[tei_]

Hi, hello, I'm not late, this is exactly when I meant to arrive. I have been getting medicated for ADHD, getting my concerts constantly scheduled and un-scheduled due to COVID, doing school, applying for engineering programs, wondering if I should apply to nursing programs, coaching gymnastics, reading Mary Renault, becoming obsessed with Alexander the Great, being totally normal about everything, etc.

 

Anyway, my big fitness-related goal for this year is that I'd like to start learning MAG. For the uninitiated, mens' and womens' gymnastics are basically two different sports, with areas of overlap but also significant differences including whole events. So part of the impediment to trying to fix any of the dumb gender bullshit in the sport is that even people who would theoretically like to run gender-neutral gymnastics classes or do gymnastics in a gender-neutral way have a hard time because you likely only have a foundation in one side of the sport. I learned womens' gymnastics in recreational as a kid, so that's what I've worked on as an adult, and this year I want to fix that! Which means making a significant effort to learn the physical foundations especially of pommel horse, rings, and p-bars.

 

I shadowed the MAG coaches at my gym a few weeks ago, and one of the kids in the class who was injured and didn't have much he could do was kind enough to coach me on mushroom circles, and now I can DO ONE MUSHROOM CIRCLE. Sometimes. So that's where I'm starting from. I thiiiink my big goals for the year are to get two mushroom circles in a row, a kip and swing to handstand on p-bars (I used to be able to do a kip on them, but I lost it 😭) and a muscle-up on rings.

 

To that goal, I am going to:

a) at home, work a lot on back and side supports. These are essential for pommel horse, but the back support position (and really anything that involves strength or flexibility with the arms extended behind the back) is completely absent from womens' gymnastics. 

b) do chin-ups and dips whenever I get into the normie gym. I don't really know how often this will be, because plague, so keeping that one kind of vague.

c) Do something on all three of my  MAG events every time I get into the gymnastics gym. I think I have at least once a week set up that I can go in, but again, life is *waves hands* you know.

[Emissary2Ornj]

Welcome, whenever! You're right on time.

YAY! A mushroom circle!!! (yes, I had to look it up)

 

I would consider myself uninitiated, except to watch YT gymnastics competition highlights. I absolutely have noticed differences -  in the uniforms, in the showiness (or lack thereof) of the movements, and in the equipment. And now, having read a brief blurb on 5 different kinds of gymnastics, wow! Cool beans. Also cool beans re: a mushroom circle. Also, coming across Brandon Wynn in some YT highlight vid was my wake-up to how strong gymnastics training can actually make a person (and I'm not actually referring to his appearance; I'm talking about how in control of his body he is to keep it that still on the rings).

 

While I don't expect to get into a serious gymnastics practice for a long while (maybe ever), I am exploring the free side of GMB. The move that really attracts me right now is an L-sit. (I'm working off the floor only, no parallettes.) That's a little ways off, as wrist strength (and possibly shoulder strength) is limiting at the moment. I'm working on other stuff that will hopefully build up my wrists. I would guess that your wrists are in pretty good shape (strength AND mobility-wise) if you're training mushroom circles.

 

(*reads your signature* I have a whole iPhone note full of Anathem quotes. So much thought-provoking stuff.)

[WhiteGhost]

I took a gymnastics class as a kid and was the only boy in the class.  I didn't realize until many years later that everything I learned was for women's events (beam, in even bars, vault)  It was fun and I would love to do them again, but for now I am pretty much just doing MAG.  on my own...  At an outdoor calisthenics park...

 

So no safety gear, no mats, no flexible bars...

 

Not the most ideal situation but I still have made a lot of good progress, especially on high bar.  Rings and pbars are still pretty basic though.

 

I am really keen on seeing what you do here so I can have new ideas on what to work on (once I get healed, that is.  I injured my arm going too hard on back support stuff on pbars a few weeks ago)

[tei_]

20 hours ago, Emissary2Ornj said:

While I don't expect to get into a serious gymnastics practice for a long while (maybe ever), I am exploring the free side of GMB. The move that really attracts me right now is an L-sit. (I'm working off the floor only, no parallettes.) That's a little ways off, as wrist strength (and possibly shoulder strength) is limiting at the moment. I'm working on other stuff that will hopefully build up my wrists. I would guess that your wrists are in pretty good shape (strength AND mobility-wise) if you're training mushroom circles.

 

Nice! Yeah, I think GMB is focused on a lot of MAG events and skills-- rings and support holds, which are mostly useful on p-bars, which women don't do, so there isn't a huge emphasis on support holds in WAG, though most coaches do do them a little bit for conditioning. So I can do an L-sit for a few seconds off the floor and maybe 15 or so on parallettes or p-bars, but nothing close to the kind of control you need for even basic MAG routines.

 

My wrists are... decent, haha. They're fine for flexibility, but they definitely get sore quickly from doing back and side supports right now.

17 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I took a gymnastics class as a kid and was the only boy in the class.  I didn't realize until many years later that everything I learned was for women's events

Yeah, I think this is a how a lot of rec classes work by default-- most gyms have many more girls than boys, so most rec coaches are former rec gymnasts, and the cycle continues of only really teaching WAG events in rec even if there are boys in the class, because it's what the coaches know. Which isn't a big deal because at a very low level it's the same basics, but it reinforces the gender divide and forces boys out of the sport, since their only option to do the gymnastics they see men doing on TV is to join competitive, so if the athlete or their family aren't willing to commit to that, "girl's" gymnastics is their only option, and once they realize that's what it is they no longer want to do it.

 

17 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I am really keen on seeing what you do here so I can have new ideas on what to work on (once I get healed, that is.  I injured my arm going too hard on back support stuff on pbars a few weeks ago)

 

Oh nooo, sorry about your injury! Yeah, this stuff can fuck you up if you push too hard

[tei_]

My tentative plan for the next little while is to life T/Th/Sat, go to gymnastics on Wednesday, and hopefully a bit of gymnastics before I coach my adult class on Sunday. 

 

Tuesday I went to the gym right after getting my COVID booster, because I got the shot at the university and the gym is also at the university so... why not... it went okay, I got in there before my arm actually got sore 😆 

 

Yesterday I was supposed to go to gymnastics. I've arranged with the CEO of the club that I can go in to train on Wednesdays, and I will be available to help out or demonstrate stuff for the rec coaches who are in at the same time (the rec coaches at my gym are on the whole young and not super knowledgeable) Buuuut then the rec coordinator emailed and asked me if I could coach some classes that evening. I was feeling ok-but-not-great from the shot and was planning on going on for an hour or so, taking it easy, and leaving if I felt lousy... but then I felt like if I said no to the coaching, I couldn't really go into the gym to train, since that would be a "I'll be physically present but I refuse to help with your thing, lol!" That would not really be cool given that the arrangement is for me to train for free. Soooo I was able to train for an hour and then coached rec for three, which was Too Much and I felt awful by the end. 

 

But, in the hour that I did have to train, I managed to land a couple layout 3πs from the trampoline, which I'd only done once before and thought I would have lost since I haven't trained in a while! (I don't like degrees, I don't know how many degrees a turn and a half is and I don't care. All of my twisting skills in gymnastics are expressed in radians 🤷)

 

Today, feeling fine other than sore from exercise, not vaccine. Hoping to get to the gym again today 🤞 

[Emissary2Ornj]

6 hours ago, tei_ said:

I don't know how many degrees a turn and a half is and I don't care. All of my twisting skills in gymnastics are expressed in radians

This made me smile. I am kind of all for bucking the conventional trends and doing what works for me, so there!

[Emissary2Ornj]

How are you doing over here?

[tei_]

-Saturday: was planning on doing my third lifting workout of the week, but got called in to coach so ended up staying at the gym to train for a bit afterwards. 

-Sunday: trained before my adult gymnastics class, which was the first of the session and THREE WHOLE PEOPLE showed up! that is a very good turnout, haha. 

-Monday: rest day

-Tuesday: lifting

-Today: gymnastics! I GOT MY P-BAR KIP BACK. I managed it a couple of times a few years ago, but lost it, and... hopefully this time I will keep it. 

[Emissary2Ornj]

Congrats on the KIP! You must haz muskles. And good muscle memory?

[WhiteGhost]

21 hours ago, tei_ said:

I GOT MY P-BAR KIP BACK

Nice!  Are these side mount kips or bucket swing type kips?

[tei_]

On 1/20/2022 at 7:57 PM, WhiteGhost said:

Nice!  Are these side mount kips or bucket swing type kips?

Hm, I am not sure what these mean 😅 but... this kind: 

 

[tei_]

Was planning on going to the lifting gym Thursday in between teaching class and going to class, 

 

But it was my first time a)teaching over Zoom, b) teaching MATH, I am teaching math to university students? So I was happy about other wins that day 😄 I'm the lab TA for the precalculus class at my university, which was the first class I took when I decided to go back to school part-time a few years ago. I had always done terrible in math in high school, and thus stopped taking math and science as soon as I could and was convinced I was just too stupid for them. So I was really intimidated by this class when I did it, but I ended up falling in love with it, taking a whole bunch of other math classes, and now I'm applying for engineering degrees, which is so far away from anything I thought I could ever do that it still feels surreal. 

 

So I was actually pretty emotional about being offered this job, helping to teach the class that I took, because most students in the class are in the same position as me— if they were strong math students, they would have gotten this class out of the way in high school. I was really nervous to teach over Zoom because you can't really tell if your audience is picking up what you're putting down or not, but a little bit into it someone put in the chat "she's way better than prof. [name]", and we finished the lab questions with a few minutes to spare so they asked me if I could teach them completing the square, which I did, and then it ended a few minutes late, and someone else was like "class was so good we stayed overtime!" The next day I got a request from a student to tutor them, which... I don't think I have enough time to do, but if the prof says it's OK I will offer to join the students' discord for the class and take questions in there when I have time. 

 

ANYWAY, today I have a dumb emergency work meeting at noon but then I will go to the gym. 

[tei_]

Saturday lifting, Sunday gymnastics. I felt really tired on Sunday (maybe because of my workout the day before, but it doesn't always seem to correlate like that, so I don't think so?) and packed it in after about an hour, BUT I coached my adult class after training, and it's going really well this term! There are three people who are coming regularly, one guy who used to be a competitive athlete and two women who did a little bit of rec as kids and are about the same level. There were two other guys, beginners, who came all last term and said they were going to come back who haven't showed yet...but, y'know, covid, there are lots of reasons people aren't signing up for Activities in droves right now 😕

 

Monday was a rest day, but which I mean a day to desperately finish the batch of program notes I had due on Tuesday. (I write the program notes for my orchestra's programme booklets, which is a) actually quite lucrative and b) very satisfying when I'm onstage before a concert and watching everyone read my writing in real time. But it's also SO much work, and I always procrastinate on it and get super stressed about them right before the deadline, and resent them because the writing time that I usually spend on fanfiction has to be spent on Serious Writing 😝 BUT IT IS DONE, and I think I just have one more small batch of two or three due in March, and that's it for the season.) 

 

Lifting gym yesterday, and I managed 5 sets of 5 pull-ups, which is more than I have managed in a LONG time. I want to get a ring muscle-up and I think the pull-up phase of it is strong enough, but unfortunately there is not really anywhere convenient in the lifting gym to do dips, and my dips are nowhere close yet. 

 

Gratuitous bunny pictures: Mips (floppy bunny), and Ada (perky bunny)

[Emissary2Ornj]

12 hours ago, tei_ said:

BUT IT IS DONE

That (job) sounds so COOL. Maybe it isn't, given deadlines and resentment and stress; but what a neat thing to include on a resume! And get paid for, of course.

Also, I think of your 5 sets of 5 pull-ups like a tiny gleam in my far distant future. I want! Eventually.

Ada looks satisfyingly very symmetrical and regal. Mips is satisfyingly real-world "take me as I am" and rumply. They are both adorable.
Looks like you've had some nice wins lately!

[tei_]

On 1/26/2022 at 8:29 PM, Emissary2Ornj said:

That (job) sounds so COOL. Maybe it isn't, given deadlines and resentment and stress; but what a neat thing to include on a resume! And get paid for, of course.

Yeah! I have also learned a lot of interesting things researching them, so that's nice. I have no background at all in history or musicology or theory, so it's all new to me

[tei_]

Wednesday gymnastics was so much 😂 I thought I was going to take it easy/feel terrible because i woke up super early and couldn't get back to sleep, and felt weird and groggy the whole day... only it seems to be a pattern that when you walk into the gym thinking "ugh, maybe it's not even worth it" things suddenly start working. My back handspring was working, and my back handspring NEVER works! I strung a couple of them together standing on the rod floor, and maybe will be brave enough to do a back tuck straight from a standing back handspring soon. Also did a couple roundoff back handspring layouts into the pit from the REAL FLOOR. The real floor is my nemesis and I haven't "upgraded" my tumbling on it... basically since I was a kid... so if I could actually land that... that would be huge for me 😭

 

My swings on p-bars also felt a little less scary! They're still probably not even at horizontal, let alone a thing that could let me swing to handstand any time soon. But they feel so different from casting on a single rail, I think I just need to get used to the sensation.

 

Yesterday I did not go to the gym; I think I need to rearrange my gym days so that Thursday is a rest day instead of Friday, because Thursday I spend all day worrying about my teaching. Since the days I can do gymnastics are Wednesday and Sunday, there isn't really an arrangement of three lifting days that avoids having two lifting days in a row. But whatever, it's not like I'm lifting anything particularly heavy. I probably just need to sleep more haha

[tei_]

Apparently, Sunday gymnastics is always low-energy and Wednesday gymnastics is always So Much. Probably because Wednesdays I'm in the gym at the same time as, well, everyone else, including the competitive groups and coaches, and I feel a subconscious need to Keep Up even  if I'm just some weirdo training in a corner by myself and vacating a piece of equipemnt the instant a competitive athlete so much as glances at it. 

 

So, working backwards: 

Wednesday gymnastics: stayed three hours, had a good twisting day, managed to put back DOUBLE TWISTS from the trampoline onto a MAT! "Landing" would be an overstatement, but. I was DOING THEM. I had only managed a double twist once before, into the pit my last workout before covid, and twisting is really hard and scary for me, so. I basically did a bazillion of them in the way you keep doing a new skill when you want people to look at you and notice you doing a new skill. Plus, like, real gymnastics that makes me look like a real gymnast! 

 

Monday: lifting

 

Sunday gymnastics: not much, but then I coached my adult class and it was GREAT, two new people came and two of the people who had been coming, who I thought were ready to try back handsprings but was nervous about my own judgement, both did back handsprings! And they were pretty good! One kind of had it as a kid, and for one it was her first time in her life! A month ago dhe showed up saying the wanted to "do a flip" before her thirtieth birthday at the end of the session, and now she has front tucks easily from the trampoline, and the beginnings of a very solid back handspring 😍

 

Well I've only lifted once this week and it's Friday, so maybe this will be another two-lifting-day week and my goal next challenge will to get three lifting days a week. 

[Emissary2Ornj]

Haha, I bet being a part of those adult students smashing goals is the BEST. Go, YOU, coach!

So much yes - does the internal push-pull of "I belong here!" "But not as much as that other person - here you go!" ever get resolved? Not just at the gym, just dang, that's such a powerful brain-track (what I call those pervasive thought patterns and habits learned so long ago) that shows up in so many areas of life! At least for me.

I'm really excited to read about what you're getting "back" and newly accomplishing as far as your moves go. Amazing!

[tei_]

On 2/4/2022 at 10:10 AM, Emissary2Ornj said:

does the internal push-pull of "I belong here!" "But not as much as that other person - here you go!" ever get resolved?

Well, in this case, they're paying (or rather, their parents are paying) for gymnastics, and I'm there for free because the CEO said I could show up and nobody else is gonna stop me So I'm kind of supposed to be working in around the edges, haha.

 

Since lockdowns seem to be pretty much over here, and the virus is here for good, I guess decision-making about how much to engage physically with the world is left up to the individual. Everyone seems to be kind of subconsciously making these sorts of decisions, but I have decided that I would like to start Getting Out More, in contexts where I can wear an N95 the whole time. I don't know if that's the right decision. Part of me feels like... if you can't leave the house triple-vaxxed and wearing an N95...what's it all for? But then, diseases don't care about feelings. and yet, the ICUs are full of unvaccinated people. Roughly equal numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated people are being hospitalized here, and despite what our math-challenged premier thinks, that means the vaccine works. If this is how it's going to be forever... do we stay home forever? I don't know.

Well, my partner and I went to a game of the university womens' hockey team last night, and we are going to a game of the local junior mens' team next week. Watching hockey live was a completely different thing from watching it on TV! When you're there, you can actually get a sense of how incredibly fast everyone is going, and the kind of force and energy being expended. I never even learned to skate on hockey skates; like a lot of women, I was given figure skates by default. Now I want to learn...