Quick workout

Nothing much..

Warm-up:
2:00 jumping jacks
Joint rotation

Work-out:
3x12 kettlebell one-armed cleans, each arm, 1 pood
3x5 pull-ups

A Brief Meet at Sidney Lanier

Returning to Sidney Lanier is always fun because it's just an incredible place to goof off and play. I arrived earlier than anyone else, so I spent the time with a long warm-up and conditioning period. Being by myself, I got to play with some exercises that I haven't done before, which allows me the opportunity to properly assess its effectiveness in our group sessions. In any case, my warm-up and conditioning looked liek this:

Joint rotation
25m QM x2
25m reverse QM x2
10m walking lunges
10m reverse walking lunges (new)
5 plyometric press-ups to one-handed hold on ledge (new), each arm
15 overhead press-up holds (new) x2 (failure after 3 on the second set)

I'm not quite sure what to call the overhead press-up holds.. You get into them by laying on the ground prone, placing your hands above your head close together ALMOST as far as they can go out (about an inch in from that), then press your body up. This is mostly done with the abs and was a RIDICULOUSLY difficult exercise. So a "press-up" is really not the appropriate term since it's an ab exercise, not an arm. In any case, it brought me to the point of being sore on the drive home from having to keep my torso upright. Lol.

Also, the reverse lunges were a lot more difficult than expected, and I really feel it in my hamstrings right now. I quite like that, even though it was difficult to complete the full 10 metres. Definitely going into our group sessions.

In any case, when Corey and Will arrived, we started goofing around and doing some fun training, and I showed them some more exercises. All good fun.

Themed Training - Technical Endurance/Tabatas

Today was supposed to be a themed training on technical endurance preceded by three Tabata sessions (Squats, push-ups, and atomic crunches) to sufficiently tire out the muscles. Due to the winter break and whatnot, only Frank and Trey showed. Here are the numbers (my numbers are from yesterday, though I did most of the Tabatas with them without counting as I timed):

Andy:
Squats - 14 14 12 8 9 11 9 8
Push-ups - 11 9 9 10 6 8 3 3
Atomic crunches - 6 4 7 3 2 1 1 1

Trey:
Squats - 10 11 6 9 6 6 4 10
Push-ups - 7 7 5 2 4 2 5 3
Atomic crunches - 1 3 2 4 3 4 3 5
(Note: After the first attempt, Trey began to swing into them to complete the crunches; by the end, he kept his legs tucked)

Frank:
Squats - 7 8 12 6 11 6 9 10
Push-ups - 13 12 7 3 3 1 1 2
Atomic sit-ups - 1 1 0 1 2 6 4 5
(Note: After the third set, halfway through the fourth, Frank kept his legs tucked up. The last two cycles consisted of normal sit-ups)

Overall, I'm still pretty pleased. You can tell where we all are weak! You can also see that Frank burned himself out too quickly on the push-ups.

Now, the idea for the themed training was to do short endurance runs with obstacles in the way and the like. After Trey and his friend Kelly got lost forever getting back to us (or so they say), I was tired enough to just let us play around. Everyone's muscles were pretty wobbly, and just the casual technical training was enough for everyone to continue to feel it, so no worries. We'll hit it harder come February when we do this again.

Weights!

Warm-up:
1 mile jog
Joint rotation

Work-out:
3x5 pull-ups
3x5 bar dips
5x5 squats (140lbs)
3x5 Overhead press

Cool-down:
1:00 slow jog
10:00 stretch

Much lighter today, after heading some advice from Rafe. I was also feeling a bit dehydrated, so I made sure to give myself adequate rest. My stomach churned a little afterward, but I just sat in the car for about five minutes before driving. Seemed to be okay. I'll be alternating full-body lifts every week, and trying to increase the strength gains therein bit by bit. We'll see how that goes.

I also want to start focusing a lot more on endurance, which is the bane of my very existence. I'm not sure how much of a drive I'll have to do that, but we'll TRY.

Late Night HIIT

1:00 jog for warm-up
7:00 HIIT sprints
10:00 stretching/dying

It's late, I've felt dehydrated all day, but also lazy cause I haven't done anything all week. My stomach hurts, now. Probably trying to rehydrate before going and then after. I had water all day, but I still felt dehydrated. Either way, I don't think I'm going to vomit, but I COULD if I wanted to. Ugh... Well, progress is progress.

VA State Jam - VTech

Over the weekend, Virginia met up again in Blacksburg, Virginia this time at the Virginia Tech campus. We were joined this time by a good deal of traceurs from the North Carolina community and trained in freezing and wet conditions. Miserable cold aside, it was a blast. We also managed to get into the gym on Sunday, which is something that I hadn't done since I left Hamilton. I spent most of the time developing my tricking (non) skills and managed to get back tucks down. Not cleanly or anything, but just doing them is good enough for me for now.

The weekend was great and there was ton of training that went on, a lot of silliness and games, and an overall great community vibe. It was wonderful to train with old friends again, and meet people I never had the chance to train with before. Really shows the strength and power of the community. Until next time, VA! And NC!

Themed Training - Continuity of Movement

Okay, so it was wet, and we didn't do the theme I had planned. No big deal. We started out with some conditioning that was really quite fun and bizarre. Traverse with arms on the ground, feet on wall, chest down until you reach the stairs, reverse QM up stairs... Traverse in crabwalk with feet against wall (SUPER hard), QM up stairs... Burpee along a distance, then the hoppy thingies. Not much at all, but that's fine. We played around, did some vaulting, wall-runs, tacs, and goofed with pseudoplanche press-ups, wall-assisted planches, tuck planches, handstand press-ups. Light, relaxed, playful. That's always nice on a rainy day. Besides, we got the Tech weekend coming up. I'll post again then.

Until then, happy training to you all.

Black Friday at Robinson High

With the public schools out of session, it's always a perfect time to train at the high schools and middle schools that're always so well-constructed for this kind of thing without looking like a bunch of pedo predators. As such, we made the decision to do our training at Robinson High School, which offers ledges, ramps, walls, and the like. Due to people coming at various times, it took on more of a relaxed jam atmosphere, but I and some others managed to do a few conditioning things here and there. Nothing intense, but the aim is fun, especially when people like Leon and Corey are back for the holidays. I did some long duckwalking, backwards QM upstairs, and that sort of thing. We tried various wall-related exercises. At the playground, I did some pull-ups. Three total sets, though it was 5, 8, and then 7. Nice to know I max at 8, now, which means that I can probably GTG at six without an issue. I know my dips need more work than my pulls. I can pull to my chest easily at this point. It's dipping to the clavicle that presents the serious problems. Once that gets clear, I'm sure the muscle-up will be easy-peasy. All the same, I'm not going to rush things and I will continue to follow Dan's program. I'm sure I'll be able to get a muscle-up before completing all the necessary steps in the program, but will it be clean? Probably not. And even so, how many can be sustained? So, slow and steady.

At the end, I was trying to instruct Andy a bit in climb-ups. He does that thing where he pulls until he can lean his chest over the ledge and push up the dip from there, which I think slows things down. He says he has trouble climbing up on ledges that are flat and don't allow a finger-curl. In any case, I demonstrated a climb-up for him while keeping my fingers extended and keeping my chest away from the wall entirely, and his response was, "I think you're cheating." It was rather amusing to me, given that the climb-up has always been something that came to me intuitively, even when I was a fat tub of lard. All I could suggest is pull-ups and dips. Even though I know there's no real direct transfer between the two. Who knows. It's not something I necessarily get or understand.

All in all, it was a fun night. There were vaults, there were climbs, Leon busted his nose on a bar he didn't see cause it was dark... Poor him. But we all had fun. And, in the end, that's what this is about. At least when we get together on holidays. Next week? Next Thursday? It's back to the tough shit. It's back to harsher training. So I hope they enjoy the break.

Retching in the Car

I had the pleasure of getting back into the weight room this morning after two or three weeks away. Intent on working on Danno's muscle-up program, I added a greasing-the-groove workout with pull-ups and bar dips into my regular lifting routine. Maxing at seven pull-ups, my routine would consist of sets of five. In any case, here's the low-down:

5 sets of:
5 clean and jerks (low weight just working on technique.. I believe this was 80lbs)
5 pull-ups
5 low bar-dips
5 squats (low weight, 110lbs.. need to move that up soon)
5 deadlifts (ditto as above, 130lbs)

There was a warm-up consisting of jogging, jumping jacks, lunges, etc. A joint rotation, and a stretch at the end. Nothing too different from normal, nay? Except something must have been different. I was fatigued absurdly toward the end and my stomach started churning. Wheezing and whatnot. The asthma. So I spent my time stretching slowly, trying to slow everything down. That seemed okay, but the motion of driving home was making things worse.

I vomited three times on that drive. All over myself. All over the steering wheel. It was pretty gross. Upon the clean-up, I managed to find a WHOLE fish oil pill. That's right, a WHOLE one. Thinking about it, I have no clue what happened to the other one I took that morning. I took them at the same time, so there's no reason why one should've been processed and the other not, right?

What I wonder is whether this is good dedication or just too much. The asthma is a limitation, I know, and it's something I need to work around. But is what I'm doing just bursting through doors before I'm ready for what's on the other side? Or is it the only way to truly push my boundaries?

I received a message from Josh Deaton, one of the newcomers to my Mason meets, a few days ago. It was a response to my Meridian Hill post, questioning whether I'm cut out for this at all. He politely reminded me that, in some respects, I'm a role model in the community, that people look up to me. I guess I find that really weird, since there's so many people that I personally look up to and look to for guidance. I feel like the new kid. Always have. It's sometimes strange for me to be reminded that, in some ways, I'm not the new kid. To some people, I'm the vet. To some people, I'm a leader.

No, this post isn't going to be another one questioning whether or not I should stay in the game. It's a question of whether or not pushing myself as hard as I do is something I want to pass onto others. Pushing boundaries to self-destruction is probably not the way to go.

After discussing things over with Dan, he reassured "slowly and safely." And maybe the routine up there isn't actually that much.. compared to anyone, and not even myself.. But maybe the problem was the rest period inbetween each set. Maybe I kept thinking, "Intensity, intensity, intensity!!" and so I didn't allow myself adequate rest between sets... the adequate rest required of an ATHSMATIC. And maybe that's what led to the downfall. After all, the weights weren't necessarily heavy. But everything I was doing was explosive-explosive-explosive. Do it quick, do it hard, forget rest. Between sets, I doubt I gave myself more than fifteen seconds at most. And maybe that was the downfall.

I've been recommended to start doing SHORT periods of HIIT four times a week by Dan. I'm hoping I can fit this into my schedule, which shouldn't be TOO difficult... since I don't expect to last more than five minutes under HIIT anymore. We shall see.

Themed Training - Cardio Conditioning

Too tired to write this up last night. So... last night was another themed session down at Mason, focusing on cardio conditioning. It went pretty well and went something along the lines of:

2 laps QM
1 lap QM with right hand behind back
1 lap QM with left hand behind back
1 lap QM with right leg up
1 lap QM with left leg up
2 laps backwards jog
2 laps QM gorilla run
2 laps duckwalk
2 laps reverse QM
Obstacle shuttle run

Then a joint rotation. I then took them to a long hill that was probably about 150m long with two rails to either side. I didn't make them do the whole thing because they were pretty exhausted, but down about a quarter of it (yes, only a quarter), I made them zig zag the path, vault both rails back and forth until they reached the end, then QM back up the center path. Then they did it again and reverse-QM'd. Then we opened it up for free play.

Over all, it was quite a bit of fun. People got tired, legs probably gave out a little... People were actually rather amused by what "cardio" meant for me and had a difficult time getting used to using their upper bodies in cardio (even though it WAS just quad). The arm-behind-back stuff done in the gym is easy-peasy, but on icy cold concrete, it was interesting. My palms started to get a little torn up, and I can only imagine what that did to the people with softer hands (although... to be fair... my hands are girlie-soft). That's the reason why the limb-restricted QMs were only one lap rather than two.

The free play was good, light-hearted fun. Nick's daringness and balance are both rather impressive. We tried some rather high wallruns that I couldn't surpass. Best, on all of them, was a finger-curl. Not a big deal. They'll be conquered.

What actually excites me is that now that I've introduced this group to the conditioning and a tiny bit of more appropriate themed training ideas, I can start doing the conditioning in conjunction with proper themes. It cuts down on possible free time, but it seems this group needs a longer structured period, anyhow. That's fine by me. Luckily, I also have two weeks to plan out our next session.

On the note of things, I'm feeling a little sore. Particularly in my lower legs. But that's probably due to my tibiales getting weaker again and, after the session when every split off, I decided to sprint back to my car which was a pretty fair distance on its own.

Hamilton

I suppose now's as good a time as any to finally update on my trip to Hamilton. For the record, I ate pretty terribly over the weekend. But I did my best to stay within the realm of health-ishness. So it's a bit hit or miss. The Saturday session, though, was a lot of fun despite the wet conditions. It was nice to be in those areas again and also nice to see that Hamilton has stepped up their game quite a bit since I left. It was pretty light overall, but no one expects super intensity when it's raining out. The "Forearm Game" was pretty entertaining. I'll admit that I almost fell off at one point because of a grate pushing me away and one part having a smaller grip, but other than that, it was smooth sailing. The overall level of conditioning was light, lax, and fun. And tehre was something about climbing up the TSH wall that brought in a wave of old memories. Good times. I do wish that my climb-ups could be faster, but I think I'm going to start a pull-up/muscle-up program soon to get involved with that.

Meridian Hill and Asthma

This is the PKTO post that is referenced in the later entry... I'm putting it first for reference.
---
No one should ever be happy with where they are, but should always strive for improvement.. and be happy with WHO they are for doing so.

I just got back from a meet. It was cardio intensive, and I completed the tasks and goals laid out for us. It was enough to trigger an asthma attack, and at the end of the second task, I collapsed onto the floor and heaved for a good fifteen minutes. I felt like I was dying.

On the drive home, I was on the verge of pulling over and vomitting. I was hating myself for being so useless. For, after all these years, not being able to beat the fact that my pipes tighten up under extreme exercise and cause me to wheeze, gag, and vomit. I felt terrible, not just physically, but mentally. I'm still super depressed about it, because I keep thinking in my head, "Why am I doing this? I'm never going to be able to be who I want to be and who I feel like I need to be. I can't beat this. I don't deserve to be where I am in Parkour and I don't deserve the respect that people have given me. I should just give up right now."

When I came in and sat down here, though, I remembered that three years ago, Dan took me out on my very first training session (proper training session that is) and I was gasping for air after him making me do like... four lazy vaults. I remember just last year where Dan made me vomit (with the assistance of a spicy dinner) from a few cardio circuits.. and how even if I failed, I still ended up doing SOO much more than those four lazy vaults three years ago. I remember last winter at the anniversary meet when I was gagging and spitting up from tire flipping, but I FINISHED the damned thing, even if everything was telling me, "If you do it one more time, you're GOING to pass out."

What I did today, I wouldn't have been able to do last winter. What I did last winter, I wouldn't have been able to do two years ago. And what I did two years ago, I wouldn't have been able to do that first day with those four lazy vaults. Even if I feel useless, even if I'm never EVER going to be the traceur that I WANT to be... I have to be proud of myself for sticking with it, for training as hard as I have, for training harder and harder as time passes.

And I think that's what Dan's getting at, too.
---
Sometimes, I feel like an absolute failure. Today, Washingtonian Magazine was doing a story on the DC scene. I decided to attend even though I'm more involved with the Virginian scene these days (which has become its own distinct entity). I arrived late, missing on the warm-up, which may have led to the ultimate failure that I'm about to describe. Things started off pretty well with a nice bounding exercise that was a lot of fun. It was interesting to see how the Primal guys go about things, honestly. I will never agree with their mission, but that doesn't mean that I can't learn from them and take what I like. That's how you grow. In any case, since I was hardly warmed at all, I used this time to bounce around in-between the exercises to get myself up.

We did, later, three different circuits before I had to leave for a family obligation. The first involved traversing to the top of the fountain from the bottom (you can see the picture of the fountain in my previous post). The first climb-up is extremely awkward, but I managed it okay enough. This run was good and had me pretty winded on its own.

The second run consisted of doing the same thing, but from much earlier. We ran it in pairs. I think I showed my overall strength level by performing the climbs much quicker than my partner, but toward the last four vaults of the fountain itself, I began to wheeze and cough. My partner later said that he was amazed at how quickly I got up everything. All the same, he reached the summit first because my lungs got in the way.

The last thing that really did me in was a wall shimmy, climb-up, quad along a ledge, then a drop and roll. It doesn't sound like much, but after the fountain runs, my lungs were dying on me. I know I'm not in the best shape in the world. Far from it. But I would've hoped that I could've handled things as simple as these. As stated in a PKTO post, I'm still proud of myself because of everything I've managed to achieve up to this point in my training. I'm proud that I've progressed as far as I have and that I continue to progress every day that I have spent in Parkour.

But there are so many occasions where I just feel like I'm not good enough and that I should just give up. Sometimes, I wonder what it's all really for. Is it my depression that drives me to these thoughts? I mean, I really have no clue. I should continue to be proud of myself and happy of being where I am. It is incredibly difficult at times and days like today are incredibly disheartening.

Themed Training - Strength Conditioning

Today, we ran through a conditioning set that wasn't terribly intense, but it left a few of the guys pretty drained. It involved a Leon-jumptuck warm-up, QM push-ups, forward burpees, inclined push-ups, one-legged jump-ups, broad jumps, etc. We took a break in the middle to do a quick agility drill inspired from Danno's training. Then more jumps. Reverse QM. Jogging. Pseudoplanche push-ups and plyopush-ups. And then we took a break and began to train more laxly. The conditioning wasn't super difficult, but it was more intense than anything I had done with this group before. Everyone pretty much lasted through it all right, others wanted more intensity. I'll do it slowly, especially when I have a much better plan for it all. I think the overall QM/duckwalk endurance is increasing, especially when I recall that horrid day at Robinson in the summer... That was pretty embarassing.

Josh was a new guy this time around and we managed to get some people asking. Josh seems pretty interested in it overall and shows a lot of heart. He also told me that this blog shows up on google searches. Not sure if I like that. LoL. In any case, it'll be nice to see how far he goes with this. Nick, for his second day, has impressed me quite a bit. He certainly has far more bodily awareness than the others. The only thing that disheartens me is Frank's pessimissm. I think he makes excuses more often than just trying and moving. But maybe that'll change over time.

BWE Circuits

This is actually for last night, but my internet damned itself and I couldn't get around to posting. It's been awhile since I've done any BWE circuit training, and light as this was, it was a bit of a struggle toward the end. I'll build it back up. I could've gone more intensely than I did, so that's always good to know for next time. I really hope that I can get to the gym to do some lifting sometime soon, though. It's been awhile. Hopefully, this weekend. I also want to get some running in before Thursday's session, but it's rainy today. We shall see, especially sicne my leg bones/joints have been feeling strange. Is it because I stopped taking the fish oil? When I get back onto them, we'll have to see if it actually does help.

Circuit 1:
15 Pseudoplanche push-ups
10 ab-wheel kneeling roll-outs
20 squats
1:00 front plank

Circuit 2:
15 wide-stance push-ups
25 reverse crunches
20 squats
1:00 front plank

Circuit 3:
15 tricep push-ups
10 ab-wheel kneeling roll-outs
20 squats
1:00 front plank

One minute rest between circuits. Zero rest between exercises. Done as quickly as possible.

Halloween Pictures

Halloween Jam at Meridian Hill

Today, a day after halloween, was a costumed jam at Meridian Hill Park in Washington, DC. Never been there before and it served as a way to meet and mingle with the new DC community so very influenced by Primal Fitness. We began with a pretty nice and long warm-up of one-legged jumps, inclined push-ups (I clapped, which was very stupid of me), then a long QM, a long reverse QM, and walking up and down steps. There was a brief technical run through the park, which consisted of my costume falling off at one part, showing my nice boxers off.. and then me deciding to walk the rest up to the top. Must say, it was rather amusing. The rest of the time was jamming, although I did a very awkward arm hang at the end which left me rather sore and spent. Overall, a good jam.

Newbies at Thursdays

Okay, well, the pictures came in from the weekend, so that first.


Goofing off and climbing the wall.


The radio spot.

And the workshop:







Okay, so, my car got hit today.. Which made me late for tonight's session.. but EVERYONE else was late, too. Three new guys and two oldbies, a few no-shows, but this group is growing! So I'm quite happy with that. We warmed up with QM, duck-walking, broad hops, reverse QM, a joint rotation, and then went into a VERY brief conditioning segment with squats, PUs, jackknives, planks, and plyo-PUs. Katie, a new girl, impressed me with her ability to plyo-PU. I have faith in her. I think she'll go a long way with this.

The training took on the form, because of the influx of newer people, with some basic drilling and jumping technique. It went over really well. I ended the note on climb-ups, which everyone was able to do to some degree. I'll be happy to watch everyone climb-up with ease eventually. This is a good group.

The Colorado Weekend

I'm actually going to type up stuff for Thursday through Sunday of LAST week since I haven't done it yet...

In Colorado, the altitude change was something I was totally not used to, and i was winded by walking up and down stairs and then doing about 50 meters with my stuff (about 30lbs). Kinda sad. But I managed to borrow a bike for the weekend and Thursday consisted of me biking around town. This was probably a total of four miles, but it was SUPER tiring as my body had not adjusted to the altitude at all. Along with this, I did some training at a local church. It was mostly QM work on rails, and pseudo-rock climbing on their bricks, but it was fun.

Friday, I took another bike ride. Four miles again, with some intermittent jogging as I checked out various spots. I also trained extensively on an amphitheatre stage that had several railings. This was about two hours worth of training before biking back.

On Saturday, I rested, for the most part, and enjoyed the festivities. In the evening, however, I ran my Parkour workshop for the local kids and adults. I introduced them to QMing, duck-walking, and jump-tucking through the warm-up. The fitter adults were amazed at how intense the warm-up was considering that it wasn't much at all. I did short demonstrations, and taught. Was a lot of fun, but ended up more sore from this than I did before (likely because I had done so much that weekend and my body wasn't processing as much oxygen as it normally does). All well in good, I had a good time.

Will post later tonight on tonight's training session back on normal altitude and being out of shape.

Lifting and Some Reflections

Warm-up:
8 mi bike to gym
Joint rotation

Work-out:
5x5 squats (145lbs)
3x3 Deadlifts (145lbs)
5x5 overhead press (135lbs)
5x8 pull-ups

Cool-down:
8 mi bike ride home
Stretch
---

Similar to last week, no weight change since I'm still getting accustomed to it. The overhead press was too easy last time, though, so I went up. At the gym, I saw a young lady being instructed in how to clean and jerk, which made me smile. You really don't see that enough these days. I assume that she's training for Oly-lifting comps.

Overall thoughts, since it's about time.. It seems that I'm the same weight I was three years ago when I started Parkour (180lbs), but there's a huge difference between who I was then and who I am now. Physically, I'm MUCH leaner, I can endure more than a few minutes of exercise, I can climb, jump, run, quad.. I can do things I never dreamed myself capable of. Even in the last few months, I've noticed a vast improvement in my physical abilities.. Is it because I'm training more? Or is it because I'm training smarter? My frequency of training has actually decreased, so it must simply be that I'm utilising my time more properly. The intensity's been amped and I'm paying more attention to my body and what's good for me. And although I'm at 180lbs again, I am a fit person.

My bodyfat is currently at 15.8% this morning. I want to aim for 12% by the end of November. That might be a bit much, but it's my current goal.

Themed Training - Hips

After themed training, focusing on the hips. Some new people tonight. Trey, who I met in Charlottesville at the VA State Jam, and his friend Frank. Both of them were very out of shape and could hardly last the warm-up. All the same, I pushed them and we began some exercises focusing on either increasing hip flexion flexibility or hip extension power. Most of these were hops, duck-walks, the beginning phase of the kong vault and the like. Also, I tried to teach the ending phase of a climb-up where hips need to pop up to get your feet on the ledge.. Trey could do it sloppily, but not well enough to get his foot up (just his knee). Frank couldn't do it at all. No worries. Afterward, we played around some, talked, explored some movements and I gave them an introduction to the movements. Along the way, a girl got interested, I gave her all the info, and it seems she'll be with us in two weeks. Score.

Biking and lifts

Warm-up:
8 miles on bike to gym
Joint rotation at gym

Work-out:
5x5 squats (145lbs)
5x5 DB snatches (2x40lbs)
3x3 Deadlifts (145lbs)
5x5 overhead press (110lbs)

Cooldown:
Various yoga asanas
8 miles bike back home
10:00 stretch at home

Themed Training - Muscular Endurance

Today was supposed to be a muscular endurance class, but I only had one person show up who was a fourteen year old girl, so I went a bit easy on her. She was also an hour late, so I was doing a cardio circuit beforehand by myself. As such, I had to go REALLY easy on her during the warm-up.. But it consisted of a few QM laps, forwards and backwards, duck-walking laps, jogging, jump-tucks, and then some light conditioning. She did five push-ups (I did a plyometric push-up set, 5 pus into different stances, three sets), 20 squats, a minute of front plank, and repeated for a bit.

She had some issues with hip flexibility and jumping, so we mostly worked on progressing her into moving with her hips more and getting some more power on her jump. But I also did a lot for her in the regard of conditioning techniques, hanging, crouched pull-ups, slow climbs, etc. I think it went over very well, and I didn't even get her into the whole "this vault, that jump" mentality. A very eager and willing student. She'll go far.

What I was doing was a lot of side conditioning with climb-ups, jump-tucks, squats, push-ups in the midst of a few runs. I also managed to get one hell of a cat leap that I at first didn't think I would be able to get. MUCH easier than it looked. So I incorporated it into a few runs. Overall, a good training day, and at least I got to train the endurance aspect, as I kept my muscles in a state of fatigue for a good deal of the two hours.

Quick workout

10/5/08
(forgot to post yesterday)

Warm-up:
4 rounds of QM up/down stairs:

Forward
Backward
Crab
(Each set of three consists of one round)

Joint rotation

Work-out:
Four rounds of:

25 weighted sit-ups (legs elevated), 25lbs
25 reverse crunches, 25lbs on legs
1:00 front plank
20 pseudoplanche push-ups
50 squats
1:00 front plank

Cool-down:
2:00 jumping jacks
1:00 front plank
Stretching
---

For the record, I was still very sore from Saturday when I did this, but I trudged through it okay. Honestly, the backwards QM up the stairs took more out of me than the workout itself.

VA State Jam - UVA

So today was the Virginia State-wide Jam (first annual!) in Charlottesville, which involved a long drive and an overnight stay. We woke up early, got some breakfast in, and got to the meeting point. After a nice warm-up (that was pretty grueling for some of the kiddies), and then began a few simple jumps and rolls. A little child started imitating us! It was adorable. And the kid was fearless, to boot. Jumping all over the place!

There was miles upon miles of walking around, as the University of Virginia is a very widespread campus. The spots were all pretty amazing, though, offering uniqueness in movement. QMs, balances, vaults, density and sparsity, walls of varying sizes.. Pretty much anything you could hope for. We had a ton of great guys (and one gal!) out and jammed, socialised, and had a blast. Was about really.. just being a community. And sharing a love for movement.

I'm proud of Virginia. I really am.

Kingstowne Parcourse

Another session with Corey for my video thing. He's been conditioning and training on his own, and fell into a leadership position at JMU, which has led to a lot of progress. His cardio and level of conditioning are much better, now, and the light warm-up I put him through was no problem. Always nice to see progress. The work-out i put Corey through today was two successive tabata sessions (though, to be honest, I messed the timing up on the second one severely). One was squats, and the second was pull-ups. He got through the squats without much of an issue. On pull-ups, he seemed to give his all in the first cycle and pretty much crapped out on every other one. No worries there.

Given the intensity of the conditioning, we really just played around on the Kingstowne Parcourse afterwards. Drilled balance and QM balances, some very silly catgrabs, underbars, some pull-up/muscle-up things and then an arm-climb up an inclined bar.. We did it up and down backwards, then forward. At the end of the forward, I realised that one of my calluses on my right hand had torn off, leaving behind pink and tender skin. Had to call it quits afterwards, but it was pretty good overall.

Two Entries

9/17/08

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
400m jog

Work-out:
Abwheel tabata
Squat tabata

Cool-down:
1:00 front plank
1:00 right side plank
1:00 left side plank
Stretch

9/18/08

Had some people cancel on the Themed Training Meet last minute, but that's all right. It was supposed to be a beginner's overview, but since Matt and I were the only ones there, I just helped him along a little. We warmed up and began some basic drills. Not the best thing to do, even under my own philosophy, but we were just out to have fun since it was jsut us.

Later on in the evening, we began to do more conditioning-intensive drills and exercises, with catleaps, climb-ups, and pop-vaults dominating the session, as well as COM drills. I gave Matt some tips on landing into a run. He's got an excellent straight land, but can't move quickly enough out of it.

And then.. the dreaded wall from last week. This time, several attempts led to full finger-curls over the ledge, but I never expected any of them, and my hands are softer than before.. which led to concrete tears. I WILL get this wall. I have the height.. it's just barely out of my reach. And we shall have champagne when I get it.

Themed Training - Speed/Agility

One of the first Themed Training Sessions in Northern Virginia commenced today. Went over really well, except that I not only had to cut the distances for my warm-up, but also cut the time by two thirds. The state of American traceurs' conditioning level has really saddened me. I don't consider myself a great athlete. Too many things get in the wya, even if I've been training harder than ever. But this was surprising to me when even a casual traceur gets wiped after 25m of QM. Very eye-opening.

Wolf brought a friend of his, Victor, who was absolutely dying with the work I put him through, so I took it easy on him. The theme for this week's training was speed and agility, so I ran them through some drills that focused on changes in direction and rapid succession of movements. I also showed them a few continuity-of-movement drills before letting it up for playing around and exploring individual technical ability.

At the end of the night, we found this massive wall. Tons of fun. I can't get it yet, but I'm very close. I'll get it within a month. I swear.

The Reality of Water

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
2x 100m front crawl, slow pace

Work-out:
10:00 swim HIIT session

Cool-down:
Puking my guts out
---

Yeah, so I had no clue I was such a bad swimmer. HOly crap. That was death itself.

Power Snatch/Pull-up Tabatas

warm-up:
Joint rotation
4 mile jog
Spot stretch (feeling tight in the glutes still)

Work-out:
60lb. dumbbell power snatch tabata session
Pull-up tabata session

Cool-down:
400m jog
Stretch

---

Well, as you can imagine, this totally floored me. Toward the end of the snatches, I started to use waaaay too much of my back, but I guess that's what you get when you do somethign silly like a power snatch tabata. Mind you, the people in the gym were giving me looks aallllll day cause I think they've never seen a power snatch before.

George Mason University

So basically... no one showed to my session today, as predicted. Makes sense, cause I forgot to send out the email and all. But I did get a good scope of the campus and its possibilities. I need to look for some old things like my notebook full of lessons and an email I sent out a long while ago with a list of different ideas, but I should be good to go. Aside from that, I spent a good two hours doing straight solo training, which is a good contrast to the high intensity training I've been doing lately. Wiped me out completely all the same.

I did a few drills, but as we all know, I'm not a big fan of drilling things repetitively. I think it's useful at the beginning, but not so much later. I have noticed that my rolls, however, are nearly impossible to come out of in a full run. I need to fix this somehow. Aside from that, the most taxing par tof the training was a continuity session (or multiple sessions) across two raillings. That's it, two. But believe me, I made the most of it.

I've also noticed that I've been severely undertraining my posterior chain. In particular, my glutes. And the fast-twitch muscle fibres therein. A series of long jumps following each other consecutively left me with pulled glutes even after a good warm-up session, and I had to walk it out to loosen it up every time. It was rather.. excrutiating. Suppose I'll actually need to hit the gym and work on some heavier power snatches to get that fixed. Overall, I'm pretty happy with today's session, because it has me floored.

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
5:00 jog

Work-out:
15:00 HIIT

No cooldown
Stretch
---

Remember how I said to not do it two days in a row? I found out why. Puked my GUTS out afterward.

MetCon Month

Beginning of the month, I've developed some more flab than I want (only at 14% BF, though, whichi s in the higher threshold of athletic.. but I shouldn't be showing a gut.. this is strange).. In any case, in order to improve the functionality of my aerobic pathways and lose some of htis flab to move around better, I'm declaring Sept my Metcon month. That is, every week, three sessions of metcon.. a HIIT, a tabata day (2-4 sessions), or a standard metcon routine. In-between, more relaxed technical training. No heavy lifts or throws.

We'll see how this goes. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna die.

warm-up:
Joint rotation
2:00 jog

Work-out:
15:00 HIIT

No cooldown
Stretch

--

Couldn't last longer than that. Good thing I'm doing htis.

King Street Saturday

Went out into Alexandria this morning to get in some training with a group. We warmed up, rotated, hopped, quaded and then go into playing around. It was ridiculously hot today,w hich wasn't so exciting, but we got a good amount of work in. Lots of jumping and climbing here, which is always good. I prefer to work on the foundation of the jump, since I seem to have gotten a bit worse at that whole thing. My legs are rather exhausted after two hours of this. I think I'm going to take a nap.

The First Episode

Went out training last night. Didn't manage to write anything on it, though, so here it is. Being a little sick, and focusing mostly on documenting Corey's lesson and progression, I didn't do all too much. Corey, however, was pushed quite a bit. I had him do an extensive warm-up similar to what we did in Hamilton under Dan's tutelage, occasinally joining in myself. He needed to take some breaks, which is all fair, since I doubt with my asthma I could've done it without breaks either. But I did notice that he could only do a fraction of what goes on in Toronto regularly. I'm trying to keep him in the realm of what I am capable of doing myself, because I wouldn't feel appropriate making him go through something that I'm not capable of.

All the same, I was expecting more out of him. For me, it would have been the warm-up's intensive cardio that wiped me out, but I would've pushed through. For him, I saw his weakness in the conditioning segment that followed. Thirty squats, thirty push-ups (three different stances, ten each), and then 30 vertical jumps on steps. Rest. Duck-walk about 20m. That's paltry. Even for me and my low level of fitness. It's not a criticism in any way; I just forgot what it was like. He'll get better, and each time I meet up with him for this project, the conditioning will get more intense.

I didn't want Corey to work on specific techniques this time around. I think that would box him in too soon. So I just asked him to keep moving in the area in any path he chose. In the beginning, he took his time and analysed what he could do where... When he moved and reached a rail where he couldn't speed vault or lazy vault it comfortably, he stopped, walked around some more, and found another path. I told him to stop thinking in terms of vaults and techniques. If he has to slowly climb over something, then just do that, but he shouldn't have been stopping because he couldn't do a more dynamic move on that rail. Over time, he got more comfortable with just moving around. I wanted to help instil in him a sense of play and exploration. That's the most important lesson for a beginner: don't get boxed in. Don't let your technique rule you. There are only two rules for Parkour: Condition. Move.

While I was filming, I did do random exercises, conditioning and some technical play, off the camera. But I'm just letting my body rest up for now.

Holds

I didn't warm-up or cool-down today other than stretching before bed. Today was all about practicing my holds while I let my body rest for the most part. Repeated trials of:

Tuck planche
Handstand
Pistol hold
Wall-assisted planche

I've gotten worse with the tuck, which is a real shame. Must work on that more.

HIIT

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
1:00 jog

Work-out:
20:00 HIIT sprints

Cool-down:
1:00 walking
Stretch

---

Been working out my legs too much lately. Need to rest them over the next long while.

Georgetown Cat Leaps

Unexpectedly, I came out to a training meet at Georgetown University today. Also surprisingly is the fact that the one who set it up had to cancel, which left me alone with what looked like a 14 year old boy named Logan. No problem. I rotated my joints and messed around with some light vaults and balancing, and we moved onto the dreaded Georgetown wall that I swore I would get by the end of the summer. Did I get it? Hell no. But I got one hand firmly grasped and I hung there for a second. Because I didn't expect it, I didn't get the other hand up. So I know I can do it now, at least, just not regularly. We were kicked out by the security before I had the chance to actually get it. Next time, I swear.

We moved about and played with some more rails. There was a precision jump out into a cat grab by what i dub the "Leon precision area" that is relatively fun. It was here that I noticed that Logan had no conception of how to absorb the impact from a cat leap! His landings normally were fine, but if you do it horizontally, he would slap into the wall with amazing force. I tried to work with him on it. His problem was that he only braced one foot, so he didn't manage to disperse the impact properly or equally.

Due to some wet paint on the rails, our next spot had to be "Jesse's speed vault parking lot." So I messed around quite a bit here, doing random jumps and landings and also doing a few vault circuits. Scared some cleaning ladies when I shot out from one of the Jersey barricades a good 8 feet into a roll. They did [i]not[/i] expect that. Across the way from the parking lot was a really fun area, but it really just involved a rail, a sidewalk, some steps, and a cat leap. I landed a very long one (maybe a ten foot leap) a little sloppy.. doing Logan's one-foot thing. I'll get it, though, cleaner.

Lastly, we went into this back alley and played around with more wall techniques. Tacs to cats and whatnot. It was a good session with a lot of climbing involved. My legs were pretty sore from yesterday's tabata squats, but I managed to get everything done well enough. Good training. Laid back and not strict, but also intense enough to get a good workout.

Tabata squats

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
5:00 jog

Work-out:
Tabata squats

Cool-down:
Stretch

Running endurance, some strength

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
5:00 run

Work-out:

15min HIIT

5 sets of:
60 weighted crunches (30lbs)
60 weighed Russian twists (30lbs)
1 min front plank hold
12 squats (160lbs)
30 calf raises (160lbs)

Cooldown:
1 min front plank hold
1 min handstand hold
Stretching

---

It's been a few days. There've been some personal things getting in the way, but I'm hoping to not let it get at me too much. I'm feeling good about today, though. I need to do some shin raises, though. Some pain while I was running. Could definitely feel the impact. Maybe I'll go to more padded shoes in the forefoot section for a little while until those muscles have gotten stronger. I do enough barefoot training to keep my feet conditioned, anyhow.

NOVA TTM - Wall Techniques at Robinson

A themed training meet today at Robinson High School. PRetty good turn-out. Leon warmed us up and I started the conditioning with a duck walk circuit (probably total of 50m) that totally KILLED everyone's legs... and then the same circuit as QM. Next, Leon had us do inclined press-ups, side QM, inclined press-ups, etc. across a ledge. We proceeded to a grip shimmy along a wall (about 20m) and then a dip shimmy on the return. Everyone was pretty sufficiently exhausted at this point, but everyone was also a good sport about continuing. Next came pistol-walks (do a pistol/one-legged squat, take a step, do another) along a length (about 10m), and pistol-walks backwards... Lastly, we did a plank shimmy across 20m.

After the conditioning, we began the themed training, focusing on wall techniques. First came pop-vaults and turn-vaults on a ledge. After this, we spent the rest of the time with wall-runs, climb-ups, and tic-tacs. After becoming ridiculously exhausted from the conditioning session, i twas interesting to see how people had to adjust to train technique. You could visibly see that most people had not done anything of the sort before! Great session, overall, and I'll likely be feelng this tomorrow.

Restructuring Diet

As of recently, I've been eating rather terribly. I was eating better before I got my job, but not extremely well. Still, since September, I had dropped from a 34 waist to a 31... Now, I am back up to 33 in the two months that I have been working. The reason is mostly because I eat out for lunch... and the reason I don't pack food is because I live at home again, which means that I don't buy my own groceries (ended as of today).. Problem is that I only bought $20 worth and had trouble fitting it in the fridge! Haha. (All our veggies are otherwise very leafy vegetables with little nutritional value that my dad likes to put in his soups... these are rather.. Asian leafs..)

In any case, I'm basically restructuring my diet from the ground up, and I want to double-check with everyone here to see if I'm getting the right proportions.

First of all, I'm avoiding most grains and starches, allowing myself bread/pasta/rice no more than twice a week. Otherwise:

Breakfast:
Normally consists of 2-4 eggs, either hardboiled or raw, a piece of fruit (normally a banana or a peach), and three spoonfulls of yogurt.

Snack: Roughly 2.5-3 hours later. I will be snacking on about a cup of raw vegetables, a half-cup of nuts, and about two spoonfuls of yogurt. I will try to vary this as much as possible, but that's the portions of carbs/protein/fatty-something that I'm going for.

Lunch: Roughly 2-3 hours later. This will consist of two cups of two different vegetables, a protein/fat source such as natural peanut butter (roughly two tablespoons), or a lean meat like 3-4 slices of turkey, chicken.. or a grilled quail or whatnot. If I am to have the lean meat, I will add two fish oil pills to the process. Occasionally, I will make a sandwich with whole grain bread or whole grain pita, keeping in mind the no-more-than-twice-a-week rule.

Snack: Roughly 2-3 hours later (this would be right before I head home) A piece of fruit and an egg and fish oil pill, likely, or similar proportioned alternative.

Dinner: Roughly 2-3 hours later. A larger protein source, two cups of two different vegetables, and either a fat source coupled with the protein (in the case of say.. a salmon fillet) or an independent fat source (an avacado or something) or two fish oil pills.

Snack: Roughly two hours before bed. This will be the lightest of all, consisting of a cup of vegetables and maybe an egg or a spoon of peanut butter or something.

The vegetables/fruits will be rotated as often as possible, giving myself as much of a variety as I can at different times of the day. I will aim to never eat the same veggie/fruit source more than twice in one day, and not more than four times every three days.

And I will be drinking nothing but water during this process.

---

After some advice, I need to shift the nuts over in favour of more protein and also moderately increase the amount of vegetables to get a sufficient amount of carbs.

Goals and Means for Accomplishment

Goal: Remove dead-weight.
Means: 1) Cut out simple sugars; success rate: Fail... Had candy yesterday.
2) Avoid processed starches; success rate: In-between... I only eat wheat, but I need to cut out ALL starches aside from sweet potatoes and brown rice.
3) Transfer basis of meal to protein and vegetable-based carbs; success rate: Fail... Only manage to do that about two meals a day.

Aim for Goal: I intend a paradigm shift. There will be a complete restructuring of my diet. I will go to the grocery store today and procure all that is necessary to avoid starvation/eating improperly at work.

End of Goal: The reason for this goal is because I still move sloppily over obstacles, and part of that is due to excess dead-weight keeping me from moving as best as I should be able to.

---

Goal: Increase cardiovascular endurance.
Means: 1) Intensify workout regimens; success rate: Fail... Only one work-out per week is what I would consider super-intense
2) Increase frequency of HIIT/tabata training; success rate: Fail... It is at most once a week.
3) Increase frequency of duration cardio; success rate: In-between... Standard training is duration cardio, but I could run more.

Aim: I will aim to run at least three times a week, no matter the distance or intensity. I will intensify my other work-outs so that cardiovascular abilities are necessary for completion of the anaerobic workouts at all.

End: I fully realize that my endurance is rather poor, and I would like to be able to move at full sprints across obstacles, which is currently rather taxing (and dangerous).

---

Goal: Increase muscular endurance (stamina).
Means: 1) Perform QM exercises/lunge exercises/etc. for further distances; success rate: In-between... They are at good distances, now, but I need to continue to distance it.
2) Increase quantity of all calisthenic exercises; success rate: In-between... My push stamina, particularly for my arms, is rather exceptional, but everything needs more work.

Aim: As above. This will be coupled with the intensifying work-outs means.

End: The end should be rather simple here. I should never NOT be able to perform a climb-up, just because i'm tired and my muscles are giving up on me. Same with a jump, or a vault, QM, or run.

---

I realize that it's technically "bad" to have such open-ended goals. But I have more specific "means" that can be considered goals. Each means is calculated in my head. For intensifying the work-outs, for instance, I will be increasing distances by 10m every week or two, and increasing sets for exercises by 50% for the same duration of time. The other specifics are already listed.

Another Day at Sidney Lanier

I went out training this morning at that middle school again. Such a fun spot. I'll put up a video when I can. Leon and some of his VT guys showed up. The training session today was a lot less regimented than normal, and it mostly consisted of exploration and playing around. However, we still trained hard enough to benefit. People began to take off their shoes and train barefoot, so I followed suit. Jumping and taking landings without the protection of shoes changes a lot of dynamics, but it also is incredibly liberating and refreshing. The concrete was very smooth and easy to step on, so that was always good.

We managed to hit all three spots present at the school, which offered a nice variety of difficulty. I also understand some more of my own limitations and also where I have started to fall behind.. things that I should be able to land easily took effort, or I did them extremely sloppily.. which tells me that I haven't been training enough. Honestly, I know most of it is a weight problem, because I gained back a lot of the dead weight I had lost over the course of the previous year (my waist size has returned to a 33). I've been going too easy on myself, been not concentrating hard enough, been not training as regularly.. WEll, this needs to change. All of it. And I've been trying, recently, to head at it more intensely, so I need to keep this up.

I will not allow myself to become complacent and useless.

Field Training

Light session because I was filming..

Warm-up
Joint rotation
Balance walk
QM 25m
Jog 25m
Lunge 25m x2

2 sets:
Clean and toss, 50lbs, 25m x2
Jump training, 8ft (did not count number.. just till I felt sloppy)
10 pull-ups

Cool-down:
None

A First Meet at Sidney Lanier

I went out into Fairfax this morning and got htere about an hour before anyone else. I started with a joint rotation, and a light warm-up consisting of a few vaults, QM up and down ramps and stairs, and balancing on rails. I also did a few jumps here and there and stretched out the bits that were pretty tight. Leon showed up, and we took a walk around the area (a newly built middle school), took a picture of just one of the spots there, and were very impressed with the architecture.

Then, a new guy named Corey showed up. Though I was already pretty warmed, for his safety, we decided to run through another warm-up. We began with a light jog (about 600m), then bounced on our feet, jump-tucking every five or six bounces... Hopped from side to side on each leg, jump-tucking with the one leg every five or six.. did a joint rotation, and a series of push-ups, sit-ups, planks, and squats, then jogged back to start.

Leon and I played around for a bit, then Leon took Corey to instruct him elsewhere. I instructed Leon's girlfriend Brittany on her roll and precision jump, and then we got together and played arond a bit more. Brittany found this pretty cool tac-to-precision that she was struggling with and I played around with that for awhile (not difficult for me), and I did some precisions and also found a few courses through the area that I could run. After that, Leon and Brittany had to leave, so I got some one-on-one time with Corey.

I gave him some vault pointers, and also made him do a very short course just so he could get used to moving continuously. His need to take breaks reminded me of when I had first started, and my exercise-induced asthma killed me all the time. But he didn't give up, and after chatting during the breaks, he would come back in full-force. Occasionally, I'd go off to play around or run some more complex courses.

Overall, a very fun day with some good exercise involved and despite instructing most of the three hours, I will certainly be pretty sore tomorrow.

Out of Shape

I managed to get outside in the first time in FOREVER today, after watching some videos of conferences/workouts that I missed because I wasn't able to fly into Toronto for the meetings. The videos actually helped me out a lot because it put some insight hwere I didn't have any and reinforced some things that I've been slacking on (technical ability means shit unless you're able to perform AFTER a high-intensity conditioning session.. the reason is because the real world doesn't care if you're tired or not.. and if your life depends on needing to fight or needing to run or climb.. then you're good as dead unless you can performw hile you're tired/sore/exhausted).

So I did a joint rotation, a light warm-up, and a light conditioning session.. fully realizing how out of shape I am from the vacation.. and then some VERY sloppy technical runs. I called it early today because I need to meet someone early tomorrow for training.

The Return from Holiday

It's been a long... long... time. I was out and about in the Caribbean at Paradise Island, and I can't say I got a whole lot done in the term of physical exercise... but I did my best. Many days were spent in the casino, but I got out and swam a whole lot, too. Beach QM and running composed a lot of my actual training, or what can be considered training, over the 10 day holiday and that was really nice because sand offers a completely different dynamic than anything else.

Atlantis also had a climbing wall, so I spent two of my days climbing. It was rather terrible that I couldn't finish a 5.7, despite trying just about twenty times. I never managed to try it fresh, though, so I think I could do it if I tried my hand at full rest. Suppose we'll never know about that specific wall, but I did realize I need to get my grip strength back up. Or rather, my grip endurance, because that is really what did me in.

The break gave me some time to think about where I am, where I would like to be, and how I should get there. And honestly, I think it changed me quite a bit. I can't say that anything will ever be too permanent, but I think it has changed my resolve. I think that I'm a bit more driven than ever before... We'll see how long that lasts, because I know myself, and I know this comes and goes in phases... But phases is better than dropping it off entirely. It's too important to just stop and forget about.

But honestly, the conditioning and climbing was great... but I need to move, run, and jump. Will have to make time this weekend for that.

Circuit Training!

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
100m QM
Balance circuit

Work-out

2 runs of:

Circuit 1:
Balance circuit

Circuit 2:
50m Clean and throw, 50lbs.
50m sprint return

Circuit 3:
5 pull-ups
10 precision jumps onto a railing (6ft distance)

Circuit 4:
Balance circuit

Circuit 5:
50m QM to 50lb. weight
50m Clean and throw, 50lb. return

Cool-down:
10:00 vault drills
Stretch
---

Dead tired after this one. Need shower.

Recap of Recent Conditioning

Here's a brief recap of the past few days for me, sicne I haven't bothered to post.

6/25/08
Warm-up:
Joint rotation
500m light jog

20:00 HIIT, 30 sec jog, 30 sec sprint

Rest, 2 minutes

3 sets of:
20 pseudoplanche push-ups
20 wide-stance push-ups
10m handstand walk
10 9ft. broad jumps
10 dumb-bell snatches (60lbs)

Cool-down:
10:00 rail balance
Stretch

Easy on the lifting at the end, but believe me, those snatches were hard after killing my arms like that, plus trying to stabilize DBs rather than a bar. The balance was rather difficult with my body so tired.

------

6/27/08

2 sets of:
10 clapping pull-ups
10 bar dips
5 muscle-ups (terrible form, but only way to get it going)

10 second L-sit hold x2

Not much tonight.. So no warming or cooling.. just trying to get something in.

------

6/29/08
Warm-up:
QM down stairs
QM upstairs (backwards)
Backwards crab downstairs
Backwards crab upstairs
QM upstairs
QM downstairs (backwards)

10 kneeling ab-wheel rollouts
10 broad jumps (9ft)

Work-out:
Power snatched logs overhead, carried 50m through the woods (barefoot), and dropped.
Clean-lifted large stones, carried 50m barefoot, and dropped.
(Returned the path)

Set up the stones and logs 10 feet from each other, leapt from one to the other, attempting to balance on the logs without rolling them too much.

Clean-lifted stones and threw them.

Repeated this three times.

Cool-down:
Barefoot running home.

---

No real thoghts on this one, although I couldn't throw the stones very far. Unfortunately, no estimates as far as weight goes since things feel heavier/lighter depending on their shape and grip and size.

-----

6/30/08
Warm-up:
Joint rotation
2:00 jumping jacks
2:00 jog in place, high knees

Work-out:
20lbs elbow rotation
20lbs wrist rotation
30lbs duck walk, 50m
20lbs shoulder rotation
30lbs gradual rotations of ankles
30lbs duck walk, 50m return

Cool-down:
Joint rotation
Stretch

---

Basically, yesterday was a joint conditioning day. I do this every now and then because of the high-impact nature of my work and training.. I have tendonitis in my left elbow, so that can cause problems sometimes, and I'm a bit paranoid about my knees.. Known far too many people who've gotten patellar tendo nitis or torn ACLs because they haven't conditioned enough.

------

7/1/08 (went to bed early again last night)

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
20 box jumps (3.5 feet up)
6 story stair climb

Workout:
3 sets of:
15 clapping push-ups
10 broad jumps (9.5 feet)
30 sec handstand hold
30 sec tuck planche hold
10m lunges
50 calf raises (60lbs)

Cool-down:
6 story stair descent, fast
Stretch

------

7/2/08
Warm-up:
Joint rotation
100m light jog

Work-out:
Tabata intervals

1) Push-ups
2) Kneeling ab-wheel roll-outs
3) Squats
4) Pseudoplanche push-ups
5) Ham-glute raises
6) Pull-ups
7) Lunges
8) Atomic sit-ups

Cool-down:
Too tired. Just went to stretching.

---

Tabata Interval Training is... death on wheels. Without the wheels.

Cardio and some endurance

Warm-up:
Joint rotation
500m light jog

20:00 HIIT, 30 sec jog, 30 sec sprint

Rest, 2 minutes

3 sets of:
20 pseudoplanche push-ups
20 wide-stance push-ups
10m handstand walk
10 9ft. broad jumps
10 dumb-bell snatches (60lbs)

Cool-down:
10:00 rail balance
Stretch

New Blog and Georgetown Jam

First of all, I've had to start a new blog because my old email is no longer valid. Terrible shame, since there's a lot of good stuff on the old blog, and some people had links to it and checked it... But this blog is for my own personal training, nothing else. I could really care less if anyone knows about it or not. This is really just about me and my path... the endless struggles I have to keep motivated and to keep training, even when I don't want to.. even when my life is in utter chaos.. or I'm too tired or too lazy.. or any other reason, really. Because it really isn't easy to keep training all the time.. like everything in my life, I have motivation problems. I have commitment issues. But this blog, even if no one ever sees it, is the window I have into staying regular about this.

Onward... Today, there was a Rosslyn/Georgetown Jam that kicked off at 11AM and lasted until 5pM! That's a long time! I got there at noon. We did the standard and typical stuff.. vaulting, running, climbing, jumping.. very laid back and very easy.. I gave some pointers to the newcomers about vaulting technique and various other things and I could see them progress right in front of me. We even picked up a random that I proceeded to instruct.

We found a wall that's about three times as high as I am. I always thought that TSH was an incredibly short wall, but it used to give me trouble a long while ago, too. This wall, though.. the fact taht I even got as close as I did tells me that I've progressed a long way from my meagre beginnings. Only once did my fingers wrap around the ledge, and I didn't expect it, so I didn't manage to hold on. I was always within inches of the top, but I never made it. It has become my goal for the rest of the summer. I don't think it'll take another two months, honestly, but I won't push myself. It's bad for my legs.

After that, we found anther small area that occupied us for some time and then broke for lunch. It was a good sandwich. At this point, we were above the Exorcist steps and I trained balancing on the rails for awhile, and then fooled around with vaults and moving continuously, among other things. The balance was very difficult for me, but I'm glad I did as well as I did. The day closed with some work in Rosslyn and an extremely exhausted run through Gateway Park before collapsing and driving home.

Overall, a good day... but I'm exhausted to no end.