Charlie the Cactus's 2nd 6 week challenge (Take 2)

[Charlie the cactus]

Name's Charlie. I am a nursery nurse with 9 years of MMA (mixed martial arts) up my sleeve, but since an injury (partial retinal detachment) 2 years ago I've had to stop training along with any other high impact sports. Instead i am focusing on strength and flexibility by training on the aerial silks.

 

 

Main goal

• To climb unassisted to the top of the silks
  

 

Missions

• Go to silks class once a week
  
• Do flexibility increasing yoga every other day
  
• Complete daily bodyweight workout 
  

Side quests

• Drink 1L water a day
  
• Eat paleo 
  

 

Life quest

Start my new job

[Charlie the cactus]

Day 1

 

Missions completed:

• Complete body weight workout âœ“

1. ​Body weight squats x50
2. Push ups x5
3. Tricep dips x5
4. Bicep curls x10 (10lbs)
5. Sit ups x15
6. Crunches x5
7. Leg raises x5
8. Plank 10s

• Flexibility increasing yoga âœ“​​

1. Uttanasana (standing forward bend)
2. Anjaneyasana (low lunge)
3. Utthita Trikonasana (triangle pose)
4. Eka Pada Rajakapotsana (pigeon pose)
5. Upavishta Konasana (straddle pose)
6. Marjaiasana (cat pose)

 

 

Side quests completed:

• Eat paleo âœ“

1. ​Breakfast - Fast
2. Lunch - Homemade beef "burger" with vegan cheese in a lettuce wrap
3. Dinner - Salmon salad

 

.........................................................

 

So far so good! I booked my first aerial silks class for tomorrow evening (so nervous).

[Charlie the cactus]

Missions completed:

• Go to silks class once a week
• Flexibility increasing yoga

.........................................................

Didn't manage to eat all paleo today, grandpa made an amazing sponge cake and I just had to try some... oops. Silks class was SO HARD. I completely lack the upper body strength. That's something I hope to improve on. Does anyone have any tips to improve hand and forearm strength?

[Phayze]

Hey Charlie! Looking good on the goals there. ^^ simple, straightforward, and figures on practice, not accomplishment. Love that!

I don't know much about silks, but I've been doing a combo of fingertip planks and static hangs from a bar to build up my grip and it seems to be pretty effective. Have you heard of Convict Conditioning? Book 2 in the series has a good chapter on BW only grip training, which I used as a foundation for my plan.

[Charlie the cactus]

Hey Charlie! Looking good on the goals there. ^^ simple, straightforward, and figures on practice, not accomplishment. Love that!

I don't know much about silks, but I've been doing a combo of fingertip planks and static hangs from a bar to build up my grip and it seems to be pretty effective. Have you heard of Convict Conditioning? Book 2 in the series has a good chapter on BW only grip training, which I used as a foundation for my plan.

 

Thank you! Those sound great I'll have a look and give them a go

[Charlie the cactus]

Second silks class yesterday. I did an hour of aerial conditioning first which consisted of twisting plank crunches with feet elevated with the siks; inverted sit ups hanging upside down from the silks; pikes from a trapeze bar and vertical pull ups with a rope. Needless to say when I woke up this morning I ached all over! (Any tips to help with that would be appreciated no end!)

 

I also got a little closer to my goal of climbing to the top of the silks! I managed my first french climb and got off the floor CAN I GET A WOOT WOOT? 

 

[Phayze]

Woot woot!

[sylph]

Silks! YAY! I've been training silks for just over a year and a half or so. So much fun.

 

To get better grip strength, there are a few things you can do.

-Static holds are awesome. Basically, hang from a pull up bar at the bottom of a pull up position until you can't any more.

-Theraputty--it's like silly putty and works great for finger strength and post silks "claw hands"

-There are also squeezy grip trainer things, but I haven't experimented much with those.

 

Somewhat related: make sure you're warming up your hands and wrists really well, and also stretching well after each aerial session. This: 

is a really good hand warm up if your instructor doesn't lead you through one before class.

 

Also, a lot of good climbing at the beginning is good technique. I assume you're learning basic/French climb. Really SQUEEZE your feet together around the silks. That'll put less strain on your hands/reduce the need for upper body strength since you'll be putting more emphasis on your leg strength.

 

Soreness will get better as time goes on. Eating enough protein and staying well-hydrated will help, too.

[Charlie the cactus]

Thank you so much! I'll give those exercises a go, and also thank you for the French climb tip!