Hoxtons First Venture

[hoxton]

OK I admit it, I was one of those over-eager people who didn't read the rules and posted straight into a guild even though it was my first challenge. 

Anyway here I am, re-posting in the proper place and i'm proud to be a Recruit!

 

I'm currently working on a few things but mainly to do with endurance strength and flexibility. I am a Kitesurfer and injured myself about 8 months ago, so for me this is about getting back to a level where I can Kitesurf frequently without injuring myself again.

 

Quest 1: Get Stronger and Fitter

Part 1:

I am following Convict Conditioning.

I am currently on:

Push Ups - Step 2 

Squats - Step 6

Pull Ups - Step 2

Leg Raises - Step 3

 

My Goal is to get a step further on each of these. I will do one workout every three days. These workouts are intense and put a lot of strain on my recovering wrist, so it is good to have a lot of rest inbetween.

 

Part 2:

 

On my non workout days i'm going to do at least one active thing during the day, swimming, cyclying kitesurfing etc.

My aims are to Swim 2-3 times a week for 30-40 mins each session.

Cycling to and from work.

Kitesurfing when it's windy.

 

Quest 2: Gain mad Skills

 

I'm going to train toward getting the handstand. This will include wrist conditioning the hollow body and finally the handstand, ill be following the GMB progressions.

On alternating days I will do Wrist mobility and Bodyline Excercises.

 

 

Quest 3: Gain the flexibility of a mutant.

I'm going to follow Erin Motz 30 day yoga challenge. With the aim of touching my toes comfortably by the end of the challenge.

 

 

Life Quest: No booze in the house.

I'm not cutting out booze all together but i'm not going to keep any in the house which will stop me from drinking after work etc. Hopefully this will stop my little belly from getting any bigger.

 

Points:

If I complete everything on the list there is a total of 28 Points up for grabs each week.

I'm going to average out the scores over the four ( I started late) weeks and see how I do.

 

0-3 Total Fail

4-11 More Effort Needed

12-19 Solid Effort

20-27 Awesome

28+ Destroyer of worlds!

 

Bonus Points will be awarded for:

Moving up a Step on Convict Conditioning. 

Moving up a progression in Hollow Body Form

Noticable gains in flexibility.

Kitesurfing more than once a week.

 

Here we go!

 

[tmac]

I'm doing yoga videos from Erin Motz too. Fun stuff!

 

Good luck with your goals! I especially like the "Mad Skills." Maybe I should add some to my challenge. I just have to think of something I want to be able to do. Like the crow pose Erin Motz did in the yoga video I watched today. I just had to laugh after I tried it. Big nope.

[Terinatum]

Welcome hoxton!

 

You have definitely flushed out your goals really well. I think your recovery days are pretty active. Be sure to check in with your body often as you might not catch signs of overtraining if you don't. Not sure what you're use to doing already so it may not even be an issue. Dunno.

 

Love the mobility work in there. And the no booze in house goal seems important enough to be a great goal to accomplish. Crazy calories! 

 

Anyway, best of luck. Hang out in the Juice Bar and have great fun!

 

P.S. Click on the 'follow this topic' button in the top right of this thread and you can get notifications on when folks post here.

[hoxton]

Awesome thanks for the heads up. Your'e im probably being a little ambitious with the active rest days.

 

I'm really enjoying the challenge even though i've only been on it for 2 weeks, I keep shifting and editing the goals towards something that's actually possible, you should have seen the first draught!  

[hoxton]

I'm doing yoga videos from Erin Motz too. Fun stuff!

 

Good luck with your goals! I especially like the "Mad Skills." Maybe I should add some to my challenge. I just have to think of something I want to be able to do. Like the crow pose Erin Motz did in the yoga video I watched today. I just had to laugh after I tried it. Big nope.

 

Aha me too! I was doing corpse pose rather than crow. Did you try the abs one (day 5 i think) I almost died.

[Mad Hatter]

Welcome to NF Hoxton!

 

I got super excited to see that you're a kitesurfer, I haven't done it in a really long time (since I moved from the UK) but I love it!! Where do you get to kitesurf all the time?

 

Also, love your goals. Handstands and kitesurfing and bendy mutant skills = awesome! Let me know if you need any tips on your flexibility work.

 

PS I'm planning on kidnapping you to the assassins guild. Clearly I'm not a very sneaky assassin so you're getting a heads up.

[tmac]

Aha me too! I was doing corpse pose rather than crow. Did you try the abs one (day 5 i think) I almost died.

 

Good god. I tried it for a few minutes then had to bail out and just did planks. She seems so sweet, but then she nails you.

[hoxton]

Welcome to NF Hoxton!

 

I got super excited to see that you're a kitesurfer, I haven't done it in a really long time (since I moved from the UK) but I love it!! Where do you get to kitesurf all the time?

 

Also, love your goals. Handstands and kitesurfing and bendy mutant skills = awesome! Let me know if you need any tips on your flexibility work.

 

PS I'm planning on kidnapping you to the assassins guild. Clearly I'm not a very sneaky assassin so you're getting a heads up.

 

Im currently living in Cornwall, it's windy about 3 times a week which is awesome because I am starting a KIte Surfing School

[Mad Hatter]

Very cool! Cornwall is gorgeous, though we usually drove up to south Wales. So jealous that you get to kitesurf all the time. I live in Stockholm now and the conditions are not great - too little wind and all cliffs. I have a trip planned to the north of Sweden so I was thinking about bringing a kite, could be fun.

[hoxton]

 I have a trip planned to the north of Sweden so I was thinking about bringing a kite, could be fun.

 

Yaeah should be awesome, pretty cold though!

[hoxton]

Right just a quick update, my parents came to stay which meant I had absolutey no time to work out and I ended up drinking the wine they brought with them, oh well, time to get back on track. 

 

** Picks himself up, dusts himself off, readies himself for round 2 **

[hoxton]

Does anyone else keep changing/modifying their challenge?

 

The goals that I have now, whilst similar are almost unrecognisable from the start of my challenge! I have absolutley no way of recording my progress week by week as I keep modifying what i'm doing to be more realistic and achievable.

 

Anyhoo forging forward.

 

I have made some decent strength gains but am now going to drop push ups and pull ups from my routine as my elbows are starting to ache, I'm recovering from tendonitis and somehow forgot that I am meant to be re-habbing not pushing myself to my limits.

 

I have figured out some proper flexibility goals. Doing the Erin Motz 30 day yoga challenge really showed up my weak points.

 

I am also adding in some new wrist mobility drills and static strength drills to keep me getting stronger without using pulling or pushing motions.

 

Also

 

I finally got permission to start my KIte Surfing School (F%^K YEAH) on the condition that I become a fully trained life guard, so I am jacking up the swimming sessions to 3 times a week in replacement of the Convict Conditioning strength drills that were causing my elbows issues.

 

On top of that I have found that recording progress for flexibility using numerics is virtually impossible so I'm going for a photo diary.

 

Whew, glad I got that out.

 

I will update all goals etc, tomorrow. 

[hoxton]

So i'm splitting my stretching into three catagories.

 

The ability to bend backwards.

 

 

The Shoulder Disolcate

 

The Bridge/Wheel Pose

 

GMB Shoulder Things

 

Up-Dog

 

 

The ability to bend forwards.

 

um, im going to try and touch my toes.

 

Splittinesss!

 

The Cossack!

 

 

Not that, this.... Although that jumping pistol squat at 20 seconds in, I WANT TO DO THAT! Going in my epic quest.

 

Squat

 

 

 

and Twistiness!

 

The Windmill

 

Als Twist

 

 

I need a bit of help here, anyone got any good stretches (some static, some dynamic) that could help me with the last three goals?

I would like to have 3/4 stretches for each thing,

 

Thank you.

[Rackrent]

*waves at you from Devon*

 

Hope getting back on track is going well.

 

I smashed by wrist to buggery - it's a medical term - a few years ago and what really helped me and still helps with stiffness and mobility is my Rubik's cube. You don't have to solve it although that is a good nerd skill to have just holding it in the injured hand and manipulating it all the ways it can be moved and with different fingers has helped my grip and mobility. 

 

This is a great guide to solving the cube. Very easy to follow and you'll look cool thereafter.

[hoxton]

That is SO awesome, I will put that on my list of things to do while watching TV, thank you. 

[hoxton]

Here's a quick update on my hollow body quest.

 

[hoxton]

I went Kitesurfing on Wednesday, this is the highlights/lowlights

 

[tmac]

Holy cow! The hollow hold looks killer. I bet your abs are on fire after that. And you're almost there!

 

And the kite surfing! That's awesome! Thanks for the video of that. I'd love to try it sometime. How do you get started with it?

 

Lastly, I see the lovely Erin Motz up there in that wheel pose video. How's your 30-day challenge coming? I'm still doing most of them, but on days when time is tight and motivation is weak, I'm just doing my own practice, which is more lower-back focused. I'm saving all those links though. I'm hoping they'll stay active after the 30 days are up.

[hoxton]

Holy cow! The hollow hold looks killer. I bet your abs are on fire after that. And you're almost there!

 

And the kite surfing! That's awesome! Thanks for the video of that. I'd love to try it sometime. How do you get started with it?

 

Lastly, I see the lovely Erin Motz up there in that wheel pose video. How's your 30-day challenge coming? I'm still doing most of them, but on days when time is tight and motivation is weak, I'm just doing my own practice, which is more lower-back focused. I'm saving all those links though. I'm hoping they'll stay active after the 30 days are up.

 

Hey, yeah the hollow is pretty difficult, but it gets easier every time

 

The KItesurfing is a lot of fun, I started about a year and a half ago, the best way to learn is to get some professional lessons, which can be expensive, but, the instructor will save you hours of frustration and probable broken bones!

 

Erin is awesome, im on day 20 at the moment, I started late and had a hiatus when my parents came to visit, i'm really looking forward to using some of her videos again in the next challenge.

 

FYI I just search on youtube for the challenge, I never signed up for anything, so you should have no trouble at all  

[Mad Hatter]

Cool video! And cute board.

[tmac]

I didn't even think of just Googling the videos. Thanks.

 

I did, however, just Google kitesurfing lessons here in Connecticut, and found a couple of companies that teach, so maybe that's something to consider for next summer. Also pondering windsurfing, which also seems fun and maybe a little more accessible to me (locations, start-up cost, etc.)

[tmac]

I didn't even think of just Googling the yoga videos. Thanks.

 

I did, however, just Google kitesurfing lessons here in Connecticut, and found a couple of companies that teach, so maybe that's something to consider for next summer. Also pondering windsurfing, which also seems fun and maybe a little more accessible to me (locations, start-up cost, etc.).

[hoxton]

Personally I wouldn't bother with Windsurfing, but it's all down to personal taste and depends what you want to do.

 

A great comparison is Skiing and Snowboarding

Skiing is easy to learn and almost impossible to perfect - Windsurfing

Snowboarding is harder to learn, but once you get the basics advanced moves come quickly. - Kitesurfing

[tmac]

Interesting comparison. That's helpful, thanks!