Finally got an expandable chinup bar that doesn't need any screws. My rings are now hanging in my doorway and they are awesome.
Ring L-sits are hard.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
What is wrong with gym franchises.
I was doing skin the cats on a chinup bar (even having one is a pretty impressive accomplishment for a 'modern' gym), and got a good talking to from one of the personal trainer's there, who none to kindly asked me to either leave or move to the bank of shoulder machines. Call me shallow, but I don't like being told how to exercise by a person with a muffin top breaking out over her athletic pants.
Later, I saw the gym board - where each trainer at the gym had posted a little biography. Each came equipped with a quote - "Go hard or Go home", and the like. Hers was "Those who don't have personal goals will always be working for those who do."
The irony nearly killed me.
Later, I saw the gym board - where each trainer at the gym had posted a little biography. Each came equipped with a quote - "Go hard or Go home", and the like. Hers was "Those who don't have personal goals will always be working for those who do."
The irony nearly killed me.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
The State of the System
Have a new set of workout goals. A little more achievable than the last few I guess. Most are half-way steps that I probably could have used when I wrote clarity at the start of the year.
- Set of 10 'proper' muscle ups.
- Full pistol each leg
- Handstand press
- Advanced tuck planche for 60 seconds
- Freestanding HSPUs
- Flag
All of these I see as pretty easily achieveable. I understand the mechanics behind each as much as I can. Some of them (like the muscle ups & adv. tuck planche) are just drilling; the others I think are mostly technical exercises and will just require persistent experimentation to nugget out. Theres also a fair bit of cross-over between the last four, so that will also assist.
And a couple of big ones:
- OAC
- Iron Cross
It feels a little weird just writing those last two down. Definitly possible, definitly hard. I'm not sure if I want to set a timeframe on either just yet.
In other news, Uni has finished, and after my exams I'll be heading to Kapooka for Army basic training.
Train hard.
- Set of 10 'proper' muscle ups.
- Full pistol each leg
- Handstand press
- Advanced tuck planche for 60 seconds
- Freestanding HSPUs
- Flag
All of these I see as pretty easily achieveable. I understand the mechanics behind each as much as I can. Some of them (like the muscle ups & adv. tuck planche) are just drilling; the others I think are mostly technical exercises and will just require persistent experimentation to nugget out. Theres also a fair bit of cross-over between the last four, so that will also assist.
And a couple of big ones:
- OAC
- Iron Cross
It feels a little weird just writing those last two down. Definitly possible, definitly hard. I'm not sure if I want to set a timeframe on either just yet.
In other news, Uni has finished, and after my exams I'll be heading to Kapooka for Army basic training.
Train hard.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
October 15th
Did September 4th today with A & T, did the second ergo in 1:30.4, which is a new PB set at a new level of physical exhaustion. I think I was over pain at that point. Only broke on the last backwards quadrupedal (we went down then up, rather than up then down), my shoulders just gave out and I didn't want to faceplant on concrete... I finished it - however poorly - in the end.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
October 8th
Did a workout with A today. Each round had two exercises, and you alternate without breaks (whoever finishes first gets a rest).
Round 1:
Romanian chair/bench press x10 each arm @ 30lbs
Pushups x10
Round 2:
Thrusters x10 @ ~27kgs
Box jumps x 15 @ ~30"
Round 3:
Burpee chins x 10
Rest
Round 4:
Floor wipers x 15 @ 50kgs
Deadlifts x 10 @ 80kgs
Round 5:
Turkish get up x 5 @11/15kgs
Rest
NB: Had a bit of a competition in round 3. First time I did burpee muscle-up combo. Then A did clapping PUs. Then I did 1-leg clapping PUs. Then A did one-hand pushups. Then I did clapping PUs and clapping chins.
This workout hurt a lot more than it looks like. Possibly because I still havn't fully recovered from NatSock, or the 100 pistols I did on Monday. Or the pushups I've started throwing out randomly during the day....
Round 1:
Romanian chair/bench press x10 each arm @ 30lbs
Pushups x10
Round 2:
Thrusters x10 @ ~27kgs
Box jumps x 15 @ ~30"
Round 3:
Burpee chins x 10
Rest
Round 4:
Floor wipers x 15 @ 50kgs
Deadlifts x 10 @ 80kgs
Round 5:
Turkish get up x 5 @11/15kgs
Rest
NB: Had a bit of a competition in round 3. First time I did burpee muscle-up combo. Then A did clapping PUs. Then I did 1-leg clapping PUs. Then A did one-hand pushups. Then I did clapping PUs and clapping chins.
This workout hurt a lot more than it looks like. Possibly because I still havn't fully recovered from NatSock, or the 100 pistols I did on Monday. Or the pushups I've started throwing out randomly during the day....
Monday, October 6, 2008
October 6th
The original intent was to go to the pool for an hour, train for an hour, and gym for an hour from 7-10. A haircut cut this short (pun absolutely intended...), so I ended up swimming from about 7:20-8:00. Parkour training was good, I worked up my right handed speeds nicely (a technique I've historically had trouble with), did some wallruns and precisions, some underbars and cats. Mostly I was just exploring the university as this is the first time I've actually examined the campus properly, and I found a lot of good spots. I've spotted some options for diving cats and cat-to-precisions, pretty much everything except arm jumps (minus one or two big ones) and decent precisons which is coincidently what I think are my weakest movements. I'm sure more options will present themselves as I explore, and also begin to pick out precisions and arm jumps in the environment. I arrived at the gym a little late and did the following workout, which was not what I had intended, but I was still happy with it considering the previous sessions and the preceding week.
Rope x 2
25 xPistols each leg
2:30 Wall sit
25 Pistols each leg
30x Wall sit
25x Burpee chin combo
15x Climb ups from arm jump position to support
10m shimmy in support position
4x Tabata sprints
15x Climb ups from arm jump position to support
10m shimmy in support position
4x Tabata sprints
The intended workout, and probably much more effective, was:
25x Climb ups from arm jump position to support
10m shimmy in support position
4x Tabata sprints
Rope
25x Pistols each leg
2:30 Wall sit
25x Burpee chin combo
500m Ergo sprint
Repeat.
Only other notes I have is I feel rather tired, and I hate tabata sprints. Hate them.
Night y'all. Train hard.
Edit: Forgot to mention, I can't do pistols properly. I though it was a calf flexibility issue, although after talking to some people at NatSock theres a possibility it could also be to do with balance. I think I might work towards pistols anyway - just practicing them will address any problems, flexibility, balance, or otherwise. As it was, I did them off a bench, ass to heel on the right leg, and only to thigh-parallel with bench on my left leg, as it wasn't strong enough to do the full rep.
Rope x 2
25 xPistols each leg
2:30 Wall sit
25 Pistols each leg
30x Wall sit
25x Burpee chin combo
15x Climb ups from arm jump position to support
10m shimmy in support position
4x Tabata sprints
15x Climb ups from arm jump position to support
10m shimmy in support position
4x Tabata sprints
The intended workout, and probably much more effective, was:
25x Climb ups from arm jump position to support
10m shimmy in support position
4x Tabata sprints
Rope
25x Pistols each leg
2:30 Wall sit
25x Burpee chin combo
500m Ergo sprint
Repeat.
Only other notes I have is I feel rather tired, and I hate tabata sprints. Hate them.
Night y'all. Train hard.
Edit: Forgot to mention, I can't do pistols properly. I though it was a calf flexibility issue, although after talking to some people at NatSock theres a possibility it could also be to do with balance. I think I might work towards pistols anyway - just practicing them will address any problems, flexibility, balance, or otherwise. As it was, I did them off a bench, ass to heel on the right leg, and only to thigh-parallel with bench on my left leg, as it wasn't strong enough to do the full rep.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Viva la Vida!
Well, NatSock is over and I'm beached as. Bro. For those who don't know, NatSock was the 2008 National Jam for parkour in Australia. I realised a few things while I was there, and learned a lot about how parkour should be trained.
The big question came when Chippa asked the group, 'Why do you do parkour?' I didn't really have an answer. I spent much of the downtime for the rest of the week asking myself the question, and I think I have managed to articulate my motivations. I want to be able. Part of this is having the strength, the coordination... but this can be developed from any physical pursuit. The other part, and the part I realise I have neglected entirely is the freedom. By that I mean not just the ability to choose my own path, but also to have the ability to make it work for me. So many options in life are closed by circumstance, and I see so many more closed because people have to live with their bad choices, or worse, the choices that they didn't know they made. Somehow I feel that development here will allow me to transcend this maze of doorways, to find away back from bad choices, across to better ones, and so on. I feel this description is constrained by the analogy, but it works for me now. No doubt as I develop as an athelete it will become clearer.
The next realisation was much more bitter. I suck real hard at parkour. Case in point: A tiny, five-and-a-half foot precision to a rock in a water feature. Two (nearly three now) years ago when I emerged from the womb, I had a rather natural, though accentuated, fear of pain. This was my main motivation to not do things. Two years of chasing the burn has eroded this I think, I remember about a month ago I got punched in the balls and just roared. There was a dull pain then, but thoughts about that were mostly surpassed by the predatory desire to get my hands around the other guy's throat. My fear now, I think, is of failing. Partly, perhaps, the stresses of year 12 pushing me altered my perceptions. Mostly I think, it would be falling short of my expectations, breaking the perception of self that I've forged over past couple of years, and which - through my attitude and what I say - I generally present to others. I value integrity and honesty very highly, so the thought of having lied to myself and others about who I am is a very ugly, distastful feeling for me. Hence, I may try to avoid damaging this story by not doing things too far out of this comfort zone. One thing I noticed was in the case of things such as this, where there is a very obvious, defined failure point (falling in the pond), I'd prefer to do it alone so I avoid any embarrasment.
NB: I'm not particularly proud of this answer. I do feel it is honest, and should be written down.
To work past this fear, I think I just need to be come comfortable with the idea of failure as a learning experience, rather than the more apocalyptic connotations that I currently have for it.
The last question was my reason for attending in the first place. For a while, I have been wondering how to train parkour properly. When I dabbled a few years back, I had no idea and no physical ability. Progress, needless to say, was slow. This year, I had begun the dabbling again. With physical ability, progress has been bordering on acceptable. Watching the instructors train, a privelege I have never had before, I understand why. The two who I watched the most, and whos attitude I found the most inspiring, was Nippon and Cino. They moved constantly and erratically, running, jumping, crawling, vaulting, rolling, etc with no apparent purpose. As one does when one meets their betters, I emptied my cup and copied them. And over this weekend I have progressed more in ability as an athelete than I have at any other time in my life. Fuck it feels good.
It was an amazing week spent with amazing people, and I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime. At the risk of speaking too soon, watch this space. Progression is coming to town.
The big question came when Chippa asked the group, 'Why do you do parkour?' I didn't really have an answer. I spent much of the downtime for the rest of the week asking myself the question, and I think I have managed to articulate my motivations. I want to be able. Part of this is having the strength, the coordination... but this can be developed from any physical pursuit. The other part, and the part I realise I have neglected entirely is the freedom. By that I mean not just the ability to choose my own path, but also to have the ability to make it work for me. So many options in life are closed by circumstance, and I see so many more closed because people have to live with their bad choices, or worse, the choices that they didn't know they made. Somehow I feel that development here will allow me to transcend this maze of doorways, to find away back from bad choices, across to better ones, and so on. I feel this description is constrained by the analogy, but it works for me now. No doubt as I develop as an athelete it will become clearer.
The next realisation was much more bitter. I suck real hard at parkour. Case in point: A tiny, five-and-a-half foot precision to a rock in a water feature. Two (nearly three now) years ago when I emerged from the womb, I had a rather natural, though accentuated, fear of pain. This was my main motivation to not do things. Two years of chasing the burn has eroded this I think, I remember about a month ago I got punched in the balls and just roared. There was a dull pain then, but thoughts about that were mostly surpassed by the predatory desire to get my hands around the other guy's throat. My fear now, I think, is of failing. Partly, perhaps, the stresses of year 12 pushing me altered my perceptions. Mostly I think, it would be falling short of my expectations, breaking the perception of self that I've forged over past couple of years, and which - through my attitude and what I say - I generally present to others. I value integrity and honesty very highly, so the thought of having lied to myself and others about who I am is a very ugly, distastful feeling for me. Hence, I may try to avoid damaging this story by not doing things too far out of this comfort zone. One thing I noticed was in the case of things such as this, where there is a very obvious, defined failure point (falling in the pond), I'd prefer to do it alone so I avoid any embarrasment.
NB: I'm not particularly proud of this answer. I do feel it is honest, and should be written down.
To work past this fear, I think I just need to be come comfortable with the idea of failure as a learning experience, rather than the more apocalyptic connotations that I currently have for it.
The last question was my reason for attending in the first place. For a while, I have been wondering how to train parkour properly. When I dabbled a few years back, I had no idea and no physical ability. Progress, needless to say, was slow. This year, I had begun the dabbling again. With physical ability, progress has been bordering on acceptable. Watching the instructors train, a privelege I have never had before, I understand why. The two who I watched the most, and whos attitude I found the most inspiring, was Nippon and Cino. They moved constantly and erratically, running, jumping, crawling, vaulting, rolling, etc with no apparent purpose. As one does when one meets their betters, I emptied my cup and copied them. And over this weekend I have progressed more in ability as an athelete than I have at any other time in my life. Fuck it feels good.
It was an amazing week spent with amazing people, and I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime. At the risk of speaking too soon, watch this space. Progression is coming to town.
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