BitterOyster Trains Mind, Body and Pokemon

[BitterOyster]

Cross posting from my challenge. tl;dr I want to figure out a way to move that is natural and comfortable to me, rather than doing what others do.

 

I was watching Jessie Graf on American Ninja Warrior today. I've been thinking a bit about my fitness future, and what I really want to achieve.

 

The only thing that I deep down really and truly want is: to feel comfortable in my body and move through my environment with competence and enjoyment.

 

I have spent most of my life feeling clumsy and off-balance, bumping into things, often tripping and constantly being afraid of falling over when crossing a stream or climbing a slope. Going barefoot was a revelation - suddenly I leveled up agility. But there was more to be done.

 

I've been waiting to start Parkour until I've lost a lot of weight due to the jumping and balancing involved, and there's no way I can lift my bodyweight at this stage, so I can't do all of the MovNat stuff either. But I've just had a shift in perspective - rather than waiting until the mythical 'someday', or trying to fit into other people's styles of movement, I need to plan for who I am now. Because even if I did get new knees and drop 100 pounds overnight, I'd still rather go under than over any day. I saw this video a while ago and got really excited, but I haven't found much else about specifically low-line Parkour, and I'm not ready to join my local Parkour group at the moment (multiple reasons) so I put that in the 'impossible daydreams' basket.

 

But maybe I've been taking the wrong approach. Sure, I love to be good at what I do, and I love to follow a curriculum so I get a certificate and a warm glow at the end of it.

But I'm going to have to write my own curriculum to get exactly what I want.

I don't have a qualification in fitness, but no one else is stepping up, so I'll do it.

• I can do beginner-levels in many different practices, and pick just the things that work for me.
• I can look at parkour videos and isolate specific movements, and see if I can get people to teach them.
• I can go and play and experiment outside, and see what comes naturally, and then train those movements and other movements that support them.
• Maybe when I have a bit more time and money I can seek out one-on-ones with natural movement specialists, but until then it's my responsibility to figure out what I need to do.

 

Some moments in my life that got me thinking about movement:

 

- I was a fat kid. I needed to get something from the other side of a classroom. There were no teachers around, so I parked my butt on a table, leaned back, swung my legs over and used the momentum to fall on the other side, landing on my feet in a fluid motion. Not an impressive stunt, but my friend was completely surprised - she had never seen me move like that, and I usually avoided any kind of complex movement because I thought of myself as clumsy. But I'd done that same movement hundreds of times playfully to get past my bed in the middle of my bedroom. It's not about clumsiness - it's about practice.

 

- I took the wrong path and rolled my ankle while bushwalking, so I was already grumpy, dirty and not putting up with any nonsense. I came across a large fallen tree and knew most people would be able to vault it, but I didn't want to risk further injury, so I climbed onto it in a bear-hug and let myself slide off the other side, landing in the dirt in an undignified way, but with no injury. It's not pretty but I moved efficiently through my environment.

 

- Often I prefer to slide down an unstable slope on my butt than walk down it. When exploring rock pools, I often sit down to get to a lower level, because there is slippery algae and sharp rocks. Again, not pretty but it works.

 

Sorry for the butt-centric nature of this post, but it's important - I like to keep my centre of gravity low to the ground, because I'm top-heavy and I don't trust my legs or my balance. Strength and movement training gave me more trust in my legs. Injuring my knee set me back on that front. I can train strength and balance again (I'd love to be able to do pistol squats one day) and push myself outside my comfort zone, but I can also work from within it, prioritising low-line movements and finding creative alternatives to classic movements.

[BitterOyster]

Deep!

 

[BitterOyster]

https://nutritiousmovement.com/keeping-your-body-and-life-fit/

 

Love this whole site/philosophy I just found!

[BitterOyster]

While it once was my nemesis (well, not that bad, but not very interesting to me), I'm starting to get excited about the potential of bodyweight training - and a good thing too with only one month to go before my Epic Travel Adventure - yikes!!

 

I hadn't remotely considered anything gymnastic after the horrors of phys ed class - but I'm intrigued by gymnastic rings after reading this article on the main site. This following on after my revelation about assisted pullups - previously I didn't like assisted anything as it's too hard to measure improvement like you can with weights, but now I'm thinking more about the way my body feels rather than just numbers.

 

I wonder if it's worth travelling with a suspension trainer after all - although I haven't done a test pack yet and I suspect I will be fighting to get my pack down to a reasonable weight with all the bits and bobs I want to take.

[pseudobison]

Surprised no one else has left feedback on this thread! A lot of good stuff here, and good on you for keeping up the log for over a year now. Curious how the rotating menu of 12 recipes experiment from earlier this year went -- any tips for anyone interested in doing something similar? It's something I've been thinking about but I'm concerned I might not be able to do it consistently without a good strategy for dealing with obstacles.

[BitterOyster]

Thanks!! I have been dropping in between challenges mostly. The 12 recipes went well, although I didn't stick to the plan exactly towards the end, but that's fine, it was only to stop me getting bored, and I added a few new recipes to my repertoire.

My advice would be to think logistics - does it require a whole lot of prep time and techniques you don't use regularly? It might be fun to try something new on the weekend but it gets stressful doing it all the time. Anything I want to cook regularly I adapt to use one pan or crockpot and divide into four portions, so even when it's new, the cooking process is something I can do on autopilot after work. Some people do better with preparing large amounts beforehand, especially if you work late. It's funny how much eating well is about stuff that isn't even related to food! I'm sure you will crack the code though!

[BitterOyster]

I learned a HECK OF A LOT on my Epic Travel Adventure - I should do a summary but not right now. I didn't keep up much fitness other than my knee exercises from my physio and a lot of walking, but maybe that was good - it gave me a chance to step back and think a lot about my goals and reasons for training. Here's a few big realisations:

 

• I have to prioritise protecting my knees. It sucks that there might be some things I have to miss, but it's better than sticking my head in the sand and doing permanent damage.
• The way I was training mid last year was exciting but not healthy. I built up too fast and did too much. I made it through because I'm young, but I have to start treating my body better because I want it to last.
• Distance running is not for me. However there's a lot of support for sprinting over distance running for health in Paleo circles, and I'm cool with that. You can cover a fair bit of ground in a minute or two.
• Even though it's tough and terrifying, martial arts feed my soul, I've got to try to do one.
• I want to look into some options to get a better Omega 3:6 ratio without spending much more on food. Probably by making my own mayonnaise and by bulk-buying grass-fed beef.
• I HAVE to find a way to enjoy bicycling more. It's apparently great for knees and will save me a lot of money.
• It's been fun, but I'm ditching the gym membership and buying a simple home gym set.

[BitterOyster]

I loooooove this, I've already cooked it twice. I leave out the rice and add in fresh green beans.

 

 

[Jarric]

Sounds like you learned loads on your travels, and now you have some great ideas for going forward

 

On ‎01‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 7:53 AM, BitterOyster said:

I learned a HECK OF A LOT on my Epic Travel Adventure - I should do a summary but not right now.

 

Can we have the summary? I love an adventure.