Tei rolls up late in a clown car

[tei_]

 

My minimal excuse for starting this challenge late is that a) my car was totalled (partner was driving a neighbour on some errands, some poor college student home for christmas misinterpreted a stop sign and rammed her parents' car into ours, everyone was OK except our car), then b) I MOVED TO A HOUSE YAYYYYY in the rental the insurance company provided, trundling boxes of stuff up and down the block over the course of about two weeks. Also c) somewhere in there we had to self-isolate while half-moved until my partner got the results back of a (negative, yay) COVID test.

 

THUS CONCLUDES THE EXCUSES PORTION OF THIS POST.

 

Anyway. Goals for the next little bit:

 

1. Set aside half an hour a day to work out, with a focus on flexibility! I have been watching a lot more rhythmic gymnastics, and am inspired to at least work on my walkovers and balances (arabesque/penche/y-balance). And now I actually have room to do those things in my living room!

 

2. Take videos to track my progress. I really like the idea of having frequent records of what my gymnastics looks like, but am not great at actually doing it, partly because I am trying to use my phone and platforms like instagram less. BUT I have a camera and will take videos and put them up of what I am doing, like so:

 

3. Make/eat dinner with my partner every day. We are prone to getting tired and being like "ehhh ok we';; just fend for ourselves" and then they make pasta and I eat popcorn and crackers. NOT HEALTHY,  shockingly

[Mad Hatter]

Such balance and control on those lunges, it’s very impressive! 🤩 
 

So I noticed that the sequencing in the drop backs is a little different in artistic gymnastics vs contortion (in contortion you lead with the head). I see you do it the artistic way, is it the same for rhythmic gymnastics? I don’t know much about rhythmic but it seems to be a bit in between contortion and artistic. 🤔 

 

Also YAAAY for the house! Is it what you hoped for? 🙂

[Manarelle]

On 1/19/2021 at 4:29 PM, tei_ said:

My minimal excuse for starting this challenge late is that a) my car was totalled (partner was driving a neighbour on some errands, some poor college student home for christmas misinterpreted a stop sign and rammed her parents' car into ours, everyone was OK except our car), then b) I MOVED TO A HOUSE YAYYYYY in the rental the insurance company provided, trundling boxes of stuff up and down the block over the course of about two weeks. Also c) somewhere in there we had to self-isolate while half-moved until my partner got the results back of a (negative, yay) COVID test.

 

If this is minimal, Id hate to see what you consider substantial. lad you're all ok and the test came back negative, and YAY FOR NEW HOUSE! It looks nice and spacious for awesome movements. Have you gotten things mostly put where you want them, or is it an organic, "let things shape the rooms of the house" process? 

[tei_]

On 1/20/2021 at 5:08 AM, Mad Hatter said:

So I noticed that the sequencing in the drop backs is a little different in artistic gymnastics vs contortion (in contortion you lead with the head). I see you do it the artistic way, is it the same for rhythmic gymnastics?

I have no idea, actually! I've never really... learned any of this stuff properly, so I never really thought about there being different sequences with the head... I think I was doing the arms first because the challenge for me is getting my shoulders open, so I try to start with that thought and keep focusing on my shoulders the whole time. 

 

On 1/23/2021 at 8:55 PM, Manarelle said:

Have you gotten things mostly put where you want them, or is it an organic, "let things shape the rooms of the house" process? 

 

We're pretty much set up, except we bought a sofa and two chairs from ikea that are delayed and supposedly going to arrive in February sometime, so our sofa right now is a futon mattress propped up against the wall

[Manarelle]

On 1/28/2021 at 10:53 AM, tei_ said:

We're pretty much set up, except we bought a sofa and two chairs from ikea that are delayed and supposedly going to arrive in February sometime, so our sofa right now is a futon mattress propped up against the wall

 

We'll just call that minimalism for now.

[tei_]

We finally have a new-to-us car, so I managed to make it to gymnastics this week! I have not been great about organizing videos of things I have done but here are... some things from the last two weeks. I managed the front portion of a tick-tock without collapsing immediately, and the needle (is that what that position is called?) thing is new to me.

 

Gymnastics this week was not as terrible as I thought for having had two weeks since the last session-- I think doing a lot of stretching stuff involving my shoulders actually helped. I tried front stoops on bars and got one that I actually managed to kip out of, and tried giants on strap bar out of a clear hip-- the next one after the one I got a video of I tried to case higher but when kind of... collapsed when I tried to get around the bar in a way that I think is just shoulder strength? Finished with some back handsprings on laser beam.

 

[Manarelle]

On 1/30/2021 at 2:56 PM, tei_ said:

We finally have a new-to-us car, so I managed to make it to gymnastics this week! I have not been great about organizing videos of things I have done but here are... some things from the last two weeks. I managed the front portion of a tick-tock without collapsing immediately, and the needle (is that what that position is called?) thing is new to me.

 

Gymnastics this week was not as terrible as I thought for having had two weeks since the last session-- I think doing a lot of stretching stuff involving my shoulders actually helped. I tried front stoops on bars and got one that I actually managed to kip out of, and tried giants on strap bar out of a clear hip-- the next one after the one I got a video of I tried to case higher but when kind of... collapsed when I tried to get around the bar in a way that I think is just shoulder strength? Finished with some back handsprings on laser beam.

 

Impressive video. I see where you got annoyed at losing your balance on the back handsprings, but the landings on your hands looked solid. And yay for new car! Reliable transportation is so mentally comforting. 

[tei_]

1 hour ago, Manarelle said:

 

Impressive video. I see where you got annoyed at losing your balance on the back handsprings, but the landings on your hands looked solid. And yay for new car! Reliable transportation is so mentally comforting. 

Yes, for sure! I would love to live somewhere where a car isn't a necessity, but that is very much not the reality right now

[tei_]

Today I wanted to try practicing moving around in a handstand in small ways-- I'm not solid enough to try things like changing leg position in an ~artistic~ way and not falling more or less at random, but I practised pointing and flexing my toes in a split handstand.

 

Made this chickpea bolognese-- with real noodles, not carrots-- for dinner last night. I need more vegetarian pasta-type recipes

[Manarelle]

Those were solid handstands! I remember when I was starting out on handstands how I'd get to brief holds, and then remember to point my toes and it would all fall apart. Very cool that you have balance down enough to isolate those muscles intentionally. 

[tei_]

Is this challenge... over? Is this me, coming back to report actual progress on the thing I said I wanted to do this challenge? UNPRECEDENTED.

 

I actually say some big flexibility gains in the past couple weeks! I think part of it is the active flexibility work, and part of it is just the fact of actually doing flexibility stuff for a long enough time to get properly warmed up. In any case, here's a few days ago when I realized that I could a) touch my toe to my head in both splits, which previously I had only managed on the right leg by reaching back to grab the foot, and b) allllmost/sometimes/just barely get my leg straight in... erm, not sure what this balance is called. Is it a needle? A scale? IDK, but I couldn't do it before!

 

Next challenge... I've been thinking about what to do and I am confused. I constantly vacillate between "I need to make a schedule for your day to get my shit done" and "I hate schedules so much and my brain rebels against them so I need to find a way to get things done without telling myself what do do every moment of the day." I DON'T KNOW WHICH IS RIGHT. Or which will win out. One of them will be my next challenge, though

[Mad Hatter]

Beautiful pose! Not sure what it's called. In yoga I think it's dancer pose. And the straight legged version where you grab the foot with both hands overhead is needle scale in contortion, but I also heard scorpion in cheerleading? Either way, it's pretty and you're doing awesome!

 

8 hours ago, tei_ said:

Next challenge... I've been thinking about what to do and I am confused. I constantly vacillate between "I need to make a schedule for your day to get my shit done" and "I hate schedules so much and my brain rebels against them so I need to find a way to get things done without telling myself what do do every moment of the day." I DON'T KNOW WHICH IS RIGHT. Or which will win out. One of them will be my next challenge, though

Story of my life. 😆

[Manarelle]

20 hours ago, tei_ said:

Next challenge... I've been thinking about what to do and I am confused. I constantly vacillate between "I need to make a schedule for your day to get my shit done" and "I hate schedules so much and my brain rebels against them so I need to find a way to get things done without telling myself what do do every moment of the day." I DON'T KNOW WHICH IS RIGHT. Or which will win out. One of them will be my next challenge, though

 

Mmmmaybe try a challenge of scheduling alternate days, or loose scheduling (get x y  done today in some order) type thing? Brains definitely need to come with an owner's manual. The flexibility looks good! I don't know what that pose is called, but I'm'a call it "impressive."