The Assassin's Path

[KB Girl]

Yea we actually have a company group train with us too, and I’m 99% sure it’s the CEO trying to make himself get some training in  

 

The light could definitely cause a headache.. at least both that and the rash went away quickly! 

[WhiteGhost]

On 3/7/2020 at 3:58 PM, @mu said:

Ha and corona virus has reached our little town

I have been thinking of you for the last few days ever since the big outbreak in Northern Italy.  Hopefully things stay limited there

[@mu]

On 3/12/2020 at 7:17 AM, WhiteGhost said:

I have been thinking of you for the last few days ever since the big outbreak in Northern Italy.  Hopefully things stay limited there

 

Well it's growing. Like everywhere, there is not enough testing to get a sense of the real figures. People are a bit confused here and perhaps not taking it too seriously because the mortality rate so far is not high enough... Just in terms of containment, health care is already pushed to its limits and seeing how it went in China with a much more drastic response, we are probably just at the beginning here.

I think Asian countries that experienced SARS have had the right reaction (confinement) and have done a better job at containing the spread and taking care of their people with the means at their disposal really.

Schools are now closed for 2 weeks. People are working remotely if they can and if not, they are entitled to paid leave. So that's not too bad compared to other countries but I'm not sure how long it will be sustainable. I don't think the current world economy in its “normal” state is actually very sustainable either but maybe corona will be a significant warning sign.

 

Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue => I was completely UNDER. Went to the doc (not suspecting corona, in that case we are not supposed to go to a doc but call a special number). Pharyngitis is back again

 

Wednesday

 

I did a HS session in the morning because I had really missed. My usual stuff (including bent arms yo).

No Circus class (not corona related).

 

Thursday

 

I did go to the aerial class. Again some hip-key rolls and not making it (super frustrating). Some work on beats on rope. And a weird transition from a one side hip key to the other side. I'm familiar with one which goes through a figure called mobile but it's a different one and while I see how it works on the floor, I did not get it in the air. It was all quite frustrating.

I did a slow-mo salto to windmill on rope because I still fear the pain... but slow-mo can get you in another type of grinding pain... summary, it was painful. I did however manage a couple on silks. It needs work on the windmill reception, it definitely does not feel as sleek as I remember it!

 

This week has been a bit low, I had little life in me but still enough mental energy to get caught in coding sprees. And the whole cold + not enough movement + mental fatigue is not a nice combo. We have our meeting for visa renewal next week as well and it's a bit stressful.

I hope to have some time to read the forums this week-end. I only checked whether KB baby has arrived yet or not, suspense!  Hope all goes well

 

 

 

[KB Girl]

Ahh ❤️

i hope your week starts looking up- because that IS a rough combo. Especially with the visa thing coming up. 

[Mad Hatter]

Hang in there! 

[@mu]

Thank you guys.

 

Circus classes have been suspended until further notice, I was wondering when that would be coming.

 

Fri-Sat

 

Rest. A bit of Persian. Chatting with friends and family in Iran. So far touching wood, everybody is fine.

 

Sunday

 

Session with press to HS: much better, I managed a ground 0 one again albeit still froggy but the levels above (bench / 8cm / 3cm) were ok.

 

I'm still ill-ish, with an unhappy throat. The doc had checked temperature and breathing, so I'm (relatively) confident I'm just having a plain cold. But who knows really. Even having a plain ol' cold during a viral pandemic is not exactly super fun.

 

Monday

 

Flexibility + HS. Still doing my bent-arm series and increasing reps on PU slowly. I'm getting warmed up much quicker with this new little add-on. PU for the win.

Lower back felt good today, in the sense: not overused, not sure if it's the butt doing it job and/or the upper/middle back opening up a bit more but it felt good. I did some should opening work in bridge and elbow stand, not easy but it's improving.

In HS, I focused on flags today. Not easy either. I tried different ways of holding my legs. Sometimes I twist more than I bend I think. I'm looking forward to have a class where I can ask.

 

Here are a couple of videos.

Salto to windmill last Thursday. You can see that compared to my previous video from years ago, I've lost a fair amount of sleek. But hey that's how it is, I'm not too self-critical. The break was long and at the time I was training 3-4x a week. There is no magic really. But maybe I can work a bit more on not being bull on the apparatus It often looks like I'm fighting it rather than loving it ?

 

 

 

Next is a bit with some flags, and different leg positions, twists and bends.

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

10 hours ago, @mu said:

But maybe I can work a bit more on not being bull on the apparatus It often looks like I'm fighting it rather than loving it ?

I think your massively exaggerating. But have you thought about doing another choreo/musicality/fluidity challenge similar to the one with the zombie thing? That was all kinds of awesome!

 

Handstands look great, such control. ?It's hard to move at those odd angles.

 

Question - when we were doing flags one leg went in front of the body line. It looks like both your legs go behind, which I think would be heavier to hold. Is that how room21 teaches them? Honestly I'm not even quite sure what constitutes a flag vs a sidebend. Sidebend with a twist?

[@mu]

10 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I think your massively exaggerating. But have you thought about doing another choreo/musicality/fluidity challenge similar to the one with the zombie thing? That was all kinds of awesome!

 

ha ha cheers, I'd like to, because apart from that aerial dance workshop, classes are mostly technical these days and when you do too much technical, you always end up with that same executional flow that gets a bit boring in my opinion.

 

10 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Question - when we were doing flags one leg went in front of the body line. It looks like both your legs go behind, which I think would be heavier to hold. Is that how room21 teaches them? Honestly I'm not even quite sure what constitutes a flag vs a sidebend. Sidebend with a twist?

 

That's an interesting comment. I'm trying to think what you mean by in front.

From a profile angle, my down leg is definitely in front (forward compared to my body line).  The lower foot comes down at the start of the parallette if not a bit further I think. That's where it is when I bail.

I did however play with the position of the upper leg, either in front or closer to the body line.

But maybe you mean something else, like in front, eg facing me, leg not to the side but facing my head?

 

Room 21 also shows the lower leg in front, and for the upper leg there were variations but it looked mostly in line or slightly forward (but not a lot). Except maybe in the hooked flag, the upper knee is bent so there is quite a bit of weight behind. But the first one to learn looks like this:

 

 

And then they show tuck, diamond and hook flags.

 

And they seem to define a flag as a hinge? They insist on hinging at the waist only (at least if you want the hold to be efficient).

But then a tuck is a hinge isn't it? I'd agree on the bend + twist. And I guess for the twist to happen it has to be somewhat sideways, otherwise seven and mexican are also sorts of flags? I don't know Does figa qualify as some sort of flag?  I'm really not familiar with the HS vocabulary for all of these little distinctions.

 

This is figa for readers unfamiliar with the name:

 

[ And apparently figa is the name of a hand gesture in Russian that means fuck off pretty much it's a thumb between the index and the middle finger - any Russian speaker could confirm this? ? ]

 

I'm not sure the twist is in front only though. Depending on how I moved my legs, I could feel the hinge at the waist being held either more in the obliques (upper leg a bit forward) or more in the back (upper leg in line).

 

So for me this is a flag as well:

 

 

I think Room21 is arguing against that one below (I guess in the learning stage, beyond that it's your own HS, you should be free to twist as you wish right). Because here the guy is getting is legs lower by bending from the shoulders.

 

 

But those are super advanced variations... I'll stick to straddle / diamond / tuck for now.

 

The other thing coming to mind is that I should try with a narrower hand position. It would help getting more fully above the supporting shoulder and making it a bit more stable maybe.

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

Ah ok I think I get it. So a strict sidebend would come from only tilting the pelvis, vs a  strict flag which would come from only hinging at the waist. I don't think that a tuck would fall into that category as the waist stays in the same position (well depending on how you do it). I get your thinking about sevens and mexicans but I guess it's implied it's a sideways hinge. 

 

Maybe the hooked flag is what we were doing. It was something close to this but on two hands obv. One leg goes on one side of the midline and the other stays behind in a counter balance. But then there was both a deep sideways hinge plus a rotation so that the front of hip would face up. What I was thinking is that while this version might look more complicated, it might actually be a bit lighter to hold than if both your legs are on the same side. For your traps, not the obliques, it's still going to be killer on those. ?

 

 

1 hour ago, @mu said:

But those are super advanced variations... I'll stick to straddle / diamond / tuck for now.

Indeed... I'm not  even at the baby flags step yet... One day I'll catch up. ?

[@mu]

ha ha I seen what you mean, indeed it's what they call the hook flag! I will give it a try. I assumed it was harder.

 

Well super important meeting for E.'s visa was, unsurprisingly, cancelled and reported to an unknown date. France is now in full confinement for 15 days, possibly more.

At least since there is a lock down including borders they can't go and expel him right... trying to see the good side of it...

 

So as of today,  we can't go out except to get food/emergency/medical supplies, go for a jog (but nothing collective) and have the dog pee.

 

And apparently we need to have a written attestation when we go out, a form that we can print or write ourselves, indicating the reason why we are going out. I'm not sure there is a point to that really? Maybe it's to make people feel like there is a potential punishment for not having that attestation. We already have the mindset to feel anxious about missing a form (because admin paperwork is such a traumatizing nightmare here), it sort of reinforces the idea that the whole situation is critical.  Maybe?

 

Yesterday evening I went grocery shopping, it was weird, like no pasta, no rice left, no dish washing liquid, very few conserves. I did not check the toilet paper... Veggies and fruits were ok though (outside farmer market is still open).

This morning we saw long queues of people waiting to enter grocery shops and 1 meter between every body. I have to say it was a little bit weird to imagine this as the new normal.

 

And I guess now we will just hang about until it is over... like WhiteGhost, who is way ahead of us

[KB Girl]

7 hours ago, @mu said:

Well super important meeting for E.'s visa was, unsurprisingly, cancelled and reported to an unknown date.

That must be frustrating and stressful, sorry

 

7 hours ago, @mu said:

This morning we saw long queues of people waiting to enter grocery shops and 1 meter between every body.

This doesn't seem like the ideal situation for containment.. but what can you do I guess? I'm glad we saw it coming and have enough in the house for a week or so, hopefully grocery runs have died down by then. 

[@mu]

10 hours ago, KB Girl said:

That must be frustrating and stressful, sorry

 

Yes it is. Only asylum filing was open, which I'm glad because people are living in very precarious conditions.

At least E. is ok, and I guess the state will have to make do with expired visas in this situation...

 

Tuesday

 

Press to HS.

Press was a struggle after a couple of good ones. Not sure what the hate was for.

I was in a hurry for the visa meeting and only did 3 sets of consistency on blocks: 9/15.

 

Wednesday

 

No circus class tonight so I made myself an open session in the morning:

Usual warm-up protocol

Bent arm series

Silks hangs and shoulder twists

HS warm-up (entries and reps, head position)

Routine (my usual one)

Flags → I tried the hook flag!

Then my shoulders were dead (they were already a bit tired when I started so tomorrow will probably be rest).

 

The hook flag felt quite different, I'm not sure I'm doing it quite right yet.

 

I see what it looks like but, upside down, moving in the right direction is a bit tricky... It did feel lighter but the counter-balance weight in the back felt a bit harder to manage at first. I will get used to it I guess.

I found it harder to come back out of it (even if I'm not going very low) and I think I could use the counter-balance to help but I feel like a green pilot in front of an air bus command panel right now There are buttons to balance, counter-balance, push, pull, twist... it's a bit overwhelming!

 

Here is a video log of this first attempt:

 

[WhiteGhost]

19 hours ago, @mu said:

And I guess now we will just hang about until it is over... like WhiteGhost, who is way ahead of us

I predict that in a week or two things will have settled down to the point that you won't have lines or shortages at the supermarkets anymore.

[Mad Hatter]

On 3/18/2020 at 8:29 AM, @mu said:

I found it harder to come back out of it (even if I'm not going very low) and I think I could use the counter-balance to help but I feel like a green pilot in front of an air bus command panel right now There are buttons to balance, counter-balance, push, pull, twist... it's a bit overwhelming!

Hahaha, I was doing it with a spot, and it was still confusing as hell.  I had the sensation of umm.. tilting upside down. I really enjoy this shape though, even if it's out of reach at this point.

[@mu]

HAPPY PERSIAN NEW YEAR

 

Friends and family are still all good, touching wood.

 

Thursday - Friday – REST

A lot of coding for work this week, which I enjoy but I'm glad the week-end is here to get out of the loop.

 

Saturday

 

I had a very enjoyable session today, not that it was extraordinary but my mood was up.

 

I did the usual press focused workout with a fair amount of prep, including my bent arm series.

 

I worked only at 8cm but I started to manage press for REPS, ok just 2 reps, but it's a plural right I'm very happy about that. I did 2 sets of those and some single ones. If I can do it on a regular basis and increase the reps, ground 0 should get much more consistent.

The second rep is somewhat easier because I'm in the right position to push back again. For the 3^rd one, it's just too much yet But it's very very good to get that second rep feel, where my body is and what makes the push “easier”.

 

Consistency on blocks: 12/20 – feeling good, like I could start doing stuff in HS there. Not always, but at times, it does feel solid enough.

I did some walks as well, and some hook flags but I was too tired by the end of it. It was a 2-hour session!

 

The day is sunny and I'm just happy today!

 

We are not too bothered by the lock down so far. We just go out for groceries basically. And have casual discussion with neighbours in the courtyard, respecting a distance.

Let's see how it goes next week.

[Mad Hatter]

Yay for presses and happiness! Great to hear.

 

HAPP NEW YEAR!

[@mu]

Sunday

 

HS session, warm-up with ball stuff (rolls, flex feet) and bent arm series.

HS warm-up and routine work.

 

I wanted it make it a light and endurance-based session, instead I killed all my strength very quickly.

 

First I tried to integrate flags in my basic flow. I can manage a very small diamond flag but everything else is too much. I tried to put flags at the beginnings vs at the end, and no it's just eating too much energy too quickly. At least for now (I'm stubborn, I will try again and again).

 

I started the routine with a press from 8cm instead... The good bit is at that height, I can get a press on demand. The bad bit is that after 3 repeats of the routine I was DEAD. I couldn't even kick up anymore.

 

After that I ate a lot, read some and slept. What a life

[Mad Hatter]

1 hour ago, @mu said:

After that I ate a lot, read some and slept. What a life

The sweet sweet handstand life.

[@mu]

Monday

 

Flexibility session + HS. I worked hard. It turned out as a 2h session again, I predict some struggle for press tomorrow.

Bent-arm series + ball stuff

Lots of legs (pancake, splits) and hips (Cirque Physio)

My usual HS warm-up

Shoulders opening and back stretching, including back drops and some elbow stands work

HS seven working on shoulder extensions rather than just relying on my back bending. It was intense. This is the best I could manage:

 

 

Then I tried to get that level of shoulder extensions with my legs over (as in a very tiny mexican) but it was much harder to counter-balance properly. I could feel the shoulders pushing back and that felt solid enough, but the shoulder/chest angle was still banana-like:

 

 

I'll have to keep at it I guess. My chest and shoulders are feeling very stretched right now, it's quite nice

[Mad Hatter]

The seven in particular looks great! I tried it today for funsies and it was a struggle bus. ? I only tried once or twice but all I could manage was maybe 45 degrees without collapsing. I didn't try the version you're doing here, but I've done similar wall drills and it's kinda tricky to push into that shoulder extension. But I wonder if you wouldn't benefit from tucking your head a bit in the Mexican, like you're doing in the seven. I guess it's heavier to hold, but it could be that the neck position is encouraging you to bend from your upper back more than extending the shoulders.

[@mu]

12 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

But I wonder if you wouldn't benefit from tucking your head a bit in the Mexican, like you're doing in the seven.

 

I'll try that a bit more next time. Balance is a bit harder, but if I could manage at least neutral I'm sure it would help. It does definitely with 7.

 

A little bit of stress with this visa thing because the government has agreed to a 6-month visa extension from March 16, but only for people with visa expiring after March 16. And E. visa expired beginning of February... I sent an e-mail with a recap (his visa expired because of their inability to deliver an appointment in time + we documented that and were left without any answer despite contacting them several times by mail, phone, in-person and signed letter + a little notice that I had started contacting the service to take them to court if need be before we managed to get that appointment in March). So let's see. Nothing more we can do. But I had a stress rush yesterday.

 

Tuesday

 

Press to HS. As expected it was hard! Shoulders were tired. I did however managed a couple of good HS to L-sit and my first HS to stalder without bending arms, helping myself with feet or falling on my bum! That made my day! I will put up a video when time permits. For press, I managed one set with 2 presses in a row at 8cm. But I was pretty dead after that.

Consistency on blocks: 10/20, not surprising either. I had a hard time to just kick. Tomorrow will be rest!

 

[Mad Hatter]

33 minutes ago, @mu said:

I did however managed a couple of good HS to L-sit and my first HS to stalder without bending arms, helping myself with feet or falling on my bum!

Cooool! ?

 

I can't believe the visa thing is still going on, that's crazy. Good thing that you have all things documented so that you (hopefully!) won't end up in a shit storm.

[@mu]

Excuse the silly happy face  

 

 

 

 

[KB Girl]

Haha that’s the best face! Congrats! You’re awesome!

[Mad Hatter]

Never apologise for silly happy faces! Love it.