The Assassin's Path

[Mad Hatter]

Life goals.

[@mu]

On 11/3/2019 at 10:55 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Huh, interesting, to me it looked like you'd start to rotate whenever you lifted your hand off and that it was throwing you off balance. Looks can be deceiving!

 

This as well Balancing is harder but it's more comfortable on the wrist if that makes any sense

 

On 11/3/2019 at 10:55 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Ouch!

 

Camel hump oil massage helped again. This stuff is incredible for bangs.

 

Monday – start of deload week

 

Warm-up, HS block consistency: 7/25, cobra

 

Persian: read an article about a controversial social media campaign encouraging polygamy (in Iran) and offering actual workshops on the topic. It's apparently to promote a birth rate increase... It's a campaign started by an organisation, not by the state directly. Of course, there has been lots of fiery upset responses including by the previous minister of home and families (who is a religious woman as you could guess) as well as counter posters showing a women enjoying the company of several male spouses among more liberal replies. I learnt one thing: apparently the Supreme Leader office will fire any man who has more than one spouse, which is technically legal but frowned upon. On a side note all the controversy also seems to be happening mostly on Twitter which is supposed to be censored by the state (but even the Supreme Leader has an account).

 

In the evening we also listened to a podcast about a piece of news that was quite covered up in France. In 2014, a syndicalist from Areva (now called Orano, it's a French nuclear power company) was severely assaulted in her home, it is understood that she had been too vocal about some of the company's strategy in China. In 2017, not only the news was stuffed up but she was also accused of making it all up (she was tied up, scarred with a knife and raped with that same knife...). She was sentenced to jail time and 5000 euros. It has now been official recognized that it was a judiciary error. But it doesn't look like they are going after the animals who did this... probably because it would unfold a shocking level of corruption in the justice department...

 

The world we are living in!

 

Tuesday

 

Press to HS – a full workout, I did not manage to “deload” it much. Just did fewer reps on press but I find it hard not to do the whole prep before, it makes me feel a bit too stiff. My legs in particular need a lot of work, it's a bit funny for a HAND balancing move, but it's true!

 

Left wrist is still a bit funky. And my coffee intake is still probably too high (some shakes). I mostly work books @3cm which needs a lot more consistency (8cm has become much more consistent though).

HS consistency on blocks: 6/25 a lot of fall overs today (and some rabbit HS), I guess the wrists are learning to resist that way, the angle is a bit different from parallettes.

 

 

[@mu]

Wed, circus class was  .... balance on objects (tight rope, beams on structures, rolla bolla, small balls, big balls, unicycle..). I'm a spoiled assassin but I was a bit bored by the end of it to be very honest. It's just too easy or way too hard, after a while I lost interest a wee bit.

I kept going back to the rolla bolla though and I'm wondering if I could do some with my parallettes or my foam roller... I just need to find some kind of panel.

 

I also did some very light Persian, barely worth mentioning...

 

[Mad Hatter]

On 11/5/2019 at 8:40 AM, @mu said:

Persian: read an article about a controversial social media campaign encouraging polygamy (in Iran) and offering actual workshops on the topic. It's apparently to promote a birth rate increase... It's a campaign started by an organisation, not by the state directly. Of course, there has been lots of fiery upset responses including by the previous minister of home and families (who is a religious woman as you could guess) as well as counter posters showing a women enjoying the company of several male spouses among more liberal replies. I learnt one thing: apparently the Supreme Leader office will fire any man who has more than one spouse, which is technically legal but frowned upon. On a side note all the controversy also seems to be happening mostly on Twitter which is supposed to be censored by the state (but even the Supreme Leader has an account).

 

Fascinating.

 

On 11/5/2019 at 8:40 AM, @mu said:

She was sentenced to jail time and 5000 euros.

I don't even know what to say...  

 

Heh, I completely understand what you mean about the balancing stuff! When I had mixed classes like this, forever ago, the balancing was the thing I'd go to if I was too tired or injured for anything else.  Not that it's not interesting, the interest just doesn't last for very long...

[@mu]

22 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

When I had mixed classes like this, forever ago, the balancing was the thing I'd go to if I was too tired or injured for anything else.  Not that it's not interesting, the interest just doesn't last for very long...

 

That's exactly the feeling.

 

ok my wrist is getting worse...I think it's a tendonitis on the pinky side, maybe something worse but I have no way to get a doc appointment before Wed... pfff... It hurts a lot right now. It does not look swollen but clearly there is a big inflammation that pushes the nerve at times and I have difficulty holding the weight of my hand in some positions.... I applied various creams and it feels a bit better now but it's NOT GOOD.  I suspect it comes from training on blocks and I just aggravated it with aerial. My wrists are actually super flexible, but they are not that strong (especially the left).

 

Aerial class yesterday was difficult, letting the wrist aside. Now the teacher is overestimating my capabilities and proposing dynamic rope stuff with open wraps.

I'm telling him that I haven't even done plain drops for years so if I could just get started with safer stuff (ie closed wraps dynamic movements) that would help. The aerial dialect thingy is also getting a bit in the way. For instance we don't mean the same thing by salto... He also has an injury and could not demonstrate in the air. So that was a bit difficult communication-wise.

 

All in all, I did a front salto from hip lock and some star drop related prep. The rope we have is an old fashion big fat rope and man it hurts I absolutely need more layers for next time. Maybe an actual armour...

I worked on front balance slides + trying to get in back balance from there but I did not manage. I probably killed my left wrist right there.

I also worked on climb -> straddle -> chair -> throw from foot -> glaswegian roll  on right arm with my ball and I managed without the ball falling.  Happy with that bit.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Oh noooo! Not the wrist.  I really hope you can figure it out quickly.

 

1 hour ago, @mu said:

Maybe an actual armour...

[KB Girl]

Found you!

 

Hope the wrist gets better fast.. did you take anything like ibuprofen? 

[@mu]

On 11/9/2019 at 9:28 PM, KB Girl said:

Found you!

 

Hope the wrist gets better fast.. did you take anything like ibuprofen? 

 

No when the pain was quite brutal we were out of pain killers... I iced instead. And after 24h it started getting better. Typical of a tendinitis I would say?

 

So I took a few days off, and I will see tomorrow morning how it goes. I suspect it's because of HS block training, maybe I did too much too quickly. Parallettes are much nicer on the wrists.

I also got caught in a wee coding spree despite the left hand being a bit funny. Fortunately my other half managed to get me out of the house a few times and I'm thankful for that! Coding black holes are hard to escape. We also went to see Joker tonight and we really enjoyed it. The actor was brilliant imo. And lots of interesting story threads.

And no Persian to speak of really, I need to find some material that properly catches my interest.

 

I'll catch up with everybody's thread soon!

[@mu]

Morning press to HS, yes I missed it!

Usual warm-up that includes wrist stuff, I spent a bit more time on it. Press felt good. I stopped at 3cm and worked my ass off there. I'm about 50% consistency at that height. Today was the same but I'm getting better at lifting those hips UP no matter what, which I guess is a bit of strength coming up.

Then usual conditioning and I only did 2x5 sets on blocks because after them I started feeling my wrist again. I don't feel bad during the HS or bails, it's afterward and it goes into my elbow a wee bit. So only 2 sets => 3/10 on consistency.

[Mad Hatter]

Ah glad you can still train on parallettes! For the blocks - maybe you could try turning them out a little bit to see if that helps?

[@mu]

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Ah glad you can still train on parallettes! For the blocks - maybe you could try turning them out a little bit to see if that helps?

 

yep, only did 2 sets this morning and that felt like enough really. I think it's just the angle of wrist flexion that's different + my left arm tends to unlock (elbow rotates back in) and that puts a pressure on the wrist at a slight  angle. So I need to correct my form as well. I do that on parallettes as well, it's just not impacting as much.

Generally speaking I find blocks pretty unforgiving when it comes to elevation. I'm enjoying them though! Maybe next year I'll start handstanding on my hands :D

[Mad Hatter]

Seems like blocks are unforgiving full stop! 

[raptron]

Glad your wrist isn't stopping you from doing too too much, jeez.  

 

[@mu]

On 11/15/2019 at 8:26 PM, raptron said:

Glad your wrist isn't stopping you from doing too too much, jeez.  

 

 

I have been resting more than usual, really!

 

Wed juggling class again, and oddly enough the teacher suggested towards the end to work on an apparatus with a ball or club or whatever, and lo and behold he brought the rope down (and the trapeze + a Chinese pole). I did not have MY ball but I played about a lot with a bigger lighter ball and a smaller one. Mostly trying to find new roll ideas and training my current stuff. Needless to say I was a pretty happy bunny!

 

Thursday: aerial was cool although I was still not 100% between the wrist and some digestive problem lolz.

Again rope and some stuff with the ball.

When the silks was free, I did manage (without the ball) a section of a longer routine I used to do + a few star drops and the infinite salto (those separately). And I started feeling like I'm owning it again a little. After rope work, silks feels so nice. Still working endurance and grip strength though.

I think the teacher is going on the side of do whatever you like and just ask if you need help

 

On the side I also did some HS, both on blocks and on the local mini wooden parallettes. And the teacher showed me block drills for one-arm HS suggesting I start working on those. We did a bit of that during the HS workshop but with spotters. I feel that my HS on blocks is not solid / consistent enough yet. Plus I'm already working press and transitions, and above all, I'm not sure my left wrist / elbow is up for the game yet.

 

I took Friday and Saturday off to make sure my wrist gets enough rest. Today it felt almost normal.

Press to HS session, warmup, some cirque Physio, ball stuff, leg raises

 

Routine on parallettes: straight → bent knees → diamond → straddle → piked straddle → 7 → full tuck → open tuck → straight

Still too fast and not pausing long enough. + when I bend knees I tend to tuck whereas I want the knees to stay in line with the hips. That bit is hard. I fell over a few times.

 

Press on parallettes:

bench OK

@8cm OK more or less

@3cm much improved: 3 reps out of 4 attempts

I got videos from the front and oh my legs were going up all ugly, and I think paying extra attention to them actually helped with pressing.

 

Press conditioning

 

5s+ consistency on blocks: 6/10

 

Press on blocks, why not

From yoga blocks: did not manage

From blocks + books ~18cm: 1 sort of, and I could not reproduce, I need to learn to push with the wrists at that angle

 

I might edit a video log if time permits.

 

I otherwise did not read much Persian this week, it is SHAMEFUL!

 

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

2 hours ago, @mu said:

Routine on parallettes: straight → bent knees → diamond → straddle → piked straddle → 7 → full tuck → open tuck → straight

Still too fast and not pausing long enough. + when I bend knees I tend to tuck whereas I want the knees to stay in line with the hips. That bit is hard. I fell over a few times.

I mean, this is a long routine! It's very impressive that you can do it in the first place. Especially since you haven't really been doing much in terms of (non-strengthy) transitions up until now!

[@mu]

On 11/17/2019 at 11:39 AM, Mad Hatter said:

I mean, this is a long routine! It's very impressive that you can do it in the first place. Especially since you haven't really been doing much in terms of (non-strengthy) transitions up until now!

 

I'm doing it too fast right now, and it takes already about ~20s in fast mode   I'm enjoying it, it feels "doable" while still being quite challenging. It's a bit more interesting than plain/straight endurance work.

 

Monday

Flexibility session

Parallettes HS routine practice – quite happy with progress on that one

5s+ consistency on blocks: 2/10 – that one not very pleasing at all!

Elbow stands (fear is back, practice hasn't been consistent enough)

 

Spoiler

Iran has pulled the internet plug (increase on fuel prices → protests). We are absolutely unable to contact friends/family except by phone. Which is not bad, but feels a bit mad in this internet era.

 

Tuesday

Press to HS session

Yesterday we had an afterwork dinner in a restaurant specialised in fondues and raclettes. Very nice but my liver is not super happy this morning.

Again work on the routine, splitting it at piked straddle to work both bits with enough energy.

Press was good, 5 full presses @ 3cm. I'm starting to feel the little rock that helps getting up there.

Consistency on block: 4/10  - my firs set was a big NADA, and got 4 on the second set out of no where.

 

Here is a vid of press to HS from the back and the side. Seems my ribs are coming up again these days, I'm arching a wee bit and piking again slightly. And possibly leaning more on arm, not sure. The back view is not flattering but very interesting. Hello ugly legs  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

I'd take an ugly leg press any day.  To me it looks like you're getting your legs very far behind you on the way up, making it harder to press. Are you at your active end range throughout the movement or do you think you could widen the straddle?

[@mu]

21 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I'd take an ugly leg press any day.  To me it looks like you're getting your legs very far behind you on the way up, making it harder to press. Are you at your active end range throughout the movement or do you think you could widen the straddle?

 

That's pretty much my max at the moment. It's pretty close to my passive range as well (in terms of compression). I have tried to bring my hands closer to my feet and it's a lot harder somehow.

Now I'm trying to think of compression (at my current straddle range) versus widening my straddle and I  do a lot more prep work on compression than straddle. I do some straddle work on Mondays, like frog stretches, half frog slides and middle splits. But that's it. I do compression drills much more frequently. Good point, I'll see if I can include a bit more straddle widening work on a regular basis.

[Mad Hatter]

It might help a little, but on the other hand, the first part of the press is by far the most difficult and there compression matters a lot more than straddle width so it absolutely makes sense to focus your energy there. And this way you'll keep building strength for pike presses for example. So it might not be worth it for you to spend extra time on getting a wider straddle, unless you want to!

[@mu]

I'll see as I go along. My straddle is not shameful but it's not extraordinary either.

I do spend a bit more time on foam-rolling and prepping my quads as previously suggested and it has helped a little bit. I suspect biking has made them a bit stiffer. Cardio usually makes me stiff as hell, I don't know if it's just me but wow.

 

Tonight was Chinese pole! At the big top! Because at the studio, there is only 1 Chinese pole, it's not enough for a dedicated class. It's a bit of a commute, I took the tramway, I couldn't be harassed to bike in the cold night. It's a neat install. Actually they have 2 big tops. And it's a dream install for any aerialist seriously. Woaaa!

The class was brilliant! We did a mix of climbs, resting positions and a few figures with some transitions, and some floor + pole work. Lots of variety! I kept acting like it was a rope when really it's not sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't at all. I really enjoyed it. Somebody is gonna hurt in a couple of days...

 

I'm also happy to report that I have read news articles in Persian every day. Tonight a woman in the tram asked me if I was reading standard Arabic because she could recognize words from snooping over my shoulder    she was surprised that I could read and she was even more surprised that it was not Arabic at all (she turned out to be Algerian) . Anyway from there we had an interesting convo about life and the universe. Not sure something like that would have happened in Paris for instance. I really enjoy random "clicks" like those.

 

And we got my family-in-law in Iran on the phone, everybody is fine and Tehran seems quite calm. Internet is still cut though.

[KB Girl]

You can tell it's you in the video by the hair

Love the books + blocks setup. 

 

On 11/20/2019 at 11:17 PM, @mu said:

And we got my family-in-law in Iran on the phone, everybody is fine and Tehran seems quite calm. Internet is still cut though.

That's good to hear, the news about it made me think of you ❤️

[@mu]

On 11/22/2019 at 9:41 PM, KB Girl said:

You can tell it's you in the video by the hair

 

TADA!!!

 

I did not cut everything  I made myself an undercut and it's great. It was getting way too hard to brush my hair, but I still wanted to keep the length. So undercut it was. I did make a mistake and forgot the thingy you plug  to measure hair length... so I have a weird slide fully shaved on one side... it doesn't show unless I knot my hair high and it will grow back, so no big deal. I feel very light headed all a sudden!

 

Thursday – aerial class was meh, we spent the 2 hours on the floor AGAIN....

I wasn't the only one to be annoyed so I voiced it for all at the end. Rant in the spoiler.

 

Spoiler

The background story is that we have a little class demo to prepare for mid-December. It has to be a collective which is great imo. It's no big deal really just something internal to classes, and it's perfectly fine to be work in progress (honestly given the time frame it cannot be more than that anyway).

 

The teacher's first counter-argument was that we will have to find some floor stuff anyway because it's a group thing and we can't be all up in the air at the same time for 10mn. Sure, but we have 2 classes left now to make up some stuff for an AERIAL class demo... what is the main focus exactly? The floor or the bit in the air? For all I know, it's totally possible to have some people freeze in the background while others are active with an apparatus. If we have time to figure out a choreo on the floor great, but given the time frame, man, it's just a ridiculous amount of time spent on this.

 

His second argument was more generic because obviously he likes the floor (he is primarily a dancer). Let aside the demo bit, it's not the first time that a class has been squeezed to floor only work. He was saying that getting used to moving on the floor will help with aerial movement quality. Which I agree with, but if I really want to improve on that I will pay for a dedicated dance class (of which they are plenty), and not annihilate the little bit of aerial training I managed to find. I'm actually happy to do floor work and improvisations and all during class too. Working the apparatus while you are on the floor is also interesting, in particular as a group I think there is a lot to get creative about. But 2 hours working 5 moves on the floor (he didn't even pull the equipment...). I don't think so. Outside the demo story, this is not what I paid for really.

 

I don't think the teacher was very happy with that feedback... but the points went through. At least next time we should have a full AERIAL session... We planned a bit who we will do what on what. And again it was a bit odd... At first he wanted me to prepare a solo, why not but it's supposed to be collective and I'm the only one who can BASE on both silks and rope, use me! Some people still struggle too much to manage a full figure in the air for instance but they will be ok with partner figures that will be more like lighter trapeze/acro skills. So let's not keep the beginners grounded on the floor, it's not exactly collective spirit, is it. If we could have looked into that instead of crawling on the floor for 2 hours...

 

Anyway, I came back home and worked on a cross-back straddle entrance on my rig. That was it for the aerial class...

 

Friday and Saturday, I rested some more. I wanted to do HS press on Sat and P2 custom on Sun but I was just too tired. Still feeling the Chinese pole class.

 

So today was HS.

A bit of routine, 3 attempts: 2 fails at 7 and close tuck. Managed 1 full but too fast. At the end, I tried to redo the last section while still in HS but that was too ambitious.

Press was so so, half donkey / half banana fish...

I did consistency on blocks, with a first set in rabbit mode (0 hold) + 3 better sets => 10/20

And then some cross-back entries + straddle into basing position, on my rig it's a pain to straddle, I have to turn to find a good angle... anyway it's getting there.

 

Here is a mixed video log with routine stuff, fishy press, blocks and the cross-back entry (that rig squeals a lot).

 

https://youtu.be/1yde4O9MtPM

 

 

 

[@mu]

This morning: flexibility work (hips, shoulders, a bit of back)

+ HS routine focusing on the 7 section (hamstrings ouch)

+ consistency on blocks (4/10), first set was crap again

+ elbow stands still not far from the wall

 

No Persian to speak of this week-end

[Mad Hatter]

Are you keeping the braid as a cat toy? 😄

 

Rant 100% legit! It's ridiculous to have a class fully dedicated to floor work. Adding it as a warm up and/or cool down would be completely sufficient and as you say you're paying for aerial, not dance. Good that you voiced the issue!

[@mu]

17 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Are you keeping the braid as a cat toy? 😄

 

Ha ha no, last time I cut that sort of a length I gave it to someone who was in need of a wig. I'll keep it in a corner and see. But no cat allowed!

 

Today press to HS, with first some negative work then some routine work.

When I go slow, I fail a lot at 7 unsurprisingly, it's a pit that one. I did a couple of 7 only holds and that was very tiring …. and hamstring intensive... and hard to move out of.

I did manage to do the last section separately in a way that I am happy enough with though: 7 with slightly opened legs but perpendicular enough and no arching the back when moving up into open tuck. No hold on the 7, and it's still a bit fast but it's an improvement. I tried to get my head in, thought I was really, but no. This will need separate practice!

And I also managed the first bit bending my knees nearly in line with my hips. That one is also hard to balance.

Press was cool: bench, @8cm, @3cm came by very sleekly and from pbarz I managed 2 full ones, a funny bail (close to a face plant to be honest) and a good float. I finished on a full press.

Consistency on blocks was so so, I started getting “it” by the 5^th set lol => 9/25

I love this workout though

Quick video log with some routine work and press, including the saved face plant

 

 

I also read a bit of Persian yesterday evening.