[SymphonicDan] and the Checklist #2 [level 14]

[SymphonicDan]

Welcome everyone old and new 
 
~~~ INTRODUCTION ~~~

I'm 25 years old, male and from the UK and was never good at physical things except for high jump and sprinting, which I stopped at age 18. At age 23 I got interested in sports once again and now do:

• gymnastics / flips / handstands
• bodyweight exercises
• weightlifting
• climbing / bouldering
• gymnastics rings

This August I compiled a training video of my favourite things I'd been working on - it's here if you'd like to see:
 

 
~~~ NEW CHALLENGE ~~~
 
Last challenge, I dropped off the wagon in many places, so this challenge is designed to ensure I jump back on again if/when that happens.
 
Rules: for everything in the list below, there's +0.25 stat points available
 
bodyweight training:

• pull-ups: 15
• pull-ups: 17
• pull-ups: 20
• weighted pull-ups @+15kg x6
• weighted pull-ups @+20kg x5
• weighted pull-ups @+25kg x4
• weighted pull-ups @+30kg x3
• weighted pull-ups @+32.5 x1
• weighted pull-ups @+35kg x1
• ring dips: 15
• ring dips: 17
• ring dips: 20
• weighted ring dips @+10kg x8
• weighted ring dips @+20kg x5
• weighted ring dips @+30kg x3
• support hold for 90 seconds
• support hold for 120 seconds
• pistol squats on RHS: 20
• pistol squats on LHS: 20
• diamond push-ups: 23
• diamond push-ups: 30
• ring push-ups: 30
• 1-armed straddle push-up (LHS)
• 1-armed straddle push-up (RHS)
• 1-armed push-up (LHS)
• 1-armed push-up (RHS)

gymnastics skills:

• ring forward roll on my rings
• straight cartwheel on both sides
• consistent round-off
• front handspring on floor (no crashmats)
• front handspring on floor (no crashmats) bonus celebration point!
• frontflip on floor (no crashmats)
• frontflip on floor (no crashmats) bonus celebration point!
• backflip without spotters, not in foam pit
• backflip without spotters on proper floor
• handstand walk in a circle
• handstand walk in a figure-of-8
• upstart
• upstart: bonus celebration point!

weightlifting goals:

• overhead press 1RM: 50.0kg
• overhead press 1RM: 52.5kg
• overhead press 1RM: 55.0kg
• overhead press 1RM: 57.5kg = 75% bodyweight!
• overhead press 3RM: 45.0kg
• overhead press 3RM: 47.5kg
• overhead press 3RM: 50.0kg
• bench 1RM: 70.0kg
• bench 1RM: 72.5kg
• bench 1RM: 75.0kg = 100% bodyweight!
• deadlift 1RM: 140.0kg = old PR
• deadlift 1RM: 145.0kg
• deadlift 1RM: 150.0kg = 200% bodyweight
• back squat 1RM: 100.0kg
• back squat 1RM: 102.5kg = old PR
• back squat 1RM: 105.0kg
• back squat 1RM: 107.5kg
• back squat 1RM: 110.0kg
• back squat 1RM: 112.5kg = 150% bodyweight!
• back squat 3RM: 100.0kg

other achievements:

1. 5 km run for fast time
2. 1 mile run for fast time
3. 800m run for fast time (02:55)
4. 400m run for fast time (01:06)
5. study form for bench press
6. study form for back squat

workouts:

 

As well as these, I will also count any workouts (up to a maximum of 35) for a point in the challenge. The workouts have to be the following:

• a solid weightlifting session (counts double!)
• 10 minute-long decent-intensity exercises

Running total of workout points: 12 (08 Dec)

 

Recently I've tried choosing 6 exercises, and repeatedly rolling a 6-sided die to determine what I should do next. I'll probably do this for lots of the workouts this challenge.

 

~~~ SUMMARY ~~~

 

Okay, that's 100 potential points in total, and I have 15 stat points to collect, so a perfect challenge would be to complete 60 of these. A good challenge would be to complete about 45, and an acceptable challenge would be to complete about 30.

 

Hopefully this time I can have a solid challenge, and I look forward to watching everyone else doing well too

[Talvi]

That is one mega list of goals!  I notice that running has snuck into there somehow - still can't tempt you with the last of the marathon tickets?

[annyshay]

[Mad Hatter]

Phew, that's a hell of a list!

[lucky fire dragon]

yes, what a list

 

Can't wait to see you collect ALL THE SHINY POINTS

 

 

 

 

and this time I might be around a bit more...

[lucky fire dragon]

where is the football juggling in L-sit???  Please don't drop that 

 

[Lilith]

Wow, you're going to keep yourself super busy this challenge, that much is obvious!

[Urgan]

Here to see you score those xBW lifts!

[raptron]

Hahah, what a list. I love it.

[SymphonicDan]

Started strong today with a workout and a PR. My dice-rolling workout today was:

1. diamond push-ups
2. sidesplits stretches
3. rocking between leg-raise and sit-up holds
4. switching between plank and push-up positions one hand at a time (I'm sure this has a better name!)
5. wide-arm push-ups
6. crow balances

Ended up doing 6624631313. Wins today were:

• crow: hold for about 20 seconds - felt solid even though I haven't practised it for ages
• diamond push-ups: AMRAP PR of 23 in a set ...so that's my first item crossed off my checklist

Tomorrow: should get back to gymnastics for the first time in a month and play with handstands and handsprings and flips, yay!

[SymphonicDan]

That is one mega list of goals!  I notice that running has snuck into there somehow - still can't tempt you with the last of the marathon tickets?

 

Yeah, who put running in my challenge?! I never run unless there's a football to chase in all seriousness, I'm just curious to find out how fast I can run these days. My 400m running PR is 79 seconds from when I was 12 lol, and for 5k I have no idea.

 

 

Phew, that's a hell of a list!

 

Took me waaay too long to write out haha, even with Notepad++ Ctrl+D etc.

 

 

where is the football juggling in L-sit???  Please don't drop that 

 

The problem is, I'm literally dropping the football in the L-sit too much, so I'm concentrating on building up some more base strength first. Don't worry, I still intend to work on the football juggling skills!

 

 

Wow, you're going to keep yourself super busy this challenge, that much is obvious!

 

Maybe even toooo busy.... like always!

 

 

Here to see you score those xBW lifts!

 

Hoping so! I'm at 190% deadlift, 140% squat, 90% bench and 65% OHP which aren't very satisfying numbers. Add 10% (percentage points, to be precise) and I'll be happy and have round numbers

[Lilith]

You already started with a PR? In zero week? pffffffff

 

So maybe you should sign up for the mini challenge? Apparently you're not busy enough. *mumbles something jealously about PRs* 

[Lara]

That's a list. Wow.

[Mr_Willes]

Let me tell you what happened.

 

I was just mindlessly roaming around in the rebellion, looking through the people who already put up their Challenge.

 

My eye caught your challenge. I know you are a veteran here, and i see you popping up in different topics, but somehow we have never really crossed paths. I'm glad i found this topic!

 

First of all, yay, another one who is not all the way across the big lake. But (almost neighbourly) close by!

 

Then i watched your youtube video and was all like:

 

 

followed by

 

 

Ending like:

 

 

After that i read your list of goals, and it was a long time of: yes, yep ahum, oow yes, nope too hard, okay, yep ahum, etc. etc.

 

You have given me some inspiration for my own challenge and actually this all is just a way to tell you i'm subbing you, can't wait to see how you are gonna do!

 

Edit: Oow and don't forget to check out the mini, if that's your cup of tea, you could wreak havoc in there!

[SymphonicDan]

Update time! That's almost more updates already that I had in the entirety of last challenge

 

Gymnastics happened for the first time in a month. My aim was to make sure I haven't completely forgotten the skills I'm currently working on. Overall it went pretty well:

• front handsprings: these are new to me, but I landed some good ones on the tumble track, and some okay ones on the floor except landing with my legs bent on the crashmats. To be honest I should just get rid of the crashmats next time for this since I'm landing on my feet anyway. Also I should put my arms closer together because me elbows won't like the impact of the handspring otherwise
• front flips: mixed attempts today, so not bad for my first session in a month
• cartwheels: felt good on my right-hand side, and some improvements but still bad on my left-hand side. I think that will just take practice, as that's what fixed my right-hand side.
• round-offs: quick practice to remind myself what these are (only learned them recently)
• handstands: these were better than they've ever been If I suck in my stomach and tense my quardiceps as I go up, then my handstand is reasonably solid and I'll just need to work on shoulder adjustments for a static handstand. I mainly did some practice at rotating. Turns out that you have to lean into the centre of the circle in order to not lose balance.

Also stayed for some cheerleading, with the ulterior motive of practising more hand balancing. Some of the cheerleading today was quite strength intensive - like an overhead press (or overhead squat) while someone stands on your hands (and other people on the ground assist) so weightlifting tomorrow might be extra hard

[SymphonicDan]

That's a list. Wow.

 

Haha, it's about as long as it's possible to administrate during a 6-week challenge...

 

You already started with a PR? In zero week? pffffffff

 

So maybe you should sign up for the mini challenge? Apparently you're not busy enough. *mumbles something jealously about PRs* 

 

Last time I tried diamond push-ups I could only do 15, so 23 is something I'm very pleased about! Thanks for pointing out the mini challenge to me... I don't see any specific rules yet but I've signed up

 

Let me tell you what happened.

 

I was just mindlessly roaming around in the rebellion, looking through the people who already put up their Challenge.

 

My eye caught your challenge. I know you are a veteran here, and i see you popping up in different topics, but somehow we have never really crossed paths. I'm glad i found this topic!

 

First of all, yay, another one who is not all the way across the big lake. But (almost neighbourly) close by!

 

Then i watched your youtube video and was all like:

 

After that i read your list of goals, and it was a long time of: yes, yep ahum, oow yes, nope too hard, okay, yep ahum, etc. etc.

 

You have given me some inspiration for my own challenge and actually this all is just a way to tell you i'm subbing you, can't wait to see how you are gonna do!

 

Edit: Oow and don't forget to check out the mini, if that's your cup of tea, you could wreak havoc in there!

 

Hey, good to see you here Whereabouts are you from then - UK? Glad you liked the video There might be more where that came from, but for now I'm just training to get up to the next level....

[Lilith]

Yeah they usually keep it a secret, which usually deters me from signing up. Don't know what I need to do and if it clashes with my own goals. But hey, I was always so jealous seeing everyone have fun I thought I'd just jump right in this time!

 

For the cartwheels, do you do your weak side as much as your strong side? Maybe you should do your weak side more to make it more even! Or is that not important? I'm paranoid about muscle imbalances but maybe that's just my brain trying to find something to worry about!

 

And mega yay for more solid handstand  

[lucky fire dragon]

Wow what a start before the start even \o/ you are on fire

[Mr_Willes]

Hey, good to see you here Whereabouts are you from then - UK? Glad you liked the video There might be more where that came from, but for now I'm just training to get up to the next level....

 

20 KM under Eindhoven, just across the Belgian border, we live in Belgium, the rest of our family lives in the Netherlands, so i feel a bit like a NetherBelgian or something. (the good thing is either way i can watch the European Championship this summer )

[KB Girl]

Yesssss I LOVE the lists!

[raptron]

Yay for handstand pirouettes practice! And for front handsprings, think about passing through a solid handstand position on your way -- so your hands should be shoulder width apart with your shoulders pushing towards your ears in the "block" portion of the handspring. Have you done handstand blocks as prep?

[Mad Hatter]

For the cartwheels, do you do your weak side as much as your strong side? Maybe you should do your weak side more to make it more even! Or is that not important? I'm paranoid about muscle imbalances but maybe that's just my brain trying to find something to worry about!

Bad cartwheels on one side is not so much caused by strength imbalance but coordination failure. It's super common and nothing to worry about really. However cartwheels are such a basic skill that it's good to have them solid on both sides.

But in some cases it's actually helpful to only practice on one side. Bailing moves from e.g. handstands is such a thing, and very high level gymnastics twists is another. In these cases you don't want to confuse your brain whether to go left or right as that split second hesitancy could mean you bail off a cliff or fail a trick which at high levels could be very dangerous. Sometimes imbalances are not evil but necessary for safety. Context is everything.

[Mad Hatter]

And nice to job at gymnastics, you don't seem to have suffered much for not practising for a month!

[SymphonicDan]

So today I went to weightlifting as planned, and it was difficult, as anticipated (due to heavy gymnastics yesterday). It was also the first time in a month that I've been!

• bench press: played around with some sets of 5 at 52.5kg (115#) My 1RM is 67.5kg (148#) but today even 57.5kg (126#) was a grind. I think that was due to being sore from gymnastics, not having done rings much recently, taking a month off and doing some hard sets before going that heavy. Also did some pec flys as accessory work.
• deadlift: experimented today with starting with my hips higher (so my back is almost horizontal at the start) and trying to activate my glutes. Activating my glutes sort of works but my back ends up rounded at the bottom. It feels fine for lifting but probably I should practise at whatever weight I think my form is almost perfect. I lifted 120kg (264#) a couple times, which isn't crazy far off my PB of 140kg (308#). I also tried some sumo deadlifts at 100kg (220#) and they were actually nice. Maybe some deadlifts are better for me?
• overhead press: few brief sets at the end, going up to 85% of my max, but my pushing muscles are fried from Tuesday, Wednesday and bench earlier.
• squat: felt heavy today, but I wasn't surprised given the aforementioned reasons! Did sets of 5 until 70kg (154#) and then did a 1RM attempt and just about got away with 90kg (198#), which is the heaviest I've gone for about 6 months. Hopefully today will give me a good foundation for some heavier work when I'm less achey.

Also, the weightlifting session gave me 2 more points, giving me a grand total of 4 points. Going strong!

[SymphonicDan]

For the cartwheels, do you do your weak side as much as your strong side? Maybe you should do your weak side more to make it more even! Or is that not important? I'm paranoid about muscle imbalances but maybe that's just my brain trying to find something to worry about!

 

I've been doing my strong side for cartwheels more, because I wanted to learn how to learn to cartwheel. Now I've learnt it on my right-hand side, and done the meta-learning, I should concentrate on my left-hand side to improve it.

 

20 KM under Eindhoven, just across the Belgian border, we live in Belgium, the rest of our family lives in the Netherlands, so i feel a bit like a NetherBelgian or something. (the good thing is either way i can watch the European Championship this summer )

 

Ooh, more people from the Netherlands/Belgium - there seems to be quite a lot of Assassins and other forum members from there (4+ from memory) so clearly it's a cool place.

 

Yesssss I LOVE the lists!

 

Without the lists I'd be listless. Good to see you here, you INTERNATIONAL-STANDARD athlete

 

Yay for handstand pirouettes practice! And for front handsprings, think about passing through a solid handstand position on your way -- so your hands should be shoulder width apart with your shoulders pushing towards your ears in the "block" portion of the handspring. Have you done handstand blocks as prep?

 

For once, I've done some prep Handstand blocks helped me not just run and plonk myself into a handstand before falling onto my feet. They help psychologically as well... you do a few big handstand blocks and you realise you're fine to run and dive into a handspring on marble or whatever unforgiving surface you happen to be training on.

 

It seems wrong, but yeah I try to get myself into a superman shape as I'm flying through the air and that seems to have the right effect. If I think about getting into a handstand position I think I'd end up in a dish shape through the motion, and my landings would be even less dainty than usual

 

Bad cartwheels on one side is not so much caused by strength imbalance but coordination failure. It's super common and nothing to worry about really. However cartwheels are such a basic skill that it's good to have them solid on both sides.

But in some cases it's actually helpful to only practice on one side. Bailing moves from e.g. handstands is such a thing, and very high level gymnastics twists is another. In these cases you don't want to confuse your brain whether to go left or right as that split second hesitancy could mean you bail off a cliff or fail a trick which at high levels could be very dangerous. Sometimes imbalances are not evil but necessary for safety. Context is everything.

 

I agree completely - in fact yesterday I was pondering about what my goals were for cartwheels and round-offs, and decided that I do care about having pretty cartwheels on both sides, but for my round-off I only care about my strong side, for the reasons you gave. Thanks for giving the argument^ because now I'm more sure about my decision