The Assassin's Path

[KB Girl]

On 4/12/2020 at 10:50 AM, Mad Hatter said:

But I have to say you've done amazingly well! You're consistency and dedication is quite something, very inspiring.

I’ll second that! 
if anyone deserves a new set of paralettes it would be you. I hope you’ll like them. 
also this seems like a better way to deal with lockdown than eating all the things x) 

[WhiteGhost]

On 4/12/2020 at 4:30 PM, @mu said:

Then they have a dynamic approach via pbarz swings where you get in the tuck planche position with momentum and little by little start to hold there.

This sounds a lot like the technique I am using for tuck planches.  I am just getting to the point where I can rotate up into the tuck planche with a slow controlled swing

 

 

[@mu]

13 hours ago, KB Girl said:

I’ll second that! 
if anyone deserves a new set of paralettes it would be you. I hope you’ll like them. 
also this seems like a better way to deal with lockdown than eating all the things x) 

 

Thanks!

And mhm, wrong assumption I can both do pbarz and eat all the things It just needs a bit of planning to make sure my stomach has enough time to digest before going upside down.

 

35 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

This sounds a lot like the technique I am using for tuck planches.  I am just getting to the point where I can rotate up into the tuck planche with a slow controlled swing

 

Nice! It's not easy. When I was doing with P2, I always had a tendency to unlock elbows when going up dynamically. Not a very visible bend, but I wasn't locked either. I think I will need a lot of elbow joint work to get there. It might be easier for me to work it from HS, using negative press and going down as slowly as I can. Maybe I could try doing that in a tuck / do some HS to crane as well. It feels more doable that way for now. And then maybe I can progress on the active version, pushing from the bottom.

 

Monday

 

Warm-up with bent arms series + ball + silks

Flexibility (pancake, shoulders, back) interspersed with

 

HS tuck/straddle entries with leg movement

 

HS pike head-in

=> I initially followed the template with multiple reps per set but I was degrading too quickly between reps, I'm better off working singles in more sets for that one.

I got into pike holds but the quick move to chin on chest would throw me out balance. So no hold with actual head in. It's a big gap considering I can hold pike/seven with a neutral head position.

I tried their wall version but I did not “feel” it that much. I couldn't always find the right distance to tip toe into balance and I was a bit lazy on shoulders / balance because my brain knew the wall was there. Wall work can be tricky... I will try again but it was less complicated to do most of it free standing.

 

Mexican wall taps

=> still working shoulder flexion. Funny how the lower back is always an over-achiever (as Cirque Physio says) and wanting to take over.... So I did very little back bending, just getting lightly over my hips and worked on should flexion. It's hard.

 

I was feeling rather tired and a bit overwhelmed by all these new things I discovered in the last few days. Tuesday will be rest.

 

[WhiteGhost]

7 minutes ago, @mu said:

I always had a tendency to unlock elbows when going up dynamically.

If I am doing it on rings ro the floor, I need to unlock my elbows to get up.  On pbars and dip bars I can keep them straight (but not completely locked).  Thinking about this I realized that I don't think I ever keep my elbows locked.  I just went and tried a bunch of different positions (support position, handstand, deadhang, even high plank....)  Now I am wondering if I need to change the way I do things or if it even matters. 

[@mu]

5 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

If I am doing it on rings ro the floor, I need to unlock my elbows to get up.  On pbars and dip bars I can keep them straight (but not completely locked).  Thinking about this I realized that I don't think I ever keep my elbows locked.  I just went and tried a bunch of different positions (support position, handstand, deadhang, even high plank....)  Now I am wondering if I need to change the way I do things or if it even matters. 

 

Good question. I'm not sure. Maybe you will be able to lock at some point?

All I have noticed is that in crane, locked vs unlocked will feel quite different. This is why I think it's pretty hard on the joints in the locked version. It is painful.

And that if I don't lock in press negatives, I will fall on my bum every single time. So I think locking is important? I have felt that on press to handstand as well (locking versus not locking => not the same activation).

[Mad Hatter]

7 hours ago, @mu said:

It just needs a bit of planning to make sure my stomach has enough time to digest before going upside down.

This is such a struggle for me! 

[@mu]

16 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

This is such a struggle for me! 

 

it helps to train in the morning. Usually I have time to get a full digestion whatever I ate the previous evening. And I don't have a big breakfast (cottage cheese).

 

Tuesday => REST

 

Wednesday

 

Press to HS

 

Warm-up including bent arm series, Cirque Physio and silks stuff

HS warm-up: tuck and straddle entries with leg movement, while moving in tuck I had this idea of doing a puppet show with my feet (filming from the back). But I need to find some feet decoration and makeup (like a wig for hair, draw a face).

 

Wall entry head in, I had a fluke at 12s (target goal: 20s), but most holds were at about 5s or below.

Press negs (L-sit, stalder) – not very good today

Press iso @8cm 15sx4 again trying to lean more this time

Press @8cm just floats, @bench 5 with a puppy foot still coming up at that height!  It's incredible. So I worked a lot on keeping my toes even. It's such a bad habit.

Straddle leg raises to toes 5 with a pause at the top (1-2 secs)

 

Block consistency: just 2x5 reps => 4/10, not too surprising because I haven't done any in a week or more, and I'm bit destabilized with new stuff. A big overall change is that I'm narrowing my hand width a wee bit and I'm definitely feeling it. On pbarz, I need more kick power and I'll have a tendency to unlock arms to get the extra height. It is tiring.

 

Then some sets playing with straddle reps on blocks. Shoulder flexion was a bit low.

 

Then I did a chest to wall flagging test with blocks and I found the movement a little bit more accessible than on pbarz. Maybe I got used to it, but maybe the shuffling on pbarz is too complicated. Earlier I also had a problem with my wall being a bit too short, and it took like a week for brainzzzz to comprehend that closing the door would solve that.... I still have the light switch and the door handle to go over but it's better than emptiness all a sudden.

 

Snow angels on pbar, lazy wrist stretches

 

 

[@mu]

Thursday

 

Warm-up with bent arm series, no silks, no Cirque Physio, but leg raises to toes (6)

Emmet's split routine: horse stance 5 sets of 30s, split entries 20 reps

Head in wall entry: 3 sets, got another fluke at 15s (goal = 20s) and some improvement on the short ones

Tuck head in: I did most of them free standing and transitioning to head in, that's a killer as expected. Towards the end I worked it like the straight version, using the wall entry, and I could manage 4-5s. I will edit my target goals for tuck and pike head in to get 10s with a wall entry. No way I can transition if I can't really hold decently first.

Narrow HS: a bit of rabbit on that one, but first set was ok.

Block consistency: 5/10, rabbit was still running about

Block flagging: tiring, tough, still in discovery mode about that one. I did 3 sets of left/rightx2 with a 3-5s pause at bottom.

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

On 4/15/2020 at 9:23 AM, @mu said:

HS warm-up: tuck and straddle entries with leg movement, while moving in tuck I had this idea of doing a puppet show with my feet (filming from the back). But I need to find some feet decoration and makeup (like a wig for hair, draw a face).

I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS!

[@mu]

On 4/17/2020 at 7:57 PM, Mad Hatter said:

I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS!

 

Ha ha, I need to find some time to try out something...

 

Friday was REST.

 

Saturday I was just feeling off, and took an extra rest day and totally couch potatoe-ed it guilt-free

 

Sunday

Warmup including bent arm series and hanging leg raises to toes.

Emmet's 2 side splits exercises

 

Head in straight from wall entry, just got one at 11-12s or so. Some okayish shorter ones.

Tuck head in, I managed my target goal of 10s, yo, but my tuck is a bit too open maybe.

 

Narrow HS, the hard bit is really to kick up in that one, it's really a weird push on the shoulders, maybe because I can't externally rotate as much. Once up, I can balance long enough though. I'm going to change the training pattern to work a bit more on the kick up part. So a max hold of 10s is fine to feel the shifts. And spend more time on getting consistent kick-ups.

 

Consistency on block: 6/10

Flagging chest to wall on blocks: still working on it.

Here is a little video log. The tuck is not one hold, there is a ~8-9s hold, a bit of feet support and the 10+s afterward.

 

And target goals update:

  

On 4/13/2020 at 9:30 AM, @mu said:

straight head in entry from the wall 20s hold

tuck head in entry from the wall 10s hold

pike head in entry from the wall 10s hold

 

straight head in entry from the wall 20s hold

tuck head in entry from the wall 10s hold => tuck head in entry from the wall 20s hold

pike head in entry from the wall 10s hold

 

[Mad Hatter]

2 hours ago, @mu said:

Tuck head in, I managed my target goal of 10s, yo, but my tuck is a bit too open maybe.

Nice one!

[@mu]

  

19 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Nice one!

 

Cheers!

 

Today flexibility + HS

 

Warm-up / bent arm series / some silks (inverts)

Hips, hams and pancake work

 

HS entries + leg movement

 

Pike head in => I tried again against the wall (chest facing wall, toes on wall) and it's not working for me really. I just can't get any proper balance from the wall.  It's more tiring to shuffle about than just get there free standing.

So I switched to free standing back to wall going like this: tuck entry -> normal pike/seven -> head in transition -> usually at this stage I wobble and use the wall to catch myself -> stay head in -> extend a leg to balance and bring the other leg. So the second bit is sort of a wall entry but not as the manual says. I'm still following the manual pattern for straight and tuck. Maybe I'm making it harder for myself with seven but I'm not getting their wall drill at all. So be it.

After a 2-3 sets of those, I managed  to get a free standing transition to head in and hold for about 7s, yo. I could not reproduce it but at least I know this drill can lead somewhere.

 

Shoulders flexibility, camel, cobra, bridges and back drops + coming back up.

Mexican training at the wall => the wall is tricky, the second I touch it, I tend to sink in, flex the lower back and go banana. It's very hard to resist and i have to work within a very small rom  but I got some better shoulder flexion today. 

 

Some video on those first struggling steps. 2 clips on pike head in and 2 clips on Mexican training. I don't know if you can spot the shoulder flexion on the second mexican training clip, at 0:59. This is what I'm aiming for. It looks likes my thoracic cage is moving but it's coming from a big push in the shoulders. I do not control it very well right now

 

 

[@mu]

On a side node, I started listening to an audio book in Persian yesterday. In the evening. I did not last long however.

 

Tuesday

 

Warm-up including bent arm series, ball rolls (I got a couple of hand to hand back/neck rolls!), silks (alignment work and twisty entry to catcher), Cirque Physio

HS prep straddle/tuck entries

HS head-in wall entry => rather meh today, I did not manage more than ~7s

Press iso @8cm 20s x3=> LOATHING

Press @8cm and @bench => barely 2 in total over many floats and fails but no puppy. I'm still not leaning though....

Consistency on blocks: 5/10

Straddle entry + straddle/diamond movement on blocks: 2 sets and actually managed some! first play time on blocks

 

[Mad Hatter]

56 minutes ago, @mu said:

Press iso @8cm 20s x3=> LOATHING

?These isos are they static holds with the feet on the blocks or are you floating just above them?

 

Yay for HS play!

[@mu]

  

4 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

These isos are they static holds with the feet on the blocks or are you floating just above them?

 

On blocks! I can only hold floats for 3-4s a bit below my elbows and coming from a negative. It's tough. The idea is to just hate it for a while and then start float work hopefully (at bench level first and then down)... There is another drill I saw that looks interesting but it's on hands: you start with feet in the middle and hop on blocks:

 

 

 

I would have to get 4 piles of books to reproduce the setup with parallettes... I might just try on my hands.

 

 

[@mu]

Wednesday

 

Warm-up with bent arm series + hanging raises to toes x6

Emmet's 2 side splits drills: horse stance (5x30s), split entries (20 reps)

HS prep: tuck and straddle entries with leg movements (had some leg shakes after the split drills lol)

Head in - straight - wall entry => a PR at 16s!

Head in - tuck - wall entry => another PR at 17s! I'm working on closing the tuck a wee bit. It's not too bad though. I have been used to hold "lazy" tucks, either too open or fully closed - I often read that one is hard but I feel pretty comfy in it. The proper tuck in the middle I find slightly harder.

Narrow HS kick up work: 1/5; 2/5

Block consistency: 5/10

Flagging on blocks - 3 sets of LRLRLR with 3s pause at the bottom: this is getting a bit more fluid but not quite there yet as I have to figure the right distance from the wall and what the frack I'm doing with my legs / shoulders exactly. It's pretty tiring too, lots of shoulder endurance.

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, @mu said:

fully closed

What is wrong with a fully closed tuck?  I would imagine that would be what you would be aiming for...

[@mu]

4 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

What is wrong with a fully closed tuck?  I would imagine that would be what you would be aiming for...

 

Nothing wrong   it's just not the current progression for head in. I'm supposed to do a "standard" tuck, but I'm used to do either closed or quite open (with normal head position). Head in + fully closed tuck is  a lot harder - I tried. I just need to work my more open tuck to get my thighs a bit more parallel to the floor. Then maybe I can see how it goes with a fully closed tuck.

[Mad Hatter]

On 4/21/2020 at 3:11 PM, @mu said:

On blocks! I can only hold floats for 3-4s a bit below my elbows and coming from a negative. It's tough. The idea is to just hate it for a while and then start float work hopefully (at bench level first and then down)... There is another drill I saw that looks interesting but it's on hands: you start with feet in the middle and hop on blocks:

Ok. I was wondering because I've done those as prep drills and I don't exactly loathe them. They're not particularly fun as it feels like I'm pushing so hard I'm going to explode and yet nothing happens. ?Not the most satisfying, but it could've been worse.

 

Yay for PRs!

 

Btw I tried the narrow handstand for funsies (thumbs touching) and they're kinda weird! For me they feel mostly like normal but more sensitive, particularly in the kick up.

[WhiteGhost]

15 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Btw I tried the narrow handstand for funsies (thumbs touching) and they're kinda weird!

Whoa, I missed this bit so I was very fascinated by this concept.  I just went and tried some myself and various increments.  M0st of them were fine and I was surprisingly able to keep balance until I got to palms touching.  In that one I couldn't keep the side to side balance and I kpt tipping over.  Overall they seemed quite similar to regular handstands but much harder on the shoulders because I had to keep my chest out further.  

 

On a whim, I also tried wide arem handstands doing the same thing in the other direction.  I found these to be much harder, both in terms of finding and keeping balance, but also on my wrists.  That kind of angle takes a different kind of wrist strength!

[@mu]

On 4/22/2020 at 5:05 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Ok. I was wondering because I've done those as prep drills and I don't exactly loathe them. They're not particularly fun as it feels like I'm pushing so hard I'm going to explode and yet nothing happens. ?Not the most satisfying, but it could've been worse.

 

I don't like the nothing happening AT ALL. It's like there is no target but pushing like mad. And I find it super hard to keep the same amount of push during 20s so I'm not entirely sure that doing 10s x6 versus 20s x3 is that meaningful. At least in floats, you fight to keep your toes up – hold times make more sense.

 

On 4/22/2020 at 5:05 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Btw I tried the narrow handstand for funsies (thumbs touching) and they're kinda weird! For me they feel mostly like normal but more sensitive, particularly in the kick up.

 

On 4/23/2020 at 8:51 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Whoa, I missed this bit so I was very fascinated by this concept.  I just went and tried some myself and various increments.  M0st of them were fine and I was surprisingly able to keep balance until I got to palms touching.  In that one I couldn't keep the side to side balance and I kpt tipping over.  Overall they seemed quite similar to regular handstands but much harder on the shoulders because I had to keep my chest out further.  

 

On a whim, I also tried wide arem handstands doing the same thing in the other direction.  I found these to be much harder, both in terms of finding and keeping balance, but also on my wrists.  That kind of angle takes a different kind of wrist strength!

 

I have the same feeling as you guys. Balancing is ok, as I get hand closer I can feel more shifting of the hips (which is supposed to happen, it's perfectly normal). The kick is hard though. I haven't tried on my hands or on blocks, but on parallettes it feels like it requires double jump power and it's an odd push.

I haven't tried super wide HS, I'll see if I can experiment one of these days.

 

Spoiler

Re E.'s visa. As I have explained a little bit, I previously interacted with the “Défenseur des droits” which is a French institution whose role is to mediate when you have an issue with a public service (among other things, it's a great institution for democracy really, dealing with all forms of discrimination). You explain your case, they mediate with the service and if the service doesn't react or is found to be at odds with the law, they can take them to court for you. All free of charge.

 

So I pushed the button again and after a few weeks of back and forth, I finally shared all our paperwork from my own Google drive. That says a lot about the French administration, doesn't it...  I'm not happy at all that I had to gather sensitive papers in that sort of location. Also this is all very anti-democratic (requires internet access, a scanner, some computer fluency...).

 

But E. is good! He can deposit his passport next week! After 8 months of struggle. Then it will take a few more months to get the visa renewal but at least he will have an official paper saying the process is in the pipe! He is no longer “illegal”. He was a bit scared to get controlled outside for corona and end up who knows where...

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

That is great news.  A hearty congratulations to both you and E!

[KB Girl]

It’s already been 8 months since you moved? Incredible. 
Really glad it all worked out  

[@mu]

8 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

That is great news.  A hearty congratulations to both you and E!

 

Thanks!

 

6 hours ago, KB Girl said:

It’s already been 8 months since you moved? Incredible. 
Really glad it all worked out  

 

Oh it's been over a year now. We left Iran early March 2019.

Thanks!

 

Today was HS again

warm-up with bent arm series, hanging raises to toes 7

Emmet's side splits drills

HS prep (tuck/straddle entries with leg movement)

Head in, straight from wall entry: no PR, some okayish holds, but max at 14s

Head in, tuck, from wall entry: PR 18s, in the last seconds I started wondering: am I arching or holding it properly from the centre of my hands? and I made a small adjustment and lost it right there just 2s away from my goal. Damn it   on the video, if I was arching it was not even visible...

Narrow HS 2/5; 4/5

Block consistency: 5/10

Flagging on blocks chest to wall: something tilted today after watching the reference videos again, I need to bring my hips further over my supporting shoulder. I got a bit further away from the wall as well, it seemed to help. I think I rotate a bit less and I'm feeling more hinge. It's quite a technical move that one. And still super tiring.

 

Later I did a wide HS test, and for me it felt much more accessible than a narrow one!

I managed at 60 cm wide.

For info, 40cm was my previous normal and I usually need that width for L-sit transitions (Mediterranean hips here). These days I'm training at a bit under 35cm (which is quite a change, I'm still adjusting to it), and when I do narrow I'm at about 12-15cm.

Here is the video to get a visual on the width. I did not try further, thinking there might a dangerous threshold where I'd just kick and fall on my head lol I might try again though.

it's funny on the video how I'm still leaning more on the right... I correct it a little but it's there...

 

 

 

 

 

[@mu]

ho and Kirsty will be releasing her HSPU programme next week. Damn, life is full of hard choices....

 

I'd like to do it TOO.... I'm having a Ranger moment - in a rather tiny scope I know.

 

+ Adding a bit of bent arm training in my warm-up as helped, I feel a bit more balanced when I have different types of pushes. It wouldn't hurt to add some more...

+ Of course I'm still running this background thread of being able to complete P2's last phase with a bent arm press to HS...

+ And lately WhiteGhost cute "HS to gut lever" thingy has teased me and it relates to HSPU strength

 

- Shoulders are mildly excited because I'm already doing fairly taxing exercises 5x days a week...

- Meaning I will have to do some re-programming... cut stuff again, accept a reduced rate of improvement on some bits