 _ _ 0 | 3/5
Practice 1 1 1 _ 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 0 0 1 0 1 | 4/7
Coffee   2 2 1 0 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 _ 1 _ _ 1 | 4/4
Practice 1 1 1 _ _ 1 1 | 5/5

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

 

[raptron]

TYPICAL RABBIT.

 

HS to crane is neat!

[@mu]

Talking about back-ends, this is absolutely amazing:

 

 

[@mu]

Saturday was rest day but my body kept doing warm-up movements on its own, I swear, it was just funny. I didn't realize it immediately. I was working on my training time sheet to figure out my new flexibility sessions, and I kept standing up randomly to do some shoulder rotations, or move my wrists and fingers, pike to the floor, play with my red ball. Lolz. Itching for some practice. I didn't do anything though because I had to run some morning errands and the itch definitely disappeared in the afternoon.

 

And today was press to HS and a massive struggle bus, maybe I should have trained yesterday...

Only got 1 really ugly press from books at ~8cm, I went back to stool and it was still a nope. I kept drooping all over (back, shoulders, legs). Quads were super grumpy. It just did not happen really. Aaaah.

Endurance was also tough to get started, I had to take a ~10mn rest. And then hit a 50s one just like that. And called it a day to finish on a positive note.

 

Yesterday I had coffee and started a more modern novel in Persian (Saadi is ok but I'm getting a bit tired of stories with a moral).

 

/* Challenge log */

Persian  1 1 1 1 0 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 2 2 2 2 0 0 | 10/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 1 1 _ _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 1 1 0 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 1 1 1 2 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 1 0 1 _ _ 0 | 3/5
Practice 1 1 1 _ 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 0 0 1 0 1 | 4/7
Coffee   2 2 1 0 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 _ 1 _ _ 1 | 4/4
Practice 1 1 1 _ _ 1 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 0 1 1 0 1 
Coffee   1 1 1 2 2 1 
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _
Practice 1 1 _ 1 1 _ 1 | 5/5

 

[DoubleTrouble]

On 8/24/2019 at 6:06 AM, @mu said:

Talking about back-ends, this is absolutely amazing

 

[@mu]

/* Challenge log */

Persian  1 1 1 1 0 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 2 2 2 2 0 0 | 10/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 1 1 _ _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 1 1 0 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 1 1 1 2 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 1 0 1 _ _ 0 | 3/5
Practice 1 1 1 _ 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 0 0 1 0 1 | 4/7
Coffee   2 2 1 0 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 _ 1 _ _ 1 | 4/4
Practice 1 1 1 _ _ 1 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 0 1 1 0 1 1 | 5/7
Coffee   1 1 1 2 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 _ 1 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  
Coffee   
Bed      
Practice 1

Past week went well, yesterday I fell asleep late but that's because I had a nap in the afternoon, so well. Not as much Persian, because I finished my other book, but fair enough let's say.

 

This morning I tried my flex session 1 now doing legs / hips / back all in one, which included:

• lunges + pistol squats progression

• flexed foot ball work & leg raises in straddle

• pancake related work (soft tissues, PNF stretches, dynamic reps )

• Cirque Physio hips – 1 exercise

• Static middle split stretch

• Shoulder stretch with silks, with back waves in

• Child pose shoulder rotation stretch LR

• Camels

• Bridges to elbows (I tried to get my butt down once but I got confused about what was happening )

• Elbow stands

 

So I started again working on my elbow, injury feels fully healed. But I had too much fear kicking to free standing... So I went for the wall and work on a smaller ROM but did more variations in it (feeling the shoulders / upper back / lower back / butt / hip flexors)

 

It took about 45mn and it wasn't boring, just still unpleasant camels but hey. I got warmer quicker with pistols and pulls, that was much nicer for backbends.

Flexion session 2 will follow a similar format but more pike and front splits oriented and cobra instead of camel + back drops instead of elbow stands.

Let's see how that goes.

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

Whoah that video is incredible! She really got the snakiness down and the speed of her bending is so impressive. Very very cool!

 

On 8/23/2019 at 8:55 AM, @mu said:

Yes, truly. I guess that sort of training has to be flexible too, and very sensitive. My shoulders seem way less moody and touchy than my back Whatever I throw at them they more or less take it. But deeper back-bending nope.

Do you do a cool down after back bending? I find it incredibly helpful to finish off with plow pose plus a few core exercises, specifically targeting the lower abs. I'm not sure it matters which ones tbh, but ones that I always do are planks with an exaggerated posterior pelvic tilt and pilates rocks. That's probably not the right term for it but imagine boat pose with a rounded back, again with PPT, and then rocking backwards and forwards keeping the same body shape throughout and using the abs to initiate the movement rather than the legs. I just find it really helps to reset the back muscles which for me tend to kinda lock in that contracted position of I don't do the cool down exercises and they only take a few minutes.

 

 Curious how backbend reprogramming will pan out!

 

On 8/25/2019 at 9:50 AM, @mu said:

Saturday was rest day but my body kept doing warm-up movements on its own, I swear, it was just funny.

[@mu]

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

Do you do a cool down after back bending? I find it incredibly helpful to finish off with plow pose plus a few core exercises, specifically targeting the lower abs. I'm not sure it matters which ones tbh, but ones that I always do are planks with an exaggerated posterior pelvic tilt and pilates rocks. That's probably not the right term for it but imagine boat pose with a rounded back, again with PPT, and then rocking backwards and forwards keeping the same body shape throughout and using the abs to initiate the movement rather than the legs. I just find it really helps to reset the back muscles which for me tend to kinda lock in that contracted position of I don't do the cool down exercises and they only take a few minutes.

 

I read several times (Cirque Physio and other sources) that abs & core were really good to finish off back-bends, however I usually don't have the time nor, truly, the desire (tbh erm ) to do that. I do however little front bends between back-bend reps, I'll either lie down and shake my hips gently sideways, or do a child pose or a front fold on the back (knees to ears) - whatever feels good. That helps with that locked feeling I get sometimes in the deeper stretches.

Thinking about it, I'm not actually training abs on their own at all. They more or less get involved at some point in press to HS, L-sit/V-sit work, core parallettes stuff, leg raises...

 

[Mad Hatter]

Just now, @mu said:

I read several times (Cirque Physio and other sources) that abs & core were really good to finish off back-bends, however I usually don't have the time nor, truly, the desire (tbh erm ) to do that. I do however little front bends between back-bend reps, I'll either lie down and shake my hips gently sideways, or do a child pose or a front fold on the back (knees to ears) - whatever feels good. That helps with that locked feeling I get sometimes in the deeper stretches.

 Thinking about it, I'm not actually training abs on their own at all. They more or less get involved at some point in press to HS, L-sit/V-sit work, core parallettes stuff, leg raises...  

I wouldn't really call it abs training, and I agree you do plenty!  It feels more like a reset. I don't know it, it just feels much better afterwards, like if I don't do them it feels like I'm arching my back standing/walking etc for the rest of the day, but if I do one or two exercises it helps to recalibrate. Honestly the way I do them doesn't even feel like abs training, I think if you get to a point where it's too hard for the abs to tuck really hard it's too heavy. For me just stretching it out doesn't have the same effect, but hey everybody's different!  Whatever works!

[@mu]

ha ha yep no sure why I went on about abs training?

 

Yesterday Persian, 1 coffee but I went to bed late (some coding spree).

This morning press to HS and it's still hard. Stool level was ok this time and I worked mostly on books at ~8cm and it was hard. Cheating with my side leg last week made me feel like I was almost there. But NO. Argh. Gneeee

HS consistency was also a bit laborious: 16/25

On a "positive" note, my butt hurts from backbends, which I take as a sign that I had a good session yesterday.

Apparently Circus  classes are starting next week, yoohoo! This morning I did some catchers to front balance on both sides, which went ok but I've lost the pain habit a little, it's weird how silks can hurt like stone really. Somebody is going to get bruised next week....

 

[Mad Hatter]

6 hours ago, @mu said:

ha ha yep no sure why I went on about abs training?

LOL, maybe it's one of those "shoulds" that are spooking but completely unnecessary?

 

Circus!!!! Remind me again about which classes you're taking again? Silks and.... floor?

[KB Girl]

Butt hurt, hihi. 

 

Isn't it quite normal to have some very good sessions and then have REALLY bad sessions right after? 

[JuiceeTarget]

2 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Isn't it quite normal to have some very good sessions and then have REALLY bad sessions right after? 

When I have a day or two where I feel like I've regressed and just can't seem to "get it done" I tell myself that I am about to have a huge breakthrough. I don't know if that is really true, but it really helps me push through  

[Mike Wazowski]

 

On 8/27/2019 at 12:36 AM, @mu said:

Stool level was ok this time and I worked mostly on books at ~8cm and it was hard.

I read this totally out of context and thought "stool level" referred to bowel movements for a second. I think that's a sign that 2 coffees wasn't enough for me today.

 

On 8/27/2019 at 12:36 AM, @mu said:

Cheating with my side leg last week made me feel like I was almost there. But NO. Argh. Gneeee

HS consistency was also a bit laborious: 16/25

On a "positive" note, my butt hurts from backbends, which I take as a sign that I had a good session yesterday.

Apparently Circus  classes are starting next week, yoohoo! This morning I did some catchers to front balance on both sides, which went ok but I've lost the pain habit a little, it's weird how silks can hurt like stone really. Somebody is going to get bruised next week....

 

Yayyyy for starting circus!!! Let us know how the classes go?

[@mu]

On 8/27/2019 at 4:11 PM, KB Girl said:

Butt hurt, hihi. 

 

Isn't it quite normal to have some very good sessions and then have REALLY bad sessions right after? 

 

On 8/27/2019 at 6:39 PM, GoodDoug said:

When I have a day or two where I feel like I've regressed and just can't seem to "get it done" I tell myself that I am about to have a huge breakthrough. I don't know if that is really true, but it really helps me push through  

 

Ha ha yep I know but I still want to rant about it

 

9 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

I read this totally out of context and thought "stool level" referred to bowel movements for a second. I think that's a sign that 2 coffees wasn't enough for me today.

 

I also wondered at the beginning if I should use the word “stool” or something a bit more appealing, like bench maybe.

 

Not enough sleep these past few days.

Spoiler

E. and I both got a bit emotional about our move, missing friends, family, bits of previous life. It's less painful to be able to share the sadness though. It made me think about how my parents handled those moments when I was a kid/teen (we had a few cross-continental moves too). My father in particular loves to delve into memories but he is very artful at dodging sadness. I'm not sure that's always helpful though. I think it's also important to express sadness in full, and let it pour as needed. Even if it's painful and uncomfortable. It's not a judgement on the choice of departure, to reassure one-self on the “value” of the move, whether it's better or not. Whatever the reason, it's a separation and there is sadness in it. I'm convinced my father still carries a lot of unspoken grief with him (and this is why he behaves like such an ass sometimes )

 

Anyway... I received the PU rotational grips I used them during this morning's P2. I don't have enough time just now to go into more details but it was a great tool to reveal little weaknesses, in particular in straight arm work + not actually locking the arms well enough => the rotation is pretty unforgiving It also amplifies scapular movement pretty quickly... it goes a bit like like “oops I'm internally rotating instead of externally rotating” and ziiiiip bam. I did not do a lot of HS with them because it's a bit scary!

Hopefully this week-end I can tell you more about all this and show some videos.

I played a lot and did not have time for HS consistency, I will buffer them somewhere before Sunday.

 

/* Challenge log */

Persian  1 1 1 1 0 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 2 2 2 2 0 0 | 10/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 1 1 _ _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 1 1 0 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 1 1 1 2 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 1 0 1 _ _ 0 | 3/5
Practice 1 1 1 _ 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 0 0 1 0 1 | 4/7
Coffee   2 2 1 0 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 _ 1 _ _ 1 | 4/4
Practice 1 1 1 _ _ 1 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 0 1 1 0 1 1 | 5/7
Coffee   1 1 1 2 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 _ 1 1 _ 1 | 5/5

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

 

[raptron]

Being able to be sad together definitely helps! Hope you get more sleep.

[WhiteGhost]

21 hours ago, @mu said:

I did not do a lot of HS with them because it's a bit scary!

Yeah, they look super scary.  I'm impressed you even did the little bit with them.

[Mad Hatter]

I'm not surprised that they're unforgiving, they look really difficult to balance on! I'd definitely get a bit of wall support to start with for handstands. 

[Mad Hatter]

Completely agree with your reflections on sadness and letting emotions out. It can be hard sometimes, but numbing the feels really doesn't help. Glad you guys have each other for support. <3 

[@mu]

On 8/30/2019 at 5:29 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Yeah, they look super scary.  I'm impressed you even did the little bit with them.

 

On 8/30/2019 at 11:25 AM, Mad Hatter said:

I'm not surprised that they're unforgiving, they look really difficult to balance on! I'd definitely get a bit of wall support to start with for handstands. 

 

I definitely did my HS next to the wall on those, not sure how bailing will be like

 

Haaaa circus classes are starting on Sep 16^th not next week, a tad bit disappointed but it means also more time to spend on press to HS! (I'm expecting to get crushed a little when classes get started => DOMS, silks burns, bruises and so on).

 

Friday: Flexibility session 2, with some HS consistency in the middle (20/25). It was much more enjoyable than usual. Might because of HS though

 

Today: Press to HS, super hard at first. I had to back down to chair level to start getting a press again, and then bit by bit I went back to books @2-3cm and got 2 ugly ones. Tough session.

Endurance: a few kick fails, 1 @30s 1 @37s 1 @51s left it at that.

 

So those rotational grips! Super cool so far.

The grip feels good. They stick well to the ground including on tiles (although I trained on a mat obviously).

They rotate 360+ degrees, meaning you can keep turning and turning in one direction, no problem.

Their height is maybe half my parallettes so some transitions are much harder (eg straddle hold moves). But they still have some height, so getting into crow was a bit weird at first. On my parallettes, I step up on the bars so it's like on the floor. But on those grips, there was some elbow climbing to do

• Push-ups: they feel easier on those because wrists are free to rotate in the optimal push position if you feel like it, the rotation felt controllable.

• Low frog (crane with knees below elbows): okidok, similar to PUs

• Crow: here the rotation started to feel a bit funny, still controllable but a bit harder on some variations (eg 1-leg crow)

• Crane / high frog: ok as long as I lock those arms. So in crow ↔ crane PU, that was a bit harder because I have difficulty to fully lock my arms when I go back up

• L-sit / V-sit progressions: here I realized I'm not locking my arms.... and that was super unstable. And it's hard to focus on both arms lockout / wrist control AND grumpy quads. I think that was the hardest move on those for me, especially V-sit progressions where I use momentum.

• Elbow lever - double and one-arm progressions: lovely for the wrists, I think it might help me get that one-arm lever, it's like my body start rotating by itself to find the right crease for a hold there.

• Lever spins actually require a bar, so nope

• Handstands: a bit scary, I can feel it immediately if I start bending a wee bit at the elbows or if don't externally rotate. Then my hands will turn inwards and that's pretty awkward. Much harder too control.

 

Oddly enough it doesn't show that much on the video, but inverted, that wee bit of rotation is amplified of course. The cat was curious, I gave her a go but she was only very mildly entertained. Here is the wee video sample:

 

 

Ah, I forgot to include the L-sit / V-sit / crane bits & 1-arm elbow lever attempts. I'll do at next P2 session.

 

[@mu]

Quick Monday morning update

Flexibility /done

/* Challenge log */

Persian  1 1 1 1 0 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 2 2 2 2 0 0 | 10/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 1 1 _ _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 1 1 0 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 1 1 1 2 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 1 0 1 _ _ 0 | 3/5
Practice 1 1 1 _ 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 0 0 1 0 1 | 4/7
Coffee   2 2 1 0 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 _ 1 _ _ 1 | 4/4
Practice 1 1 1 _ _ 1 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 0 1 1 0 1 1 | 5/7
Coffee   1 1 1 2 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 _ 1 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 0 1 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   1 2 2 1 1 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 0 0 1 _ _ 1 | 2/5
Practice 1 1 _ 1 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  
Coffee   
Bed      
Practice 1

 

Bed time was pretty bad last week, I caught up over the week-end. Might have been a reason why press to HS was tougher than usual. Let's see how it goes this week.

Persian and Coffee goals are ok. Not super ideal, but good enough let's say.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Haha your cat did not seem very impressed.

 

[@mu]

18 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Haha your cat did not seem very impressed.

 

Nope, not her thing

 

Yesterday, Persian & coffee: all good. I went to bed at 10:15pm so a 0 for bed time but it wasn't too bad. This morning press to HS (with some Cirque Physio and some pull). I had a hard time again until I hit a bit of a light bulb moment. Because of my setup, it's a bit hard to adjust my feet position, it's just not very stable. SO I have to adjust at what distance I put my hands. Too far away, I can't lean, and here is the catch: too close, I can't lean properly either! I worked mostly on books @8cm and the last 2 presses felt like maybe I got something. Let's see next session.

HS consistency was so so: 15/25, press killed me a wee bit.

 

/* Challenge log */

Persian  1 1 1 1 0 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 2 2 2 2 0 0 | 10/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 1 1 _ _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 1 1 0 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 1 1 1 2 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 1 0 1 _ _ 0 | 3/5
Practice 1 1 1 _ 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 0 0 1 0 1 | 4/7
Coffee   2 2 1 0 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 _ 1 _ _ 1 | 4/4
Practice 1 1 1 _ _ 1 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 0 1 1 0 1 1 | 5/7
Coffee   1 1 1 2 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 _ 1 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 0 1 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   1 2 2 1 1 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 0 0 1 _ _ 1 | 2/5
Practice 1 1 _ 1 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1
Coffee   1
Bed      0
Practice 1 1

 

[@mu]

Yesterday rest! Some Persian reading and I also got caught in doodling again. I wouldn't call it calligraphy quite yet I had classes back in Iran but it's hard, just a nice hand-writing would do.

This morning was custom P2, using my rotational grips for crow/crane/elbow levers and my parallettes for spins and HS negs. The rotational grips are definitely revealing a straight arm lock problem that is not so obvious on parallettes (or that I can get away with) - especially when coming back from a bent arm position. And I'm also adding a wee bit of 1-arm lever attempts on them because it's more obvious that I'm not holding the right shape yet (chest too low, not enough glute action etc).

I also tried to do reps of straight HS to tuck and back, and it's much harder than I thought it would be to be honest. Barely managed 2.

 

A little vid log ending with a failed HS to crane (I did not mean to crow at the bottom, my arms just... failed)

 

 

/* Challenge log */

Persian  1 1 1 1 0 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 2 2 2 2 0 0 | 10/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 1 1 _ _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 1 1 0 1 | 6/7
Coffee   2 1 1 1 2 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 1 0 1 _ _ 0 | 3/5
Practice 1 1 1 _ 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 0 0 1 0 1 | 4/7
Coffee   2 2 1 0 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 _ 1 _ _ 1 | 4/4
Practice 1 1 1 _ _ 1 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 0 1 1 0 1 1 | 5/7
Coffee   1 1 1 2 2 1 0 | 8/10
Bed      1 1 1 1 _ _ 0 | 4/5
Practice 1 1 _ 1 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 1 1 0 1 1 1 | 6/7
Coffee   1 2 2 1 1 0 1 | 8/10
Bed      0 0 0 1 _ _ 1 | 2/5
Practice 1 1 _ 1 1 _ 1 | 5/5

Persian  1 0 1
Coffee   1 1 1
Bed      0 0 1
Practice 1 1 _ 1

 

[raptron]

Oh man, yeah those rotational grip holds look so tricky! But very cool. Love the slow crumble out of your crane-crow-firefly ending there.