[WhiteGhost] The Arruvia Conspiracy

[WhiteGhost]

Following the examples of @juliebarkley and others, I am doing a story based challenge this time

 

Intro Cut-Scene: Shadows and Voices

    In the shadows of the narrow alley, a hooded figure moves silently forward along the wall trying to get a better view of the street.  The street is deserted except for two men standing beneath a dimly lit LED billboard, advertising a luxury sedan.  WhiteGhost’s eyes linger on the advertisement for only a moment before shifting his focus to the two men in the street. 

    “Man, it would be nice to move around the city in that instead of creeping through shadows all the time,” he thinks to himself before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. 

    At 3 o’clock in the morning on a Tuesday in Aldenton it would not be uncommon for a drunk office worker to be dragging himself home from a “client meeting” or perhaps a group of students from ACC, the local community college, to be finishing off a round of bar hopping.  These two, however, are as out of place in this low income neighborhood as orcs in Rivendell.  One of them is short and fat, with a receding hairline and deep grating voice, the other is tall and muscular with a nasal, rasping voice. 

    “I wouldn’t want to run into that guy in a dark alley,” WhiteGhost thinks to himself, chuckling inwardly about the irony of the idea.  Both men are dressed to the nines, the shorter man in a dark blue Italian double breasted pinstripe suit and highly polished black wingtips, and the other in an off-white bespoke seersucker suit and brown leather cap-toe derbys.  “Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K,” WhiteGhost thinks as he inches closer to try and catch their conversation. 

    “The BVI SPV could funnel mez cap through the Cayman holdco, it wouldn’t even hit the listco,” the gravelly voice says in hushed tones.  Even in the dim light of the LED billboard, Whiteghost can see the larger man roll his eyes. 

    “We’ve been over this! You have the routing info, I’ll message you when they execute the SPA.  Now let’s get out of here before someone sees us.  Who knows what kind of lowlifes might be lurking in a stinking dump of a neighborhood like this.”  Both men instinctively look around, but WhiteGhost is well concealed in the shadows.  

    “I have no idea what all that means, but sounds like these jokers are up to no good,” WhiteGhost thinks as he slowly creeps deeper into the shadows.  “I better get out of here too and go find Blinky, if anyone would know what this is about, it’s him.”

    Suddenly the LED billboard changed to show a flashing bottle of a new diet soda that had just been launched.  The light from the LED screen dissipates the shadows and both men are suddenly aware of the figure crouching at the mouth of the now fully lit alleyway.

    “Mishmash ‘n’ meatballs,” Whiteghost curses under his breath as he races back into the alley with the bruiser hot on his heels.  Unfortunately, this alley is a dead end so getting away from this guy is going to be a bit of a climb.

 

Mission 1: Muscle Up Routine 2 Days/Week

1.          Eccentric MUs 5x3

2.          Explosive pullups 10x3

3.          Bar dips 10x3

4.          Explosive knee raises 10x3

5.          Headbangers 10x3

6.          Clap pushups 10x3

7.          Dragon thrusts 10x3

8.          Bar ladders 5x2

9.          Laches 5x1

10.        Burpees 10x3

 

Mission 2: Flatland BMX 90 minutes/week

1.          Practice & maintain current skills

2.          Practice infinity loop and squeakers

3.          Work on building up to boomerang and decade

 

Mission 3: Hip Mobility Stretch Routine 5 Days/Week

1.          Standing long sit

2.          External leg rotations

3.          Peraformis

4.          Butterfly stretch

5.          Frog stretch

6.          Kneeling lunge

7.          Squatting internal leg rotation

8.          Pigeon stretch

9.          Long Sit

10.        Side Lunge

 

Mission 4: Homemade Meal 1/Week

1.          Select recipe by Tuesday

2.          Buy online ingredients by Wednesday

3.          Buy other ingredients by Friday

4.          Cook & serve meal during weekend

 

Go/no-Go: chest pullup, to the nipple, with head and shoulders above the bar by end of week 4

No chest pullup = caught by the buff dude to face certain interrogation (next challenge will be strength focused to attempt escape)

1 chest pullup = escaped but made (can identify me) (next challenge will be both strength and mobility focused to get to Blinky but take care of myself if they send goons to track me)

More than 1 chest pullup = clean escape (next challenge will be mobility focused to get to Blinky ASAP)

 

This mission will track Mon-Sun

[juliebarkley]

I love your story, and how you have a specific goal that's linked to the plot in your future challenges! Following!

[SymphonicDan]

Following along this time

 

Interesting set of exercises you have for the muscle-up workout - good for general gymnastic fitness for sure, but are all of those exercises included with the muscle-up in mind? Some of them (e.g. burpees) seem to me to have negligible carryover to muscle-ups, where your weakest point are likely to be pull-up height and strength for the transition element.

 

And I know nothing about BMX but cool to see you training that too!

[PettyMort]

Oh wow, I love this set-up. Choose your own adventure through workouts? That's really, really cool. *grabs popcorn*

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, SymphonicDan said:

are all of those exercises included with the muscle-up in mind? Some of them (e.g. burpees) seem to me to have negligible carryover to muscle-ups, where your weakest point are likely to be pull-up height and strength for the transition element.

All of the exercises are included to improve some aspect of the muscle up except the burpees. I added those onto the end of the routine because I signed up for a Spartan Sprint obstacle course race in the end of June, and the penalty for failing to get through any obstacle is 30 burpees.  

[SymphonicDan]

Ahh okay  In the Spartan Sprint they'll probably have you throw a javelin into a haystack and almost everyone fails that so there'll be some burpees there for sure haha. And when I did one there were lots of water/mud obstacles, so the ropes for climbing were super slippery later in the day so most people failed that too.

 

I'll be interested in trying some of the exercises you have listed for muscle-ups so see whether they target any of my current weak spots.

[Gandalf]

Following! I'll be referencing this when I start trying to do a muscle up, hopefully in the not to distant future.

[fleaball]

On 5/22/2017 at 8:20 AM, WhiteGhost said:

All of the exercises are included to improve some aspect of the muscle up except the burpees. I added those onto the end of the routine because I signed up for a Spartan Sprint obstacle course race in the end of June, and the penalty for failing to get through any obstacle is 30 burpees.  

*hisses at burpees*

[Mad Hatter]

Cool challenge!

 

Are you working straight towards a bar muscle ups or are you playing on rings?

[Sloth the Enduring]

Following.

[NeverThatBored]

Following!

[WhiteGhost]

On 5/22/2017 at 3:21 PM, juliebarkley said:

I love your story, and how you have a specific goal that's linked to the plot in your future challenges! Following!

Thanks, I have written a whole story that covers 8-9 challenges so I wanted to have some continuity and also allows me to focus on a lot of different areas (the same thing all the time gets boring and kills the fun)

On 5/22/2017 at 6:46 PM, SymphonicDan said:

And I know nothing about BMX but cool to see you training that too!

It is a very niche interest...  Once I figure out how to post pictures I will put up some of my stuff to give people an idea of what I am doing.

 

On 5/22/2017 at 8:08 PM, Gurdris the Imbiber said:

Oh wow, I love this set-up. Choose your own adventure through workouts? That's really, really cool. *grabs popcorn*

 

 

It is partially to keep things interesting, but mostly to give me some extra motivation.  I don't want to get caught!

 

On 5/22/2017 at 8:53 PM, SymphonicDan said:

Ahh okay  In the Spartan Sprint they'll probably have you throw a javelin into a haystack and almost everyone fails that so there'll be some burpees there for sure haha. And when I did one there were lots of water/mud obstacles, so the ropes for climbing were super slippery later in the day so most people failed that too.

 

I'll be interested in trying some of the exercises you have listed for muscle-ups so see whether they target any of my current weak spots.

Yeah, I am pretty sure I will end up doing way more burpees than I want, so I figured I should at least build up some kind of burpee endurance

On 5/23/2017 at 10:34 AM, Gandalf said:

Following! I'll be referencing this when I start trying to do a muscle up, hopefully in the not to distant future.

There are a bunch of us on the forum trying to get muscle ups. Welcome to the club!

 

13 hours ago, fleaball said:

*hisses at burpees*

*burpees hiss back*

 

7 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Cool challenge!

 

Are you working straight towards a bar muscle ups or are you playing on rings?

Bar muscle ups for me

 

4 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Following.

Sweet! (what does mine say?)

 

2 hours ago, NeverThatBored said:

Following!

Dude! (what about mine?)

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

This is still week zero so not officially starting the challenge.  Trying to get a head start on the goon chasing me down the alley

 

Mission 1: Muscle Up Routine 2 Days/Week

• Monday morning means meetings so no workout.  Did my routine on Tuesday but kept it light as my shoulder is still sore from last week

Mission 2: Flatland BMX 90 minutes/week

• Nothing yet this week 

Mission 3: Hip Mobility Stretch Routine 5 Days/Week

• Stretched both Monday and Tuesday 

Mission 4: Homemade Meal 1/Week

• This weekend will be a holiday here (Dragon Boat Festival) so we will be traveling.  No cooking this week, but I have selected the dish I will do next week - Homemade pork breakfast sausage, hash browns, eggs and fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast

[WhiteGhost]

Not much to update. I did my stretching last night before bed along with 50 pushups toward the ranger mini.  My right shoulder objected very loudly to the pushups, so I think I am going to have to modify my ranger mini strength feat.

 

Did my muscle up routine this morning but my shoulder is still unhappy, and was threatening mutiny during the clap pushups and burpees.  I think I am going to have to drop these (at least the claps) until my shoulder is feeling better.

 

I am not sure what the problem is with my shoulder, I think I may have overworked it doing my 5ft wall climbs (or from throwing a football too much) last Saturday and it hurts right where my trap connects to the collarbone when I bring my arms down in front or my body (lat pulldown) or push forward away from my body (pushup).  I'm guessing I have some kind of rotator cuff impingement. Any suggestions on what I can do to help this?

 

Nothing so far on BMX or cooking

[fleaball]

Ouch. I strained my rotator cuff last year and it hurt the same way. The doctor I saw just told me it would heal on its own, so I can only offer sympathy, not advice. :\

[SymphonicDan]

For clap push-ups and clap pull-ups, unless you're doing them because they look cool, you get the same effect by just doing the exercise explosively... so for push-ups try to keep your arms straight and hands extended, but push off hard enough that they completely leave the floor regardless. It's less fun but less awkward for the joints as you don't have to "land" at any point.

 

Either way you're unlucky to get a random injury from anything like this - let's hope it disappears by itself quickly

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, SymphonicDan said:

For clap push-ups and clap pull-ups, unless you're doing them because they look cool, you get the same effect by just doing the exercise explosively... so for push-ups try to keep your arms straight and hands extended, but push off hard enough that they completely leave the floor regardless. It's less fun but less awkward for the joints as you don't have to "land" at any point.

 

Either way you're unlucky to get a random injury from anything like this - let's hope it disappears by itself quickly

Yeah, I actually figured this out very quickly and do them like you said where the hands break contact but don't actually do the clapping movement.  I thought it was a pain to try and describe that, though, so just call them "clap- " for convenience.

 

I am pretty sure the injury is from the push off portion of my 5ft wall run ups on Saturday. I was pretty tired by that point and my form was going to pot and I could kind of feel my shoulder getting wonky as I was going. I should have just called it a day at that point but I didn't. Unforced error on my part.

 

[WhiteGhost]

 

Mission 1: Muscle Up Routine 2 Days/Week

• Tuesday and Thursday makes 2x for the week.  Good to go.

Mission 2: Flatland BMX 90 minutes/week

• Nothing yet this week.  If I can't get anything in tonight it looks like this one is going to be a bust 

Mission 3: Hip Mobility Stretch Routine 5 Days/Week

• Stretched both every day Mon-Thu so far so I am on track to hit my 5 for the week.  On the plus side, I am starting to notice a very (VERY) incremental improvement in my standing long sit.  I can get my palms completely past my knees! 

Mission 4: Homemade Meal 1/Week

• Plan to make some Tacos tonight

[Myrik]

I have a hereditary disposition for rotator cuff issues.  I learned that doing "contrasting baths" when it starts to flare up help a lot. I do this with an ice pack and a hot pack 10 minutes cold 10 minutes hot 3-5 times ending with Cold.

[Mad Hatter]

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

• On the plus side, I am starting to notice a very (VERY) incremental improvement in my standing long sit.  I can get my palms completely past my knees! 

 

That's awesome! Flexy gains take time so slow and steady is key.  

[WhiteGhost]

52 minutes ago, Myrik said:

I have a hereditary disposition for rotator cuff issues.  I learned that doing "contrasting baths" when it starts to flare up help a lot. I do this with an ice pack and a hot pack 10 minutes cold 10 minutes hot 3-5 times ending with Cold.

 

Thanks, I'll give it a shot

 

30 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

 

That's awesome! Flexy gains take time so slow and steady is key.  

 

I really dislike working on flexibility stuff because I have no patience for it and I feel like every time I stop doing it, all of the gains I work for disappear.  I really have a hard time continuing with stuff if I think it is ultimately a waste of time.

 

 

This time it is a little better because I actually have things I want to be able to that are limited by flexibility issues.  Hard to do leg raises and L-sits when I struggle to get a 90 degree angle bending over...   Later challenges are going to have activities that require certain levels of mobility and flexibility (e.g. backflips) so knowing those are coming helps to keep me going

[Mad Hatter]

I don't find flexibility gains disappear that quickly, but rather that it's proportional to how long you've managed to keep up a certain range of motion. So if you PR once or twice and then stop that gain will disappear quickly, but if you maintain that RoM for a while it will stay with you for quite some time. Flexibility is measured in months and years, not weeks.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that passive flexibility gains tend to disappear much more quickly unless you have the active flexibility to keep it up. So once you'll do backflips and L-sits it will be easier to maintain.  

[WhiteGhost]

5 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I don't find flexibility gains disappear that quickly, but rather that it's proportional to how long you've managed to keep up a certain range of motion. So if you PR once or twice and then stop that gain will disappear quickly, but if you maintain that RoM for a while it will stay with you for quite some time. Flexibility is measured in months and years, not weeks.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that passive flexibility gains tend to disappear much more quickly unless you have the active flexibility to keep it up. So once you'll do backflips and L-sits it will be easier to maintain.  

My brain totally hears what you are saying, but in the past I have never continued more than a month or two, so the ROMs were never really there to maintain.  That's why this is going to be one of my permanent challenges (which is going to make it really hard unless I can really turn it into a habit rather than a challenge)

 

It is nice to hear that the gains can be kept longer term if stick with it.  Thanks for the encouragement. I am going to need it

[Mad Hatter]

It's always much easier to say than do.  I really struggle to be consistent with flexy training. Sometimes it feels great but often it feels more like a mental battle.

[CourtnieMarie]

hiya! found your exercise regime  

you're going to totally smash your spartan!