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

[Urgan]

I had issues about where my hips should be at the set-up for the deadlift and found the answer was pretty simple and works every time. Once the bar's over the midfoot and you bend your shins to the bar, grip the bar. Your behind will end up right where it needs to and you proceed to lockout. This keeps me out of trouble with killing hamstrings and glutes and banishes back-rounding because you should be pretty high but not so much so that you're attempting cat pose lol. 

 

Edit: Um...feel kind of dumb rereading this because it seems like I'm trying to teach you how to deadlift...really I just meant to commiserate about how easy it is to bias out certain muscle groups. 

[lucky fire dragon]

Going strong you are Remember to be safe and listen when your body gets tired... maybe that should get you some points as well

[Lilith]

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 can always count on you to explain things! Thanks!

 

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.

 

 

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

That's fun. Wonder if you will learn faster on your weak side because you already know how to learn it then! :0 

[raptron]

Hitting 85% of your 1RM on most of your lifts after not going to the gym for a month? Enjoy your DOMS today.

 

Nice work!

[SymphonicDan]

I had issues about where my hips should be at the set-up for the deadlift and found the answer was pretty simple and works every time. Once the bar's over the midfoot and you bend your shins to the bar, grip the bar. Your behind will end up right where it needs to and you proceed to lockout. This keeps me out of trouble with killing hamstrings and glutes and banishes back-rounding because you should be pretty high but not so much so that you're attempting cat pose lol. 

 

Edit: Um...feel kind of dumb rereading this because it seems like I'm trying to teach you how to deadlift...really I just meant to commiserate about how easy it is to bias out certain muscle groups. 

 

Thanks Urgan - I've actually made a note of what you said so that I can try it out next time I'm deadlifting Sure, I "know" how to deadlift, but I still appreciate suggestions about what improvements I can make.

 

Going strong you are Remember to be safe and listen when your body gets tired... maybe that should get you some points as well

 

Ahh, that would be difficult for assigning points - maybe I could have (had) points for specific active recovery things...

 

Hitting 85% of your 1RM on most of your lifts after not going to the gym for a month? Enjoy your DOMS today.

 

Nice work!

 

Haha, it wasn't so bad yesterday, but then I played football and today I can feel it a lot Mostly just delayed from the weightlifting as my pecs are a particular sore spot...

[Urgan]

 

Thanks Urgan - I've actually made a note of what you said so that I can try it out next time I'm deadlifting   Sure, I "know" how to deadlift, but I still appreciate suggestions about what improvements I can make.

 

Happy to help...and not sound like an arse in the process lol. 

[SymphonicDan]

Good news: DOMS is gone already, ready for gymnastics tomorrow, or other strength work

 

Bad news: I spent most of the weekend unable to stay warm, went to a Hallowe'en house party on Saturday (I wasn't drinking),and today I have symptoms of food poisoning Not sure whether the two are related either way. Lack of food makes me cold, and feeling too cold sometimes makes my digestion complain. Either way, I'm low on energy right now but hopefully that'll improve quickly now that I've managed to feed myself a nutritious meal (mainly involving pasta and lime).

 

Still want to go to gymnastics tomorrow, but on Tuesday I have my driving practical test and definitely want to be fit for that. We have a 43% pass rate around here so it won't be just a formality

[Trembriele]

Oh no! I'm sending good feel-better-soon vibes your way.

[Urgan]

Oh that is too bad, but a good sign you can eat something! Hopefully you're feeling better by Tuesday just for the sake of feeling better, but also for your driving exam. That is a steep curve for passing. 

[annyshay]

Hope you heal up quickly!

[Mad Hatter]

Eesh get better quickly and good luck!

[Lilith]

Yay for the good news!

 

And OH NO for the not so good news. You're not throwing up though are you? Tomorrow morning if you anything other than perfectly fine I wouldn't do gymnastics. Your body then needs the extra rest and you definitely want to be very alert for your driving test! If it's anything like in the Netherlands, lessons and tests are quite expensive so it's worth trying to get all the conditions in your favour!

[Mr_Willes]

Good luck on the driving test! Hope you are feeling better today, better safe yourself a little because a 43% pass rate isn't all that great of a percentage.

 

On the other hand, it fits in quite nicely, because you see, you can pass it or you don't so basically it's a 50/50

 

Hope you recover soon!

[SymphonicDan]

Thanks everyone - good news is that I'm feeling completely fine today, yay Slightly tired, and would've gone to gymnastics except that there were one too many of us to fit in the car and I signed up with lowest priority so that someone more awake could go along in my place. I even had energy to take my gymnastics rings outside in the thick November fog for a session! (more later)

 

I had considered taking today off work, but I'm glad I didn't have to because today was an exciting fun day at work, as my old company (HP) today split into two companies, so now I'm part of HPE, doing cool software solutions for businesses (while HP Inc. will continue making laptops and printers, amongst other things). We had lots of competitions (quiz, table tennis, table football, pool) and food (convenient when I skipped lots of meals yesterday!) so that was fun. So if you see the following rectangle anywhere, well that's now me:

 

 

Oh no! I'm sending good feel-better-soon vibes your way.

 

Good to see you here Trembriele, and thanks, the vibes did the job!

 

And OH NO for the not so good news. You're not throwing up though are you? Tomorrow morning if you anything other than perfectly fine I wouldn't do gymnastics. Your body then needs the extra rest and you definitely want to be very alert for your driving test! If it's anything like in the Netherlands, lessons and tests are quite expensive so it's worth trying to get all the conditions in your favour!

 

Nope, no throwing up, which meant I could resume eating reasonably promptly. Yep, tests are €90 here and lessons about €30/hour (well, the calculated amount in £££) I'll hopefully be relaxed and alert for the test, but knowing me I won't!

 

Gymnastics rings workout:

1. pike/tuck jumps: [for the mini-challenge] 20 in the first minute, 20 in the second (not to failure at all)
2. dips: 9 in a minute, but that was immediately after going to failure on support hold haha
3. ring pull-ups: I'm accepting now what raptron et al. were saying about these being harder than bar pull-ups! Also I haven't done a pull-up for ages. Managed 5+3 the first minute and 6+3 the second.
4. front lever pulls: didn't roll 4 on the die
5. support hold: PR attempt: 70 seconds (record was 83 but given all the circumstances at the moment I was pleased with 70 seconds!) Later did 30sec + 10 sec and 40 sec + 5 sec
6. skin the cat: I actually failed the first two of these due to lack of strength?! That rarely happens, so clearly my pectorals have gotten weaker 2 minutes of this with slightly-reduced RoM and that was fine

[Mad Hatter]

Glad you're feeling better!

I don't think it's lack of strength, I think you just temporarily forgot how to do skin the cats. If it would have been lack of strength you wouldn't be able to do any.

[SymphonicDan]

So today was driving test day, and it was smooth except for one time when I pulled out of a junction at a bad time and made some van slow down, so they had to fail me for that Funny side is that a colleague/friend recently failed his first driving exam, and it turns out it was at the same place for the same infraction and with the same examiner!

 

Glad you're feeling better!

I don't think it's lack of strength, I think you just temporarily forgot how to do skin the cats. If it would have been lack of strength you wouldn't be able to do any.

 

Possibly my muscles were trying to do something difficult like a back lever pull The ones I couldn't complete were failed in the extreme RoM so maybe I've just list a bit of strength in that position.

 

Did another randomized bodyweight workout - this time at home:

1. N/A (bridge rotations)
2. arabesque (!) - a.k.a. "front scale" - I was recommended this for back strength and control and is nice to do occasionally
3. pseudo planche push-ups - these are tough and when rolling the dice, it came up 4/10 times Managed 10+7 reps (in two sets) every time though These will really fix my recent shoulder weaknesses.
4. N/A (inverted press)
5. plank - 1 minute
6. tuck L-sit - first time without parallettes for a long time. Mainly a shoulder exercise, although I tried extending to advanced tuck L-sit which seemed fine. I can't hold any variation for more than ~5 seconds at the moment

Also a note with #1: if you can do a bridge, try rotating clockwise/anticlockwise whilst doing it. It seems like it shouldn't be hard, but our gymnastics coach massively trolled the entire class by suggesting we try this

[Mad Hatter]

Bummer! Oh well, you'll get it next time. 

 

With the bridge rotations do you mean rotating about your axis or walking in a circle? Number 1 is hard, number 2 so very confusing!

[Urgan]

I'm of the mind they fail you for anything less than perfection. Make those Young People Think Twice because #textingWhileDriving and whatnot. Ah well, you won't do that again, so round two should see you with a license, yeah?

[Lilith]

Shame you didn't make it. Are you planning to try again soon? 

[SymphonicDan]

With the bridge rotations do you mean rotating about your axis or walking in a circle? Number 1 is hard, number 2 so very confusing!

 

Rotating around the vertical axis through the earth's centre and your belly button (so number 2 I guess). It was so funny watching the entire gymnastics class fail at it (after getting mindfucked by it myself immediately before haha).

 

I'm of the mind they fail you for anything less than perfection. Make those Young People Think Twice because #textingWhileDriving and whatnot. Ah well, you won't do that again, so round two should see you with a license, yeah?

 

Hopefully yes, unless I find something else to mess up! The average person in the UK takes 2-3 attempts to pass, so I don't feel bad about needing a second attempt.

 

Shame you didn't make it. Are you planning to try again soon? 

 

There's an 18-week waiting list but I might be able to dive on a cancellation earlier than that. Good job that I'm not in a rush to get my licence!

[Mr_Willes]

Too bad you didn't make it. Indeed better luck next time. It's the same way as it goes over here. You have to drive almost perfectly, you can only slip up on small things (which is understandable when you think about what the consequences would be if you were driving alone).

 

Oow btw you thought that getting a licence was expensive in the UK... Over here a total licence will set you back somewhere between a 1000 and 2000 euros. 1000 euros if you can get away with only 20 lessons, but some take up to 50 lessons. And this ofcourse is if you pass the first time, if you need a second time (average 1st time passers 50%) you need extra lessons to keep up. We pay 40 euros for an hour of driving lesson (on average).

 

So it could be worse

[KB Girl]

Sorry about the test.. you'll get it next time, or the time after that! I got it on my fifth try x) Hope you've got a package paid for that'll cover the cost of repeat tries! 

[Trembriele]

Hmmmm . . . While I feel badly taut you didn't get your license, and wish you had, I also find myself wishing that it were harder to get a license here. There are waaaaay too many people that should not be driving. (Full disclaimer: Some days I might be one of them.)

[SymphonicDan]

Too bad you didn't make it. Indeed better luck next time. It's the same way as it goes over here. You have to drive almost perfectly, you can only slip up on small things (which is understandable when you think about what the consequences would be if you were driving alone).

 

Oow btw you thought that getting a licence was expensive in the UK... Over here a total licence will set you back somewhere between a 1000 and 2000 euros. 1000 euros if you can get away with only 20 lessons, but some take up to 50 lessons. And this ofcourse is if you pass the first time, if you need a second time (average 1st time passers 50%) you need extra lessons to keep up. We pay 40 euros for an hour of driving lesson (on average).

 

So it could be worse

 

Ah, that seems about the same here in the UK - it would've been about €1400 if I passed first time (after 42 hours of lessons) and will probably be €1600 now (although on the plus side, the extra tests and lessons will make me a better driver). Normal in the UK is about 50 hours of lessons (depending on whether you can get any practice outside of lessons).

 

Sorry about the test.. you'll get it next time, or the time after that! I got it on my fifth try x) Hope you've got a package paid for that'll cover the cost of repeat tries! 

 

I wasn't confident of passing first time. I am now reasonably confident of passing on my next try I don't think we have anything here that pays for repeat tests... if someone messes up their test then it's their fault and they pay.

 

Hmmmm . . . While I feel badly taut you didn't get your license, and wish you had, I also find myself wishing that it were harder to get a license here. There are waaaaay too many people that should not be driving. (Full disclaimer: Some days I might be one of them.)

 

A British friend failed 7 times in the UK, moved to Pittsburgh and passed first time there I don't know whether US driving tests are easier, but given that the US is larger and people rely on cars a lot more, I wouldn't be surprised if they are more lenient.

[SymphonicDan]

Wednesday: tired but  went to gymnastics and it was good

• front flips: some fairly good ones on the tumble track, and an excellent one where I rotated too much and faceplanted (yay?)
• front handsprings: still not landing them on the floor, and need more technique practice before I get there, but going okay
• round-offs: some practice
• handstands: got a few 3-metre walks, some 180-degree semi-controlled rotations, and generally quite a solid handstand session
• cartwheels: a friend pointed out that I'm doing a hybrid between the sideways cartwheel (the one that looks like a cart wheel) and a lunge cartwheel (more similar to a round-off) so I played around with the technique for these, with moderate success

Also stayed for some cheerleading, with the ulterior motive of doing more gymnastics in the background. The gymnastics classes recently have become so crowded... we had 22 people in a small school hall, and there's only enough space for about 5 people to be doing anything at once, so cheerleading is my main gymnastics practice time at the moment...

 

Thursday: was very tired - probably a combination of being ill at the weekend, mental energy around my driving test, DOMS from my Monday and Tuesday workouts (I can still feel it in my shoulders!) and tiredness from gymnastics. Skipped weightlifting, and that was probably the correct decision.

 

Friday: very tired but had a decent game of football