The Assassin's Path

[@mu]

Well today mu = 0 / big butt theory = 3, no clean stalder neg dammit!

 

 

 

Yesterday was rest, today:

warm-up, a bit of ball rolls, bent arm series, hangs and twist to catcher on silks, HS prep (entries, head position), negatives (L-sit, stalder) and flags (diamond, straddle).

I'm dead  

 

 

 

[@mu]

Friday => Rest

 

Saturday

 

Press to HS. Not bad. Working those multi-reps on press.

Consistency on block: 6/20, started well until rabbit HS cast a spell on me...

 

In the evening, I randomly worked on leg movement for ~40-45mn...

 

Sunday

 

Warm-up, still with bent arm series. HS prep (kicks and reps straddle/tuck to straight, head position) and some routine work.

 

Spoiler

I practised on a song by friends. A traditional song, in Azeri (Iranian Turkish dialect). It was very good for HS practice (it's quite slow). Here is a run through, I did not manage to reproduce that one with the L-sit at the end. It was a bit of a fluke, the combo 7 + L-sit in one hold is still pretty hard for me.

 

I shot it in B&W for nostalgia. It reminds me of a time when we were all in Mt Sabalan in Iran for work. We had to take a plane that was obviously a patchwork of foreign parts put all together (there were bits in French, some in Russian, others in Chinese). And that was just the cabin. I don't want to think about the essential parts. We all made it. The singer was there,  the music player, Ghanimat, T. who also passed away a couple of years ago, E. was there as well, all of us, in the fresh air, outside, enjoying home-grown cheese and honey, sleeping under the big Shahsevan yourts and singing at the fire in the evening. Not that life was easy in those times, but there were those moments.

And we are now dispersed all over the world, locked down, under ground or above...It feels weird.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday => REST

Shoulders were in need. I'm still having as much practice as the pre-corona era but it's now mostly HS and some pull, shoulders are a bit grumpy!

 

Tuesday

Press to HS. I'm going to submit a video to Kirsty again for a check on press and flags. Just the thought of that made me work super hard I did less volume but this session still took me 2 hours.

Press: @8cm 2 sets of 2, 1 set of 1

Block consistency: 12/20

I took some videos from behind and my, is that straddle ugly I also have to be careful about this weak left arm because at times it really shows that I'm leaning on the right / rotating towards it.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Loooove the video and the story!

[WhiteGhost]

2 hours ago, @mu said:

I'm still having as much practice as the pre-corona

That is really impressive.  The video was also great and is great supporting evidence that you are continuing to kill it, even during the apocalypse  

[KB Girl]

That trying extra hard is already reason enough to submit video, even without the feedback.

 

I think we’re going to need a full background story at some point  

[@mu]

On 3/31/2020 at 11:17 AM, WhiteGhost said:

That is really impressive.  The video was also great and is great supporting evidence that you are continuing to kill it, even during the apocalypse  

 

Well we are still a bit green on the lockdown bit here. Let's see. I did not count biking though, which I don't consider "training",  it's just a commute but it still amounted to 3h+ per week that I no longer do. I do miss decent height for aerial but otherwise all my personal training was indoors so no much change. I still have the habit of waking up at 5.30/6 to get my stuff done, now I can take my time because the commute is much shorter.

 

On 3/31/2020 at 6:12 PM, KB Girl said:

That trying extra hard is already reason enough to submit video, even without the feedback.

 

Yes, it's funny. It works though

 

Wednesday

HS. Some alignment work on silks and still doing straddle-ups and short sequences as part of my warm-up.

I worked on flags to get clips for Kirsty but I was a bit tired.

 

Thursday => REST

 

Friday

 

Flexibility + HS

Good back-bending session, I mean I barely felt like puking every so often.

Interspersed with HS prep (kick up / reps, head position) and flags for Kirsty (hook / diamond / straddle). This time I think I got better clips showing real problems / I-don't-know-what-I'm-doing-shit  rather than just tiredness.

 

Saturday

 

Sore bum from back-bending... I do elbow levers in my warm-up bent-arm series (2-arms, progressing on 1-arm) and man, da butt really hurt! "Elbow" lever is such a butt move, seriously.

Press to HS session.

During prep, I tried to get my slight lean + rotation on tape to show to Mad Hatter but I could not get anything super obvious today, which was a little odd? I'm guessing it's because I was paying attention... and maybe I wasn't as tired as during the week. Who knows. The ways of HS are mysterious. I'm not complaining though.

 

I otherwise managed a HS to stalder again ha ha! and a more controlled neg to L-sit. The trick seems to not just hang onto dear life to avoid a face plant but to also actively compress legs towards the body, it seems to really help, bum does not feel as heavy that way.

 

 

I found this old video for comparison, a negative to stalder with bent legs and bent arms, from November 2018, times passes really.... how long it took to straighten both legs and arms and it's still work in progress:

 

 

I also found this video with my cat looking not just unimpressed but also pretty annoyed by HS activities

 

 

It's hard to be a cat.

 

On press, I filmed a ground zero one after a few fails for Kirsty. And otherwise did sets @8cm.

I postponed block consistency to Sunday.

I edited all my videos and sent my submission to Kirsty, a mix of press and flags.

 

All right enough video spam for today!

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

27 minutes ago, @mu said:

"Elbow" lever is such a butt move, seriously.

For sure! I am struggling with wrists too, but butt for sure.

[@mu]

 

Sunday

 

Warm-up + bent arm series

A bit more aerial today, including meathook work.

HS prep on parallettes (straddle and tuck entries + reps, head position)

Consistency on blocks: 12/20

 

Monday

 

Flexi day with some HS. A lot of hips drills. HS prep. Shoulders and back-bending. And then Mexican wall taps. Mostly working on shoulder opening because my body wants to go banana. It's very hard to keep pushing up but also back in extension. In 7, it's somewhat “easier” to get a feel for that opening, but with both legs behind in baby straddle, it's a whole new world.

I foresee it will take time to get that one right. Probably harder that the back-bending bit of it. I'm used to bail in a bridge but I don't bail in Mexican so while my back is fine with falling over, my shoulders are like: wait a minnneet, why would we want to go in full extension here, aren't we supposed to banana the heck out of it?

[raptron]

The negs (and uh, positive versions in the One Day Future) are SO much about compression. I sometimes think about it as scooping. You have to scoop your butt in towards you before you can lower it. Knowing it doesn't make it all that much easier though. 😝

 

And haha about your most recent update. Banana just feels so much easier sometimes even when it's NOT AT ALL. 🤣

[@mu]

59 minutes ago, raptron said:

I sometimes think about it as scooping. You have to scoop your butt in towards you before you can lower it.

 

Scooping, yes, that sounds about right And yes knowing and doing are different things. I think it's one of the first times I really get a sense of that feeling though. In HS practice, you are always like a new born and discovering new bodily features ha ha.

 

I just got my feedback from Kirtsy and wooooa it's BRILLIANT!! She made a voice over my video with pointers to show alignment stuff, going back and forth in slow motion to point issues / where I should be / what's good  / what's not. She explained the how and why and gave me drills to fix stuff, both on press and flags. 20 minutes of personal feedback I don't think I've ever received so much specific feedback, even in class/workshops.  She has changed her method recently, before she was using written feedback but this is so much better. She is AMAZING, I'm in awe.

 

[raptron]

20 minutes ago, @mu said:

I just got my feedback from Kirtsy and wooooa it's BRILLIANT!! She made a voice over my video with pointers to show alignment stuff, going back and forth in slow motion to point issues / where I should be / what's good  / what's not. She explained the how and why and gave me drills to fix stuff, both on press and flags. 20 minutes of personal feedback I don't think I've ever received so much specific feedback, even in class/workshops.  She has changed her method recently, before she was using written feedback but this is so much better. She is AMAZING, I'm in awe.

Woaaah. That sounds awesome. 🤩

[@mu]

Tuesday

 

Press to HS session (with bent-arm series, ball, Cirque Physio and silks warmup)

 

So I have some conditioning plan to follow, isometric holds (that lovely one where you push the earth and nothing happens). I did them at @8cm. I will increase intensity and lower the height over time.

Then some press @8cm but I was already dead and only managed floats (pushing the earth was pretty tiring).

I went to bench height to work on legs and breathing. Same, many floats, just one press.

 

I am not allowed to lift my left leg, PUPPY IS FORBIDDEN. I also think this may have contributed to me leaning more on the right arm than the left. A pretty bad habit overall. I'm still doing it unconsciously, I will have to film all my attempts to fix it.

 

For FROG (loosing tension in the legs), I have a breathing tip to improve my core stability when I start coming out of the hole. I'm mildly feeling it right now but Kirsty said that one would take time. Being more solid at the bottom will probably help too. Problem seems to be thoracic stability rather than the legs themselves.

 

Ah and I had to do the whole thing with a much narrower pbars width, which actually feels a lot more stable but I still need time to get used to it.

 

So not a lot of full presses but really hard work, I was burnt in no time.

 

I still tried consistency on blocks, with a narrower block width and also a change of setup to film from the back. So that session was not good because it's quite a lot of change and brain was a little fearful (keep in mind that in my brain blocks are way scarier than pbarz). So 3/20. But I have good hope because all my okay reps where in the last set, I just need to get used to the changes I have introduced. Fair enough.

 

After that I tried @WhiteGhost “HS to gut lever”, and NOT successfully! I need to banana a little bit more at the end. To me it feels like failing a HSPU negative without bailing away from the face plant  so the last couple of centimeters my arms actually fail but I cannot yet balance that little drop once I get in a sort of shoulder stand. The legs flop down. I will work on it. I'm keeping the videos from my first attempts and I hope to show some progress. I'm not giving up yet!

 

[@mu]

9 minutes ago, @mu said:

so the last couple of centimeters my arms actually fail

 

Lol, watching the videos, it's more like the last 20cm that the last couple of centimeters

[KB Girl]

That is such a gooood way to give feedback! Brilliant  

 

I know that feeling of having to film each rep to fix something because you just have no idea when you’re doing it... hopefully it’ll come fast!

[Mad Hatter]

On 4/6/2020 at 9:39 AM, @mu said:

Mostly working on shoulder opening because my body wants to go banana. It's very hard to keep pushing up but also back in extension.

So I was listening to the handstand factory podcast and one of the guys was saying that he never lets his students get into full shoulder extension in Mexicans (at least while learning). He says it puts the shoulders in a too vulnerable position where you end up hanging passively on the shoulder structures. I thought it was super interesting as I always thought it was very much a shoulder extension move. But he prefers if the bend comes actively from the back. I can buy that from an anatomical perspective, but of course Mexicans are still on the far far into the future wishlist so I can't really say more than that. 🙂But I thought I'd mention it as food for thought.

 

On 4/5/2020 at 12:19 PM, @mu said:

Good back-bending session, I mean I barely felt like puking every so often.

🤣🤣🤣

 

On 4/6/2020 at 8:05 PM, raptron said:

The negs (and uh, positive versions in the One Day Future) are SO much about compression. I sometimes think about it as scooping. You have to scoop your butt in towards you before you can lower it. Knowing it doesn't make it all that much easier though. 😝

 

Mhhm. Taking notes.

 

On 4/6/2020 at 8:59 PM, @mu said:

I just got my feedback from Kirtsy and wooooa it's BRILLIANT!! She made a voice over my video with pointers to show alignment stuff, going back and forth in slow motion to point issues / where I should be / what's good  / what's not. She explained the how and why and gave me drills to fix stuff, both on press and flags. 20 minutes of personal feedback I don't think I've ever received so much specific feedback, even in class/workshops.  She has changed her method recently, before she was using written feedback but this is so much better. She is AMAZING, I'm in awe.

 

Quaran-bored? 😄But really this is amazing, super generous. She really seems to be an awesome teacher.

[@mu]

23 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

So I was listening to the handstand factory podcast and one of the guys was saying that he never lets his students get into full shoulder extension in Mexicans (at least while learning). He says it puts the shoulders in a too vulnerable position where you end up hanging passively on the shoulder structures.

 

So I got some underpants about this too!  And the indication was to actually avoid moving the head in when doing Mexican, because while it will give more extension very quickly, it poses  a risk of injury when you are learning and not strong enough to handle the fuller range.  It's interesting! I don't think it applies to seven as much though because the weight distribution is different and not so risk-prone maybe.

That said, right now I'm quite close to the wall so even when I manage to get out of the bloody banana, I'm no where near full extension and it's heavy enough already.

The interesting bit would be about this "cubitus valgus" thing that I have, because it's easy to have an extended look when really it's just my bones that extend at that angle on their own.

[Mad Hatter]

2 minutes ago, @mu said:

So I got some underpants about this too!  And the indication was to actually avoid moving the head in when doing Mexican, because while it will give more extension very quickly, it poses  a risk of injury when you are learning and not strong enough to handle the fuller range. 

Indeed. My suggestion would make sense to get that "look" (and it does look pretty!) but keeping the shoulders healthy and strong is definitely a much better thing.  

[@mu]

47 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Indeed. My suggestion would make sense to get that "look" (and it does look pretty!) but keeping the shoulders healthy and strong is definitely a much better thing.  

 

Actually if you really look at it, head in + full extension would break the line a wee bit, wouldn't it? the top of the head would come out, eg this:

 

 

Versus:

 

 

I mean looking at your hands in that one is a bit like neutral in normal HS

 

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

Quaran-bored? 😄But really this is amazing, super generous. She really seems to be an awesome teacher.

 

happy to have her bored on me  

just to clarify though, if it wasn't clear, I paid her, it was not for free. But it was worth every penny for sure.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Oh no I didn't mean head in like that, that doesn't look nice at all TBH. More like the second picture, if I remember correctly I think it's like your 7?

 

Curious, how much did you pay for the feedback?

[@mu]

1 minute ago, Mad Hatter said:

Oh no I didn't mean head in like that, that doesn't look nice at all TBH. More like the second picture, if I remember correctly I think it's like your 7?

 

han han oh all right then my 7 was closer to neutral indeed.The sort of mexican attempt I did free standing, head was definitely out and would benefit from going closer to neutral. I think I'll stick to wall taps though for now.

Sorry I do head position exercises at the moment so I have a very specific image in my brain for "head in", and it's extreme head in  

[@mu]

@WhiteGhost I have really sore anterior delts and triceps today and I blame you for that

[@mu]

25 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Curious, how much did you pay for the feedback?

 

sorry I missed that, 50 Canadian dollars = invoiced at 35 US dollars, which Google tells me is like 33 euros. A 3h HS workshop at circus school here is 30 euros, and while I get practice and spotting and live feedback, that sort of feedback on the video was really worth it (complementary I would say and much more personalized). She's quite cheap in comparison of many other HS coaches, she is under-selling herself imo.

[@mu]

7 minutes ago, @mu said:

 

sorry I missed that, 50 Canadian dollars = invoiced at 35 US dollars, which Google tells me is like 33 euros. A 3h HS workshop at circus school here is 30 euros, and while I get practice and spotting and live feedback, that sort of feedback on the video was really worth it (complementary I would say and much more personalized). She's quite cheap in comparison of many other HS coaches, she is under-selling herself imo.

 

oh wait I just checked her invoice, and it seems I benefited from a typo, I'm just realizing it now!  She quoted me in Canadian dollars, so she said she's invoicing me as quoted, but she actually now charging in US dollars for everything, so that should have been 50 US dollars not 50 canadian dollars, so like 45 euros.  I paid 35 by mistake 50 US dollars sounds more like it indeed. A little steeper but still worthwhile as far as I'm concerned.

[Mad Hatter]

That's really not a bad price, it takes a big chunk of time to give such detailed feedback. And good feedback is hard to come across!

[@mu]

I saw on Mikael Kristiansen's web page that he was charging 600 euros for 12 weeks of online coaching. That comes at 50 euros per week. It's a bit more dedicated than a one-off video I suppose, with a custom programme and so on.

Although after the press programme + this vid, Kirsty is also getting to know me a little and she did give me a little plan for one part. Right now, that one-off format is more convenient to me. 600 is a big chunk for a rather short period  - on a HS progress scale, I mean, I'd need a lot more than 12 weeks to assimilate his coaching and I feel that I would be "missing out" if that makes sense. I will be busy enough with Kirsty's feedback for at least a month if not more 

Have you come across similar pricing for HS online 1 to 1 coaching?