[Epsilonte]

18 minutes ago, Alanna said:

I noped out of the book when

Oh sweet summerchild... ❤️

 

Love your emoji garden, it's so pretty! Well done on week one!

 

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

4 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

If you do decide to start watching the show, do yourself a favor and stop watching after the last episode of Season 6. Seriously. Please trust me on this.

Agreed

 

4 hours ago, Alanna said:

 

Even in my Game-of-Thrones-free bubble I managed to hear about the extremely disappointing end to the series. To be fair it's probably not going to be my thing - I noped out of the book when

  Hide contents

they started killing off the dire wolf puppies

 

I read all of the books. Honestly not worth it unless the author decides to actually finish the series. Show was enjoyable but also disappointing in the end. Almost enough to kill any earlier enthusiasm for the series.

 

Not that the books were bad. I remember pulling an all nighter to finish at least one of the books. But I'd also recommend multiple other series before this one (anything by Brandon Sanderson & Green Rider series by Kristen Britain in particular). I think the author just ended up with too many open stories and no easy way to neatly wrap them up.

[Epsilonte]

8 hours ago, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

Brandon Sanderson

Yes yes yes yes!! Mistborn in particular, but everything else is great as well. 

 

I also wholeheartedly can recommend the lightbringer series by Brent Weeks.

[Alanna]

22 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Ah yes, that made me very sad.

 

I greatly prefer fun animal companions that survive for a decent amount of time 😅

 

22 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Oh sweet summerchild... ❤️

 

 

Haha it was also the general violence and abuse, plus I was even less tolerant of books with many many points of view back when I tried to read it 10 (!) years ago. But that scene was the final straw and apparently it stuck with me.

 

22 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Love your emoji garden, it's so pretty! Well done on week one!

 

 

Thank you!

 

18 hours ago, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

But I'd also recommend multiple other series before this one (anything by Brandon Sanderson

 

9 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Yes yes yes yes!! Mistborn in particular, but everything else is great as well. 

 

 

I have read a lot of Brandon Sanderson, including the Way of Kings and Mistborn series . I am a fan of his as well. I'm currently waiting for Cytonic to drop in price so I can get the Kindle version! The one thing that is starting to frustrate me, though, is how much he's weaving all of his Cosmere books together - the end of the most recent Way of Kings book went over my head since there are a few more obscure books/novellas in that universe that I haven't read. 

 

It's funny that you bring him up since he is the antithesis of G.R.R. Martin when it comes to publishing - he is very reliable. Did you know he finished the Wheel of Time after the author died without completing it (although I haven't read those books)? He's already said he won't finish GoT, though - he doesn't want to be the author that finishes other people's work!

 

18 hours ago, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

& Green Rider series by Kristen Britain in particular

 

I have read the first book in that series! It was enjoyable (and I liked the Horse - that's how to use an animal companion!) but not a big favourite - I'm not sure I liked the protagonist that much. Is the first book pretty representative of the rest of the series? I know some authors hit their stride a few books in!

 

9 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

I also wholeheartedly can recommend the lightbringer series by Brent Weeks.

 

I have not read that or heard much about it - thank you!

[Alanna]

 

Week 2, Sunday:

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Strength workouts]

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Log workouts]

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Bonus: Locomotion]

 

❌⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Routine]

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Bonus: early start (10:30 am)]

 

🦵⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Supplements]

 

Garden:

🌄⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Post in my challenge]

🌲⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [No processed sugar]

 

No training session today - I'm very physically tired today so decided to (probably) shift it to tomorrow (if I'm still really tired, I'll do an easier workout). I'm purposely using an upper/lower split so I have that flexibility.

 

Working a bit late on my thesis - I need to wrap this up soon and had a slow start today. I'll probably be a little MIA, besides my challenge updates, until I finish this.

[KB Girl]

1 hour ago, Alanna said:

I have read a lot of Brandon Sanderson, including the Way of Kings and Mistborn series . I am a fan of his as well. I'm currently waiting for Cytonic to drop in price so I can get the Kindle version! The one thing that is starting to frustrate me, though, is how much he's weaving all of his Cosmere books together - the end of the most recent Way of Kings book went over my head since there are a few more obscure books/novellas in that universe that I haven't read. 

 

It's funny that you bring him up since he is the antithesis of G.R.R. Martin when it comes to publishing - he is very reliable. Did you know he finished the Wheel of Time after the author died without completing it (although I haven't read those books)? He's already said he won't finish GoT, though - he doesn't want to be the author that finishes other people's work!

That's how i 'discovered' Brandon, due to WoT. I love how he is to his fans, brilliant. But yes, agree with you on the ending of the last stormlight book.. 

 

1 hour ago, Alanna said:

Working a bit late on my thesis - I need to wrap this up soon and had a slow start today. I'll probably be a little MIA, besides my challenge updates, until I finish this.

Good luck with it!

[Alanna]

25 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

That's how i 'discovered' Brandon, due to WoT. I love how he is to his fans, brilliant. But yes, agree with you on the ending of the last stormlight book.. 

Ah right, the series is The Stormlight Archive, not Way of Kings - see, how am I supposed to remember thousands of page of details when I forget big things like the name of the series 😅

 

I think after I finish the current arcs of the Stormlight Archive and the current Mistborn era, I'll let him get ahead so I can read the next set of books back to back. By the time he finishes them, I'll also be up for a reread! 

 

29 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

Good luck with it!

 

Thank you - slowly getting there in between work and the house buying process! I want(/need) to finish a draft of them this week.

[Epsilonte]

2 hours ago, Alanna said:

It's funny that you bring him up since he is the antithesis of G.R.R. Martin when it comes to publishing - he is very reliable.

Almost a bit too reliable... xD I'm behind sooo many books and don't find time to read them all... xD #firstworldproblems

[Emissary2Ornj]

6 hours ago, Alanna said:

I'm very physically tired today so decided to (probably) shift it to tomorrow (if I'm still really tired, I'll do an easier workout). I'm purposely using an upper/lower split so I have that flexibility.

Oh, look at that - your planned flexibility is coming in handy!

[Mad Hatter]

8 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Almost a bit too reliable... xD I'm behind sooo many books and don't find time to read them all... xD #firstworldproblems

Right?! Feels like I find a new series every time I go to the bookstore.  

[Waanie]

On 2/19/2022 at 9:36 PM, Alanna said:

 

Even in my Game-of-Thrones-free bubble I managed to hear about the extremely disappointing end to the series. To be fair it's probably not going to be my thing - I noped out of the book when

  Reveal hidden contents

they started killing off the dire wolf puppies

 

When I asked friends about it, they thought I wouldn't like the books

Spoiler

because so many people die.

There's plenty of other books to read though, so I don't mind not reading them . 

[DaemonCorax]

On 2/16/2022 at 11:25 AM, Alanna said:

Also videos in their article:

https://gmb.io/bodyweight-back-exercises/

 

 

ooooooo. aaaaaaaahhhhh

[Alanna]

22 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Almost a bit too reliable... xD I'm behind sooo many books and don't find time to read them all... xD #firstworldproblems

 

14 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Right?! Feels like I find a new series every time I go to the bookstore.  

 

It is a good problem to have!

 

The only reason I'm mostly caught up with Brandon Sanderson's works is that they got me out of a reading slump a few years ago. I wasn't really aware of other new books coming out then, so... I just read a lot of Sanderson 😅. Goodreads and the fantasy subreddit have helped me branch out since then.

 

19 hours ago, Emissary2Ornj said:

Oh, look at that - your planned flexibility is coming in handy!

 

It's definitely an important element of programming for me, especially with the current stressors.

 

11 hours ago, Waanie said:

When I asked friends about it, they thought I wouldn't like the books

There's plenty of other books to read though, so I don't mind not reading them . 

 

It is really helpful when you have reader friends that know your preferences and can recommend books accordingly! I agree - life is too short to spend on books you don't enjoy  

 

2 hours ago, DaemonCorax said:

ooooooo. aaaaaaaahhhhh

 

Haha is that sound of discovering cool new, challenging  exercises or the sound of trying those exercises and having your body protest?

 

Week 2, Monday:

⬜🦵⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Strength workouts]

⬜🦵⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Log workouts]

⬜🦵⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Bonus: Locomotion]

 

❌❌⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Routine]

⬜🦵⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Bonus: early start (10:30 am)]

 

🦵🦵⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Supplements]

 

Garden:

🌄🐺⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [Post in my challenge]

🌲🌹⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ [No processed sugar]

 

Getting plenty of things done during my regular work hours, but just have a lot of stuff to do during that time. My bonus hours got taken up by post-workout shower and dinner + TV, so I'll be working a little late to wrap up some more work. Things are also progressing again on the house buying front. 

 

I did do my higher-intensity lower body training session today - non-mobility work was

• Practice
  • front scales: 5 minutes with rests. I think my range of motion is improving (at least until I get fatigued!). I'm also able to hold the top position for longer without my quads cramping.
  • elevated deep lunge: bw x 7, 6, 6 each side (RPE 9 for all). 
• Push
  • unilateral DB deadlift: 13 kg x 8 x 3 each side. (Look, dumbbells! I'm still a Warrior!) It's been a while since I've done these, so the balance aspect was a little tricky.
• Play:
  • 2 minutes total of monkey, frogger, and then long-leg monkey. Still don't have the full mobility for the latter (heels are coming up and my stretched out leg isn't straight), but the position felt more comfortable after all of the lower body strength training I've been doing. For those unfamiliar with long-leg monkey, @Epsilonte very accurately refers to the movement as "Spiderman" - the position you need to be able to get into is essentially 
  • Spoiler

    

    but with that stretched out leg straight

     

    Regular monkey: 

    

     

    and frogger:

    

It doesn't seem like that much written out, but these workouts have been taking me a little over an hour including pre and post mobility work. They are feeling much more like my powerlifting training sessions than my early bodyweight/DB COVID workouts - the movements are challenging and I need to take decent length rests. My legs were rather shaky by the end of today's workout 😅. I'm hoping I can add a couple more exercises and some more volume as my work capacity improves.

 

 

[DaemonCorax]

50 minutes ago, Alanna said:

Haha is that sound of discovering cool new, challenging  exercises or the sound of trying those exercises and having your body protest?

Yes

[Emissary2Ornj]

Those elevated deep lunges are all kinds of impressive. They look really challenging.

I also noticed rewatching the Frogger gif that she seems to almost grip the floor with her fingers. If that's so, do you know the rationale for it?

[Alanna]

12 hours ago, DaemonCorax said:

Yes

 

GMB has some cool approaches to strength training - hope you find the exercises useful!

 

10 hours ago, Emissary2Ornj said:

Those elevated deep lunges are all kinds of impressive. They look really challenging.

 

They are a nice step up from Bulgarian splits squats since they have more of a balance component. The tricky part is keeping the difficulty of the reps similar, even when I fatigue - when I get to the point where I put my back leg down, I try not to put much weight through it, and I have to focus on pushing up with my elevated leg when I go back up. 

 

10 hours ago, Emissary2Ornj said:

I also noticed rewatching the Frogger gif that she seems to almost grip the floor with her fingers. If that's so, do you know the rationale for it?

 

That's a good observation - I hadn't thought about it much, but I think I do something similar. I think the person doing Monkey positions their hands in that way as well. It looks like they are spreading and flattening their hands so their hands cover a wider area and they have the maximum amount of contact between their fingers/palms and the ground. I'm not 100% why, but I would guess that the larger base makes it more stable and easier to adjust your balance. @Mad Hatter and @Epsilonte (and @Waanie - you've done handbalancing too, right?) might be able to offer some insight from their handstand training! 

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

On 2/20/2022 at 2:15 PM, Alanna said:

It's funny that you bring him up since he is the antithesis of G.R.R. Martin when it comes to publishing - he is very reliable. Did you know he finished the Wheel of Time after the author died without completing it (although I haven't read those books)? He's already said he won't finish GoT, though - he doesn't want to be the author that finishes other people's work!

Yes - I did hear that, though I haven't read through Weel of Time either. Definitely don't blame him for not wanting that reputation.

 

On 2/20/2022 at 2:15 PM, Alanna said:

I have read the first book in that series! It was enjoyable (and I liked the Horse - that's how to use an animal companion!) but not a big favourite - I'm not sure I liked the protagonist that much. Is the first book pretty representative of the rest of the series? I know some authors hit their stride a few books in!

To be completely honest, it goes a bit downhill after the third one. No to say I don't love the series -- I absolutely do and it's among my Tamora Pierce / Dragonlance / Harry Potter "will re-read this series multiple times until the books fall apart" pile. So I'm invested. But if the first book didn't quite hit for you the following books probably won't either.

 

On 2/20/2022 at 4:57 PM, Epsilonte said:

Almost a bit too reliable... xD I'm behind sooo many books and don't find time to read them all... xD #firstworldproblems

Same!! I've read the first Mistborn trilogy, but haven't quite gotten into the second trilogy. Stormlight Archive is so good but also very very long and there's so much going on I want to give it my full attention.

 

 

Hope everything else in the challenge is going well! I love seeing what emojis you choose for your garden goals.

[Waanie]

6 hours ago, Alanna said:

That's a good observation - I hadn't thought about it much, but I think I do something similar. I think the person doing Monkey positions their hands in that way as well. It looks like they are spreading and flattening their hands so their hands cover a wider area and they have the maximum amount of contact between their fingers/palms and the ground. I'm not 100% why, but I would guess that the larger base makes it more stable and easier to adjust your balance. @Mad Hatter and @Epsilonte (and @Waanie - you've done handbalancing too, right?) might be able to offer some insight from their handstand training! 

While I'm not an expert, I've always gripped the ground when hand-balancing. Part of the reason is that it engages your forearms, and hence you have generally more tension in your body; like why balancing on one foot is easier with "ballet-arms". The other part is that you can compensate your balance a little by pushing your fingers more or less into the ground. I'm not sure how relevant that is in a frogger though. I've basically been taught from a young age to engage all muscles with any movement, so now core-engagement, but also tension in hands, comes naturally.

[Harriet]

On 2/18/2022 at 8:34 PM, Alanna said:

Did anyone else realise we have guild emojis? I'd never scrolled down the emoji list far enough to see them!

 

Oh, sweet. Because emojis are the same on all apps and programmes and platforms I just assumed they are platonic forms that come from the same source? But no

 

On 2/19/2022 at 9:36 PM, Alanna said:

 

Even in my Game-of-Thrones-free bubble I managed to hear about the extremely disappointing end to the series. To be fair it's probably not going to be my thing - I noped out of the book when

  Reveal hidden contents

they started killing off the dire wolf puppies

 

 

I noped out of the television series quite early because of the violence. It really crossed an unacceptable line for me. Lots of other people love it though so I guess one woman's poison is another's paprika barbecued hedgehog or whatever.

Glorious victory to you and your thesis!

[Epsilonte]

14 hours ago, Alanna said:

That's a good observation - I hadn't thought about it much, but I think I do something similar. I think the person doing Monkey positions their hands in that way as well. It looks like they are spreading and flattening their hands so their hands cover a wider area and they have the maximum amount of contact between their fingers/palms and the ground. I'm not 100% why, but I would guess that the larger base makes it more stable and easier to adjust your balance. @Mad Hatter and @Epsilonte (and @Waanie - you've done handbalancing too, right?) might be able to offer some insight from their handstand training! 

 

7 hours ago, Waanie said:

The other part is that you can compensate your balance a little by pushing your fingers more or less into the ground.

^this.

 

Fingers are super important to balance while doing handstands. 

It's actually quite similar with your feet, you just don't notice it as much since you have been standing and walking on your feet for decades now.  You can do a little experiment: stand on one leg. And then stand on one leg while lifting the toes off the ground.  

And yes, larger base also helps with  handstands (or standing in general, that's why it's easier to keep the balance with the feet wide apart than when you put them next to each other (or directly in front of each other, for some people this is enough to totally put them off balance  ). 

Engaging all your muscles helps as well, as Waanie said. 

[Mad Hatter]

Thirding what Waanie said! It's more about really gripping and putting force through the ground than about maximum friction. The most common position for handstands is the cambered hand as it allows for a lot of grip with a large base of support. A feeeew people prefer the arched hand, I'm guessing the reason is some anatomical quirk. The flat hand doesn't allow for much gripping or control, even if it maximizes friction. I've never seen any handbalancer recommend or use it.

 

 

1 hour ago, Epsilonte said:

It's actually quite similar with your feet, you just don't notice it as much since you have been standing and walking on your feet for decades now.  You can do a little experiment: stand on one leg. And then stand on one leg while lifting the toes off the ground.  

Another experiment is to stand with both of your feet, and lean forward. Pay attention to what your feet are doing and how the toes are gripping the ground. Then try and use the toes to push your body straight. That's exactly the same motion as in handstands, for the big corrections.

For small corrections try standing on one foot with your eyes closed and notice the speed of corrections.  

 

2 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Engaging all your muscles helps as well, as Waanie said. 

This is quite debatable.  In gymnastic handstands full body tension is super important, but for a circus handstand you kinda want to be more relaxed to save energy. And if you think about the standing on your feet example - are you really tensing all your muscles? Or just the ones you need? Can you move your arms and torso independently?  Not saying it's a bad cue though, especially in the beginning. For some people it works great and if that works use it! For me personally it's a bit distracting from the balancing aspect, and if my body is rigid it's hard to move either into the handstand or changing shapes. Clearly concentrating both on keeping tight and on my fingers at the same time is too much for me.  

[Epsilonte]

8 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

This is quite debatable.  In gymnastic handstands full body tension is super important, but for a circus handstand you kinda want to be more relaxed to save energy. And if you think about the standing on your feet example - are you really tensing all your muscles? Or just the ones you need? Can you move your arms and torso independently?  Not saying it's a bad cue though, especially in the beginning. For some people it works great and if that works use it! For me personally it's a bit distracting from the balancing aspect, and if my body is rigid it's hard to move either into the handstand or changing shapes. Clearly concentrating both on keeping tight and on my fingers at the same time is too much for me.  

Yesss totally!

It always depends on the person who tries to do stuff.  Example: I always need to remind myself to push and engage because I'm too floppy otherwise and need that reminder to get enough strength to do anything but faceplant. Same with standing btw, it's just much easier to stand on the legs relying on all the passive strucures (bones and ligaments) than it is with handstands, because shoulders are much more secured by muscles than by ligaments and bones. So I'm one of those people always standing with hyperextended knees and a very hollow back. If I remind myself to soften those knees and engages the muscles, my back feels much happier.  

 

[Alanna]

I need to catch up with everyone's responses, but very quickly because my. mind is going 🤯:

 

21 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

hirding what Waanie said! It's more about really gripping and putting force through the ground than about maximum friction. The most common position for handstands is the cambered hand as it allows for a lot of grip with a large base of support. A feeeew people prefer the arched hand, I'm guessing the reason is some anatomical quirk. The flat hand doesn't allow for much gripping or control, even if it maximizes friction. I've never seen any handbalancer recommend or use it.

 

 

I had no idea that there was that much air space under hands in handstands! But to me, it looks like the people doing frogger and monkey are using the flat hands - so not the handstand type position. The woman doing frogger looks like she is about to do the cambered hand position, but then flattens out her hand instead - at least as far as I can see. Or is my perception of their hand positions incorrect? Are they doing a more subtle variation of the cambered hand? And if they are using flat hands, then the question of why remains, since (counter to my hypothesis) it's not the best position for hand balancing!

 

Repasting the gifs so people don't have to dig back through the thread:

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

4 minutes ago, Alanna said:

I had no idea that there was that much air space under hands in handstands! But to me, it looks like the people doing frogger and monkey are using the flat hands - so not the handstand type position. The woman doing frogger looks like she is about to do the cambered hand position, but then flattens out her hand instead - at least as far as I can see. Or is my perception of their hand positions incorrect? Are they doing a more subtle variation of the cambered hand? And if they are using flat hands, then the question of why remains, since (counter to my hypothesis) it's not the best position for hand balancing!

The first guy is moving sideways in which case you don't need much leverage in the forward/backward direction. 

It's hard to see but I think the woman has a bit of a camber? It doesn't really matter much though, her weight is still far behind her hands and she's far from the balance point. You only need the strong push when correcting an overbalance. Pretty sure she's mostly gripping to not slip on the wooden floors.  

 

How much to camber is very much up to the individual's preference and anatomy. Some people have a crazy camber, some prefer a more flattened position. It's also not static right, the fingers are constantly pulling and pushing to correct the balance. My suggestion would be simply to find a position that's comfortable and strong for you.  

[Mad Hatter]

34 minutes ago, Epsilonte said:

It always depends on the person who tries to do stuff.  

For sure! And different cues work better on different people. I'm also very floppy, but if I hear tight I become overly rigid instead! For me cues like "think tall" and "touch the ceiling" are more effective.  I also find that if I concentrate on the shoulder positioning and on doing quick corrections the rest of my body doesn't have to flop anyway and the cue becomes a moot point.

 

Well back in the day that is.