Lucky fire dragon gets a grip on

[Mad Hatter]

There's no amount of booze that will get me to sing karaoke. Hope you'll have fun though!

[lucky fire dragon]

Gosh, you guys, I might bail on my training tonight... I know, I promised and ugh I wanted to keep my promises better this coming year, but

 

it feels so late

I'm hungry

I'm tired

it was cold walking the streets with the kids

I'm really hungry

I was really good on work projects today

... can I go be a lazy lump now, please?????

 

 

I think I'll allow myself that indulgence, just because

[lucky fire dragon]

There's no amount of booze that will get me to sing karaoke. Hope you'll have fun though!

 

I feel you and I didn't sign up for it, but then we are invited and the hostess thought it a great idea and I didn't want to be rude... maybe it will be great fun and I just don't know it yet Will aim for that for sure... or maybe it gets forgotten... who knows what all could happen

 

[Mad Hatter]

Eat some food and then maybe try a little bit later? If it doesn't work then go have a good sleep and get to it tomorrow!

[Mr_Willes]

I really second mad hatters idea, just give it a try. Do it on 80% to make it an easy workout. Just try! And know you've got my mental support. I'm starting in about half an hour!

[Priscillia]

I hear you on being lazy and just plain pooped these last few weeks lol!  It always seems to hit this time of year

 

Hope New Year's and karaoke goes well for you!

[lucky fire dragon]

Eat some food and then maybe try a little bit later? If it doesn't work then go have a good sleep and get to it tomorrow!

 

I really second mad hatters idea, just give it a try. Do it on 80% to make it an easy workout. Just try! And know you've got my mental support. I'm starting in about half an hour!

 

You were right, of course.

 

And I didn't listen.... which might have been a good thing.... or not....

 

Well, I did go eat something, in front of the fire place, but afterwards I felt still very cold and tired, so I went to bed instead and fell asleep real early. Which was good as I got woken early next day by youngest being sick, followed by a day of many bathroom visits with her, soothing, comforting, distracting with games, etc...

 

So it was good in the way that I had been rested enough for it all (and managed to not get sick too, yay)

On the other hand chances for workouts that day went down to zero as my kid needed me to be on call any given moment....

 

Well, I managed to get some work done in between, when she slept, so that was a win.

 

 

I hear you on being lazy and just plain pooped these last few weeks lol!  It always seems to hit this time of year

 

Hope New Year's and karaoke goes well for you!

 

Thanks! I think it's also from working more hours on the computer recently and dealing with things I had procrastinated before. It's a relief and exciting in many ways, but it also takes a lot of tenacity and willpower for me, so then I feel my will power for discipline is used up and slump afterwards. Whereas a workout would be really good to be balanced.

 

I am mentally worn out and my body feels heavy and tired from sitting, the physical pooped out from exercise would feel a lot better

 

New Year's Eve was good fun at our friends and I fortunately got around the karaoke as the teenage kids of our friends were hogging it enthusiastically. To our great and horrifying entertainment The worst part was the choice of songs most of which I had never ever heard of, they were so painful it should be illegal!! So I was extra glad, I got around it

 

We chatted a lot and played card games instead, watched the classic Dinner for One and watched the fireworks.

Oh, and Mr Willes, you'll be proud of me, I had only water and a tiny glass of sparkling wine at midnight - how is that?!

[Mr_Willes]

You did great and by some weird coincidence exactly like i did. Only tea and a glass of champagne at midnight.

WE ROCK!!!!

[Mad Hatter]

Maybe a gentle movement/relaxation goal would be in order for the next challenge? Because you will join in right?

[lucky fire dragon]

Soooo high time for my 

 

Challenge Summary

 

To have it all on one look, these pictures will probably sum up the best:

 

 

Interesting that this time week 3 and 4 which were usually my slow ones were the strongest part of all.

 

I must say, having those spreadsheets to stick my shiny stars on was a great motivation. In a way it was a similar format to when I planted my garden of Strength and Flexibility and both these challenges have worked very well for me. So that is good information.

 

Go shiny points     

 

What I still struggle with is the balance to the other areas in my life, in that if I keep up a healthy lifestyle and make sure I get my workouts in, often work suffers as I do what is necessary and anything that has an appointment, but maintenance parts of my work that are equally important don't call out like appointments do and temptation to "leave it for the next day" is too big. The last four weeks I started catching up on a massive overload that had piled up here - and what got left behind in return? My workouts.

 

Thus the end of challenge video shows me very out of breath, sweaty and sloppy on things I had been better at during week 4 and 5 of the challenge. Nearly 3 weeks later this is what it is....

Not sure yet how to implement it all - work and fitness and then family not coming short - there HAS to be a way!!!!! I know I am not alone with this goal, so any hints what helped you would be very appreciated

 

 

 

 

I also included some things I am currently working on to have a starting point for next challenge.

Front chair needs lots of work still to keep my hips away from the pole yet stay controlled in my spin

Video is so helpful! I can see now that I lean out a lot less than I thought (probably because I have my inner arm too high up) and also I could try for a lot more oomph on the spin

Which exercise will help me hold my body away from the pole? Working the abs on the side of the body? Other ideas??

 

Headstand I would like to manage as a deadlift from the back of my feet (which makes sure it has to be a deadlift ;p ) and as you can see I am still a far way from that, so that's a current goal as well as crow and now I have some starting point to refer back to. 2016 will see me FLY it  *insert very determined face here*

 

 

First things first though, let's celebrate what did go well this challenge

 

Overall Wins:

- I did go for most things very consistently over most of the challenge, that is a total win for me

- managed to get through warm-up at class completely and without dying twice!!

- my seat relax is now fine on both sides (see video)

- am signed up for Level 2+ for my next class 

- found a grip aid combination that helps me a lot, whoohooo

 

How did I do on my goals?

 

1. Get a grip D

- figure out how to improve grip: YES!!! liquid chalk on pole early on so that it can dry - wash hands off it - dry hands grip aid on hands - let it dry - Whoohooo

- improve grip strength by training, training, training (see goal 2) and working with tennis balls and hair bands 5x/week for 5 min each hand

done 17/30, lost interest during last two weeks also because I am not sure how much difference it made

 

2. Get strrrrrrrong B/C

 

Stick to a daily "homework" of - done 31/42

- 10 push ups

- 5 lay back sit ups each side on pole 

or 20 rolls with ab roller or 30 regular sit ups

- 5 chin ups

 

Do a full pole workout 3x/week - done 16/18

no excuses!! If I could run 3x / week, I can train, too

 

3. Stay in the Flow A/B

Balance with active recovery, happy shiny points and goooood restoration - no need to burn out 

This was my hunt for shiny treasure points  (see pics at top)

 

Doing my main pole workouts will give a big star or smiley each, on all the other days, stars can be earned with

- 15 min or more of yoga

- some of Marlo Fisken's beautiful flow exercises

 

23 / 36 Did some flows but yoga seems to be more easy to go to, which is weird as the flows are a lot shorter in time effort 

 

- eating the whole day healthy and nutritous (no need to list cheats, I'll be honest)

- drinking 2,5 liters of water or more (herbal tea counts too)

- getting 8 hours of sleep in

 

35 / 36 BIG WIN To start with sleep hours came surprisingly easy, later on I had to be more careful, Water was consistently good and I could feel it doing me tremendously good. Slacked now over the holidays and will keep it as a goal to get back with it

 

- spending 20 min or more outdoors

- meditating for 10 min or more

 

38/36 WIN WIN More meditating than outdoors time, which was great as is, but I have gotten a little snow white pale so now it WILL be time for an outdoor goal again!

Will keep meditation going without the goal even as it keeps me sane

 

Each of these areas can get a star so a perfect day would have 3 stars and at the end I will see with one look what went especially well and which parts I might want to prioritize better - you see I am planning ahead while going, hehe, I must be growing up 

 

I will let myself off the hook completely for 1 day / week, so with a max of 3 stars / day that makes it 108 stars to go for over the whole challenge. 

Total collected: 95/108

[lucky fire dragon]

You did great and by some weird coincidence exactly like i did. Only tea and a glass of champagne at midnight.

WE ROCK!!!!

 

We do

 

 

Maybe a gentle movement/relaxation goal would be in order for the next challenge? Because you will join in right?

 

You're right on track with my hubby who gave me yoga goodies for Christmas that are perfect for regenerative yin yoga

 

There I was pondering, should I do the Floor 1 program of GMB of IS maybe as that looked awesome to watch with Lightning and Annyshay... should I get some Studia Veena lessons like you do to juice up my home practice between studio classes... ? There were so many tempting goodies and I decided to put them all on a wish list with according links to hubby for  Christmas and decided I will go by whatever he picks.

So now I got a big yoga bolster (delicious for all kinds of chest opening and side stretches), a yoga belt (works sooo much better than the gown belt I had been using ) and sweet little things like a cup with a evolution print ending with a pole dancer.

No GMB, no parallettes, no pole classes, hmmm

 

I realized he picked perfectly.

I need the restorative things between sitting hours and they might get me flowing again into more. I have already all the tools I need with pole and my hoop (gosh I am privileged) AND classes I am already signed up for. Must just show up and DO IT! Not run for more things.

[Mad Hatter]

Look at all those gold stars!

 

About chair spins - take this with a pinch of salt because I suck at chair spins (or most spins for that matter) but to me it looks like you say that the lower hand is a bit too high, which makes you unable to push as effectively from it. This gets worse when you lose the engagement of the shoulder. It could be a fatigue thing, but if you look at your pull-ups there is a similar tendency to shrug your shoulders when they should stay packed. Maybe you could take a look at scapular pull-ups to help with that. But when you lose the shoulder position your lower hand ends up in an even higher position relatively to where it needs to be, which is perpendicular to the pole in order to generate maximum push. That's one thing that will help you hold your body away from the pole. The other thing is as you already mentioned trying to get more power in your spin. Momentum is your friend here, that's just physics.  

 

Since I'm already nitpicking I couldn't help noticing that when you do the CKR sit-ups you're using your neck an awful lot and there's not much movement in the lower abs. Something to keep in mind as you don't want to put too much strain on the neck in that way.

 

Having said that it looks good and you look strong! You might have felt like a mess but it didn't look it, and if it's slippery it makes things even harder. Don't worry, you haven't undone any work in just a few weeks.  

 

Great crow too! You will definitely fly it very, very soon!

[lucky fire dragon]

Thanks for the nitpicking, it's what I asked for

 

That is good information on the shoulder shrugs, yes, I will take better care of that. I think the upper hand was too high and that pulls the shoulder up even more as well. We're not using the lower hand all that much for pushing away as our teacher would prefer us to build the strength through core and proper shoulder position (which is my weak point as you see). Her argument being that later there won't be a second hand to use

Yes, my layback situps were a lot weaker this time, I also had a weaker hold with the legs. Will just have to do it more often again

 

I am planning a climb that pulls up on the arms mostly so that will be perfect opportunity to practice my anti-shrug

and for core it will be knee tucks, that should be fine for the neck

 

Thank you so for looking out for me 

[Mad Hatter]

Ah yes she makes a great point about one handed spins! You can always practice the shoulder engagement in fireman spins and backhooks which you can also do one handed if you're not already.

The last advice I have is just practice. I mean really it looks fine you can do it, it just needs polishing but that will come with time!

[lucky fire dragon]

Good point, any spin really and no I haven't tried those one handed yet, will do - excitiiiiiiiing 

[Priscillia]

Your inverted Vs look so controlled!  Especially in comparison to something similar like the swing mount with negative from Oct 15th  And superman!

 

I can't say anything else really, since I'm not at that level yet haha.  I'm still just ooh-ing and aah-ing looking at it

[lucky fire dragon]

Your inverted Vs look so controlled!  Especially in comparison to something similar like the swing mount with negative from Oct 15th  And superman!

 

I can't say anything else really, since I'm not at that level yet haha.  I'm still just ooh-ing and aah-ing looking at it

 

 Thanks, I'm really proud of that inverted V (other side wasn't so great, but who needs to know that ) and of supermaaaaaaaaan yay

 

Oh you are in many ways at a higher level than me, strengths are just varied is all. There's no way I can do the handstands, cartwheels, scorpios etc you are doing!