Mad Hatter gets lazzzzer focused!

[Mad Hatter]

For the last two months I've been experimenting with this thing called commitment and I kinda like it.  Instead of trying to do all the things at once, never improving, I'm currently focusing all my attention on handstands. With a side of acro/free running for funsies. I want to try the same with hobbies, instead of getting paralyzed by all possible options I'm going to learn to draw!

 

 

Laser focus - Handstands

 

• Straddle flexibility 1x/week - Because I miss being the bendy one in class.  It will also help with my handstand lines and maybe one day, dare I say it, presses?
• Core 1x/week - Because I discovered I can barely do a clean invert anymore. 
• Prehab 1x/week - My left biceps have started twitching near the elbow and I'm taking it as a sign to take better care.  
• Mix it up 1x/week - I've been really focused on getting my basics up to scratch to start my Handstand Factory (which should hopefully be dropping this challenge!!!) and while I'm definitely not bored, it's good to switch things up! Ideas are dynamic moves (things I can think of at the top of my head are cartwheels, walkovers, maybe macacos), yoga style arm balancing, backbending... 
• Tuck and straddle jump practice every session - I JUST unlocked the mechanics of these, I'd love to get them comfortable enough to use them as alternatives to the single leg kick up. 

 

It might look a lot of goals, but we're really talking an extra 45 minutes a week for the first three goals, 10-20 minutes here and there. The last two I'd do anyway. I'll still be posting details of my classes and training sessions in my handstand battle log to keep it all in one place, but I'll do the tracking here.

 

 

Laser focus - Drawing

 

• Finish an illustration! 

 

Very simple goal, a few weeks back I wrote a sort of marketing blog post for a side project that begs for an illustration. I made a doodle, but I've no clue how to turn it into an illustration yet. So there will be a lot of learning to draw, figure out a (simple!) style to draw it in, learning to use my shiny new drawing iPad... For this goal there will be no scheduling or hours, instead I'm simply going to make it my focus, same as with handstands. When I go training I do handstands, when I have spare time I draw? This approach might be a complete flop but let's see!

 

 

Bonus - Digital consumption

 

 

Last challenge I introduced very strict rules for digital consumptions, no social media, no YT, no screens past 8 pm, no movies, shows or games... These might seem a bit draconian, but zero week really reminded me how great they are! Admittedly, this week was quite the exception as I've been working A LOT to try to finish a project, and consequently my enthusiasm and energy to do anything else plummeted and I found myself doing a lot of mindless "catching up", i.e. consuming mainly a lot of mindless digital junk instead of really taking the time to rest properly and now I feel like garbage as a result. So I'm going to go back to those rules, more or less. YouTube in order to learn is fine, as long as it's not underpants collecting. The occasional movie is fine. But more or less the same as before.

 

It's great to be back with the assassins proper! Let's do eeeet! Pew pew!

[raptron]

Omg that last gif. 

 

[Tobbe]

41 minutes ago, raptron said:

Omg that last gif. 

 

 

Exactly my thought as well! Can't even...!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

6 hours ago, raptron said:

Omg that last gif. 

 

 

5 hours ago, Tobbe said:

 

Exactly my thought as well! Can't even...!

 

Back in my day...

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/action-cats/n10236

[@mu]

as shiny as it can get in of course!

[Tobbe]

17 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

 

 

Back in my day...

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/action-cats/n10236

 

 

 

No worries. Easily solved

 

 

 

But... Is that even legal? Animal cruelty?  

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

21 minutes ago, Tobbe said:

 

 

 

No worries. Easily solved

 

 

 

But... Is that even legal? Animal cruelty?  

See, the nice thing about arming cats this way is that if they don't like it their destructive capability is such that they can defend themselves successfully. 

[WhiteGhost]

Handstands and drawing? How can I not be here

 

[Mad Hatter]

It is a glorious gif indeed.  

Great to have you all heeerreee!

 

Saturday

I meant to go to a friend's farewell party but after a rough work week plus the bachelor party and the wedding and all the other hang outs with people of the last few weeks, I got an overwhelming urge to cocoon inside. I spent most of the day watching videos on what the best way to learn to draw is, what to focus on etc to prep for the challenge. The main takeaway was basically to start life drawing, so I'm going to checkout a session, maybe tomorrow?

I also played a little on my iPad.  

 

By the time I was ready to start training, it was already past 6 pm and DARK and it was difficult both to get motivated to train AND to balance in the poor light. At least it didn't help what ended up an absolutely crushing, demoralizing session. I did some token core after the handstands, a few reps each of straddle presses to headstand, pole inverts and tuck inverts on the hoop. I feel like there was something else, but I can't remember. Either way, those made me feel just as bad as the handstands. It was just one of those days man.

 

In the evening I watched The Neverending Story, which was exactly what I needed. Love that movie!

 

Handstands - Straddle 0/1 Core 1/1 Prehab 0/1 Mix it up 0/1 Tuck/straddle ups 1/1+

Drawing - 1/1+

 

Sunday

After a shitty handstand session the only thing one can do is to try again the next day and hope for the best! The session started off almost just as rough, I got frustrated and annoyed and then I lay down on the floor to try to calm myself down. I thought through what the problem was and the thing that bothers me is that I can't seem to find that magical shoulder lock again after having experienced it a few times a week or two ago. So for the next ones I focused all my attention on the shoulders and it helped a lot, though I still can't find the really good position. Here's the sequence of events for your, or well at least my own, amusement.  

 

 

Then I figured I do some backbending, but I kinda forgotten what to do! Not in terms of exercises, I have plenty of those. It's more that I don't know how to structure a session for my current body, which is so effing stiff. I glanced at myself in the mirror doing a casual bridge and oh my word was it terrible, I don't think I've been this stiff in my life! I thought it was bad at the beginning of the year but it's only gotten so much worse. No arch whatsoever.  And now I REALLY want my backbend back! 

 

In case you think I'm exaggerating - here is my second bridge of the day.  

Full context - yes, this was at my peak about 3 years ago and I was fully warmed up and it wasn't after a long handstand session so it is comparing extremes. But still, yikes!

 

I also spent time going through a (very long) Affinity Designer tutorial to get me started on the basics. And drew a doodle of an idea that hopefully one day I'll have the skills to execute.  

 

Handstands - Straddle 0/1 Core 1/1 Prehab 0/1 Mix it up 1/1 Tuck/straddle ups 2/2+

Drawing - 2/2+

[Lara]

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

It is a glorious gif indeed.  

I could totally have a cat like that at home. Fun and security all in one.

 

That first handstand is a really long hold!

 

Following!

[Mad Hatter]

16 hours ago, zenLara said:

I could totally have a cat like that at home. Fun and security all in one.

Win!  

[Mad Hatter]

Monday

 

It's funny, I feel like my handstands have been really bad this week, and I got so frustrated and demoralized this weekend, and yet I woke up this morning and somehow I'm even more excited to train! 

 

Had a very fun session this morning:

 

Jumping drills - Plyos, depth jumps -> tuck jumps

Handstands - Tuck and straddle hops to HS, straight HS -> tuck HS. I use my pelvis way too much too balance, and tucks are very unforgiving for that. Must be good for me.  Only managed a few stable ones. 

Strength - Push-ups, squats @46kg. Spent some time trying to help my friend with bracing. It was the funniest thing as she got really self conscious about breathing loudly and what was supposed to be forceful exhales ended up all sad and wispy.  I ended up leaving the gym for a few minutes so she could practice on her own, which helped. I'm thrilled she's back at the gym though! She started swimming and now she's all 'I need to get STRONK for swimming!' Yes!

Bonus - Cartwheels while waiting for my friend to warm up.  For every one on my good side I did two on my bad side. Brownie points for me! I tend to cartwheel almost in place and rely on flexibility more than power, so today I experimented with making them travel a lot (on my good side). Felt completely different, much more powerful even when started from standing and fun too!

 

[@mu]

On 10/27/2019 at 2:45 PM, Mad Hatter said:

After a shitty handstand session the only thing one can do is to try again the next day and hope for the best! The session started off almost just as rough, I got frustrated and annoyed and then I lay down on the floor to try to calm myself down. I thought through what the problem was and the thing that bothers me is that I can't seem to find that magical shoulder lock again after having experienced it a few times a week or two ago. So for the next ones I focused all my attention on the shoulders and it helped a lot, though I still can't find the really good position. Here's the sequence of events for your, or well at least my own, amusement.  

 

The moving about and lying around was funny I can identify I thought the video was very good progress though? I know what you mean about the golden lock, when it's there it changes everything *sigh*

As for back-bends, at least you know you can do it, it's a matter of getting back into it? it's difficult to choose which shiny should come first though!

[Mad Hatter]

Note to self - DO NOT FORGET I HAVE RIGGED MY AERIAL HOOP!

 

I was messing around with pole handstands and absolutely SLAMMED my foot into the nice heavy steal hoop.  Amazingly enough all damage seems to have been a crazily tingling foot, lasting about 10 minutes, a small amount of swelling on my big toe and that's it. Thank you bones for not breaking on me.

 

Despite the morning training I had bounds of energy today, and seriously struggled at work as a result. I couldn't sit still in meetings, I couldn't sit still eating lunch, I couldn't concentrate on my work. All I wanted to do was get out of the office! I left early and walked home even though it was snowing to get rid of some excess energy. That didn't help either so I spent a bunch of time dancing around, playing with swings on my pole and cleaning my flat. I'll admit I think these super high energy days are fun (except that I need to eat ALL the time!), but it requires A LOT of self discipline to make sure I listen to my body and don't break myself.

 

I did also manage to sit still for long enough to draw a whole bunch of styles of eyes, in the proper sketch book I got today.  

 

Handstands - Straddle 0/1 Core 1/1 Prehab 0/1 Mix it up 2/1 Tuck/straddle ups 3/3+

Drawing - 3/3+

[Mad Hatter]

2 minutes ago, @mu said:

The moving about and lying around was funny I can identify I thought the video was very good progress though? I know what you mean about the golden lock, when it's there it changes everything *sigh*

 As for back-bends, at least you know you can do it, it's a matter of getting back into it? it's difficult to choose which shiny should come first though!

 On average I think there is progress, but it feels like my consistency and endurance is swinging more wildly lately? Maybe because I have discovered that I can be consistent and that I can find that really good position, but not every time and it affects me more? Dunno, nothing to do but keep embracing the grind.  

 

I don't know why it's so difficult to get back into backbends. Well when I was climbing it was because my lats would be super tight all the time, making my shoulders feel pinchy and making backbends on the whole a lot less satisfying. Without a circus discipline it also felt pointless tbh, an uphill battle for no good reason. But backbends and handstands and acro play nice together, so I feel inspired again! This time I want to experiment with more fun and dynamic warm ups, as I have a suspicion it's mostly the warming up part that puts me off. And perhaps tying it in more with skills.

[raptron]

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

This time I want to experiment with more fun and dynamic warm ups, as I have a suspicion it's mostly the warming up part that puts me off. And perhaps tying it in more with skills.

MORE SKILLS

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

3 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

 

I was messing around with pole handstands and absolutely SLAMMED my foot into the nice heavy steal hoop.  Amazingly enough all damage seems to have been a crazily tingling foot, lasting about 10 minutes, a small amount of swelling on my big toe and that's it. Thank you bones for not breaking on me.

 

 

That made my foot hurt. I'm glad you're ok.

[GoodDoug]

Following for handstand inspiration! I feel you on the "I want to do all the things" and have had some success with focussing a bit last challenge. It does mean I didn't make as much progress on my handstands as I wanted, but I am finding ways to be okay with that. For whatever reason, we never have enough time to do everything we want to do at the level we want to do it at. Choosing which to focus on is so tough.

[Mad Hatter]

10 hours ago, raptron said:

MORE SKILLS

Yes! And no I'm not getting distracted by shinies!  

 

8 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

That made my foot hurt. I'm glad you're ok.

Thanks, me too! I really am quite amazed I came out of that completely unscathed.

 

7 hours ago, GoodDoug said:

Following for handstand inspiration! I feel you on the "I want to do all the things" and have had some success with focussing a bit last challenge. It does mean I didn't make as much progress on my handstands as I wanted, but I am finding ways to be okay with that. For whatever reason, we never have enough time to do everything we want to do at the level we want to do it at. Choosing which to focus on is so tough.

Yay!

I struggled with focusing for years, and now that I finally decided to give it an honest try, it's almost a relief, like mental decluttering. Very unexpected. It's also simplified my scheduling tremendously. Whenever I tried to make a schedule before it'd always turn into a completely unrealistic fantasy 20 hour/week schedule, and I ended up throwing it in the trash and winging it.  Now I made a new schedule for myself - it goes something like this

 

Monday morning HS, evening drawing

Tuesday morning drawing, evening HS

Wednesday morning HS... 

 

You get the gist.  

We'll see how long this focus lasts, but it's been great with handstands, hopefully it will work the same with drawing too! 

 

[Mike Wazowski]

Woooo for focus! Glad you found some clarity and inspiration!

[Mad Hatter]

Tuesday

 

Today's handstand class was frankly quite meh. For one thing, super high energy days like yesterday have a high recovery cost, no matter how much I try to dial it down.

 

But much more so because we've had a substitute teacher for two weeks and I'm starting to really miss my regular teacher! In fairness the girl last week was great, but the guy we had today had a warm up that I hated and it kinda put me off. First we spent an entire song (Pharrell Williams' Happy - blehh) bouncing in these partial mini squats, except for when he sang 'because I'm happy' and we had touch the floor and jump up, and when he sang 'bring me down' and we had to do push ups. Stupid. And boring. Then he continued to do a bunch of core conditioning type partner exercises, which would've been fine as conditioning at the end of class. But not in the warm up, all they do is make me tired, without really activating any of the muscles that I need for handstands. Then he followed that up by static stretching, which is almost always pointless in a warm up.

 

The best part about this warm up is that it really hammered home how important it is to warm up correctly for the activity you're about to do, in a way that works for your body! My regular teacher's warm ups are amazing, they're interesting and heighten the mind-body connection and they're very... three dimensional so to speak, the joints get worked in all directions, meaning all the little muscles have to work, and without being stretched far in any, which is exactly what I need. Plus they're fun, and perhaps most importantly, he plays good music!  

 

The rest of class was ok I guess. I was partnered up with the same guy as last week, and again he was complaining about being tired and weak. Which is fine, but when he complained that I make it look so easy I did take a moment to drill into his head that I train 4-5 days a week so OF COURSE I'll be improving faster than someone that trains once per week! Not to mention that he's a lot less mobile and a lot taller, so he has to compensate more with strength, when I can spend that energy focusing on balance and technique. I think he felt better about himself after I put it into perspective. At least it seemed like he started beating himself up a little less.  

 

Handstands - Straddle 0/1 Core 1/1 Prehab 0/1 Mix it up 2/1 Tuck/straddle ups 3/3+

Drawing - 4/4+ Sketched a few different versions of my initial doodle, but didn't get anywhere.

[Mad Hatter]

Just now, Mike Wazowski said:

Woooo for focus! Glad you found some clarity and inspiration!

Thanks!  Even if it's temporary, not like dancing for you, it still feels a lot easier somehow.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

4 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

The rest of class was ok I guess. I was partnered up with the same guy as last week, and again he was complaining about being tired and weak. Which is fine, but when he complained that I make it look so easy I did take a moment to drill into his head that I train 4-5 days a week so OF COURSE I'll be improving faster than someone that trains once per week! Not to mention that he's a lot less mobile and a lot taller, so he has to compensate more with strength, when I can spend that energy focusing on balance and technique. I think he felt better about himself after I put it into perspective. At least it seemed like he started beating himself up a little less.  

 

Very well done!

[Tobbe]

7 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

The best part about this warm up is that it really hammered home how important it is to warm up correctly for the activity you're about to do, in a way that works for your body! My regular teacher's warm ups are amazing, they're interesting and heighten the mind-body connection and they're very... three dimensional so to speak, the joints get worked in all directions, meaning all the little muscles have to work, and without being stretched far in any, which is exactly what I need. Plus they're fun, and perhaps most importantly, he plays good music!  

 

Great thing about working out at home - You can play your own music!

 

7 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

The rest of class was ok I guess. I was partnered up with the same guy as last week, and again he was complaining about being tired and weak. Which is fine, but when he complained that I make it look so easy I did take a moment to drill into his head that I train 4-5 days a week so OF COURSE I'll be improving faster than someone that trains once per week! Not to mention that he's a lot less mobile and a lot taller, so he has to compensate more with strength, when I can spend that energy focusing on balance and technique. I think he felt better about himself after I put it into perspective. At least it seemed like he started beating himself up a little less.  

 

Great thing about working out at a place with other people - Those other people can cheer you on.

It's people like you, someone who boosts the mood of those around you, it's those kind of people that makes it great to train in a group. Keep being awesome 

[raptron]

 

20 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

But much more so because we've had a substitute teacher for two weeks and I'm starting to really miss my regular teacher!

Aww, boo! I hope your regular teacher is back soon!

 

20 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

The rest of class was ok I guess. I was partnered up with the same guy as last week, and again he was complaining about being tired and weak. Which is fine, but when he complained that I make it look so easy I did take a moment to drill into his head that I train 4-5 days a week so OF COURSE I'll be improving faster than someone that trains once per week!

You sound like you were way more patient than I would have been, lol.