[StoneMonkey] builds discipline.. again!

[StoneMonkey]

Hey guys! 
Long time no see!
 
Yeah, I dropped off the wagon again.
…or did I?
The last few months have been going great. I started my first semester at university and resolved to really work as hard as I could with my studies.
Believe it or not, actually working hard is having some kind of magical effect! My grades are at the top percentile for all of my modules and I have a very disciplined, organised manner of studying now. This is a big deal; it’s the first time in my life that I can honestly say that my academic stuffs are going great.
 
I’ve also kept up to date with training! My main thing is gymnastics and I climb every fortnight, but alongside that?
I’ve picked up powerlifting, which I started during my previous challenge. Probably not going to focusing on that this challenge. Now, I was playing with the idea of joining the boxing club. However, it started to get a little tough; I have three hours of gymnastics training the same day that the boxing club meets. Tried going to both and realised training both on the same day would probably mess with my progress in both for the long run..
 
…and then I found out that we have a breakdancing team.
 

 
I do not believe that further explanation is necessary.
 
Honestly, when it comes to developing myself, I don’t really think I have a problem. I’ve developed a mindset that keeps me hungry for improvement, mental or physical.
So.. why am I on here? 
Two reasons! First off, I do a crap ton of things in my spare time. It’d be nice to organise some of it! Secondly, and most of all, it’s very difficult to find people who understand why I do the stuff I do. I’m a first year student; we’re expected to drink and go clubbing multiple times a week. Me, I wake up at 5:30AM and spend all my time either working or training. I’m virtually a monk (as in, more like a shaolin monk, not the NF Monks.. for now) at this point… I wouldn’t have it any other way!
That being said, given that my training and development is a big part of what I do, it’d be nice to have some people to talk about it with and a place to record the stuff I do.
 
So, here goes!
 
1. Morning stuff!
 
As I mentioned, I wake up really early in the morning nowadays. It’s not because I enjoy it! It’s really a matter of discipline and one that takes a lot of patience given how annoying my housemates are. I generally have to be at university by 9AM; I use the time I have beforehand to get a bit of training done.
I generally stretch out (no heavy flexibility work, more limbering up) before doing gymnastics conditioning or cardio. As it stands, here is my schedule:
 
Mon: Cardio
Tue: Gymnastics Conditioning
Wed: Cardio
Thur: Gymnastics Conditioning
Fri: Cardio
Sat: Both! 
Sun: Rest.
 
After this, I shower and get dressed and all, but then I do some focused visualisation. This is a really helpful technique for really complicated technical skills for acrobatics. Occasionally I can’t be bothered to run through backflips a hundred times in my mind I visualise hard maths stuff or chess tactics in my head. 
 
Now, the deal is, I need to be more consistent and disciplined with my morning routine. I want to really cement it into habit rather that something I need to drag myself out of bed for. I’ll grade myself weekly to see how things are going along.
 
A - At most 1 failed morning per week
B -  1 to 2 failed mornings per week
C - 2 - 4 failed mornings per week
F - More that 4 failed mornings.
 
2. Evening stuff!
 
Okay, so I’ve become an organisation freak ever since starting university.
 
Evening for me focused a little on injury prevention and a lot on the more mental tasks I have to do. With injury prevention I do stuff for my wrists, elbows, ankles and neck; the parts of me that are most at risk when training. Thrice a week I do some hard flexibility work; this is also tackled in the evenings. I’m going to start practicing freezes for breakdancing on the days I don’t have flexibility, too; freezes take some time getting used to.
After all this I set aside all the training and do some other stuff. I do some more visualisation after stretching, but this time it’s exclusive to mathematics topics. I also signed up to Japanese classes on a whim a few weeks back and I review vocabulary and all during this time. I then update my journals before reading a book until it’s time for bed. 
 
This is basically just the evening version of the morning thing. Really no different, just different things to do.
Here’s the schedule for the physical bits and bobs:
 
Mon: Freezes, Neck+Elbow
Tue: Wrist+Ankle, flexibility
Wed: Freezes, Neck+Elbow
Thur: Wrist+Ankle, flexibility
Fri: Freezes, Neck+Elbow,
Sat: Wrist+Ankle, flexibility
Sun: Rest!
 
A - At most 1 failed evening per week
B -  1 to 2 failed evenings per week
C - 2 - 4 failed evenings per week
F - More that 4 failed evenings
 
3. Breakdancing!
 
Not going to hide it.
I suck. I’m a completely useless dancer. Of course, I’m okay with the more physically demanding things like handstands and whatnot, but rhythm? Flow? Grace?
Nah. Top rock in breakdancing is supposed to be smooth and precise. I’m just.. awkward as hell.
 
Now, of course, the first step to getting good at something is to suck at it, right? That is precisely what I intend to do! I no longer look completely ridiculous when doing top rock, but I still suck.
I’m going to do a bit of top rock every day. One day I might log in 10 minutes, the next it might be 30 minutes… but I’m going to be logging it in, definitely. At the end of the challenge I’ll record the total time I’ve spent practising top rock.

Check this out!

 
Grading: TBD
 
4. Nutrition!
 
I used to have my nutrition under pretty good control. I ate good food daily and I kept the sugar cravings under control.
All that changed when the fire nation attacked when I discovered this pizza place near my house. A large vegetarian hot with stuffed cheese crust with large fries.. was only £10. 
Christmas didn’t help either. My parents run a few grocery stores and I get all the junk food I could eat for free at my convenience. I’ve definitely put on weight.
 
No more!
 
I’m going to do a food log. I’ll note down everything I eat in a day right here on this thread. Then, I’ll assess it all at the end of the week. Okay I’ll be honest; I am not going to give up mochas. Everything else can go but not mochas.
But yeah everything else will be all healthy and whatnot. I’ll also stick it on MyFitnessPal for the sake of tracking.
 
Grading: TBD
 
Closing notes
 
The aim of this challenge is to build a foundation of good habits that’ll help me in the mad challenges to come. 2016 will be an awesome year and hopefully the routine I get into with this challenge with make it easier to for me to make it more awesome.
…
IMPROMPTU BACKFLIP!!!1 (This was the fifth backflip I ever landed! )
 

 
Wish me luck!

[Rhyme]

Oh, no way! BBoy is one of those things I've always admired from afar! I've been looking at learning some basic footwork from all sorts of different dance styles, and that guide you posted looks really helpful.

 

Congrats on another backflip landed, that's awesome!

[StoneMonkey]

Oh, no way! BBoy is one of those things I've always admired from afar! I've been looking at learning some basic footwork from all sorts of different dance styles, and that guide you posted looks really helpful.

 

Congrats on another backflip landed, that's awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpJRb_Th3m5RrZxSe3fzzQMw-JWYolGBH

These tutorials are built for the absolute beginner. A lot of other tutorials don't go nearly as in depth as it does, so I think you'll find it useful!

Thanks! Admittedly, that video was from the time the mere thought of a backflip would cause my palms to sweat. I've gotten a lot more confident going backwards now! I'm hoping to build up on it in the coming weeks.

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Hey, cool you're back.

[Rhyme]

Definitely saving that link! Thanks for sharing

[StoneMonkey]

Hey, cool you're back.

 

Hey! It's good to see you.

It's great to see that you're still on here as well, I hope you've achieved a lot! 

 

Definitely saving that link! Thanks for sharing

 

No worries, best of luck with your dancing! 

[peelout]

Yet another cool sport I've never heard of.  Think I'll follow along..Just started adding sitouts to my my strength training.  Wonder if I could add something to it and call myself a dancer?

[brutalbears]

MADRILL RETURNS, FUCK YA!

[StoneMonkey]

Yet another cool sport I've never heard of.  Think I'll follow along..Just started adding sitouts to my my strength training.  Wonder if I could add something to it and call myself a dancer?

 

Haha! I'd imagine that you'd have to stick music in somewhere, but otherwise I don't see why not? Bboying is generally divided into top rock (standing dancing), down rock (dancing on all fours), power moves (flashy movements that require great strength and power) and freezes (cool poses, bit like a punctuation mark after a 'sentence' of movement.). Pick up one of each and you should be good to go!

 

 

MADRILL RETURNS, FUCK YA!

 

AW SWEET, you're still kicking! I remember being there for your first challenge, I hope you've been killing your last few in the same way. It's good to be back!

 

---------------------------------------

 

And it begins!

 

5:45AM. Still dark. Tasks for the morning include: handstand practise, stretching, morning gymnastics conditioning and a few minutes meditation. Let's go! 

 

(I would write more but I'm half dead. It's 5:50 bleehhhhh)

 

*fast forward 1 1/2 hours*

 

...all done, and finished off with a nice, brutal cold shower. Seriously, cold showers are amazing. All my general bleh-ness from waking up early is gone and I feel like I'm ready to do anything. Plus, the cold shower has jump-started my metabolism and I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy. ^^

[StoneMonkey]

And the day's over! Just finished my evening stuff. I did half an hour of bboying practise today. Nutrition was *kinda* good; made a shit ton of turkey and vegetable stir fry and ate that with rice and chickpeas for dinner, had coffee and a small sandwich for lunch and eggs and bread for dinner.

 

Feeling a little under the weather today; I've been feeling like this since saturday. Might take a single break depending on how I do tomorrow.

 

All in all, a pretty good day and a nice start to my first challenge back! I'll leave it with a video of some awesome dancers.

 

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention! I popped over to the uni sports gym today to hang on the bars and test myself out on the Assassin Force Academy exercises. I was kinda disappointed. My max OAPU used to be 14 and my pistols used to be 10 on each leg. I guess that's what happens when you eat too much and train too little over christmas, huh.

[peelout]

That is some mind blowing sheet!  I think this sport would fit well w/ Parkour which is another sport I wish existed (at least somewhere near where I was raised) when I was younger.  

[StoneMonkey]

That is some mind blowing sheet!  I think this sport would fit well w/ Parkour which is another sport I wish existed (at least somewhere near where I was raised) when I was younger.  

 

Never too late to start, on either of those things! Maybe you won't be pulling off 360 dive roll front flips (yeah, that's actually a thing) but you can still learn the fundamental, useful skills!

 

-------

 

Bleh I'm feeling awful today. Sore throat, stuffy nose, monstrous headache, weakness.. yeah, we're looking at the flu.

I felt so ill today morning that I didn't even attend my lectures. However, I'm feeling a little better so I'm going to Uni in a bit. I'm going to take today off from the challenge; I just feel so weak!

[Asa Pond]

 

Bleh I'm feeling awful today. Sore throat, stuffy nose, monstrous headache, weakness.. yeah, we're looking at the flu.

I felt so ill today morning that I didn't even attend my lectures. However, I'm feeling a little better so I'm going to Uni in a bit. I'm going to take today off from the challenge; I just feel so weak!

 

Feel better soon!!  

[StoneMonkey]

Feel better soon!!

 

I feel better already! Should be able to start up tomorrow again.

 

-----------------

 

...I feel better!

Tomorrow is back to work as planned. I finished off my evening routine and got ten minutes of dancing down, so i'm pretty happy!

I have gymnastics tomorrow. I'll do some front flips, some back flips and hopefully start work on my side flips and achieve my roundoff backflip. YAY FLIPS.

 

Here's to posting a video of my first roundoff backflip tomorrow!

[peelout]

Looking forward to more videos.

[Asa Pond]

Seriously jealous that you can do any sort of flip. Definitely a goal in my lifetime! Yay for feeling better!

[StoneMonkey]

Looking forward to more videos.

 

I'll keep 'em coming!

 

Seriously jealous that you can do any sort of flip. Definitely a goal in my lifetime! Yay for feeling better!

 

Just a matter of training, like everything else! You'll deffo get there.

 

---------------------

 

No

no pls

don't want to go outside

it's 6AM

I'm supposed to do skipping and stuff

pls

no

 

RAAAAH I CAN DO THIS

BRB

 

**Fast forward**

 

All done!

Cardio was tough; 15 minutes of skipping nonstop.

...what, that's considered basic? Oh.

In any case, did my cardio and my daily stretch before having a nice ice-cold shower. It's cold for like, 2 minutes, but then your body gets used to it and makes the temperature juusst right.

Now I've got to do some visualisation in preparation for today's gymnastics session and I'm all through.

[raptron]

Oh hey, welcome back. I am 0% surprised you got into bboying given your other pursuits. My old coach used to breakdance! He taught us a few things and I was THIS CLOSE to getting really into it but never found a good group. Jealous!

[Asa Pond]

 

 

No

no pls

don't want to go outside

it's 6AM

I'm supposed to do skipping and stuff

pls

no

 

RAAAAH I CAN DO THIS

BRB

 

This was my exact reaction to my alarm this morning, but going to the gym after work yesterday reminded me of why I suffer so. YAY Cardio!!

 

[Don't worry - Cardio is Hardio but it'll get easier]

[StoneMonkey]

Oh hey, welcome back. I am 0% surprised you got into bboying given your other pursuits. My old coach used to breakdance! He taught us a few things and I was THIS CLOSE to getting really into it but never found a good group. Jealous!

 

Hey there! It's great to be back. I remember looking at your gymnastics+weightlifting challenges and being wowed, haha. I just checked out your latest challenge and I'm definitely not disappointed!

 

Believe it or not, my own mother did a double take when I told her I was learning how to dance.

She actually said "...but you're so... graceless." :'(

But yeah, maybe you could play around with a few top rock steps and a freeze or two? Before you know it, you'll be breakdancing during the dance component of your floor routines.

(...has that ever been done before?)

 

 

This was my exact reaction to my alarm this morning, but going to the gym after work yesterday reminded me of why I suffer so. YAY Cardio!!

 

[Don't worry - Cardio is Hardio but it'll get easier]

 

Dude, seriously, given the reason I'm about to give in my next section, I'm damn glad I do all the training and stuff that I do!

 

I do hope it gets easier! I mean, there are people running ultramarathons out there and here I am, on the brink of death after skipping for 15 minutes!

 

-----------------------------------------

 

ATTENTION ALL UNITS

- ROUND-OFF BACKTUCK -

- ACHIEVED -

EYYYYYYYYYY

 

There are some awesome bulgarian traceurs who train in my gym and they're beasts. They really gave me the confidence to achieve the flip on the floor. I'm so chuffed! 

I want to become like those guys. Now, given the fact that I only landed my first round-off back tuck today whilst one of the guys landed his first round-off double-back tuck on Sunday, I think I have quite a while to go!

Moments like these make me really happy that I do all my training in the mornings. All the hard work, the conditioning, the "oh-shit-I-might-kill-myself-wtf-am-I doing" moments are so, SO worth 

 

....oh fuck.

Just realised I didn't get a video of the flip.

GAAAAAH

[raptron]

Um, I'm sure it was the first of MANY. Plenty of opportunities to video it. Congrats!

[StoneMonkey]

Um, I'm sure it was the first of MANY. Plenty of opportunities to video it. Congrats!

 

Damn straight! This is the first step of something big. If I get this and my roundoff-flick-tuck down, I'll have finished up basic tumbling sequences. Hopefully I'll be able to get to that point by the end of next month!

 

---------------------------

 

Day three, done! Wooooo!

Evening routine took a backseat today because I wanted to perform with my uni's acoustic group. It was pretty awesome!

 

Breakdancing logged into 20 minutes today. Before I had absolutely no fucking idea what to do with my hands, but now I'm just throwing them about all casual and shit!

I no longer look awful when dancing! I mean, I still look slightly odd but I'm getting better.

...dare I suggest that I should upload a video of my top rock at the end of the challenge?

[Rhyme]

Yeah man, I'd love to see your top rock progress! Plus, it's always cool to have something to look back on. In a couple months you'll be able to see how much you've improved!

[tei_]

This looks awesome! I know nothing about breakdancing except that I once played the Rite of Spring with bboy dance accompaniment? They were like... spinning on their heads and stuff. It was rad. And congrats on your flip, it looks solid!

[StoneMonkey]

Yeah man, I'd love to see your top rock progress! Plus, it's always cool to have something to look back on. In a couple months you'll be able to see how much you've improved!

 

You know what? That's a damn good point. I'll do it. 

 

BONUS CHALLENGE: Upload video of top rock at the end of the challenge!

 

This looks awesome! I know nothing about breakdancing except that I once played the Rite of Spring with bboy dance accompaniment? They were like... spinning on their heads and stuff. It was rad. And congrats on your flip, it looks solid!

 

The first time I saw one of the bboys at my uni club do an airflare I actually lost my shit. Like, what the hell. These guys can jump around and spin on their hands. I can barely do that when I'm on my feet! Gah!

 

...and then you find videos of eight year olds doing thirty airflares in a set.

 

 

But yeah, thanks! My back tuck has really improved since that video. Like, you're supposed to jump up straight and tuck, but I threw my head back as I jumped and it made the flip look ugly. Hopefully you'll see a good one when I get film of my roundoff-back tuck!

 

---------------------

 

 

Yeah, today was a shitty day in regards to the challenge.

I felt really stiff this morning (probably because I forgot to stretch after three hours of hard training) and I didn't wake up! Missed my morning routine.

Now, I was doing some really intense mathematical proofs based on real analysis and it took the better part of three hours. I only just got back home. No evening schedule.

I'm going to do a few minutes of top rock before I go to bed, I'll log that in.

 

I'll make sure tomorrow is better!