SymphonicDan's flying lap [Level 8]

[SymphonicDan]

Welcome to my 8th challenge thread I've now been on these forums for one year (anniversary on January 3rd) so I'll start with a motivational list of some of the things I've accomplished in that time:

• recovered from a shoulder injury
• improved Spanish listening and speaking
• learned to walk across a slackline
• tracked macronutrients for a week
• learned not to set overly-ambitious challenges
• held a 10-second handbalance
• created a YouTube video of my handstand progress
• joined a second gymnastics gym
• bought climbing shoes so I can go bouldering properly
• entered a Spartan Race
• increased strength in the bench press by 30%
• 15 pistol squats on each leg
• learned Olympic lifting
• bought gymnastics rings and started training regularly with them

 

It hasn't been easy, and there are plenty of things that I wanted to accomplished and completely failed with... but the last challenge has been good. So while I have some momentum, I'd like to make as much more progress as possible...

 

 

Challenge #1: BODYWEIGHT SKILLS: +2 DEX, +4 CHA

 

These are 6 skills that I'm currently working on and I think may be possible by the end of the challenge:

 

ring muscle-up: I maybe got close to achieving this last week, but I'm taking a break until January 5th to let my right forearm tendon recover from the stress I've been putting on it while practising this.

 

bar muscle-up: some say it's harder than the ring muscle-up, but I find the wrist position slightly easier. I'm also taking a break on this until Jan 5th.

 

upstart / glide kip: this move requires good technique and lots of core strength. I've done some work on the first part of the motion, but don't feel close to "getting" the move. It's one of those things that 6-year-old girls seem to find much easier than 1m85 men like me...

 

archer ring pull-up: I can do the very top part of these, but not yet strong enough to do the bottom part... so it's clear what I have to work on

• +0.50 CHA: each hand, with ring starting above head height
• +0.50 DEX: either hand, full movement
• +0.50 CHA: each hand, full movement

frontflip: I've done these nicely on the bouncy tumble track onto a crashmat (and once without) but need more consistency and to tuck harder.

• +0.50 CHA: high safe consistent frontflips on tumble track without crashmat
• +0.50 DEX: high safe consistent frontflips on floor with crashmat
• +0.50 CHA: high safe consistent frontflips on floor without crashmat

backwards walkover: I can do this with my feet on a 60cm platform and would like to not need the platform at all. Need to improve back flexibility, core strength, and technique.

• +0.25 CHA: 40cm platform
• +0.25 DEX: 20cm platform
• +0.25 CHA: without platform

 

Each move carries +0.25 DEX and +0.50 CHA. The last three skills can award partial points as described. Archer pull-ups and frontflips carry double points for double awesomeness.

 

 

Challenge #2: SQUATS & DEADLIFTS: +3 STR

 

I've found a couple of gyms where I can safely practise heavy squats, and I've recently improved my deadlift form. My legs are strong and can handle high volume, but I'd like them to be more powerful like in my old high jump days. Therefore it seems that now is a good time to work on increasing the weight I can squat and deadlift.

 

From experience with the bench press and overhead press, I expect to be able to add 20% to each lift during these 6 weeks.

 

SQUAT: currently max 80kg (176lb)

    - grade A: 100kg (220lb)

    - grade B:   95kg (209lb)

    - grade C:   90kg (198lb)

    - grade D:   85kg (187lb)

 

DEADLIFT: currently 110kg before fixing form (242lb)

    - grade A: 130kg (with good form) (286lb)

    - grade B: 125kg (with good form) (275lb)

    - grade C: 120kg (with good form) (265lb)

    - grade D: 100kg (with good form) (220lb)

    

    

Challenge #3: MENTAL CALCULATION TRAINING: +2 WIS, +1 STA

 

At the end of last challenge I mentioned that I was working on a secret project - and this is it. In 2012 I was actually a competitor in the Mental Calculation World Cup, flying out to Germany to perform multiplications and cube roots etc. with the best in the world, and ranked in the top 20.

 

The training itself isn't super exciting, so in 2014 I didn't enter the competition, and instead travelled around Asia haha. However, entries are opening soon for Memoriad 2016 - a huge mental sports competition that will be held in Las Vegas. If - and that's a big "if" - I can improve my arithmetic skills enough to qualify for the free accommodation etc. then I'll enter.

 

One of the events is calendar calculations, for example calculating that 2015-Jan-01 is a Thursday. In the competition, you have 60 seconds to find the day of the week of as many random days as possible.

 

My record was 24 dates in 1 minute with no mistakes. I've now improved my algorithm, but this means that I have to remember a code for every day of the year (e.g. Jan 1st => 5) and for every year in the century (e.g. 15 (in 2015) => 6) - quite a significant mental load.

 

I'm going to be using the spaced repetition software Mnemosyne, along with a metronome to ensure that I can recall each correct code in less than 1 second.

 

+1 STA for keeping up with the memorization procedure for the full 6 weeks (after which I should be finished, yay)

 

The whole point of this is that I should be able to beat my best score (calculations in a minute), so I'll award myself +2 WIS for this:

 

grade A: 35 (beating the current British record)

grade B: 30

grade C: 25 (beating my old record)

grade D: 20

 

 

Challenge #4: AUXILIARY EXERCISES: +3 CON

 

The other goals this challenge will make me do lots of pulling, core and legs strength training, so I want to do some moderate-volume work on pushing motions (bench, press and push-ups) to ensure I don't get any muscle imbalances.

 

I would like to work on handstands when the (British) weather gets warmer again, so I should do some preparatory strength training for that.

 

I'll also need to do some auxiliary exercises to increase my chances of success in Challenge #1 - bridges, high pull-ups, low dips, toes-to-bar, jumping drills etc.

 

I'll award myself up to +3 CON (subjectively) for how conscientious I am with this. To get grade B I'd need to be doing some specific workouts 2x per week, as well as focusing on relevant exercises during gymnastics, weightlifting, etc.

 

 

It's January 1st today, and I'm officially starting the challenge now

 

 

Progress summary:

• frontflips consistent on tumble track: +0.50 CHA
• ring muscle-up achieved multiple times: +0.50 CHA & +0.25 DEX
• squat at 100kg (220lb): +1.50 STR
• deadlift at 125kg (275lb): +1.00 STR
• calendar dates @35/minute: +2.00 WIS
• calendar memorization: +0.75 STA
• auxiliary exercises: +1.50 CON

[Elastigirl]

That mental calculation stuff is amazing! Looks like a fun challenge.

[Trembriele]

I am inspired by following along with your physical training as you are much more advanced in many of the skills for which I'm working on gaining a basic level of proficiency. I am in absolute awe though of the mental calculations and memory required!

[annyshay]

Skillz. You haz them.  *pulls up a seat to watch the awesome keep happening*

[Talvi]

Challenge #3:

 

[Lokesbrah]

That looks awesome, I shall track you! KEEP ON GOING MATE!

[Nymeria]

Amazing challenge!  The skills in the first set are all incredible, and I can't wait to see you conquer them!  And I'm enough of a math nerd that I can appreciate the mental calculation stuff, even if it's far from being my forte.     

[SymphonicDan]

Thanks everyone Now I have more pressure to not disappoint haha...

 

I promised I'd start immediately, and so I already have some minor updates. I'd recovered by this morning from the brief illness I'd had (not hangover-induced... I was ill on New Year's Eve and stayed sober for the party) and it was beautiful and sunny outside in Cambridge UK, so I took my gymnastics rings out to the park and invited my nearby friend to scrape herself out of bed to join me. We ended up talking more than working out but anyway:

 

Challenge #1: archer pull-ups: tested my current situation, which is that I can do half-up archer pull-ups from ear-height, but no lower (thanks to Trembriele for teaching me what a half-up is over in her thread) and that the bottom part of the motion feels way out of reach. Did some archer rows as well, which are hard but fine.

 

Challenge #4: auxiliary exercises: sets of pull-ups from dead hang for a bit of GTG-style training for the archer pull-ups. Also some brief core exercises for the glide kip, and tried to max out on ring push-ups - achieving 18. Not my most intense workout, but it was on a recovery day so I'll be pleased all the same I should be more recovered tomorrow, in which case I'll hopefully do more stuff.

 

Challenge #3: mental calculation: I realised that my strategy for using spaced repetition for the days of the year (e.g. Jul 31 => 6) wouldn't work as there is too much to remember at once, and I'd just get slightly faster at calculating the values rather than memorizing them (they only take about 1 second for me to calculate, but that's still too slow) so I've started with the 203 easiest dates and will get good at those dates first, before adding in the remaining 163 dates handful-by-handful.

 

If you wonder what makes a date "easy", I'll give a few examples:

• for anything in February, March or November, just take the date modulo 7 (so March 18 => (18 = 7x2 + 4) => 4)
• for the 7th, 14th, 21st or 28th of a month, just use the special code for the month that I already know (e.g. July 14 => 3)
• some dates go to zero, and I remember some of these, like August 8th and January 3rd
• some dates have a special significance - e.g. birthdays or celebrations - so I associate these with a number (or colour, so red=1, orange=2 etc.) with some silly reason, e.g. September 4th => family member's birthday => she likes gothic stuff => black/purple => 6. This sounds complicated, but human minds are much better at remembering information with meaning than arbitrary data, so this makes it easier. Soon I find that I can remember the number immediately without needing to think about the silly reason

Current record: 14 dates in a minute (up from 11)

 

 

Looking forward to getting back to muscle-ups and squats/deadlifts in the next few days!

[Lara]

Amazing challenge! No words to describe your calculating goal... impressive? No, not enough. Terrific? Nope. Really, no words.

When will you know if you can go to Las Vegas?

[0gravity]

Sub'd for the bodyweight feats of strength and skill!

[SymphonicDan]

Amazing challenge! No words to describe your calculating goal... impressive? No, not enough. Terrific? Nope. Really, no words.

When will you know if you can go to Las Vegas?

 

Thanks! I already know that I'm probably good enough to qualify (just about!) but I'll decide at the end of this challenge what else I need to do/practice/investigate/decide before I know whether I want to actually apply. I don't know when I'll be officially told whether I can compete though... or when the actual competition will be (probably that will be announced in March 2015).

 

Today I went to the bro weights gym again to use the nearest squat rack to my house, get some deadlift advice, and do some auxiliary exercises.

 

Challenge #1: bodyweight skills: no actual practice on these today, but lots of my auxiliary exercises in the weights gym today were to help for these:

• archer pull-ups: they actually had a belt for weighted pull-ups so I used that for the first time in my life... 1x20kg and a few experiments with lighter weights. In future I'll do something more structured, such as 3 sets to failure with 10kg. Also threw in a set of 10 normal pull-ups and some one-handed hangs (left hand gives up after 4 seconds so I need to work on my left-hand grip).
• muscle-up: still resting my forearm until Monday, so I restrained myself from trying false-grip version of anything
• upstart: several sets of straight-arm toes-to-bar. I need to bend my legs lots to do this, but it's something I can work on.

Challenge #2: squats and deadlifts: good news! Today I added 10 whole kilograms to my squat PR: 80kg => 90kg which gives me +0.75 STR immediately (although I won't be banking it until the end of the challenge, of course). I even had to double-check that the bar was set properly haha. I genuinely thought that my squat would progress less quickly than this, so for once I've underestimated the difficulty of a challenge. If I do achieve 100kg by the end of the 6 weeks, I'll continue to at least 107.5kg as that would be 150% of my bodyweight (my ultimate target for this winter).

 

For deadlifts I was suspicious of my form at 60kg, as it was aching my back in non-standard places. One of the instructors reviewed my form, and gave me some advice, including:

• push hips forward at the same time as straightening legs (rather than afterwards)
• keep bar closer to your body at all times
• feet closer together
• go barefoot

I practised a lot at 40kg - mainly to get the first part right) and will continue practising on low-medium weights until the lift feels straightforward and natural.

 

Challenge #3: mental calculation training: I fell behind yesterday on my memorization training (I was doing fun things all day) but caught up today on everything. The information isn't sticking as easily as I'd like, but then I'm only 3 days into this. Maximum is still 14 dates/minute.

 

Challenge #4: auxiliary exercises: first of all, did everything mentioned in the Challenge #1 section above... but also threw in a 5x40kg military press set (PR!) to balance things out.

[Mad Hatter]

Wow your third challenge is nuts! So many cool goals, can't wait to see this unfold.

[The.Introverted.Goddess]

Great challenge Dan!!! Can't wait to see your progress!

[0gravity]

Doing awesome already, not surprisingly.

[raptron]

Kips are REALLY about timing. If you can film your attempts and compare them to successful kips or get some coaching, they'll probably come pretty easily to you, especially with the core and shoulder strength you already have from all your rings work. It's really about letting your body swing OUT with open shoulders and riding that momentum properly on the way back in to get yourself over the bar. I think the common cues are swing out, toes up, and then PULL YOUR PANTS UP, which is kind of a hilarious way to think about it, but works pretty well.

 

Fun stuff this time around! Ambitious lifting goals! Good luck!

[SymphonicDan]

Kips are REALLY about timing. If you can film your attempts and compare them to successful kips or get some coaching, they'll probably come pretty easily to you, especially with the core and shoulder strength you already have from all your rings work. It's really about letting your body swing OUT with open shoulders and riding that momentum properly on the way back in to get yourself over the bar. I think the common cues are swing out, toes up, and then PULL YOUR PANTS UP, which is kind of a hilarious way to think about it, but works pretty well.

 

Fun stuff this time around! Ambitious lifting goals! Good luck!

 

Thanks for the advice It seems right that my strength isn't the limiting factor, give how I see much weaker people than I perform them with alarming ease. They look so fun! My natural inclination is to swing forward while doing a pull-up, and stay in an isometric pull-up hold while squirming around for a bit before giving up, so I'm trying to drill in the correct technique properly now (i.e. no pull-ups haha). To be fair I probably need some more core work for moving my legs up towards the bar - I have behemoth legs compared to the rest of me, and I'm 1m85, so I'm not exactly build for performing upstarts

 

I remember when I learned kip-ups about 9 years ago - I the first few dozen times I tried I would just flop onto the grass. Then one time the technique just clicked and I landed on my feet, and I've been able to do the same ever since. Totally keen to get the same epiphany with the glide kip/upstart!

 

Previous Challenge #2: piano composition: if you stalked my last challenge, I intended to compose a new piano piece, but then kinda didn't... well I've got a new one started now - much more relaxing than most stuff I write - and I'm more confident of finishing this one because I've found it easy to improvise a load of related material. I'm not going to give updates much about this (as it's not something to which I've committed this challenge) but if/when it's completed I'll share it on here too

[Ocelot]

Oh, a flying lap isn't as cosy as a warm campfire...your thread is a shock to the system first thing in the morning! I definitely have to wake myself up and look more lively at the moment, so I will come and lurk for sure. You're an inspiring person. I don't know how you do it all!

[SymphonicDan]

Oh, a flying lap isn't as cosy as a warm campfire...your thread is a shock to the system first thing in the morning! I definitely have to wake myself up and look more lively at the moment, so I will come and lurk for sure. You're an inspiring person. I don't know how you do it all!

 

Haha thanks I should've gone for "flaming lap" or "flying lamp" instead Maybe that's why England has been so cold the last week...

 

Yesterday evening after squats, deadlifts and weighted pull-ups, I went to a particularly fancy restaurant with some friends for someone's birthday... so made damned sure I pre-ate so I could be satisfied with 3 courses rather than 5 and not spend my entire life savings on a single post-workout meal...

 

I don't usually feel that thirsty after a heavy gym session, but often I get really dehydrated because I've forgotten to drink extra water... so yesterday I deliberately drank loads of the stuff, and felt good today as a result I actually weighed 3-4kg more this morning than yesterday morning Note to anyone reading this who's trying to lose/gain weight, water weight can make a huge difference!

 

Challenge #3: mental calculation training: did my memorization today as planned. I keep mis-remembering August garghh. Also beat my score to 15 (up from 14) dates per minute. Not massive, but an improvement nevertheless.

 

Challenge #4: auxiliary exercises: Today I had predictable DOMS in predictable places from the weights yesterday, so today I took care of that:

• 5 minutes lying on my bed with the feet against the wall to promote circulation (same principle as ice baths but much more comfortable haha)
• foam rollin' rollin' rollin'

Also did a set of push-ups according to the rules on the NF leaderboard which allows rests in the plank position, but still couldn't beat my record of 40. Tried some push-ups on the foam roller, and found them surprisingly hard!

[SymphonicDan]

Day one: first day back in the office after a fortnight off, so back to normal routine. Wanted to do gymnastics this evening but didn't have transport to get out to Huntingdon. Wanted to play football this evening but there were already too many players and our games are strictly 6 vs. 6. Went to do some conditioning work instead at the adult-quality playground near where I live.

 

Challenge #1: bodyweight skills:

• muscle-ups: I've been avoiding from 28th Dec - 5th Jan to let my right forearm tendon heal. Today I tried some bar false grip hangs and the tendon felt good, but the surface was too slippery to hold onto (meh). Found a better surface and did some false grip hangs to failure (max: 8 seconds) and a few low false-grip pull-ups. I think my strength has decreased while I haven't been training it, and the skill is harder than I thought when I wrote the challenge (why does that happen so often?!) but it's looking positive nevertheless
• frontflips & upstarts: these require lots of lower core strength so I did a bunch of hanging leg raises and not-quite-L-sit hangs because this is consistently a weak point for me.

Challenge #2: squats & deadlifts: DOMS almost gone from Saturday - I've made plans to go to the same weightlifting gym with 1-3 friends on Thursday.

 

Challenge #3: mental calculation training: did the day's memorization training this evening, and then got another slight improvement of 16 (up from 15) dates in a minute.

 

Challenge #4: auxiliary exercises: in addition to things in Challenge #1, did some 1-arm hangs and some high pull-ups.

 

I have rings plans for tomorrow, gymnastics plans for Wednesday, and football plans for Friday. And plans to keep eating all the healthy things every day to help my body as much as possible to do the things I want.

[Lara]

Great first day!

[raptron]

If you want to hit two birds with one stone, try L-sit pull-ups.

[The.Introverted.Goddess]

Nice Day 1!!! Keep it up!

[Lokesbrah]

Damn Dan! That was an awesome first day! I congratulate you!

[SymphonicDan]

Thanks guys I'll try to keep it up!

 

If you want to hit two birds with one stone, try L-sit pull-ups.

 

Ah yes, I like these variations - although until I can do hanging L-sits properly I'll be satisfied with legs-poking-in-some-vaguely-upwards-direction-L-sits The variations are even better for ring dips... with feet-behind ring dips you push slightly behind your torso, making it harder... and L-sit ring dips are of course more core-intensive.

[Trembriele]

Do you use anything to help with your grip on certain surfaces? I'm thinking I may need something. To help dry my hands when it gets warmer here.